Black Crow followed Xihe, turning left and right in the darkness, and soon came to a dead end. After groping along the wall for a while, Black Crow asked doubtfully, "There doesn't seem to be a way out here?"
Xihe smiled and asked, "Yes, yes, it's very wide. By the way, can you swim?"
"meeting."
Xihe nodded and said, "That's good. For you, it's not a dead end."
After saying that, Xihe took off the heavy cloak and mask on his face, threw them aside, and reached out to look for Heiya: "I remember those people were carrying weapons. Do you still have them with you?"
Black Crow had no idea what Xihe was looking for the knife for, and he was somewhat wary. After carefully handing her the handle, he deftly moved past the blade. Xihe took the knife, tested the back and tip of the blade with her hand, then, picking it up, slashed a large gash into her palm, seemingly insensitive to the pain.
The tip of Hei Ya's nose twitched slightly, and he smelled a faint smell of blood. Startled, he quickly grabbed Xihe and asked, "What are you doing?"
Xihe touched the person and wiped the blood on his hands on Heiya's clothes, while explaining calmly: "Save your life."
Seeing that the odor on his body was already quite strong, Xihe tore a strip of cloth from her clothes and wrapped it around the wound. After everything was ready, she pulled Heiya and stood in front of a wall. "This time, you have to be careful and follow me closely."
Xihe squatted on the ground, holding someone with one hand and groping for something on the ground with the other. Before Hei Ya could react, a big hole suddenly appeared where they were standing, and the two of them fell into the hole.
After falling down, Black Crow finally understood what Xihe meant. There was a turbulent undercurrent going down from here. Black Crow was dizzy from the current and could not tell the direction. He only felt that there seemed to be some living creatures circling around him.
The black crow noticed something strange and was frantically looking for Xihe. When he got into the water, he found that someone had tied a piece of cloth around his waist. At the other end of the cloth, the black crow clearly felt some force pulling him forward.
After swimming for a long time in the dark river, the two finally managed to swim downstream to a calmer riverbed before exhaustion. When they surfaced, the night was dark. The bright moon that used to hang in the sky had disappeared, leaving only a sky dotted with stars.
When they were in the dark river, Xihe relied on her intuition to guide the black crow out of the cage and out of the dark river, and then it was the black crow's turn to take care of her.
After emerging from the river, the two sat on the riverbank to rest for a while. Black Crow told Xihe to stay put and not move, then he got up to collect some firewood. After some effort, he found two flints and started a small fire. The moment the flames burst into flames, Black Crow couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
The heavy stone in Hei Ya's heart slowly fell, and his tense nerves finally relaxed. While picking up useful things on the riverbank to make a bed or use as firewood, he thought of asking Xihe to come over and warm himself by the fire to cool off the cold.
Xihe sat motionless on the riverbank, not knowing what had happened. Black Crow thought she was injured and quickly dropped what he was holding and ran over: "Xihe, what happened to you? Did you choke on the water or were you injured?"
Xihe smiled at him and whispered, "Hush, listen, what's that sound?"
Black Crow's heart tightened, and he said, "Insects chirping, birds singing, and frogs making noises."
Xihe tilted her head and listened carefully to these sounds she had never heard before. She felt a little unbelievable: "The insects here are really strange. The ones where we live don't make sounds like that."
Black Crow chuckled and said, "Yes, the insects here are strange and don't bite people very often."
"Really? These bugs are so well behaved!"
After Hei Ya brought Xihe from the riverbank to the campfire, he saw that she was fascinated by the sounds around her, so he handed her the clothes that were almost dry and asked Xihe to change the wet clothes she was wearing outside first.
Xihe was very quiet that night. She sat by the fire, feeling the warmth and everything she had never heard before. She just sat there quietly all night.
At dawn the next day, the black crow opened its eyes and found Xihe still sitting there. But after this glance, a strange feeling seemed to emerge in the heart of this crow, which could roost anywhere but had no place to rest.
The morning light gently scattered across the ground, landing on the woman before him, as if draping her in a gorgeous gauze. The woman smiled toward the rising sun. Though her dark eyes could no longer discern light, they seemed to hold everything in the world within a bottomless abyss. She tilted her head, her eyes smiling as she gazed at him, her radiance even brighter than the sunlight itself.
Xihe couldn't see the expression on Heiya's face, but after hearing the sound, she turned her head and said, "Are you awake?"
"Um."
A breeze blew by, and Xihe couldn't help but shudder. Then she sniffed the smell on her clothes with some disgust, and said without any fear of hurting others: "This clothes smells weird, I want the ones I wore before."
Hei Ya held his forehead and sighed. He had no idea how long he had been locked up, and there was no place to take a shower or change clothes. It was normal for there to be some smell. She had endured it for a whole night before telling him, which was really a courtesy.
The clothes on the rack were already completely dry. Although they were clean, perhaps because they were thin, they had been torn in several places by the rocks in the underground river. Fortunately, Xihe's underwear was still intact, otherwise, Black Crow didn't know how he would buy clothes for her later: "...Here."
After Xihe took the clothes, she fumbled with them for a while and then planned to take them off. Seeing this, Heiya hurried forward to stop her: "Wait!"
Xihe tilted her head and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Ahem, let me take you to the bushes to change."
Xihe smiled. It was nice here. The wind was very comfortable. "No need. It's nice here."
Black Crow rubbed his temples with a slight headache, looked around the surrounding environment, and after confirming that no one would appear for the time being, he turned around and said, "Then hurry up, I'll avoid you."
"What a strange man."
At this moment, Wang Yanzhou and his group had already set off and were about to arrive in Qinghe County. Despite their hasty journey, this one wasn't going smoothly. Various bizarre incidents delayed their progress, including an old man scamming someone after a tree fell on the official road, a young woman selling herself to bury her father, and Tang Chen inexplicably getting sick from a stomachache.
When they arrived in Qinghe County, they heard that Princess Qinghe and her husband had left not long ago, and no one knew where they were going.
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