How could I possibly be confined in a cage?

Although the cliff was quite high, it wasn't very steep, and there were protruding rocks every now and then that served as footholds.

With a final push, the second brother finally jumped down.

Unfortunately, the clothes were torn in several places, revealing the blackened and stiff cotton underneath.

Without thinking twice, the second brother rushed towards the spot where the carriage had crashed as soon as he got off. The carriage was completely wrecked, with only the metal windows and doors still holding together.

There were dried bloodstains on the deformed edge of the vehicle, and the seat inside had completely fallen apart, revealing the straw inside.

The second brother frowned deeply. There were originally two people hiding under the car seat, so why have they disappeared?

It ran away on its own? That's impossible; falling from such a height would leave someone crippled, if not dead. Could it have been eaten by a wild animal? But there are no signs of any predators around here.

After much thought, it was highly likely that his second sister-in-law had taken the people away. His tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly; thank goodness. Since she could take two people alive despite being injured, her condition must not be too serious.

"Hmph, they're just trying to trick me."

Once he figured things out, the second brother stopped being in a hurry. He wanted to erase all traces of his presence before escaping with his sister-in-law.

I broke off a cypress branch and swept away the footprints; they would soon be covered by the swirling snow.

The second brother tried his best to walk along the mountainside on tiptoe, and then used tree branches to smooth it out.

He hadn't walked more than a hundred meters when he suddenly seemed to notice something and let out a "haha" laugh.

"You were just like I thought."

It turned out that he had also found footprints on the mountain wall, only half a palm's width high. If someone didn't know this method, they probably wouldn't have noticed them.

The footsteps were light, probably because they were fleeing at high speed and didn't have time to clear the tracks.

The second brother followed the footprints while cleaning up the mess.

Before long, the footprints disappeared, and what appeared before the second brother was a waterfall with icicles hanging from it. The pool at the bottom was about ten square meters, and the surrounding damp ground was covered with a thick layer of ice.

This place was unusually cold, like the Arctic ice field, with everything frozen except for a few clumps of flowing water.

Behind the frozen waterfall are several dark openings, the largest of which is only big enough for a child to squeeze through, and the smallest no bigger than an adult's palm.

The second brother went over, and there were inch-long calamus plants growing at the entrances of the holes, maintaining their precious green color in the winter. Even more amazing, there were two flat, elongated leaves covered with ice, pressed against the entrance of the hole and arranged in an "X" shape. The second brother became excited, he had finally found it!

He taught his second sister-in-law this way of marking things; if you saw this mark, your second sister-in-law must be hiding inside.

He threw the medicine he had on him down into the hole, and when he heard a "thump," he judged that the hole was only four or five meters deep. Then, he used his contortionist technique to squeeze into the hole.

"It's you?!"

"It's me! I've come looking for you!"

The two were very familiar with each other. The second sister-in-law recognized their belongings from the medicine bottle she had just thrown away. She just didn’t expect that her second brother could still escape!

"How are you? Are you hurt?" they asked at the same time, then looked at each other and smiled. Seeing that they had only suffered minor cuts and bruises and had not broken any bones, they were overjoyed and burst into tears.

Sister-in-law Niu couldn't see clearly in the darkness, but she secretly scoffed. Anyone who didn't know them would think they were such a kind and loving couple, so affectionate. It was truly absurd.

The second brother and sister-in-law hugged each other tightly for a long time before separating.

“We’re leaving now. I only escaped because I injured the jailer. They might be following me looking for you.”

Second sister-in-law nodded and said, "Okay, I'll do whatever you say."

"Wait, what's she doing here?" the second brother asked in surprise, only to find that Sister-in-law Niu had been left lying to the side like a puddle of mud.

The second sister-in-law watched coldly and said calmly, "The roads are slippery in the snow, and someone is chasing us. I thought someone had to find me food."

Sister-in-law Niu immediately felt a chill run down her spine, her whole body trembled, and she was already afraid to speak. Now she wished she could even shut her breath, as long as the two of them couldn't see her.

The second brother nodded knowingly and immediately helped his sister-in-law walk outside.

"Is there any other way out? Do we have to climb up and go out through that cave entrance again?"

Second Sister-in-law looked at the dim surroundings, shook her head, and said, "I guess there aren't any more. I've checked, and this is the only way out. There are many caves like this here, winding and turning. If you're not familiar with them, you might end up inside the mountain."

That's true. Rather than facing an unfamiliar environment, it's better to go back the way we came. The police might not be able to find us, and even if they do, we might still be able to escape.

"Fine, if I can escape from them once, I can escape twice. Let's go."

"Wait a minute," the second sister-in-law tugged at the second brother's sleeve, "this..."

She was referring to Sister-in-law Niu. The second brother thought for a moment, "No, let's escape first. There might be a chance to make a comeback."

Sister-in-law Niu was terrified. Just now she was afraid of being discovered, and now she was afraid of being abandoned. "Second brother and sister-in-law, please don't leave me. I can do a lot of work. I can even sell myself. Please take me with you."

The second brother sneered, "You were probably forced in here. The entrance is so small, and you don't know how to shrink your bones, so they probably had to break your bones to throw you in. Now that we've brought you here, how much are you worth?"

Despite the pain, Sister-in-law Niu pleaded, "Please, I've saved up a lot of money over the years. I'll give it all to you. I don't ask you to save me, just don't leave me here."

The second brother and sister-in-law exchanged a glance, both seeing the mockery in each other's eyes, and then ignored her, walking away one after the other.

"Hey, wait for me! Don't leave me behind! Help me! Help me!..."

Sister-in-law Niu cried her heart out, just like the girls she had sold or trafficked, "Don't leave me, take me with you!... Help!"

A mournful sound echoed throughout the cave, "squeak, squeak," which quickly attracted something.

"what?!"

Sister-in-law Niu was startled. Although she couldn't jump anymore, her heart was pounding in her chest.

In this pitch-black hole, besides rats, who knows what other wild animals might be lurking?

"Squeak, squeak," the sound rang out again. Sister-in-law Niu strained her eyes to see, and saw a creature that resembled a mouse but was not quite a mouse. It was entirely blackish-gray, with small, beady eyes that glowed with a faint green light in the darkness. It looked more like a pangolin, with hard armor on its body, a long, thin tail, and fur on its head. It could also stand upright like a rabbit, and was about the size of a one-year-old child.

It made a strange "squeak" sound, which made Sister Niu's heart pound. The terrifying creature first kept its distance from her, as if observing her. When it saw that she really didn't move, it moved closer.

After several attempts, the creature finally approached Sister-in-law Niu, sniffing the bloody scent emanating from her.

My second sister-in-law is very rough. When she hurriedly pushed her into the cave entrance, she not only broke her in several places, but also rubbed her flesh raw.

The creature greedily sniffed the scent of blood. Sister-in-law Niu was so frightened that she dared not utter a sound, and tears of despair streamed from her eyes.

Then the creature could no longer bear it, opened its mouth wide, and bit down hard on her wound, tearing off a large chunk of flesh, along with some fascia still attached to her body.

"Ah!!" Sister-in-law Niu could no longer hold back and let out a shrill scream.

Although the creature didn't look very big, it had a row of teeth when it opened its mouth, enough to bite off a human's head.

As Sister-in-law Niu screamed and the creature chewed, more and more squeaks emerged from the darkness, and they swarmed forward...

Sister-in-law Niu finally breathed her last. At that moment, a gunshot rang out from outside the cave, followed by a cannon shot. The signal flare was launched from the ground into the air, and the instantaneous light flashed through the cave entrance onto Sister-in-law Niu's unwilling eyes.

Then even the eyes disappeared, and the cave returned to calm. Apart from the skeleton and the thick, lingering stench of blood, it seemed that nothing had happened.