Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

"Everyone, don't panic. Stay calm, stay calm." Xiao Xing waved her hand to signal everyone to calm down, then frowned and thought for a while, then said, "In order to prevent all the torches from burning out, I declare: only mine, the leading torch, will be left to light the way, and all other torches will be extinguished for the time being. When my torch is about to burn out, I will light another one, so that the lighting time can be extended."

Everyone obeyed the order and blew out the torches in their hands, leaving only the torch in Xiaoxing's hand.

"Now the people at the back should follow the people in front and walk slowly, hand in hand. I believe we can get out of this cave." Xiaoxing encouraged everyone.

"Brother Xing, you are our star of wisdom. We believe that we can get out of this by following you." Yue and everyone answered in unison.

Xiaoxing held up the torch and tried hard to recall the cave entrance they came from. He led everyone around in the cave for a long time, but they were still circling in the same place like a headless fly.

"Xing, look, there's something on the ground!" Chen suddenly stepped on something at a fork in the cave and shouted. Xiaoxing quickly raised the torch to look at it, and saw that it was a discarded and burnt torch.

"It's the torch that was just thrown away." Xiaoxing exclaimed.

"How could there be a torch on the ground? Have we been to this cave before?" Feng exclaimed.

Everyone looked at Xiaoxing in surprise. Xiaoxing frowned and said, "These caves are very similar. It seems that we are really lost and have been wandering around in these caves."

"What should we do? Xing, you are the most resourceful, come up with a solution quickly." Chen shouted.

"Chen, don't be anxious, don't be anxious, wait for me to think about it, wait for me to think about it." Xiaoxing comforted everyone while looking at the cave entrances and thinking hard.

"Oh, I got it!" Xiao Xing raised his eyebrows and shouted, "Chen, I have come up with a solution: before we enter the cave each time, we should make a mark at the entrance, so that we won't enter the same entrance twice and won't get lost."

"Great, great!" Chen clapped his hands excitedly when he heard it. Then he took a stone knife and drew a line on the ground at the entrance of a cave in front of him, and drew an arrow pointing inside.

"Xing, as long as we remember this mark, we will know how to enter from here, and we won't have to enter again next time." Chen was very proud of his creation.

"Brothers, follow me into this cave now." Xiaoxing held up the torch and led the way into the cave marked with an arrow.

But within half a meal time, they came across several more cave entrances. Xiaoxing and Chen did the same thing, selected a cave entrance, drew an arrow on it, and then continued to move forward. After another half a day of groping, although they did not go around in circles, they still could not find the exit.

At this time, the torch in Xiaoxing's hand burned out again. He hurriedly shouted to the back: "Brothers, my torch is almost burned out, bring another torch."

After hearing this, Chen, who was behind, passed the message to the back one by one. After a while, a torch was passed to him from behind, with the message: "Xing, everyone has no torch left, this is the last one."

"Are the torches used up?" Xiaoxing asked in surprise.

"Yes, Xing." Chen nodded and replied, "When this torch burns out, we will be plunged into darkness."

"Without the lighting of torches, we can forget about getting out of this maze cave." Yue said in a crying voice.

"Brother Xing, please think of a solution!" The youngest Dian cried in fear: "I don't want to die in this black hole."

"Dian, brothers, don't worry, I believe we can get out of this." Although Xiaoxing was unsure at the moment, he still continued to comfort everyone.

Xiaoxing lit the last torch and walked a short distance before three more forks of similar size appeared in front of him. Facing the forks, everyone was in a dilemma again.

"Xing, brothers, which way are we going this time?" Chen held up the stone knife and prepared to make a mark.

Yue rushed to say, "Go to the right, the hole on the right looks bigger."

"Yue, it's wrong to choose the right hole. I remember that we always went to the middle hole when we came here, so we should choose the middle hole." Feng expressed a different opinion.

"Yue, Feng, although what you said makes sense, I don't know why, I have a strong feeling that I should go to the left." Xiaoxing explained.

"Xing, I have the same feeling. We should go to the left." Chen immediately agreed.

The people behind him, including Da Mao and Xiao Mao, immediately shouted, "Wherever Xing goes, we'll follow!"

"Yes, we will always support Xing!" everyone shouted.

"Brothers, since you trust me, follow me into the left cave." Xiaoxing said, holding up the torch and leading the way into the left cave. Chen then took a stone knife and carved an arrow on the left cave wall.

Finally, when the last torch was about to burn out, they saw a faint glow of fire in the distance.

At this moment, this weak firelight seemed brighter than the morning sun. Xiaoxing shouted excitedly: "Yeah! Brothers, look, there is a firelight ahead!"

"That's great!" Chen Ye excitedly shouted incoherently: "Xing, we finally got out, that's great."

Everyone was extremely excited and cheered, thinking that the East and West teams were coming to find them. So they quickened their pace and ran towards the fire.

The sudden fire was not actually from the team led by Dong, but from the group led by Zhi, Hong'er, Lan'er and others who were searching for them.

It turned out that Zhihe and his group had been waiting outside the cave since Donghe and Xiaoxing led them into the cave. Unexpectedly, they waited from afternoon to evening, but no one came out. They were all anxious and worried.

"Uncle Zhi, they have been in there for so long, why haven't they come out yet? Could they have encountered some danger?" Hong'er looked at the deep cave entrance and asked Uncle Zhi anxiously.

"Don't worry, Hong'er." Although Zhi was worried, he still comforted her: "Dong is very brave and Xing is very smart. If they work together, they will be able to overcome any danger."

"But it's already night time, they must be hungry. If they don't come out to eat something, how will they have the strength to fight?" Hong'er said again.

"Maybe they discovered the traces of the Nian Beast and the Dog King and wanted to kill them before coming out to eat!" Zhi speculated.

It was already dark, and Zhi ordered everyone to light a bonfire and have dinner first. After dinner, Hong'er was impatient to wait any longer, so she held a torch and suggested to Zhi: "Uncle Zhi, we don't know whether Brother Xing and the others are safe or not, why don't we go into the cave and look for them."

"Yes, Uncle Zhi, it's not a good idea for us to just wait here. Why don't we go into the cave and take a look? Maybe we can help." Lan'er agreed immediately after hearing this.

"Just don't make trouble, girls. How can you help? Listen to me, it's dangerous in the cave, so just wait a little longer!" Zhi hurriedly stopped them.

"Uncle Zhi, you always say that the cave is dangerous. The cave is dangerous. Then wouldn't Brother Xing and the others be dead? In that case, we should go in and help." Hong'er shouted stubbornly.

"Yes, Uncle Zhi, please let us go in and take a look!" Lan'er also begged.

Seeing how anxious they were, Lao Yang couldn't bear it, so he advised Zhi, "Zhi, Dong Hexing has been in the cave for so long, the torches will probably burn out soon. We can't just sit there and wait, but should go into the cave to welcome him."

"Yang, since you said so, let's go into the cave and take a look." Zhi was helpless because of Hong'er and Lan'er's pestering, and he also felt that what Old Yang said made sense, so he nodded and agreed. He looked at everyone and announced: "Dear warriors, Dong Hexing and his men went into the cave to chase the dogs and wolves, and they haven't come out for a long time. Now I have decided: everyone follow me into the cave to rescue."

"Yes!" everyone responded in unison.

"Because the situation in the cave is unclear, based on my hunting experience in my fifties, everyone must bring more than two torches. In addition, they must carry some food to prevent hunger." Zhi gave another order to the crowd.

"Yes, sir!" Everyone nodded in agreement.

When everyone had prepared torches and food, Zhi led Hong'er, Lan'er and others to hold torches high and move forward to the cave. As they walked, they shouted, "Dong, Xing, where are you?"

After walking less than a mile, they came across the first fork cave. Hong'er, who was following Zhi closely, saw two similar cave entrances and asked in surprise, "Uncle Zhi, there are two caves ahead. I don't know which cave Brother Xing and the others went to?"

"Hong'er, this cave has caves within caves, it's really weird." Zhi pondered for a while, then said: "I'm not sure which cave they will go into. For now, we can only search one cave after another."

"Uncle Zhi, I guess they entered the left cave. Let's look at the left cave first." Hong'er said, pointing to the hole on the left.

"Well, OK." Zhi nodded indifferently and agreed: "It's up to you."

Seeing Zhi's agreement, Hong'er started to walk to the left cave. Zhi quickly stopped her and said, "Hong'er, don't be impatient. Based on my hunting experience of more than 50 years, I know that you should look at the direction when walking and mark the way when you come across a fork. Let's drive a wooden stake into the wall of the cave as a mark so that we won't get lost."

"Zhi has thought it through carefully. What he said is absolutely right." Old Yang beside him nodded in agreement, and immediately picked up a stone axe and "clicked" to nail a wooden stake into the wall of the cave.

After marking, Zhi led everyone to the left cave. Soon, they encountered three branch caves like Xiaoxing and his group. This time, Honger made the choice and entered the middle cave. Then, he marked the wall behind the cave and continued to go deeper. In this way, everyone entered cave after cave, but still did not find Dong, Xiaoxing and others.

Hong'er couldn't help but get anxious and asked Zhi, "Uncle Zhi, we've been looking for so long, why haven't we found Brother Xing and the others yet?"

"Don't worry, Hong'er." Zhi comforted her, "This cave is very deep. I think they must have gone far away."

"But they only have a few torches, how far can they go?" Hong'er asked again.

Without waiting for Zhi to answer, Lan'er rushed to say, "Hong'er, we can't find Brother Xing and the others. Do you think they were eaten by the Nian Beast and the Dog King?"

"Lan'er, don't talk nonsense." Zhi retorted: "With so many of them, how could they be eaten by the Nian Beast and the Dog King? Besides, we didn't find any signs of fighting along the way."

"Zhi is right. Hong'er and Lan'er, just be patient and follow us as we search slowly." Old Yang comforted them.

As they walked, they came out of another cave and saw three more branch caves. As usual, Lao Yang put a stake at the end of the cave and prepared to enter the next cave.

Just as Zhi was about to step into the middle hole, Hong'er, who was looking around, suddenly called out, "Uncle Zhi, look at the hole on the left, there are people driving wooden stakes there too."

Zhi hurriedly stopped and looked towards the left cave entrance with a torch. Sure enough, he saw a wooden stake nailed to the cave wall. He was surprised and said, "Why is there a wooden stake here? Is it a mark left by Dong or Xing?"

"That's great, we'll soon find Brother Xing and Brother Chen and the others." Lan'er shouted excitedly when she heard it.

Old Yang came up to take a look and said with certainty: "Zhi, this wooden stake was not left by Dong Hexing and the others, but was made by me before."

"You beat them?" Zhi frowned and said in a deep voice, "Yang, this maze cave is crisscrossed and we have come back. This shows that Dong Hexing and the others may have lost their way and cannot get out."

"Yeah, I guess so." Old Yang scratched his head and asked, "What should we do now?"

"Yang, this cave is not only deep, but also connected to each other. Therefore, we must not only mark it well, but also be more careful." Zhi replied solemnly.

"Uncle Zhi is right." Hong'er nodded and asked, "Which cave should we go to now?"

"Since the left cave is the way we came from, we can only go to the middle cave or the right cave." Zhiju shone the torch towards the middle cave entrance and then said, "In my opinion, we should go to the middle cave first."