After she had her fill, Lu Xinyi didn’t feel like going to sleep anytime soon. No one dared to say something. Each of them was busy with their own thoughts. It had been a week since she last saw her husband. The regret and guilt were starting to fill her chest.
Li Yuren wasn’t aware of the sudden change in her mood. He’d been racking his brain to think of a way to escape from this group. Lu Xinyi didn’t need to a.s.sociate herself with this kind of people. Who knew if one day, she’d be used against the Shen family?
Now that he was feeling better, they should find their way back to the campsite or to Jiang City. Long Feng should have sent the rescuers by this time. If they kept hiding in this cave, no one would be able to find them.
As he considered every option available for them, his gaze landed on Lu Xinyi. She had hidden herself at one corner and hugged her knees to her chest, her eyes fixated on the blazing fire. When he stared at her a little longer, he was struck when he saw her silently crying.
She was… crying?
He hadn’t thought that she would cry at this time. As to what had made her cry, Li Yuren had no idea. Her eyes were reddened as her tears slowly roll down her cheeks. Lost in an unknown place and trapped with unknown people, it was normal for a woman like her to get worried. At this time, she should be thinking of getting home soon.
Lu Xinyi wiped away her tears and buried her head in her arms. Soon, the dawn would come; and they would need to start traveling back to the campsite.
The young boy’s breathing started to normalize. Fu Rui conversed silently with his brother but occasionally throw glances on Li Yuren’s way. The two came into a decision to leave the place, taking a secret route within the cave. While no one was able to reach the center of the Fox’s Den, some hidden routes were unraveled to the locals. This wasn’t the first time the Children of the Wolves stayed inside the cave anyway.
The cave was silent. Neither of them made a sound, but they were aware that they could not stay for too long. Lu Xinyi wished Shen Yi was looking for her at this moment. She’d been gone for days, and the only reason she was still hanging on was her desire to unite with him.
Her mind then wandered to her ex-best friend… Lu Xinyi narrowed her eyes. If Meng Jiao thought she could get away unscathed, she’d better pray that Sun Feiyan was strong enough to protect her from the little devil’s revenge.
Since she was so eager to antagonize Lu Xinyi, there was no reason for Lu Xinyi to hesitate and crush the b.i.t.c.h herself. As her eyes stared menacingly at the blazing fire, Lu Xinyi’s lips curled into a devious smile.
Hours had pa.s.sed, and the group started to move to prepare to leave. When Lu Xinyi looked out towards the cave’s entrance, she saw that the raging storm had already stopped; but the sky was still dark. She then glanced at Li Yuren who was listening to Fu Rui’s instruction. She was aware that there was animosity between the two, but as to why, she had no idea.
Li Yuren strode towards Lu Xinyi and explained what the group had decided. Lu Xinyi listened patiently and nodded. She had no idea where she was, it would be better not to give them problems if she couldn’t help at all.
—
Jin De held his breath as he waited for Shen Yi’s reaction. He was able to find clues on their Young Madam’s whereabouts and had found the rock formations miles away to where Lu Xinyi and Li Yuren fell.
Surveying the area, some footsteps weren’t washed away by the rain last night. He didn’t know how General Li knew that someone would find the tracks, but the marks left on the tree branches were certainly left by Li Yuren. If they were lucky, Lu Xinyi must have stayed at the Fox’s Den all this time as there were also traces of humans within the cave’s entrance when he checked this morning.
“Are you certain?” Shen Yi’s voice was dangerously cold that made the other elite guards around Jin De shudder. They thanked the heavens that they weren’t the ones who made a mistake this time.
“Yes, Boss Yi,” Jin De swallowed the lump on his throat and met Shen Yi’s eyes head-on.
“What made you think that they will come out from this exit?”
“Boss Yi, the terrain where Young Madam came earlier doesn’t lead to any human settlement. This humble servant wasn’t able to meet her on the same route. This was the only possible exit she and General Li will take,” Jin De explained. He could feel his cold sweat forming on his temple as he continued to wait.
After a long silence, Shen Yi decided. “Then we shall meet her half-way.”
The pain of waiting for her wasn’t something he was familiar with. He could be patient with any work and with his plans but never with his wife’s safety.
“But the cave has several pathways within, what if she took a different way?” Tian Lingyu asked. He came with his brother-in-law to find his missing sister, for he knew that Shen Yi would put extensive effort to find her. He couldn’t depend on the academy this time.
“Then let’s split the group into three.” Shen Yi said, “You better leave a mark to where you are going to make sure you wouldn’t lose your way,” he told his subordinates.
Turning to his a.s.sistant, Shen Yi accepted the tracking device Qiao He handed to him.
“I’ll leave the first group with you. Stay here and keep an eye on everyone’s location. If we encounter problems, we should be able to send you a distress signal.”
Tian Lingyu agreed to Shen Yi’s suggestion. It was better to split to increase the possibility of finding Lu Xinyi.
“If you find your Young Madam, you should also inform me and Qiao He at once. Failing to fulfill this mission means death!” Shen Yi’s warning had let everyone know the importance of this mission.
“Boss Yi doesn’t need to worry. With you here, Young Madam will definitely come back safely,” Qiao He grinned.
After everyone received their tracking and communication devices, Shen Yi led the second group consisting of ten elite guards of the Shen family. As soon as Shen Yi stepped inside the cave, his whole body shook with a force he had no idea what it was.
The overwhelming feeling crashed into him like tidal waves, but he refused to back down at that moment. His group continued to walk inside until they met two pathways ahead. Shen Yi’s group took the right pathway, knowing that Tian Lingyu’s group should be taking the left tunnel later.
Inside the cavern, darkness was an eternity. It was like an invisible force, crus.h.i.+ng one’s body and squeezing the life out of it. The lights they brought with them weren’t enough to reveal what was waiting ahead of them.
The temperature dropped as they entered into the ma.s.sive underground chamber, sending a violent chill down one’s spine. Light reached neither wall nor ceiling, confining vision to a small circle of flickering orange cast by the torch. Inky black water sloshed against a narrow strip of land that disappeared into the darkness before them, and jagged teeth of stone descended from the shadows above.
It was a cave mouth of impenetrable blackness as they stepped in and watched their shadows dissolve into the surrounding darkness. It was dank, and the only sound was the dripping water from above.
They had been walking for an hour, and yet not a single human or any creature had been seen. The cavern wormed its way half a mile into the mountain. Its general shape was ovoid. The walls below the ridge smoothly curved to the floor, and the walls above arched another hundred feet up to giant stalact.i.tes and the bat roosts. The tunnels looked the same, and Shen Yi’s guards were starting to wonder if they’d been walking in circles all this time.
However, it was different for Shen Yi. He didn’t find anything suspicious at all. If he may be bold, he would say he probably knew the cave like the back of his hand. His steps never faltered; he didn’t believe one bit that they were lost.