Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 717: Chapter 714: Mountain Rat

It was unclear whether the kidnappers overestimated their abilities or underestimated Huo Sining’s, as they brashly left the three in the mountains without dedicated surveillance.

The ropes that bound Liao Song and Zhong Zifan were finally cut, and after being untied, the three had time to survey their surroundings.

They were in a cave within the mountain, deep and dark. Using the small light on Liao Song’s wristwatch, they walked through the tunnels for over an hour but could not find an exit.

Although Liao Song and Zhong Zifan had been to Yuyan Mountain several times, it was usually with Uncle Qi leading, and they followed well-known paths.

The current cave was unfamiliar to both of them, and they didn’t even know where they were; they wandered aimlessly inside like headless flies.

Additionally, since their mobile phones had been taken by the kidnappers, they could not call for help or use GPS to locate themselves, leaving them completely disoriented.

No wonder the robbers dared to leave them in the cave without any precautions. After wandering aimlessly inside for ages, Liao Song’s wristwatch battery was also drained, and under the dimming light, the three could only exchange wry smiles.

Huo Sining’s storage ring contained emergency lights and a spare mobile phone, but she definitely did not dare to take them out. Her backpack, like everyone else’s, had been taken by the kidnappers. If she carelessly pulled out her items now, she feared her Storage Space would be exposed.

After aimlessly wandering in the cave for a while, the three felt tired and decided to sit down and rest.

”Have you noticed something strange about this cave?”

Huo Sining spoke hesitantly, ”Yuyan Mountain is the source of a large canyon, and the mountain itself is not very large, but we have been walking southward following this tunnel for two hours now.”

After hearing Huo Sining’s words, Liao Song felt a chill in his heart and involuntarily furrowed his brow.

He had not failed to notice that something was amiss. Heading south from Yuyan Mountain was supposed to lead them out of the mountain.

But that was not the case now. After calculating, they had walked for two hours, which at five kilometers per hour meant they should have covered around ten kilometers.

Even as vast as Yuyan Mountain is, it could not possibly have a mountain waist that long!

With this realization, a terrifying thought surfaced in both of their minds at the same time—could it be they were no longer on Yuyan Mountain?

”When we woke up, it was not yet ten o’clock. This shows that we were unconscious for less than three hours. In such a short time, they couldn’t have possibly taken us out of Changhua, and there’s no need for them to pull off such a blatant act. Moving us away from Yuyan Mountain would draw too much attention and be more trouble than it’s worth.”

Zhong Zifan quickly dismissed the possibility.

All three fell into silence; the peculiar cave inexplicably filled them with an eerie sense of unease.

Huo Sining felt uneasy and kicked small pebbles on the ground subconsciously, hearing a clear clink as two stones collided, creating a crisp sound in the quiet cave.

While bending down and casually picking up pebbles to play with, Huo Sining glanced at Liao Song’s wristwatch unintentionally. To lighten the mood, she joked,

”We’ve been heading south the whole time, right? Is the compass on your watch reliable? It couldn’t be broken, could it?”

The remark was casual, but the listener took it to heart, and Liao Song felt some doubt.

There was a small compass on Liao Song’s wristwatch, and they had been navigating through the cave using its directions.

Logically, if they were heading in the right direction, walking straight through Yuyan Mountain should have allowed them to leave the cave in half an hour.

But why had they walked for so long without finding an exit?

Liao Song’s gaze inadvertently fell upon the stone Huo Sining was fiddling with in her hand, and he suddenly froze: ”Where did you get this stone from?”

”Picked it up from the ground. These kinds of stones are everywhere in this cave, dark and slick. They don’t look like granite or kaolinite, but more like magnetite. Does Yuyan Mountain produce iron ore?”

Huo Sining asked with some surprise.

Iron ore?

Liao Song’s eyes narrowed as he looked toward the cave walls. Upon seeing the marks chiseled in the rock, he couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time:

”I think I know why we can’t find the way out. We’ve probably been walking in circles in this cave.”

Huo Sining was taken aback: ”What do you mean by that?”

”This must be an abandoned magnetite mine, and although it’s been deserted, there’s still some magnetite left in the cave, which is why the compass was affected, leading us astray.”

Huo Sining looked in the direction Liao Song was pointing and indeed saw a thin layer of black iron ore on that part of the cave wall.

No wonder they couldn’t find an exit; even their compass was unreliable—they had been played by the cave!

”What do we do now?” Huo Sining began to feel anxious. Despite having a storage ring, not being able to take anything out of it was a big problem. If they remained trapped in this cave, they wouldn’t die of exhaustion, they would starve to death.

”There are only six or seven forks in this cave. How about we make a mark here, follow the branch paths for half an hour, and if we still can’t find the way out, we’ll return to this spot and start over. What do you think?”

Liao Song suggested after some thought.

Huo Sining had no better ideas and could only nod in agreement. Just at that moment, a mountain mouse appeared in their line of sight.

”Wait...” Zhong Zifan quickly grabbed Huo Sining and Liao Song, his eyes intently following the mountain mouse.

Huo Sining also noticed the mouse and could tell that Zhong Zifan had his sights set on the little creature, even though she didn’t understand why he wanted to catch it.

As they watched the mountain mouse slowly crawl near their feet, they all instinctively held their breath.

Zhong Zifan was prepared to catch the mouse, but just then, as if sensing danger, the mouse twitched its nose a few times, suddenly stopped in its tracks, turned around, and scurried back the way it had come.

”Let’s see where you run off to!”

Seeing the mouse so uncooperative, Zhong Zifan felt slightly annoyed and chased after it.

”Hey! It’s already run off, why are you chasing it? We should save our energy to find the exit and get out of here,” Huo Sining said, becoming frustrated with Zhong Zifan for not being able to discern the urgency of the situation and deciding to chase after a mouse in these circumstances.