GBP Chapter 268 Buried Himself
Chapter 268 Buried Himself
The chaotic sound of footsteps pounded into Li Xiaonuan's mind, and she felt as if her heart was about to jump out of her chest.
At that moment, Li Xiaonuan felt that everything around her had stopped and become blurred.
As the footsteps grew closer, Li Xiaonuan gritted her teeth and stepped out of the shadows.
But Xiao Si pulled Li Xiaonuan aside first. In an instant, Li Xiaonuan's figure disappeared at the top of the stairs.
Just as Li Xiaonuan disappeared, several people walked past the spot where she had just been standing and went straight upstairs.
In the darkness, Li Xiaonuan held her breath, afraid to make a sound.
She knew she had been saved once again. This time, it was Xiao Si who saved her. And Xiao Si's presence here was arranged by Wei Yu.
So, she was indirectly saved by Wei Yu.
Outside, footsteps echoed up and down several times, and the shelves and walls were being knocked and banged all over.
Every time the knocking sounded around Li Xiaonuan, she felt like she could faint.
The tense atmosphere and the endless mental stimulation were simply too torturous.
Finally, the knocking stopped.
"Your Excellency, we searched the entire place, from top to bottom, and even pried open the corners of the walls, but we couldn't find anyone."
"How is that possible? They clearly entered this corner tower. Could it be that there's a passage inside this corner tower?" the woman's voice rose again.
"Search every corner and floor where someone might be hiding, and make sure to bring them back alive," the man ordered.
And so, the sounds of hammering and digging began again.
Xiao Si gently tugged at Li Xiaonuan's sleeve, then pulled her to the back.
In the darkness, Li Xiaonuan could only sense that they were descending. The steps seemed very damp, probably covered in moss, making them quite slippery.
To avoid making any noise, the two dug their hands deep into the damp mud wall and painstakingly made their way down step by step.
I don't know which step I've reached, but suddenly a dull thud sounded overhead.
Only then did Xiao Si dare to whisper, "Miss Li, I've sealed that entrance. There's no other way out; we can only wait for them to leave and then have someone else dig us out."
Upon hearing this, Li Xiaonuan's lips twitched. They were practically burying themselves alive by doing this.
"Won't we suffocate here?" Li Xiaonuan's biggest worry was the lack of air circulation.
"No, there are ventilation openings here, it won't be stuffy," Xiao Si replied.
That's good, Li Xiaonuan felt a little relieved.
"Sir, we've searched everywhere but haven't found a single secret passage. We did dig out a lot of huge rocks, but we don't know if there's a passage underneath them." After a series of clanging sounds, someone went to report.
"Did you really not find a single trace?" the man asked in a deep voice.
"Reporting to you, sir, Liu Zi is an expert at tracking. But he truly couldn't find any trace of him," someone replied.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible. Did they sprout wings and fly away? They must still be here. Keep digging, you'll find the entrance if you keep digging." The woman's voice rang out sharply, exceptionally shrill.
"Ask Liu Zi, how long will it take to chisel through such a large rock?" the man continued to command.
A moment later, someone reported: "Sir, Liu Zi said that it would take more than three days to chisel through each of these large stones. It would also be impossible to dig down from the side, because the gaps between the stones are too small to be dug through."
"Then don't bother digging. By the time we reach the secret passage, everyone will have already escaped somewhere," the man said disappointedly.
"Sir, isn't there some kind of thunderbolt? I just gave it to you. Can't you use that thunderbolt to blast the rocks apart?" the woman asked nervously.
The woman clearly understood that if Li Xiaonuan were to escape, her fate would be extremely tragic.
"Hmph, useless thing, can't even keep an eye on a person, what use are you? That thunder, do you think you can just detonate it like that? The master is waiting to take it back to study it and see if he can make it." The man sneered and ordered his men to drag the woman away.
"Pour more oil and burn this corner tower down," the man gave his final order before leading his men away.
So, Li Xiaonuan and Xiao Si endured a rather long sauna in the dark and damp underground.
“Miss Li, let’s move over there a bit. That’s where the lotus pond in the courtyard is.” After saying that, Xiao Si tugged at Li Xiao Nuan’s sleeve and moved over there.
The ground was incredibly slippery, and the two stumbled and fell, finally managing to get away from the heat source, but they were already covered in mud.
"Xiao Si, did your young master send you to find me?" Li Xiaonuan asked after the two of them were settled on the damp ground.
It's unclear what Xiao Si pulled out of his person, but after a rustling sound, a corner of the darkness was illuminated by a dim yellow light.
It was a tinderbox. So, Xiao Si had a tinderbox on him.
"Miss Li, I remember there are spare torches here. Let me try to light one and see if I can get it going." After saying that, Xiao Si took the tinderbox and continued to stumble around looking for a torch.
Li Xiaonuan sat on the damp, cool ground, reflecting on everything that had happened that day.
When Li Xiaonuan recalled the last look Su gave her, she felt terrible.
The situation was urgent, and Li Xiaonuan ran away without thinking. Su Shi was standing at the edge of the pit, looking at her pleadingly.
Looking back now, if Su had disregarded everything and climbed out to run after me, would we have exposed the entrance to the cave?
Wait a minute, was that woman with the female voice earlier, the one who told the newcomer that she had run away here, the one who was spying on me?
According to that logic, the hole should have been exposed long ago.
Did the young princess and her companions manage to escape before the thieves gave chase?
As she thought about it, Li Xiaonuan felt cold sweat pouring down her body.
"Miss Li, what are you thinking about?" Xiao Si, who had lit the torch stuck in the mud wall at some point, had already sat down about three meters away from Li Xiaonuan by the mud wall.
When asked, Li Xiaonuan snapped out of her daze and shook her head to indicate that she was fine. Afterward, she used the firelight to examine the cave.
Actually, this hole is just a very simple underground cave. It's a mud cave that was dug out directly without any embellishment.
The cave wasn't large, only about one-third of an acre in size, and it was semi-circular. Even the steps leading to the surface were mud steps.
No wonder it was so slippery just now.
However, Li Xiaonuan had no idea why it was so slippery inside.
"Xiao Si, how long are we going to stay here? Will someone really come looking for us? Will they be able to find us?" Li Xiaonuan asked.
"Don't worry, Miss Li, someone will definitely come looking for us. The place above has already been burned down. Whoever comes will surely guess that we're underground," Xiao Si replied without any concern.
Although Xiao Si appeared very relaxed, Li Xiaonuan was anything but at ease. She was worried about the Su family and wanted to know if they had been exposed to the public.
Perhaps Li Xiaonuan shouldn't have impulsively run away back then. She should have gone straight into that pit, determined to be with her family, even in the face of death.
Xiao Si seemed to have guessed what Li Xiaonuan was thinking, so he comforted her, "Miss Li, don't worry about Uncle Li and the others. That secret passage will not be exposed to anyone."
"Really?" A glimmer of hope rose in Li Xiaonuan's heart as she asked, "How did you know there was a cave here, and how did you know about the secret passage?"