Plotting with You: The Forensic Scientist in Ancient Times!-Chapter 428 - 427: White Light

After an unknown amount of time, Zhu Yu slowly regained consciousness, her mind gradually becoming clear.

In this sunless tunnel, she couldn’t determine how long she had been passed out, but the moment she woke up, she felt incredibly cold, as if the surface she lay on wasn’t a stone slab, but a massive block of ice, sucking away every ounce of warmth from her body. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Zhu Yu shivered as she got up, first checking the injury on her leg. She found that the bleeding had stopped, and her foot didn’t feel uncomfortable from prolonged poor circulation.

It seemed she hadn’t been unconscious for too long.

Zhu Yu reached out and touched the ground beneath her. Sure enough, an unusual chill rose up, and even though her hand was already very cold, she could still feel the abnormally low temperature.

This was no ordinary stone slab.

Zhu Yu quickly came to this conclusion in her mind and carefully propped herself up to stand.

The time of death of the female corpse was likely much older than she had previously estimated in her heart.

Though she didn’t know the secret of the stone slab beneath her feet, she understood why no deadly traps lay hidden here—the ground continually emitted cold air, drawing away the body’s warmth.

If someone were to try hiding here, the end result might be freezing to death from hypothermia.

Though the wound on her leg had stopped bleeding, it still hurt. Even if she wanted to jump in place to warm herself, she couldn’t manage.

She tore a piece of cloth from her outer dress and rewrapped it around the injured leg, slightly looser than before—her legs needed proper blood circulation, and re-bandaging was merely to keep the wound stable while walking, preventing it from reopening.

Now, there was only one path forward. Zhu Yu carefully wrapped her clothes around herself, returned to the tunnel entrance where she had come in, cautiously leaned forward to grab a few iron needles that were within reach, adding them to the one from before and the one she pulled from her wound, and tucked them into her belt.

The path ahead was still a tunnel, but it seemed wider than the way in, though also darker.

Thinking carefully, Zhu Yu picked up the remaining piece of her torn outer dress, wrapping it around her head, face, and neck like a large scarf, leaving two strips of fabric to wrap her hands as well.

Aside from helping preserve body heat, there was another reason for doing this.

The situation ahead was still unknown, but a strong intuition told her that in this tunnel, the less exposed skin, the better, even if it was merely a thin layer of fabric; it offered more protection.

With these preparations made, she steeled her resolve, took a deep breath, and limped onward.

In the dim tunnel, Zhu Yu moved slowly, each step causing excruciating pain in her wounded leg, severely slowing her down, forcing her to move at a crawl, all the while listening intently for any sounds of mechanisms operating.

After moving a short distance, Zhu Yu faintly heard some rustling sounds in her ears, completely unlike the previous mechanical noises—it was very subtle, very small, and very irregular.

Perhaps her eyes had finally adapted to the even dimmer light, and she felt like shadowy things moved around her in the darkness.

Suddenly, something fell on her shoulder and began to move swiftly.

The sensation of numerous tiny legs moving made Zhu Yu’s scalp tingle, and instinctively, she held her breath, standing motionless, her skin prickling as she felt those legs move from her shoulder to her back, then up her neck to the top of her head, and gradually moving towards her forehead.

Zhu Yu gritted her teeth tightly, struggling to resist the urge to shake off whatever was on her.

It was most likely a spider on her body. It probably wasn’t small, and those rustlings around her indicated that its kind must be countless in this section of the tunnel.

The tunnel certainly wasn’t designed to let anyone out alive. These spiders were likely not ordinary but possibly venomous; she didn’t dare take the risk.

The only solace was that she had wrapped her head, face, and neck with the dead woman’s dress. Otherwise, who knew what the situation would be.

Unfortunately, the dress was a very thin gauze, just sheer enough to dimly see the way ahead, but should the spider bite hard, it could easily pierce through the fabric and into her skin.

In just a flash of a moment, the spider above had crawled to Zhu Yu’s face.

Its slender legs hooked onto the gauze in front of Zhu Yu, its small head sporting a pair of scimitar-like fangs, seemingly capable of piercing through skin, and its round belly bore faint white patterns reminiscent of a menacing ghostly face.

Though she couldn’t recognize which species of spider it was, just looking at its appearance filled Zhu Yu with great unease.

The spider lay quietly on the gauze in front of Zhu Yu, who hurriedly held her breath to prevent her exhaled breath from startling it.

It was unknown how much time had passed, almost suffocating her, when the spider finally moved again, its eight long legs slowly climbing away.

And in this breath-holding, cautious moment, the spiders crawling around grew noticeably denser.

It’s as if they sensed something, all converging towards Zhu Yu.

Zhu Yu dared not remain still or make abrupt movements, gingerly moving forward step by step, with only her two feet slowly advancing, while the rest of her body seemed to be locked in place, like a rigid piece of wood, unable to move.

Soon she felt more and more things crawling on her, but could only grit her teeth, moving forward step by step, gradually feeling spiders beneath her feet.

Their round bodies burst under her soles, and each step sent a jolt of fear and dread through her.

Step by step, slowly she moved forward, and finally, a light appeared at the end of the dark tunnel.

That light wasn’t the faint glow of a torch but a brilliant white light, as though a blazing sun hung in the distance, glaring brightly.

Zhu Yu’s heart lifted with joy.

Could it be that she was about to escape?