Chapter 282: Little Genius Pet1
The second door was extremely dangerous, as well?
Hearing Han Yunxi’s warning, Aunt Ru couldn’t help but ask in earnest, “What kind of danger? How did you get out unscathed?”
Han Yunxi could tell that Aunt Ru was suspicious. She a.s.sumed that Long Feiye would question her as well, but he simply remained silent without adding any fuel to the fire. This fellow isn’t like this usually! He’s always full of questions!
But she had no time to overthink things, nor was she planning to explain anything to Aunt Ru. Instead she jokingly teased, “Why do I have to tell you?”
“You really don’t know martial arts?” Aunt Ru asked again.
Han Yunxi wasn’t a fool and knew that Aunt Ru didn’t look upon her kindly. They’d only cooperated when facing with a common enemy, but it didn’t meant they’d buried the hatchet between them. Just a few hours ago, she’d nearly lost her life to Aunt Ru’s a.s.sa.s.sination weapons. While she wasn’t someone who harbored grudges, she was one who valued her own life.
“Whether or not I do has nothing to do with you, right?” Han Yunxi expressed her views plainly.
But Aunt Ru suddenly grabbed Han Yunxi’s wrist. At the same time, Long Feiye pressed on Aunt Ru’s hand and said coldly, “She doesn’t know any. Don’t waste time, let’s find the right way instead.”
However, Aunt Ru had already touched Han Yunxi’s pulse point. She could tell by the pulse that it had a good foundation for practicing martial arts, yet Long Feiye moved her hand aside before she could feel any further.
“Enough!” he said. His eyes were piercing, and there was rage hidden in his tone. Even though he didn’t express his fury, Aunt Ru could clearly hear it in his voice. She was both angry and sad, never expecting that Feiye would treat her so sternly. This won’t do. She would have to thoroughly interrogate Tang Li again. No matter how formidable or useful this Han Yunxi was, any sources of trouble had to be eliminated early on!
Hiding her disappointment, Aunt Ru pretended that nothing had happened before asking, “There are only two doors left. Which one should we take?”
The first door contained fire, the second black b.u.t.terflies. Heaven knows what Chu Qingge had met with in the third one, but judging from her injuries, it was no less dangerous than the first two doors. Now only the fourth and fifth doors were left.
“No, there are still five doors left,” Han Yunxi rejected immediately. “The secret tunnels stretch very far. It isn’t enough to get to the end just in an hour. Moreover, no one can be sure that the dangerous path isn’t the right one.”
Han Yunxi’s thinking was still careful and meticulous. Leaving aside whether Duanmu Baiye’s group was seeking the same thing as them, there were one of two possibilities with these five doors. One was that four doors contained dangers while one was the safe and proper one–the a.s.sumption that Duanmu Baiye and the rest had made when mistakenly choosing to rush into door number two. The other possibility was that all five doors were dangerous, but one of them was still the correct path.
Long Feiye understood her reasoning and added mildly, “Let’s test out the fourth and fifth doors first before choosing.”
Han Yunxi was very much in agreement, while Aunt Ru was too lost in her own thoughts to say anything else. But just as they were about to enter the fourth door, Han Yunxi suddenly felt something scratching her from inside her sleeve. Who else could it be but Lil Thing? This fellow had secret ways that even she couldn’t sense of slipping out of her medical pouch. Why was it scratching her now? It wasn’t like she could reply to it. What if Long Feiye and Aunt Ru noticed? The consequences would be unimaginable. Heaven knows whether acquiring the poison beast was one of Long Feiye’s goals?
She allowed Lil Thing to scratch as she continued walking with Long Feiye, but the closer she drew to the fourth door, the more furiously Lil Thing scratched. Finally, it even lightly bit her fingers, though it didn’t really sink in its teeth. At last, Han Yunxi realized that there was a problem with this door! Lil Thing seemed to be preventing her from moving forward. Could it be that there were dangers inside?
No, the dangers inside were nothing compared to Lil Thing. Then what was it trying to tell her?
She immediately stopped, and Lil Thing released her fingers at the same time. As expected, it was trying to prevent her from entering the door. Although the threats inside were nothing for Lil Thing, it’d still tried to stop her. Then the only possibility was that Lil Thing wanted to lead her to the right path!
Han Yunxi realized that it really took some brainpower to communicate with Lil Thing. However, they’d only met each other for a few days. She was sure that they’d understand each other tacitly with more time.
“Let’s try the fifth door first!” she said seriously.
“Why?” Long Feiye asked, not understanding. If it wasn’t for Aunt Ru, he would’ve started asking her questions long ago. Even since Han Yunxi had been rescued after being kidnapped, he’d been filled with all sorts of questions, but she’d left right after their argument in the medical academy, so he didn’t have the chance to ask.
His biggest question of all was how she’d managed to save Long Tianmo!
“Because the acrid odor is strongest in that tunnel!” Han Yunxi answered without thinking. They’d followed that scent all the way down here, so only this answer had the most merit. She only hoped that Lil Thing wouldn’t cause her to stumble.
“You smelled it?” Aunt Ru asked immediately. Anyone who studied poisons had a good nose. As far as she could judge, the concentration of scents were evenly distributed between all five tunnels.
“You can test it if you don’t believe me,” Han Yunxi said, effectively silencing Aunt Ru once again. Aunt Ru was unsatisfied, but she knew her poison skills weren’t comparable to Han Yunxi. All she could do was endure while waiting to see. Long Feiye didn’t harbor any doubts at all and started taking large strides towards door number five.
Han Yunxi held him back. “Slow down, let me take a closer look before we choose.”
Instead of allowing Long Feiye and Aunt Ru to test the tunnels one by one, she might as well do it herself. It was a rather smart solution on her part, because it eliminated the need to explain why she had picked one over the others. Long Feiye nodded, while Han Yunxi felt Lil Thing inside her sleeve as she headed towards the fifth door. Immediately, Lil Thing scratched her again. She stopped, only to see Long Feiye and Aunt Ru looking her way. Without much explanation, she turned and headed towards door number three instead, but Lil Thing just scratched her again.
The third door won’t do, either!
Now there were only the first and second doors left. Han Yunxi gazed at the second door before her mouth twitched. It couldn’t be that this little animal just wanted to eat some b.u.t.terflies?
On the side, Long Feiye and Aunt Ru watched Han Yunxi as she walked from door to door. It really looked as if she was carefully examining them all. Han Yunxi crossed both hands in front of her chest. It looked like a casual motion, but she had long pinched Lil Thing’s ears in between her fingers. This was a warning to it. If it dared to trick her again, it’d have to take responsibility!
Like so, Han Yunxi pinched Lil Thing’s ears as she walked step by step towards the second door. Her attention was completely on Lil Thing’s body, waiting for it to give her a reaction. But even when she was about to step inside the door, Lil Thing still didn’t move.
So it looked like trying to understand Lil Thing was just her one-sided wish.
Did Lil Thing really just want to eat the black b.u.t.terflies?
Han Yunxi would rather take out Lil Thing and toss it away. She couldn’t resist stealing a peek at Long Feiye, only to see him looking at her. It wouldn’t be easy to patch up any lies in front of this man!
What should she do?
“Is it the second door? Didn’t you go in just then? Couldn’t you smell anything?” Aunt Ru asked immediately.
She who rode a tiger found it difficult to dismount. Han Yunxi was still at a loss for what to do when Lil Thing suddenly scratched her again. Han Yunxi gave a start, not daring to believe it. Lil Thing was huddled up in her sleeves, its mouth wriggling constantly. Actually, it’d been conflicted for quite a while! It really had smelled a scent like the Perplexing b.u.t.terfly Illusion, but it was truly conflicted as well! The three people who just ran in were full of human scents. They’d definitely lure out even more swarms of black b.u.t.terflies to suck their blood. It didn’t want to miss those b.u.t.terflies at all!
But in the end, it still chose to be an utterly loyal guardian beast!
Seeing that its master still hadn’t budged, Lil Thing used more strength to scratch her again. Finally, Han Yunxi recovered her senses and headed towards the first door. Lil Thing didn’t scratch her anymore and instead, used its little head to nuzzle against the back of her hand.
So Lil Thing wanted her to take the first door!
Han Yunxi stood there for so long that Long Feiye and Aunt Ru had walked over as well.
“This one?” Long Feiye was a little uncertain.
“There’s fire in this one. The three of them were burnt clear out of here,” Aunt Ru added seriously. Heaven knows where and what kind of fire had chased out Duanmu Baiye and the rest. Even Han Yunxi herself wasn’t certain, much less Long Feiye and Aunt Ru. But this was the path that Lil Thing had pointed out, so she chose to trust it.
Lil Thing might play tricks on her, but it would never ruin her.
“This is the one. Let’s go,” Han Yunxi was very resolute.
Without another word, Long Feiye took her by her hand again. Once more, Han Yunxi tried to struggle free, but the results were as the same as before: failure. She was someone who handled matters decisively and efficiently, who hated unclear, lukewarm relations.h.i.+ps, and who especially loathed his lack of explanations. But faced with his domineering personality, she somehow always ended up making exceptions, backing off, and losing. She allowed him to hold her hand and entwine their fingers together, her eyes drooping as she told herself to ignore him.
After entering the first tunnel, they walked for quite a while without running into a thing. Han Yunxi adjusted her feelings and carefully monitored the changes in the air. But aside from the weakening scent of Violet Miasma, nothing unusual had occurred with the acrid odor. Neither did any other poison gases appear. The blazing fires they were worried about never showed up either.
As they walked, their journey lengthened into two days. Fortunately, they’d prepared provisions ahead of time, so their group had rations on hand. Otherwise, they’d be starving by now. On the night of the second day, they saw the end of the tunnel. But everything around them was dark. Some of the luminous-night pearls had been destroyed from the obvious remnants of a fire, while a wooden wall at the end of the tunnel had been burnt through with a hole large enough to fit two people. Long Feiye carefully inspected the wood and discovered that it was half a meter thick. It’d be impossible to cut through this wood with manpower alone, so the fire must have burned through it for multiple days.
Han Yunxi looked around them as well before saying, “It looks like Duanmu Baiye’s group helped us with the groundwork!”
As things stood, a switch must have set off the fire, which burned for days, eating through the wood. But since it was a one-use switch, it wouldn’t go off a second time. They were fairly safe! If Duanmu Baiye and the rest knew of this, would they die from anger? Right now, they were probably still trapped in the second tunnel! Thinking this, Han Yunxi grew amused. “Let’s go inside and take a look!”
When Long Feiye saw Han Yunxi so happy, the cold corners of his lips unconsciously drew upwards.
What would they discover beyond the wooden door?
1. Little Genius Pet (天才小宠物) – tiancai xiaochongwu, the original Chinese chapter t.i.tle is actually a play on words for the Chinese t.i.tle of Poison Genius Consort, which is written as 天才小毒妃 tiancai xiaodufei.