Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 880 Dark Place

The main room fell silent again, with only the occasional crackling of burning candles.

Yu Shijiu knew that the peace they were in was likely very short-lived. The time that He Lingling and Chen Yi had gained by getting away was limited, and they had to find more clues as soon as possible.

His gaze fell on the cabinet again.

The crawling sound from deep within the soil of the main room had interrupted his investigation, but now, another opportunity had arisen.

“Thumbelina,” Yu Shijiu pointed to the back of the cabinet, “Let’s go take a look there. You don’t seem to have cleaned the gap over there, do you?”

He needed to know what was going on with the scraping sound Anjie made when she opened the cabinet alone, and Liu Zhong's head...

Could they also be related to the feeling that Thumbelina "stayed for more than one night"?

Thumbelina looked in the direction he pointed, and her body trembled almost imperceptibly.

The cabinet gave her an extremely ominous feeling, a feeling that instinctively aroused her resistance even more than the rustling sounds coming from the surrounding soil.

"me……"

But when Thumbelina looked up and saw Yu Shijiu's calm and determined profile, she bit her lower lip and finally nodded.

"Okay, I'll go clean."

Yu Shijiu smiled and said, "Then you wipe the back of the cabinet, and I'll wipe the inside."

Thumbelina was taken aback, and instinctively asked, "Are you going to wipe it too?"

“Of course,” Yu Shijiu blinked and said matter-of-factly, “We’re friends, and friends should have a reasonable division of labor and work together to clean.”

Thumbelina paused, her grip on the rag slowly tightening, before finally letting out a slow, guttural response.

"Um...we are friends."

Yu Shijiu pretended not to notice that Thumbelina's voice was trembling again—really, he genuinely thought Thumbelina was perfect in every way, obedient, gentle, and beautiful, except that she really cried too much.

What's so funny about going to clean a cabinet together?

Yu Shijiu couldn't figure this out no matter how hard he tried.

After getting close to the cabinet, Thumbelina obediently bent down to wipe the gaps behind it.

Yu Shijiu finally opened the cabinet door completely and looked at it with great excitement.

The cupboard contained only neatly stacked bowls and chopsticks, and even some dried potatoes and radishes... and something that looked like seasonings.

Yu Shijiu: "..."

Yu Shijiu was very disappointed with this perfectly normal "food" and tableware.

Why was Sister An able to win such a big prize?

Despite her disappointment, Yu Shijiu still pouted and began wiping the grime in the cupboard that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

Never mind... maybe it's because it's daytime?

The candlelight cast his and Thumbelina's shadows as they bent over to wipe the wall onto the dim, yellowish earthen wall, making their heads and bodies appear elongated and somewhat disproportionate.

Deep within the soil surrounding the cave, something seemed to awaken, groping its way toward the two people beside the cupboard.

The boy, busy wiping the cabinets, seemed oblivious to everything, continuing to bend over and diligently clean every speck of dust within his sight.

The rustling sounds mingled with the swiping of the cloth across the wooden surface, masking the approaching, gazing movements in the darkness.

————————Underground warehouse.

He Lingling and Chen Yi were racking their brains to deal with the old field mouse who showed no concern for the swallow's condition.

"It's just a dying swallow," the old field mouse continued to grumble. "Why don't we just find a way to throw it out?"

He Lingling's expression remained unchanged as she awkwardly replied to the old field mouse's grumbling, "Grandma Field Mouse, we were just afraid that the swallow was your guest, so we didn't dare to touch it..."

Chen Yi chimed in, "Yes, you should take a look at it first. The injury on its wing looks quite serious. Does it need some medicine or something?"

The old field mouse sneered, "Apply medicine? Does it even deserve to waste its precious medicine on me?"

"..."

He Lingling and Chen Yi exchanged a glance.

The old field mouse's actions are very much in line with the plot of the original story.

In the original story, the old field mouse didn't treat the swallow well, and Thumbelina, feeling sorry for the swallow, would sneak around to greet it... It's hard to say whether their actions of calling the old field mouse over were right or wrong.

Chen Yi was somewhat worried, his gaze involuntarily falling on the swallows in the soil above the corner of the warehouse ahead.

He Lingling winked at him secretly.

rest assured.

Seeing her lip movements, Chen Yi felt much more at ease.

Lingling, being the smartest among them, said that if nothing's wrong, then nothing will happen.

Anjie and Xu Han stayed a little further away, close to the soil layer where the swallows were, ready to deal with any possible conflict.

As the old field mouse got closer and closer to the swallow's location, everyone in the warehouse could feel the atmosphere becoming increasingly tense, like a string stretched to its limit.

Just as the old field mouse impatiently leaned on his cane, almost reaching the foot of the swallow's nest to deal with this "trouble" himself—

"Snapped!"

A soft but clear cracking sound came from a corner of the warehouse.

The sound wasn't loud, but it sounded particularly jarring in the tense silence.

Everyone, including the old field mouse, instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.

Xu Han stood there helplessly, with a thin clod of earth that had just broken off the wall and shattered into pieces at his feet.

He was pale and stammered as he explained:

"I...I didn't mean to, I just...I just leaned against the wall...I didn't expect, I didn't expect the wall to be so flimsy..."

The detachment of this piece of soil seemed accidental, but He Lingling understood the moment she saw it—it was a small disturbance created by Xu Han in a moment of desperation, according to their previously agreed-upon backup plan, intended to divert the old field mouse's attention.

Sure enough, the old field mouse's small, beady eyes narrowed immediately, and it shifted its gaze from the swallow to Xu Han with a cold stare.

"Clumsy!"

The old field mouse scolded, slamming his cane heavily on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. "It seems you not only failed to take care of yourselves, but you're even going to tear down my home!"

Its anger was successfully directed at Xu Han and the "property damage" incident, and it temporarily forgot about the dying swallow.

Above the soil, the swallow that had been chirping to He Lingling and the others just moments before now had its head drooping, looking completely lifeless and stiff.

He Lingling's gaze swept over Yanzi's stiff body; she didn't think Yanzi's current state was right.

There's no reason why the swallow, which just now had the strength to call for help, would now be "dead."

It's playing dead.

The reason why Yanzi pretended to be dead was because He Lingling's gaze fell on the old field mouse's back.

It's because the old field mouse came.