The little star from the Gobi Desert, handed over to the state, is hailed as a national treasure.

The darkness beneath his feet felt like a gaping maw that devoured all souls, and Liang Zhe's mind was filled with his daughter's smiling face as she looked at him...

He mechanically took a step forward.

"Expert Liang!"

A figure suddenly pounced from behind, grabbing his waist tightly and dragging him backward with all its might.

If it weren't for Feng Dapao's quick thinking and action, Liang Zhe would have taken that step.

"Expert Liang! Calm down!" Feng Dapao pressed him down tightly, panting heavily. "Listen to me! Listen to me! Tian Tian might not have fallen! We haven't finished searching up there yet. The woods are so big, maybe the child is just hiding..."

Before he could finish speaking, Liang Zhe's eyes turned bloodshot. He swung his elbow across the wall, knocking him aside, and then leaped off the cliff again!

He had a gut feeling that his daughter had been pushed down there. She was so young; how terrified she must have been down there! She must be waiting for her father to come and save her!

He couldn't wait until dawn.

I can't wait even a second longer.

"Let me go!"

"You can't do anything stupid!" Feng Dapao and the other miners rushed forward, grabbing Liang Zhe around the waist and pulling his arms, pinning him to the spot.

"That's the Cliff of Broken Souls! Below is a hundred-foot abyss, even monkeys can't go down! If you go down, you'll be smashed to pieces! What will happen to Tian Tian if you die? We need to find a rope and a rescue team! If you jump down now, what can you do besides collect your own corpse!" Feng Dapao roared, his face turning red and veins bulging on his neck.

Liang Zhe was breathing heavily, his teeth grinding together. Reason told him that Feng Dapao was right, but the instinct of a father, the torment of watching his daughter's life hang in the balance, was almost tearing him apart.

"Let me go! I need to go to her! I need to go—!" He struggled desperately, his face covered in tears and snot, on the verge of collapse.

Feng Dapao and the miners held on tightly, refusing to let go, and the two sides were locked in a stalemate on the edge of the cliff.

Just then, Qin Yan, holding Xiaoyu in her arms, spoke in a trembling but calm voice: "Expert Liang, let's take Xiaoyu downstairs to treat her injuries first. Once she wakes up, she'll know what happened and who harmed the two children."

These words, like a fine needle, finally pierced Liang Zhe's muddled mind, pulling him back to the last shred of clear consciousness.

He turned his head blankly, looking at the unconscious Xiaoyu, then glanced at the bottomless darkness...

After a long while, he clenched his teeth so hard that blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Finally, he squeezed out a single word, slowly and deliberately, from deep within his throat:

"it is good."

Sweetie felt like she was flying.

No, it's not flying.

It's falling!

It plummeted rapidly from the sky above the Hundred-Foot Broken Soul Cliff.

The wind whistled past her ears, making her eardrums ache. In the midst of the dizziness, the unfamiliar feeling of weightlessness struck her head like a heavy hammer, pushing all the blood in her body to the top of her head.

"dad……"

She tried to shout "Daddy!" but as soon as she opened her mouth, a blast of cold air rushed into her throat, making her cheeks ache. Sweetie couldn't make a sound; she could only let out a helpless, painful whimper through her nose.

Heaven is above.

The moon is up there.

But I am getting farther and farther away from the moon...

dad……

Did you know that Sweetie fell down?

Waaaaah, Sweetie's so scared! Daddy, come save me!

She wanted to cry, but the tears were blown away by the wind as soon as they welled up, leaving her face feeling cold. She tried to reach out and grab something, but her little arms and legs flailed wildly, and she couldn't grasp anything.

There was only the sound of wind, darkness, and the increasingly rapid feeling of falling.

The rocks on the cliff face flashed past her, their jagged edges like menacing monsters from a story, nearly hitting her several times. But she didn't even have the strength to straighten up.

It was too fast, so fast that she hadn't seen anything clearly yet, so fast that she couldn't even think straight. If she kept falling like this, where would she end up?

In the midst of this extreme fear, fragmented images from before suddenly flooded into her little mind.

Sweetie remembered everything!

Just now, she and her sister Xiaoyu were hiding behind the charred boulder, watching the man in black fiddling with the iron box, making that eerie clicking sound.

Later, thinking the man in black had left, Xiaoyu pulled her along and carefully carried the metal box out. The two of them, carrying the heavy box, planned to hand this bad thing over to their father.

Then--

She turned her head as if possessed.

She didn't know why she turned around; she just felt a strange chill on the back of her neck, like tiny insects crawling on her back, making her skin crawl. She instinctively turned around and met a pair of eyes hidden in the woods.

Cold and fierce, like a big bad wolf eyeing its prey!

It turned out that the man in black hadn't left at all. He had been hiding in the shadows, waiting for them to come and retrieve the metal box so he could capture them both!

"Gotcha! You've got yourselves!"

The voice was shrill and cold, as if it had crawled out of a nightmare, making her shudder. Before she could react, the person was already in front of her.

A pair of wolf-like eyes stared at the two of them. His face was obscured by the wide brim of his hat, but Sweetie felt that she must have seen him before!

And he must know Tian Tian.

"Run, girl!"

Sweetie shouted in a panic, grabbing Xiaoyu's hand and trying to run past the man in black.

A fierce glint flashed in the man's eyes. He suddenly grabbed Xiaoyu by the collar and, with a little force, dragged her back.

"What are you doing! Let go of the young lady!" Sweetie screamed in fright. Xiaoyu also fought back desperately, but the man in black was too strong and easily separated the two of them.

The man in black's target was the box in Xiaoyu's arms. Xiaoyu held on tightly and refused to let go, even biting his wrist fiercely, like a small animal driven to the brink of despair.

The man in black became enraged. He was incredibly strong and snatched the black box away in one swift motion. He then shoved Xiaoyu to the ground.

Xiaoyu stumbled backward and bumped into a rock beside her, drawing blood from her forehead. Without uttering a sound, she collapsed to the ground and remained motionless.

"Miss!" She cried out in fright and rushed over to protect Xiaoyu. The man in black came up from behind, picked her up like a helpless little chick, and easily lifted her off the ground.

She kicked her legs desperately, shouting with all her might, "Let me go! Let me go!" but the man in black ignored her. He carried her straight to the edge of the cliff and lifted her into the air with one hand.

Beneath her feet lay unfathomable darkness, and a cold wind swept upwards from the bottom of the cliff. Sweetie was terrified and trembled all over.

This was the most terrifying moment of her four years of life, a thousand times more frightening than going to the toilet alone at night or having nightmares about a big bad wolf eating a little white rabbit.

She cried and called for her father and her sister Xiaoyu, but in the empty mountains and forests, no one answered her.

Where is Dad?

Is Sister Xiaoyu still alive?

The man in black looked down at her.

The moonlight fell behind him, casting a dark shadow over his face. Sweetie strained her eyes to see him clearly, but only now did she realize that the bad guy had a black cloth tied around his nose and chin. No wonder she couldn't see anything before.

But Sweetie remembered those eyes.

Cold, wolf-like eyes, filled with ferocity and malice.

"You little brat, stop meddling in other people's business."

He spoke coldly, then released his grip on the cliff edge...