"Cough, cough, and it can also be seen that the couple living here is not simple!"
Wan Yunting clutched his chest, coughing lightly from time to time. He asked Zhou Ruoxi to turn on several lamps in the room, and instantly the large room was filled with yellow light, illuminating everything within. Dust and cobwebs covered everything, animal droppings littered the floor, and the air was filled with a foul odor...
"What do you mean?"
Zhou Ruoxi was a little confused by his words. Wan Yunting pointed to the eight-step bed and the furniture and utensils in the room, saying, "These furniture are clearly not made of ordinary wood. Although I don't know much, they should be made of precious wood. Otherwise, after so many years, ordinary wood would have collapsed long ago."
"Also, the collection of books outside the wall, and that bronze cauldron, are clearly not ordinary items. If they were sold as antiques, they would fetch quite a sum."
Zhou Ruoxi nodded as she listened, then turned to him with a smile, "Junior Brother Wan knows so much."
Cough, cough... Wan Yunting waved his hand with a smile, then looked at the east wall of the room with some confusion, saying, "But it's a bit strange, why is there no furniture placed on this side? It's empty and there's nothing."
Hearing his words, Zhou Ruoxi also turned to look at the east wall. She held the oil lamp and approached the wall. It was a single carved stone surface. She turned back to Wan Yunting and said, "Perhaps they didn't want to place too much furniture. The things in this room seem quite complete."
Wan Yunting endured the pain of his internal injuries and walked slowly, one hand on his chest. He looked at the stone wall on the east side of the room. Suddenly, his pupils constricted. He raised his left hand and touched the stone surface, immediately feeling a seam. He followed the seam with his fingers. Zhou Ruoxi also looked and exclaimed, "Could this be a stone door? Is there another room behind it?"
Wan Yunting nodded. He pressed his left hand against the stone door, but it didn't budge. He raised an eyebrow and, enduring the pain of his internal injuries, pushed with all his might. However, the stone door only trembled slightly and did not open.
"Let me..."
Seeing this, Zhou Ruoxi was about to push, but Wan Yunting shook his head, "This door must have a mechanism. Brute force won't open it!"
"A mechanism door?"
Zhou Ruoxi's beautiful eyes widened, and she looked at the stone door in surprise, "Where is the mechanism?"
"Let's look..."
Wan Yunting looked around, and Zhou Ruoxi also held the oil lamp and searched the stone wall carefully. She even imitated how they hide mechanisms in ancient settings in television shows, like the bronze oil lamps nearby, and under other furniture. They searched every possible hiding place for a mechanism, but found nothing.
"Junior Brother Wan, did you find anything?"
"Cough, cough..."
After searching all around and feeling drained, Wan Yunting sat down on a stone stool in front of the round stone table in the middle of the room and took a breath, shaking his head. "I didn't find anything either..."
Zhou Ruoxi glanced back at him, then came over, placed the oil lamp on the table, and sat down, saying, "If we can't find it, it's fine. We only came in to take shelter from the rain anyway. We'll rest outside later and circulate our qi to heal."
Wan Yunting nodded. His gaze fell on the ancient tea set placed on the surface of the stone round table in front of him. He seemed to notice something and reached out to move the tea set aside...
Immediately, two shallow palm prints appeared on the surface of the stone table!
"Huh? Why are there two palm prints?"
Sitting opposite him, Zhou Ruoxi's beautiful eyes widened in surprise. She looked up at Wan Yunting, who also raised an eyebrow in confusion. The two palm prints were of different sizes, seeming to belong to two different people!
Just like the two stone stools fixed in place in front of this stone table, Wan Yunting and Zhou Ruoxi sat facing each other. They placed their right hands on the tabletop. The two shallow recessed palm prints, one large and one small, were clearly the palm prints of a man and a woman!
So, Wan Yunting placed his right hand into the palm print indentation on his side. Miraculously, his hand fit perfectly into the palm print carved into the stone tabletop, as if it were sculpted to his palm size.
Zhou Ruoxi looked on in amazement. Wan Yunting looked up at her and said, "Senior Sister, you should put your right hand in and see too."
"Okay."
Zhou Ruoxi nodded and extended her right palm, placing it inside. As expected, her hand fit perfectly into the palm print on the tabletop, as if it were carved to her palm size.
Instantly, Wan Yunting raised an eyebrow and stood up, saying, "Senior Sister, it seems this table is the mechanism. Let's press down together!"
Zhou Ruoxi nodded and stood up as well. Their right hands, placed within the shallow indentations on the tabletop, simultaneously applied force and pressed down. Indeed, the stone table sank downwards with a rustling sound...
*Click!*
Immediately after, with a faint sound, the support pillar beneath the stone table seemed to have triggered some mechanism...
Suddenly, the stone door on the east wall also made a faint sound!
Wan Yunting and Zhou Ruoxi turned their heads at the same time and saw that the stone door had automatically opened a crack! Even more miraculously, a stream of icy mist emanated from this crack...!
Wan Yunting and Zhou Ruoxi exchanged astonished glances. They then cautiously approached the crack in the stone door on the east wall, which was opening and emitting a cold aura. Their eyes widened as they looked through the opened crack. The interior was dim but revealed a hazy, ice-blue light, and chilling air billowed out, causing Wan Yunting to shiver involuntarily.
"Could this place be an ice chamber?"
Zhou Ruoxi also shivered from the cold air emanating from the crack in the stone door, turning to Wan Yunting and asking.
"I'm not sure. Senior Sister, go get the oil lamp. Let's go in and take a look," Wan Yunting said.
"Okay..."
Zhou Ruoxi returned to the table and picked up the oil lamp. Wan Yunting placed his large hand on the stone door and pushed. The stone door slowly opened, and a gust of cold air immediately hit them...
"Junior Brother Wan, be careful..."
Zhou Ruoxi couldn't help but call out. However, Wan Yunting waved his hand, "It's fine, Senior Sister. There's no danger inside."
Holding the oil lamp, Zhou Ruoxi cast a lingering glance at him, chiding, "Why didn't you wait for me to come and push the stone door open together?"
Wan Yunting's expression faltered. He turned and saw the beautiful, lingering gaze of the beauty. He coughed lightly and smiled, "I was afraid you might be in danger. If I pushed it alone, only I would be in danger, at least you could collect my body..."
Hearing him say that, Zhou Ruoxi felt inexplicably touched. Wan Yunting genuinely felt that way too. After all, with his current serious injuries, if there was any danger, he would be the first to face it. That's why he asked Zhou Ruoxi to get the oil lamp, and he took the opportunity to push open the stone door.
"Junior Brother Wan, you mustn't say that."
Zhou Ruoxi looked at him with her watery, beautiful eyes, pursing her lips and saying, "Since we are trapped here together, we will face any danger together. At worst... at worst, we will die here together."
Her words made Wan Yunting's gaze falter. He looked at her blushing face and her affectionate autumn eyes, recalling how she had followed him without hesitation when he jumped off the cliff into the valley...
Previously, Wan Yunting had felt ashamed, believing he had dragged Zhou Ruoxi down with him.
But now, he felt deeply moved and could also tell that Zhou Ruoxi felt something special for him!
Wan Yunting's expression softened, and he smiled at her, saying, "Senior Sister, let's go in and take a look first."
Zhou Ruoxi, now realizing what she had said, felt her face flush. She regretted saying those words a little, feeling incredibly nervous, as if she were confessing her feelings to the man she liked. Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of her chest. She was so shy she didn't dare to look up, nodding and softly murmuring an affirmation before holding the oil lamp and entering the mysterious, cold stone chamber with Wan Yunting...
"What... what is that?"
As the two entered the not-very-large stone chamber, they simultaneously widened their eyes and stared at the most eye-catching object within: a stone bed emitting a chilling aura and a faint ice-blue light!
The stone bed was approximately one meter fifty centimeters long, fifty centimeters wide, and over thirty centimeters high. It was placed in the center of the north wall of the stone chamber, very conspicuous.
"Is it ice?"
Wan Yunting and Zhou Ruoxi's eyes widened in curiosity. They first approached the bed, which appeared to be ice but not quite. Wan Yunting reached out and placed his hand on it, immediately feeling a surge of extreme coldness entering his hand, causing his eyes to widen in surprise. He turned to Zhou Ruoxi and said, "This is not ice!"
Zhou Ruoxi's beautiful eyes were filled with surprise as she also touched the bed with her jade-like hand. She said in astonishment, "It's indeed not ice, but it feels very cold. This kind of cold is unlike the damp, bone-chilling cold of real ice!"
Wan Yunting nodded. Feeling the extreme coldness transmitted from the mysterious stone bed, he frowned and said, "This coldness entering the body also feels quite comfortable!"
"Indeed, it feels that way."
Zhou Ruoxi also felt it, which they both found quite miraculous. Wan Yunting examined the non-ice bed carefully and said, "It seems to be made of a material similar to jade, but why does it emit such a special coldness?"
Zhou Ruoxi shook her head slightly and said, "Perhaps it's some rare material. We are just ignorant."
Wan Yunting nodded, then turned to look at a stone platform on the other side of the stone chamber where many items were neatly arranged. "Let's search first. Perhaps the owner left some information to explain the special nature of this bed."
Zhou Ruoxi nodded, and they went to the stone table. On it were three wooden boxes. Two were of normal size, but one was a long, narrow wooden box, and they didn't know what it contained.
However, miraculously, they found that there was not a speck of dust in the stone chamber, and the wooden boxes were preserved in excellent condition, as if they had been placed there just yesterday.
In front of the two boxes was a book. The book's cover was also very new, and the book itself was not thick. The title on the cover was written in traditional Chinese characters: "Biography!"