“Whoa? That feel… Oh… I never imagined you were hiding such a figure. Looks like you’re the kind who looks slim in clothes,”
Xia Mengxi crossed her arms, her face flushing bright red as she looked at the girl in front of her, sizing up her figure with open curiosity.
Now she was really confused—was this a boy, or a girl?
“I’ve already touched it, so what’s the point of pretending otherwise?”
“Touch!”
Well, if you don’t touch, you miss out for nothing, and she was already at it—how could she stop now?
Besides, the other party let her touch it in the first place, so really, she was just following her own heart.
Forget it! Why should she agonize over this so much? Like Li Siqi said, after all, they’re both girls—doing a few more intimate things was totally normal!
At this thought, Xia Mengxi couldn’t help but swallow nervously, while Li Siqi, standing right in front of her, only raised her chin a little, with a look on her face that seemed to say, “Come, hurry up and touch me!”
“Then… then I’ll do it.”
“Why do you look like you’re about to face some terrible ordeal, as if it’s such a huge deal?”
But it really was a huge deal!
Whether before or after arriving in this world, this was the first time… Well, come to think of it, hers had been touched by Lin Xue’er plenty of times, especially during baths, when the other party inevitably brushed against her.
“So soft…”
“Really? I think yours feels even better than mine.”
Although she only touched briefly before pulling her hand back, that gentle, supple sensation was something Xia Mengxi couldn’t forget for a long time. She even found herself idly touching her own.
But when it’s part of your own body, how could it feel the same? So, she forced herself to focus, and hurriedly changed the subject to keep Li Siqi from bringing up anything even more shocking.
“I’m going to scout ahead!”
Seeing her fleeing in such fluster, Li Siqi chuckled on the side, and then looked at Xia Mengxi, her gaze full of warmth and nostalgia.
“Yeah, you’re just like Sis.”
Remembering the past, Li Siqi’s expression turned a little melancholic, but she quickly pulled herself together.
“I couldn’t protect my sister back then, but I will definitely protect you.”
As time passed, the two of them, in the passage choked with mud and stone, finally managed to clear out a narrow path just wide enough for people to walk.
And since there were no unsolvable problems along the way, the time spent ended up being about the same as Xia Mengxi had predicted.
“Li Siqi! There’s a crack here—there’s light shining through! The opening is just over a meter wide!”
With the tip of her crowbar wedged into the mud and stone before her, Xia Mengxi noticed a sliver of light coming through from outside. She was overjoyed and immediately shared the discovery with Li Siqi.
“Awesome! That’s great!”
Hearing this, Li Siqi immediately got up from the ground inside the passage and made her way over to Xia Mengxi.
“Come on, let’s get this open. I really don’t want to spend another night here.”
“Yeah, me too!”
The two worked together, aiming to break through that last meter or so and see the light of day again as soon as possible.
With all their strength, it wasn’t long before, after another blow with the battered iron shovel, at last, after two days and half a month of struggle, they were greeted by the pale light of the setting sun.
“We made it out!”
“Finally!”
After pushing away the dirt and sand blocking the entrance, the two of them stood at the exit, enjoying the fresh air.
Gradually adapting to the light, they looked at each other with bright smiles and high-fived to celebrate their hard-won escape over these two days.
“Such a beautiful sunset—we have to remember this.”
Looking at the sun just beginning to sink at the edge of the sky, Li Siqi wanted to take a photo to commemorate the moment. But then she remembered that her phone had died the day before, so she had to give up.
Clearing the passage was a huge relief, but now there was a new problem—they hadn’t truly escaped yet. Especially since their next step was to climb the cliff above. The terrain here was steep and dangerous, and it would be a tough, risky challenge.
“Sigh… I just want to be alive. So, Mengxi, what’s the plan next?”
“It’s already sunset. Let’s go back to the Mountain Office and rest one more night. We can start climbing tomorrow morning.”
According to Li Yijiu’s information, above the Qinmi Passage was a mountain behind the school, where it was easy to get lost. So Xia Mengxi thought for a moment, and decided not to take any rash actions, but to choose the safer path.
And since the air here by the ravine was so fresh, the two of them didn’t go back inside, but simply sat here, enjoying the breeze coming through the mountains and valley.
“It’s getting cold. I’ll go grab some food and bring it over.”
After leaving this line to her companion, Xia Mengxi took the oil lamp and squeezed back through the narrow passage, heading to the Stone Gate at the end of the Qinmi Passage.
After opening the Stone Gate, she used the Stone Staircase to return to the Mountain Office.
But just as she was picking up a few cans and two bottles of water, a sound from the direction of the office’s main door caught her ear.
“…Huh?”
Xia Mengxi frowned, a sense of foreboding rising in her heart. Wanting to convince herself it was just her imagination, she walked to the main door and pushed it open.
However, the moment she did, a loud mechanical sound came from below—the Old Elevator right outside was running.
“What the hell?! Is this place haunted?!”
Haunted? No… the power’s back.
From right below the Old Elevator came the sound of its mechanism whirring, and the indicator light on the elevator suddenly lit up brightly.
At the same time, the spiral Stone Staircase, which had been pitch black, was now illuminated by the lights on the wall.
Not only that, Xia Mengxi even heard the mechanism of the Stone Gate at the very bottom being triggered. In that moment, her face turned pale as she hurried back to the Mountain Office, grabbed the rope they had connected, and rushed up the Stone Staircase toward the passage.
“Something’s happened, something’s happened! They’re coming! She’s here!”
Back inside the Qinmi Passage, Xia Mengxi shouted at the top of her lungs to Li Siqi.
Hearing this, Li Siqi immediately rushed to her side.
“They’ve found this place.”
“Yeah! I don’t think we can hide anymore! There’s power outside, and the Stone Gate at the very bottom just got triggered!”
Xia Mengxi took a deep breath, then said to Li Siqi, “Start climbing now, and just like we planned before, use the rope to help me up!”
“Alright, no problem!”
“Go, now! I’ll cover our retreat!”
Saying this, Xia Mengxi picked up her shovel. As she retreated toward the planned escape route, she scraped down the mud and sand on either side of the passage, sealing off the way they had come.
As for Li Siqi, though her injury had gotten much better over these two days, she still couldn’t walk properly. But at this crucial moment, she couldn’t care about that anymore, and gave it everything she had, grabbing the vines and climbing upward with all her strength.