Chapter 168 Corridor
Xiao Qing smiled.
Two and four form the shoulders, six and eight form the feet, three on the left and seven on the right, nine on the head and one on the feet, and five in the center.
Her brother taught her this game.
At that time, her brother drew her a nine-square grid with three horizontal and three vertical lines, filled in a few numbers in it seemingly randomly, and then asked her to fill in the numbers in the other empty spaces.
It was something that happened so long ago, so far removed from the vast expanse of time and space, that even recalling it felt difficult. Yet, sometimes when she thought about it, it felt like it was just yesterday.
Xiao Qing's gaze slowly returned to the colored brick on the ground.
After wiping away all the dust, the flowers on the colored bricks looked even more vivid.
With nothing else of note around, Xiao Qing touched around the brick and then tried to lift it up.
Xiao Yuan was strong, and when he saw Xiao Qing struggling, he kindly came over to help, and surprisingly, he quickly moved the colored bricks out.
The switch inside was only revealed after the colored bricks were removed.
There seemed to be a breeze flowing over the other side of the wall, which they could feel more clearly as they crouched on the ground.
Xiao Qing asked Xiao Yuan to watch carefully from the side while he pressed the switch. Then, he looked at the stone wall with a little nervousness, trying to see which side the door would open from.
But after waiting for a while, the stone wall remained completely still, showing no sign of opening. There were also no hidden weapons or mechanisms.
Xiao Qing touched his head in confusion, wondering if it was because of its age and long-term disrepair that it was no longer working.
That mechanism is way too flimsy.
Or was her intuition wrong?
Xiao Yuan didn't understand what was going on. He nodded and said, "Um, miss, you don't actually need to be so careful in here. I've already made several holes. Although sometimes when I break open the wall there's a lot of water and rats or something, nothing that could hurt anyone has ever come out."
He paused, then said, "Or should I chop it?"
Having run out of options, Xiao Qing decided to resort to this simple and brutal method.
Without saying a word, Xiao Yuan stepped forward and started chopping, quickly creating a large hole in the wall.
Beyond the large hole was a long passageway about the height of a person, from which gusts of wind blew constantly, without any particular smell.
Xiao Qing felt that there must be a way out from here.
However, the fact that this path had come so easily made her somewhat uneasy.
Xiao Yuan didn't think too much about it. He sighed, "There's a road over there. If it were me searching, I might not find this place even after years."
Xiao Qing mustered his courage and crawled through the large hole, burying one leg in as he said, "You'll find it even if you tear everything down here."
As soon as she finished speaking, an idea popped into her head.
Xiao Yuan followed.
"Who taught you to come to these caves to pick flowers?"
"My mother taught me that."
"Then how did you end up living in this valley? Did you fall down the mountain?"
Xiao Yuan touched her head, "It seems like I've always been here..."
As Xiao Qing walked forward, she talked to Xiao Yuan. Her initial anxiety eased considerably, and her steps became lighter.
"You are very strong."
Speaking of this, Xiao Yuan was very happy. "I was born strong!" he said, waving his arms and raising his eyebrows.
As they were talking, Xiao Yuan's eyes swept over a certain spot in the passageway, and then she unconsciously glanced at it a couple more times.
"Ah!" Xiao Yuan exclaimed in surprise.
"What is that?!"
Xiao Qing quickly looked over and was immediately startled.
In the pitch-black passageway, against the wall lay a black skeleton, seemingly seated cross-legged. Beside the skeleton, on the ground, lay a blurry, dimly colored brick, but instead of being embedded in the ground, it protruded above it.
Xiao Qing looked closely and realized that the colored bricks did not seem to have been raised above the ground originally, but rather appeared to have been protruded by an external force.
Xiao Yuan stared at the skeleton for a long time, then unconsciously moved closer to Xiao Qing.
"What's wrong, Xiao Yuan?"
"I don't know why, but I feel like this pile of black bones is somewhat familiar..."
Xiao Qing glanced back at him, thinking that if he were a real person, she would believe him if he said he was somewhat familiar with her.
But this is already bone. Although the bone is a bit dark, it looks familiar; how many bones must this person have seen before...?
This is rather unbelievable.
Just as Xiao Qing was about to say something, Xiao Yuan had already squatted down and lifted the colored brick.
"Hey..." Before Xiao Qing could stop them, she saw what looked like a bottomless black hole beneath the colored bricks, from which scorpions of varying sizes kept crawling out.
Girls are generally afraid of these kinds of things, and Xiao Qing was no exception.
Especially since she had grown accustomed to a comfortable life in the palace over the years, surrounded by clean, tidy, and flower-filled scenes, she had never seen so many scorpions crawling out from the dark underground.
She felt a chill run down her spine upon seeing it and exclaimed in alarm, "Cover it up right away!"
But Xiao Yuan didn't do that. He even moved closer and picked up two scorpions, each as big as his palm. One was pure black and the other was black and red.
“These two are so beautiful.” Xiao Yuan turned to show them to Xiao Qing as if presenting a treasure.
Xiao Qing unconsciously took a step back, her expression stiffening slightly. "Xiao Yuan, you...you put them down. Aren't you afraid they're poisonous? They'll..."
She realized something was wrong as she said this.
Since they emerged, the scorpions had been crawling around Xiao Yuan's feet, circling him in circles, but all with their heads facing him and their tails pointing outwards. The two he was holding were especially docile, allowing Xiao Yuan to stroke their heads, backs, and two large pincers.
It's as if...they already knew each other, or had spent a long time together.
She thought of Xiao Yuan's mother again.
They have been living in seclusion in the mountains for the past few years and have never gone out. Why did Xiao Yuan's mother so readily allow Xiao Yuan to come out with her this time?
His mother didn't seem like an uneducated countrywoman.
Now that she saw Xiao Yuan getting along so harmoniously with the terrifying scorpion, she was basically certain that they must have a secret. Their identities were probably related to these underground chambers, these corpses, and these scorpions.
However, while these places were strange, they shouldn't be her focus. Her primary task now was to find a way out and then inform Mr. Wu.
Xiao Qing suddenly had a whimsical thought, "You really like these two big scorpions?"
Xiao Yuan nodded.
"Could you please send all these little scorpions back to their burrows? They look rather scary."
"I'll give it a try." Xiao Yuan looked at the two large scorpions. "Xiao Hei, Xiao Hong, can you let them go back first? My friend is a little scared."
He paused for a moment, then said, "Of course, I like you all very much. You are all very beautiful!"
Little Red and Little Black were praised by him and were waving their big pincers, looking very happy.
Furthermore, they seemed to be making a sound that was... hard to describe.
Then, one by one, the little scorpions that had been surrounding Xiao Yuan began to slowly crawl back towards the cave entrance they had come from.
Xiao Qing stared at this scene in disbelief, wondering who Xiao Yuan was. This was truly amazing!
She had a sudden inspiration. "Xiao Yuan, do you think these scorpions might know the way out? Could they lead the way?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
