“Hurry and leave.” The young Taoist priest left these words behind and vanished into thin air.
As a strict materialist, Kong Ning believed she must have simply zoned out.
On the other side, Le Xiu finally opened her eyes and asked tentatively, “Is she gone?”
“You mean that girl? Yes, she’s gone,” Yu Lingbo replied, casually detaching the arms that were tightly wrapped around her.
“That’s no girl, that’s a female ghost! There’s a female ghost right beside her!” Le Xiu exclaimed with lingering fear.
“I say, Little Le, don’t be so superstitious,” Kong Ning comforted herself as well as Le Xiu.
It was definitely superstition. That had to be it.
The hikers climbing behind them gradually reached their location.
“Why is it so wet here? Is this red water?” An inquisitive girl stepped into a puddle of liquid right next to the backpack Le Xiu had thrown away earlier out of fear. She lowered her head in confusion to take a closer look.
“Ahhhh! Blood! It’s definitely bloody water!” Hearing this, Le Xiu shrieked and once again clung to Yu Lingbo like an octopus.
The passing girl said awkwardly, “Actually… it smells a bit like watermelon juice,” before continuing her way up the stairs.
Kong Ning walked over to check as well and said with a heart-wrenching sigh, “Le Xiu, our watermelon broke!”
“What?!” Hearing this, Le Xiu jumped straight over.
That was the huge watermelon she had worked so hard to carry for so long, and she hadn’t even had a single bite yet!
Looking at Le Xiu’s grief-stricken face, Kong Ning suggested, “How about we open it and see if it’s still edible? We’re pretty tired right now anyway, so having a bite would be great.”
Le Xiu thought that sounded like a great idea and immediately unzipped the backpack.
Nearby, Yu Lingbo was already leaning against the railing.
She wasn’t going to eat it; it was definitely smashed to mush.
Next time she went out with Kong Ning and Yu Lingbo, she would definitely bring Shen Nanxi along. She could manage one clown, but two were truly too much to handle. Besides the occasional joke, Shen Nanxi was fundamentally emotionally stable.
Can someone please save her?!
Sure enough, once opened, it was completely inedible.
However, even if the melon had remained intact, it probably wouldn’t have been fit to eat anyway.
“Sob… Xiao Kong, this is an unripe watermelon,” Le Xiu wept silently.
“That’s impossible! Didn’t the vendor say it was fully ripe?” Kong Ning was filled with disbelief.
How could he scam people like this?
To think she even had Le Xiu use the melon-selecting trick she learned online.
The flesh was supposed to be bright red!
Not far away, the young Taoist priest said to the female ghost beside her, “Wife, was the watermelon delicious? When I make some money, I’ll buy you a whole truckload.”
Exhausted to the point of near death, the three of them finally reached the Golden Summit of Mount Wu’an. However, the top was swarming with a dense crowd of people.
Everyone gathered around the stone monument carved with the name of Mount Wu’an, waiting for the sunrise.
Before the sky had fully brightened, the mountain wind at the summit was freezing cold, making one’s nose feel tight and congested.
Kong Ning thought to herself, Did I come here just to suffer?
However, one ought to visit a mountain summit with friends and loved ones, at least, that’s what the videos online said.
This is youth.
So, what is youth really like?
Kong Ning watched as the eastern horizon was initially shrouded in a layer of dark ink-blue. Gradually, a hint of pale purple appeared, followed by a bright orange-red, as the colors surged upward layer upon layer.
It grew thicker and brighter.
Her heart beat like a thunderous drum; she desperately wanted to grasp onto something.
Her good friends were right beside her, but where was her lover?
Suddenly, a golden-red arc pierced violently through the cloud layer, dazzling Kong Ning’s eyes so that she subconsciously raised her hand to shield them.
In the blink of an eye, the arc turned into a semicircle with fuzzy light along its edges. A moment later, as if breaking free from some constraint, the entire sun jumped out from behind the clouds with a whoosh.
First flat, then progressively rounder and more intense, until a wave of golden-red light surged overwhelmingly across the landscape, sweeping over the rocks on the summit, over the swaying tips of the grass, and over the awestruck faces of the sunrise spectators.
The sea of clouds at the foot of the mountain had originally been a dull, hazy gray. Now illuminated by the sunlight, it instantly surged with thousands of colors, rolling and churning in endless layers.
The chill in the wind was dispersed, and everything became crystal clear, as though even the air itself had been dyed a warm, molten gold.
Suddenly, Wei Mu came to her mind, and her eyes even seemed to catch a glimpse of her.
However, amidst the shifting crowd, that familiar figure vanished once again.
What on earth? Why am I thinking about her? Kong Ning mocked herself. Haven’t I been tormented enough by her yet?
Sure enough, after hiking for so long, my memory and perception have declined to the point of having hallucinations.
Kong Ning looked beside her; Le Xiu and Yu Lingbo had long since leaned their heads together and fallen fast asleep.
She suddenly remembered something.
Oh no! I forgot to take pictures!
She looked at the two fast-asleep friends.
Forget it then.
Kong Ning chose to continue gazing at the mountains and clouds, letting her mind wander back to that day and that person.
She couldn’t stop herself from reminiscing.
Sunrises and sunsets seemed very similar, except that the morning glow represented rebirth, while the setting sun represented the closing curtain.
Ever since she watched the sunset with Wei Mu last time, Kong Ning felt she had become extremely strange, not just a little bit strange, but thoroughly strange.
How could she possibly find Wei Mu pleasing to the eye? Wei Mu was her archenemy! How could anyone find an archenemy pleasing to the eye?
How could she constantly think of her from time to time? That was the annoying Wei Mu, after all.
Just as she couldn’t understand why Wei Mu constantly sent her messages asking her out to eat, she also couldn’t understand why she always replied, why she was afraid of meeting her, and why she was so afraid that she didn’t even dare to leave her house, having no choice but to travel far from the capital to Mount Wu’an to clear her head.
A strange Wei Mu, and a strange self.
Damn it! Kong Ning hated this world. Why was everything so weird?
Kong Ning sat on the ground thinking and overthinking, her resentment almost causing her head to explode with frustration.
By the time the two sleepyheads finally woke up:
“Oh my goodness! How is it almost noon already?! My sunrise! Where did you go?!” Le Xiu exclaimed in shock. She tried to stand up, but her legs were so sore that she couldn’t get up at all.
As for Yu Lingbo, her mind was completely dazed; she desperately needed rest.
She didn’t care about sunrises at all. If someone could just give her a bed, she wanted to go back to sleep.
Seeing the weak and helpless state of the two, Kong Ning still felt a little guilty. After all, she was the one who dragged them here for this “military training.” As a good Chinese roommate with a conscience, Kong Ning ordered them a helicopter ride to send them back to the hotel first.
As for herself, she still wanted to stay here quietly and ponder life a bit longer.
When the sun grew increasingly scorching, Kong Ning decided to stop acting as a “Golden Summit Landmark.” If she sat there any longer, the staff might suspect something was wrong with her.
She still felt annoyed inside and needed an outlet.
Thus, she went into power-walking mode. If Le Xiu and Yu Lingbo had seen her, they would have been thoroughly impressed and called her boss without hesitation.
For some reason, she walked over to the side of the Taoist temple on Mount Wu’an.
Even more miraculously, she ran into the young Taoist priest from last night.
Today, she was dressed in a proper Taoist robe, sitting on a stone beneath a tree, completely shaded and looking quite cool and comfortable.
Is she… setting up a stall to tell fortunes?
As Kong Ning looked on, a realization struck her heart, and an idea suddenly popped into her mind: How about having her tell my fortune?
She should be a legitimate Taoist priest, right?
In truth, when the young Taoist priest vanished instantly last night, her claim about “zoning out” had merely been a self-consoling excuse.
“I’d like a fortune reading,” Kong Ning walked over to her and said.
“299, 699, 999. Which package does the benefactor choose?”
“The 999 one.”
“Considering that you and I are fated, I’ll give you a discount: nine hundred.” Xie Qing quietly calculated the ledger in her head. Since her wife had eaten one of the girl’s watermelons last night, waiving 99 would count as paying for the watermelon.
“What aspect would the benefactor like to calculate?”
“I want to calculate…”
Kong Ning originally wanted her to calculate her career prospects or how long she would live. Of course, most importantly, she wanted to know if she was possessed by some kind of demon, why else was she acting so weirdly?
However, Wei Mu’s figure reappeared in her mind, bringing an inexplicable wave of annoyance.
If my career is calculated, won’t I end up being suppressed by Wei Mu my whole life? I’d be pissed off to death.
Besides, Wei Mu couldn’t possibly be a demon in disguise, could she? She’s a childhood friend after all, what if she gets caught by the Taoist priest?
Kong Ning’s wild imagination expanded boundlessly.
“Never mind. Just calculate my romantic fate for me.” She also felt her previous thoughts were a bit absurd, but she was indeed feeling agitated; romance would surely have nothing to do with Wei Mu.
The moment she said these words, Kong Ning surprisingly stopped feeling annoyed.
She thought to herself: As expected, I really am strange.