Because the fourth sealed storage space, near the top floor, was the same as the two floors below—both exhibition rooms—Xia Mengxi and Li Siqi didn’t leave any particular traces there.
With their footsteps once again moving forward, the two had now arrived at the area where the secret passage was located—on the upper level, the Mountain Office.
“That’s the wall. Behind that wall is a long stone staircase, and at the end of it is the Cliffside Passage I mentioned earlier.”
Pushing open the Mountain Office’s large door, under the bright glow of the Oil Lamp, Li Siqi pointed at the back of the office desk.
Seeing this, Xia Mengxi turned to Li Siqi and asked,
“Do you know how to open the secret door?”
Li Siqi shook her head and replied a bit dismissively, “No. But I suppose it’s triggered the same way as the mechanism before the last passage.”
“All right, then you look for the mechanism. I’ll see if there’s any useful information in this office.”
While Li Siqi was feeling for the mechanism behind the wall, Xia Mengxi’s gaze swept around the office.
So she wouldn’t miss anything due to the poor light, she motioned to Li Siqi for her phone, then first walked over to what looked like an Iron Filing Cabinet—probably used for books or documents.
She said “probably” because, at a glance, the upper half of the Iron Filing Cabinet was completely empty, so Xia Mengxi couldn’t really tell what it was supposed to hold.
“Tch, not a single thing.”
The whole Iron Filing Cabinet didn’t even have a scrap of paper or a pin; only layers of thick, undisturbed dust had accumulated on it. Seeing this, Xia Mengxi set her sights on the office desk.
However, after turning the office desk completely upside down, she still came up empty. She couldn’t help but mutter, “Whoever used this office was way too thorough—took everything that wasn’t nailed down when they left.”
Is this stinginess or just habit, I wonder…
Xia Mengxi let out a sigh, glanced around the office once more, then set her gaze on a Painting hanging on the wall.
“Hm? If there isn’t even a piece of paper left, shouldn’t the Painting have been taken too?”
Curious, she walked over, reached out, and lightly touched the Painting’s frame, finding that it could be taken down.
That made things even stranger. The Painting was about 600mm by 400mm—definitely small enough to carry off if you wanted. So, could it be…
Suddenly, a thought flashed through Xia Mengxi’s mind. She put her phone down on the office cabinet beside her, gripped both sides of the Painting with her hands, and tried moving it to the left, then pushing it upward. After a moment, the frame easily slid off.
“As expected, there’s something here!”
Just as Xia Mengxi made her discovery, the sound of something moving came from Li Siqi’s direction. If nothing went wrong, Li Siqi must have also succeeded in triggering the mechanism to open the secret door.
“Mengxi, I found the switch!”
“Great, just in time! By the way, I found something too, come over and take a look.”
When Xia Mengxi removed the Painting, she immediately discovered an object behind its original spot—a Safe.
Unfortunately, the Safe was only half-closed, which meant that whatever had been inside had likely already been taken.
“This Safe is already open. There probably isn’t anything left.”
After Li Siqi walked over, she had the same impression as Xia Mengxi, but when she pulled open the Safe’s door, both of them were surprised.
“This is… a Steel Key.”
“Huh, but it’s not the key to the main gate.”
The Steel Key inside the Safe was shaped like a large wrench. So Xia Mengxi immediately knew that it couldn’t be used to open the large gate beneath the wooden screen.
“Well, even so, this Steel Key looks pretty unique. It must be useful for something.”
“Not necessarily. If it were important, whoever used this office wouldn’t have left it here. After all, it’s not even as useful as a piece of paper.”
That’s what she said, but Xia Mengxi still took the Steel Key along. Even if it turned out to be useless, it was at least a clue.
Since the office had no more useful information and the secret door had already been opened, the two of them followed the stone steps upward.
They soon arrived at the Collapse Passage Li Kaiqi had spoken of. Xia Mengxi tried clearing it with the tools they had, and while it was tough, it wasn’t impossible.
“Li Siqi, how long is this passage?”
“Hmm… About four or five hundred meters, I think.”
Four or five hundred meters…
Xia Mengxi did some quick mental math, and given their current pace and factoring in breaks and any unexpected obstacles, they could probably make it through in less than two days.
In that case, rather than hoping for some other way out, they might as well keep pushing ahead. After all, this was the path Li Kaiqi had walked herself—time to get to work!
“Okay… Let’s give it our all!”
With the two taking turns, they made steady progress. Eventually, Li Siqi was so exhausted she just sat down on the ground, not caring about her posture at all.
Resting to the side, Xia Mengxi couldn’t help but avert her gaze with a blush when she saw Li Siqi’s chest heaving up and down with her heavy breathing—but Li Kaiqi happened to notice this scene.
Li Siqi stood up, wearing a mischievous smile, walked over to her, and deliberately shifted those two full, round fruits in front of Xia Mengxi’s face.
“What’s wrong? Mengxi, are you embarrassed?”
When she realized Li Siqi was coming closer, Xia Mengxi started to panic a little. What she didn’t expect was that Li Siqi just wanted to show off her figure, so she came over to flaunt a bit.
“No need to be embarrassed, we’re both girls. But honestly, having these isn’t always a good thing. I suffer from back pain all the time because of them, and when I run, it’s even more uncomfortable. If I go any faster, it actually starts to hurt.”
Li Siqi was very serious as she shared the troubles her ample figure brought. For a moment, Xia Mengxi didn’t even know how to respond.
Even though she had become a girl, her own chest was at best only a little bigger than a bun—not enough to cause the kind of trouble Li Siqi described. Still, she did feel a bit out of place with these two extra “buns.”
“Mengxi, want to touch them?”
“Huh… ah?”
Lost in thought, Xia Mengxi didn’t catch Li Siqi’s sudden change of topic. By the time she snapped back, she was stunned.
“What’s with that surprised face? I’m just letting you touch them, it’s no big deal. Of course, I get to touch yours too.”
“It’s not really about touching or not touching…”
Li Siqi really didn’t seem to have any sense of personal space. Sure, girls could sometimes be very close, but Xia Mengxi’s mind was still that of a man!
Yet, Li Siqi didn’t give her a chance to refuse. While Xia Mengxi was still completely unguarded, she went right ahead and made the first move.
“Hey! Wait—!”