At daybreak, everyone set out again. Jin Feize held Jiang Ye’s rope the entire way, and for some reason, Jiang Ye could feel that he was in an excellent mood.
Jin Feize turned back and said, “It feels like walking a kitten.”
Jiang Ye: “…”
He did not want to deal with him.
The deeper they walked into the mountains, the more those dark forests felt quiet and strange. The spreading branches of the tree ferns were twisted and uncanny. Jiang Ye kept mistaking them for human arms.
When they stopped to rest along the way, Yilale came to examine Jiang Ye’s mouth. Everything was normal.
“Nothing you want to ask us?” Yilale asked with a smile.
Last night, he and Huo Ang had both drawn guns. No geological researcher from any institute would carry a gun around.
Jiang Ye tactfully shook his head. “Sorry, I’m not interested in geology.”
Yilale laughed. Both sides understood what Jiang Ye meant.
Yilale asked, “Why aren’t you curious?”
“Curiosity kills the cat,” Jiang Ye said honestly.
Yilale gave a helpless smile. “Now that things have reached this point, we have to trust each other. Hiding our identities isn’t a good choice. There’s no harm in telling you. We’re bodyguards hired by Professor Bai. We used to work in Southeast Asia and took part in some local private armed groups.”
Jiang Ye asked, “Do you know what’s inside Taisui Village?”
Yilale glanced over at Bai Nianci. “Professor Bai told us there were some supernatural things inside.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“To be honest, yes. But not to the point of running for my life. The price Professor Bai offered is very attractive.” A reminiscent look appeared on Yilale’s face. “Besides, when I was working in the tropical rain forest, I had some special experiences. We once accidentally entered an abandoned wooden house. There was nothing inside that house except a headless wooden puppet. That puppet was very strange. Its entire body was carved with patterns and writing we couldn’t understand. One of my comrades chopped up the wood to make a fire and keep warm. The next morning, when we woke up, we found that comrade’s head had been cut off. He was naked, tied to the spot where the puppet had originally stood. After that, we burned the wooden house down and evacuated that forest area.”
“It’s not as if these things can’t be dealt with.” Yilale sounded as if he was comforting himself. “Look, burn it clean and it’s gone. What about you? I heard Little Jiang came here because of his mother.”
Jiang Ye nodded. “My mother studied Western Yunnan religion. At some point, I don’t know when, she accidentally entered Taisui Village and became fascinated by the religious civilization inside. She came here last month and never returned home. As for Jin Feize…”
Yilale smiled. “Jin Feize came because of you, right? Are you two lovers?”
“We are not lovers,” Jiang Ye emphasized.
“Sorry, I misunderstood.” Yilale shrugged and smiled. “Don’t worry. Professor Bai paid your bodyguard fees too. Since we’ve taken the money, we’ll protect you properly. Relax. Treat it like a trip.”
After saying that, he left. Jiang Ye watched his back and frowned faintly.
Bai Nianci definitely knew something about Taisui Village, but he had not told these two mercenaries everything. That was why Yilale had come to Jiang Ye to sound him out. Unfortunately, Jiang Ye himself did not know much either.
Why did Bai Nianci not want him to leave? Jiang Ye was very curious. If he had said back then that he wanted to go to the hospital, what measures would Bai Nianci have taken?
As he thought about it, he suddenly felt thirsty. There had been mold fuzz in his canteen, and it could not be washed clean, so he had already thrown it away. The troublesome part was that he had only brought one canteen. Now he had nothing to drink from.
Just as he was at a loss, Huo Ang walked over and gave Jiang Ye a new canteen. “Your canteen got dirty. Use this. I washed it clean.”
Jiang Ye did not take it. “Then what will you use?”
“It’s fine. I’ll use Yilale’s.”
Jin Feize also handed over a canteen. “Thank you, but he can use mine.”
Huo Ang was just about to withdraw his hand when Jiang Ye took the canteen. “I’m not using his.”
Huo Ang turned to leave. Jiang Ye hesitated for an instant, then called after him. “It’s very dangerous inside. Are you sure you want to keep going?”
Huo Ang turned back and smiled. “Don’t worry. Your Brother Huo is full of righteous energy. Ordinary demons and ghosts can’t hurt me.”
Jiang Ye paused, then asked, “You’re an overseas Chinese, right? Why did you come back?”
Huo Ang scratched his head and said, “When I was little, I got lost in this forest and hit my head. I couldn’t remember where my home was, and no one came looking for me, so I was sent to an orphanage. My adoptive parents adopted me and took me abroad. Last year, my adoptive parents passed away, and I thought I’d come back and take a look. Maybe I’d find my biological parents. I mean, how old are you? Why are you frowning every day? Relax. You’ll definitely find your mother.”
“Thank you,” Jiang Ye said.
Huo Ang waved a hand and turned away.
They walked until afternoon and still did not reach Taisui Village. Based on their expected pace, they should already have arrived by now. Everyone rested in place while Bai Nianci took out the map and checked the route.
“Little Huo, go up to the ridge and check the view,” Bai Nianci said.
Huo Ang took off his backpack, brought the binoculars, and climbed toward the ridge. He scaled the top of the rock bare-handed and used the binoculars to survey the surroundings. Suddenly, he saw cooking smoke in the distance. Looking in that direction, he discovered a clustered village. He memorized the direction, put away the binoculars, and quickly returned to the group.
“I found Taisui Village,” Huo Ang said. “But it’s strange. There seems to be someone inside. I saw people cooking.”
“It might be Teacher Shen’s people,” Jiang Ye guessed.
Huo Ang joked, “It wouldn’t be Teacher Shen’s ghost, would it?”
Only Huo Ang could laugh. Everyone else looked grave. To be honest, in a place like this, signs of human habitation were even more alarming than no signs of human habitation.
They estimated that if they did not rest, they could enter the village tonight. But considering how strange that place was, and with so many people having disappeared inside before them, they decided to rest for the night and enter during the day.
That evening, they each set up tents. Bai Nianci refused to sleep alone, so Yilale accompanied him. Huo Ang had a tent to himself. After everyone ate dinner, they entered their tents. Jiang Ye could not sleep and lay there staring blankly with his eyes open.
Just then, footsteps passed outside their tent.
He did not know who it was, staying awake so late at night. Probably Huo Ang, Jiang Ye thought. That guy was addicted to smoking. During the day, whenever they stopped to rest, he would hide off to one side and smoke. That person outside was rummaging for something, making clanging sounds that kept him from sleeping.
Jin Feize woke up too—or perhaps he had not been asleep at all.
Jiang Ye said, “I’m going out to take a look.”
Jin Feize held him down. “Don’t. Sleep with me.”
He leaned over and rested his head on Jiang Ye’s shoulder.
Jiang Ye frowned. “Move.”
“Little Ye, you’re so mean to me.” Jin Feize sounded very wronged.
“…”
After Jin Feize made such a fuss, Jiang Ye was tired too. They had walked all day today, and he could barely crawl, let alone get up. The tent zipper was clearly right in front of him, but he simply did not want to go over. Jiang Ye turned onto his side and fell into a deep sleep.
Early the next morning, everyone came out to eat breakfast and prepare to set off.
Huo Ang rubbed his brow and said, “Who was awake in the middle of the night, clanging around outside?”
“Wasn’t it you?” Yilale said. “You’re the only one who gets up in the middle of the night to smoke.”
“You want me to tell the truth?” Huo Ang said. “I was jerking off last night. Wore myself out completely. I never got up.”
Everyone fell silent.
Yilale had already gotten used to Huo Ang being unreliable. He looked toward Jiang Ye. “Professor Bai and I never left the tent. Was it you?”
Jiang Ye’s expression turned grave. “It wasn’t us either.”
Huo Ang froze. “Then who was it?”
Yilale looked at Huo Ang again. “Huo Ang, don’t joke around at a time like this. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“I swear.” Huo Ang raised three fingers. “If it really was me, I’ll never get it up again for the rest of my life.”
No one had gone out in the night. Then to whom had the footsteps outside belonged?
The surrounding air froze at once. Silent pressure spread, as if a stone had settled in everyone’s heart.
Bai Nianci said in a low voice, “Starting tonight, everyone will take turns keeping watch.”
After saying that, they set out.
Half an hour later, they found feces and instant-noodle packets by the creek. It should have been garbage left behind by Shen Duo’s group, which proved they were on the right path. After advancing for more than two hours, they saw the village gate in the distance. Judging by the distance, it should still be more than five hundred meters away.
Huo Ang raised a fist at the front, signaling the group to stop.
Huo Ang came over to examine Jiang Ye’s mouth and skin. “You’re fine now. We can untie you.”
Jin Feize asked, “Can I still feed you after this?”
Jiang Ye said coldly, “No.”
Jin Feize looked regretful. “What a pity.”
Jiang Ye saw Yilale begin setting up camp and asked Huo Ang, “Are we not going in?”
Huo Ang said, “Professor Bai said we won’t spend the night inside. We’ll only enter during the day. We’ll set up camp first and send the drone in for a lap later.”
He opened the laptop. On the map, red dots showed the locations of all five of them, and each person’s heart rate and blood pressure were normal. Huo Ang opened another case, started the drone, and remotely piloted it into the village.
The scene inside appeared on the controller screen. Along the mountain slope stood many dilapidated wooden stilt houses, packed tightly together, separated from one another by horse-head walls. The village had only one street, which ran uphill along the slope and was extremely muddy. Some shops faced the street, their signs scattered and broken.
Jiang Ye thought that there should be an archaeological site nearby. It was the place his mother had come to back then and also the campsite for Shen Duo’s group. Where was that site?
Huo Ang controlled the drone and tried to fly it into one of the stilt houses to check the interior situation. However, every stilt house had its doors sealed and windows locked. There was no way in.
“That’s damn strange. I clearly saw cooking smoke just now,” Huo Ang said in a low voice.
“Could it really have been ghosts?” Yilale asked.
Huo Ang could not understand. “Do ghosts need to eat?”
“Turn the angle,” Bai Nianci suddenly said. “Turn left. Look behind that window. Is there a figure there?”
Huo Ang turned the view as instructed, and a stilt house covered in creeping vines entered the screen. Behind the swastika-patterned lattice window on the second floor, there seemed to be a figure standing quietly before the window, facing the drone without moving.
The drone slowly approached the window. The camera focused, and everyone clearly saw the “person’s” appearance.
It was a scarecrow standing inside the stilt house.
This scarecrow was truly strange. Who would put a scarecrow inside a house?
The drone filmed it for a long while and found nothing wrong, then turned and flew elsewhere. After circling around the village, they still saw no human figures. This was an abandoned village.
“What do you think? Should we go in?” Huo Ang put down the controller. “If we don’t go in soon, it’ll be dark.”
“Wait.” Jiang Ye’s brows were tightly knitted.
“Still wait?” Huo Ang was puzzled. “Little Jiang, if you’re scared, you can stay at camp and wait for us. We’ll go in and search, and help you look for your mother while we’re at it.”
Bai Nianci said kindly, “Little Ye, say whatever you’re thinking. I place great importance on your opinion.”
“Before us, several groups of people had already gone in.” Jiang Ye counted them. “My mother’s group, Teacher Shen’s group. My mother’s group alone had more than ten people. Teacher Shen and his subordinates should have numbered at least five. But in the images the drone just captured, we didn’t find any signs of recent human activity at all. Walking leaves footprints. Eating leaves garbage. Excretion leaves feces. There’s nothing inside. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
Yilale nodded. “It feels as if… they all vanished into thin air.”
Huo Ang was impatient. “What’s the use of thinking so much? We still have to go in and look, don’t we? Maybe they’re all hiding in the houses, and everyone is especially hygienic, so they built a simple toilet and lined up to take dumps.”
Bai Nianci nodded. “All right. It’s three in the afternoon now. We’ll go in and make one circuit. We’ll come out before sunset.”
Everyone traveled light. Huo Ang tucked a pistol with a full magazine behind his waist and also shouldered an AK-12 assault rifle. Yilale’s equipment was about the same. Bai Nianci brought his camera.
Jiang Ye saw that Jin Feize was also carrying a bag. There was no equipment inside it at all. It was stuffed full of hawthorn cakes.
Author’s Note:
Jiang Ye: Are you addicted to hawthorn cakes?
Jin Feize: I’m most addicted to you.