CH 2

Posted on November 23, 2022by UntamedS

April 19, 2018, 23:48 pm.

The camping area of Bao Yun Mountain, a distant suburb of Yang Ping City, H Province, China.

It was close to midnight when Fang Ziming opened a can of beer and handed it to his friend next to him: “Old Jiang, how long has it been since you touched the lens? the assembly method looks rusty.”

“Thank you.” Old Jiang took a sip and took the opportunity to spill his grievances: “Our small company, recently received several projects. The employees below are as busy as grandchildren every day. How can they have time to play with these hobbies?”

Fang Ziming simply pushed him aside and went forward to help him quickly assemble the camera with the light of the camp lamp. After a few adjustments, he put the camera on the tripod that had been built.

Old Jiang whistled, squeezed the empty beer can, found a plastic bag and threw it inside: “There are less than ten minutes left, ah ah, I’m excited!”

Not far behind him, there were about a dozen backpackers were setting up cameras to adjust the lens. These photography enthusiasts from Yangping City were making the final preparations for shooting the Lyra meteor shower a few minutes later.

As amateur photographers, Fang Ziming and these people also had some half-baked friendship, so they were still chatting in a low voice, not long, suddenly someone shouted: “It’s started!”

Fang Ziming raised his head together with the people and saw several starbursts trailing the silver edge in the sky, rapidly cutting an arc in the curtain-like night sky, and then disappearing in a flash.

The crowd on the top of the hill let out a gasp of surprise, of course, they didn’t forget the purpose of coming here, the photographers quickly stopped talking and redirected their attention to their shots.

Fang Ziming at first was still fiddling with his camera, but not long after, his eyebrows gradually twisted up, while moving his face away from the camera, he tilted his head to look at the sky somewhere.

“Da-mn!” Old Jiang muttered: “is it my hallucination, or does the meteor shower seems to have strange things mixed in it? That fireball, is that a meteor? Old Fang, did you see it? It looks like a meteorite fell from the sky…”

Fang Ziming was so shocked that he almost dropped his camera on the ground, and he slapped Old Jiang on the back: “Don’t scream, I fu-cking saw it.”

This sudden change really caused a commotion among the photographers, someone excitedly shouted, Fang Ziming subconsciously picked up the camera, he adjusted the focus, while the lens aimed at the sky.

In the night sky, there was a “blaze”, falling straight down from the sky!

The heavy clouds overhead were easily penetrated, and in Fang Ziming’s cell phone screen, the fireball trailed a long “tail” and glided high in the sky for some time before suddenly exploding without warning, and then it broke up into several smaller fireballs, like flying flames, falling rapidly in different directions.

A few seconds later, this explosion in the sky created a sound wave, just to reach Bao Yun Mountain.

Boom…!

Fang Ziming didn’t care to pick up the camera dropped at his feet. The young man’s eyes widened, and a strange light gradually reflected in his eyes.

“Why does the flame seem blue?” He stared at the blue light in the night sky and murmured subconsciously.

The voice was covered under the shouting, not many people heard, Old Jiang in the crowd tugged Fang Ziming: “It isn’t safe, let’s go!”

Before Fang Ziming could say anything, the light had already fallen to Bao Yun Mountain and crashed into the young man’s chest!

Fang Ziming: “Oh! What …… what ……”

The young man’s body shook violently and was pushed to the ground by the force. His right hand supported the ground, his palm touched a cold object, so he turned his head and looked down.

It was a small folding double-sided mirror, which was probably accidentally dropped by a photographer. At this time, the folding mirror had been smashed into pieces. Fang Ziming’s palm was on it, and immediately felt sharp tingling from his palm.

It was probably bleeding.

His chest seemed to be repeatedly burned by a fire, and the burning pain became more and more obvious. He slowly extended his other hand to his left chest, looked at the ground, and murmured, “Mirror… mirror…?”

“Old Fang! The bed, where is the light …… Old Fang, I can’t see you, Lao Fang where did you fall?”

His best friend’s shocked scream was still in his ears, Fang Ziming’s heart beat heavily a few times, he shook his head, he pressed something hard on his chest, like a stone.

–What was it?

This thought just appeared in his mind, before he could think about it, he could no longer support himself and let his consciousness sink into the infinite darkness.

April 20, 00:03 in the morning.

The strong light in the Baoyun Mountain lasted for nearly three minutes, Old Jiang closed his eyes and groped around, pounding for half a day but didn’t touch anyone, then he could easily open his eyes, he hurriedly twisted open the flashlight: “Old Fang! Old Fang are you okay? Hey, what the hell is happening ……”

The camping area was in a mess, but there was no longer the familiar figure of Fang Ziming.

Old Jiang picked up a camera from the ground, then he looked around in confusion: “…… Old Fang?”

Until the sun came up, he didn’t see his best friend again.

A day later, a public security bureau in Yangping City accepted this slightly strange-looking missing case, after a week of search and rescue, the police decided that the city’s youth surnamed Fang, slipped in the Baoyun Mountain and fell to his death, but his body was still unaccounted for.

However, under the deliberate guidance of some people, the news of the falling cliff case didn’t spread outside Yangping City. Few people knew the whole story. Even some friends and brothers with good relations with Fang Ziming only knew that the young man had suddenly left Yangping City and where he had gone, was unknown.

Eight days later, in another strange space.

The young man, who had been ruled dead by the police, finally opened his eyes slowly.

××××××××××××

The floor beneath his feet was a little slippery, a little carelessness could make people walking on the surface fall, Fang Ziming shook his head, slowly fumbling to sit up.

He hesitated for a moment. After a long time, he stuck out his forefinger and wiped a circle on the ground. The touch under the fingertips was smooth and cold, which seemed quite different from the common ground. The young man couldn’t help but put his fingers up and knocked on the ground twice.

——Da, da.

The sound was slightly crisp, not as dull as the floor tiles, and with some echoes.

There was no light here, so Fang Zhiming couldn’t tell where he was for a while. He listened to the sounds around him and guessed that he was probably in some empty building or something.

Anyway, he was definitely not on Mount Bao Yun anymore.

“As I recall, I was just hit by debris from the meteor explosion.” He withdrew his hand from examining the ground and touched his chest again, “Strange, there’s no wound at all.”

Before he fell into a coma, he had clearly felt something like a stone on his chest.