Chapter 160: Transformation

Four more tally marks had been carved onto the wood. Over these past twenty-some days, Zhang Can had grown increasingly attentive and tender toward Su Xue, and she in turn had become exceptionally gentle, entirely shedding her former wild and unruly disposition. However, Su Xue also noticed that Zhang Can's old devil-may-care expression had vanished without a trace; his smiles were fewer, and the joy in his eyes was always a mingled brew of happiness and heavy sorrow.

In the dead of night, Su Xue awoke with a start. Reaching out into the empty space beside her, she found it cold. Rising hastily, she stepped outside to take a look and saw Zhang Can sitting in a daze by the edge of the pool under the hazy moonlight, his eyes fixed blankly on the water. In the stillness of the night, his solitary figure appeared profoundly lonely and desolate.

A sharp pang of agony pierced Su Xue's heart. Stepping softly forward, she sat down beside him, uttering not a word, and simply pressed her body close against his.

Coming to his senses, Zhang Can quickly helped Su Xue back inside the wooden cabin. The night was chilly and damp; he might not care about his own comfort, but he could not allow Su Xue to catch a cold. Now that she was pregnant, she required all the more care.

Neither Zhang Can nor Su Xue had any prior experience whatsoever, nor did they know what precautions to take or what dangers to guard against. They were complete novices at parenting. More importantly, this place was utterly devoid of supplies. The only truly useful item was Su Xue's dagger; their two handguns were completely useless. There wasn't even any large wildlife here, and aside from the fact that they could not leave, there were no other threats.

Though they exchanged no further words, Zhang Can simply held Su Xue in his arms as they slept. But Su Xue found herself utterly unable to close her eyes. After a long while, sensing that Zhang Can had finally fallen asleep, she cautiously raised her head to look at him. By the faint moonlight, she saw residual tears clinging to the corners of his eyes, and another wave of sharp pain clenched her heart. Zhang Can had never truly been happy!

When dawn broke, Zhang Can woke up and found that Su Xue was no longer beside him. He sat up and stretched lazily. For the first time in so long, he had slept in, waking up later than Su Xue.

Stepping out of the cabin and looking up at the sky, he estimated it was around nine in the morning. Su Xue was by the source of the hot spring, scalding fish. Zhang Can walked over to the lakeshore to wash his face, his mind already turning to what tasks lay ahead—whether he should cut some rattan and timber to build a crib.

Su Xue returned carrying fish wrapped in fresh leaves. Without going into the cabin, she spread them out on the grass where Zhang Can was sitting. Seeing that there were actually three fish wrapped in the leaves, Zhang Can could not help laughing and said, "What's gotten into you today? Why did you catch three? We'll never finish all of this!"

Su Xue said quietly, "Eat a bit more. I have something to tell you in a little while!"

Zhang Can paused, surprised. Seeing that Su Xue did not look like she was joking and was being entirely serious, he couldn't figure out what she wanted to say. He thought better of it and decided to just eat the fish; Su Xue had never been one to keep secrets hidden for long, and she would naturally tell him soon enough.

To his further bewilderment, Su Xue began eating the fish along with him. This struck Zhang Can as even more abnormal, for Su Xue had always loved watching him eat and rarely ate alongside him in total silence.

A heavy feeling began to settle in Zhang Can's chest. He quickly forced himself to eat, devouring two of the fish until he was completely stuffed and literally could not take another bite. Su Xue, meanwhile, had stopped eating long ago.

"Su Xue, what is it? Tell me!" Zhang Can asked the moment he put his food down. Unless he found out, this uncertainty would weigh heavily on his mind like an illness.

Su Xue moved closer, pressing against Zhang Can and leaning her head into his chest. Then, in a low voice, she said, "Zhang Can, I want to leave. I don't want to stay in this place anymore!"

Zhang Can froze. He had considered countless possibilities, but none of them had led to this. Su Xue had never shown any sign of disliking this place; she had always seemed willing and happy. By his estimation, she might have grown tired of the food or wanted to do something else, but he had never imagined she would say she did not want to stay here.

Stunned, Zhang Can was at a loss for what to do. If it were something within his power, he naturally would have had no objections. But as for leaving—he longed for it even more than Su Xue did. Yet what could he do? He couldn't leave either. In this desperate trap, unless they grew wings, how could anyone possibly escape?

The most critical problem was that no one in the outside world knew they were in this place, nor did they possess any tools to communicate with the outside or send a message. Zheng Dabao and Wang Qian had no idea whether they were still alive, nor could they possibly imagine that they had ended up in such a place via the underground river. No one could ever guess it.

In truth, Su Xue herself had many things she could not fully explain, but Zhang Can had offered his simple explanation, and she could tell that he still harbored secrets he had not shared. Yet Su Xue had no desire to pressure him; she had never thought to interrogate him about things he was reluctant to discuss.

After sitting in silence for a while, Zhang Can furrowed his brow and said, "Su Xue, th-this... I want to leave too, but we simply can't get out!"

Su Xue caught her breath, then continued, "I thought about it last night. You were right—we truly cannot spend our entire lives stuck in a place like this. It doesn't matter so much for the two of us, but what about our child? If our child has to spend a lifetime imprisoned in this place as well, I cannot bear it. I truly cannot bear it..."

At this, Su Xue could no longer hold back her tears, and her voice choked with sobs.

During this period, not only had Su Xue's personality grown gentler, but she had also become sentimental, displaying her true emotions unreservedly before Zhang Can. If it were Zhou Nan or Liu Qiaoxin weeping at the drop of a hat, Zhang Can would have found it normal, but this was Su Xue. To see Su Xue weeping and in such deep sorrow was an exceedingly rare sight.

Zhang Can fell silent as well. What use was it to dislike living here if they couldn't leave? They were fated to grow old and die in this place, and their child would have to live out an entire lifetime here too. There was simply no alternative.

Su Xue went on, "Zhang Can, that's why I've decided—we must get out!"

Zhang Can stared at her in shock. "How do we get out? Do you know a way?"

"Zhang Can, let's take a gamble one more time. Didn't we survive the last time we did something like this?" Su Xue pointed toward the pool as she spoke.

Zhang Can instantly understood what Su Xue meant, and his body gave an involuntary shudder. That had always seemed to him like a terrifying notion, which was why he had never entertained it again. Su Xue's intention was clearly for them to try their luck once more through the subterranean river in the pool, to see if they could find another exit. If they succeeded, it would be a miraculous blessing; if they failed, the two of them would find their graves deep beneath the snow mountains.

Hesitation gripped Zhang Can. Su Xue was gambling on his diving capabilities, and on the possibility that she too could somehow endure the freezing cold and breathing difficulties underwater. What terrified Zhang Can was the sheer scale and complexity of these vast snow mountains; who could know where these underground rivers led? Who could know what deadlier perils lurked in those subterranean waters? If they encountered an impassable obstruction, an underground waterfall, or a sheer precipice, it would spell certain death for them all.

Moreover, there was one critical issue: while Zhang Can's ability allowed him to sustain himself underwater seemingly indefinitely, he still required food to maintain his physical strength, just as he did on land. In the water, he constantly needed nourishment to keep going. But underwater, the moment his lips parted from Su Xue's, her life would instantly come to an end!

Therefore, he had to ensure that the time spent traversing the underground currents did not exceed the limit of his endurance. Because physical exertion was vastly greater in water, the duration he could sustain himself would be even shorter than on land. The moment his physical strength failed before they reached the surface would spell ultimate disaster!

A thousand thoughts swirled through his mind, yet fear remained uppermost. Looking at Su Xue's still-flat abdomen, he dreaded failing to protect her and the unborn child within. If he were alone, it would truly matter little; but when a person must shoulder the heavy burden of a family, the weight feels doubly profound. He was no longer just one person—he was three!

He glanced at the pool. Compared to when they had first seen it from the cliffside cave alongside Zheng Dabao and Wang Qian, this place was vastly better. Down there, the sight inspired only terror, but the surface of this pool offered a much kinder view—at least the water wasn't pitch black. Though still unfathomably deep, the surface lay truly beneath the open sky.

"Su Xue, do you... do you truly want to take this risk? Do you really want to attempt a dive through the underground river once more?" After pondering for a long time, Zhang Can asked her again. He himself had not the slightest shred of certainty and dared not make this decision alone.

Su Xue let out a lingering sigh. After a long pause, she replied, "Yes, I want to leave. Even if we cannot make it out, I am willing to take this risk."

Zhang Can still felt deeply indecisive. Though he desperately wanted to leave as well, the prospect of taking that path through the subterranean river still seemed unfathomable and deeply alarming. The environment of the underground river was entirely unpredictable, and he had no confidence of success.

After another long silence, Zhang Can softly asked, "Su Xue, when... when do you want to set off?"

"Today. I made you eat extra, and I ate just as much myself, precisely to preserve our physical strength for the underwater journey!" Su Xue answered without a moment's hesitation. Everything she had done just moments before was, in fact, preparation for leaving.

Seeing that Su Xue had truly made up her mind, Zhang Can thought for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. Since you've already decided, we'll fight this out together and take a gamble. Whether we make it out depends entirely on whether heaven grants us this chance!"

Once the decision was made, Zhang Can cast aside his hesitation. He rose to busy himself with preparations, bustling back and forth, while Su Xue gathered and organized their belongings. Looking at the two wooden cabins Zhang Can had built with his own hands, she shed tears continuously, feeling an overwhelming reluctance to leave.

Zhang Can let out a quiet sigh. Women, oh women—they clearly declared their desire to leave and their unwillingness to stay in this place, yet when the moment of departure finally arrived, they were filled with such reluctance. Women truly were creatures of contradiction.

He glanced at the sky, estimating it to be around ten o'clock. Zhang Can decided they would set off at the stroke of noon, leaving them two hours.

When the time actually came to leave, he realized how deeply attached he had grown to this place. Every part of the wooden cabins had been built by Zhang Can's own hands and feet; the small patch of flower-strewn grass beside the house was something he and Su Xue had cleared and planted together, gathering seeds of every wild flower variety from the bottom of the valley to cultivate there.

He looked once more toward the confluence of the hot spring and the pool, where countless fat fish still swam and leaped. Over the seventy-odd days and nights at the bottom of the valley, it was these fish that had provided them with sustenance, allowing them to survive. Now that they were leaving, parting with them brought a pang of sorrow.

Aside from the portions they actually consumed, Zhang Can and Su Xue had never wasted a single scrap of fish meat. Heaven had not treated them unkindly; having cast them into such a desperate trap, it had still provided enough sustenance to keep them from descending into the mad torment of starvation.

Previously, time at the bottom of the valley had dragged agonizingly, feeling like each day stretched into a year. But now that departure was at hand, those two hours slipped by like a weaver's shuttle, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Before setting off, Zhang Can put on their two heavy fur coats—one for Su Xue and one for himself. To prevent collisions with the rock walls inside the underground river, Zhang Can wrapped Su Xue's head, torso, and abdomen—all her vital areas—securely in the fur coats. In any case, he possessed X-ray vision, allowing him to perceive the subterranean terrain without needing to open his eyes. Furthermore, the energy of the water-repelling bead would function in the water, proving even more potent than mere X-ray vision. As long as they were submerged, the miraculous properties of the bead would manifest to their fullest extent.