Leng Yue and Qian Chen searched the Rhine Valley for a long time without finding it. Finally, the two decisively turned around and headed towards the Blood Hunter headquarters, because they were fast and had already covered a distance greater than the distance Andrew and Lily had escaped.
Therefore, if you find that you can't find it, turn around decisively.
At night, the forest was quiet, save for the occasional calls of unidentified birds or animals. Perhaps because it was deep winter, both the bird calls and animal sounds sounded mournful, carrying a sense of helpless struggle.
The snow on the ground crunched underfoot, and then they heard a snap, the sound of a dry branch breaking. The two stopped in their tracks.
"Andrew? Lily?" Leng Yue whispered tentatively towards the back of the tree.
But there was no sound from behind, and no one came out. Leng Yue tentatively walked behind the tree and found a little squirrel.
Leng Yue sighed, "I knew it. How could they dare to stay under the noses of these vampires? It seems we need to keep searching."
"Wait, Yueyue, look what that squirrel is holding?" Qianchen gently pointed to the squirrel's chest.
"Isn't it a pine cone?" Leng Yue didn't think much of it; it was normal for a squirrel to eat a pine cone!
"No, take another look." Qianchen disagreed, and as she spoke, she tiptoed closer to the little squirrel.
Leng Yue, who was closest to Qian Chen, also started to look at it seriously after Qian Chen spoke to her. "That's... the little bag on Lily's body?"
At first, Leng Yue didn't notice anything. She only knew that there was something dark in front of the little squirrel, which it was holding and putting into its mouth. Leng Yue naturally assumed it was a pine cone, which was her habitual way of thinking.
After Qianchen pointed it out, she took a closer look and discovered that the little thing was similar in size to a pine cone, but there was a strap hanging from the bottom.
The bag was swaying in the wind, quite obviously, but Leng Yue had assumed it was blurred before. Now that she could see it clearly, Leng Yue realized that this small bag was very similar to the one Lily always carried.
"It seems we're not far from Andrew and Lily." Qianchen's face lit up with excitement when he saw the little squirrel. "Hurry, Yueyue, they're probably nearby."
"Snap!" Another sound of a branch breaking underfoot rang out, this time behind them. Leng Yue and Qian Chen turned around simultaneously, facing the person opposite them.
"Andrew? What are you doing here? Where's Lily?" Leng Yue took a step back and saw Andrew standing behind them, looking rather foolish.
"Is it really you?" Andrew was also surprised. "Lily is in a safe place. Come with me."
Andrew spoke, then led the way, just as they had done when they first met. Leng Yue followed behind, a wave of emotion washing over her. How long had it been, and how much had changed?
They followed Andrew for about fifteen minutes until they came to a large tree. Before Leng Yue could ask any questions, Andrew pushed aside the snow around the tree roots and went inside.
Qianchen glanced at Lengyue, "I'll go in first, you go in last."
Leng Yue nodded, and Qian Chen nimbly followed Andrew into the cave. After a while, Qian Chen whispered from inside, "Come down." Leng Yue then followed him into the cave.
The cave was much warmer than the outside, but it was quite cramped. Once inside, you couldn't even lift your head and had to walk with your back bent.
Hearing footsteps, Lily's voice came from inside, "Is that Andrew?" Lily's voice was filled with fear, like a frightened bird.
Andrew bent down and glanced at Leng Yue and Qian Chen. "Yes, I'm back. Lily, come and see who this is?"
As they talked, they arrived at the innermost part of the passage. The inner part was much larger than the passage itself, like a spacious bedroom. Lily stood at the entrance, anxiously watching the people inside.
"Lily, are you alright?" Leng Yue looked at Lily and greeted her casually.
Lily looked at Andrew, who nodded. "I saw Qian and Leng up there; they're looking for us."
Lily came up to Leng Yue, and before Leng Yue knew what to say, Lily suddenly threw herself into her arms.
"Cold! I thought I'd never see you again!" Lily wailed. "I almost died! I almost didn't get to see you all again! They were so terrible! They killed Uncle Sam! We couldn't beat them..."
Leng Yue patted Lily on the back, "Alright, alright, everything will be alright."
When Lily cried, Andrew also felt sad. Seeing this, Qianchen patted Andrew on the shoulder, "Cheer up, life goes on."
Andrew nodded. "I know, we were actually prepared for this a long time ago. It's just that we didn't expect this day to come so soon."
These blood hunters were all ordinary people. But they were facing vampires with supernatural abilities and inherently brutal natures. Whether it was the disparity in strength or the difference in speed, they were destined to be at a disadvantage.
They can win with their intelligence, but faced with absolute power, they will eventually run out of tricks. Therefore, they always knew they might not live to retire. Perhaps one day they would fail in a mission or perish in battle.
However, even with this mental preparation, they still hoped to live a long time.
Sam, too, still dreamed of a different future with Julia; he longed for a peaceful life. But it was all too late.
Qianchen sighed, unsure of what to say. There's no such thing as true empathy in this world, is there? He could only sit quietly beside Andrew.
"How long have you been here?" Leng Yue waited until Lily calmed down a bit before sitting down against the cave wall, just like Qian Chen.
“Not long after we returned during the day, we were attacked. Uncle Sam stayed behind to fight them to protect us, letting us escape. We didn’t know where to hide, and we accidentally fell into this hole, so we took shelter here.” Lily didn’t speak; Andrew answered.
"Didn't they notice you were here?" Leng Yue looked at the extremely short candle stubs in front of them, which looked like leftovers from their trip to the Rhine Valley.
"No, they chased after the direction of headquarters for a while and then came back. They didn't find the hole." Andrew and the others were lucky to have fallen into the hole; otherwise, they would be corpses by now.
“How could they not catch you? They’re so fast, Uncle Sam alone probably couldn’t stop them, right?” Leng Yue wasn’t trying to cause trouble, she was just stating the facts. Even if those vampires were weak, they were still much stronger than Sam and his group.
“It’s your talisman,” Lily, who had been silent, spoke up and took out the talisman from her bosom. “It saved us.”
Lily looked at Andrew. "I was behind them, and they had actually caught up with us. But the talisman killed them, which allowed us to escape. What you saw was the later part; they didn't see us."
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