Chapter 39: Chapter 40 - 40 Crying is Useless Even in the Face of Death!

Upon hearing these words, the crowd, which had been determined to tear the heavens, suddenly shrank into a bunch of cowering shoots.

“What do we do now?”

“Are we just going to wait for death?”

“…”

Guan Yidao’s half-hidden face was shrouded in darkness, his tone unfriendly.

“Miss Qi Yue speaks so, does she have any idea?”

Qi Yue didn’t care, her voice still indifferent.

“No.”

When the crowd heard that Qi Yue had no solution either, they collapsed to the ground once more.

Guan Yidao said nothing, but knitted his brows.

His brows were naturally arched high, and the thick black hairs joined together, making him look particularly fierce.

But Qi Yue was unfazed.

She understood their desire to live, but reality had to permit it first.

“Yueyue, is there really no way out?”

Shen Yu approached her, holding the Luminous Pearl, tears glistening in her eyes.

Qi Yue had wanted to say no, but something thick lingered in her throat.

She hesitated, “I’ll try and see.”

“Good, mother knew it, Yueyue will surely find a way.”

Qi Yue did not speak again, and took the Luminous Pearl to carefully examine the stone walls.

When they had entered to take shelter from the rain, she had been wary of Qian Faliang and had paid attention to this cave.

At that time, she felt that the cave did not appear to be naturally formed, but showed many traces of human excavation.

In her previous life, she had read various miscellaneous novels and had always been amazed by the secret mechanisms and passages described in them.

Now, she pinned her hopes on this cave having a stone door or hidden passage leading to another exit.

The cave wasn’t large, and Qi Yue tapped and felt along the stone walls for a whole Shichen.

But there was nothing!

Absolutely nothing!

No button that could be pressed or turned, no signs with clear indications—there was nothing at all!

With her only sliver of hope dashed, Qi Yue sat down on the ground, utterly resigned.

Who cares, she thought, she had her space. At worst, she could hide in her space until she died of old age!

Seeing Qi Yue’s demeanor, everyone else became even more dispirited.

Some even started to cry.

Gradually, more and more people began to weep.

Zhang Qifeng and Zhang Qiyun began to cry as well.

The cries of newborns are very loud and unrestrained, which made those secretly wiping tears cry even louder.

Already irritated, Qi Yue became even more agitated; she stood up and shouted loudly.

“Shut up, all of you. Crying is useless if we’re going to die!”

Knowing her ferocity, the people immediately fell silent.

But Zhang Qifeng and Zhang Qiyun, two kittens of children, kept wailing.

“Wah wah… wah…”

Cong Zhonglan and Zhang Zhao held one each, trying their best to soothe them, but both children cried even louder.

Qi Yue walked over, snatched the children from their arms, and holding one in each hand, began to rock them back and forth as she walked.

Strange to say.

Once in her arms, the two children stopped crying at once and became as quiet as two little chicks.

Qi Yue found it amusing.

She wasn’t their mother, so why did they recognize her?

“Yueyue, you’re quite good at holding children, look how comfortable they are, one in each hand,” Shen Yu said offhandedly, which made Qi Yue freeze,

Yes, at just over sixteen, she knew how to hold a child?

One in each hand, she held them so expertly.

But for her, who had been studying medicine since childhood and had run through all the medical disciplines afterward, it was the simplest of tasks.

Her mind whirring rapidly, she passed one child to Shen Yu without a sound.

“When I was young, my martial arts master taught me to wield twin blades. Those blades were heavy, and I’d carry them one in each arm, so I got a bit used to it. However, children should not be held like that.”

Shen Yu nodded repeatedly.

“Yueyue is right; the child is still little and needs to be handled with care.”

“Mm.”

So, everyone watched as Qi Yue walked back and forth across the open space of the stone cave, holding one of the twins whose identity as elder brother or younger was unknown.

They might as well have been walking the baby, so everyone thought.

But why did she look up at the cave ceiling one moment, then down at her feet the next? What did she mean by that?

Suddenly, she shouted.

“I’ve got it!”

Everyone was afraid to ask what she’d figured out, merely watching as she handed the child to Cong Zhonglan, and the next second seemingly pulled out some powder from nowhere, tossing it into the air.

“Starting now, everyone sit down, no talking, no heavy breathing. Whether or not we can find the exit hinges on this attempt!”

Realizing it was a matter of life and death, everyone instantly went silent, not daring to even breathe heavily.

Guan Yidao complied obediently as well.

Qi Yue walked left and right, back and forth, and after half a ‘shichen’ she finally arrived at the original exit of the cave.

The former exit had been buried by huge rocks and sand, and the edges of the cave mouth were compressed tightly by stone blocks.

Everyone was curious about what Qi Yue would do next, only to see her start prying apart the stones that pressurized the edges.

“What is she doing? Didn’t they say the cave could collapse?”

“Exactly, has she gone mad? Does she want us all to die right now?”

“That can’t be right, Miss Qi looks fierce, but she saved those two children earlier, and seemed quite kind!”

“What do you mean ‘that can’t be right’? She did that to show off her medical skills!”

“Exactly, let’s not forget that she hasn’t even glanced properly at us along the way and how harsh she is even toward her own uncle!”

“…..”

“Shut up!”

An ethereal, rebuking voice suddenly burst forth.

“You do not speak of my wife in such a manner! If anyone here has the skill, by all means go find your own way out!”

As soon as ‘way out’ was mentioned, everyone immediately fell silent.

The sharp-eyed noticed that Qi Yue was not digging where the original exit of the cave was; instead, she kept pushing aside stones on one side, as if she were looking for something.

All eyes were fixed on Qi Yue, as if with a blink she would disappear through the small hole she was making.

After another half ‘shichen’, Qi Yue finally stopped.

Everyone’s hearts tensed with her.

Qi Yue had said that their chances of finding an exit rested on this endeavor.

If she failed to find it, they would truly die.

At that moment, Qi Yue felt equally anxious.

She had dug up where the secret door’s button was supposed to be.

If she reached in and didn’t feel that object, then all her speculations were just that—mere guesses.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

These more than three hundred people would really become skeletons here.

Finally, she closed her eyes, reached in, and searched for a raised button that could be pressed or moved!

She pressed her ear against the stone wall, focusing intently on every small pebble beneath her fingers.

Expertly, she pressed or twisted…

A faint “click” sound was heard, and the spot under her hand seemed to indent slightly, then it stopped moving.

Qi Yue tried pressing it twice more, with the same result.

She calmed her pounding heart and analyzed the situation.

It was very likely that she had found the right place, but because the surrounding stone walls were pressing in, the mechanism was stuck.

But clearing it would require extreme caution to prevent another collapse.

“Miss Qi, do you need help?”