"Dislocated, hold my phone."
The man gently felt the wound on Meng Jingwei's knee, making a basic judgment based on the prominent position of the bone.
In this situation, Meng Jingwei did not argue with Qing Muye. She obediently took the phone and shone the flashlight on her knee.
Then, she watched as the man lifted her leg. His movements were very gentle. He tilted his head slightly, looked at her, and said, "Bear with it. I'll count to three, and then I'll pop it back in."
"Okay."
Meng Jingwei took a deep breath, clenched her fists, her heart pounding.
She was very afraid of pain and worried that she would thrash around from pain when Qing Muye set her bone.
"One…"
"Two…"
"Ah! Damn it, Qing Muye, didn't you say count to three? Why did you start at two!"
Yelling in pain from her knee, Meng Jingwei slapped Qing Muye's shoulder. She reached out and firmly gripped his shoulder, gasping in pain.
"Move it around and see if it's okay."
Facing the woman's sudden outburst, Qing Muye was unbothered. He was more concerned about Meng Jingwei's injury.
Meng Jingwei lifted her leg and moved it. It was fine. She immediately stood up and walked around. She found that apart from the slight pain of the skin being broken on her knee, everything else was normal.
"I can walk normally now. Thanks."
She smiled at Qing Muye, then her attention shifted to the pitch-black secret chamber, and the smile on her face instantly vanished. She sighed with a sense of loss, "What on earth is this place? My phone doesn't even have a signal. We need to find a way out, or we'll die soon... Ah!"
Meng Jingwei walked around the secret chamber with her phone. At a corner, she suddenly saw a skull, startling her with a scream.
Although she was usually a bold and brave girl, in this secret chamber, under this unknown danger, she hadn't prepared herself mentally and was caught off guard.
"What's wrong?"
Qing Muye ran to her side. Following the beam of the flashlight from her phone, he looked over and saw a corpse in the corner.
"The bones are lying flat on the ground. Whoever died did so peacefully, and no one has disturbed it. There's also a dark stain on the ground, a mark left by the body's decomposition."
Qing Muye sat down and analyzed.
After he finished speaking, Meng Jingwei immediately asked, "So, this person hasn't been dead for very long. The clothes on her aren't rotten either. The clothes look like the work uniforms from your old mansion, and she's a woman."
"A year ago, I heard Grandma mention that a female worker had gone missing from the old mansion. At the time, we thought she had run away from home. Because she was an orphan and her relatives couldn't be contacted, we reported it to the police. After failing to find her, the matter was dropped."
"An orphan? That's so pitiful."
Meng Jingwei quickly adjusted her emotions, merely lamenting how a girl had disappeared so silently, finding it truly pitiable.
She stood before the corpse and bowed three times, "Don't worry. When we get out, we'll definitely take you with us."
Even though it was a small gesture, it truly made Qing Muye feel that Meng Jingwei was a kind-hearted girl.
Possessing initial innocence, simplicity, and kindness.
He grabbed her hand and said, "Let's go. Hurry and find the exit. Otherwise, staying here is a dead end for us. Turn off your phone for now to save battery, keep it for backup."
Being led by Qing Muye, his warm palm on her slightly cool hand, a sudden sense of security made her earlier tension gradually subside.
Meng Jingwei did not struggle or resist because she knew that in the secret chamber, they could encounter danger or trigger mechanisms at any moment. Only by holding hands and moving forward was the safest.
"Okay."
She nodded and turned off her phone.
The two walked through the corridors of the secret chamber, observing the smoothly polished stone blocks that formed the room. The walls were carved with paintings, totems of ancient divine beasts.
Suddenly, Meng Jingwei pointed at the palace lantern shaped like a female official on the wall, "There are candles there. Let's see if we can light them."
When she saw the candles, Qing Muye saw them too.
The man took out a lighter from his pocket and lit the wick. Inside was a dry, black solid, but it indeed lit up.
"Phew, that's great. If we can light the lamps, we won't be in total darkness."
Meng Jingwei let out a long sigh of relief, her anxious heart finally calming down.
With light, they would surely find an exit.
Otherwise, in such a dark and obscure secret chamber, their only fate would be a dead end.
Qing Muye put away his phone. As he lowered his head, his peripheral vision caught Meng Jingwei's feet. He immediately took off his leather shoes and stood barefoot on the ground. "Put these on."
Because she was attending a wedding that day, he had asked her to change into a formal dress. To match her outfit, Meng Jingwei had chosen nine-centimeter high heels.
When they fell from above, during the tumbling descent down the passage, he was only focused on pulling Meng Jingwei along, and her shoes were long gone.
Besides, even if she had her high heels, they wouldn't be suitable for wearing in a secret chamber.
Meng Jingwei looked at his black leather shoes at his feet and pouted, "Are you sure your size forty-two shoes will fit my size thirty-seven feet?"
She hit the nail on the head.
The man was indeed a size forty-two.
"What comes from nothing," he said softly.
"How can I walk in these shoes? Besides, we don't even know how big this secret chamber is. Walking will be very tiring for me, and your feet might get injured too."
Meng Jingwei analyzed calmly.
Although Qing Muye's intention was kind in offering her his shoes, oversized shoes would not only be a burden and cumbersome but might also chafe her feet.
Because she was wearing high heels, Meng Jingwei hadn't worn socks.
What she said had some merit.
Qing Muye's expression turned serious. After thinking for a moment, he slowly looked up at her. "It's not like there are no other options. Perhaps you could consider..."
He trailed off, his words unfinished.
The intelligent and astute Meng Jingwei seemed to be on the same wavelength as him. They both turned their heads towards the direction of the skeleton.
"It's just a corpse. It won't cause you too much harm. Don't be too scared. I'm here with you, you..."
"You talk too much!"
Although Meng Jingwei knew Qing Muye was trying to prepare her psychologically, she wasn't as squeamish as he imagined.
But regardless, she still felt a bit hesitant, so she pointed at his feet, "Take off your socks and give them to me."
Qing Muye looked at Meng Jingwei with a hint of surprise and bewilderment. He then took off his socks and handed them to her.
The white socks, having touched the floor, were covered in a thin layer of dust.
He handed them to her, and Meng Jingwei directly slipped them onto her feet. While putting them on, she said to Qing Muye, "Go and get her shoes."
"Okay."
The man responded and went over.
In a short while, he returned with a pair of flat shoes and handed them to Meng Jingwei.
He had originally expected Meng Jingwei to be repulsed or resistant...