Chapter 7: Succeeded, but Not Completely

“Cough, cough!”

After finally climbing into the ventilation duct, Xia Mengxi found herself struggling almost immediately due to the thick dust inside.

But the thought of the even worse consequences if she were caught pushed her onward. 

She could only cover her mouth with one hand, barely managing to breathe properly.

Could the ventilation duct lead all the way outside? Xia Mengxi didn’t know the answer. 

To avoid wasting time, she decided to crawl a fair distance before exiting through one of the vents.

That was her plan, and she stuck to it.

After nearly twenty minutes, Xia Mengxi forcefully pushed open a vent cover ahead of her. 

Peeking out first to ensure no one was around, she slowly squeezed the rest of her body out, finally freeing herself from the duct.

“Whew…!”

Though still inside the “prison,” the relatively fresher air here was a vast improvement over the stifling dust-filled duct. 

Leaning against the wall, she sat down, panting heavily as she tried to regain her strength.

Her body was filthy from the dust, and sweat had turned the grime into a sticky mess. 

The discomfort was unbearable, but Xia Mengxi couldn’t afford to dwell on it. 

By her estimation, Lin Xue’er might already be suspicious—or worse, breaking down the door.

Once her breathing steadied, she stood up without waiting to fully recover her strength. 

Relying on the sense of direction she’d memorized while crawling, she moved forward, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the restroom.

“But then again… where exactly is this place?”

This question had plagued Xia Mengxi for days. 

At first, she’d assumed Lin Xue’er had locked her in some kind of basement. 

But when she first used the restroom, she realized something was off-the scale of this place resembled an actual prison, a sizable one with complete facilities.

As she walked, her suspicion grew stronger. 

The corridors were lined with iron-barred doors on both sides. 

If she wasn’t mistaken, the room she’d been kept in was likely a solitary confinement cell for “high-risk prisoners.”

“Damn it! How the hell did Lin Xue’er even find a place like this?”

A prison of this scale, even if abandoned, shouldn’t be accessible to outsiders. 

And yet, the electricity and water were still functioning normally. It was downright bizarre…

Xia Mengxi couldn’t make sense of it, but right now, escaping took priority over solving the mystery.

Perhaps by the grace of luck, she soon spotted a sign at a fork in the corridor-one of them pointed toward an emergency exit.

Her heart leaped with joy.

“Yes! Finally… am I really going to get out of here?”

Fueled by hope, she broke into a light jog, heading toward what she believed was the path to freedom.

Her luck held. 

Following the emergency exit signs, she arrived at a heavy iron door—and, unbelievably, there was a key still inserted in the lock.

“Holy shit! Did I just use up all my luck for this lifetime? Oh my god!!!”

On her way here, Xia Mengxi had imagined countless scenarios where escape might be impossible. 

But what she never expected was that this door would come with its own key-like someone handing you a pillow just as you’re about to fall asleep. 

The sheer luck of it had her grinning from ear to ear.

“Goodbye, and good riddance, prison!”

Xia Mengxi flipped off the cold, dark passage behind her with a weak gesture, then yanked the iron door open with all her might. 

A beam of light… did not greet her.

Because beyond the iron door was a wooden cabin.

Talk about nesting dolls!

But it didn’t matter. 

The cabin’s main door wasn’t shut, so a ray of light—a ray of freedom-streamed in from the vast blue sky and white clouds she hadn’t seen in days.

“Ahhh! So good!”

Basking in the sunlight after so long felt indescribably refreshing. 

But she didn’t linger in the euphoria of her narrow escape. After all, she wasn’t truly free yet.

So she followed the only path leading away from the cabin.

The path outside the cabin was a cobblestone trail winding through dense woods. 

The clearly man-made construction seemed normal at first glance, but considering it led to a massive underground prison, its ordinariness felt downright bizarre.

“Could that underground prison be some illegal private facility?”

The thought crossed her mind, and soon, she got her answer.

She could never have imagined that the place she’d been imprisoned for days was… right beneath the school she attended!

Staring at the buildings at the end of the cobblestone path, Xia Mengxi froze in disbelief.

She briefly considered the possibility that they were just similarly styled structures, but the uniforms worn by the girls walking between the buildings forced her to accept the truth.

“My god…”

Hiding in the bushes, Xia Mengxi couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that such a facility existed beneath her school.

“Whatever, I’ll figure it out later.”

Since this was her school, she needed to clean herself up. 

Her current disheveled state would definitely draw unwanted attention.

Xia Mengxi had no intention of getting Lin Xue’er arrested. 

After all, Lin Xue’er was one of her targets, and the divine mission hadn’t specified what would happen if she failed to complete all her objectives. 

She didn’t want things between them to escalate.

As for the underground prison beneath the school, she had no plans to investigate. It wasn’t her problem, so why meddle?

Now… where should she go?

Xia Mengxi pondered, recalling the school’s layout from her brief rooftop visit days ago. 

She found a safe spot to hide until the class bell rang, then slipped into the campus.

“I remember there’s a huge pool in this direction. Hope I’m not lost.”

Covered in grime, she walked cautiously along the school paths, glancing around every few steps. 

After a nerve-wracking journey, she finally spotted her destination.

“Yes! It’s the swimming pool!”

Overjoyed, Xia Mengxi strode into the swimming complex and followed the signs to the showers.

“Hehe, time to get clean~ I love getting clean~”

Xia Mengxi walked into the private shower stall, humming a cheerful tune as she removed her soiled clothes and began washing her sticky body.

But for some reason, as she continued washing, she noticed the water temperature gradually dropping, even sending a shiver down her spine.

Just then, the door to her private shower stall suddenly swung open. 

Instinctively, she turned her head—and her face immediately twisted into an expression of sheer terror.

“Xiao Xi- How did you end up washing here~?”