Jing Minghe smiled and didn't answer Ke Wuwen further.
Ke Wuwen sensed something from Jing Minghe's smile and obediently shut his mouth, waiting quietly for Chi Hao to emerge from behind.
Chi Hao's footsteps from behind the statue had been steady, pausing and resuming, suggesting he was looking at murals. In less than three minutes, Chi Hao circled out from the other side.
Just as Ke Wuwen was about to speak, Chi Hao spoke first, looking at Jing Minghe.
"Go ahead."
Jing Minghe nodded and moved around to the back of the statue.
Ke Wuwen ran to the edge where he could see the area behind. It was a little dark behind the statue, but he could see Jing Minghe stopping every two steps to look at the murals on the wall. He called softly into the darkness, "Idol, can I come with you?"
"Don't come yet, this floor feels a bit..."
Jing Minghe's words trailed off as he heard a click beneath his feet. He felt as though he had stepped on something protruding. Before he could react, he experienced a rapid freefall.
"Idol!" Ke Wuwen's reaction was more intense than Jing Minghe's. He shouted and immediately ran in, then crawled to the edge of the newly formed deep pit behind the statue, shouting down, "Idol! Are you okay!"
Seeing this, Chi Hao rushed in from the other side. Tong Zheng and Chen Mu followed behind Chi Hao, standing at the edge of the entrance and looking in. The space behind the statue was too small; even if they wanted to go in, there wouldn't be room for extra people, so they could only stand there anxiously.
Tong Zheng asked with a worried expression, "Mr. Chi, what happened? What happened to Minghe?" Su Dan Novel Network
Chi Hao looked down from the edge of the pit. It was bottomless and pitch black. Ke Wuwen kept shouting, but there was no response.
"Mr. Chi!" Ke Wuwen looked incredulous. How could Chi Hao have jumped down without hesitation? Wasn't he afraid of danger below?
"Ke Wuwen?" Tong Zheng asked from outside, "What's going on? Why did Mr. Chi fall too?"
Tong Zheng looked inside from outside. He only saw Chi Hao fall as soon as he ran in, but how was that possible? Ke Wuwen was fine, lying there, so how could Chi Hao have accidentally fallen.
Ke Wuwen's subsequent answer stunned Tong Zheng once more.
"Mr. Chi jumped down! He jumped down! It's so dark down there, I can't see anything, and Idol hasn't made a sound."
Jumped down? Tong Zheng's eyes widened. He knew Chi Hao and Jing Minghe were close, and Chi Hao never wasted words on anyone but Jing Minghe. But as far as he knew, they had only met after entering the City of Death. He hadn't expected Chi Hao to be so reckless for Jing Minghe.
"What should we do?" Ke Wuwen's voice was clearly laced with tears. "Idol and Mr. Chi have both fallen, what do we do? Are they in danger? I..."
As Ke Wuwen spoke, he slowly stood up, looking down at the bottomless pit before him.
Tong Zheng immediately sensed Ke Wuwen's intention and shouted, "Ke Wuwen, calm down. With Chi Hao there, they should be fine. Let's think of other ways to rescue them."
"But, I..." Ke Wuwen clenched his fists. He had been thinking that the system had let him meet his idol, and he wanted to stay with his idol. Even if he couldn't survive until the end, he wanted to help his idol go further. But now, watching his idol fall with his own eyes, he was helpless. "I want to..."
"Ke Wuwen," Tong Zheng interrupted him, "Let's search around here. Maybe there's a way down. You're not Chi Hao, don't just jump like him."
Whether Chi Hao jumped down out of confidence or some other reason, Tong Zheng felt that Chi Hao was definitely not acting solely on impulse; he must have had a plan.
Ke Wuwen thought Tong Zheng's words made sense and quickly ran out from behind, circling around to Tong Zheng's side. "Brother Tong, let's search together. We must find a way down."
"...Alright, let's go."
After speaking, Tong Zheng turned to Chen Mu and asked, "What about you? Are you coming with us?"
Chen Mu hesitated for a moment and said, "I'll stay here and guard. If they find a way to come up from here, maybe I can help."
"Okay," Tong Zheng agreed without much thought. "Then you stay here, and Ke Wuwen and I will go look elsewhere."
They left the side hall. Tong Zheng said to Ke Wuwen, "Let's first search around the outside of the side hall, as thoroughly as possible."
Ke Wuwen agreed and quickly got to work.
Tong Zheng looked at Ke Wuwen's anxious and earnest demeanor and suddenly felt a little envious of Jing Minghe. After all, Ke Wuwen had only truly gotten to know Jing Minghe last night, and today he was already so worried about him.
·
After landing, Chi Hao reset his dislocated shoulder. The glow-in-the-dark stone he had thrown down during the fall was not far away. Fortunately, the depth of the pit was within his estimated safe range, and apart from his dislocated arm, he had sustained no other injuries.
However, Chi Hao scanned the area and did not see Jing Minghe within the range of his light source.
"Jing Minghe!" Chi Hao called Jing Minghe's name in a deep voice and listened intently to the surrounding sounds.
When he heard footsteps, Chi Hao immediately followed the sound and met Jing Minghe's gaze in the darkness. Before he could speak, he heard Jing Minghe's shocked voice.
"Chi Hao?" Jing Minghe, enduring the pain in his waist, walked quickly towards Chi Hao. There was a glow-in-the-dark stone on the ground, but Chi Hao was standing with his back to it. He had to get very close to see Chi Hao's expression, so he did, staring into Chi Hao's eyes and asking, "How did you get down here?"
"I jumped."
"..." Jing Minghe couldn't help but laugh and cry, sighing with exasperation, "As expected of Chi Da Lao, you jumped without even knowing what was down here!"
"You were down here."
Chi Hao's answer was without hesitation, but his tone was still cold, making it difficult to tell if he was joking. Jing Minghe asked with a serious expression, "Did you really just jump down?"
"Believe it or not," Chi Hao paused, and before Jing Minghe could say whether he believed him or not, he continued, "Are you injured?"
Jing Minghe rubbed his waist with his hand and said, "Fortunately, I reacted quickly and adjusted my posture in time when I fell. I only sprained my back, no other injuries. Don't worry."
Thinking that Chi Hao might have really jumped down, especially since he had only just fallen and hadn't figured things out yet when he saw Chi Hao, he then asked, "What about you? Are you injured?"
"No."
The more straightforward Chi Hao's answer was, the more Jing Minghe suspected something. He raised an eyebrow and pressed him, "Really not?"