"The Shen family who sent me to that place?"
"What does it have to do with me?"
Shen Li interrupted him, and that strange smile reappeared at the corner of his mouth, tinged with sarcasm.
He turned away, no longer looking at his grandfather's face which had aged considerably in an instant, and walked straight out of the study.
"Grandpa, don't worry anymore. There's nothing left in this world that can keep me here."
He stopped at the door without turning around.
Watching his grandson's resolute departure, Old Master Qin staggered and slumped back into his chair.
He knew that Shen Li was simply stating a fact.
What he bought was not a tombstone, but the final destination he chose for himself.
A chill ran up Old Master Qin's spine from the soles of his feet.
He absolutely could not stand by and watch his only heir, the future hope of the Qin family, be buried with a dead man.
A look of desperation flashed in his cloudy yet still shrewd eyes.
Since a living person can't keep him, what about a living person who resembles her?
*
All I could hear was the howling wind and the roar of the downpour; the icy rain felt like knives scraping my skin.
Zi Xi lost all ability to think during the fall, and no one knew how much time had passed; it felt like an eternity.
The immense impact did not come from the hard rocks at the bottom of the cliff, but from a large patch of dense ancient vines growing horizontally from the middle of the cliff, and the bottomless cold pool below.
The ancient vines cushioned most of the force of her fall, and the broken vines plunged into the icy cold pool with her.
The immense water pressure and impact caused her to lose consciousness instantly.
The biting cold pulled her out of the deep darkness.
Zi Xi struggled to open her eyes and found herself lying on the shallows at the edge of the cold pool, half of her body still submerged in the water.
She struggled to climb ashore, coughing violently and vomiting several mouthfuls of icy pool water.
Soaked to the bone, her thin clothes clung tightly to her body, and Zi Xi's teeth chattered from the cold.
She looked around.
This is an extremely secluded valley, surrounded by steep cliffs on all sides, with dense vegetation that almost completely obscures the sky.
The heavy rain was still falling, but the wind in the valley had subsided considerably.
Who was she? She remembered that she seemed to have fallen from a very high place.
Zi Xi looked up at the cliff. How could she still be alive?
This realization brought a faint glimmer of clarity to her muddled mind.
It seemed as if there was always a figure protecting her.
Is anyone there?
She tried to speak, her voice hoarse and uncertain.
The only response she received was the sound of the pouring rain and the echoes from the valley.
She hugged her arms tightly, trembling as she looked down at the bottom of the cliff, trying to find a way out.
As far as the eye can see, there are steep rock walls and lush vegetation.
However, on the other side of the pool, in a place hidden by thick vines and ferns, an unusual glimmer of light seemed to be shining through.
Her survival instinct drove her.
Zi Xi, dragging her aching body, staggered around the cold pool toward the vines.
She painstakingly pushed aside the layers of plants, and luckily, a dark opening, just wide enough for one person to pass through, appeared before her.
The faint light was coming from deep inside the cave.
The cave seemed very dry, a stark contrast to the damp and cold outside.
Zi Xi hesitated for a moment, then bent down and crawled inside.
The entrance to the cave is narrow, but the interior opens up into a bright and spacious area.
This is a naturally formed stone cave, small but very clean.
In the center of the cave, there is a skeleton sitting cross-legged. The bones are as clear as jade and have remained intact for countless years.
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