Chapter 1182: Chapter 1182: Gathering (5)

At such a dangerous moment, Ah Mi rarely cracked a joke, but it caused a flash of brilliance to pass through An Yiqing’s mind.

“What did you just say? What little lamp is rusted?”

“It’s the small lamp by Grandma’s bedside. When I was little, I sneaked into this room to play and thought the lamp was interesting, so I tried to take it down. But no matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn’t budge. Then, Grandma suddenly came in and hit me with a feather duster. Later, she told me that the lamp was rusted and stuck to the bedside and couldn’t be taken off. I lost interest after that. What’s wrong, Xiao Yu? Is there something odd about it?”

An Yiqing’s mouth twitched slightly—rusted? Stuck to the bedside and couldn’t be taken off? Such a clumsy lie could only fool the simple-minded Ah Mi.

“Ah Mi, help me over to the lamp.”

With Ah Mi’s assistance, An Yiqing slowly made her way to the bedside, her hands precisely placed on the lamp. Relying on her keen sense of touch and years of experience, An Yiqing preliminarily judged that there was something off about this small lamp.

She curled her finger and flicked the lampshade lightly twice, producing two muffled “thud thud” sounds.

“Ah Mi, what material is this lamp made of?”

Ah Mi bent down to look. “Hmm… it’s iron!”

Iron? An Yiqing frowned and shook her head. Wrong! The sound definitely wasn’t that of iron. It must have been coated with iron paint on the surface as a disguise.

Her curiosity deepened. Why would such an ordinary lamp be so carefully concealed?

Her hands slowly moved from the lamp’s top to its base, testing with twists at various points along the lamp’s body, but she still came up empty-handed.

She felt a bit frustrated and increasingly anxious. Those people outside could return at any moment; if they kept wasting time, they all might lose their lives!

At that moment, her tightly gripped hand on the lamp suddenly felt a faint “click” vibration.

An Yiqing froze for a moment, then gripped the lamp again with force. A series of continuous “click click click” sounds echoed, and An Yiqing realized the lamp seemed to be loosening. Using both hands, she gripped the lamp firmly and intensified her effort. Xiao Yu and Dashan were stunned to see the previously immovable lamp slowly begin to rotate in An Yiqing’s hands!

Soon after, faint sounds of gears turning emerged from beneath the bed. As An Yiqing exerted more force, the tightly sealed bed frame gradually revealed a gap.

“Th-there’s really a hidden passage!”

Ah Mi stammered, exclaiming as she craned her neck to peer into the gap beneath the bed.

As the gap widened further, what lay underground was fully revealed to them. It wasn’t exactly a tunnel; to be more precise, it was a one-person-sized hole beneath Grandma’s sturdy bed.

No wonder An Yiqing couldn’t detect anything unusual from knocking on the bed frame earlier. The hole was hidden underground and separated from the thick bed frame by concrete—it would indeed be difficult for anyone to discover.

Letting out a small sigh, An Yiqing felt inwardly amazed. No wonder Ah Mi had lived here for so many years without ever uncovering the lamp’s secret. Activating this passage required twisting the lamp, but the effort needed to move the lamp was tremendous—even a strong man would struggle.

But… why was her own strength so great? An Yiqing furrowed her brow, feeling perplexed about her memory loss.

“Let’s hurry; those people outside might return at any moment.”

Forget it, she thought, better to let things take their course.

First, An Yiqing helped Dashan descend into the hole. Then, working together from inside and out, they managed to lower the unconscious Grandma in. After that, it was Ah Mi’s turn, and finally, An Yiqing herself.