Plotting with You: The Forensic Scientist in Ancient Times!-Chapter 426 - 425: Traps

Zhu Yu was startled and glanced at the ground, discovering that the ground here actually had a slope that was not easily noticeable, getting lower toward the door and slightly higher toward the tunnel entrance.

She was now standing at the door, nearly the lowest point, so the flowing fine sand quickly gathered at her feet. In the blink of an eye, it rose from her ankles to the depth of her calves.

If she remained still now, and continued to let it bury her upwards, very soon Zhu Yu’s legs would be completely trapped in the quicksand, unable to move, only to be buried and finally suffocated to death.

Zhu Yu dared not hesitate any longer and had to make an effort to move her legs towards the direction of the tunnel entrance.

The ground was full of flowing sand, every step was either deep or shallow, along with the sand flowing underfoot and the hem of her dress being pressed by the sand, bringing her more resistance.

At that moment, Zhu Yu regretted having to wear women’s clothing to blend into the Little Mountain Building.

If it were like before, wearing a Taoist robe or dressed like a scholar in the Capital, it would have been much more convenient now.

While struggling to move her legs towards a slightly higher ground, she wrestled with whether she should tear off the dress hem.

She quickly abandoned this idea.

Up ahead I didn’t know what was waiting, and tearing off the dress hem recklessly, leaving only thin undershorts covering her legs, seemed unwise.

In front of an unknown tunnel, it would neither be warm nor durable.

After much effort, Zhu Yu finally moved to the tunnel entrance, where the flowing sand slowed down, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief, leaning against the tunnel entrance to catch her breath.

She looked down at her dress, reached to tug at the hem, and realized that although the dress was torn and old, the hem was quite wide. She immediately decided to bend down and tear the front and back panels from the middle, tying each segment on the inner thighs, forcefully turning the cloth dress into pants.

Looking back, the sand finally stopped pouring down; behind her was now a massive sand dune, and the original spot seemed to have piled up almost as tall as a person.

If Zhu Yu had not escaped in time earlier, hesitated any longer, she would have been buried already.

With a racing heart, Zhu Yu took a few deep breaths to calm her emotions and regain composure in order to consider her next move.

The damp and cold air carried a faint smell of blood, not strong, but discernible.

She sniffed carefully again; indeed, there was a faint smell of blood. Aside from a mixed scent of humidity, there was not a trace of rotting smell mixed in.

There was a blood scent but no rotten smell... Zhu Yu felt inexplicably nervous.

This place surely had seen death, and from Nanny Shi’s stance and that of her two guards earlier, they were unwilling to step further inside, indicating that there must be many lethal hidden mechanisms within this tunnel, even fierce beasts...

However, why was there only a blood scent and no rotting smell? Was it because the cold within prevented decay, or did whatever entered become something’s food or chew toy...

Zhu Yu shuddered.

At first, when they made the decision, she was more worried about Yan Daoxin left behind, unsure if he could handle it.

But now... she couldn’t afford to consider that.

Whether ahead was a path of life or death was still unknown.

But her instinct told her that the mechanism setup in this tunnel was vicious, leaving no chance for anyone to linger hesitantly at the entrance.

At this moment, what she needed to consider was what to do when the next step hit her in the face.

There was dim light inside the tunnel, seemingly from lamps on the wall at intervals.

However, the light was even dimmer than the torch here, making it difficult to see what lay ahead.

Zhu Yu scanned around; besides the fine sand beneath her feet, there wasn’t a single tool or even a small stick to be found.

She felt this quicksand was intentionally driving people forward, and the seemingly calm narrow passage ahead might hold unknown mysteries.

Zhu Yu crouched down, using the dim light to scrutinize the path before her, slowly spotting something.

On the walls on both sides, looking closely, the surface seemed not particularly smooth, and further inspection of the ground showed what appeared to be a compacted dirt floor was, on closer examination, a layer of dirt covering a small stone-paved path.

Zhu Yu noticed that the soil on the stone-bricked path varied slightly in color, some patches deeper and some lighter, tempting her to examine more closely for potential secrets.

But the light was too dim to see clearly.

Just as Zhu Yu squinted at the path, something brushed against her heel, startling her into turning around, only to find the sand behind her beginning to pour down again, faster than before.

Seeing the mountain-like sand collapsing toward the tunnel entrance, Zhu Yu’s heart tightened, with no other choice but to run forward, trying to escape the surge of "sand waves" behind her.

While running, she suddenly felt one of the footfalls on the ground beneath slightly soft, realizing as she sped past.

At that instant, a force jerked at her pants leg, causing her to stumble and fall.

Without delay, Zhu Yu turned to check, discovering that the sand stopped flowing again.

And what had "caught" her pant leg was nothing but a more than three-inch long iron needle. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The needle seemed to have shot from a small hole in the opposite wall, embedded firmly in the dirt wall alongside Zhu Yu, pinning the makeshift pant leg.

Seeing the pinned pant leg, Zhu Yu felt a chill down her spine.

If she hadn’t lingered long enough at the entrance and been scared by the second sand pour to run quickly, if she had walked leisurely step by step...

Then she might have triggered the mechanism, and that needle could have shot through her calf!