After being tormented by monkeys for half the night, the exhausted Jing Hengbo finally fell asleep after her outburst.

Though the net house wasn’t a long-term solution, because Gong Yin had chosen the location well, it provided them with many conveniences in the short term. When they wanted food, the monkeys would bring fruits. Gong Yin seemed able to command these monkeys somehow, and the fruits delivered later didn’t contain that monkey-version aphrodisiac. When they wanted water, they could prepare a fruit shell and extend an arm through a corner net hole to reach a shallow stream not far away. The most important problems were all solved.

However, Jing Hengbo still didn’t dare drink much water, because each time she had to urinate was an embarrassing ordeal. She later discovered that the urination spot Gong Yin had indicated was in another corner away from the water source, where tree roots naturally formed a downward groove. Waste would flow down naturally without any odor contaminating their area. This showed that Gong Yin had already thought of this when making the net house and made proper arrangements.

Jing Hengbo expressed that she loved his high intelligence and also hated his high intelligence.

However, she still had one worrying matter—what about bowel movements? How would that be solved?

Fortunately, with little food intake, there was no need on the first day. Most of the time she slept while Gong Yin meditated. Seeing Gong Yin’s complexion improve, she thought perhaps by the second day he could recover most of his strength and cut through this damned net.

As for rescue, she had asked him about it. Judging from the terrain and forest density, with good luck they could be rescued in seven or eight days, but with bad luck they might never encounter anyone in their lifetime. They still had to walk out themselves.

Jing Hengbo was anxious and even put aside her dignity for this. Seeing his right hand was fractured and his left hand also seemed strained, she offered to massage him to help his recovery.

Gong Yin’s response was to immediately stop meditating and quickly pull some tender twigs to bind his sleeves and such even tighter.

Jing Hengbo’s thick skin turned red and white alternately as she roared in her belly: I wasn’t planning to rape you!

Fortunately, though the ascetic Master Gong’s actions didn’t give her face, he told her he was recovering quickly and could find a way to break the net in two or three days.

In one day, both had become familiar with the monkeys. These forest monkeys were very intelligent. Jing Hengbo even taught them to count from one to five and distributed the best fruits based on finger counting. Of course, these monkeys with only four claws always lost.

During this time, neither Jing Hengbo nor Gong Yin stopped experimenting with breaking the net. They discovered that though the net rope had elasticity, it was truly sturdy—water couldn’t soften it, fire couldn’t burn it, sharp tools couldn’t cut even a fraction. Gong Yin could use internal energy to expand it to the maximum, but after reaching a certain point there was no further change. It still wouldn’t break, and the holes still couldn’t let people through.

Jing Hengbo was quite irritated by this. That evening while continuing experiments, she used too much force and snapped a fingernail with a crack.

Breaking a nail was unpleasant. Jing Hengbo held her finger wailing like a ghost, heartbroken over her long fingernails that she had carefully maintained for so long. The broken nail area seeped a bit of fresh blood. She angrily wiped it on the net rope, then turned to hold her broken nail and cry sadly.

Suddenly Gong Yin reached over to grab that section of rope stained with blood, examining it carefully before his eyes. Jing Hengbo choked back tears: “I know you feel sorry for my injury, but shouldn’t you be holding my hand and blowing on it instead…”

“This net rope has changed,” Gong Yin seemed not to hear her babbling and suddenly said.

Jing Hengbo leaned over to look for a long time. “Huh? No it hasn’t. It turned red? My blood is so bright.”

Gong Yin shifted his body to distance himself from this super narcissistic person, then pointed at the rope: “One strand broke.”

Jing Hengbo threw herself on the rope, staring until her eyes nearly went blind, but couldn’t see where one strand had broken in the finger-thick rope.

How thin was this “one strand” exactly? It couldn’t really be as thin as a hair strand, could it?

But since Gong Yin discovered one strand had broken, it must have. Though Jing Hengbo would never verbally admit Gong Yin’s authority, at crucial moments she was willing to believe.

“You mean fresh blood can make the rope break?” Her eyes lit up—finally they’d found a method!

“Mm.” Gong Yin’s next words extinguished her beautiful hopes: “One drop of your blood broke about one-tenth the thickness of a hair strand.”

Jing Hengbo calculated and found the final result terrifyingly large.

“And it might need a certain soaking time too,” Gong Yin added another blow.

Jing Hengbo gasped again, suddenly feeling all her body hair standing on end.

“You mean…” she carefully glanced at Gong Yin’s expression, “the amount of blood needed for penetration and soaking to completely break this rope would be about how much?”

It wouldn’t require one person’s entire blood volume, would it?

Gong Yin looked at her once. That look chilled her to the bone.

“Killing you should be enough.”

She knew that would be the answer!

Jing Hengbo jumped up to reach for the high heels above.

“What are you doing?” Gong Yin pulled her down.

Jing Hengbo said nothing, jumping and bouncing upward—the high heels were currently the only thing on her that could be called a “weapon.” She had to get them for self-defense!

Gong Yin would definitely kill her in the middle of the night, use her blood to soak and break the rope. She would die with eyes wide open in the net, forever trapped alone in this remote mountain forest…

“Come down!” When she jumped up again, Gong Yin grabbed her calf and yanked her down. Jing Hengbo couldn’t maintain balance and fell into his arms. One high heel fell down, hitting Jing Hengbo’s bottom, and half the net also fell, immediately binding half their bodies together.

However, neither noticed this change for the moment.

Both were somewhat dazed.

Jing Hengbo buried her head in Gong Yin’s embrace, momentarily not knowing where she was. At her nose was a faint strange fragrance—neither flower nor grass, yet pure and pleasant, with a hint of vegetation’s astringent scent mixed in, adding some strength to the cleanliness.

She couldn’t help taking a deep breath.

Gong Yin was somewhat stunned. The woman’s smooth hair was pressed against his chin, slippery and slightly ticklish. He seemed to hear thumping heartbeats, though he didn’t know whose. He only felt warmth and softness in his palm, then realized with alarm that he seemed to still be gripping her calf. He quickly let go, but as his hand moved slightly up, he suddenly touched something else. He vaguely heard Jing Hengbo say “Ah,” and like being electrocuted, he quickly withdrew his hand, feeling he had accidentally touched somewhere he shouldn’t.

In the darkness, Jing Hengbo raised her head. Her cheeks seemed slightly flushed. She already had raven-black hair like waves, eyebrows dark as ink and lips red as fire—her features were very gorgeous. Now with bright eyes gleaming like amber wine, set off by this rare pink flush, the beauty gained three parts charm, startling the heart.

Where Gong Yin’s gaze fell, he paused again—an extremely subtle pause. Then complex emotions flashed in his eyes as he supported Jing Hengbo’s arm and instinctively pushed outward.

But this push didn’t work. Half the net rope had contracted to bind them both. Just as Gong Yin was about to re-stretch the net, suddenly the tree leaves overhead roared like ocean waves. Whooshing wind sounds emerged from deep in the forest, accompanied by waves of panicked, clamoring monkey shrieks, getting closer and closer.

The monkeys on all sides seemed infected by this panic, fleeing in all directions. Jing Hengbo’s head and body were continuously stepped on by monkey paws, and broken branches kept hitting her.

“Crazy!” Jing Hengbo cursed furiously. “What are you going mad for! Stop! Stop right there! Ow, you dare step on me! Ow, bastard, you dare step on my face… Ow, so stinky!”

A fishy wind blew over with heavy musky stench. Jing Hengbo, who was cursing with an open mouth, nearly vomited.

“Shut up,” Gong Yin suddenly pressed her lips. “There’s a fierce beast!”

Jing Hengbo’s “Ah” was stuck in her throat. After being stunned for a second, she realized this terrible news. She turned to look at the dark depths of the forest, then looked down at her and Gong Yin’s current state, and her vision immediately went black.

With fierce beasts on the move, the net house destroyed, and both trapped in the net with hands and feet bound, how could they escape?

Unless they could kill with one strike, even injuring a leopard would just be suicide. But in such a posture with such restrictions, they couldn’t even swing their arms properly—how could they possibly kill a beast with one blow?

Even if the net house hadn’t been destroyed, it would be useless. A net house decorated with leaves could only fool monkeys but definitely couldn’t hide from the keen noses of tigers and leopards.

Thinking of both being bound in the net unable to move freely, with wolves, tigers and leopards clawing chunks of flesh through the net holes, tearing off large strips… Jing Hengbo felt suicide would be better.

“We must get up the tree first.” At this moment Gong Yin’s voice was actually still calm. Jing Hengbo suspected his heart was made of iron.

“Right, right, up the tree!” Jing Hengbo’s eyes lit up as she hugged the tree and started climbing. She had climbed trees as a child. Though she later refused to climb for image reasons, at this critical moment there was no need to worry about such things.

After climbing one meter, feeling the dragging force below, she looked down to see Gong Yin still hadn’t moved from his original spot. She immediately flew into a rage.

With both trapped in the net, they could make small-range movements but had to move together. Otherwise it became her dragging Gong Yin up the tree—how could she possibly climb up?

“Are you trying to die?” She kicked at the tree bark and cursed angrily. “Why aren’t you coming up quickly?”

Gong Yin looked up at her, his eyes clear and bright like black pebbles in a clear spring. Jing Hengbo heard him say indifferently: “One, two, three…”

Before the third count finished, with a “swoosh,” Jing Hengbo slid down.

She hit the ground with a bang, something hard poking her back painfully. She lay on the ground glaring at the tree above: “What’s that stuff on the tree? So slippery!”

“This type of tree secretes resin. Over time it forms a layer of hardened resin on the trunk—very slippery and hard, very difficult to climb.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Jing Hengbo rubbed her back sadly, also grateful she hadn’t landed face-first.

“Rather than waste time explaining to an idiot, it’s better to let her learn the lesson herself,” Gong Yin said. “Saves time, saves trouble, saves my energy.”

“You should conserve your energy,” Jing Hengbo said maliciously. “Otherwise I’m worried whether you can last one minute.”

“What?” Someone of supreme wisdom and high position had probably never been spoken to so excessively in decades of life, so he didn’t react immediately. But soon, Jing Hengbo’s malicious eyes and the way her gaze sneakily swept toward a certain area made him understand.

His response was to grab Jing Hengbo and pin her against the edge of the net.

“What are you doing?” The tough-talking but cowardly Miss Jing asked in panic.