313: Chapter 313 [Volume 1 Finale] She really wanted to

Dongdong Valley, evening.

"Miss!

Miss, our park is about to close.

If you're not going down the mountain, you can stay at the hotel on the peak."

Tang Ruan turned around and saw a staff member from Wan Shou Mountain wearing a yellow vest.

The staff member was stunned for a moment upon seeing her face.

"I've seen you climbing the mountain for several days now. Are you doing some kind of research?"

Wan Shou Mountain was a newly developed tourist attraction.

Because of its unique topography, many students majoring in geography-related fields would come back repeatedly.

Tang Ruan blinked, hesitated for a moment, and then nodded, asking, "Do you know when the scenic area below will open?"

She pointed toward the area below Dongdong Valley, hidden by dense forest.

The staff member glanced over. "I don't know either. The area below hasn't been developed yet!

There isn't even a way to get down there right now."

Tang Ruan: So they haven't found the entrance to Dongdong Valley.

She opened her mouth, but in the end, she only said, "Thank you."

Staff member: "The park closes in 20 minutes. Hurry along!

Or you could try the hotel at the peak; you'll get a discount with this."

The staff member handed over a business card.

It not only had the hotel's price list but also the staff member's name.

Obviously, he received a commission.

Tang Ruan glanced at the prices on it; the lowest was 1,888 yuan.

Tang Ruan: ...

The budget hotels at the foot of the mountain only cost a bit over a hundred...

She was about to decline when she suddenly thought of something.

She reached out and took it.

The staff member's eyes lit up!

"Then hurry up there. The mountain road will be hard to traverse once it gets dark.

Tourists aren't allowed to stay here.

You can wake up early on the mountain to watch the sunrise."

Tang Ruan nodded and said goodbye to the staff member.

Lost in thought, she walked toward the peak...

---

The next day, at four in the morning, Tang Ruan walked out of the hotel with a backpack on her shoulders.

"Guest! If you want to see the sunrise, go east. There's a viewing platform over there."

Tang Ruan, who was about to turn west, suddenly halted her steps.

She turned back and said to the front desk, "Okay."

The receptionist nodded slightly to her.

Then she turned to chat with the colleague beside her.

"There was a couple at three o'clock who insisted on going out.

I warned them not to go west, but they wouldn't listen."

"Don't worry about them. Once they hit a dead end, they'll come back on their own."

"I'm just afraid it'll be like last time.

The last guest ran into a weasel in the bushes to the west and got scared.

They insisted our hotel didn't provide enough warning.

They even filed a complaint against me."

"Well, you warned them this time."

While the two were chatting, Tang Ruan turned and ran toward the west.

She sprinted all the way.

She climbed over two guardrails.

Finally, she saw that nearly vertical mountain face.

She looked left and right, and relying on her memory, found a cave entrance covered by vines.

"The entrance to Dongdong Valley!" Tang Ruan exclaimed in surprise.

This place was indeed exactly the same as the Dongdong Valley in the Beast World.

Although she didn't understand why something from the Beast World would appear in the human world.

But then again, among the things she had experienced over the years, which one could be explained by science?

She took out a pair of scissors, intending to cut the vines.

She suddenly discovered that these vines were extremely soft. With a forceful pull, the cave entrance was revealed.

Tang Ruan tucked the scissors into a side pocket of her backpack.

She took out a flashlight and stepped into the eerie, gloomy cave.

It was very dark inside, making the exit look exceptionally bright.

Like a narrow eye, it stared intently at her.

Tang Ruan was both nervous and expectant.

She had a feeling that as soon as she walked out of this cave, she would be able to return to the Beast World.

She would be able to see Potato and the other Marmot Beastmen.

Or, she would return to the day she first met Lang Lie...

But none of that mattered.

As long as she could go back, no matter what point in time it was.

She was willing to meet them all over again.

Tang Ruan took the final step.

She walked out of the cave.

Outside the cave, dense vegetation blocked most of her view.

The chirping of insects and birds came from deep within the secluded forest.

It didn't look like a place where beastmen would live.

She reached out to push aside the waist-high weeds and suddenly noticed that the grass in front of her showed signs of being flattened.

That meant someone had passed through here before.

Maybe it was a staff member from Dongdong Valley, or maybe it was...

Hope flared up in Tang Ruan's heart once again.

She quickened her pace.

After walking for a while, she suddenly heard a sound.

It sounded like the sound of digging.

She stopped.

She held her breath.

The sound was coming from the bushes not far away.

When she saw the flattened grass earlier, she only thought of people.

But in this wilderness, it could also be a bear or some other animal!

At that thought, Tang Ruan immediately turned on her heel, intending to go back.

Suddenly, another digging sound came.

It seemed to be accompanied by a man's low panting.

The more Tang Ruan listened, the more it sounded like a person swinging a hoe to dig.

In her mind, the image of Hongshu holding a small hoe and digging up potatoes immediately flashed.

At worst, she would run into construction workers here and be fined by the scenic area.

But since she was already here, she wouldn't be satisfied until she saw it with her own eyes.

What if she had already traveled back to the Beast World through that cave entrance?

At that thought, Tang Ruan quickened her pace.

She walked to where the sound was coming from and pushed aside the bushes.

The man on the other side of the bushes froze.

Tang Ruan also froze.

Tang Ruan's gaze fell on the woman behind him, lying on the ground with her head bleeding and at death's door.

Then, it fell on the hole that had already been dug half a man deep.

Finally, she turned and bolted.

"SHIT!"

The man cursed and chased after her with the hoe in hand.

Tang Ruan immediately took out her phone and dialed the police while running.

"Someone is being murdered below Dongdong Valley!

There's an entrance on the mountain face, and the woman is still ali—"

The sound of bone shattering rang out.

Tang Ruan fell forward onto the ground.

Blood flowed down the back of her neck, quickly soaking her entire shoulder and staining her backpack red...

"Crack!"

It was the sound of the man smashing the phone with his hoe.

Tang Ruan reached out with all her strength and grabbed the scissors that had flown out of her backpack and landed nearby.

She secretly hid them under her body.

The middle-aged man turned around and looked down at her.

"Just your bad luck."

As he spoke, he raised the hoe again.

Tang Ruan quickly whipped out the scissors and stabbed them hard into the most vulnerable spot between the man's shoe and his ankle.

"Ah!"

The man let out a blood-curdling scream and instinctively took a step back.

Tang Ruan quickly pulled out the scissors and, catching him off guard, gave his other foot a stab as well.

With both feet injured, the man lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Tang Ruan, fueled by an unknown surge of strength, quickly crawled onto the man and stabbed his stomach several times.

Amidst the man's successive screams.

The final blow struck him right in the heart.

Tang Ruan was so fast—

The man didn't even have time to grab the hoe that had fallen beside him.

He just stared at her with wide, terrified eyes.

Then, he slowly closed his eyes...

Only after finishing all this did Tang Ruan's strength feel as if it had been suddenly drained.

She slumped to one side.

She lay on her back on the ground.

She saw the morning glow rising in the distance.

The sky became bluer and deeper...

The police should be able to find this place, right...

That woman should be able to survive, right...

Was she going to die?

If she died, would she never be able to go back?

Lang Lie, Yan Qing, Hu Che, Fen Tian, Heng Zhou... She really missed them so much...

If Xiao Yi suddenly couldn't find his mother, would he be anxious?

If Guo Guo knew she couldn't wake up, would she cry?

She hadn't even named Hu Che's Cub yet...

Could Xin Tian and Zhuoyan speak yet?

Did Baby miss his mother...

As Tang Ruan thought, tears flowed from the corners of her eyes like pearls from a broken string.

Her vision grew even blurrier.

She really wanted to hear them call out once more—

"Ruan Ruan!!"

...

[End of Volume One]

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[Darlings, Volume One has concluded. It's an open ending, with the conclusion found in the last few lines of this chapter.

For those who don't quite understand, you can look for answers in the side stories.

If you still can't find it there, you can check the last few lines of the series finale in Chapter 324 and look at other readers' comments for reference.

But the point of an open ending is—the ending is whatever you want it to be.

So, coming up with the ending you desire is where the fun lies.

The next few chapters will feature side stories about the Cubs and Huan Du.

After that, Volume Two will begin, telling the story of Xiao Yi after he grows up. Volume Two will have a happy, perfect ending!!!]