Crossing the bridge
When they shook hands earlier, Zhu Qinghe gave Liang Youan a handful of melon seeds so that she could leave some clues along the way when she was arrested.
Upon reaching the third floor, everyone was surprised to find the ground covered with a thick layer of Xuan paper drafts. Even the most unrestrained calligraphers and painters wouldn't have covered the ground with paper.
Upon closer inspection, each sheet of paper was covered with scattered and scribbled lines, creating a rather eerie effect.
Rules should be reported promptly.
"Within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, you can piece together the portraits of all of you from the papers on the ground, and that will give you clues about the missing persons."
Sure enough, a small incense burner sat quietly in the corner, the red flame at the tip of the incense stick flickering.
Some people had already squatted down and started picking up the papers, examining them over and over, but they couldn't make heads or tails of them.
"Qinghe, what should we do now?" Mu Chengwen asked her.
"With so many papers, how long would it take to look at them one by one?" Number Ten didn't join the paper-flipping frenzy, and frowned. "How could these messy lines and ink dots possibly piece together a portrait of all of us?"
Song Feifei, contestant number six, retorted: "Maybe it's a secret technique of a master painter. Just because you don't know it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
Zhu Qinghe didn't interrupt, but subconsciously touched her chin, only to find that she wasn't wearing a fake beard, and regretfully withdrew her hand.
"If it really is a secret technique, then how can we piece together everyone's portraits when none of us know it?" Bai Qiuru asked rhetorically.
Song Feifei was speechless. "You're all smart, so tell me what to do?"
Zhu Qinghe squatted down and began to pick up the paper and examine it carefully. Number Two next to her glanced at her, "You're blocking all the light from here. How can you even see what's drawn on the paper?"
Zhu Qinghe's expression shifted slightly: "What did you say?"
Number Two resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I said you're blocking all the light."
Light? Where there is light, there is shadow. Zhu Qinghe's eyes moved to the ground beside her.
Sure enough, because she was facing away from the candlelight, her shadow was long and trailed on the ground, casting a clear outline.
The girls squatting on the ground also left behind shadows of different shapes.
Zhu Qinghe's eyes lit up: "I know, it's a shadow. Everyone, quickly stand with your backs to the candlelight."
The shadows of the seven girls were clearly trailed on the ground. A mechanism sounded, and a piece of paper was spat out.
[Passed the level]
"Can we go to the fourth floor now?" Mu Chengwen asked excitedly.
Isn't this going a little too smoothly? Zhu Qinghe subconsciously looked at the opposite wall. In this round, the Divine Beast King did not appear.
For some reason, she felt uneasy, as if her feet were sinking into a wet swamp.
As they ascended to the fourth floor, Zhu Qinghe had not yet stepped onto the second step at the bend when she heard Mu Chengwen, who was leading the way, say sternly, "Stop! There's no road ahead."
Upon seeing the structure of the fourth floor, everyone present gasped in astonishment.
What lies before us can no longer be called a road. What should have been a flat platform is now empty, with a circular outline inlaid with a grid of horizontal bars forming a star pattern around the center.
The horizontal bar was extremely narrow, roughly the width of two palms.
There's no way to walk across that width.
Moreover, if you peek out, you can even see the ground of the next floor. The distance between each floor in this tower is quite large. If you fall down, you will be crippled even if you don't die.
At this point, only three horizontal bars opened up in front of them, and they could only reach the stairs on the opposite side by passing through these three bars to climb to the fifth floor.
"What...what do we do? How are we going to get across?" Number Two looked on in terror, his face turning pale.
Zhu Qinghe asked Mu Chengwen, "So, what are your thoughts?"
Mu Chengwen frowned: "I can go by myself, but you guys..."
She had practiced martial arts since childhood, and although she had only learned the basics, it was still quite easy for her. But everyone else was a delicate young lady, and the scene was terrifying to watch.
Song Feifei perked up: "You know martial arts, right? Then you can take us all with you."
Mu Chengwen rolled his eyes: "Miss, what I know is martial arts, not lightness skills. I can only say that my balance is better and my lower body is more stable than yours."
"I can't fly, so I can't carry people."
Song Feifei glared at her and then fell silent.
Number Ten looked at Zhu Qinghe: "Qinghe, do you have any good ideas?"
Zhu Qinghe pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked her, "By the way, I still don't know your name. Calling you 'Number Ten' all the time sounds awful."
Number 10 replied, "My name is Chu Hanyi."
"Hanyi, did you ever climb trees when you were little?" she continued to ask.
Chu Hanyi was taken aback. "Crawl over."
Zhu Qinghe looked at Number Two beside her, "Number Two, what about you?"
Number Two spoke up angrily: "My name is Yang Lingxue."
"Okay, Miss Lingxue, have you ever climbed a tree?"
“Of course…no.” Yang Lingxue’s tone changed. “We are ladies from respectable families, why would we climb trees for no reason?”
Chen Fuying asked, "What does this have to do with climbing trees?"
Zhu Qinghe sighed: "Because now, we have to climb."
She looked at the overlapping and intersecting horizontal bars, and the others also stared in that direction.
The hollowed-out sections resembled a giant, gaping maw of an abyss, revealing a ferocious smile to them.
Yang Lingxue clung to the horizontal bar, trembling, too afraid to look down. She turned her head slightly and called out, "Feifei, are you alright?"
Song Feifei's voice came from not far in front of her: "You're too slow, I'm ahead of you."
Yang Lingxue slowly opened her eyes and realized that she was the slowest.
Mu Chengwen had already nimbly stepped over one of the horizontal bars and was waiting for them at the top of the stairs leading to the fifth floor.
The remaining six of them slowly climbed over the horizontal bar without any regard for their image.
At this point, she couldn't care less about her image; Yang Lingxue felt like she was going to be scared to death.
What she didn't understand was that, even though they were all pampered young ladies, everyone else was climbing faster than her, even Chen Fuying was ahead of her.
She lay on the horizontal bar, her palms aching from the rough sand and gravel. The soles of her embroidered shoes rubbed against the edges for leverage. She felt like a skewer of meat on a stick, her shoulders and back aching from the tension.
She looked up and saw the center point right in front of her, but she felt she was about to die.
Just then, her head tilted and her hand trembled, causing most of her body to fall downwards. Her right hand gripped the edge tightly, and her right foot hooked around the railing, leaving her hanging in an extremely dangerous position.
Her voice was choked with sobs: "Feifei, save me!"
Song Feifei used both hands and feet to climb forward quickly. Hearing the sound, she looked back. She and Yang Lingxue were on a horizontal bar, and they were already some distance apart. If she turned back, she didn't know if she would have the strength to continue climbing forward.
So she turned around indifferently and ignored her.
Yang Lingxue felt even more desperate. Throughout this marriage selection banquet, she had followed Song Feifei around, listened to her, and stood up for her. But when trouble came, Song Feifei was the first to abandon her.
Zhu Qinghe asked Bai Qiuru beside her, "Are you alright?"
Bai Qiu nodded, and continued, "Shall we go and help out?"
Sensing someone approaching, Yang Lingxue was in such a position that she couldn't see anything at all, only the cold, distant ground on the second level below. If she let go and fell, she would surely die.
"Hold on tight and don't move. I'll go around to the other side and grab your leg. Give your hand to Qiu Ru, and we'll pull you back."
It's the 11th, and her name is Zhu Qinghe, right?
She felt a sense of relief, and a feeling of being both touched and ashamed made her eyes sting even more.
A warm touch came from her leg, and she straightened up with the force. At the same time, her left hand was grasped by another hand. With the combined force of the two, she finally returned to the horizontal bar.
This time, she clung tightly to the horizontal bar, and said with a sense of relief, "...Thank you."
Zhu Qinghe looked at her and said, "You've really never climbed a tree before. Try to imitate my posture. Cross your legs and arms, and imagine you're a monkey. Move forward step by step, starting with your hands and then your feet. Left hand to right leg, right hand to left leg. Make sure you have a fixed support on both sides."
She tried Zhu Qinghe's method, and it was indeed much less strenuous than before, and her speed also increased.
"Keep pushing, and we can rest for a while once we reach the center point," Zhu Qinghe said.
Chen Fuying had already climbed over the central point, and Mu Chengwen was waiting to meet her on the other side.
The center point converges with six horizontal bars, forming a relatively spacious plane where Song Feifei was already resting.
She stood by and watched someone die in a life-or-death situation, and Yang Lingxue no longer wants to talk to her.
So what if you're rich and powerful? If people don't treat you as a friend, they can use you as a stepping stone to be sacrificed at any time.
What is she trying to achieve by humbling herself like this these days? Although she is not as pampered as her brother at home, she is still a young lady who has been spoiled since childhood. Why should she suffer this humiliation?
Song Feifei looked at the three people slowly crawling towards her and sneered, "They really know how to pretend to be good people."
She was truly ashamed of her own ability to win over Yang Lingxue so quickly.
The three were about to approach the center point, but Song Feifei was still sitting there and wouldn't leave.
Chu Hanyi had already reached the other side when Mu Chengwen reached out and helped her to the side. After they stood still, they looked in this direction.
Before Zhu Qinghe and Bai Qiuru could speak, Yang Lingxue said, "Miss Song, could you please move aside quickly?"
Even Feifei is no longer called.
Song Feifei: "You've been bought off so quickly? What, are you planning to isolate me from everyone?"
Yang Lingxue said with a stern face, "Fine, if you're not going to save me, at least don't block my way."
"Also, forget about bribery, they are my saviors."
Song Feifei scoffed and stepped aside: "Fine, you can go ahead."
"I'm tired, I need to rest a bit more."
Yang Lingxue: "Then I'll go first, you guys follow me."
She was speaking to Zhu Qinghe and Bai Qiuru, who nodded. A look of jealousy flashed across Song Feifei's eyes.
Yang Lingxue slowly climbed up the railing to the center point. The space was spacious, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She continued forward. Following Zhu Qinghe's instructions, she hugged the horizontal bar tightly. Just as she was about to wrap her legs around it and cross them, someone grabbed her ankle.
She turned her head in shock, only to see Song Feifei, her expression indifferent, pulling on her ankle.
Yang Lingxue was going crazy: "What are you doing? Let go right now!"
Song Feifei: "Lingxue, aren't we friends? How could you befriend someone else and leave me all alone?"
"You were the one who refused to help first!"
"I can, but you can't. Who do you think you are? I'm already doing you a favor by being your friend, and you still dare to betray me!"
"Do you know that those who betray me all have only one fate—death!"
With a forceful jerk, Yang Lingxue lost her balance and could no longer grip the bar. Her entire body plummeted downwards, but at the last second, someone grabbed her wrist.
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