At 2:30, Zheng Kai climbed back up onto that bench.
He raised the megaphone to his mouth and cleared his throat.
"The bus leaves at four sharp! We're not waiting for anybody!"
Then he hopped down off the bench.
This time, the megaphone didn't say a word about retirement.
Zhou ran the numbers in his head. The climb up had taken him an hour and fifty minutes. Going down, the fast ones would make it in forty-some minutes. He'd need an hour.
He'd make it. Just not with much to spare.
He drank off what was left in his thermos, went to the snack shop for a refill, and drank that too. The box in the lower left corner ticked to 5/8.
All at once, the lawn was in motion. The Marketing people grabbed their bags. Someone tipped the last half bottle of water into their mouth. In twos and threes, they crowded toward the stairs.
Song Xiaobei shoved his phone into his pants pocket and waved his arm at Zhou from two wooden tables away.
"Bro Zhou, I'll go down first and save you a seat!"
Before the words had even landed, he was off at a bouncing jog, his backpack bobbing against his back.
Must be nice to be young.
The two coworkers from the product team cleared the lunch bags off the wooden table. They walked over to the bench and stopped there, looking at Wen Yining.
Wen Yining didn't look up.
"You go on ahead."
The two of them exchanged a look, and then they left too.
A big stretch of the lawn had emptied out.
Zhou pulled his backpack out from under the wooden table and slung it on. He took a few steps toward the stairs, then looked back.
Wen Yining was still sitting there, holding the paper cup in both hands.
He stopped by the railing at the top of the stairs.
After a while, she drank the last mouthful of water in the cup, got up, and dropped the cup into the trash can outside the snack shop.
The can of iced coffee stayed on the bench.
She walked to the top of the steps, glanced at him, and took the first step down with a hand on the railing.
The railing ran along the uphill side. On the other side, the woods sloped away downhill.
With her right hand on the railing, Wen Yining edged down one step at a time. On every step, her left foot went down first, and then her right foot slowly came to join it.
It was the first time all day that anyone had been slower than him.
Zhou didn't go on ahead.
He walked on her other side, the one without the railing, one step below her. When she went down a step, so did he.
There had been no voices ahead for a while now. Just the soles of their shoes knocking against the stone, one step at a time.
He ran the numbers again. At this pace, reaching the bottom before four would be touch and go.
A small source clue: NovelPhoenix.com carries this author's chapter, but this page copied it without consent; reading there supports the writer.
The bus could hardly leave the two of them on the mountain.
At 3:05, they came around a bend, and there was the pavilion again.
The four red pillars were still missing those patches of paint. The long wooden bench on the side facing the mountain was still worn to a shine.
Wen Yining let go of the railing, walked in, and sat down.
Zhou sat down at the other end of the bench. There was room enough between them for two more people.
Outside the pavilion, the woods spread all the way down the slope. Farther down, he could see one corner of the parking lot at the foot of the mountain. The buses were just a few white dots.
Wen Yining was looking down the mountain.
"You've trained?"
"I learned it from the old men in the park."
She didn't respond.
Down in the parking lot, a bus honked twice. By the time the sound reached them halfway up the mountain, it was faint.
"Who are you related to?"
Zhou wrapped his hands around his thermos.
"My grandma raised me."
Wen Yining turned her head.
"...I'm asking who in your family is at Chengshan."
"Nobody."
She looked at him.
He took a sip of water and screwed the lid back on. She was still looking.
It was a good while before she turned back to look down the mountain.
Neither of them said anything.
She stood up and took a step toward the stairs, her back to him.
"The water. Thanks."
"Mm."
Zhou picked up his thermos and stood up too.
The rest of the way down, she went first, and he stayed one step behind her.
At 3:35, she took out her phone and glanced at it.
As soon as the screen went dark, she sped up. Her right hand slid down along the railing, and each step was longer than the last.
Behind her, Zhou spoke up.
"No rush. Take it slow. The bus won't leave without us."
Wen Yining stopped mid-step.
The foot she'd already lifted came back and settled on the step it had left. She waited until his foot came down, and only then did she step down.
Each step he took, she went down one.
At 3:52, they came down the last step, and the ground under their feet turned to the concrete of the parking lot.
A ding in his ears.
[Task complete: Climb high and see far!]
[Didn't run once the whole way!]
[Reward: One folding hiking pole]
[Going downhill is the hardest on the knees! Fill a basin with hot water tonight and give those feet a good soak, Elder Zhou!]
Nothing for the climb up. A pole once he was at the bottom.
His backpack suddenly dragged heavier on his shoulders.
He reached behind him into the side pocket and felt something hard and cold, folded up neatly, section by section.
His hand stayed there for half a beat.
Wen Yining was standing right next to him, head down, putting her phone back in her pocket.
He zipped the side pocket shut.
Zheng Kai stood in the doorway, megaphone already up. He opened his mouth. His eyes landed on the two of them, and the megaphone came back down.
"Get on."
Song Xiaobei was in the back row, his own backpack holding down the seat beside him. When he saw Zhou get on, he hugged the bag to his chest.
The bus hadn't gone far when Zhou's phone buzzed.
A line of gray text popped up in the joint group chat.
"Zheng Kai" changed the group name to "Qiyun Mountain Team-Building | Marketing × Silver Division"
Nobody in the group said anything.
Song Xiaobei nudged him with an elbow, grinning, his eyes still on that line.
Zhou clicked his phone's screen off.
Far up at the front of the bus, in the window seat of the first row, Wen Yining had fallen asleep with her head tipped against the glass. Every time the bus jolted, she swayed a little with it.
At 5:02, the bus pulled up outside Chengshan Tower. The door opened, and everyone scattered.
Wen Yining got off with her laptop bag on her shoulder and went straight into the lobby. On the other side of the glass doors, she swiped through the turnstile and went upstairs.
He headed for the subway station.
At 5:30, he'd just found his footing in a corner of the subway car when there was a ding in his ears.
[Ding! Elder Zhou, this week's Retirement Living Summary is here!]
The first few lines were the usual string of numbers. He skimmed past them.
[Climb high and see far: 1/1. Completed!]
Below that, there was an extra line.
[Family Joy: 1]
He looked at that one a little longer.
Next week's hobby task came right after.
[A 20-minute nap every day at noon]
[Time limit: midnight next Friday]
[Reward: One neck pillow]
[Catch a little shut-eye at noon, and you'll have pep all afternoon!]
An intern, face down on his desk at noon, asleep for twenty minutes.
He pictured it for a second and left it at that.
That night, he did soak his feet in that basin of hot water after all.
At 9:30, he got into bed.
[Elder Zhou, in bed right on time! Today's early-to-bed check-in is done!]
The next morning, he woke up on his own.
He felt around for his phone and checked. 5:21. His alarm was set for 5:30.
While he was at it, he opened the work chat.
The last message was from Lu Heng, sent at 11:46 last night.
"@Wen Yining Updated the launch schedule. Could you take a look when you get a chance?"
Normally, under a message like this, her Noted would already be there. Once, one of her replies had come in at 2:03 AM.
Under this one, there was nothing.