The cave was located midway up the mountain—slightly higher than the center—set into a rocky cliff face. Over the years, soil and decaying leaves had accumulated across most of the cliff except at the entrance, allowing grass to grow thickly along the rock surface.
The cave entrance sat about two meters above the ground, giving it an excellent view. Below it stretched a fairly flat open area. The trees there were sparse—only a few scattered trunks—but the ground was covered with wild grass, shrubs, vines, and stones.
The cliff face slanted outward, forming a sharp angle with the ground. Combined with the uneven rock surface, this created a natural overhang above the cave entrance, like a built-in roof that sheltered it from rain.
The entrance itself was wide—over four meters across and more than three meters high. From the ground, it was impossible to see what the inside looked like.
But that raised another problem.
The entrance was so high… how was she supposed to get up there?
As the thought crossed her mind, Tang Jiao turned to look at Gu Yu. He was feeding An’an—it was already evening, and the child was due for a meal.
Sensing her gaze, Gu Yu casually handed her a piece of bread and a water bottle. As if reading her mind, he said, “The entrance is too high. I’ll make a simple ladder in a bit, otherwise it’ll be hard for you to climb up. It takes time to build one, so when I came earlier, I just took a running start and climbed up.”
Tang Jiao: “……”
You’re tall. You’ve got long legs. You’re amazing.
She silently turned away, chewing her bread while staring down at her own short, sturdy legs, feeling her pride take a devastating hit.
After eating and resting briefly, Gu Yu went off to cut some trees.
Suitable saplings were everywhere, and he had brought an axe with him. Before long, he returned with three small trees about as thick as an arm, along with a bundle of vines.
Making a ladder wasn’t complicated—and a temporary one was even simpler.
He trimmed off the side branches, keeping only the main trunks. One tree was cut into sections about fifty centimeters long. Shallow grooves were carved at equal intervals into the other two trunks to hold the rungs in place. The cut sections were then lashed into the grooves with vines.
Just like that, a crude ladder was finished.
Gu Yu tested it. Solid enough.
While he worked on the ladder, Tang Jiao took An’an to gather dry branches, dead grass, and fallen leaves nearby—fuel for the fire and bedding for the cave floor. She also snapped off leafy branches, bundling them together to make a makeshift broom for cleaning the cave.
Gu Yu first carried the vine-tied bundles of firewood, the backpacks, and the small cage holding the two little animals up into the cave. Tang Jiao climbed up next, followed by An’an, whom Gu Yu passed up to her. Finally, Gu Yu himself climbed using the ladder.
By now, daylight was fading, but the cave entrance was so wide that the outside was still clearly visible.
The cave itself was spacious—around fifty to sixty square meters. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all uneven, but the interior was surprisingly clean. There was no foul smell, and it was relatively dry. Blackened marks on the rock suggested that Gu Yu had burned something earlier to test whether the cave was safe.
On the left side, a narrow passage about a meter wide slanted inward. It was dark, and they couldn’t yet see how far it extended.
Slightly right of center was another passage, wider—over two meters across. This one received more light and extended only about three meters before ending, forming what was essentially a smaller inner cave.
It felt, unmistakably, like a space shaped just for them.
Gu Yu took out the large camping lantern and shone it down the narrow passage on the left. He said to Tang Jiao,
“There’s another cave inside. It’s about twenty square meters. We can live there—it’ll be warmer. Come, I’ll take you to have a look.”
Holding the lantern in one hand and Tang Jiao’s hand in the other, Gu Yu led the way. Tang Jiao held An’an’s hand as the three of them walked inward together. After going a little over five meters, a cave entrance about one meter wide and over two meters high appeared before them.
Stepping through the opening and following the beam of light, Tang Jiao saw what felt like an inner chamber. Because the lighting was poor, the cave was quite dark, with only a small hole on the left wall letting in a faint trace of light.
The inner cave was around twenty to thirty square meters—fairly spacious. Even better, along the right wall, about fifty centimeters above the ground, was a recessed platform. Its surface was relatively flat, about one to two meters wide and over two meters long, and about one to two meters high—like a bed custom-made just for them.
Tang Jiao stared at it in disbelief.
This cave felt as if it had been tailor-made for their family of three: a living area, a storage space, and even a hidden bedroom—with a ready-made bed!
Good heavens—this was unreal. Completely unbelievable.
Tang Jiao marveled inwardly. But then she thought: We’ve already crossed into this place—what’s one more miraculous cave? Fine. It was still surreal, but… she’d get used to it.
Her thoughts were racing, but outwardly she remained calm.
An’an, on the other hand, was bursting with excitement.
He chattered nonstop to his father:
“Dad, are we on an adventure? Where is this place? Is there treasure here? Wow! Are we really going to live here? This is so cool!”
Gu Yu answered his questions patiently, smiling at his enthusiasm.
After exploring the inner cave, they returned to the outer cave to start a fire. Night was falling, and they needed light and warmth for their food.
Gu Yu handled the fire, while Tang Jiao and An’an tidied up the cave.
The two small animals were still kept in their cages—they didn’t dare let them out yet. If they ran around and fell out of the cave, the consequences would be disastrous.
Gu Yu quickly built a fire pit with stones and lit a fire. He spread the dry grass and leaves Tang Jiao had gathered nearby to dry them, planning to use them later as bedding. Then he carried some firewood into the inner cave and lit another fire there.
They agreed to sleep in the inner cave that night. First, the recessed platform was much flatter than the cave floor. Second, being deeper inside meant better warmth and safety.
Once the fire was lit in the inner cave, Tang Jiao and An’an moved in as well.
Tang Jiao first cleared away the loose stones on the platform. Feeling uneasy, she asked Gu Yu to scrape along the ceiling above with a military shovel to make sure no loose rocks would fall on them while they slept. Then she swept the platform clean with the branch broom she had made.
Later, they would lay down dried grass and leaves, then spread An’an’s moisture-proof crawling mat on top—it would be good enough.
Since they had limited supplies, they hadn’t brought quilts or mattresses. Still, a thick layer of dry grass and leaves made the surface fairly soft. It was only for one night, and the weather wasn’t too cold yet—they’d make do and figure things out tomorrow.
After tidying up, they extinguished the fire in the inner cave and returned to the outer cave.
They were worried the inner cave wasn’t well ventilated. If smoke didn’t dissipate properly, it could become suffocating when they slept, so they gave up on further warming it and went back outside.
Sure enough, the air outside was much better.
Seeing the fire dying down, Gu Yu added more firewood to make it burn brighter. He then found a large, relatively flat stone in the cave and placed it near the fire to use as a seat.
Because both of their pots were too large to carry, they hadn’t brought them along. Dinner was simple: bread and mooncakes, hot water from the thermos, and pears they had picked along the way.
After wiping their hands and faces with wet wipes, the family returned to the inner cave to rest.