Chapter 71 Goodbye, Ah Ren! He's gone! He's gone! He's gone! He's gone! ...

Jingyuan emerged from the lush forest, holding wild fruit he had just picked from a branch. The fruit was bright red and translucent, round and plump, with a few drops of morning dew still clinging to its skin, glistening in the sunlight.

These are wild fruits he often ate when he was a child. They taste sweet and slightly sour, and have a refreshing taste, making them especially suitable for eating on warmer days like the Spring Bathing Festival.

Returning to this familiar place today, even past memories seem to come alive. Thinking of seeing the joy on her face, my steps unconsciously became lighter as I walked back to the camp.

He rarely picked fruit for others to eat, or rather, sharing was something new to him only in the last hundred years. So much time had passed that even this spontaneous act now seemed somewhat unfamiliar.

Jingyuan remembered that Shen Mi liked sweet things and also loved to eat sweet and sour fruits, which is why he had this idea.

He had originally thought there was no need to make a special trip to inform them; he would just go and come back quickly, it would only take a short while. But when he returned to the camp through the woods, holding the fruit in his arms and looking at the crowd with a hint of understated pleasure, his expression suddenly froze.

It's gone.

That figure in khaki was not particularly conspicuous in the lush greenery, but he was confident he wouldn't miss him. Shen Mi should have been here right now, carrying a bag of rice balls to share with everyone—but now, even that bag was nowhere to be seen.

He frowned, his gaze slowly sweeping over the tents and the crowds busy preparing other food. The camp was bustling with activity and noise, but in his eyes, it seemed to have suddenly quieted down.

A nameless unease gradually spread through his chest, like a chilling wind seeping down his spine. He wasn't one to experience anxiety without reason, but at this moment, an almost instinctive unease arose within him—

He stepped forward and stopped Bai Xuan, who was organizing supplies. As if trying his best to restrain himself, or perhaps afraid that he was seeing things, he lowered his voice and asked, "Master, have you seen Chen Mi?"

Bai Xuan was taken aback when she heard this. She looked around to make sure she didn't see her before pretending not to know and said, "She was just here. She said she was looking for you and went that way. She seemed to be holding a lunchbox in her hand... I haven't seen her since."

"Which way?" Jing Yuan asked almost immediately, his tone unusually urgent.

Bai Xuan paused for a moment, then pointed in a completely opposite direction to what had been shown at the time, towards the dense, shady forest behind the camp.

Jing Yuan's eyes darkened, and he suddenly lost all his strength. He couldn't even hold the fruit in his hand, and it rolled onto the grass like drops of blood. Jing Yuan turned and ran towards the woods, his long robe fluttering in the wind.

In that instant, he seemed to hear a voice resounding loudly from deep within his chest—

Shen Mi, something happened to her.

*

A few minutes ago...

Shen Mi walked into the forest with a lunchbox. The forest was quiet and secluded. The sunlight was broken into fragments by the dense branches and leaves, and sprinkled on the grass covered with water droplets like shimmering golden scales.

As she walked, she looked around, her eyes filled with ease and anticipation. Occasionally, birds chirped in the woods, and the wind rustled through the leaves.

Suddenly, an indescribable fragrance entered my nostrils.

The fragrance was sweet and intense, yet strangely sweet, like a rare flower that blooms only at night, or like some artificially synthesized, deliberately blended fragrance, mixed with the scent of damp earth, making one instinctively wary.

Chen Mi stopped in her tracks, her brows furrowing instinctively. She wanted to take a step back, but her throat felt as if it were tightly blocked by something sticky.

A sudden wave of dizziness washed over her, like ocean waves crashing in her brain, and her vision quickly went out of focus—

The light was fading, the sounds were fading away, and the world seemed to be collapsing from all sides, so heavy it felt like it would swallow her whole. She felt like she had fallen into the deep sea, her eyes, nose, and mouth covered by water, struggling but unable to make a sound.

She tried to raise her hand, but her limbs felt as heavy as lead, and she only managed a slight stumble before falling heavily to the soft, damp ground. The sound of her landing was so faint that it was quickly drowned out by the wind.

The forest fell silent once more.

Deep within the shadows of the trees, a blurry black figure stood silently, hidden behind several large trees entwined with vines.

He crouched down and skillfully brushed away the remaining traces on the ground. Footprints, folds in branches, mud stains on the ground—even the blades of grass that Chen Mi touched when he fell were restored seamlessly, bit by bit.

He glanced up at the direction of the sunlight, confirmed that the wind direction had not changed, and then disappeared back into the depths of the dense forest, as if he had never appeared at all.

I don't know how much time passed.

Chen Mi's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she seemed to hear the rustling sound of wind passing through the walls. She felt as if something was gently brushing her cheek, and her mind was slowly entering consciousness.

She felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on her body, her limbs were stiff and numb, and something seemed to be pressing down on her chest, making it difficult for her to even breathe.

"...Ugh..."

With a dry and sore throat, Chen Mi let out a muffled groan and finally slowly opened his eyes.

All she could see was a pitch-black wall, with daylight streaming in through a tiny window no bigger than a head. Shen Mi squinted, trying to glimpse a corner of the world through it, but the light was too blinding, as if someone were stirring something in her eyes with a stick. She held on for a few seconds, and then tears uncontrollably streamed down her cheeks.

She bent down in pain and instinctively wiped herself with her clothes, only to find herself lying in a thick pile of dry grass, her hands chained and even her feet bound by chains.

The cold metal clasp was embedded in her wrist, and with every movement, a sharp pain shot through her. She raised her arm to look at it; it wasn't an ordinary shackle. The inner ring seemed to have some kind of blunt teeth embedded in it, which would dig into her flesh if she struggled too violently.

There was an indescribable smell in the air—damp, moldy, and mixed with the stench of rotting, unclean grass. The walls were airtight, and after a few minutes, Shen Mi felt suffocated. It was like a long-abandoned, sealed room.

She closed her eyes, trying her best to recall the last moment before she lost consciousness.

It was that scent. It was so strange, so unlike anything natural, so unrealistically fragrant—it was a carefully concocted sedative.

Someone was waiting there for her to leave the group alone.

It was a premeditated plan, but Shen Mi couldn't understand who had kidnapped him and what their purpose was.

Chen Mi crossed his legs and touched his belongings. As expected, they had all been taken away. He then checked the iron shackles on his feet. Fortunately, they were different from the ones on his hands; they didn't have gears that rub against his skin.

Following the chains on his feet, my gaze gradually shifted to another corner of the secret room. The chains meandered to the corner of the wall, where lay a person covered in filth. So filthy that the person seemed to have melted into the wall, almost invisible unless you looked closely.

The man huddled in the pile of dry grass, his back to her. He was tall and slender but not hunched over. His limbs were curled up in a defensive posture, and he seemed frozen in place. Only slight undulations proved that he was still alive.

Shen Mi dared not make a sound, held his breath, and carefully observed from a different angle.

If it's someone sent to guard her, waking her up like this could lead to something unforeseen.

Shen Mi slowly adjusted his sitting posture, trying not to make a sound, and quietly moved closer to the person lying down. The room was too quiet; even the slightest rustling of grass seemed abrupt. Shen Mi's back tensed, his nerves feeling like they were taut bowstrings.

She stared at the man's bare wrist, where a thick, heavy iron chain, identical to the one on her wrist, was faintly visible amidst the grime, its end fastened to another metal buckle on the wall.

It was locked too.

Could she be someone else locked up here like her?

Shen Mi tried to get a little closer, attempting to stand up and press himself against the wall to see the face of the person lying there, but accidentally stepped on a dead branch while moving.

"Click".

The sound was so soft it was almost imperceptible, yet the person suddenly moved.

Shen Mi's heart sank suddenly, and she instinctively shrank back, but the iron chains clanged loudly, giving her no room to retreat.

Who is it?

The man slowly turned his head—

Dark blue hair and a pale, haggard face slowly emerged from the darkness. Her face was covered with scratches of varying depths, some of which had even scabbed over. Only her bleeding eyes told her what kind of abuse this person, so filthy that she could no longer recognize her former beauty, had suffered.

It is a blade.

His once deep and cold features were now obscured by dust and scars. His hair hung down in disarray, covering half his face, but it still couldn't hide his ferocious, almost terrifying eyes. Those eyes were bloodshot holes, as if something sharp had gouged them out. Blood had formed dry, black streaks around the eye sockets, and bright red blood was continuously flowing from the center of the black holes.

He stared at her, his breath unsteady, as if trying to discern who she was by her voice and scent.

Shen Mi's throat was dry, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a voice: "Benefactor... do you still remember me? The water carrier who got lost in Suiyuan."

He shuddered slightly upon hearing her words.

“Suiyuan…” he repeated in a low voice, hoarse and broken, as if sandpaper had been rubbing against his throat. His brain was like a computer that had crashed, trying to match memory fragments that matched the keywords.

Shen Mi stared at him, holding her breath, her heart pounding in her ears. She knew she was gambling with a sliver of hope—if he still remembered her, perhaps he could retain the last shred of his sanity.

The air fell silent for a moment.

Ren suddenly let out a cold laugh, as if recalling something, or perhaps a bitter laugh squeezed from the depths of his heart: "...So it was you. They captured you too."

His tone was neither hostile nor warm, as if he had made a connection to something and was drawing his own conclusion.

Shen Mi opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something more.

But Ren slowly turned his head away, leaning against the cold stone wall, as if he were exhaling a breath of exhaustion.

"Let's wait patiently."

Shen Mi was initially a little scared, but after discovering that the person she was sharing a room with was Ren, her unease inexplicably disappeared.

"Wait? Wait for what?"

Before Shen Mi could speak, Ren suddenly raised his hand and gently placed his index finger to his lips. The movement was swift and decisive, but his expression was exceptionally calm: "Shh—don't say you know me."

The tone wasn't harsh, but it carried a resounding warning.

Shen Mi was startled and instinctively shut his mouth. Before he could ask any further questions, he saw the man lower his head, slowly lean back against the corner of the wall, and return to his previous exhausted state. His whole body seemed to have lost its strength, and he buried his face in his arms, like a prisoner at the mercy of fate.

At that very moment—

"Squeak—"

A dull, creaking sound, carrying the stale ache of years of neglect, came from the doorway, as if someone had pushed it open, slowly lengthening the oppressive atmosphere of the entire cell.

A small window was pushed open a crack, and a slender, fair hand reached in, handing over a bowl of steaming rice. Seeing no sound from inside, the hand paused slightly before slowly withdrawing the rice.

Immediately afterwards, a half-hidden face appeared from the window.

With white fox ears hanging down her cheeks, her expression was indifferent, and her voice, gentle yet carrying an undeniable whisper, said, "You're awake? Then eat quickly."

It was Bai Qi who had not participated in the Spring Bathing Festival activities today.

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Author's Note: Family, let's check out the Genshin Impact preview today! [doge][doge][doge][starry-eyed][starry-eyed][starry-eyed]