Chapter 122 An Opportunity Arrives in the Dark Room.
Xia Zhu lay on the bed.
The room was pitch black; there seemed to be no moon tonight.
She remembered what she had said to Yu when she left, so she closed the window facing the yard before going to bed.
Pulling the blanket up to my chin, I smelled its warm, dry scent, the scent of daytime sunlight, and my consciousness gradually sank.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but just as she was about to fall asleep, a shadow flashed past the window.
The room wasn't spacious. Besides a square table and a few stools, there was only a single wooden bed against the wall. So Xia Zhu's head was facing the window, and she instantly woke up when the shadow flashed by.
I held my breath and stared at the paper window for a long time. There was no other sound. The whole room was quiet, as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion.
Xia Zhu suspected that he had been contemplating the meaning of life and death all day, which was why he was somewhat mentally disoriented.
After meeting Yun Jiu on Mount Taibai, the process of uncovering the mystery of her origins suddenly accelerated, and the various shocks were quite significant for her.
With that in mind, she remained vigilant for only a moment before falling asleep again.
Strangely, this happened every night for the next day or two. Her sleep became increasingly shallow, and she seemed unable to fall asleep unless she saw a dark shadow flash by. Every morning, she had dark circles under her eyes, and she almost suspected that she had symptoms of neurasthenia.
So when I brought Yu Lai her food, I also tried to ask her questions. For example, why it was best not to go out or open the windows, and whether anyone else lived in the courtyard.
But this pretty and intelligent girl always smiled without saying a word, and whenever the topic came up, she would quickly put down the tray and leave.
In addition, Xia Zhu felt a little embarrassed to have the children deliver three meals a day, so she discussed it with everyone and decided that it would be better to go out to the street to find food.
I also took the opportunity to go for a walk and get some fresh air.
After all, she had been very tense these past few days because she couldn't relax and "wait for the right opportunity." She was thinking about this almost every moment she was awake, which made her turn down many outings. She spent her days sitting in her room staring blankly at the sky outside the window, occasionally wiping the small sword in her hand.
The scent of lilacs filled the room.
Gradually, she became convinced that the dark shadow that flashed past her window every night was just a hallucination caused by her nervousness.
Several times, Ying Huo walked across the courtyard to her window and solemnly reprimanded her for locking herself in her room every day. He said that if she was restless all day, it meant that her obsession with something was not a good thing.
This is a bad omen.
But Xia Zhu's anxiety intensifies whenever she sees any one of them.
The longer she stayed in the Jiang family, the less likely she was to get the right opportunity, and the more guilty she felt.
I feel I shouldn't have so many people with me.
Although the task of the Nine Heavens Assembly did not fall on their shoulders, there were many unknown officials all over the world trying to prevent the prophecy from coming true and to save the world.
But she just couldn't get over this hurdle in her heart, and began to doubt whether the decisions she had made all along were right or wrong.
Even so, she was even more unwilling to see anyone, including Ying Huo, worry about her.
On the evening of the fourth day, Feng Feng leaned against her window and told her that he and Ying Ya had found a delicious noodle shop and asked if she wanted to go out together. She thought about it carefully, put down the small sword in her hand, and went out of the room.
The moment she stepped into the courtyard, she suddenly felt that the sky above her head had become incredibly high and distant, and the oppressive air around her was rapidly drawn away and receded, and the feeling of tension and constraint dissipated considerably.
She felt that people shouldn't just stay in one place and be anxious; perhaps going out occasionally could change their mood.
So the group went to the noodle shop Feng Feng had mentioned for dinner. They then wandered around in the sunset, and as they walked down the street, a short flute melody drifted from somewhere, floating gently into the twilight sky. Xia Zhu could also smell a faint scent of gardenias in the air, the first signs of summer.
She squinted at the distant mountains, and Feng Feng unknowingly moved closer.
She looked furtive and deliberately lowered her voice.
Are you free tonight?
Xia Zhu didn't know what she meant, but it sounded very unusual, so she nodded.
"Ying Ya and I have discovered a secret..."
A secret? Xia Zhu glanced at her.
“In that empty courtyard, besides us, there seems to be another person living there…” She suddenly covered her mouth, “No, maybe it’s not a person.”
Their eyes met.
Feng Feng smiled mischievously, "Want to go check it out tonight?"
The sun was setting in the west, and the night was as dark as water.
A white veil was laid out in the courtyard, and the bright moon hung high in the sky tonight.
Even without lights, you can clearly see the road beneath your feet and each other's faces.
Fengmian yawned.
"You guys better have something really going on since you're up so late at night..."
Feng Feng immediately turned around and gestured for him to be quiet.
She crouched low and walked at the front, with Xia Zhu following behind her. Tonight's test of courage was a full-scale event.
Of course, originally it was Yunjiu who needed sleep as she was growing.
Everyone planned to wait until she fell asleep before making their move, but when they sneaked out, they found Yun Jiu already standing obediently in the courtyard waiting for them. To make it easier to travel at night, she had even removed all her silver ornaments, revealing her black hair and fair skin, with the dark red patterns appearing translucent in the moonlight.
Although Xia Zhu thought this was a bit too much of a show, if there was anything fishy going on, it would easily attract attention.
However, she thought again that it would be safer for everyone to stay together.
The courtyard where they lived had a total of seven rooms, five of which were used for accommodation, and the remaining room was a main room and a kitchen that looked like it had been empty for a long time.
Feng Feng said that a few days ago, she and Ying Ya explored the place when they had nothing to do. They found that the kitchen looked very old, with an earthen stove, covered with cobwebs, and the walls were full of marks of age. Logically speaking, the floor of such a place should be dusty, but the two of them found a very clean mark.
"It's like someone keeps dragging something across here, over and over again."
What were her exact words?
So Xia Zhu immediately connected their findings with the shadowy figure she saw every night and informed her. Feng Feng then slapped his thigh and went door-to-door, inviting everyone to meet in the courtyard when the moon was high in the sky.
Perhaps she was too excited and made too much noise, which Yun Jiu heard and stopped everyone in the courtyard.
"Over here, over here..." Feng Feng called out to those behind him, then carefully placed his hands on the kitchen door.
The door wasn't locked, but due to its age and disrepair, it inevitably made a creaking, grating sound when opened or closed. Xia Zhu held her breath, listening to the old door, which sounded like an elderly person suffering from arthritis, struggling to stretch out its limbs, each sound a friction and collision of bones that made one's teeth ache.
The interior was much as Feng Feng had described. There was only a stove on the left side of the room, and most of the plaster on the surrounding walls had peeled off, revealing the yellow earth underneath, which was clearly visible in the cool moonlight.
She also noticed a drag mark on the floor from the entrance to behind the stove. The surrounding area was shrouded in a gray haze, but this one path was clean and dust-free.
Several people tiptoed in a line, stepping on the clean middle section, and followed each other all the way to the back of the stove.
Feng Mian looked around. "It's a bit strange, but this room is completely open, and there are no other signs of habitation. Is it really possible for another person to live here, as you say?" He turned his gaze back to the stove. "Unless..."
Feng Feng immediately understood and squatted down by the stove to examine it inch by inch, even sticking his head into the hole where the firewood was kept.
After tinkering inside for a while, she finally came out again, winking excitedly at Xia Zhu.
"I told you, there seems to be a hidden door down there."
After hearing this, Xia Zhu also poked her head in and found that there was indeed a shadow in the stove where it connected to the ground that was different from the rest of the place. She reached out and touched it, and it felt like a wooden structure. When she tapped it lightly, a hollow echo came from underneath.
The bottom is empty.
In other words, there might be a basement here.
The inside of the stove is so small that an adult could definitely squeeze in. If there's a strange "person" or something else living underneath, then the shadowy figure in front of the window might make sense.
She couldn't help but think about the opportunity, even though Jiang Xiaqing had said that there was no way to enter it, and it would happen in an instant. But after all, no one in her family had ever seen it before, so it was possible that there really was some kind of secret method or passage.
So she turned around and exchanged a glance with Feng Feng, and then began to feel her way along the wooden door. Finally, she found a small iron ring in the inner part of the door.
Hooking the iron ring and pulling it upwards, a dark tunnel appeared before Xia Zhu's eyes. A damp, cold wind blew up from below, smelling not only of the great distance but also of the passage of time.
She wrinkled her nose and smelled the scent of old fur, just like she used to smell on her grandfather's cotton-padded coat.
Xia Zhu tried to put her hand into the hole and could feel the wind whistling through her fingers. She held onto the edge of the stove, intending to crawl inside.
"Summer candle".
But someone called out to her from behind.
Xia Zhu pulled her head back, which she hadn't yet put in, and looked back blankly.
Ying Huo frowned slightly, looking directly at her with a puzzled expression.
She suddenly remembered what he had said to her that night.
So I grinned and smiled at him.
He then plunged inside.
The dark room beneath the stove was like a city's sewers. A narrow opening led down a ladder, and they descended one after another like young opossums following their mother on her migrations.
After descending a few meters, Xia Zhu looked up and realized that the person following her was no longer Feng Feng; Ying Huo had switched places with her at some point.
Since the first one stopped, the others had to stop climbing as well. Ying Huo held onto the ladder with one hand and looked down to find Xia Zhu staring intently at him.
She wasn't wearing her glasses today, perhaps for ease of movement.
Almost at the same moment he thought of this, his light-colored pupils widened slightly in the darkness.
Here we go again, with that same expression.
Her lips curved into a smile, and her eyes were bright.
She seems to smile at him like that all the time lately.
Ying Huo was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered.
In Xia Zhu's eyes, the way he looked down with a cold face was like a proud cat walking past the window with its head held high, squinting its eyes because of the bright sunlight.
So she quickly lowered her head and continued climbing down the stairs.
The space here is enclosed and narrow, making it easy to detect any restless noises.
After the shaft reached the ground, they were faced with a tunnel that looked more like a sewer, pitch black. Feng Feng then took out a handful of Jinjindeng seeds and distributed them to everyone.
One by one, warm yellow lamps lit up the dark cave. Feng Mian's face flickered in the light. He held the lamps up to his eyes and said with some helplessness, "Isn't this the Jiang family's sewers? Are you sure you want to keep going?"
"Absolutely! Absolutely! How could I not be sure!" Feng Feng almost jumped up. "Who would hide their sewer in the stove? Besides, those drag marks are obviously suspicious!"
She suddenly seemed to remember something and moved closer to Feng Mian.
"Oh dear, I forgot, my brother is terrified of the dark. Why don't you go back to sleep first..."
"You're so noisy." Feng Mian interrupted her and walked straight into the darkness.
This place truly seemed to be a sewer, with gusts of cold wind and the constant sound of dripping water. The eerie silence permeated the entire underground space, making it appear as if it were an endless place, perhaps even an infinitely folded space.
Feng Feng grew increasingly bored as he walked. Perhaps Feng Mian was right; this was just an ordinary underground structure. After all, even the most glamorous families have to allow the discharge of wastewater and the harboring of filth.
Just as she was about to declare her surrender, Ying Ya, who had been silently standing beside her, suddenly tugged at the hem of her clothes.
"What's wrong?" Feng Feng immediately became nervous. Ying Ya was no ordinary person; he was known for his shrewdness and brilliance.
“There’s the scent of beasts ahead.” He pointed a finger into the darkness ahead.
"Beasts?" Ji Yinxiu silently placed her hand on the Xuanyuan Sword at her waist.
Xia Zhu was taken aback, recalling the chaotic beastly shadow outside the Jiang family's wooden gate.
"Then... should we continue forward?" Feng Feng was a little uncertain. If they encountered ghosts or monsters, they could enjoy the cool air on a summer night. If all else failed, the group could scream and run away in a very atmospheric way.
But if it's some kind of wild beast lurking underground, the interest is much lower, and the level of danger increases.
They came down here just for fun, so they didn't bring any tools; their only light source was the Jinjin lantern in their hands. Although there were many of them, the area they could illuminate was still limited.
As the group discussed whether to continue, Xia Zhu casually extended the lamp in her hand into the darkness. Instantly, her body temperature plummeted and her blood froze.
Less than a meter away from her stood a monster taller than a person, its body so large it could almost fill the entire passage, yet it approached them silently.
Xia Zhu stared at those eerie, grayish-white, and turbid eyes, as if she could be enveloped by the strange aura of death emanating from them.
The bear's pupils had dilated, shrouded in a white mist like a shadow.
It doesn't look like a living thing at all.
Xia Zhu tried to speak up to remind everyone, but found that she couldn't make a sound even with her mouth open, and even her feet seemed to be nailed to the ground and she couldn't move.
She suddenly realized with horror that the voices of the people who had been talking noisily behind her were gradually fading away, as if some invisible barrier was slowly separating her from them until their presence completely disappeared. She could no longer sense anyone's presence, nor could she turn around to look.
She stood there motionless, the only sound the deafening pounding of her own heart.
Suddenly, a strange thought flashed through my mind, and all the stagnant blood began to surge again, flushing out a scorching temperature.
She couldn't help but widen her eyes as she watched the bear-like figure that had been standing right in front of her vanish into thin air.
Perhaps fate still chose her.
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