Chapter 43
Chapter 43
“Lin Hao! Take the child and hide in the bushes on the right! Don’t make a sound!” Qingshui shouted hoarsely.
Lin Hao’s face was streaked with tears and sweat. He clutched Pingping tightly in his arms, the child having cried herself nearly voiceless, and skidded to a halt at Qingshui’s command.
There was no time to hesitate. Gritting his teeth, he shielded the child’s head, ducked into the bushes, and vanished among the dark green foliage.
Dragging An Xiaolin along, Qingshui sprinted less than ten meters farther. Through a gap in the trees ahead, a broad expanse of open water came into view.
Agonizing pain shot through An Xiaolin’s ankle. Every step felt like treading on the points of knives. Terror and the helplessness of being dragged along left her trembling all over, but what made her shake even harder was the thought echoing endlessly through her mind:
I can’t keep running… I’ll only hold everyone back… Qingshui is going to…
That fear reached its peak when Qingshui suddenly let go of her wrist.
No…
“Jump!” Qingshui barked, leaping from the bank without hesitation.
“Don’t leave me behind!” An Xiaolin collapsed at the water’s edge, despair filling her eyes.
Qingshui’s heart lurched when she realized An Xiaolin hadn’t jumped. She immediately broke the surface, seized An Xiaolin by the wrist, and yanked her into the water.
Splash!
Qingshui clamped one hand over An Xiaolin’s mouth and nose while wrapping her other arm firmly around her waist. Holding her tight, she dragged her deeper beneath the surface.
Several madmen prowled along the lakeshore. They craned their necks, staring at the lake as its surface gradually became still again, traces of confusion appearing on their hideous faces. One of them picked up a stone and hurled it into the water. It landed with a splash, sending ripples spreading outward, but nothing else stirred.
Another dropped to its stomach at the edge of the bank and leaned close to the surface, its blood-red eyes peering into the murky depths.
There was nothing there.
“They… got away?” one madman asked, tilting its head in disappointment.
“Search! Find someone else!” another cried excitedly before turning and racing off in a different direction.
Underwater, just as An Xiaolin thought she was about to suffocate, the hand covering her mouth and nose released her.
The next instant, a powerful force pulled her through the water. An Xiaolin instinctively held on to the last of her breath and opened her eyes.
In the dim lake water, she saw Qingshui beside her, one hand still gripping her tightly while the other pulled hard through the water. Qingshui’s hair billowed around her like seaweed, and her face looked pale in the murky blue-gray light. Her eyes, however, remained exceptionally clear and sharp as she vigilantly watched for any movement above the surface.
She didn’t leave me behind.
The realization instantly shattered An Xiaolin’s icy despair. She stopped struggling and, enduring the searing pain in her ankle and the burning in her lungs, did her best to move in sync with Qingshui.
Swimming through the lake with a backpack weighing her down was grueling. An Xiaolin felt certain she was going to drown before they made it out.
“Hah!” An Xiaolin burst through the surface and greedily gulped down the cold, precious air, her entire body shaking uncontrollably.
Qingshui was also gasping for breath, but her wary gaze continued sweeping the lakeshore. The madmen appeared to be gone.
They were safe for now.
“You…” An Xiaolin looked at Qingshui, her voice trembling uncontrollably. “You didn’t leave me behind…”
Qingshui wiped the water from her face and gave her a complicated look. “Get ashore.”
Utterly exhausted, the two finally hauled themselves onto the bank and collapsed on the cold stone, panting heavily.
An Xiaolin turned her head and looked at Qingshui lying beside her, her chest heaving. She opened her mouth, wanting to say “thank you,” wanting to say “I’m sorry,” but in the end, she merely reached out with a trembling hand and tightly clasped Qingshui’s equally cold one.
Qingshui did not pull away.
And so they lay together on the cold rock, hand in hand, struggling to catch their breath.
Suddenly, a burst of breathless, low laughter reached Qingshui’s ears. She shot upright. “They’re coming!”
“Lin Hao!”
“Come out!”
Hidden in the undergrowth, Lin Hao drew a deep breath and forced a smile for the deathly pale Zhou Yaping. “Pingping, don’t be afraid. If you’re scared, bury your face against my chest. But remember, no matter what happens, you can’t make a sound. Not a single sound. Understand?”
Zhou Yaping buried her face against her uncle’s chest and answered with a firm “Mm.”
“That’s my brave Pingping.”
His eyes red, Lin Hao pulled Zhou Yaping tightly into his arms, then burst out of the undergrowth and followed Qingshui and An Xiaolin deeper into the forest.
At the same time, on another fork in the trail…
Chen Yuhui felt as though her lungs were about to explode, and the metallic taste of blood filled her throat. Her mind had gone completely blank as she ran mechanically after Ji Feifan’s retreating figure. Only one instinct remained.
Run! Don’t stop!
She glanced back without thinking, wanting to see what was happening behind them, only to find… no one there.
No Qingshui. No An Xiaolin. No Lin Hao. Not even the madmen.
A chill shot from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. They had gotten separated? When?
“Ji-” She was just about to call out to Ji Feifan when an enormous force slammed into her, knocking her sideways and sending her rolling.
The world spun around her.
“Shh!” Ji Feifan’s burning-hot hand clamped over her mouth so hard that her cheek throbbed. His body pressed tightly over hers as they tumbled together into a shallow depression beside the trail.
Over his shoulder, Chen Yuhui could see the blood-drenched madmen wandering above them, giggling as they searched.
“La la la… Where are you? Hurry and let me tear you apart… Hee hee hee…”
“Ah… Ah, come out… I’m going to cut off your hands. Cut off your legs! Aaaah!”
One of the madmen even stopped directly above their hiding place. He craned his neck and sniffed the air deeply.
The nauseating stench of blood, mingled with an inhuman aura of madness, seemed to hang directly over Chen Yuhui and Ji Feifan’s heads.
Neither of them dared move. They huddled beneath the slope, rigid with fear.
Chen Yuhui’s heart thundered in her chest, and cold sweat soaked her entire body.
What should they do? What could they possibly do?
Even in the grip of overwhelming terror, Chen Yuhui’s mind raced. Thick foliage concealed them from above. If they followed the slope, they might be able to circle around the madmen.
She took a deep breath and began inching forward. But the instant she lifted her leg, she sensed something strange.
Something beneath her… was moving?
Wait. No, that wasn’t it!
The ground wasn’t moving. She was sinking!
Terrified, Chen Yuhui slowly shifted her gaze downward. Only then did she see clearly that she and Ji Feifan weren’t lying on solid ground at all. Beneath them was nothing but a tangle of branches and vines!
They had woven together just tightly enough to resemble a layer of earth, but now that fragile disguise was visibly sagging beneath their weight.
Rustle… rustle…
Several pebbles slipped through the gaps in the false ground.
Chen Yuhui’s heart seemed to skip a beat. She snapped her gaze toward Ji Feifan, whose face was only inches from hers.
He had clearly noticed it too.
The same look of utter terror flashed through both their eyes.
They were finished!
Crack!
The sharp sound of something breaking came from directly beneath them.
The vines had snapped!
“Aaaah!”
Their stomachs lurched as the ground vanished beneath them.
The fragile layer of vegetation collapsed completely, sending Chen Yuhui and Ji Feifan plummeting straight down!