The waiter struggled to move a loose wall brick in a corner of the cellar, revealing a hidden compartment.
What the shopkeeper meant by "taking care of it" was hiding the item right here.
Although he didn't understand why a single jar of rice wine needed to be hidden so secretly, he just assumed it contained some ancestral recipe and the boss was terrified of it being stolen. Usually, they were only allowed to lift a small opening to scoop out the wine, and no one was ever permitted to break the entire seal.
"Miss, you..."
He had just picked up the earthen jar and turned around when his voice abruptly stopped.
A sudden sharp pain struck the side of his neck, his vision went black, and his entire body slumped limply to the ground.
Song Yueyao deftly caught the falling jar and lifted her chin toward Chai Xiaomi. "Xiaomi, let's go!"
For a martial artist, a ladder was virtually useless. Holding the wine jar steadily in one hand, she leaped lightly and darted out of the cellar entrance like a swallow.
Seeing Song Yueyao about to place the jar on the ground and come back down to get her, Chai Xiaomi quickly waved her hands. "You don't need to help me, I can climb up myself. Hurry and show them the wine."
They had finally gotten their hands on this rice wine; if anything else went wrong, all their efforts would be in vain.
"Xiaomi, are you sure?" Song Yueyao was still worried. The ladder got steeper near the top, and with her current condition, she could not afford a fall.
"I can do it." Chai Xiaomi only wished for her to leave quickly. Forced to maintain her "pregnant" persona, she had to pretend to climb slowly and carefully. Only after Song Yueyao left could she climb up nimbly.
But Song Yueyao stubbornly waited at the cellar entrance. Seeing that she had climbed halfway, she leaned down and reached out her hand. "Come, I'll pull you up."
This cellar was similar to the armory in her grandfather's military camp. The entrance was narrow and deep. Going down was easy, but climbing back to the surface required a certain knack. Those unfamiliar with the structure often needed a helping hand to get up smoothly.
Looking at Song Yueyao's hand reaching out to her, silhouetted against the light, Chai Xiaomi was inexplicably stunned.
Without warning, the word "family" popped into her mind.
A rush of warmth surged to her nose. She sniffled, her voice light and cheerful. "Alright, I'm coming up!"
Just as she reached out and was about to touch Song Yueyao's fingertips, a clear, cold voice suddenly cut in.
"Sister, no need to trouble yourself. Let me do it."
As if afraid Song Yueyao would insist, the young man deliberately added softly, "Jiang Zhiyu is looking everywhere for you."
"Alright." Seeing Wu Li appear, Song Yueyao finally felt at ease. "Then you pull Xiaomi up. I'll take this wine to be examined first."
The light in front of Chai Xiaomi dimmed a bit. Wu Li was taller and broader than Song Yueyao, blocking out a large portion of the light.
The young man stood with his back to the light, his silhouette coated in a hazy halo. His hand reached down further than Song Yueyao's had, hanging quietly in front of her eyes.
Motionless, waiting for her.
Facing the light, Chai Xiaomi couldn't clearly see the expression on his face, but she felt that this helping hand harbored ill intentions.
After all, she had just bitten him.
So, she stiffened her neck, deliberately ignored the hand, and gripped the rough bamboo ladder to continue climbing.
Having been pranked so many times, one had to be extra cautious.
A very light chuckle drifted down from above.
He withdrew his hand. "Don't beg me later."
Chai Xiaomi scoffed at his arrogant tone. Was he joking? It was just a cellar entrance. As if she couldn't climb out on her own!
The very next second, she was proven wrong.
She didn't know if the designer of this cellar specifically wanted to prevent wine thieves, but the exit was extremely narrow, and the inner side had an imperceptible inward slope.
Going down was smooth, but coming up relied entirely on brute arm strength.
And for a physically unfit slacker like Chai Xiaomi, there was obviously only one option left right now.
"Um... handsome, could you be so kind as to lend a hand?"
Half of a fluffy head cautiously poked out of the cellar entrance.
Chai Xiaomi felt exactly like a sneaky, peering mole in a game of Whack-A-Mole. If the spectator above was even slightly displeased, a casual swing of a mallet could smash her right back into the hole.
However, Wu Li merely crouched down unhurriedly, resting his chin on one hand. His lowered eyelashes cast a small shadow under his eyes as he looked her over with great interest, like he was admiring some amusing trapped beast.
"Beg me."
Heh, here we go again.
She seriously suspected that Wu Li's ultimate goal in life was to be gilded in a temple and worshipped as a great Buddha; otherwise, why would he be so obsessed with hearing people beg!
Did he really think she was a spineless pushover?
...Well, yes, she was.
"I'm begging you, Lili~~ Please help me out!" She instantly switched to a cutesy voice, fully embracing the spirit of flexibility without the slightest psychological burden.
Wu Li gave her a deep look but didn't move an inch. "Not enough."
"...!?"
"Just now down below, when you were begging for rice wine, you weren't this perfunctory." His gaze fixed on the corners of her eyes, which were still slightly red from her previous fake crying. Her tear-stained pupils looked exceptionally bright and moist. He twitched the corners of his mouth and sneered, "A person on the verge of dying from thirst—lake water, rainwater, well water, couldn't you drink any of those? But no, you had to eagerly wait for a 'kind soul' to bring you rice wine. Next time you make up a story, at least put some effort into it."
So her highly emotional acting performance in the wine cellar had been entirely witnessed by him.
It was a rather awkward social death.
After all, she had shed tears in front of Wu Li quite a few times, some real and some fake. She had no idea what he was thinking at this moment. Chai Xiaomi could only offer a lame excuse: "I'm just a picky drinker, is that a crime?"
His eyes held a hint of deep, probing curiosity. He truly couldn't understand how someone who could be sobbing like a fragile kitten one second could bare her fangs and claws to snap at him the next.
Were her tears a weapon used in desperation to exploit people, or a habitual tactic to manipulate their hearts?
He had never cried, so he didn't understand.
Seeing Wu Li remain silent for a long while, Chai Xiaomi's arms clinging to the ladder grew increasingly sore and began to tremble. "What on earth do you want before you pull me up?!"
Her urging brought him back to his senses. Wu Li's moist eyes shifted slightly, and he curled his lips into a smile, clearly having come up with a new idea.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Let me bite you back."
Fine, fine, fine.
What a literal "tooth" for a "tooth."
Chai Xiaomi admitted defeat. "Fine, but pull me up first."
Seeing that Wu Li was finally willing to lend a hand, Chai Xiaomi's tense and aching legs subconsciously relaxed a fraction. But she never expected that with just this tiny moment of slackness, the bamboo ladder beneath her feet would suddenly slip!
Before she could even touch his fingertips, she suddenly lost her balance and plummeted straight down into the deep, dark cellar!
It all happened so fast. She only had time to let out half a gasp. With the sound of the wind filling her ears, she could only shut her eyes tightly.
This cellar was extremely deep, visually estimated to be seven or eight meters high. Falling down, she would be half-crippled if not dead.
Chai Xiaomi's mind went blank, almost able to foresee the miserable state of her shattered body.
However, in just a short two or three seconds, the fierce sound of the wind was suddenly replaced by a crisp, frantic jingle of silver ornaments. The next instant, she landed safely in a cool yet broad and steady embrace.
The massive impact caused the person catching her to let out a muffled groan, but his arms wrapped around her even tighter. He immediately spun around, using the momentum to absorb the force of the fall.
"Your stupidity is going to be the death of me one day!" the young man spat, his face cold, every word forced through gritted teeth.
He looked down and shot her a fierce glare, his expression dark and furious.
Still trembling from the shock, Chai Xiaomi curled up in his arms. Her wandering gaze settled near his temple, fixing on a snapped silver hair tie that revealed a faint, reddened scrape on his skin.
The opening of the cellar was incredibly narrow, its edges lined with jagged, rough stones and sharp protrusions. Did he get hurt because he was in such a desperate rush to come down and save her?
Before Chai Xiaomi could take a closer look, Wu Li vaulted onto the ladder without another word. He pushed her safely out of the cellar first, then lightly leaped out of the opening after her.
