Chapter 64: The Secret in the Kidnapping Letter

  Thank you everyone for sending flowers.

  Ye Feng closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and thought rapidly. As he pondered, he slowly said, "From this letter, we can understand the following situation."

  He raised a finger and said: "Firstly, the Duke is still safe for the time being.

  Secondly, these people are pirates and should be the same group that we chased away last time when they came to loot our grain.

  Thirdly, they must have been the ones who caught the Duke while he was having a secret meeting with Do?a Ponzia. So Do?a Ponzia is definitely involved in this.”

  "Huh?" Oola looked down at the letter in surprise and said, "How did you figure out so much from this?"

  Even with his eyes still closed, Ye Feng felt the astonishment of the three people and said: "This is simple. The first point is that these people kidnapped the duke for food, and there was no specific time limit, they would not take action before seeing the food."

  Secondly, they mention the sea god Poseidon, which is what people who make a living on the sea would say. People on land talk about death and will mention Hades. Pirates generally prefer shiny gold coins rather than cheap and heavy grain, unless they have a particular need for food.

  As for the third point, it's even simpler. The duke hinted at the words "overturning the country and overturning the city" in his letter. This was what I said to him when he mentioned Dobella's wife to me back then."

  Nina and Diana stared at him in surprise, not expecting him to analyze so much from a cryptic blackmail letter. The two exchanged a glance and asked in unison: "What should we do?"

  Ye Feng opened his eyes and said confidently, "I believe the pirates will still be in contact with Duobela. If we send someone to keep an eye on Duobela's residence, maybe we can follow the trail and find the pirates' hideout."

  Diana immediately stood up and said: "I will send someone to visit Dobella right away."

  As she spoke, she turned and walked towards the door.

  Ye Feng hurriedly reminded, "Send a few new faces, so as not to be recognized by others. It's best to choose from those reserve team members. Find a few clever ones."

  Diana didn't even turn her head back, just waved her hand to indicate that she knew, and then walked out quickly.

  Ye Feng turned his head towards Nia and said: "I think we have another friend to visit."

  Niya also stood up, sneering and said: "That's right, Aphrodite! Oola, bring the crossbow too. I'd like to see how that fox spirit explains this matter to me?"

  Oola responded with a sound, turned around and ran back to her room to fetch her crossbow.

  Ye Feng glanced at her with some worry, intentionally sending the hot-tempered Diana away, fearing that she would fight with Aphrodite's subordinates later. But unexpectedly, Nia, who usually looked gentle and soft-spoken, turned out to be just as fierce as Diana when she got angry.

  These days, although the ban on the Circulation Act has not been lifted, Aphrodite has been busy sending grain to Gaea, and it's a good thing that Yefeng's crooked idea came in handy.

  Thanks to his proposal, a large quantity of nearly spoiled grain was solemnly mixed into the grain purchased by Aphrodite, and the Duke's mansion made a fortune from it.

  But it was precisely because of this that Aphrodite seized the opportunity to turn things around. She used the excuse that the old grain would spoil if it wasn't transported out soon, and demanded that the grain be transported out with a clear conscience. Otherwise, she would have to deduct the remaining freight charges.

  The Duke had to swallow his bitter fruit and, reluctantly, turned a blind eye to her blatant smuggling activities. In his heart, he secretly hoped that the Imperial Inspectorate's eyes would all go blind and not come looking for trouble with him.

  Aphrodite was busy receiving grain, arranging for ships to be sent out and other tasks, so she didn't have a moment to herself. She only returned to the room prepared for her in the duke's mansion at midnight to rest for a bit before getting up again before dawn. Sometimes when she was extremely busy, she would even find a place to stay overnight at the port.

  Later on, she simply moved out of the duke's mansion and rented a house in the port, which was convenient for her work and saved her from wasting a lot of precious time on the road every day.

  When the maid walked in with a candelabra, Aphrodite found that the room suddenly lit up and she looked up from her papers. She glanced out of the window to see the blazing sun slowly setting into the sea.

  The sunset painted the entire world with a bright red color. Everything looked so beautiful and moving, the sea shone with golden scales under the sunset, and several white sails slowly sailed from the end of the horizon.

  At the port, fishermen sang loudly with their high-pitched voices, and the songs came from far away. The melody was light and cheerful, apparently they had a good harvest today.

  Aphrodite couldn't help but put down the goose quill pen in her hand, gently exercising her sore wrist, and then walked to the window to admire this picturesque scenery.

  Just as she was indulging in the scenery, loud slogans and neat footsteps came from the other end of the street. A large team of guards holding long spears marched over with a military gait, and under the command of several horse-riding officers, they surrounded the entire house, leaving no gaps.

  Aphrodite's eyebrows slightly furrowed, she turned her head and asked: "What happened?"

  "I don't know." The maid also shook her head with a puzzled expression.

  Then, they watched as the guards recklessly kicked open the gate, their dirty big feet trampling over the grain sacks on the ground without any care, leaving behind black footprints. Aphrodite saw their rough behavior and a surge of anger rose up in her chest.

  A moment later, Nia and several others followed behind the guards, appearing in the room.

  Afro tightly stared at Nia, with two cold lights in her eyes, and said fearlessly: "Miss Nia, what do you mean by making such a big fuss?"

  Nia saw that there were only Aphrodite and her maid in the room, and also felt a bit too much fuss, so she waved her hand to let the guards leave.

  She pulled out the letter and threw it on the table, saying: "This sentence should be asked by me to you? What do you want to do after all?"

  Aphrodite picked up the letter, lowered her head and glanced at it briefly, her face suddenly turned as white as a ghost.

  She lifted her head and looked at Nia sincerely: "I'm very sorry for you that this kind of thing happened. But believe me, this matter has nothing to do with us."

  Nia sneered and said menacingly, "Unrelated? Am I that easy to deceive? You yourself have said that you have connections with pirates. Now you say one sentence of being unrelated and think you can wash your hands clean and stay out of it?"

  Aphrodite smiled wryly and corrected him: "I have no connection with the pirates. It's the Kingdom of Galtia that has a connection with them."

  Nia slammed her hand on the table and shouted angrily: "What's the difference? Aren't they all the same?"

  Ye Feng walked over, gently patted her shoulder, and signaled her not to be too excited. Niya turned around and rushed into his arms, hugging him tightly, and burst into tears.

  Ye Feng didn't expect her to do this suddenly, his body stiffened for a moment before slowly relaxing, gently patting her back as if comforting a child, speaking softly to soothe her.

  No matter what Ye Feng said, Niya was also very clear in her heart that the one who kidnapped her father was those pirates who had a deep feud with them. They were notorious for their brutal and bloodthirsty killings across the seas.

  The duke fell into their hands, and even if he agreed to all their conditions, it was difficult to say whether the duke could return safely in the end.

  Although Ye Feng said the duke was now safe, Nia couldn't help but worry about his safety. Although sometimes she also hated that useless old thing to the point of grinding her teeth, after all, he was still her father.

  Although Nia was clever and capable, handling government affairs in an orderly manner. But after all, she was just a young girl who had never encountered such a thing before. At this time, she was already in a state of great confusion, and the only one she could rely on by her side was Ye Feng alone.

  Also, regarding the issues raised by Moon Dancer in the book review, everyone is welcome to express their opinions in the comments. I'll also implement democratic centralism ^_^. Of course, it's your democracy, and then concentrated here with me.