Chapter 33: Who came when she was all alone?

Jin Suiqing brought her cold fingers close to the pale blue flame; the flickering flames brought a touch of warmth.

She pondered for a moment before slowly getting up.

No, we can't just sit and wait until it gets dark.

Although fire can be used for self-defense, it will eventually burn out. If you don't make preparations while it's still light, the danger will increase exponentially once it gets dark. If you only start thinking about countermeasures when you encounter wolves, tigers, leopards, assassins, or killers, it will be too late.

Jin Suiqing pulled out a dagger and pressed it against his chest. He took a deep breath and limped out of the cave.

As she circled the cave, she marked the spots and gathered dry branches from the ground, glancing warily into the distance every now and then, gradually expanding the area around her.

Jin Suiqing muttered, "We need enough firewood, and we also need to try to find a clean water source..."

When she's alone, talking to herself is the best way to encourage herself, and Jin Suiqing is no exception. She'll whisper whatever she sees, considering in her mind whether it's something she needs.

“Food…there is none,” Jin Suiqing said dejectedly, scratching at the tree roots with a small dagger. “There aren’t even any insects.”

Jin Suiqing sighed, carefully wiping the dagger clean, removing all the dirt: "At least I have a dagger..."

There was a dagger given to him by his brother, but no brother who gave him the dagger.

"What are you thinking, Jin Suiqing?" Jin Suiqing chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Jin Shiyu is probably overjoyed."

Anyone would be happy if their annoying and troublesome younger sister disappeared.

Jin Suiqing brandished her dagger on the tree twice, muttering "Whoosh whoosh whoosh, I'll kill one if one comes" to bolster her courage and leave a mark. She then walked forward and saw a straight, short tree.

Jin Suiqing's eyes lit up, and he slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing: "If my combat strength is not enough, I can make up for it with my intelligence!"

She's a renowned magician in the black market. How could she not be able to defeat the assassin Wild Wolf head-on, but still manage to concoct two traps and launch sneak attacks from the side?

Jin Suiqing acted immediately, using a small dagger to cut tree branches.

After cutting down just two branches, it was almost completely dark. Jin Suiqing dared not linger any longer. Clutching the dry firewood branches, he traced the marks and hurriedly returned to the cave.

Jin Suiqing stopped in his tracks as soon as he reached the entrance of the cave.

That's not quite right.

The fire that was originally at the cave entrance has gone out.

She had enough firewood for the fire; it shouldn't have gone out in such a short time.

It hadn't rained, there was plenty of firewood, and Yin Rushi was still unconscious when she left. Even if she had woken up, she should have known the importance of a fire source in the wild and would never have extinguished the flames on her own.

Then there is only one possibility.

It was a third person besides her and Yin Rushi who extinguished the flame.

It's very likely that this person hasn't left yet and is still lurking in the cave, waiting for her to return.

Without the firelight, the pitch-black cave before them resembled a man-eating beast. Just then, a cold wind carrying moisture blew in, making Jin Suiqing's hair stand on end and sending a chill down his spine.

Jin Suiqing knew that she should immediately drop everything and run into the mountains without hesitation.

She didn't move.

Jin Suiqing's mind was racing.

There are two reasons why she didn't run. First, if she rashly ran into the mountains and forests, with nowhere to hide, the most likely outcome for her would be certain death.

Secondly, she had a guess.

Throughout the entire process, the system did not issue any warnings regarding Yin Rushi's personal safety, which strongly suggests that Yin Rushi is safe.

Based on this conjecture, Jin Suiqing wanted to gamble.

She's willing to gamble, and this person doesn't pose much of a threat to her.

Jin Suiqing blinked, tried her best to calm her breathing, and pretended to be innocent and surprised, and said loudly, "Sister Yin, I'm back."

She gripped the dagger tightly with her sweat-soaked, damp hands, concealing it behind the firewood in front of her chest, and slowly approached Yin Rushi: "Sister Yin, the fire we finally got going, how did it go out..."

While she was in the shadows, Jin Suiqing listened intently, her toes darting forward, calling out "Sister Yin" sweetly, but her body was tense, the dagger in her chest ready to strike at any moment.

Suddenly, Jin Suiqing's ear twitched.

In the darkness, a hand swept through the air. Jin Suiqing tried to dodge, but the person was incredibly fast. With a flick of the wrist, the claw-like hand gripped her neck tightly!

Jin Suiqing was slammed hard into the rock wall!

The hand tightened around his neck, suffocating him. Jin Suiqing twisted his wrist, and the sharp dagger slashed open the man's wrist. The man cried out in pain and released his grip. Jin Suiqing forcefully threw all the firewood at his head, taking the opportunity to retreat and create distance.

Jin Suiqing gripped the dagger and gasped, "Don't come any closer."

Jin Suiqing couldn't see it, but she knew that the person was staring at her.

Jin Suiqing cautiously took two steps back.

From those two moves, Jin Suiqing had already discerned that this person was extremely skilled; in a direct confrontation, she would certainly be no match for him.

Even as the two exchanged blows and drew blood, no system warning sounded. Jin Suiqing quickly assessed the situation and said without hesitation, "I have no ill intentions towards Yin Rushi, don't worry."

Upon hearing this, the man's breathing slowed down.

Jin Suiqing knew she had made the right bet.

In the darkness, the tense atmosphere eased somewhat, and Jin Suiqing continued gambling, this time holding the dagger with two fingers: "This is for self-defense. If you're not comfortable with it, I can throw it away."

She decisively threw down the dagger and kicked it away into the distance.

"How about it?" Jin Suiqing tilted her head and smiled. "Can you trust me now?"

The man didn't speak. Soon after, the sound of fabric rustling came from the darkness. Jin Suiqing heard Yin Rushi's soft moans. It was the man who had picked Yin Rushi up.

Just as Jin Suiqing was about to speak to stop him, the man said, "Don't move if you don't want to die."

A woman?

To Jin Suiqing's surprise, this person was actually a woman. Jin Suiqing did not lower her guard: "Where are you taking Sister Yin?"

“She will be safe, don’t worry,” the woman said after a moment of silence. “Today, just pretend you didn’t see me. If anyone tells anyone, I’ll gouge your tongue out.”

Jin Suiqing narrowed her eyes. Why was she so fierce?

After saying this, the woman, holding Yin Rushi, leaped out of the cave, leaving behind the words, "See you later."

See you later?

Unable to see the woman's face clearly, Jin Suiqing was completely bewildered and took a few steps after her.

She wondered who this person was, how they found her and Yin Rushi, and why they inexplicably left behind the words "see you later," implying that they would meet again in the future.

Jin Suiqing shook her head, putting her doubts aside.

The system didn't stop her, and she shouldn't investigate any further. Now that Yin Rushi was safe, her top priority was to find a way to get through the night peacefully.

However, she had already used the last piece of burning sulfur, and the fire that had been lit was extinguished by the stranger.

She can no longer light a fire.

Jin Suiqing found the dagger, bent down to pick it up, and gave a self-deprecating smile: "Now, I only have you."

"It's ridiculous," Jin Suiqing chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Sister Yin didn't need me to save her at all. In the end, I jumped into the fire myself while trying to save her..."

Jin Suiqing swept away the dry firewood, sat with her knees drawn up at the cave entrance, and spread out her hands in the dim light from outside the cave. Her hands were covered with sticky blood, indicating that the cut she had made to the woman must have been quite deep, resulting in a lot of bleeding.

Jin Suiqing had no time to care about her; the more she thought about it, the more heartbroken she became. She pouted and haphazardly wiped her hands on her clothes, muttering, "You didn't even leave me anything..."

"They even want to gouge out my tongue," Jin Suiqing said, feeling extremely aggrieved. "This dog world, this dog system, they're all bad people. I'm so unlucky."

Tears, as big as beans, streamed down Jin Suiqing's face. She gripped the dagger Jin Shiyu had given her, grabbed a tree branch, and began hacking at it with the force of an enemy, crying, "Bastards, they're all bastards."

Jin Suiqing wiped away her tears from time to time, smearing the blood on her hands all over her face, which looked quite horrifying. Even so, she dared not slow down. She had to take advantage of the light and the fact that she could still see to set up a trap for self-defense.

Because now she's all alone.

Jin Suiqing can only rely on herself.

Jin Suiqing was crying uncontrollably, but she deftly sharpened the branch, removed the restraints between her legs, and combined the rope with the elastic branch to quickly build a simple crossbow. She tried it while crying, and as long as she pulled the rope, the sharp branch would shoot out, fast enough to easily pierce through flesh.

A visible spear is easy to defend against, but a hidden arrow is hard to guard against. As long as the opportunity is seized, even if a simple trap cannot hit the opponent's vital parts, injuring the opponent can still buy her time.

Jin Suiqing hid the crossbow bolt in the shadows of the cave, adjusted the angle to ensure it could cover the entire cave entrance without any blind spots, and then carefully gripped the rope, retreating to the deepest part of the cave. She groped around in the dark, curled up in a dark corner, and cried softly.

"Stop crying!" Jin Suiqing slapped herself twice.

Red marks were left on her face, but she couldn't stop crying.

Jin Suiqing was a woman of many stories; she could make the dead seem alive, the bad seem good, and the clever seem foolish, thus deceiving everyone around her.

But as an individual, she couldn't pretend she wasn't afraid.

She is very scared now, extremely scared.

She was afraid to hide alone in the dark cave, afraid of dying, and even more afraid that after she died, wild wolves would tear her to pieces.

Jin Suiqing slapped herself twice more, trying to force herself not to cry, but the sobs flowed out uncontrollably, like a floodgate bursting.

Jin Suiqing lay on her knees and cried, her tears soaking the small piece of fabric. The tears seeped into the abrasions on her fingers and knees, causing a fine, stinging pain. Jin Suiqing bit her lip and looked up, crying.

The cave was empty, and Jin Suiqing's sobbing echoed several times, reverberating throughout the cave. It sounded like a female ghost howling. Jin Suiqing blinked her eyes in frustration, squeezing out her tears, and stopped crying.

Jin Suiqing popped a snot bubble.

That's scary, I'd better not cry.

Among her countless life principles, one is very important: be flexible and adaptable.

Since we're afraid anyway, it's better not to continue creating fear.

Jin Suiqing pricked up its ears, listening carefully to the sounds outside the cave. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves, and there were no other sounds.

After a while, the adaptable Jin Suiqing got a little bored. With tears still on her face, she buried half her face in her arms and murmured, "I wish there was something else..."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soft "click" sound came from the dark woods.

Jin Suiqing immediately fell silent and covered her mouth.

Goodness, she was just saying it casually; she didn't really mean she wanted anyone to come!

She silently prayed that she must have misheard, but then another "crack" sounded, like the sound of someone stepping on a tree branch, completely extinguishing her hopes.

Instantly, Jin Suiqing broke out in a cold sweat.

She immediately held her breath, gripped the dagger and rope tightly, and huddled in the corner, not daring to move. She kept praying that whatever it was, would leave quickly.

Please, please, please don't go into the cave, and definitely don't find her.

However, things didn't go as planned. The hurried footsteps became clearer and clearer, and the person had a clear goal, heading straight for the cave where she was hiding!

Jin Suiqing's breathing trembled, her eyes wide and unblinking as she stared blankly at the cave entrance. She was so nervous that she completely lost the ability to think; her mind was filled with only one thought: as soon as she saw a figure, she would pull the rope.

Author's Note: Hello everyone, there are no rankings this week, here's a 7000-word post.

Sorry, my little darlings, I really, really, really want to go VIP and update regularly to finish the story of the little sister and brother. But it's so hard to accumulate enough readers. For a small author like me, not accumulating words and trying to get VIP status is almost a dead end. So I have no choice but to keep reducing the word count again and again, which is unfair to my little darlings who are following my updates.

I apologize to all readers for the short word count in this weekly update.

Additionally, for the two chapters updated this week, you'll receive a small red envelope for leaving a comment.

Thank you all for your support (sincere bow)