Heaven truly never abandons anyone!

With this patch of land warmed by underground hot springs, there was no need to worry about being unable to conceal her tracks!

Qin Yining ran up along the path in the snow for a stretch, deliberately leaving a trail of footprints in another direction, then stepped on a shrub and jumped onto this section of black soil covered with pine needles, carefully taking a few steps forward.

White steam continuously rose from the ground, and the soles of her feet even felt somewhat warm. Since there was more accumulated snow further ahead, she simply tucked her cloak into her belt and nimbly climbed up a thick, tall pine tree, choosing a spot where the branches and leaves were still relatively dense and the branch was sturdy enough to sit on.

With her movements, the tall canopy swayed slightly, causing accumulated snow to fall rustling down, but as soon as it touched the ground, it immediately melted.

Only then did Qin Yining dare to take a few silent deep breaths.

Just then, the sound of footsteps approached.

Qin Yining quickly held her breath and concentrated, her entire body stiffening like a piece of wood, not daring to move at all, treating herself as part of the great pine tree.

Two masked bandits walked to not far away, one holding a steel blade, the other carrying a wooden club as thick as a wine cup. Both looked down at the footprints on the ground, then followed the trail Qin Yining had deliberately created earlier.

Before long, perhaps because the footprints had been interrupted, the two men returned. They searched around the land covered by the hot springs for a while but found no other tracks. Moreover, their own random walking during the investigation had already disturbed the scene, leaving the clues broken for the moment.

The two men looked at each other and began cursing.

“A little woman can actually run this well!” The speaker had a northern accent, clearly a person from Great Zhou.

The other said, “The Marquis ordered us to search for and eliminate all the Qin family members. We don’t even know if the one we’re chasing is surnamed Qin!”

“Whether she is or not, since we’ve caught up to her, we can’t let her escape easily.”

“I refuse to believe she can really disappear. Keep searching—maybe she’s hiding in some tree hollow?”

The two men began searching the vicinity for tree hollows and natural mountain caves or underground holes.

As it turned out, they actually discovered traces of collapse in the snow not far away. Hidden beneath the accumulated snow was actually a large water pit, which should be the underground hot spring. The water gave off a faint foul smell, and it was unclear how deep it was—only the rising misty vapor could be seen, turning the surrounding white snow into smooth ice.

The two men dared not approach closer, fearing that the accumulated snow beneath their feet might be loose and they might accidentally fall into the water pit of unknown depth. This mountain was truly full of dangers everywhere, and being in the deep mountain wilderness, even hunters wouldn’t come here to hunt.

Therefore, the two men avoided this dangerous area and continued searching nearby.

Qin Yining was in no hurry to leave, still hiding in the tree. She waited a full hour, confirming that these two had no intention of returning, before carefully sliding down from the tree.

She dared not linger in this place and deliberately ran toward the deep, undeveloped dense forest in the mountains. She also broke off a branch with withered leaves from a shrub, running while carefully clearing the traces of her passage.

Running so carefully into the mountains, by the time the sky grew dim, Qin Yining truly couldn’t run anymore.

She leaned against a tree, gasping for breath, looking left and right. The scenery around her was all the same—the only way to distinguish direction was whether she was going “uphill” or “downhill.”

Northern nights had bone-piercing cold winds. Once she stopped moving, her body began to feel cold. Her back, dampened with sweat, made Qin Yining shiver uncontrollably when blown by the wind.

She looked around and dragged her weary body to choose a sheltered slope at the base of a large tree.

This place formed a semi-concave state, with a protruding tree root overhead serving as a “canopy,” and two large jagged rocks on either side that could block some of the cold wind. Moreover, there was no accumulated snow on the ground.

Qin Yining went to gather firewood, dry grass, and pine needles. With trembling hands, she found the fire starter from her bosom, first igniting the dry grass and pine needles, then selecting dry branches to place on top, building a small bonfire for herself behind the large rocks.

Qin Yining’s body, just recovered from serious illness, was extremely fatigued, and she couldn’t help coughing.

But she knew she could only rest briefly, because if she took no measures and just guarded a pile of fire that could burn out at any time, she would definitely freeze to death here.

Qin Yining hugged her knees, wrapping herself tightly in her cloak and warming herself by the fire for a while. When she felt her hands and feet becoming nimble again, she went to search for more firewood, pine needles, and withered grass. Then she found some shrubs and, with tremendous effort, stripped many branches from them.

Qin Yining couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

She was now even worse off than when she was eight years old going up the mountain. At least then she had some handy tools in her hands, and whatever she wanted to do wouldn’t require relying solely on her bare palms.

Fortunately, she still had experience dealing with such situations.

Qin Yining worked busily for a full hour, using the shrub branches to weave herself an arc-shaped shelter that could accommodate her sitting inside hugging her knees, with enough space for a fire of appropriate size.

She dragged the shelter to the leeward spot behind the large rocks, where the ground had been slightly warmed by the bonfire. She untied her handkerchief, took off an outer garment, wrapped snow in these two items, and warmed them over the fire.

The snow melted, soaking both the outer garment and handkerchief. Qin Yining quickly spread these over her makeshift little shelter, perfectly covering it.

Qin Yining dared not delay and immediately went to bring snow, taking advantage of the outer garment and handkerchief still being wet, and scattered a layer of snow on top.

The snow, meeting the moist fabric, immediately stuck firmly and was frozen into ice by the low temperature.

Qin Yining spent half an hour firmly covering the branch-built shelter with snow. She would scatter a layer of snow, then extract some very hot branches from the bonfire to place on top. The snow would melt into water when meeting the hot branches, and the water would freeze into ice again, gradually forming a very solid small snow shelter.

Qin Yining rubbed her hands, which had turned red from cold and were nearly numb, covered her mouth and coughed several times. Thinking that it was already late and it would be impossible to hunt in the mountains barehanded, she decided to simply go hungry for one night—it wouldn’t kill her. She put the thought aside and gathered many more dry branches and pine needles nearby, added pine needles to the bonfire outside the entrance, and also lit a pile of fire inside the shelter.

Finally, Qin Yining took off her cotton jacket and hung it vertically at the entrance—it fit perfectly.

Wrapping herself tightly in her cloak, with her cotton skirt also covering her feet, Qin Yining faced the bonfire, hugged her knees, leaned against the branches, and peacefully dozed.

Although wind would still drill through the gaps, and having a fire lit inside the shelter would produce smoke, the smoke conveniently dispersed through the gaps. Even if it was somewhat choking, it was better than sleeping in the open air for a night and freezing to death.

Qin Yining spent the night in light sleep wrapped in her cloak. As her hands and feet gradually warmed up, she felt that even enduring hunger wasn’t so difficult to bear.

The mountain nights were full of dangers, with wolf howls faintly audible in the distance.

Qin Yining dared not relax her vigilance, but she wouldn’t mistreat herself either. She had a relatively good night, and when she got up early the next morning, aside from some soreness in her bones from sleeping while sitting, everything else was fine.

Qin Yining began to analyze whether she should go down the mountain now or continue hiding in the deep mountains.