After her transformation and rebirth, she manipulates the innocent and ruthless to overthrow the wor

Duan Li sensed that something was wrong with Xiao Ran and gently asked her a question.

Xiao Ran immediately snapped out of her daze, and her tense body relaxed.

"It's nothing," Xiao Ran said, turning around.

Duan Li nodded slightly, then looked up and stared intently at the situation that had just occurred.

Inside the cave, the man in white was still entangled with 'Little Bodhisattva' Wang Xiaoyang.

"You must be lying to me!" Mo Ping grabbed the hem of Wang Xiaoyang's robe, and due to the disparity in strength between an adult and a child, Wang Xiaoyang's robe was pulled off.

"...I didn't mean to, I just want you to tell me his whereabouts..." Mo Ping looked at the white robe in his hand, looking extremely disappointed.

Wang Xiaoyang felt a sudden chill and immediately glared angrily at Mo Ping behind him. He snatched the white robe from Mo Ping's hand and said, "Can't you see? My grandfather is already dead!"

Wang Xiaoyang stopped pretending and directly stated that Old Wang was his grandfather!

Mo Ping lowered his gaze to the ground and said, "But 'he' is not dead..."

he……?

Xiao Ran's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

But Wang Xiaoyang didn't want to give him face and bluntly said, "What do you mean 'him'? Your good junior brother has been missing for so many days. Either he's dead, or he simply doesn't want to see you! It's so obvious that even a kid like me can see it. Can't you understand?" After saying that, he urged Mo Ping to leave and not bother him.

After hearing Wang Xiaoyang's words, the man in white was stunned for a long time. Suddenly, he laughed self-deprecatingly, as if he had lost his soul, and slowly walked out of the cave.

Seeing the man in white approaching, Duan Li quickly pulled Xiao Ran behind him to hide. However, he could clearly feel that the girl in front of him was stiff, as if she was in a daze.

But at this moment, Xiao Ran was indeed immersed in surprise.

She never expected that her senior brother would go to such lengths to find her; she had thought he wanted to investigate the truth behind Old Wang's death.

Add to that her senior brother's series of reactions just now, and the time he told her to escape from prison earlier...

My senior brother actually cares about her so much.

As Duan Li watched the white-robed man slowly disappear into the distance, he tried to summon Shen Xiao Ran to inquire about the situation, but the girl in front of him didn't even turn around before lifting her dress and running away.

Light rain pattered on the lotus tips, and footsteps created ripples on the water.

"Commander... please wait." Xiao Ran called out.

The man in white turned his head listlessly, stared at her for a moment, and then said absentmindedly, "You are... Miss Xiao?"

"Yes, my daughter Xiao Ran... You must be Commander Mo Ping, we met the other day."

It was on the day the third leader was convicted.

"Hmm," Mo Ping seemed to recall something, then asked, "Is there anything you need, Miss Xiao?"

"I……"

Xiao Ran wanted to say something, but couldn't utter a word.

She wanted to tell her senior brother that he had been searching for that junior brother who was standing right in front of him.

But she dared not say it, nor did she want to.

Mo Ping seemed unresponsive to Xiao Ran's sudden appearance, only saying, "Miss Xiao, if you have nothing else to do, please leave quickly. The mountains are dangerous at night."

Then, feeling that something was amiss, he said, "I'll be going now."

After saying that, he turned and walked out of the forest dejectedly.

Xiao Ran watched his departing figure, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

If the Meng family had no connection with the official family, if she wasn't the general's daughter, if... her senior brother wasn't a member of the Meng family.

Perhaps they can be very good friends.

But without all of this, they wouldn't know each other.

Xiao Ran shook her head, looked away, and gazed at Duan Li, who was hiding behind the tree.

Duanli was still monitoring Wang Xiaoyang's every move.

"Did he make any moves?" Xiao Ran asked as she walked up to him.

"No, we just went into the cave."

Xiao Ran looked back into the cave, which was pitch black, and said, "Let's go in and explore."

“Hmm,” Duanli replied.

……

They soon arrived inside the cave.

The cave was very dark, so Xiao Ran used a tinderbox he carried with him to light it up.

As soon as the light came on, they were both startled.

The stone wall was covered with drawings made of charcoal, depicting flowers, trees, birds, beasts, and some things she had never seen before.

Those things were very strange. Some were square boxes with four round wheels, like carriages, while others had two wheels side by side with a small seat on top, so they didn't look like carriages.

Xiao Ran looked at many more paintings and saw novel and strange ideas in them, as if she were in another world.

This made her even more interested in this 'little bodhisattva'.

But after walking a few steps, they saw the end of the cave, where there was only a few straw mats and some straw.

"He ran away?" Xiao Ran asked.

Duan Li remained silent, but took a few steps forward and began to examine the area carefully.

Xiao Ran took the opportunity to observe the paintings on the stone wall.

She saw things she had never seen before, until she got close to the straw mat and saw some familiar words.

Positive? Lots of positives.

These tally marks are like counting.

At first it was normal, written neatly and orderly, but it became more and more sloppy as it went on, and even... later it was all scribbled and I just stopped writing!

Are they here to buy Guanyin clay? Or what?

Xiao Ran was just guessing, but the more she thought about it, the less she understood. So she simply stopped thinking about it and got up to find Duan Li.

But there were no signs of separation around.

She looked around and murmured, "Severance?"

No one responded.

She had a bad feeling and hurriedly went to search the area where the rupture had been.

"Duanli...Are you there?"

Still no one responded.

The cave was clearly sealed off, so why are the people gone?

Did they leave through the cave entrance? Then why didn't you call her?

She recalled the moments she had shared with Duanli and realized that he wasn't the kind of person who would run away in the face of danger.

They must have discovered something.

This time, Xiao Ran began to explore the cave meticulously, leaving no stone unturned.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before she noticed something was wrong.

It was an extremely inconspicuous corner, where a clump of grass stood tall and unyielding.

Xiao Ran wasn't particularly surprised that grass could grow inside the cave; in fact, she found it quite normal, since grass is very resilient and can survive anywhere.

The strange thing is... this grass is too normal.

Unlike the surrounding grass that was malnourished, soft, and droopy, this grass seemed to have been carefully tended.

Xiao Ran walked over there and found that there were indeed traces on the ground.

She called out again, "...Severance?"

This time, she finally responded.

All that could be heard was a rustling sound of struggling coming from beneath the clump of grass.

She pressed her ear close to the ground.

I could faintly hear people talking.

Xiao Ran suddenly understood something! She grabbed the clump of grass and, with a little force, discovered that a heavy wooden board underneath was slowly being turned over.

Inside were short steps made of piled stones, leading to a certain place.

This structure... reminded her of her senior brother.

Back then, my senior brother would proudly present himself to her with a whole bunch of wooden tools.

She shook her head; now was not the time to think about that.

He leaned over and shouted into the room, "Severance?"

This time, she finally received a clear response, though the voice sounded somewhat pained.

"……girl."

Hearing the voice, Xiao Ran felt relieved and said to the person inside, "Wait a moment, I'll be right down."

But the response from the detached party was particularly strange.

Because Xiao Ran had never heard him speak with such a serious voice before.

"do not move!"