Chapter 43 — The Blooddrop Cave
劍問蒼天 · Page 3 of 6
After a laugh or two, Bili took out a portion of dry rations from her robes and held it out to Zhang Qingyue, saying gravely, "I think you'd better hurry up and help me think how to open this Blooddrop Cave!" Zhang Qingyue gave a cold snort, turned his head away so as not to look at the rations, and declared flatly, "You think a portion of dry rations can buy me off? Not a chance!"
Bili was taken aback for a moment; then her eyes flickered and she smiled. "You misunderstand me. I mean that we're in a deathtrap now—if there's no way out, we really will die here. But there's a Blooddrop Cave right before us. If we can find what lies inside, there may well be another way out!" Zhang Qingyue thought it over and had to admit there was some sense in it. To survive, finding this so-called Blooddrop Cave was as good a way out as any; otherwise there was nothing to do but wait for death.
But he was stubborn by nature, and he pointedly ignored the rations Bili held out. He rose and looked at the red stones again. Bili was not offended; she only watched his figure and smiled faintly, then stood as well and looked up at the ceiling.
The seven red stones, ranged like a spoon, were set thus within the ceiling rock; apart from their crimson color they were wholly indistinguishable from the stone around them. Zhang Qingyue looked for a long while and got nowhere at all. He was tempted to climb up and strike them one by one, but the memory of how Bili up there had tried every method there was made him give it up.
The two of them went from gazing upward at first, to sitting on the ground once they tired, to—in Zhang Qingyue's case—casting aside all propriety, as befitted a man under sentence of death, and simply lying down on the ground, staring at the ceiling. How much time passed, he could not say; still nothing turned up, and in the end he drifted into a drowsy sleep.
How long he slept in that haze he did not know; when Zhang Qingyue woke and opened his eyes, he saw that Bili was still there, her bright eyes fixed unblinkingly on the seven red stones.
At that moment Zhang Qingyue felt a measure of admiration for this woman. He sat up—but no sooner had he moved than his stomach gave another "gurgle." He was evidently desperately hungry, and his belly had no regard at all for its master's dignity.
Apart from the sound of dripping water, there had been no other noise in the cave; the "gurgle" rang out and carried straight to Bili's ears. She turned her head.
Zhang Qingyue was mortified past bearing. A man might die, but face must never be lost; he turned his head sharply to the other side so as not to look at Bili, though his face still burned. With two dry, embarrassed chuckles he walked over to the little pool, meaning to scoop up some clear water to ease his hunger and thirst.
The water in the pool was likely all mountain spring welling up from below—icy cold, clear and refreshing, with something almost sweet about it. But after two mouthfuls, Zhang Qingyue's hunger only grew fiercer.
After all, water could not fill a belly. Zhang Qingyue sighed softly and stared blankly at the water's surface, watching droplets fall from the ceiling rock and strike the water, raising ring upon ring of ripples that drifted outward. And beneath the surface was mirrored his own somewhat haggard face, faintly red…
Faintly red?
Zhang Qingyue was suddenly alarmed—how could there be red in his reflection? He looked hard, and indeed saw several red patches on the face in the water. But then he sensed something was off; peering closer, then raising his eyes to the stone wall, he realized it was the red stones in the ceiling reflected in the water, overlapping with his own reflection, that produced the effect.