Life in the rift grew increasingly unbearable. Emma's visits grew farther apart, each stay shorter than the last. The news she brought grew bleaker with every return.
"A-Lie is like a hyena that's caught the scent of blood—he's watching us closely."
"He suspects Greyclaw. He thinks the old cat has been teaching you too much in secret."
"The patrols have increased their numbers, especially in the remote corners."
Her tone remained deliberately calm, but Gu Liang could sense the taut tension beneath the surface. Each time she left, she covered the entrance more meticulously, moving swiftly and quietly, with an urgency born of being hunted.
Gu Liang's unease grew daily. He feared not only his own discovery but Emma's fate. A Lie was clearly enraged. If he found Emma secretly aiding him... the consequences were too dreadful to contemplate. He couldn't imagine how A Lie would treat her. The guilt of endangering others because of himself weighed heavily on his heart.
He refused to remain passive. In the absolute darkness and silence, he desperately recalled every piece of knowledge he'd acquired before his journey, racking his brain for any possible explanation that might prove the food spoilage unrelated to the water source—or even pinpoint the root cause. He needed to act, couldn't just wait for disaster, and certainly couldn't let Emma bear all the risk alone.
One day, when Emma arrived, she brought not only food but also a faint, almost imperceptible scent of blood.
Gu Liang's heart clenched sharply. "Are you hurt?"
Emma paused, seemingly trying to conceal something, but her breathing was slightly heavy in the darkness. "Nothing. Just a scrape." She brushed it off casually, quickly handing him a piece of meat wrapped in clean leaves, slightly charred from the fire. "Eat quickly. We probably won't be able to light a fire for a while."
Gu Liang didn't take the meat. His hands groped in the darkness, searching for where she might be hurt, his voice carrying an anxiety he hadn't noticed himself. "Where? Is it bad?"
His fingertips brushed against the coarse fabric of her sleeve, where something damp and sticky lingered.
Emma jerked her arm back as if scalded, her tone suddenly icy, tinged with irritation. "I said I'm fine! Mind your own business!"
Her reaction was more intense than ever before, the sudden sharpness startling Gu Liang. He froze in place, his hand suspended mid-air.
A brief, suffocating silence spread through the darkness.
After a while, Emma seemed to take a deep breath. Her voice returned to its flat tone, yet it carried a hint of exhaustion she couldn't hide: "...A Lie has reinforced security at all food storage points. I was almost discovered."
Her casual tone made Gu Liang instantly imagine the peril she'd faced. Was it to investigate something? Or to find food for him?
Guilt and a sharp pang of pity seized him. He couldn't go on like this.
"Let me out," Gu Liang's voice rang out in the darkness, carrying an unprecedented resolve. "I'll find Alec. I'll explain everything to him. I didn't poison the water. Kill me or torture me—it's up to him. But I can't drag you... or Huizhao and the others into this anymore."
"Shut up!" Emma snapped, her voice thick with suppressed fury. "Going out now is walking straight into a trap! He won't listen to a word you say! He'll just use the most direct method to 'grind your claws down' until you can't utter another 'no'! All your struggles and persistence so far will be for nothing! Everything... everything I've done will lose all meaning!"
Her rare emotional outburst felt like cold stones hurled at him.
Gu Liang was stunned by the ruthlessness and some deeper implication in her words. For the first time, he felt so clearly that Emma wasn't just stopping him to "deny A Lie his satisfaction." It seemed... she also cared whether he maintained that "struggle and persistence"?
"Then what?!" Gu Liang's voice cracked with despair. "Are we just supposed to hide here forever, watching you risk yourself over and over until... until you get caught?!"
Dead silence fell over the crack. Only the sound of their suppressed breathing filled the air.
After a long pause, Emma's voice resounded again—low and hoarse, yet tinged with a desperate calm: "There is one more way. But it requires timing, and it demands you take an enormous risk."
"What is it?" Gu Liang demanded immediately.
"On the next full moon, the tribe will hold a ritual. Most attention will be focused on the altar. The guards will be relatively lax." Emma spoke slowly, as if weighing each word carefully. "That is your only chance to slip away from the fissure and reach a certain place."
"Where?"
"The deepest cellar where the tribe stores old grain and discarded items," Emma whispered. "I suspect that batch of potentially tainted game entrails—deliberately forgotten—was either discarded there initially or processed there. If we can find evidence, even the tiniest trace..."
Gu Liang's heart began to pound. Find evidence! This was the most direct way to clear his name!
"But you must memorize the route and swiftly locate any potential traces in absolute darkness and silence. You must return here unscathed before dawn, before the ritual concludes. Can you do this?" Emma's voice was grave. "If we're discovered, or if you leave any trace, we'll both be doomed beyond redemption."
This wasn't a question—it was a gamble. A gamble on his observation, memory, and luck, and on her judgment and cover.
Gu Liang clenched his fists tightly in the darkness, his nails digging into his palms. Fear washed over him like ice water, yet a fierce desire to break free from this predicament and protect the person before him burned like fire.
"I can do it," he heard his own voice, unyieldingly firm. "Tell me the route. Tell me what to look for."
[Target Gu Liang exhibits significantly heightened initiative and sense of responsibility, willing to actively risk breaking the stalemate. Concern for host markedly increased. Darkening Value -2%, current Darkening Value 19%. Plan Risk Level: Extremely High.]
Emma silently watched his blurred silhouette in the darkness, seemingly trying to discern more from his resolute tone. Finally, she began describing the complex, hidden route in an extremely low voice—clear and rapid—including a precise location and distance within the cellar, along with various details to watch for and potential evidence markers.
Under the faint glow of the glowstone, two equally tense hearts, both clinging to life in desperation, pressed tightly together in this narrow crevice for a desperate, all-or-nothing gamble.
ns216.73.216.141da2
and then Add to home screen.