Ran Yan curved her lips into a faint smile and looked back, saying, "It’s a bit warmer here; you all come up."
Liu Qingsong and Wan Lu felt puzzled but climbed up as told.
"It’s too cold, let’s talk for a while," Ran Yan said.
"Talk about what?" Liu Qingsong, seeing the look Ran Yan gave her, though still not quite understanding her intentions, started to tell a story as instructed, "Let me tell you a story."
"All right," Ran Yan responded, while using the sharp end of a small hammer to begin prying at the edge of the wooden planks that were blocking the entrance.
Liu Qingsong understood her motives and began to tell the story with great enthusiasm, using the techniques of traditional storytelling - now imitating the sounds of horse hooves, now the howl of the wind - doing her utmost to make the sounds loud, to cover the slight noise made by Ran Yan prying at the wooden planks.
And those outside, how could they have guessed that someone would carry a hammer with them! And explosives...
Wan Lu cooperated by asking, "Then what happened?"
Ran Yan had a slight smile on her face as Liu Qingsong quickly came up with a story filled with endless fights, including sounds that were almost continuously mimicable.
With such a clever partner, if they still couldn’t escape, she would die content. If they had ended up with teammates as useless as pigs, their fate would certainly have been summed up in four words—dying with grievance.
About half an hour later, Liu Qingsong’s mouth was dry from talking, but Ran Yan had just managed to pry a very thin crack along the edge of the wooden planks.
"To find out what happens next, stay tuned for the next episode!" Liu Qingsong spewed out the concluding line with resentment.
Ran Yan also stopped working and signaled to Liu Qingsong and Wan Lu with her mouth: wait.
What to wait for, they didn’t know, but both had an inexplicable sense of trust in Ran Yan; perhaps it was her assured, confident demeanor that was comforting.
Soon after, they could faintly hear the sound of the third watch drumming, and Ran Yan knew this signaled the most challenging time was approaching. The human body’s temperature drops the most during the fourth watch (two o’clock), and sleepiness also often strikes then. If they couldn’t withstand it, they might fall into hypothermia, and if that happened, their chance of escape would likely be gone.
Gradually, frost formed on their eyebrows and hair, and their lips started to turn purple as their finger joints continuously fumbled around.
"Quick, change the lantern," Ran Yan reminded.
Liu Qingsong realized the situation and lit another lantern with trembling hands. Perhaps because of the extremely low temperature, the other lantern wouldn’t light. Ran Yan, anxious, quickly tore the paper from the unlit lantern, took out a small porcelain bottle from her sleeve, wrapped the powder inside with the lantern paper, placed it on the wick, and then lit it. She then placed it near the crack they had just made.
At that moment, Liu Qingsong finally managed to light the lantern.
After Ran Yan’s material burned for a moment, a muffled thud could be heard from outside—not loud, but audible.
After a brief wait, another muffled sound came, followed by silence. Only then did Ran Yan quickly lay out the escape plan, "Once we go out, Doctor Liu must keep the fire going. If there are too many people outside, throw the explosives. In a crisis, don’t worry about anyone else; every one of us who can get away is a victory. Then find reinforcements. Do you understand?"
"All right," Liu Qingsong replied.
Ran Yan glanced at Wan Lu, "This is a critical moment, and I am not joking with any of my words. I hope you understand and won’t let me down."
Wan Lu hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Slave understands."
Wan Lu had watched Ran Yan’s every move since entering the ice cellar, thinking if anything were to happen to the Wife, she’d just follow her into whatever came next.
Ran Yan nodded and used the hammer to smash along the edge of the seam in the wooden planks.
Liu Qingsong handed the lantern to Wan Lu and also came up to help, after all, one of Ran Yan’s arms had not fully recovered yet.
The two worked quickly to move the wooden planks aside, and Liu Qingsong peeked out to see only two black-clothed men collapsed in a corner of the attic.
Ran Yan glanced over and whispered, "You two quickly put on the black clothes and dump their bodies into the ice cellar."
Without regard for the propriety of male and female interactions, Wan Lu briskly stripped the clothes from the black-clothed men, "Wife, you wear this."
"You wear it; it’s not convenient with my hand in a sling." If she took the time to undo the bandages and get dressed, they would have likely been discovered already.
This time Wan Lu didn’t insist any further, and quickly took off her own skirt to put on the black garments, which were quite large on her, but under the poor lighting, seemed fine. Liu Qingsong, on the other hand, found the clothes to fit just right.