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墨書 Inktalez
"How did you know I was here?" I asked Teacher Zhang as I skillfully climbed up the rope.
Teacher Zhang frowned. "Survival training, and you left your GPS in your backpack instead of carrying it on you. Do you have any awareness at all?!"
I had been rabbit hunting, and in my excitement, I had strayed too far, leaving my backpack at the campsite. When I fell, I was practically unprepared for anything—definitely a reckless move.
"Someone like you, not showing up when it's time to regroup, must have gotten stuck somewhere. Your sense of direction and judgment shouldn't be an issue," Teacher Zhang said while pulling on the rope with a hint of anger.
That was quick to figure out.
"But how did you know I fell here?"
"By tracking your footprints," Teacher Zhang replied.
Tracking footprints was one of the essential skills we had to learn. To an ordinary person, a footprint might just be a footprint. A more observant individual could tell whether it belonged to one person or several, and whether they were walking east or west. But in reality, footprints convey much more information than that.
An experienced scout can determine a person's height, weight, and physical characteristics just by examining their footprints—things like leg shape are easily identifiable.
However, there were dozens of us out here, all wearing the same issued shoes with identical tread patterns. There were also several girls of similar height and weight to mine. Yet Teacher Zhang managed to clearly identify me among them; he truly was a powerhouse among detectives!
"It’s your shoe size," Teacher Zhang stated.
My shoe size was indeed a bit off. I hadn’t paid attention when the shoes were distributed, and now I regretted it greatly because these ill-fitting shoes had cost me a lot of stamina. It turned out that footprints could reveal whether someone’s shoes were too big or too small; there are subtle differences in the impressions left behind.
In my case, with the wrong shoe size, my footprints showed longer strides, the pressure points on the forefoot shifted forward, and the heel pressure points moved back—along with other specific characteristics. In short, if one looked closely enough, they could definitely identify my footprints.
How sharp! Even my shoe size could be detected; this was something even my parents couldn't do!
I was in awe of my teacher, feeling utterly humbled.
As I let my thoughts wander, I noticed the light around me dimming. Unbelievably, I was now in the Tang Dynasty, without Teacher Zhang to rescue me; I had to rely on myself. After a moment's contemplation, I took out the dagger that Night Phantom had given me and began to carve into the cave wall.
One by one, I created footholds and then started to climb up like a rock climber.
The progress was slow. After making four holes and enduring the pain in my feet, I managed to climb about three meters when suddenly, a faint glow of Will-o'-the-Wisp drifted above me.
I was startled and let out a scream, tumbling back down and landing on all fours.
The Will-o'-the-Wisp seemed to be drawn to my scream, zipping right in front of my eyes as if it had teleported.
I yelped and curled up in the dry grass at the bottom of the well, covering my head.
"What are you doing?" The Will-o'-the-Wisp spoke softly right next to me, its voice familiar and calming.
Suddenly, I steadied myself, grasping that sense of familiarity.
"Night!" I exclaimed in surprise.
It turned out that the Will-o'-the-Wisp was a handheld gaslight, casting a weak flame that illuminated a face so handsome it seemed almost otherworldly.
I realized my mistake; it wasn't Night but rather Qiu!
Nie Qiuyuan held the lamp, crouching down to look at me with an expression that suggested it was perfectly normal for me to have run out and fallen into this strange pit.
"I... I..." I suddenly felt nervous, unsure of what to say. "I came here to..."
The thought of him seeing me in such a disheveled state, crawling on the stone wall, was utterly embarrassing.
Moreover, he had jumped down too. How were we supposed to get out of here?
Qiu said not a word. I felt warmth in my hand; it was a warm hand gripping mine tightly. It was him, gently pulling me up from the ground. Before my mind could fully process what was happening, I found myself cradled in his arms.
A rush of heat surged to my cheeks. His breath enveloped me, so fresh and warm. My heart raced rapidly.
In a blur, with a ringing in my ears, we were already on the ground. I had forgotten that in this world, there existed the art of "lightness," and he didn't even need to lower a rope to pull me up.
Qiu gently set me down, but unfortunately, my foot landed on a stone, and I let out an "ouch" as I sat back down again.
"Are you hurt?" He frowned slightly and hesitated for a moment before squatting down to pull up the cuff of my pants at the ankle, bringing the lamp closer to illuminate it.
My ankle was swollen and bruised. I had twisted it when I fell and crawled along the well wall; considering that, it wasn't too bad.
There was a stream nearby, and Qiu thought for a moment before helping me over to it.
"Have you been avoiding cold these past few days?" he asked with a furrowed brow.
I pondered for a moment and suddenly understood his meaning. A sprain should be soaked in ice water quickly to stop internal bleeding. But since I was female, he must be asking about... that time of the month!
My face flushed all the way to my neck (or at least that's how it felt). This time it wasn't an act; I bit my lip and managed to shake my head while squeezing out two words: "Not avoiding..."
"Isn't it a bit too meticulous for a detective's mind? It's somewhat... embarrassing."
He pressed my foot into the icy stream of late autumn, and I immediately shivered, a sharp pain shooting through my ankle like needles.
After a while, my foot became numb from the cold. Nie Qiuyuan pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to me, urging me to dry my foot and put on my shoes and socks.
"Come on," he squatted down in front of me, turning his back toward me.
Is he going to carry me? How fortunate I am today!
For some reason, he didn't use lightness skill but carried me on his back, walking slowly along the mountain path as usual.
"Brother," I leaned against his warm back, joy bubbling within me, though it couldn't suppress my curiosity, "How did you know I was here?"
"By your footprints," Qiu replied.
For a moment, I felt a sense of temporal dislocation.
However, it should have been much harder for Nie Qiuyuan to find me than for Teacher Zhang. Teacher Zhang knew I was near the training ground, but when I left the house, Nie Qiuyuan had no idea which direction I had gone.
"There was a strange note left on your desk that said 'pizza,' along with many food items listed," Qiu said casually. Hearing "pizza" come from the mouth of an ancient costume handsome man brought an inexplicable sense of humor.
"In the kitchen, there was some risen dough and some purchased meats and vegetables, all listed on the note. There was one item I didn't recognize and one I couldn't find. 'Mozzarella' I've never heard of, but 'mushroom' I certainly know. So I guessed 'Mozzarella' is that buffalo milk cheese, and you went into the mountains to pick mushrooms."
"This area is likely to have mushrooms growing around here. If you were picking mushrooms instead of running for your life, you could just follow the easiest path. It would be easy to find your footprints here; who would have thought you'd fall into that place?"
I felt a bit embarrassed, so to break the silence, I cleared my throat twice and asked, "Brother, can you recognize my footprints?"
"Footprints can tell people a lot of things—one's height, body shape, walking style, age. They can reveal much more than you might imagine." Nie Qiuyuan paused here, seemingly hesitating for a moment. However, he eventually added, "You, when you're in a good mood, will jump a little after taking three steps."
I was at a loss for words, astonished into silence. How did Qiuyuan know all this? These were quite modern investigative methods. Had he already grasped so much about footprint analysis?
Moreover, his observational skills were truly sharp!
"What is it? Are you planning to make some peculiar dish?" Qiuyuan suddenly showed interest in something, probably because he couldn't deduce what "pizza" was.
I smiled happily and tightened my grip around his neck a bit more. "You'll find out when we get back!"
I leaned against his warm back, feeling great and completely forgetting the pain in my feet. I recalled how after the American TV series "The Big Bang Theory" became popular, one phrase also surged in popularity:
"Sar/is/he/ne/sey!"
Intelligence is indeed a new kind of sexy; that couldn't be more true.
Now, the one who found me in the dark and was slowly carrying me forward—Qiuyuan—was simply irresistibly sexy!
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