Clear
If it really is as the director of the local police station said, once you leave Wuli Town, it’s all muddy roads.
The mountain road has eighteen bends, with a turbulent river on one side and towering mountains on the right. The driver responsible for the journey is a police officer from Wuli Town Police Station, and in order to prevent any dangers on such a road, the speed of the car is kept very slow.
The scenery on both sides is indeed beautiful, but no one is in the mood to appreciate it. Everyone in the group is feeling a bit queasy.
Lin Yan tapped on the car door, signaling the driver to stop.
As soon as the car pulled over by the roadside, she opened the door and jumped out. Song Yuhang quickly handed her a bottle of mineral water and some tissues.
She hadn’t eaten much in the morning, and she vomited it all out. Song Yuhang saw her sitting on the side of the road with a pale face and gently patted her back, feeling a bit sorry for her.
“Here, have some water. Hold on a little longer; we’re almost there.”
Lin Yan took the bottle, the cap already loosened, and a slight smile played at the corner of her lips before quickly disappearing.
“It’s okay, let’s go.”
The group continued their journey, making stops along the way. By the time they reached Xiaohe Village, it was already dark. The police officer leading the way parked the car by the side of the road and pointed halfway up the mountainside.
“Captain Song, that’s Xiaohe Village right there.”
The village halfway up the mountainside was lit up with scattered lights, and from a distance, it looked like stars had fallen in the mountains.
Duan Cheng was amazed, “How can there be a village built on the mountain?”
The police officer took a drag from his cigarette and said, “Well, it’s poverty. The young and capable ones have all gone out to work, leaving only the older generation who are holding on to their little piece of land. They can still get some harvest every year. If they don’t live on the mountain, where else? Decades ago, the tin mine here used to be prosperous for a while, but then there was a mining accident. Experts came, evaluated it, found it didn’t meet safety production standards, and closed it down. Even these electric lights were just installed last year.”
The narrow mountain road meant that the police car couldn’t go any further, so the group had to climb up step by step, following the police officer.
Song Yuhang reached out to brush aside the prickly eucalyptus leaves and casually picked a handful of fruit. She peeled it and handed it to Lin Yan, saying, “Try this. It’s called ‘Golden Cherry.’ It’s very sweet.”
Lin Yan hesitated and looked somewhat disgusted at the unattractive fruit in her palm. She didn’t dare to take a bite.
Without looking back, Song Yuhang continued to climb while picking some more for the others.
“It’s edible. My mom used to use it to make liquor, and it’s also medicinal.”
The police officer ahead chuckled, “I didn’t expect Captain Song to know so much.”
Upon hearing this, Lin Yan, now more cautiously, took a small bite. The sweet and tangy flavor instantly spread on her tongue, and the discomfort from the car ride was significantly reduced.
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She raised her eyebrows, swallowed it all, and her mouth felt refreshed. Pleasure was evident in the corners of her eyes and mouth.
Song Yuhang timely handed her a peeled fruit, saying, “Don’t eat too much; share some with the others.”
Lin Yan replied with an ‘Oh’ and reluctantly shared some.
As Song Yuhang continued climbing, whenever she spotted some tasty wild fruits, she shared them with the group and casually chatted with the police officer.
“It’s quite remote here. How often do you come here?”
The question made the police officer a bit embarrassed. “Well… about once a month. It’s not that we don’t want to come. As you can see, the road is quite difficult, and there aren’t many people in the village. Every time we come, it’s usually to handle some minor incidents. Just last month, we solved a case of chicken theft. Can you guess who the suspect was?”
Song Yuhang didn’t take offense and smiled, “A yellow weasel, perhaps.”
“You’re really clever!”
The police officer slapped his thigh. He appeared younger than her and had a more lively personality. He tried to climb a small hill and was about to turn around to help her up, but Song Yuhang didn’t need his assistance at all. She grabbed a tree and easily ascended, then turned around to pull her team members up one by one.
“I can…,” Lin Yan began to say, but before she could finish, Song Yuhang’s hand was already on her arm, and one hand fell to her waist, effectively lifting her up, a sort of half-support, half-hug to get her up.
Lin Yan gritted her teeth and whispered, “Song Yuhang, have you become addicted to carrying people?”
Song Yuhang blinked with an innocent look, as if she didn’t understand what Lin Yan was talking about. She then reached out to assist Fang Xin but did so very properly without touching her.
“Is everyone up?” Once the group had gathered, Song Yuhang looked down and saw the dark thicket of low trees below. She turned to leave.
“Captain Song, Captain Song, I’m still down here…” Zheng Chengrui was at the bottom, holding onto a tree, waving his strong arms vigorously, panting heavily, feeling like he could collapse at any moment.
Song Yuhang jumped down again, saying, “Come, let’s help.”
Several male detectives also went down.
Lin Yan stood on a flat part of the slope, watching them all struggling to pull, push, and drag, subjecting a two-hundred-pound man to torturous efforts that left him near death.
Fang Xin said, “Who gave old Zheng the courage to come up with us?”
Lin Yan replied, “Liang Jingru1, probably.”
* * *
Qing’an County.
The late-night streets were deserted, with few pedestrians in sight. Two or three drunks staggered across the road, leaning on each other for support.
The wind knocked over a soda can at the corner of the street, and it was kicked aside by someone’s foot.
The private clinic hidden in the alley was also getting ready to close. The small doctor yawned, just as he was about to lower the rolling shutter, he felt a cold, metallic object press against his lower back.
He swallowed hard and said, “Who’s there? Robbery? I… I don’t have any money…”
His face was mostly concealed by a mask, and the man outside only revealed a pair of eyes. His voice was particularly low and menacing. “Open the door.”
The trembling small doctor fumbled for his keys in his pocket, and as he turned around, he caught a glimpse of the object pressed against his back. His knees gave way, and a scream got stuck in his throat as he was struck unconscious with the butt of a gun.
The man opened the rolling shutter, dragged him inside, and tied him to a chair. Then he went back outside and helped another person into the clinic from the street corner. The rolling shutter came down, and darkness engulfed everything.
* * *
Even though Lin Yan had better stamina than most girls, the combination of motion sickness and the high-altitude mountain climb was still taking a toll on her, not to mention the others walking behind her.
“How much longer?” she panted, leaning on a tree.
“Not much longer,” one of the detectives in the front shone a flashlight and checked the map. “About one kilometer to go.”
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Song Yuhang turned around, took her survey kit, and slung it on her own back, extending a hand to help Lin Yan.
“Are you okay?”
Lin Yan gripped her hand and ascended another steep slope, stepping on dry branches and leaves.
“I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”
Song Yuhang squeezed her hand, her palm sweaty.
“If you can’t go on, just say so. We can stop for a rest.”
“No need…” Lin Yan pulled her hand away and adjusted the survey kit on Song Yuhang’s shoulder. “I can manage it myself.”
Song Yuhang dodged and helped the others up, while Lin Yan gradually tightened her lips, showing a bit of displeasure on her face. However, there was a faint warmth deep in her heart.
After all, who doesn’t like being taken care of? Even the strongest of women are no exception.
“This is strange. I distinctly remember this place from the last time we came,” a police officer said, holding a map and a compass, grumbling.
Song Yuhang walked over and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“The compass is malfunctioning.”
He tapped the instrument and shook it, but the needle remained still.
“Old Zheng,” Song Yuhang called out. Zheng Chengrui, panting, responded and eventually climbed up.
“Let’s determine our current location.”
To avoid getting lost in the deep mountains and forests, they had taken extra precautions with both a paper map and GPS coordinates.
He sat cross-legged, opened his laptop, and entered the coordinates. Several small red dots on the map blinked, marking their location, with their destination not far in the southwest direction.
Song Yuhang looked into the woods to find a direction, then touched the tree bark beside her. After some contemplation, she said, “Let’s go in that direction.”
Lin Yan wiped the raindrops off her forehead and asked, “Why—”
As she looked up, the woods were already pitch black with no daylight in sight, and a gust of wind caused the trees to sway as raindrops started pouring down.
In high-altitude areas, when it started raining, it often became a downpour, catching everyone off guard. They watched as their equipment began to get wet. Zheng Chengrui hurriedly collected everything and held it close; this equipment was his lifeline.
Duan Cheng took his camera bag off and covered it with a plastic bag, shouting in the pouring rain, “Captain Song, should we keep going?”
Song Yuhang climbed a few meters upward, wiping the rain off her face and finding a sheltered platform beneath a protruding cliff.
“We won’t go on. Come over and take shelter. We’ll wait for the rain to stop.”
The group crowded into the shelter one by one, three women and five men, all with drenched clothes. They couldn’t help but find some humor in their soaked situation.
A police officer said, “Usually, we’re here to rescue lost tourists, but today, we get to be tourists for once.”
“Here, have a cigarette; they’re still dry,” one of the detectives took out a pack of cigarettes and distributed them to everyone.
Duan Cheng was the youngest among them. When it was his turn to take a cigarette, the detective withdrew it and said, “You, you can skip this. You’re underage.”
There was laughter, and the police officer who had offered the cigarette lit it, exhaling a smoke ring thoughtfully. “I just started working, and I’m only this old. I’ve spent the first half of my life in this remote corner of the world…”
……
Outside, the rain grew heavier. A few people chatted leisurely. Lin Yan sat by the ridge, hugging her knees. She didn’t take a cigarette or say a word. Unlike her usual self, she was always the center of attention, the liveliest one in the group.
Song Yuhang knew that with Li Bin’s death, Lin Yan’s lead had gone cold. She was feeling upset, unable to be as lively as usual, but she didn’t say it.
She moved closer to Lin Yan, draping her own coat over her. “Are you cold?”
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“No,” Lin Yan replied, pulling the coat down and sitting a bit further away.
Rainwater dripped down from the trees, and Song Yuhang pulled her back gently.
They were a bit far from the rest of the group. Lin Yan struggled and lowered her voice, “Song Yuhang, what do you really want?”
Song Yuhang draped the coat over her again. “I just care about you. You don’t have to keep rejecting my kindness.”
“I, don’t, need, it,” Lin Yan said, emphasizing each word.
Song Yuhang turned her head to glance around, ensuring nobody was watching them, then playfully pinched Lin Yan’s nose. “Actions speak louder than words.”
This gesture was quite intimate, causing Lin Yan to blush even more and feel increasingly uncomfortable.
Fortunately, someone intervened to change the subject.
“Captain Song, you’re not married yet, are you?” The grassroot officer was still curious about his female leader from the city.
Song Yuhang sat back down and replied, “No, I’m not.”
The officer laughed and said, “That’s what I guessed. Married folks with families to take care of aren’t as eager to be on the frontlines.”
“What about Dr. Lin?”
The conversation somehow circled back to her. Although this female forensic doctor didn’t talk much during the journey, her appearance made her impossible to ignore.
The officer struggled to find the right word to describe her, but then it struck him, and he used a phrase commonly found in martial arts novels: “a cold beauty.”
Unexpectedly, Lin Yan turned her head, and her lips curled into a smile with a hint of alluring charm.
“No, but I do have several boyfriends. They’re always showering me with attention and care. I visit one on odd days and another on even days. It can be quite tiresome.”
As she finished her sentence, the branch Song Yuhang was using to dig into the soil snapped with a “crack” in her hand.
The police officer’s smile froze on his face. “Uh… Uh… Dr. Lin, you’re… quite…”
He couldn’t find the right words to continue.
Duan Cheng, on the other hand, perked up his ears. “Listen, what’s that sound?”
Everyone fell silent, and the world around them was eerily quiet, with only the sound of raindrops hitting the branches.
They huddled in the mountain hollow, surrounded by darkness, unable to see a thing beyond their hands.
Fang Xin was getting a bit frightened; this was her first time camping in the wilderness.
- Fish Leong, whose name’s hanyu pinyin is Liang Jingru, is a renowned Malaysian-Taiwanese singer and songwriter. She released a song titled ‘Courage’ in 2000.