Before dawn broke, Gu Liang stirred from a half-sleep, half-alert state of unease. Outside the cave, the sky remained a thick, inky blue, the forest still shrouded in the deepest silence before dawn. He shifted his stiff body and noticed Emma, on the other side, was already awake. By the faint light filtering through the cave entrance, she was chewing on a compressed biscuit in small bites.
"Awake?" she asked in a low, hoarse voice without turning her head, "Eat something. We should get moving early."
No small talk was exchanged; survival was the sole priority. Gu Liang silently pulled out his ration and ate quietly, mimicking her actions. The cold, hard biscuit scraped his throat, requiring water to force it down.
After finishing, Emma efficiently packed her backpack and handed him the water flask. "Today's main goal is finding a more stable water source—preferably a deep pool of running water. Streams are too small, prone to drying up, contamination, or ambushes."
Gu Liang took the canteen and nodded. He noticed she had begun sharing plans with him, rather than issuing mere commands. It was a subtle yet significant shift.
They plunged back into the damp, chilly forest. The morning mist hung thicker than yesterday, visibility plummeting to near zero. Each step felt like wading through milk. Yet Emma's stride remained steady. She seemed to possess an innate sense of direction, combining compass readings with keen observation of terrain and vegetation as she marched resolutely forward.
Gu Liang followed silently behind, memorizing the paths she chose and the judgments she made. He observed that she wasn't blindly wandering but consciously seeking out areas with lower terrain and denser, more humid vegetation.
After about two hours, the mist gradually dispersed, sunlight struggling through the layered canopy. The air around them grew noticeably more humid, and a muffled, watery sound drifted faintly from ahead.
"Hear that?" Emma stopped and listened intently.
Gu Liang strained his ears. The sound wasn't the gentle babble of a stream but more like a low, continuous rumble. "A waterfall?"
"Possibly," Emma's eyes flashed with excitement. "A waterfall usually indicates a stable water source and deep pools upstream."
They quickened their pace, pushing through an especially dense patch of ferns. Suddenly, the scene opened up before them.
A river, not particularly wide but rushing with force, stretched before them. Its water was clear, a deep, emerald green.Not far upstream, water plunged from a cliff several meters high, crashing into a vast, white-foaming pool below with a deafening roar. Steep, moss-covered rock walls flanked the falls.
"This is the spot," Emma said, her tone tinged with barely perceptible satisfaction. She surveyed the surroundings carefully: the pool was sizable, the water pristine, the banks offered relatively flat ground, and the open view made it difficult to ambush.
But problems followed—how to collect water? The river's edge was deep and turbulent, making direct access risky. The pool beneath the falls, though deep, had slippery rocks at its edge, and the current below was unknown.
Emma set down her backpack and walked to the edge of the pool, carefully studying the flow of the water and the arrangement of the rocks. Gu Liang followed behind her, his gaze drawn to a flash of silver-gray that occasionally darted through the water.
"Fish," he said, pointing at the surface.
Emma glanced over and nodded. "Yeah, fish mean the water's decent. But right now, we need safe water more."
She tried to walk toward a large rock near the water's edge, but as soon as her foot touched the surface, the slippery moss-covered stone made her stumble, nearly causing her to fall.
"Careful!" Gu Liang instinctively reached out, grabbing her arm to steady her.
The moment his hand touched hers, both froze. This time, his proactive offer of support briefly reversed their usual roles of rescuer and rescued.
Emma quickly regained her footing, quietly withdrawing her arm as her tone remained calm. "Thanks. The rocks are too slippery."
Gu Liang withdrew his hand, his fingertips lingering with the sensation of her skin. He shifted his gaze to the water's surface, masking the momentary awkwardness.
"We could use the rope," Gu Liang suggested, gesturing toward the paracord hanging from her backpack. "Tie the water bottle to it and toss it into calmer water to fetch water."
"That's an option," Emma agreed, though her brow furrowed slightly. "But the rope might not be long enough to reach water deep enough and safe enough."
A brief silence fell as both pondered a more reliable solution.
Gu Liang's gaze returned to the waterfall and pool, his engineering mind kicking into gear. He studied the eddy formed where the current crashed into the deep pool, and several large, seemingly stable rocks at the edge of the eddy.
"Maybe we don't need to go directly beneath the falls," Gu Liang pointed toward the eddy. "The current should be calmer there, and the depth is sufficient. We could try securing the rope, ensuring safety before retrieving water."
Emma followed his gesture and, after careful observation, agreed with his assessment. "We can try that."
She unfastened her paracord, secured one end tightly around her waist, and handed the other to Gu Liang. "Hold the rope here and anchor it. I'll go over."
This time, she didn't choose to risk it alone. Instead, she entrusted her safety to him.
Gu Liang gripped the rope tightly. Its rough texture weighed heavily in his hands, a tangible burden of responsibility. He watched as she cautiously tested the rocks beneath her feet, inch by inch, moving toward the chosen boulder. His heart involuntarily tightened.
Emma moved with extreme caution, firmly planting each foot before shifting her weight. Finally, she reached the boulder safely and turned to flash Gu Liang a thumbs-up. Then, she tied the water bottle to the middle of the rope and carefully lowered it into the eddy.
Clear river water gurgled into the jug with a steady rhythm.
While waiting for the kettle to fill, Emma scanned the pool's depths as if confirming something. Suddenly, her eyes sharpened. She quickly pulled up the kettle, pointed toward a spot underwater, and called out to Gu Liang on the bank, "Gu Liang! Look there, near the rock crevice—isn't something reflecting light?"
Gu Liang squinted, straining to see where she pointed. Deep within the clear pool, near the rock crevice, something did appear to be there. Under the sunlight filtering through the water, it shimmered with a faint, unnatural glow.
"Looks like... there is!" he replied.
Without hesitation, Emma hauled the full water jug up onto the rocks, set it down, took a deep breath, and began removing her jacket and shoes!
"What are you doing?" Gu Liang exclaimed in surprise.
"I'm going down to check," Emma said concisely, placing her discarded clothes in a dry spot. "It might be something useful. Watch the rope and keep an eye out for anything around us."
With that, she stretched her limbs, took a deep breath, and slipped into the deep pool like a nimble fish, utterly silent.
Gu Liang gripped the rope tightly, his eyes fixed on the spot where Emma had entered the water. Ripples spread across the surface before quickly fading, leaving only the blurred silhouette of her figure descending deeper. Time ticked by, his heartbeat accelerating. This stretch of water seemed calm, but who knew what lurked beneath?
Just as he was about to pull the rope to signal her to surface, the water broke with a splash. Emma emerged, clutching something tightly in her hand. She swam swiftly back to the rocks, scrambled up, soaked through, droplets falling from her tied-up hair. Her face was pale from the cold water and holding her breath, but her eyes were unusually bright.
She opened her palm.
Resting in her palm was a transparent crystal, roughly the size of a baby's fist and irregularly shaped, refracting brilliant light in the sunlight. Beside it lay several severely rusted metal fragments, their original forms still faintly discernible—the remains of some kind of tool.
"This... crystal? And... metal shards?" Gu Liang froze. Discovering remnants of artificially smelted metal in this primitive, beast-filled world held immense significance.
Emma wiped water from her face, handed him the objects, her breathing still slightly ragged. "The crystal's purity is exceptionally high. It might be... an energy mineral? As for these iron shards..." She paused, her voice growing huskier. "They look ancient, badly corroded. But this proves that in this world, a civilization possessing advanced smelting technology once existed—or perhaps still does."
This discovery felt like a boulder dropped into a tranquil lake, sending ripples through both their minds.
Gu Liang stared at the cold crystal and rusted iron fragments, as if touching a forgotten chapter of history. This world was far more complex than what he currently perceived.
Emma wrung water from her clothes, her gaze deepening as she met Gu Liang's. "We need to be more cautious. We're not just facing primitive tribes and bandits—we might also be facing... something stronger, something we don't understand."
She carefully stowed the crystal and iron fragment into a waterproof compartment of her backpack.
"Let's go," she said, hoisting the pack back onto her shoulders. Her soaked clothes made her look frail, yet her spine remained straight. "We got the water and an unexpected bonus. Time to keep moving."
Gu Liang watched her wet silhouette retreat, then glanced down at his own hands, still clenched around the rope. This time, he wasn't merely following. He wasn't just walking beside her.
He had participated in the decision, shouldered responsibility, and faced the unknown together.
He quickened his pace to catch up, leaving the roaring waterfall and deep pool behind as they ventured deeper into the forest. The path ahead remained uncertain, yet a bond called "companionship" had quietly grown stronger through shared risks and discoveries.
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