A Young Woman's Heart

This is especially true for Mo Xueyao, who hasn't exercised in a long time.

However, her pride as a man made her grit her teeth and keep going, without ever complaining of being tired.

Li Wanyan appeared relatively relaxed, and on this point, her thoughts were aligned with Mo Xueyao's.

As for Hua Yinyin... she's like a child who never gets tired, her steps up the mountain look as effortless as could be.

"Not... there yet?" Mo Xueyao asked breathlessly, her hands supporting her knees. She finally couldn't hold back any longer and wanted to rest.

Li Wanyan handed over a water glass, the kind with the cap already unscrewed.

The latter took it, gulped it down, and drank most of the bottle in one go.

"Want to rest?" Li Wanyan gently patted her back.

"Huff—huff—" Mo Xueyao nodded, panting heavily, "Let me rest for a while..."

Hua Yinyin, unusually, did not mock her, but continued talking about the things on the mountain: "There is a relatively open space on the top of the mountain, and there is a small house on the open space. If we go up there and walk for a while, we will see the wartime base."

Mo Xueyao really wanted to visit the base.

However, this base was not actually located on the mountainside, but rather near the summit.

When she actually saw it, Mo Xueyao suddenly felt the weight of that era wash over her.

The location where this base was established was practically on the edge of a cliff, with extremely steep and treacherous terrain.

It's hard to imagine how they managed to level that ground.

The place is quite spacious. If you stand on the trees on the side and look inside, you can see that it is divided into several courtyards, which can easily accommodate a hundred or so people.

The countryside surrounds the city; that's how it's done.

I used to wonder why it was so easy to succeed, but now I realize that if there are many such hidden bases, it is indeed very difficult to wipe them out all at once.

However, troops can be continuously sent out to harass from here. If there is an advantage, the advantage can be expanded; if there is no advantage, a way can be found to create a weakness.

"Why is this place closed off? It would be nice to open it to visitors." Mo Xueyao felt that her hands were losing strength, so she quickly jumped down from the tree branch.

Although this is a tree that branches out from the roots, you still need to use some strength to stand firmly.

"Want to go in and take a look?"

"No, what if it's some kind of military restricted area, and there are people inside? Wouldn't it be terrible to go in?"

"That's impossible, there's absolutely no one in here," Hua Yinyin said firmly.

"Hmm... never mind, since it's not open to the public, there must be a reason." Mo Xueyao shook her head. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost there, let's keep going up~ There's a shortcut here that can take us straight up, Yaoyao, do you want to try it?"

You mean...this?

"Yes."

Looking at the slope, which was about seventy degrees, Mo Xueyao simply didn't have the strength to climb it.

Seeing that the others weren't interested, Hua Yinyin demonstrated to the two of them what it meant to scale walls and rooftops.

It has to be said that her stamina is truly exceptional.

Hua Yinyin rushed to the top of the mountain in one breath, while Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan had to walk twice as far as the winding mountain steps.

But in any case, we finally reached the summit.

Mo Xueyao breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, the clouds blocked out the sun, and the mountain breeze blowing in was exceptionally cool. Looking at the city in the distance, one felt instantly refreshed, and even the fatigue seemed to lessen.

……

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Secret Base (Part Two)

I don't know why, but when I reach the top of the mountain, I always feel like shouting into the distance.

It's as if this can release negative emotions.

However, even without negative emotions, I still feel like shouting that.

Well, let's just consider it a way to cleanse our souls?

"Ah—" Mo Xueyao shouted into the distance, drawing out the sound, but there was no echo.

"Ta-da! The secret base is right here! I cleaned it yesterday, so I'm here to set it up today." Hua Yinyin excitedly ran towards a small wooden house leaning against a rock wall.

This used to be either a hunter's lodge or a place for maintaining mountain trails.

Anyway, it must have been abandoned for a long time.

The outside was covered with vines, which obviously attracted a lot of mosquitoes.

There are windows on only two sides, the iron bars on the windows are badly rusted, and the glass in one of the windows is broken.

There was a large pile of broken glass in the bushes nearby, which must have been cleaned up by Hua Yinyin.

There was a large, tattered broom outside the house, which was barely usable when cleaning up dust.

Mo Xueyao was the first to curiously enter the house and found that there were many spider webs on the ceiling, and the whole house was still a bit messy.

There was a dilapidated little wooden table, as well as some tattered low cabinets and wooden crates.

There was a stove burning in the corner of the room, but heaven knows if it will still be usable.

"Is this really a place where people can live...?" Mo Xueyao felt that she would rather sleep outside than sleep in this garbage dump.

"Of course! Let's help each other tidy up! The best part of setting up a secret base is the process!"

"Hmm...that makes sense." This reminded Mo Xueyao of when she was a child, she would take a few cardboard boxes and tape them together to make a secret base.

Thinking about it carefully, that process was indeed the most enjoyable.

"Let's get started!" Mo Xueyao had just straightened up when she deflated again. "How about we rest a bit more? I'm a little tired..."

"I'm wearing gloves, so I don't cut my hands." Hua Yinyin put her schoolbag on the table, which was not dusty, obviously having been cleaned yesterday.

As she spoke, she took out three pairs of gloves from her bag. They were all ordinary work gloves, the same kind that workers on construction sites use.

It's advertised as disposable, but as long as it's not damaged, it can be used multiple times without any problem.

“There’s a well next to us, you can draw water from it.” Hua Yinyin pointed to the small well next to the hut.

It's so small that even if you threw Mo Xueyao in, she would get stuck.

"Is it clean?" Li Wanyan walked towards the well.

"No problem! I've tried it, the water inside is very clear," Hua Yinyin assured her.

Li Wanyan walked over, but it was pitch black below, and she couldn't see what was inside.

Just as she was pondering how to get water, Hua Yinyin handed her a kettle.

The kettle had a long, retractable cord. After untying it, Hua Yinyin threw the large kettle into the water, and heard a 'splashing' sound from inside.

She held the long rope in her hand, waiting for the kettle to be filled with water before slowly pulling it up.

That's true. The original wooden bucket and rope must have rotted away long ago, since no one had used them for so long.

"Look, the water is very clear and clean, with no strange smell." Hua Yinyin poured a little water onto the lid of the kettle and handed it to Li Wanyan to see.

"It's pretty good." Li Wanyan nodded. "You can clean a lot of things by wetting the cloth with water."

"Hmph, of course! I came prepared this time, and I even brought a rag!"

However, apart from the wooden table, chairs, and wood-burning stove, everything else was simply thrown behind the hut.

Next came cleaning.

The cabin's floorboards are naturally made of wood, but because the mountains are too damp, many of them have rotted.

Mo Xueyao used the broken planks from those wooden crates to cover the damaged areas, barely managing to conceal the traces of rot.

This place was originally supposed to be an office, or rather, a lookout post?

But if it's a lookout point, the hut is too low.

The exact purpose of the cottage is now lost to time due to its remote location, but in any case, this abandoned cottage has been given a second life.

The wooden table and chairs had been wiped clean many times, and apart from being worn, they looked quite clean.

The ground couldn't be completely cleaned, but fortunately, Hua Yinyin had brought a lot of newspapers—in fact, her backpack was basically full of newspapers, and the so-called professional equipment didn't take up much space.

Newspapers were spread out on the floor, several layers thick, and the fresh scent of ink filled the small room, making it feel much cleaner.

"You can bring a few more foam mats next time," Hua Yinyin muttered.

"Why don't we just wrap the table with newspaper too?" Mo Xueyao suggested. "Wouldn't that be cleaner? And we can also put some on the walls so they won't get stuck to us."

"Okay, let's do it that way!" Hua Yinyin nodded vigorously, looking full of enthusiasm.

There weren't enough newspapers, so they were only pasted on a small part of the wall.

In any case, this little cabin finally met the minimum standard for habitation.

Hua Yinyin also laid out all the other equipment she had brought.

There is a small wood-burning stove—although it's not as big as the one placed in the corner of the room, at least it's new and easy to use.

Most importantly, it can be placed directly on that old wood-burning stove, thus avoiding the risk of burning other things.

In addition, there is a camping lamp, which is electric, but can be powered by hand-cranking.

The rest were tools, such as machetes, knives, Swiss Army knives, lighters, mosquito coils, and so on.

"Food, food..." Hua Yinyin finally turned her schoolbag inside out and emptied out the canned food. "Oh no, there's only canned food, no staple food..."

“I brought rice.” At this moment, Li Wanyan opened her backpack.

"Huh—why did you bring this?" Mo Xueyao asked in surprise.

"We still need to eat, right?" she said, opening an aluminum lunchbox that was full of uncooked rice.

There will definitely be enough food after it's cooked.