"Sir?!" Dou Akou exclaimed in surprise, clutching her chest.
“Akou, look over there.” Fu Jiuxin’s tone was somewhat volatile, revealing his rare emotional excitement.
Dou Akou looked in the direction Fu Jiuxin was pointing and saw that the ceiling above them, made of large, flat bricks, was inlaid with several strangely arranged luminous pearls.
This… doesn’t seem strange at all. Dou Akou blinked, puzzled. But she knew Fu Jiuxin wouldn’t show it to her for no reason, so she put some thought into studying the luminous pearls. As she looked at them, the seemingly random arrangement suddenly became a cohesive whole. Dou Akou had a sudden realization, pointing excitedly to the ceiling and shouting, “We’re saved!”
Above their heads was a mechanism made of luminous pearls, which looked like a Bagua diagram upon closer inspection, but was not nearly as complex and intricate. However, if one did not examine it carefully, it would be easily overlooked at a glance.
The gate of life and the exit were so close, yet they had wasted so many days!
Dou Akou and Fu Jiuxin stared at each other. They now understood what it meant to find a new path after a long and winding road, or to search high and low without finding what they were looking for.
Mr. Fu was omnipotent. He looked at the diagram for a while, silently calculating and deducing in his mind. Then he turned to Dou Akou and told her to go a little further away. He secretly gathered his energy, ran a few steps on the ground, and stepped onto the stone table with the momentum. With a light touch of his toes, he soared into the air and flipped and turned in the air very beautifully, like a fish with a flexible and agile body.
Dou Akou exclaimed in amazement, admiring Fu Jiuxin's aerial performance. After taking off into the air, Fu Jiuxin grabbed a thick roof beam with one hand and used the other to manipulate the luminous pearls.
As they expected, these luminous pearls were indeed movable. Fu Jiuxin would move one pearl, examine it, and then move another. Dou Akou, unaware of the mechanism, looked up from the ground and only saw the pearls gradually transform into strange shapes under Fu Jiuxin's manipulation.
Fu Jiuxin moved the last bead to the correct position, and with a loud rumble, the tightly sealed ceiling above began to tremble, and the sound of stone slabs rubbing against each other was enough to make one's teeth ache.
Dou Akou covered her eyes to avoid the falling dust and dirt. Fu Jiuxin had already nimbly dodged away when the mechanism was activated, and now he had also landed on the ground, waiting with Dou Akou for the mechanism to stop.
After the trembling roar subsided, a thin layer of dust settled on the ground. Dou Akou quietly opened one eye and saw a dark hole silently appearing above their heads.
The two exchanged a glance, and Fu Jiuxin made a quick decision: "Akou, you go up first."
Dou Akou's lightness skill was not good, but fortunately Fu Jiuxin used his internal energy to help her get up from below, so she was able to float up and grab onto the hole.
She struggled a couple of times, squeezed into the hole, and immediately reached out her hand: "Sir, please come up!"
Given Fu Jiuxin's skill level, he didn't actually need Dou Akou to lend a hand. However, seeing Dou Akou's anxious face and pitiful, longing expression, he couldn't help but reach out his hand. Almost instantly, Dou Akou grabbed his hand and pulled him back forcefully, causing the two of them to fall into the cave, panting and huddled together.
Inside the dark entrance was a narrow passage with a gentle slope, as if it had been dug out by hand. It was so cramped that one could not even stand upright.
The two could only crawl along the narrow passage like infants, using both hands and feet. The passage was so narrow that they could hit the ceiling if they looked up, and the rocks pressed down on them like mountains, making it almost impossible to breathe.
Crawling through a confined and narrow passage was not a pleasant experience. Dou Akou felt uncomfortable all over and felt so oppressed that she wanted to stretch her limbs and shout. But when she looked ahead, she could not see the end of the darkness and not a single ray of light.
There was no sign of life in the darkness, only the sound of water dripping from deep within the rocks, slowly and steadily striking the rocks. After listening for a while, the sound seemed to drip on the tip of one's heart, like the footsteps of death.
Dou Akou panicked. The space was too cramped to look back, and she didn't know if Fu Jiuxin was still behind her. Dou Akou was frightened by her own wild thoughts. She stopped and timidly called out "Sir." A steady voice immediately came from behind her: "I'm here."
Dou Akou breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much more at ease, and calmed herself down to continue climbing forward. This narrow path was probably a way out left by the designer, but she probably wouldn't use it much. The ground was uneven and full of loose stones and pebbles. As Dou Akou climbed, her knees and elbows were chafed in many places.
The narrow path was built according to the terrain, and in the narrowest part it was even impossible to walk on one's knees. People had to crawl through it like caterpillars, almost touching the ground, which was extremely difficult.
Having barely made it through this part, Dou Akou felt as if she had been skinned alive. Fortunately, things took a turn for the better, and the tunnel gradually widened to accommodate half a person's height. The terrain also gradually rose. Although the situation didn't seem to have made any breakthroughs, at least the two of them no longer had to crawl along the ground, inching their way in.
The appearance of light always comes unexpectedly. Dou Akou initially only saw a hazy halo of light ahead, numbly wondering if she was hallucinating. She closed her eyes and opened them again; the light not only didn't disappear, but grew brighter as she moved forward. Dou Akou thought for a second, then suddenly jumped up: "Ouch!"
Forgetting she was in a narrow passage, she was caught off guard and her head slammed hard against a rock. But she didn't even cry out in pain, and excitedly pointed at the light and shouted.
The power that a person can unleash at their limit is boundless, especially now that hope is right in front of them. Dou Akou crawled and shuffled towards the light she longed for. The moment the sunlight shone on her face, she braced herself with her arms on both sides and suddenly leaped out of the cave.
Fu Jiuxin followed closely behind, and the two of them rushed out together. Large patches of scorching sunlight immediately drenched them from head to toe. Dou Akou opened her eyes and stared directly at the blinding sunlight. The feeling of escaping from danger was like breaking through water. Sunshine, rain, wind, sand, clouds—everything was so beautiful.
Fu Jiuxin still had his senses and covered Dou Akou's eyes: "Akou, be careful not to get hurt."
Dou Akou blinked in his palm, then removed Fu Jiuxin's hand and chuckled, "Sir, we've escaped!"
She fell backward, letting her body crash onto the lush grass, gazing at the vast sky, her heart surging with excitement that she couldn't calm down for a long time.
Fu Jiuxin relaxed and turned to meet Dou Akou's eyes. The two held hands and laughed like two fools.
After the initial excitement subsided, the two calmed down and began to consider their next steps.
Fu Jiuxin stood up, took a walk around the neighborhood, and came back with a plan: "Akou, does this place look familiar?"
Upon hearing this, Dou Akou looked around carefully. The scenery did look familiar, as if she had been there before. She frowned and tried hard to remember, then suddenly clapped her hands: "It's Mother's grave!"
Fu Jiuxin nodded.
It turned out that the exit they found after going around in circles and by a twist of fate was not far from Fu Jiuxin's mother's grave, right on this hilltop.
Strangely enough, the underground labyrinth of Haohui City is intricate and stretches for hundreds of miles, and its only exit is near the grave of Fu Jiuxin's mother. One can't help but sigh that it is truly a matter of fate.
Dou Akou said earnestly, "Sir, I think it must be my mother's spirit in heaven protecting us, which is why we escaped by accident."
The two had been trapped underground for who knows how long, struggling to escape and crawling around. Now, both were covered in dust and dirt, eager to get home to Longfeng Town.
The two planned to wash their faces in the small pool by the mountain and then leave. Just as they scooped up some water, they suddenly heard rustling in the woods, and a person slowly emerged.
Dou Akou looked closely and saw that the person was Ding Zisu.
She wasn't much better off; her long hair was a mess, draped over her shoulders, and her clothes were so dirty that their original color was unrecognizable. She looked completely different from her usual carefully dressed self, almost like a different person.
Dou Akou was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say to her; Fu Jiuxin was not very enthusiastic about anyone other than Dou Akou, so the two of them fell into an awkward silence, simply turning back to continue washing their hands and faces, as if they hadn't seen Ding Zisu at all.
Dou Akou slowly cleaned the dirt from under her fingernails, seemingly calm and composed, but her mind was entirely on Ding Zisu. She really wanted to see what Ding Zisu was doing, but since there were no eyes watching her, she felt very uncomfortable.
As she was lost in thought, a reflection gradually appeared on the water's surface, right next to her own. Dou Akou was startled and jumped up, her hand already on the hilt of her knife.
Ding Zisu was completely oblivious to Fu Jiuxin's murderous aura and Dou Akou's nervousness. She muttered to herself, "I can't find the medical book... I can't find the medical book... He won't want me anymore..."
Dou Akou was stunned; Ding Zisu in front of her seemed to be half-mad.
Ding Zisu stared at her reflection in the water, slowly squatted down, splashed water on her face, revealing a fair and beautiful face. She lovingly touched her cheeks, then suddenly laughed foolishly: "I'm still beautiful! A beauty! Heroes love beauties! What does it matter if I don't have a medical book!"