Maxine pointed upward. “Based on Thomas' position when he fell, it seems impossible for him to have ended up here. He would have fallen on a rock about 100 meters from the opening of the hole and rolled…”
After a brief pause, she continued. “He should have stopped rolling at around 200 meters deep. When we descended, I saw a pit where he would’ve come to a stop.”
“Are you sure?”
James was uncertain. He had only cared about going deeper and had not checked the cavern’s surroundings.
“Alright, then. Let’s head back there to check.”
Maxine jumped up, grabbed onto a stone a few meters away, and quickly climbed upward.
Following her lead, James also opted to not use a rope and began scaling the rocky cavern.
Eventually, they returned to the 100-meter mark.
An enormous rock, more than 20 meters wide, jutted out precariously from the walls.
Maxine raised her head and pointed, saying, “If he fell from there, he would’ve landed here.”
She moved her body and pointed to the rock under her feet.
“However, there isn’t any sign of blood being shed at all here. After hitting this rock, he’d roll toward the stone’s slope. Let’s head down and get another look.”
“Okay.”
James nodded.
The two descended again.
After climbing down a few dozen meters, Maxine stopped and pointed to a recess in the wall, saying, “If he rolled down from that rock, he would’ve stopped here. Yet again, there isn’t anything here that shows that happened.”
James agreed with Maxine's analysis after considering her observations.
He muttered perplexedly, “Is there a chance my grandfather didn’t die from the fall? ”
Maxine nodded slightly and said, “The evidence from our initial findings seems to point in that direction, yes.”
James asked, “Since he didn’t actually die, why didn’t he show us he was alive?”
Maxine looked James in the eye. "I already told you last night that Thomas may have staged death to fool outsiders. Also, the presence of the Gu Devil was just to confuse Thea. He wanted us to believe that the Gu Devil had caught him and ultimately caused his fall from this place which resulted in his unfortunate death.”
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