Chapter 72: 72: Crisis: The Best Time For Self-Introspection

Feeling the lift jerk to a start and begin to descend, a quiet hum filling the air, Lin Songmei rested her head against Yan Mingqing’s shoulder. With her eyes closed, Songmei didn’t have the faintest clue on what the interior of the lift looked like. She could open her eyes if she wanted, but for the time being, that just wasn’t on her list of priorities. 

Her eyes already hurt enough, and with the stinging tears forcing themselves out, no need to subject them to more suffering. 

Songmei did know that Han Youhong was also on the lift... somewhere. In front? To the side? Behind? Songmei didn’t have a clue, yet again. Eyes were important. 

“So, what’s up, Youhong?” Mingqing asked, doing a bit of a squat to reposition Songmei who was on her back. “Are we all splitting up? Or...?” 

“I’m not sure,” Youhong sighed, with Songmei hearing the distinct crinkle of the lychee jelly packaging. “It seems we'll probably be splitting up though.”

A “Hm?” escaped Songmei’s mouth while Mingqing asked, “Why’s that?” As the crinkle of another lychee jelly package rang out through the lift, Youhong lamented, “Wang Taigang messaged me while I was waiting for you two. He said that Liu Liping left with all the other disciples. He said he was waiting though.” 

Ding. 

A static burst followed by a clear elevator ding that seemed to be right out of the movies rang out, interrupting any future conversation. Honestly? It sounded like it was just like the ones from the movies. Even Songmei, who had only seen the cheesy, really-cheap movies on whole-orphanage movie nights recognized it. 

How old was this lift anyway?

The doors inching open with enough creaking to pass for Songmei’s back, the three of them exited into a small alcove carved out in the side of the ravine. 

Wind. After the doors had opened, Songmei couldn’t help but notice that fact. There was so much of it too. Rushing past her face, Songmei could hear faint... and not so faint, rumbling footsteps of what she assumed were spiritual beasts along with the rushing wind that blazed past her face. 

“Wang Taigang!” Youhong yelled out, his voice floating its way over the wind, riding it like the waves of a rough ocean. “Where are you?” 

“Over here!” Wang Taigang shouted back, making his way towards the trio of them. “I’m here, I’m here. We have two choices.” 

Taking a few deep breaths as he tried to calm his breathing down, Wang Taigang paused for a moment, and unknown to Songmei, he gave a quiet nod and glance towards Songmei’s closed eyes, only continuing after Youhong and Mingqing gave reassuring nods of their heads. “Our two choices really are to try and catch up with Liu Liping and the others. They’re a group of like what, fifteen? They’re pretty safe even with the chaos.” 

“And if we join them, our group will be a little less than twenty?” Youhong asked before raising an eyebrow. “There’s gotta be a reason there’s a choice other than that though.” 

“Well, while I was waiting for you all,” Wang Taigang explained, pointing to the bracelet on his wrist that was his terminal in compressed form. “My master contacted me. He said that if we split off, we probably shouldn’t use the same trail. He said something about Qi residue and scent drawing over the wild beasts, but it was so windy I couldn’t hear him that well.” 

“So, he urged you not to follow them and join up?” Mingqing summarized, shifting a bit so Songmei wouldn’t slip off of her. Songmei, of course, had murmured earlier that Mingqing could put her down if she wanted, but Mingqing had just replied with a “Nah. You’re nice to carry.” 

... That had made Songmei blush a little but that was unimportant. Ahem. 

Focusing back on the conversation, Songmei listened as Wang Taigang confessed, “Yeah, pretty much. So, our other choice now is to find another way out of the ravine.” 

With a pause, Wang Taigang then added, “Well, we don’t have to get out of the ravine, we just have to survive long enough until the strike team comes, but the best way to do that is to travel outwards from the crater, so pretty much just leaving.”

Picturing Wang Taigang with a sheepish smile and a shrug as he said that, Songmei nodded along, pretending that she was following the conversation in every aspect and not just laying there basking in the warmness that radiated off of Mingqing. 

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Mingqing really was warm though.

Having zoned out at this point and gone back to just being a sack of potatoes that Mingqing was carrying, Songmei didn’t notice until they started moving, leaving the covered, not-getting-battered-by-wind area that they were in. 

Wind was refreshing, when it wasn’t at the level of a HURRICANE. Well maybe it wasn’t at the level of a hurricane, but Songmei felt like at any moment she could take flight. 

‘...Gotta hug Mingqing a little harder.’ 

Out in the wind now, Songmei and the others made, to what Songmei felt, slow progress. She didn’t know. The whole eyes closed thing didn’t really help with judging how fast she was moving. 

She did try opening them once, only to yelp an “Ow shi-” before clamping her mouth shut as a fresh stream of tears ran down from both of her eyes. 

Getting a few soft whispers of reassurance from Mingqing, Songmei laid her head back down, listening as Mingqing began to describe what was going on around them in a quiet voice, one almost drowned out by the wind that only Songmei and her could hear. 

“So, the overall problem is that we have to move pretty stealthily.” Mingqing began, her footsteps coming to a halt. “There are a lot of spiritual beasts rushing towards the crater site, all of them with their sense of reasoning gone. Because of that, we’re taking one of the higher but more jagged and narrow paths. Even then too, we’re still pausing every once and a while just in case when one of the taller ones passes by.” 

“How tall are the taller ones?” Songmei whispered back into Mingqing’s ear. From what Songmei could remember, they couldn’t be that tall, after all, the ravine was pretty narrow, right?

If only she could, like, look around right now. 

Laughing as she heard Songmei’s little murmurs under her breath about seeing, Mingqing once agian repositioned Songmei so she wouldn’t fall off. “It’s fine, I’ll keep you safe. Don’t worry. And for your question, the tall ones are actually... pretty tall. A few of the wider ones are just going crazy and dragging their body through the rock itself, like the crab that passed by a few turns ago. That’s another reason why we’re pausing.” 

Squeezing Mingqing in a hug, Songmei listened in as Mingqing continued, making a few jokes and talking about how later, they’d be staying in a cave that Wang Taigang had marked on his terminal while exploring way back before they had met up. 

... Mingqing was really nice... 

Songmei didn’t even know what feeling was in her heart, but it felt so warm, it felt so... so fuzzy. 

Wiping a tear, Songmei rested her chin back onto Mingqing’s shoulder, giving her a small cheer of encouragement. 

Cracking her eyes open and glancing at Mingqing, who didn’t quite look like her right now, Songmei resisted the pain for a moment and... tried to look past all the weird swirls. 

Blurry. 

Closing her eyes once more as her eyes welled up and feeling some tears spill down her face, Songmei murmured a quiet “thank you”, giving Mingqing a quiet squeeze. 

Maybe... maybe that feeling was love.