Chapter 2

February 12th.

Mid-spring, the month of the hare, all things awaken from hibernation.

In this chilly spring, the cold wind on the river was like a knife, and the ten thousand mountains looked desolate like withered graves.

On the banks of the Yin River, there was a county.

It was called Chang County.

In another deep forest of the ten thousand mountains.

The rumbling thunder grew louder, and the wind in the mountains became fierce, causing the dark forest to sway violently.

A storm was about to break out.

Crack!

A bolt of lightning tore through the dark and eerie sky, instantly turning the world a ghastly white.

The lightning also illuminated an old, long-abandoned temple standing in the mountains.

The temple was surrounded by thickets, with twisted and ugly trees, their roots breaking through the soil and covered in moss.

It exuded a sense of primitiveness and depth.

This was a basin surrounded by high mountains on all sides.

The dilapidated temple was in the center of the basin.

The temple was built entirely of black mountain rocks, but there was an inexplicable strangeness and awkwardness about it, as its roof design was peculiar, being lower in the middle and higher at both ends.

And it only had a door.

There were no windows designed for ventilation.

Rumble.

Rumble.

The thunder grew louder, and the forest was so dark that it was almost impossible to see the way ahead or behind, with thorny bushes and brambles everywhere.

Jian An, covered in mud and disheveled, had been lost in the mountains for a day, and was relieved to finally find a place to shelter from the rain before the storm broke.

Jian An had crossed over.

He had been in this world for a day.

Who would have thought that his solo self-driving trip to the Kunlun Mountains, known as the land of the gods, in August or September, would unexpectedly transport him to this unfamiliar mountain forest in the cold spring.

Pitter-patter.

Raindrops fell on the leaves, and it finally rained, quickly turning into a torrential downpour.

“Father, Father, Father, come quickly, there’s a temple ahead where we can take shelter from the rain.”

“Xiao Bao, don’t run too fast, the mountain paths are slippery in the rain and you might fall.”

A father and son, drenched in the rain, ran into the temple, covering their heads.

“Ah! Father, there’s someone here!”

A boy of about thirteen or fourteen rushed into the temple first and was startled by Jian An, jumping up in surprise. He hadn’t expected to find anyone else in this remote mountain temple.

“Xiao Bao, don’t run around, stand by Father... Hello, are you here to take shelter from the rain too?”

The father was a sturdy, dark-skinned man, clearly a simple mountain dweller. Despite his heavy local accent, Jian An could understand about seventy to eighty percent of what he said, which sounded a bit like the dialect of the Guizhou or Sichuan regions, but not quite.

The father and son looked like woodcutters who had come into the mountains to cut wood, carrying bundles of firewood on their backs.

Their clothes were traditional Chinese attire, with rough linen undergarments and outer garments made of animal fur for warmth.

The scene before him was like stepping into a set for a historical drama.

Jian An was stunned.

At the same time, crack!

Another bolt of lightning split the sky, turning the temple a ghastly white.

It also illuminated a clay statue of a woman in the temple, which had lost its head, perhaps due to the long neglect.

It was unknown who this headless statue originally represented.

Seeing that Jian An did not respond, the father assumed he was not much of a talker and kept a cautious distance, busying himself with his own tasks.

They found some dry grass in the temple to use as kindling, then selected some firewood that had not been soaked by the rain. The father skillfully used a fire striker to start a fire.

Soon, a warm campfire burned in the temple, and they took out their dry rations.

It was a cold, hard, and frozen pancake.

The father and son placed the pancake over the fire to warm it up and ate it with rainwater collected in bamboo tubes.

Gurgle, gurgle~

Smelling the aroma of the baked pancake.

His mouth watered.

Jian An’s stomach, unable to bear the hunger, growled loudly.

Jian An blushed.

He had been lost in the mountains for a whole day without eating, and now he was both cold and hungry.

“Little brother, are you hungry? I have half a pancake left. If you don’t mind, you can have this half to tide you over.”

The middle-aged father, with weathered and rough skin from years of exposure to the elements, did not coldly reject the stranger but instead warmly offered him half a pancake.

Jian An was indeed very hungry, and after expressing his gratitude, he wolfed down the half pancake.

After this, the relationship between them improved significantly, and Jian An learned more about the father and son.

The father was named Wang Tiegeng, and the boy was named Wang Xiaobao.

The mountain they were on had no name locally, and there were many such ordinary mountains in the area. The father and son lived nearby and made a living by cutting wood and hunting.

They would never venture this deep into the mountains, but today, while cutting wood, they encountered a group of wild boars moving their den.

Mountain hunters all knew the saying: “One boar, two bears, three tigers.”

Wild boars were ferocious, and even bears and tigers would not dare to provoke an adult wild boar.

The father and son, in their panic, fled and accidentally ventured deep into the forest, leading to the current situation.

...

As they chatted, the night grew deeper, and a strong sense of drowsiness overcame them. The three of them gradually fell asleep against the wall.

It was unknown how long they had slept.

In a daze.

Jian An heard some movement.

He opened his tired eyes.

He saw Wang Xiaobao climb out of the pile of dry grass, rubbing his eyes and unbuttoning his pants.

“Xiao Bao, where are you going?”

Wang Tiegeng, half-awake, called out.

“I’m going to urinate, Father.” Wang Xiaobao replied.

“Just urinate at the door, don’t go far.”

“Okay.”

Jian An didn’t know why he was so sleepy tonight, his eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and he soon fell back asleep.

There was no way to tell time in the mountains.

Jian An didn’t know how long he had slept this time.

... He was awakened by Wang Tiegeng’s frantic calls.

“Xiao Bao!”

“Xiao Bao!”

“Xiao Bao, where are you? Don’t scare me!”

Jian An woke up in shock: “What’s wrong, Uncle Wang? I remember Xiao Bao went to urinate.”

“Hasn’t he come back?”

Wang Tiegeng was already crying: “This is all my fault! I don’t know why I slept so deeply today and didn’t keep an eye on Xiao Bao!”

“I dreamed that Xiao Bao was crying and saying it hurt, shouting that there was a ghost in the temple, and the clay statue was eating him, and he was about to be eaten up, telling me to run for my life!”

“When I woke up, I searched the entire temple but couldn’t find Xiao Bao!”

The disappearance of his child had thrown Wang Tiegeng into a state of panic.

Jian An was shocked.

His eyes involuntarily turned to the headless clay statue in the temple.

This time, as he looked at the headless statue, he felt a chill run down his spine, as if someone was staring at him intently.

In the era Jian An came from, people did not believe in ghosts or deities. He took a deep breath, mustered his courage, picked up the woodcutter’s axe that Wang Tiegeng had left on the ground, and boldly rushed to the headless statue, hacking at it.

Thud.

Thud.

To his horror, a severed arm, bitten by teeth, and a bloody head of Wang Xiaobao fell out of the statue.

“Xiao Bao!”

Wang Tiegeng let out a mournful cry, rushing to his son’s head, and wept bitterly.

But Jian An, standing before the statue, was frozen in place, his face stiff, because inside the statue, besides Wang Xiaobao’s mutilated body, there was also a half-rotten body of Wang Tiegeng! The degree of decay suggested he had been dead for at least ten to fifteen days!

Yet Wang Tiegeng was right there at his feet, holding his son’s head and sobbing in anguish.

Jian An was chilled to the bone!