bookcurios Chapter 892 Secret Door
Chapter 892 Secret Door
Chen Yi understood one thing very deeply—once someone has feelings for another person, they can no longer be as carefree as before.
He Lingling and An Jie exchanged a glance, both seeing worry in each other's eyes.
They weren't afraid that Yu Shijiu would actually "cause trouble," but rather worried that Yu Shijiu might be "targeted" on her own.
Especially Anjie.
Anjie's throat moved unconsciously a few times, and an inexplicable appetite surged up from her stomach again.
She gritted her teeth, took a book out of her system inventory, and stuffed it into her mouth.
Chen Yi glanced at her, then hesitated, "Sister An..."
Anjie chewed on the pages of her book, and upon hearing this, she simply raised her hand and nodded—meaning she knew.
Chen Yi then said no more.
He Lingling then turned and walked towards the dining table—where the bowls and spoons they had deliberately left unwashed the night before were still on it.
On the table, the empty bowls and spoons were still in their original places.
He Lingling quickly counted and found that there were indeed two extra sets.
"looking at what?"
Anjie, who had briefly suppressed her appetite, walked over and said, "I noticed you seemed distracted earlier. Did you think of some clue?"
"A little."
He Lingling didn't refute. She pointed to the two extra bowls and spoons on the table and whispered, "Sister An, Brother Chen, Fang Youhua and Yang Hua also came to eat last night."
“…” Anjie narrowed her eyes slightly, “They will definitely come to eat. I remember they received the least amount of bread crumbs and water. They’ll starve if they don’t come to eat, right?”
Chen Yi nodded slightly. "But why didn't they appear at the same time as us?"
He Lingling hesitated for a few seconds, then said, "Brother Chen, we are, after all, competitors with them. Also... did you hear the system notification sound last night?"
"..."
There was a moment of silence around the table, and after a few seconds, Anjie and Chen Yi nodded at the same time.
“I heard that,” Anjie said. “The field mouse has handed over the ‘job’ of welcoming the mole to Fang Youhua and Yang Hua.”
“They increased their exploration rate by two percent,” Chen Yi sighed slightly, “and we don’t have much exploration left.”
"It'll be over soon." He Lingling quickly recalled all the events that had occurred in the dungeon so far, and said with a pursed mouth, "This dungeon will be over soon too."
“Our top priority right now should be…” He Lingling said, looking at the swallow that had fallen asleep again in the corner, her expression somewhat complicated, “After the mole comes to the burrow, we should find a way to completely heal the swallow’s wing injury.”
"..."
—————In the cave on the other side.
Yu Shijiu moved through the passage like a ghost, his footsteps so light they were almost silent, his breathing so low that he seemed to blend into the shadows of the cave.
Instead of following closely behind the old field mouse, he relied on his vague memory of the burrow structure and the faint sensation from the severed claw in his pocket to choose a parallel but more concealed path.
The severed claw continued to radiate warmth in his pocket and faintly pointed in the direction that the old field mouse Thumbelina and the animal had moved, confirming his guess—the severed claw did indeed react to the old field mouse in the burrow.
why?
Could it be that this paw has a deep connection with the old field mouse?
Yu Shijiu's mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts, but his feet darted around, quickly using the twists and turns of the burrow and the piles of debris around him as cover. Soon he approached the area where the broken claw's senses were strongest—it seemed to be deep in a side path leading to the old field mouse's bedroom, a nook and cranny they hadn't explored carefully before.
The faint sounds of the old field mouse and Thumbelina talking could be heard from not far away; their voices were rather soft.
Yu Shijiu looked around, quickly took several steps forward, hid behind a huge, empty pottery jar, held his breath slightly, and cautiously peeked out half of his head to look ahead.
Ahead was a cave slightly smaller than their living quarters, filled with even more miscellaneous items, mostly wood shavings, which looked a bit like the old field mouse's "workshop" for crafts.
The old field mouse and Thumbelina stood in the center of the cave, which was filled with all sorts of wood chips.
The old field mouse stood with its back to Yu Shijiu, its hoarse, deep voice echoing clearly in the relatively enclosed space.
"...So, my good child, you must remember, you only get one chance."
Yu Shijiu saw the old field mouse gently stroking Thumbelina's hair with its paw. The action seemed loving, but it carried an unsettling sense of control.
"When my wealthy old friend arrives in a week, you must behave very well, be gentle and mild-mannered, be obedient and sensible, and make sure he likes you, understand?"
Thumbelina, her body mostly hidden by the old field mouse, lowered her head, her body trembling slightly, her voice barely audible:
“I…I understand, Grandma, but…but Grandma…I…I’ve never even seen him. What does he look like? I don’t even know if I like him or not…”
"like?"
The old field mouse's voice suddenly rose a little, tinged with displeasure.
"What's there to like or dislike? Marrying my old friend is a blessing you've accumulated over many lifetimes! It will give you a warm and spacious house, plenty of food, and you won't have to stay in this dark and dilapidated place anymore. Do you really want to stay here with me forever?"
The old field mouse's tone was full of temptation and coercion.
"No...it's not..."
Thumbelina shook her head immediately, and Yu Shijiu heard that her voice even sounded like she was about to cry.
"I just... I just feel... all of this is happening too fast... and, and Grandma, you're doing very well here, very well..."
"Fast?" The old field mouse sneered. "Do you really think it's fast? Good boy, this is not something you should be thinking about."
The old field mouse coaxed, "I advise you to seize the opportunity to marry a rich and good man. That's the important thing, isn't it...?"
The old field mouse's voice suddenly turned icy: "Are you still hoping that half-dead swallow can carry you away? Don't dream about it!"
It suddenly moved closer to Thumbelina, its eyes behind its glasses fixed on her, and lowered its voice, its tone becoming unusually eerie and chilling:
"Don't forget... you 'ate' my food, and I saved your life. Without me, you would have frozen to death long ago... Do you think you can leave so easily?"
Thumbelina was stunned. She looked up in astonishment at the old field mouse whose expression had suddenly changed, and whispered in disbelief, "Grandma, Grandma..."
The old field mouse, seemingly oblivious to the fear in her eyes, continued:
"Good girl, be a good girl and do as I say. Don't worry, you won't regret marrying my rich friend. This is the husband I chose for you. I hope you will obey, otherwise..."
The old field mouse didn't finish his sentence, but the unspoken threat in his tone was more oppressive than any words he uttered.
Hiding in the shadows, Yu Shijiu narrowed his eyes and watched as the old field mouse raised its withered paw and pinched Thumbelina's shoulder hard, causing the latter to hunch her shoulders and flinch in pain.
Thumbelina's face turned deathly pale in an instant, her eyes filled with fear and despair. She seemed to want to say something, but in the end she just nodded hard, tears silently sliding down her cheeks.
"That's more like it, my good child."
The old field mouse released its paw with satisfaction, its tone returning to its feigned kindness, "Look at you, you're so moved you're crying. Well, it's true, having a good husband is worth shedding tears for."
The old field mouse even chuckled and said, "Let's go, we should go back for breakfast. Good child, remember what Grandma said, only in this way can you live a better and happier life."
Having said that, the old field mouse turned around, seemingly preparing to leave.
Yu Shijiu, who was hiding behind the pottery jar, immediately shrank back, but her heart was pounding.
He felt he had heard crucial information.
Thumbelina "ate" the old field mouse's food... and she was indeed saved by the old field mouse in the original story (otherwise, Thumbelina's body would definitely have frozen to death)... This confirms He Lingling's previous speculation.
Thumbelina's strange transformation was indeed related to the old field mouse.
The old field mouse was using this sense of "gratitude" to manipulate Thumbelina into obeying him.
Prolonged obedience can truly cause a person's mental state to collapse completely.
Yu Shijiu understands this point very well.
Yu Shijiu felt a surge of disgust and aversion—he admitted that the old field mouse had indeed saved Thumbelina's life, but this kind of order, which used "gratitude" to force others to obey or even "repay with their bodies," was still too disgusting.
Just then, the broken claw in his pocket suddenly became intensely hot and generated a strong, eerie pull that seemed to want to escape from his pocket.
Yu Shijiu pulled himself out of his thoughts and took out the broken claw. After fiddling with it for a few seconds, the "traction" of the broken claw pointed directly at the back of where the old field mouse had just stood—the earthen wall piled with various wood chips.
Yu Shijiu's heart skipped a beat, and he forgot all about his disgust for the old field mouse. He began to wonder if there was something behind that wall.
After confirming that the old field mouse had left with the dazed Thumbelina, Yu Shijiu darted to the wall like a cat and began searching for clues.
The earthen wall in front of me looked unremarkable, covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs like any other wall, with no significant difference.
Yu Shijiu searched for a long time but found no obvious clues, and frowned unhappily.
If it weren't for the astonishing heat of the broken claw in her hand, which even gave her the faint feeling that it was about to burn her skin, Yu Shijiu would have given up long ago.
A few minutes later, Yu Shijiu looked at the earthen wall in front of him, reached out his hand, and carefully began to feel around on the wall again.
His fingertips traced the rough surface of the earth and stone. Just as he finished touching the earthen wall he had already touched and was about to stop, his soft fingertips touched an area with a slightly different texture from the rest of the wall—it seemed to be a slightly loose stone.
It feels a bit like the feeling of fumbling around in a cupboard before.
Yu Shijiu's heart stirred, and he pressed down hard with his fingertips—
"Click."
A slight noise was heard, and the stone he had forcibly pressed in actually caved inward.
Immediately afterwards, a seemingly intact section of the wall next to it silently slid open to one side, revealing a dark hole just wide enough for one person to pass through!
A sweet, rotten stench, richer and purer than ever before in the cave, mixed with an indescribable, eerie earthy smell that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, instantly gushed out from the cave entrance.
Yu Shijiu frowned as he was overwhelmed by the strange smell, but the excitement in his eyes suddenly intensified.
Without hesitation, he quickly squeezed inside.
The next second, the opening behind him quietly closed, as if it had never been opened at all.
The cave was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. There were no candles like you'd find elsewhere in the cave, and it was even colder.
But Yu Shijiu could sense that the space inside wasn't very large, a fact that could be detected from the increasingly strong sweet and rotten smell around him.
He first took out his flashlight and turned it on—the flashlight disappeared into the surrounding darkness the moment it was turned on, and he couldn't see anything, as if it had been swallowed up by the surrounding darkness, serving no purpose whatsoever.
"...It didn't work?"
Yu Shijiu muttered as he turned off the flashlight and put it back into his system backpack before groping his way forward a few steps.
A dozen seconds later, he felt as if he had kicked something, which made a rolling sound.
Yu Shijiu paused, squatted down, and reached out to feel around on the ground.
My fingertips touched some cold, hard, irregularly shaped small particles, and some... dry, rough, fibrous things.
But it was too dark, and I couldn't see anything at all.
Yu Shijiu racked his brains and finally remembered something he had completely forgotten.
He took out a small spare candle (which he had taken from the pile of household garbage in the warehouse) and a lighter from his system backpack and lit it with difficulty.
A faint light appeared, barely dispelling the darkness before them.
When Yu Shijiu saw what was under his feet, even he couldn't help but gasp.
At his feet lay dozens of straw bracelets of varying sizes and colors.
It was exactly the same as the straw bracelet he found, which was still in He Lingling's hand, only much more worn out, with some of the small flowers hanging on it that had long since dried up and turned black, their original colors unrecognizable.
In the middle of these straw bracelets are pale, thin human skeletons.
These remarkably similar humanoid skeletons were covered with a lot of red, bloody mud that looked very familiar... It looked a bit like the bloody mud that Yu Shijiu had found in that swamp full of humanoid arms before.
"..."
Yu Shijiu stared at the shattered human bones scattered on the ground for almost a minute before slowly blinking.
He reached out with feigned curiosity to pick up the bones on the ground for a closer look—[Do you want to die?]
Xiao Li's cold laughter echoed in Yu Shijiu's mind: "If you miss, then take it... I'm telling you, when are you going to break your bad habit of randomly taking things from dungeons? At least wear gloves before you take anything!"