Contract Marriage: Billionaire and His Deaf Wife
Chapter 332: The Appearance of the Arch-Enemy (9)

Chapter 332: Chapter 332: The Appearance of the Arch-Enemy (9)

Grandma Xiao suddenly made a sound of surprise and spat out the food she was chewing into her palm.

Everyone looked and saw it was a jade bead.

It must have been of high quality, given the gloss and the layers of color on the surface of the jade bead, clearly extraordinary.

Grandma Xiao laughed heartily, leaning forward and backward, "This grandson of mine, indeed always knows how to delight me the most."

Xiao Yebai winked, "Grandma, take your time eating. This cake is only for you. Inside, there are ninety jade beads that, if strung together, would make a perfect necklace and a pair of bracelets for you."

The faces of the Xiao sisters changed dramatically.

This brother clearly treated them all like monkeys, playing a trick on them.

Gu Nuan did not go downstairs with the others. Instead, she sat alone in what was said to be the room of the former mistress of the house, her deceased mother-in-law.

Listening from upstairs, it seemed that the Xiao family was gathered together because of Xiao Jianming’s return; it was bustling, but this room undoubtedly had excellent soundproofing, as Gu Nuan did not feel any disturbance at all.

It felt like sitting in this room was like being cut off from the world.

She walked to the bookcase on the left.

The style of the bookcase in this room and that in Xiao Jianming’s downstairs study were entirely different. Xiao Jianming’s bookcase had a modern feel, whereas the one here had a strong ancient Ming and Qing style, clearly an antique passed down from the ancestors.

The books inside clearly differed from the modern varieties Xiao Jianming displayed. Reaching for one, one could clearly feel the yellowing pages that were a testament to the passage of time.

Gu Nuan was somewhat surprised that every book here appeared to be the first edition published by domestic and foreign publishers. Then, looking down the rows of books, not one was literature, not one was a travel diary. They were all economics treatises.

Initially, she wondered if possibly Yebai had collected them?

But a slight thought made it clear it was impossible.

These books must have belonged to the original mistress of this room.

The thought that her deceased mother-in-law was so academically accomplished indeed surprised Gu Nuan. She had only thought before that her mother-in-law, in her days of glory, was a famous socialite with immense fortune, not requiring any hard labor.

It seemed now that Xiao Jianming’s rise from humble beginnings to eventually becoming the wealthiest man owning mountains of gold and silver might not have been possible without the best support of his wife.

Footsteps approached from the hallway, heading towards her room. Gu Nuan placed the valuable book back on the shelf and turned around.

The butler pushed open the door with both hands, smiling and nodding at her.

Gu Nuan immediately understood.

In Xiao Jianming’s study, after Grandma Xiao had opened her gifts, she coughed.

The son-in-law, relatives from the in-law’s side, including a few granddaughters, all left the room.

Only the Xiao family members remained.

Xiao Jianming sat in the chair behind his desk, looking up at his son, who now stood taller than him.

"How tall are you now?"

This unrelated question from Xiao Jianming puzzled the Xiao sisters.

"Haven’t measured, probably around 1.88 meters," Xiao Yebai replied, not caring much about it.

Xiao Jianming grunted, "When I was a soldier, I almost reached 1.9 meters."

"How did you grow so tall?"

"Hard training, that’s all. You young people have it easy now. Not to mention me, even your mom used to work as a laborer on the docks."