Chapter 15 An Ambush

"What about Yu Man..."

Jiang Cheng paused, then said calmly, "She's likely been captured by the village chief, or she might be dead."

It's common for teammates to die in nightmares, but that's usually the work of ghosts. It's rare for someone like Yu Man to be harmed by an NPC in the mission.

Chen Xiaomeng didn't want to imagine what Yu Man would face in the hands of the village chief and the others. She even hoped Yu Man had died before being captured.

"Don't think too much," Jiang Cheng's voice came, "Instead of worrying about others, worry about yourself. Whatever happened to Yu Man is a fact, and neither of us can change it."

"If you don't want to end up like her, then buck up, find clues, and get out of here as soon as possible."

Chen Xiaomeng's earlier reaction was just empathy for Yu Man as a fellow woman. After a brief hesitation, a touch of resilience returned to her face. "Let's go in," she said in a low voice.

Jiang Cheng, holding the iron sheet, was the first to duck into the secret passage.

Chen Xiaomeng followed behind him.

The space inside was very narrow, and the two of them could only move forward with their bodies bent over.

But because of this, Jiang Cheng, who was responsible for leading the way, was not so nervous.

He judged that Li Lu would not choose to ambush them here.

After a few turns, the two of them were still going upwards. Jiang Cheng silently counted the number of steps in his mind until they reached the end of the stairs.

There was a trapdoor above their heads, with a simple handle made of wire.

Judging from the number of steps, they were now on the third floor of the inn.

Both of them realized that behind this trapdoor should be the secret room where Qian Jianxiu lived.

Success or failure depended on this one move.

Jiang Cheng held the handle with his hand and looked back at Chen Xiaomeng. Chen Xiaomeng nodded to him, indicating that she was ready.

After taking a deep breath, Jiang Cheng opened the trapdoor with lightning speed, flashed out of the exposed hole, and immediately took a step sideways to make way for the opening.

Chen Xiaomeng appeared afterward.

Although the room was dark, Jiang Cheng immediately recognized that this was not a secret room, but the 307 room they had lived in before.

This secret door was built under the wooden table, which was very concealed. Once closed, it would be difficult to see the flaw while standing in the room.

A chill ran through both of them at the same time.

Who would have thought that there was a secret passage hidden in the room they lived in? If the innkeeper suddenly attacked with people after they fell asleep... the consequences would be unimaginable.

At the same time, Jiang Cheng also figured out another thing that had happened.

No wonder the innkeeper Qian Jianshe immediately came to room 307 with a knife after realizing that someone was outside the door. It turned out that he was not only suspecting them, but also confirming whether the secret passage was exposed.

The bloody footprints disappeared here.

Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng tacitly separated and checked under the bed, the closet, the bathroom, and other places where people could easily hide, but found nothing.

Opening the door, the end of the corridor outside was still the lonely candlestick.

The position of the candlestick was rather strange, located in the center of the wall, which also made the lighting effect very limited.

Behind the wall at the end was the secret room where Qian Jianxiu lived.

Chen Xiaomeng's eyes became strange.

The two of them walked cautiously towards the end of the corridor one after the other.

Chen Xiaomeng, who was keeping a meter away from Jiang Cheng, was always paying attention to the surrounding movements. In her eyes, the doors on the side could open at any time, and then someone would rush out with a knife.

Until the two of them walked to the wall at the end.

The wall was dark, and even with the candlelight, it still gave people a sense of unease. Through this wall, it felt like a cold wind was blowing out, and Chen Xiaomeng swallowed subconsciously.

Jiang Cheng found the seam of the secret door on the wall, gently buckled it with his hand, and the secret door actually opened a crack.

This really relieved them.

What they were most worried about was that they couldn't open this secret door. They had found the clues, but all their efforts would be in vain because they couldn't open the door. It was estimated that both of them would vomit blood.

Jiang Cheng grabbed the crack of the secret door with one hand, and slowly exerted force on his arm.

The weight of the secret door was beyond imagination. He didn't want to make too much noise, so after widening the crack, Jiang Cheng cautiously leaned towards the door seam and looked inside.

It was very dark inside. The white candles that Zhou Rong had described were also gone. He could only vaguely see some blurry dark black outlines, which looked like furniture.

When his eyes swept around, he suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a cylindrical object standing behind the secret door, about half a person tall, like a high-legged stool.

But...

Just as he concentrated his vision and wanted to see clearly what this was, a cold light flashed in the darkness. At the critical moment, Jiang Cheng fell backward.

Immediately afterward, a dagger with a cold gleam appeared in the position where Jiang Cheng's eyes had been before.

If he had been half a second slower, this dagger would have pierced his eye socket.

After failing to strike, the dagger was quickly withdrawn, and then the secret door, which had been opened a crack, slammed shut.

All of this happened too fast. By the time Chen Xiaomeng reacted and rushed up, the secret door had already closed, and the crack could not be found.

"Bastard!" Chen Xiaomeng kicked the secret door.

The thickness of the secret door was beyond their imagination. It didn't even tremble.

Jiang Cheng immediately got up.

Without a doubt, they had been calculated by Li Lu again.

The cylindrical object behind the secret door just now was Li Lu hiding there, waiting to ambush them.

He was still thinking just now that Li Lu had always been cautious along the way, so how could she make the mistake of leaving them a secret door? It turned out to be another scheme.

Now the secret door was completely closed.

The mechanism to open the secret door might not be difficult to find, but it would take up the time they were most lacking now.

A few seconds after the secret door closed, the thing they were most worried about finally happened.

"Buzz..."

Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng's hearts both skipped a beat at the same time.

The door... appeared.

A pale, faint light flashed by, and the iron door appeared in Qian Jianxiu's secret room.

This game, in a sense, was over.

Li Lu was the final winner.

She would undoubtedly get all the rewards.

And all Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng could do now was to enter the secret room before the door disappeared and return to their own world through the door.

They didn't dare to think about the rewards. It would be good enough to survive.

Just as the two of them were stuck in front of the door, studying where the opening mechanism was, they suddenly heard a loud "bang".

The loud noise came from downstairs. It sounded like a door being forced open.

Then there was a burst of dense and disorderly footsteps, which poured in instantly.

"Fourth brother!!"

A heart-wrenching roar erupted downstairs, shaking Jiang Cheng's eardrums.

It was the voice of the village chief of Xiaoshijian Village. If he hadn't heard it with his own ears, Jiang Cheng would never have imagined that the village chief, who was over sixty years old, could have such explosive power.

Obviously, he had discovered Qian Jianshe's body.