Chapter 341: Exploring the Mysterious
Just as Doctor You finished speaking, Ji Yunyan rushed towards the exit steps, with Mei Dai following behind her.
Shen Yuexi was not as anxious as they were, but stood there thinking about what Doctor You said.
Could the poor scholar that Doctor You mentioned just now be Lady Lin's husband, Mu Zhongren? Where is he?
She left the stone gate filled with skulls and came to the intersection of the corridor. She went to the east first, opened the doors of each room and looked inside. Every house was covered with thick dust and cobwebs, and exuded the smell of rotting wood. It was obvious that no one had lived there for many years.
Judging from the information we've gathered, these women were imprisoned in the stone house after Wen Yi was selected. These rooms must have been unoccupied for twenty years. However, if Lady Lin's husband, Mu Zhongren, had also been imprisoned here by Doctor You, it was only a few years ago, so it's impossible that he hadn't left traces here.
Thinking of this, she also imitated Qiang Lin and bent down on the ground to observe.
In the light of the torches burning on the wall, she could clearly see a line of footprints, stopping in front of each torch. Those were Doctor You's footprints. There was also a line of woman's footprints, probably Ji Yunyan's.
As she was observing carefully, Mei Dai's voice came from behind, "Sister, what are you doing lying on the ground?"
"I'm looking for Mu Zhongren," Shen Yuexi replied without turning around, "He's also been imprisoned here."
Ji Yunyan came up to her and half-knelt down: "You really have the leisure time. The entrance has been sealed and we can't get out, and you still have the mind to look for someone."
Shen Yuexi couldn't tell her that she had a Big Bear brand tunnel boring machine, so she could only hum twice: "Then I will help the two sisters find an exit."
Mei Dai said, "Yunyan, let's check other places. Maybe there is more than one exit here."
Seeing Shen Yuexi concentrating on searching, Ji Yunyan stood up helplessly and said, "I'll go look in that room over there. Maybe I can find a shovel or a pickaxe to see if I can dig open the exit."
The three of them split up. Shen Yuexi couldn't find the person on the east side of the intersection, so she went back to the west and opened each door one by one. Mei Dai went to the north, and Ji Yunyan went to the south, where the stone gate was piled with skulls.
After looking at a few rooms, Mei Dai shouted from a distance: "Come and see, there is wind blowing in from the cracks in the stone wall over here." Shen Yuexi and Ji Yunyan hurried over.
Mei Dai was at the end of the corridor, holding a torch in one hand, standing on tiptoe and feeling the stone wall. She turned around and saw two people running towards her. She said, "There's wind here, it must lead outside."
Shen Yuexi clapped her hands and said, "Sister Mei is right. This place is deep underground. If it were completely cut off from the outside, the people here would have suffocated to death long ago."
Ji Yunyan raised her sword and knocked on the stone wall, saying, "This should be a trap door, just like the room to the south where the women were imprisoned. There must be a trap that can open this stone door."
But no one saw how Doctor You opened the mechanism just now.
Shen Yuexi wasn't panicking. At worst, she could just use the Universal Fabricator to remove the stone wall. But she would only do so when absolutely necessary. If she could proactively find a way out, she wouldn't have to resort to her ultimate move.
Mei Dai said, "Yunyan, come with me. Let's go to the south and see if we can find a way to use the mechanism."
Shen Yuexi wanted to go too, but Mei Dai stopped her, saying, "Sister, don't come. There are too many corpses there, and it's filled with foul air. Yunyan and I will go."
Seeing the two people leave, she held the torch and strolled to a room and opened the door.
To her surprise, this room was different from the other rooms. The other rooms were covered in dust, but this room had only a thin layer of dust, the quilt on the bed was also unfolded, and there were messy footprints on the floor.
That’s right, this must be the room where Mu Zhongren is.
She entered the room with a torch and immediately noticed the letter on the table, which was pressed down by the inkstone. Although it was also covered with dust, it was obviously not very old.
Putting the torch on the lampstand, she took out the letter, shook off the ashes on it, and unfolded the paper.
The words on it were so densely packed that she still couldn't understand them... But one thing was certain: Mu Zhongren had found a way out and had left.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, there are people who can understand.
She excitedly left the room with the letter, trotting all the way to the intersection, and shouted to Mei Dai and Ji Yunyan in the distance, "I found Mu Zhongren's letter."
After reading the letter, Mei Dai looked up at Shen Yuexi with a smile and said, "Great, we can go out now." As she spoke, she walked towards the stone wall where the wind had blown in before.
"Sister Mei, what's in the letter?" Shen Yuexi chased after her and asked.
"How to leave here," Mei Dai put the letter away, "and why he is here."
Coming to the stone wall, Mei Dai fumbled around on it for a few times and pressed hard. A palm-sized stone sank in. Then a rumbling sound came from behind the stone wall, and the entire stone wall rose up, with dust falling down.
Having been frightened just now, the three of them took a step back almost at the same time, worried that something terrible would appear again.
The stone wall only rose a foot or so before stopping, as if it was stuck. A crackling sound came from the wall. Ji Yunyan lay on the ground, threw a few burning torches in, and looked inside. "Queen, there is a passage inside."
"Since there's wind blowing here, it must be leading outside. Let's go there quickly. If it falls down again, it will be troublesome."
Mei Dai finished speaking and crouched down first, entering under the stone wall. Shen Yuexi followed suit, but she didn't want to crush the baby in her belly, so she lay on her back and slowly moved closer.
The three of them passed the stone wall, stood up, tidied their clothes, picked up torches, and walked forward along the passage.
On the way, Mei Dai talked about the contents of the letter.
"Mu Zhongren originally took the money and was going to do business. After saying goodbye to Madam Lin, he ran into Doctor You and his group sneaking around. Curious, he followed them and discovered the secrets of this place. That's when Doctor You tricked him into the underground cave."
"So that's how it is. We all wronged him. It was Doctor You who deceived Madam Lin," Shen Yuexi said. "I remember Madam Lin said he had left home when the child was born. So he was imprisoned here for almost six years. What did he eat to survive?"
There was no food in the entire underground. She was curious about how so many people managed to eat. They couldn't possibly be walking through a tiger den every day, right? Tigers aren't human, and they wouldn't negotiate meal times with humans.
Mei Dai smiled and said, "Isn't there a passage? In my opinion, food and other things should go this way."
Shen Yuexi still didn't quite understand: "After Wen Yi left the underground, everyone was locked up, and there was no need to send food. Could it be that he left here a long time ago?"
Ji Yunyan's surprised voice rang out from the front: "Queen, sister. There is light ahead."
Shen Yuexi became excited.
After being in the underground for so long, it felt good to see the sun again. She took Mei Dai's hand and said, "Sister Mei, let's run."
The three of them happily rushed out of the cave towards the light and came to a circular platform, about the size of an ordinary house, with a crooked tree planted on the edge.
Shen Yuexi threw away the torch, raised her hands high, stretched her body, and cheered, "Finally, I'm out."
It was afternoon when they and Doctor You arrived at this underground cave. Now it was almost dusk, and the sunset glow shone on her like fire, making her feel particularly comfortable.
Before she put her hand down, Mei Dai interrupted her and said, "Sister, it's too early to be happy. Look above your head, and then look at your feet."
Upon hearing this, Shen Yuexi quickly looked up, only to see a steep cliff that seemed to pierce the sky. Then she looked down at her feet, and saw a deep valley below the platform. Even the morning light couldn't penetrate it, leaving it dark as an abyss.
It turns out that this platform is embedded in a vertical cliff.
I was too happy too early, thinking I was out of trouble. But it turned out to be a platform for taking a walk, with no way up and no way down.
She put her hands on her hips and angrily said to Mei Dai, "Who designed this?"
"This is the entrance for delivering food and water," Mei Dai pointed to several stacks of baskets in the corner of the platform. "From here, no one can escape. The water and food are hung from above."
"Where is Mu Zhongren?" Ji Yunyan looked around in confusion. "Didn't he escape here too? Why can't I see him?"
Shen Yuexi was also a little puzzled. Even if he was dead, at least he should have seen his body. Could he have jumped off the cliff in despair?
She cautiously moved to the edge of the platform and looked down.
A long hemp rope was tied to a tree trunk jutting out from the edge of the platform, its lower end lost in darkness, swinging back and forth in the wind.
"So Mu Zhongren climbed down using this rope." Shen Yuexi suddenly realized, "He's not dead?"
Ji Yunyan said, "What are we waiting for? Let's just slide down the rope."
She lay on the edge of the platform, reached out to grab the rope and pulled it upwards. As soon as she pulled it, the rope broke and the lower half fell into the valley like a long snake.
Ji Yunyan sat up holding the broken rope and showed the broken end to the two men: "It's been exposed to wind and rain and has rotted away long ago."
The three of them looked at each other, speechless.
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