Yi Wansan was in a daze, seemingly unable to wake up anytime soon. Cao Yanhua walked toward the cave entrance: the wild man hadn’t tied them up, so wasn’t he afraid they would escape?

He harbored a faint hope: it had been a while with no movement outside, perhaps the wild man wasn’t there, and he and San-san Brother could seize the opportunity to flee.

Cautiously, step by step, he inched his way to the cave entrance.

Strange, why did it seem like there was no ground outside?

Poking his head out, the mountain wind whistled. Cao Yanhua felt dizzy and quickly pulled his head back in.

Only one thought crossed his mind: it’s over.

This wasn’t a cave on level ground; it was more like an opening in a sheer cliff, with an almost eighty-degree vertical drop. Unless he grew wings, or could scale walls like Mu Dai, or had a rope several dozen meters long to lower himself down…

It’s over, it’s over, it’s over! No wonder he had dreamed of such a joyous event as Phoenix Tower’s opening—it was the final flash before death. In the words of his middle school language teacher, it formed a stark contrast to the miserable, hopeless life that awaited him.

From behind came Yi Wansan’s voice: “Fatty Cao, where are we?”

San-san Brother had finally awakened, but Cao Yanhua had no energy to greet him: “See for yourself.”

In contrast to Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan’s dejection, Luo Ren received an unexpected blessing—he quickly found Mu Dai.

It didn’t even take much effort. He and Yan Hongsha returned to search the scene, retracing their steps. After walking a short distance, a soaking wet Mu Dai climbed up from the slope below.

She seemed dazed, perhaps from the fall, adorably confused. After climbing up, she looked around blankly, not even noticing Luo Ren and Yan Hongsha at first.

Luo Ren smiled, feeling more than half his worries ease.

He said: “Hey, you, I’m talking to you, come here!”

Mu Dai was startled, turning to see him. Overjoyed, she ran over quickly. Luo Ren wanted to go meet her, but suddenly felt weak. When she reached him, he finally extended his arms to embrace her.

She was drenched from head to toe—she must have hidden in water, a clever strategy.

He asked: “Were you stung?”

Her face seemed fine. He brushed aside her wet hair to check her neck, gently caressing it. Even his arms had been stung several times, yet she was completely unharmed—truly lucky.

Luo Ren pinched her face lightly, settling accounts: “Is this how you behave as someone’s girlfriend? When the wasps came, you ran faster than Nezha, disappearing in the blink of an eye.”

The panic of that moment was embarrassing to recall. Mu Dai lowered her head without speaking. Luo Ren was just teasing her, but seeing her reaction, he worried she might take it to heart. As he was about to say something, Mu Dai suddenly remembered something and quickly looked behind him: “Why is only Hongsha here? Where are Fatty Cao and Yi Wansan? And Hongsha’s grandfather…”

Luo Ren said, “Let’s search along the way. Finding you is already a good omen.”

Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan sat side by side at the cave entrance, both wearing equally blank expressions.

They exchanged information about what had happened during the chaos. Yi Wansan said that initially he was running with the little boss lady, but later he tripped and fell. When he got up, Mu Dai was nowhere to be seen. With wasps in hot pursuit, he ran blindly in a random direction. As he ran, the wild man grabbed him. He struggled desperately but was thrown hard against a rock and knocked unconscious.

When he woke up, he was here.

Cao Yanhua didn’t even remember being knocked out—could he have fainted from fear? He decided to keep this secret forever.

The sky was growing dark.

Cao Yanhua said, “San-san Brother, let’s call out. Maybe Little Master Sister and Brother Luo are nearby and will hear us and come to our rescue.”

Yi Wansan replied: “You should at least see them before shouting. What if they’re already in trouble? If you can’t summon them but attract the wild man instead, and he gets upset, he might grab us one in each hand and throw us down…”

Cao Yanhua shuddered and moved deeper into the cave.

After a while, he suggested again.

“San-san, Brother, this wild man seems intelligent and must be reasonable. When he comes, let’s tell him we’re not with Old Yan. We’re also angry about what Old Yan did. The guilty should be punished accordingly—he should go find Old Yan and not harm innocent people like us.”

Yi Wansan gave him a sidelong glance: “Do you think you can reason with this wild man? Have you forgotten the story that Zha Ma told?”

Cao Yanhua fell silent. Indeed, if we’re talking about innocence, the old man who died at the wild man’s hands was more innocent than they were. They had eaten and lived with Old Yan; even they wouldn’t believe they weren’t together.

At his wits’ end, Cao Yanhua said: “San-san Brother, we can’t just wait for death. We need a plan! Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Let’s think about what special skills we have!”

“Brother Cao, you’re always so optimistic, refusing to give up until the very end. Me? I can mix drinks and draw. What about you?”

“I can pick locks.”

So-called special skills are useless without the opportunity to use them.

The mountain wind whistled, creating an eerie calm concealing turbulent undercurrents.

Cao Yanhua’s attention was suddenly drawn to a rapidly moving brownish figure below the mountain.

“San-san Brother, that’s…”

Yi Wansan’s face also paled. The two exchanged a glance and ran into the cave like their lives depended on it, retreating to the inner chamber, at a complete loss.

The mountain seemed to tremble slightly—the wild man was climbing up. Small stones slid down the mountain wall. Rustle, rustle, rustle.

Cao Yanhua’s mind went blank. All thoughts of calling for help, reasoning with the wild man, or staying optimistic vanished in an instant. He could only ask Yi Wansan.

San-san, Brother, what do we do? What do we do?

In this critical moment, Yi Wansan’s hidden potential exploded.

Watching him lie on the ground, closing his eyes, he said: “Don’t ask me, I’m still unconscious.”

Damn it!

Cao Yanhua, pushed to the edge: You think you’re clever? I can do that too!

With a thud, he also fell to the ground, arms circling his head, face down, silently chanting: I’m still unconscious too.

Footsteps. The wild man had entered.

The air around them seemed to stop flowing. The wild man’s footsteps weren’t heavy, but each step felt like it was flattening his heart.

The footsteps stopped beside him. The wild man used his hand to poke Cao Yanhua’s head, then prodded his face.

Was it because his face was plump and felt good to poke? Cao Yanhua’s heart was racing with tension. A voice screamed in his mind: Don’t pick me, go find San-san Brother! San-san Brother is handsome!

In critical moments, better sacrifice a friend than oneself. Just let San-san Brother be the sacrifice.

After a while, the wild man walked away. Then, a smell of smoke reached his nostrils, and a flickering fire lit up the cave.

Cao Yanhua vaguely remembered seeing ashes when they first entered the cave.

He slightly turned his face, opening his eyes to a slit. He saw the wild man sitting cross-legged on the ground with his back to them. The flames in front of him rose high, casting the wild man’s silhouette on the stone wall behind—a giant, oppressive shadow that seemed capable of crushing them if it fell from the wall.

On the stone wall…

Yi Wansan had also opened his eyes and noticed Cao Yanhua frantically signaling with his eyes, seemingly trying to indicate something.

Puzzled, he looked at the stone wall. In the flickering firelight, his heart skipped a beat.

There were drawings on the wall made with small stones.

The drawings were crude, like children’s simple sketches or primitive cave paintings. If not for Old Yan’s story providing context, he might not have easily understood.

There was no particular order to the images, scattered up and down, somewhat chaotic.

Yi Wansan slowly pieced together the timeline.

First, a woman carrying a basket, walking along a path with trees beside her—a vertical line representing a trunk, with forks at the top likely representing branches and leaves.

Then, the woman was lying on the ground, with a figure standing beside her holding a stone.

This must be Old Yan.

Next, a well. Old Yan grasped the woman’s hair, his right hand holding a knife, slashing across her throat.

But in the next image, Old Yan didn’t push the woman into the well.

He used a rope to tie the woman’s feet, lowering her head-first slowly.

In the final image, perhaps the wild man didn’t know how to draw it properly—it looked like a cross-section of the well. The top was sealed, and the woman hung her head down in the middle of the well, not touching the ground, like the pendulum of a hanging clock.

Yi Wansan turned his head away, his heart congested with emotion.

He didn’t know what had happened to Old Yan, but if he was dead, so be it. Better that he was dead.

Luo Ren led Mu Dai and Yan Hongsha back to their shelter in the mountain hollow.

Mercifully, they hadn’t encountered any corpses along the way.

Ironically, the three strongest fighters in the group were together, while those missing were the less capable ones.

Luo Ren felt some regret, thinking he shouldn’t have brought Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan along, but he didn’t say it aloud. At a time like this, he didn’t want to dampen everyone’s spirits.

Not finding corpses meant there was still hope. Perhaps the two men would suddenly appear, just as Mu Dai had.

Darkness fell, and they had to stay in the stone hut for another night. Luo Ren lit the stove, moved the bed boards to the kitchen, let Mu Dai and Yan Hongsha rest, and kept watch himself.

The stove fire burned all night, providing light and warmth, and peace of mind.

In the middle of the night, Mu Dai got up and urged him to sleep: “You traveled through the night before, kept watch last night, and haven’t slept for several days. You need to rest. I’ll keep watch for the second half of the night.”

Luo Ren refused, but Mu Dai leaned close to his ear and whispered, “You need to rest well. Red Sand and I are counting on you to lead us out.”

Luo Ren stopped arguing and lay down on the bed board. Every cell in his body seemed to sigh with relief. His eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. These past few days had truly exhausted him, kept going only by willpower. Once he relaxed, his body surrendered first.

Luo Ren held Mu Dai’s hand and said: “If anything happens, just…”

How tired was he? He fell asleep before finishing his sentence.

The room was very quiet, with only the fire burning. Occasionally, there would be a cracking sound as the wood split from the heat. When the fire died down, Mu Dai would quietly add more wood, placing each piece gently so as not to disturb the sleepers.

When not tending the fire, she sat beside Luo Ren, resting her chin on her hand, watching him.

People in love could probably watch each other for a lifetime without tiring, finding beauty from every angle. All other beautiful people became like smoke in her eyes, easily dispersed with a wave.

She wondered if Luo Ren watched her like this when she was asleep.

Luo Ren slept deeply, without dreams. It felt as if he had merely closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, it was already daylight.

Mu Dai looked down at him and said, “You’re awake?”

Luo Ren smiled, turning his head to see that Yan Hongsha wasn’t in the room.

Mu Dai gestured outside: “She’s out there. She didn’t sleep well all night, tossing and turning.”

Luo Ren said nothing. While he had no sympathy for Old Yan, he felt sorry for Yan Hongsha. First Yan Jiuxiao, now quite possibly Old Yan—she was just a young girl, suffering such blows one after another.

Luo Ren said, “You’re both girls. You should comfort her when you have the chance.”

Mu Dai went out to find Yan Hongsha. She had just discussed with Luo Ren that if they rationed their dry food, it could last another day or two. For now, they wouldn’t leave the mountains; their most important task was to find the others.

Yan Hongsha said, “Just finding Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan is enough.”

Mu Dai was taken aback.

Yan Hongsha sighed: “I feel my grandfather won’t be leaving these mountains.”

Her expression was so calm that Mu Dai grew concerned: “Hongsha, are you alright?”

Yan Hongsha stared blankly: “Last night, I thought about what would happen if my grandfather died. I thought about it all night, but strangely, I found I wasn’t that upset. Perhaps even I feel he got what he deserved.”

She said, “Taking a life must be paid for with a life. Whether it’s ten years or twenty years later, retribution always comes.”

Mu Dai didn’t know how to console her.

Footsteps sounded behind them. Luo Ren had come out.

Yan Hongsha turned to look at Luo Ren: “Where should we search today?”

This was a difficult question. The forest was vast, with countless hiding places. To search everywhere would require hundreds more people.

Luo Ren pondered briefly: “Let’s check the treasure well first.”

Finding the way to the treasure well was challenging for both Mu Dai and Yan Hongsha, as Old Yan had led the way that day.

Fortunately, this part of the forest was remote, probably untraveled for days. Some traces from their previous visit remained, and combined with the two women’s vague recollections, they stumbled along, finding their way up.

Mu Dai worried about Cao Yanhua and Yi Wansan, recalling yesterday and feeling embarrassed about her behavior. She sighed: “There were so many of us, yet we were scattered by wasps.”

Luo Ren said: “Don’t underestimate wasps… Never mind that we were a ragtag group. In the past, many of my tough brothers suffered greatly from these little creatures, some crying for their mothers.”

Yan Hongsha was curious: “Were they also stung by wasps?”

“No, black ants.”

Mu Dai assumed: “Are ants really that scary? Not as bad as wasps, surely. At least they can’t fly.”

Luo Ren said, “What if there are many? Covering the sky and earth, densely packed, advancing with a rustling sound, gnawing at everything. Sometimes they’d crawl over a tree, and in an instant, the bark would be gone. If they happened upon an animal, soon only a skeleton would remain…”

Yan Hongsha shuddered: “How did you escape?”

Luo Ren said, “We ran for our lives. Men who normally acted heroic, who wouldn’t even blink at a knife, were crying for their mothers, running faster than anyone. At that time, Qingmu turned back and fired his gun, rattling off a burst…”

He suddenly stopped speaking.

Mu Dai was engrossed: “Then what?”

Luo Ren knelt, and following his gaze, Mu Dai’s heart sank.

Blood. Blood on the fallen branches and leaves. Since it hadn’t rained from last night until now, the bloodstains remained undiluted.

Following the direction of the bloodstains, there was a continuous trickle, like a line of blood, and at the end…

Was the treasure well that Yan Hongsha had dug open that day?

Yan Hongsha stood frozen for a moment, her temples throbbing. With a scream, she rushed toward it. Mu Dai, quick to react, grabbed her. Luo Ren commanded sternly: “Don’t let her go near.”

He strode toward the treasure well.

The fire had died out, and day had broken.

Cao Yanhua could barely lie on the ground any longer. He opened his eyes and quietly called to Yi Wansan.

“San-san Brother?”

Yi Wansan also opened his eyes.

Cao Yanhua mouthed: “Still sleeping?”

Yi Wansan answered with determined eyes: “Still sleeping!”