They would walk for a while, then rest, occasionally exchanging some idle conversation. What seemed like an endless tunnel finally came to an abrupt end during one of Mei Lin’s solo crawls. The suddenness of it left her momentarily stunned.
She knelt there, staring blankly at the pitch-black space beyond the tunnel. Even when she held the torch out, all she could see was a stone staircase leading downward—nothing more.
They had to keep going down... but what lay below? She didn’t dare to imagine.
After surveying the area, she wedged the torch into a crack in the rock at the tunnel's exit and turned back. But as she was halfway back, the already dim torchlight suddenly extinguished, plunging the surroundings into an all-consuming darkness.
Mei Lin froze for a moment but didn’t go back to relight the torch. Instead, she continued crawling toward Murong Jing He. When her hand finally found his warm body, the tension in her heart eased a little.
"Why did the torch go out?" Murong Jing He, sitting against the stone wall, asked when he felt her searching hand. At the moment the light vanished completely, an inexplicable unease engulfed him. He knew she wouldn’t abandon him, but the endless darkness made his mind race with unwanted thoughts.
Perhaps because the darkness heightened all other senses, Mei Lin felt more exhausted during this return than any before. Hearing his voice reassured her, so she didn’t rush to move. Instead, she leaned back against the stone wall to rest.
"Maybe it was the wind that blew it out," she sighed, feeling her eyelids growing heavy.
"Have we reached the exit?" Murong Jing He inferred from her words. After all, the tunnel was sealed at both ends—how else could there be wind?
"Yes… The outside seems vast... I couldn’t make out... what kind of place it is... only a staircase..." Mei Lin, now relaxed, felt increasingly drowsy. Her speech became disjointed and slow as she described what she saw.
Sensing her fatigue, Murong Jing He turned his head but couldn’t touch hers because of their shoulder distance. He could only reach out with the hand lying beside him to tug on her tattered skirt.
"Hey, don’t sleep," he said, reluctant to let her doze off. If she fell asleep, he’d feel utterly alone in the suffocating darkness.
Mei Lin frowned slightly, her body sliding a little as she rested her head on his shoulder. She mumbled, "Just let me... rest for a bit... just a little while..."
Murong Jing He hesitated, then tugged at her skirt again, unwillingly saying, "Then… at least hold onto me." Only that way could he ward off the fear of being swallowed by the darkness. When he had felt her return earlier, he had the same impulse, but he had been too proud to ask.
Mei Lin, now very sleepy, grew impatient and swiftly wrapped her arm around his waist, almost slipping into his embrace. In no time, she began to softly snore.
Feeling her weight and warmth against him, Murong Jing He finally relaxed. Sleepiness washed over him as well, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.
How long they slept, no one knew. Mei Lin was the first to wake, finding herself lying on top of Murong Jing He. At some point, they had both slid to the ground, and it was surprising that he hadn’t woken her up—truly unusual.
As soon as she moved, Murong Jing He woke too. He mumbled groggily, "What time is it…"
But even as he spoke, he fully awoke, staring into the pitch-blackness before him, momentarily disoriented.
Mei Lin helped him sit up and took out a firestarter, blowing it into a small flame. In the flickering light, their eyes met briefly, and as the light brought a semblance of life back to them, she quickly extinguished it.
"Maybe the sun is shining brightly outside," she said, then hoisted Murong Jing He onto her back and began crawling toward the exit. Her knees and elbows, already scabbed over from previous wounds, were scraped open again, the fresh blood stinging sharply. She regretted not pushing through earlier when her body had grown numb to the pain. Stopping to rest had only made it worse, and the unrelenting darkness was the worst of all.
Not to mention, Murong Jing He's legs, dragging along the ground, were also stripped of their skin. But compared to the pain of his shattered meridians and the constant strain on his body, this minor injury didn’t even register with him.
After much struggle, they finally reached the tunnel’s end, and Mei Lin relit the torch.
The darkness was so oppressive that it felt like it would drown them. Even the dim, flickering torchlight felt like salvation.
Mei Lin dug out a bamboo tube from the makeshift pack she’d made from her outer garment. They both drank some water, then shared some roasted wild yams. Unable to tell the time, they rested when utterly exhausted and ate when starving.
Murong Jing He leaned against the rock wall, struggling to swallow the cold, dry chunks of yam that seemed to stick in his throat. He stared at the stone steps ahead of him. The steps, narrow and steep, seemed to have been carved into the rock. After just a few, they disappeared into the darkness below. What lay beyond? What was on either side? It was impossible to tell.
What kind of place is this? For the first time, he began to doubt.
If this was a hideout for the Hu people back then, during those chaotic times, they would have been too busy fleeing for their lives to have the time or resources to carve such an impractical passage. Or was it built during the previous dynasty's prosperity? But then why block one end of the passage? It couldn’t be used for escape or reconnaissance, making it entirely impractical...
Seeing him frowning, Mei Lin assumed he was choking and quickly handed him some water. He didn’t refuse, taking a couple of sips before saying, "Light another torch and go down to take a look, but don’t go too far." He paused before adding, "Be careful."
Mei Lin had the same thought. She needed to scout the area thoroughly to ease her worries.
She left a torch with Murong Jing He, then took another one herself. Checking both sides, she found the stone steps only slightly wider than the tunnel, flanked by steep rock walls. Both above and below were shrouded in darkness, obscuring what lay beyond. Stretching her stiffened legs, she cautiously started down.
To her surprise, she quickly reached the bottom. Stepping onto the flat ground, she looked up at Murong Jing He and smiled, "I thought it was higher—false alarm."
The steps were only about eight in total, though steep enough to seem higher.
Murong Jing He sat at the tunnel entrance, gazing down at her smiling face in the torchlight. She seemed like a blossoming spring flower, blooming in the cold night air. His heart fluttered slightly, and a smile spread across his face.
It was the first time she had seen him smile so purely. Mei Lin froze for a moment, feeling as if something warm and soft had slowly wrapped around her heart, which had never quite felt warm before.
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