Tang Doudou woke up from the cold. She only found out after she opened her eyes that she was in the middle of a small brook. The chilly brook water was currently flowing over her. This was the cold feeling that had woken her up.

  What was this place?

  Tang Doudou got up to look around in confusion. All she remembered was that Shen Moru had taken her hostage. Afterwards, she wasn't able to hear or see anything. Following that, a voice had told her to walk forward, straight forward, and then…… then what happened?

  She couldn't recall anything after that no matter how hard she tried.

  She was just about to lift her hand to rub her aching head when she heard a clank. Something seemed to have fallen onto a rock.

  Tang Doudou looked down and saw the thumb ring that was almost about to be flushed away by the water.

  Without thinking, she immediately bent down to pick it up. However, once she grabbed it, anger flashed through her eyes and she lifted her hand to throw it. In the end, she wasn't able to bring herself to do it and put it in her chest.

  When she lifted her head again, she found that she was in a valley. There was the fragrant scent of flowers and the sounds of nature all around. It was very calm and peaceful.

  Tang Doudou touched her chest. She remembered that a knife had stabbed into her.

  However, for some reason she now seemed fine.

  When she looked down, she saw that there were bloodstains on her clothes, indicating that she hadn't remembered wrong!

  However, she couldn't understand what had happened. Tang Doudou stood up. It was fortunate that it was still summer, because although her clothes had gotten wet, it wasn't very cold and was just slightly cool.

  When she reached the shore, she took off her outer layers in order to avoid getting a cold. Each layer of clothing had a hole where it covered the chest, which was even more proof that someone had stabbed her. However, not only was there no pain coming from her chest, when she checked, there was no injury either.

  It was currently still very sunny out, so Tang Doudou washed away the blood on the clothes, then laid them out on the rocks near the shore and waited for them to dry so that she could put them back on.

  As she waited, she looked around again. When she confirmed that there was no one around, she sighed heavily. She thought earlier that she was done for. In the end, she didn't die, but ended up coming to this random place that didn't have a single person in sight. It was seriously terrible luck.

  Since she had taken off her clothes, there was no place to put the thumb ring. The red string had also broken, so she could only wear the ring on her finger.

  When she got hungry, she filled her belly with a bit of water. Her clothes only dried after the sun had set.

  After putting the clothes back on, Tang Doudou started wandering along the brook.

  Although it was a valley, there was definitely a way out. Most of the time, valleys would assemble around a brook, so following the brook downstream was the best way to get out.

  However, after walking for a long time, she noticed that something was off.

  There were no sounds coming from the surroundings at all!

  This was way too strange!

  The fact that there were no people around could be explained, but there weren't even sounds of birds or bugs, much less the sounds of any animals…… It was terrifyingly quiet!

  The only sound was the babble of the flowing brook and her own heartbeat. Tang Doudou was bewildered. Where exactly was this place?

  How did she get here?

  Where did Mu Ye and Baili Yu go? And Shen Moru? Had they managed to kill Shen Moru? What if she ended up encountering Shen Moru here? Wouldn't she be done for?

  Fudge. She didn't even feel anything when death was brought up now. It had become as regular as meals.

  Forget it, she'll just plan as she went.

  As of now, she could only leave the things that she couldn't resolve lie. She didn't even want to bother thinking about matters like the one regarding Baili Yu.

  Feng Wu was right. She had a tortoise-like personality and always tried to run away whenever she encountered things. She would only feel the danger when there was no place left to run and finally start facing the issue and trying to resolve it!

  That laziness seemed to come from her bones. Every time she resolved to do something, she would push it off again and again. Even after so much time, she still hadn't been able to change this habit of hers.

  She sighed again as she looked at the darkening sky. Her mood was extremely heavy.

  As of now, she could still see the road beneath her feet, but from now on, which road should she take?

  "Zhizhi……"

  Her brows had started to furrow when a clear cry appeared in the valley.

  It was Lil' Gray!

  Tang Doudou recognized that sound. It was definitely correct!

  Why was he here? If he was here, did that mean Mu Ye was here as well?

  When Tang Doudou's thoughts got to here, she immediately threw all those complicated emotions to the back of her head and ran in the direction of that cry.

  That 'zhizhi' sound was sometimes clear but also sometimes very faint, so she couldn't tell how far away she was from Lil' Gray.

  The only good thing was that the sound never stopped. If it had, there was no way Tang Doudou would know where to go.

  Since her inner strength had recovered, she flew over using qinggong. The sound soon became a lot clearer.

  This was already very far away from the brook. There were a lot of thorny undergrowth ahead. Lil' Gray's cries were coming from that direction.

  It was pretty dark so Tang Doudou couldn't really see what was in the brambles. She tried calling, "Lil' Gray? Lil' Gray, is that you?"

  That sound suddenly disappeared completely.

  Tang Doudou knitted her brows. What was going on?

  Could it be that it wasn't Lil' Gray?

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  Enjoy~