Chapter 216 - 215: A Misunderstanding
"Ah!" Lin Yue was near a pile of rocks next to a hole about half a meter wide, hidden amongst the grass, which made it quite concealed. When Lin Yue was moving rocks to hit the wolf, she accidentally slipped through the hole without noticing, slid down along with the sand and stones for a bit, and then tumbled into a pitch-dark pit, where everything was so dark she couldn’t see anything clearly, only the sound of the howling wind.
"My God, where am I?" Lin Yue wrapped her arms around herself and sat on the ground, feeling a chill as the cold breeze passed by. Despite it being a hot summer day, the temperature here was oddly low. She felt goosebumps all over her body and was shivering with cold, wondering what kind of godforsaken place she had fallen into! Shouting for help was now in vain; deep in these woods, there wasn’t a soul around. It would be ironic if, after escaping from being bitten by wild wolves, she ended up starving to death trapped in this cave.
Lin Yue sat in place for a while before she adjusted to the environment inside the hole. The light was dim, but not completely devoid of brightness; she could still faintly make out the contours of the cave. The entrance to this dark hole looked quite small, but its interior space was actually very large, and it wasn’t enclosed—if it were, wind wouldn’t be seeping in from all sides. However, due to the poor lighting, Lin Yue couldn’t see clearly. Where exactly was the wind coming in from?
Lin Yue thought about it—a sitting duck dies easily, and since there was wind, there had to be another exit. She had to search for it; otherwise, her only hope of rescue would be Zhao Erhu’s notice of her absence and his search for her.
Actually, Lin Yue felt there was a good chance Zhao Erhu would come looking for her. She had marked the path earlier, but then she ran for her life from the wolves, with no regard for where she was heading. If she was clueless about her location, how could Erhu find her? Whether he could locate this place at all was questionable.
Therefore, the best course of action was self-rescue. She needed to find a way out of this cavern. Without further ado, Lin Yue picked up a thick branch from the ground, grasping it in one hand while holding a rock in the other, and walked into the cave. Large wild animals were unlikely to inhabit such a dark and damp environment, but it could be home to snakes and insects, and if she encountered them, she could use her makeshift weapons for self-defense.
If just moments before Lin Yue had only guessed the enormity of the cave by its outline, now, having walked a while, she truly sensed the vastness of its inner space. However, as she went deeper, the terrain became more rugged. A careless step could lead to tripping over the scattered rocks, so she proceeded even more carefully. After a while, Lin Yue turned a corner and thought she heard the sound of running water. Excited, she almost dropped the stone in her hand.
It was the Secret River, the exact one she wanted to find, which she discovered purely by accident. It seemed that fate was indeed playing its part.
This river originally led in the direction of their village. If she could find the exit along this waterway, she might end up very close to her village, or perhaps pass by it. But the distance was long and the conditions inside unpredictable. She could encounter anything, and without any preparation, Lin Yue didn’t dare to take the risk. At the very least, she decided to wait for Zhao Erhu to arrive.