Qin Fei felt like he might be having a run of bad luck lately.

Why was fate so fickle?

Thirty meters wasn’t really that far — just a bit ahead of the group.

But thirty meters wasn’t exactly close either. You could hear someone if they spoke loudly, but anything quieter was completely inaudible.

How was he supposed to make conversation like that?

Being alone was so lonely.

Ji Mingyu occasionally glanced up at the solitary figure walking ahead, and occasionally, he couldn’t help but glance at Zhen Jiu’er as well.

She walked a dozen or so steps ahead of Ninth Master’s wheelchair.

As for Ninth Master, after “chasing off” Qin Fei, he’d opened his laptop again and gone back to work.

The signal really wasn’t good; webpages barely loaded, and even checking email was difficult.

Ji Mingyu glanced over discreetly before speaking. “Ninth Master, should we turn on the signal booster?”

“Not yet.” Lu Beicheng’s long, slender fingers kept dancing across the keyboard.

Zhen Jiu’er couldn’t help but glance back.

The wheelchair’s “legs” had extended again — being mechanical, they could simply push straight through the occasional patches of thorny brush around them.

So it moved along steadily, without disrupting Ninth Master’s work at all.

By contrast, the rest of them, with the path so narrow and rugged, and thorny plants scattered along the way, had to be careful — one misstep and they’d get scratched by the thorns…

“If you don’t want to ruin your looks, better pay attention,” Lu Beicheng suddenly said flatly.

Before Jiu’er could react, Ji Mingyu behind her was already calling out urgently, “Miss Jiu’er, watch the path! Danger!”

Zhen Jiu’er snapped her gaze back at once, and even startled herself.

A thorny branch had sprung out of nowhere, nearly striking her right in the face!

If she’d taken a few more steps forward, it really would have scratched her!

That was close!

Still… after passing the branch, Zhen Jiu’er couldn’t resist glancing back at Lu Beicheng.

He looked as though he were focused entirely on his work, his long fingers barely pausing on the keyboard.

She hadn’t expected him to be paying more attention to the path ahead than she was…

“Ninth Master!”

Up front, Qin Fei came hurrying back. “Ninth Master, we found footprints up ahead!”

Lu Beicheng’s fingers paused briefly, and he closed the laptop.

The group hurried forward together.

Zhen Jiu’er and Qin Fei crouched down first to examine the footprints.

“Could these be footprints left by the archaeological team?” But the archaeological team had already passed through days ago — surely footprints from days back would be long gone by now?

Besides, the area was overgrown with weeds; the footprints weren’t even very clear.

Grass kept growing, and with the wind blowing through, footprints from days ago would be very hard to preserve.

Ji Mingyu glanced at Ninth Master before walking over. “Fresh footprints?”

Qin Fei nodded. “Looks like it — within the last day…”

“Left this morning.”

“How can you be so sure?” Ji Mingyu looked at Zhen Jiu’er, somewhat surprised. “You can actually read this?”

Even an outdoor survival expert would need real skill to tell that, let alone Qin Fei, who was equally astonished.

He himself could only be sure it was within the last day.

“I… picked up a bit of know-how.” Zhen Jiu’er stood up and turned to look at Lu Beicheng.

“Ninth Master, there was dew in the forest last night. If someone had walked through at night, the dust on top would have smeared.”

“Right now, the footprints on the leaves are very light, with no sign of smearing at all. By my estimate, this was left within the past hour.”

“An hour?” Qin Fei examined it carefully, and sure enough, it matched exactly what Jiu’er had said.

He was at once astonished and impressed.

She was just an intern doctor — did she really know a little too much?