Mo Li turned his head toward Zhong Lichun, then saw her leaning against the cave wall in that windbreaker. She held a glow stick in her right hand. Although the light it gave off was not very bright, it was enough to illuminate her face.
Zhong Lichun looked at Mo Li with a strange expression. Her gaze was somewhat cold, making him feel uncomfortable all over. Subconsciously, Mo Li lowered his head and stopped meeting her eyes, then nodded lightly. "Yeah. I had a nightmare."
Although Mo Li had answered Zhong Lichun's question, she did not say anything else. She simply kept staring at him. Mo Li did not dare raise his head to look at her again, but he could clearly feel her gaze.
The two of them remained silent for nearly ten minutes before Zhong Lichun finally spoke again. "What exactly happened after Glasses and I lost consciousness? Did you take off my clothes?"
"Um... Don't misunderstand. The three of us were captured by a Yeti and brought into this cave. After that..." Hearing Zhong Lichun's words, Mo Li hurriedly began explaining. He gave her a detailed account of everything that had happened after she lost consciousness.
After hearing Mo Li's explanation, Zhong Lichun fell silent again for another three or four minutes, seemingly digesting his words. Only then did she say, "Thank you for saving Glasses and me."
This time, Zhong Lichun's voice was no longer so cold. When Mo Li heard her words, his worried heart finally settled. No matter what, he had taken off Zhong Lichun's clothes. Even though the situation had been urgent, doing that to a woman was still extremely disrespectful.
"I saw those bugs too. They kept circling around us, and I was wondering why they didn't attack. It turns out they're highly sensitive to temperature. If you hadn't handled things properly, Glasses and I might already be dead," Zhong Lichun said again.
"How long have you... been awake?" Mo Li still did not dare look at Zhong Lichun, so he asked with his head lowered.
"I'm not sure. Probably a little over an hour. When I woke up, the glow sticks on the ground hadn't gone out yet. I saw that you and Glasses were both still sleeping, so I didn't move. I just sat here and waited for you to wake up." Zhong Lichun answered casually, without the slightest trace of hostility in her voice.
"This cave seems to be very deep. The Yeti probably hasn't come back since bringing us here; otherwise, we wouldn't still be here. What should we do next? Should we go back and request reinforcements? Wei Dengke is seriously injured. The three of us alone have no way to continue searching," Mo Li asked.
"Do you think we can make it down the mountain alive in our current condition? Even with heat patches stuck to our bodies, the temperature outside would be enough to freeze us to death. Since the Yeti brought us here, this is very likely its nest. Let's go in and take a look. We might even find the three missing people," Zhong Lichun replied.
"Just go in like this? The three of us don't even have a decent weapon right now!" Mo Li asked in astonishment after hearing Zhong Lichun.
"I still have my military knife. This should be enough. Carry Glasses on your back. We're going in now." Zhong Lichun had always been forceful by nature, and her earlier words clearly had not been a suggestion. She completely ignored Mo Li's question and simply pushed herself to her feet against the wall.
Judging from how stuffed the pockets of Zhong Lichun's windbreaker were, she had probably shoved quite a few things from the Backpack into her clothes. Since Zhong Lichun had already made up her mind, Mo Li said nothing more. The three of them were already in this situation anyway. How much worse could it get?
Mo Li helped the still-unconscious Wei Dengke put on his windbreaker, then quickly picked up the items scattered across the ground and stuffed them into the pockets of Wei Dengke's windbreaker. Anything that would not fit was left for Zhong Lichun to hold in her arms. Finally, Mo Li carried Wei Dengke on his back, and the three of them headed deeper into the cave under the light of a single glow stick.
The bugs covered a large area of the cave, but when Zhong Lichun and Mo Li walked past, they all moved aside on their own. Not a single bug dared approach them. Clearly, the body heat radiating from the two of them intimidated the bugs.
As they walked, Zhong Lichun shone the glow stick over the murals on the walls. Once the strange little bugs scattered, a large number of murals were revealed. However, the murals did not seem to depict any particularly coherent story. Some showed humans hunting, others showed Yetis hunting, while still others depicted wars between Yetis and humans. There were even some that showed Yetis and humans interacting.
Based on the murals alone, Zhong Lichun and Mo Li could not determine anything. They could not even guess who had left them behind. It was also impossible to tell whether humans and Yetis were enemies or allies.
They walked several hundred meters farther into the cave. It gradually became narrower, but it was still at least two meters wide and about two and a half meters high. The walls in this narrowed section were somewhat rough, and the murals had disappeared as well. Clearly, whoever had once worked on the cave had not continued the project this far.
Zhong Lichun warily raised the military knife in her hand, and her steps slowed. Seeing her actions, Mo Li grew tense as well. His breathing even became somewhat labored.
Just as Mo Li was beginning to feel nervous, a deep wolf howl suddenly came from inside the cave. Then he saw a Black Shadow charge toward them at incredible speed from the depths of the cave. When it was about two meters from Zhong Lichun, it suddenly leaped at her.
Zhong Lichun's reaction was astonishingly fast. She suddenly crouched down and dodged the Black Shadow's pounce. Immediately afterward, she thrust the knife in her hand fiercely upward.
The Black Shadow passed Zhong Lichun and landed on the ground. Zhong Lichun straightened, having thrown the equipment she had been holding in her arms onto the ground. At the same time, she raised the military knife in her right hand to chest level, spread her legs, and assumed a standard military close-combat stance.
Zhong Lichun had turned around, and the glow stick in her hand illuminated the Black Shadow's body. Mo Li saw that it was actually a Snow Mountain Wolf more than two meters long. The Snow Mountain Wolf was powerfully built, with glossy fur, and its pair of eerie green eyes gleamed with a chilling light.
However, after its attack missed, the Snow Mountain Wolf did not attack again. It simply stood there, baring its teeth and glaring at Zhong Lichun. There was a vicious wound on the side of its abdomen near its hind legs, and blood was flowing from it, staining the ground red.
There was no doubt that the wound had been inflicted by Zhong Lichun's counterattack as she dodged the Snow Mountain Wolf's attack. She had had less than a second to react, yet she had still managed to strike back in that brief moment. This woman's reactions were simply too fast!
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