The moon was covered by thick clouds, and under the night sky was a brightly lit city.
Cheng Suran sat in a taxi bound for the airport, stiff as a sculpture, her mind buzzing like countless flies, and all her nerves were paralyzed.
There is only Jiang Yu's face in front of her eyes, and Jiang Yu's voice in her ears...
After boarding the plane, she regained consciousness and suddenly realized that she didn't know what was going on, and she just flew over like this. How will she find Jiang Yu?
Her chaotic brain instantly calmed down.
Before taking off, she called Tian Lin again. This time, the other party answered very slowly. Before she could speak, she said, "Miss Cheng, don't worry, I will keep in touch with Xiao Zhou and the others. If there is any news, I will definitely... "
"I'm on the plane to Lingzhou, and there are still a few minutes to take off. Could you please send me Miss Zhou's phone number?" Cheng Suran interrupted her quietly.
Tian Lin was so stunned that she couldn't speak for a moment before saying, "Miss Cheng... even if you're from Lingzhou, it's not convenient and safe to fly over so late. Besides, it's in the mountains, you won't be able to help, instead, you might make things worse. Xiao Zhou and her team are already trying to figure a way out. With so many people, there won't be any accidents. Please don't be impulsive."
Her tone was a little anxious as if she was teaching a disobedient brat.
"I know," Cheng Suran said in a low voice, "but I just want to go..."
"Even if I can't help, I want to know her news as soon as possible. It's about her, and I don't want to listen to other people's reports."
After finishing speaking, she slowly took a breath and said calmly: "Thank you for your concern, Assistant Tian. I will pay attention to safety, please give me Xiao Zhou's phone number, and I will contact her once I arrive."
Tian Lin was silent for a moment, "Okay."
After hanging up the phone, Cheng Suran quickly received the number from Tian Lin. She tried to dial it, but at this time the plane had already started boarding, and the voice of the flight attendant could be heard overhead. After thinking about it, she gave up the idea.
Two thousand kilometers, three hours.
Most of the passengers were sleeping, because it was a red-eye flight, no meals were served, the flight attendants seldom moved around, and the humming roar of the engines is the only sound in the cabin.
Cheng Suran stared, not feeling sleepy at all, but full of regret.
If only she saw the photo when her sister sent it, she would definitely reply in time and tell her not to go.
But at that time she was in class...
When she saw the message later, she thought that her sister only took a photo, she never thought that her sister might actually take it—she knew that she was a canary, and a benefactor wouldn't take what she said casually so seriously.
But her sister listened to her.
There were mixed feelings in her heart for a while, sour and bitter. It would originally be enough to make her happy for a long time, but it turned into this. If she only knew what would happen, she would rather be ignored.
Fairy flowers are just flowers, and in her heart, they are less important than Jiang Yu.
….
Landing at around 1 a.m., Cheng Suran walked out of the empty and deserted airport and couldn't help but feel a little scared as she looked at the rich night outside.
No bus is running at the moment and the only way to go to the city center is by taxi. The small airport has a small passenger flow, and there are long queues of taxis waiting for passengers. A few people are sitting, and the drivers are leaning against the door, smoking and chatting.
Cheng Suran first called Xiao Zhou to ask for the address, but the other party's reaction was the same as Tian Lin's, but she didn't say much and gave her the name of the village.
"Beauty, do you want to take a car?" A stocky man yelled at her.
She put her phone in her pocket, instinctively took a half step to the side, and suddenly remembered the news of a woman who was killed in a taxi in the middle of the night, but thought that Jiang Yu was still trapped in the mountains, so she couldn't care less.
Walking over, she casually caught a glimpse of the car behind her, but it didn't open the door. It seemed like there was a female driver inside.
Cheng Suran's eyes lit up and she walked past the man quickly and opened the door of the rear car.
Sure enough, it was a female driver.
"Sister, where are you going?" The aunt, who was about forty years old, had a kind face and spoke Mandarin with a local accent.
Cheng Suran calmed down a little, and said in dialect: "Wujia Village."
"Okay."
Twelve kilometers away, the nightlife in the small town is not rich. Although the urban area is brightly lit, there are very few pedestrians on the road, looking empty and desolate.
Half an hour later, they arrived at Wujia Village.
Cheng Suran paid and got out of the car, taking out her mobile phone to make a call while walking in a hurry.
The surroundings are quiet and dark, and the night wind is blowing on her body. There are several houses in the village with lights on, and the watchdog who was awakened by the sound of footsteps barked loudly. At the end of the straight stone path, the silhouette of Lingbai Mountain can be vaguely seen, melting into the night.
She hung up not long after Xiao Zhou came to answer her call.
She wasn't able to sleep.
Pei Chutong and Ruan Mu didn't sleep either, they sat on the sofa wearily.
"Can you tell me the specific situation?" Cheng Suran was guided into the house and stood in front of them with disheveled hair and an anxious expression.
Not even caring about formalities.
Pei Chutong looked at her with probing eyes.
Knowing that this girl was coming, she immediately thought of the canaries in the circle, all of them had excellent acting skills, and whenever there was something wrong with the sponsor, they would show concern and their manners are decent, very professional, and comfortable. Then, the sponsor will be happy and with a wave of a hand, reward some pocket money, and their goal will be achieved.
Is the canary in front of her the same?
It is a weekday and she still had to go to school and then fly over overnight. It doesn't matter whether she can help or not. The important thing is to perform well in front of the benefactor.
A sneer appeared on the corner of Pei Chutong's mouth, and asked softly, "What do you want to know?"
"Just what happened on the mountain today... Wait, didn't Assistant Tian say that none of you came back? So you..." Cheng Suran felt her contempt and a stab in her heart, but she didn't have time to care. Now she just wanted to know everything about what happened to her sister.
Pei Chutong stared at her for a moment, put away her emotions, and sighed: "The two of us were brought out by the local villagers after nine o'clock, but Coco..."
"What happened to her?!" Cheng Suran rushed forward, "Didn't you find her? How come? Shouldn't she be with you?"
Ruan Mu quickly grabbed her.
Pei Chutong frowned and signaled to release her before Ruan Mu let go. She looked at Cheng Suran, the girl's eyes were full of mist as if some kind of emotion was surging.
"Coco was not with us."
"..."
In the afternoon, they searched for clues and took pictures in the mountains. They had a fun time. They found the clues after three o'clock and completed the task. But they all wanted to go sightseeing for a while, so they let the two camera crew go back first and continued to go explore the mountains.
At about four o'clock, Jiang Yu said that she was going to pick fairy flowers, told them it was very close, and she would be back soon, so she asked them to wait where they were.
They waited until five o'clock but no one came back.
Jiang Yu's phone couldn't be reached, so Pei Chutong and Ruan Mu searched in the direction she left, but they got lost and wandered around in the almost identical forests until it was dark. Not only did they not find anyone, they also lost their way.
The network signal is poor and unstable. They are worried about encountering wild animals in the dark, so they didn't dare to move around. They stayed where they were and waited for dawn.
"Fortunately, we brought food and water. After nine o'clock, we saw a few people walking and shouting with lights on. They were farmers in the village, and they came to find us..."
By the time it was getting dark, Xiao Zhou realized that they had not returned yet. She immediately reported to the filming team; then they paid some villagers to go up the mountain to help find them.
It took two or three hours to find and bring them back, and then look for Jiang Yu, but they didn't find her until late at night. After eleven o'clock, the villagers returned to the village one after another, planning to go up the mountain again at dawn.
"How can we wait for dawn? Time is life! What if she encounters any danger in the mountains at night...wild animals, or cliffs? Have you ever thought about that? She is alone..." Cheng Suran was emotionally agitated and her voice choked up and couldn't say anything anymore.
Pei Chutong massaged the center of her brows and lowered her head weakly.
Ruan Mu patted her on the back lightly, looked at Cheng Suran, and said in a serious tone: "The night road in the mountain is not easy, our whole team is not familiar with this mountain, so we can't rush to find her so we called the police. About midnight, the fire brigade arrived and they are still looking for her on the mountain. They are more professional and experienced, we just need to wait for the news tonight."
"Wait? Do you know how big Lingbai Mountain is? If there is no exact location, you may not be able to find her for three days and three nights. With that time, I am afraid that what we'll find is not a person but—"
A corpse.
Cheng Suran's eyes turned red, and her chest heaved violently. Suddenly, she remembered something, "I know where sister might be..."
"What do you mean?" Pei Chutong suddenly opened her eyes.
Trembling, Cheng Suran took out her phone, clicked on the photo, and handed it to her, "Sister said that she was going to pick fairy flowers. It should be the place in the photo. From the mountain on the north slope, this location is halfway up the mountain on the north slope. The pond on the opposite side looked very close, but in fact, it is very far away. Once you enter the woods, you will have no direction. The deeper you go, the easier it is to get lost.”
"How do you know?"
"I'm a local, and I used to go to the mountains to play."
"..."
Pei Chutong was taken aback, her eyes became complicated. At that moment, all doubts were answered.
Before she could speak, Cheng Suran asked again: "Did the fire brigade go up from the northern slope?"
"Yes." Ruan Mu answered.
"Northern slope... no, it will take a long time, and they don't know the location... I know there is a path..." Cheng Suran murmured, turned around, and searched around the house.
As if she was in her own home, she quickly found a flashlight and a long wooden stick that could be used as a trekking pole. She knew where these things would usually be kept.
"Are you going up the mountain to cause trouble in the middle of the night? Don't be like us, you will lose your way without finding Coco." Pei Chutong stood up with a serious expression and grabbed her wrist.
Cheng Suran threw her hand away and broke free from the restraint, her eyes were surprisingly calm: "I am more familiar with this mountain than you."
After speaking, she turned and ran downstairs.
"Come back--"
The night swallowed the girl's back.
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=4738582
This translation is originally posted on
love4baihe.blogspot.com
please read it there. and check out other stories too
….
The night in the mountains is thick and silent, surrounded by darkness, a cool breeze swaying the shadows of the trees in the forest, like a ghost, and sometimes came a strange sound.
Cheng Suran leaned on a trekking pole, with a flashlight, trudging through the trail.
Few people walk on the path, wild grass and trees grow recklessly, covered in gravel, countless insects and ants, and abandoned traps laid by hunters in the past. It is difficult to walk during the day, much more at night. But it only takes half an hour from here to the location on the photo.
From the northern slope halfway up to the other side, there is a wide range of dense forests in the middle, as well as deep gullies and cliffs. There are two directions in total, leading to the southern slope and the pond respectively. So there are three possibilities -
In the pond, in the woods, or on the southern slope.
The woods is the closest, the pond is next, and the south slope is the farthest.
This means looking in all three directions...
The flashlight is very strong, and it looks like a sharp sword in her hand, piercing the boundless darkness.
Cheng Suran thought to herself that her sister must be fine as if she had been injected with chicken blood, she didn't feel any fear at all, and after walking for about twenty minutes, her forehead and back were soaked, and she was gradually panting.
Suddenly, her foot stepped on the air——
"Aah…"
The soft mud sank, and she lost her balance in an instant. She was caught off guard and slid to the slope. The trekking pole and the flashlight in her hand rolled down together and hit the tree trunk.
She felt a sudden sharp pain in her thigh.
"Hiss…"
Cheng Suran frowned and felt that some liquid gushed out and soaked her pants. She lowered her head, and by the light of the flashlight rolling down beside her, she saw a deep wound on her left thigh, scarlet and thick blood kept pouring out.
She gasped and her brain went blank for a few seconds, she quickly wiped off the sand, gravel, and dirt on her hands, took off her coat, and then the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing. She stretched it to wrap around the wound and tied a tight knot.
Putting on her coat, she ignored the pain, gritted her teeth, and got up. She retrieved the flashlight and trekking pole and continued walking with a limp...
….
It was 2:40 in the morning.
The waning moon is hanging in the sky, emitting a dim light, the entire mountain forest was submerged in thick darkness, and the surroundings were extremely quiet and chilly.
Jiang Yu leaned against a rock, curled up and shivering.
Around her are scattered food packages, half a bottle of water left over, a small backpack, a dead mobile phone, and a transparent bag full of fairy flowers.
Fairy flower...
She saw it and picked it up, but lost her way.
From evening to early morning, her phone never had a signal until it ran out of battery. For almost ten hours, she walked around in the deep mountains and old forest alone, unable to find her way back. Finally, tired, thirsty, and hungry, she gave up struggling and sat down on the spot to wait.
Waiting for someone to come and rescue, or, waiting for the god of death to come and collect her.
With trembling hands, Jiang Yu picked up the mineral water, unscrewed it, and took a sip, the coolness trickled down her throat, intensifying the cold and making her shiver all over.
Her head felt heavy, and she was cold and sleepy.
She can't close her eyes.
Whenever she closes her eyes, her mind is full of the little herself who was dragged into the wooden house on the mountain during the thunderstorm at night. Whenever she closes her eyes, her mind gets flooded with the image of that dark and long corridor, surrounded by countless people to abuse her helpless self.
Then she will desperately want to grab and hold onto something.
A girl's face appeared before her eyes.
Oh, her little friend, her canary.
Suddenly, a beam of powerful light swept over——
She narrowed her eyes.
"Elder sister?"
"Is that you? Sister..."
A familiar female voice came from the direction of the light source, followed by half-light and half-heavy footsteps. The left foot steps are very light and the right foot stumps heavily.
The light got closer and closer, and the figure became clearer.
Kid?
Jiang Yu was stunned.
Author's Note:
Jiang Scum: My wife has come to save me, TUT.
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