C50 (1/2)

This is a valley, which seems unremarkable in Googleearth.

The exact location of this coordinates is not far from us, about 400 kilometers southwest of Qianchao City. This was the border between the three provinces. From the satellite map, it was surrounded by dark green mountains. Not even a road could be seen. I remembered one time at a table, a friend of San Mao's who was drinking wine and bragging, said that at the border between our province and Western Mountain Province, it was the place where the two cannons were stationed. All the mountains there were hollowed out, and in the middle of the mountain, the best weapons of our country were hidden.

”What is this place?” muttered the Taoist, staring at the map on the computer screen.

”Won't we know if we go and take a look?” I blurted it out like a man in a trance.

The Taoist looked up at me sharply, his eyes sparkling.

It wasn't that I was brave, or as curious as the Taoist. In that instant, I felt that the SOS signal had been sent by MaggieQ, and I didn't even think about it, as if it were fated to be, as if it were only natural that I should go and save her, and then I remembered that this strong, uncontrollable impulse was like a salmon returning to its native land to lay its eggs, and then dying of exhaustion; like a male praying mantis attracted to its mother and eaten willingly after mating.

San Mao was also called back by us. He had always known that we were investigating, but he had always scoffed at our theory, thinking that the person with the severed neck was just an illusion. He didn't even believe that the MaggieQ I told him about was pointing a gun at me. But as soon as I told him we were going into the mountains to explore, he came back jubilantly.

”Finally I have a chance to use you,” I said to myself as I picked up my ancestral bird backpack, weighed it in my hand.

I bought this backpack when I was dating a donkey friend for a while, but before I could use it, she saw through my desire to get close to her just to sleep with her, not really liking the reality of outdoor sports. After she told me she was a Lala, we became good buddies, but I never went out again.

The backpack was fully equipped, and for me, who had been so focused on picking up girls at the time, everything was the best I could buy — a professional Magellan field GPS, a Zeiss Glimmer telescope, Wolf's Claw tent and sleeping bag, Bell's survival knife, and even a complete gas stove and cooking utensils.

For the Taoist priest, who was always ready to run, equipment was even more of a problem. He rolled up his bedroll on the floor of the study and stuffed a few clothes into his backpack, preparing to leave.

The two of us carried a big backpack and were about to go out like refugees. San Mao stared at us in a daze at the door with his round eyes.

”Where's your stuff?” the Taoist asked at the same time.

San Mao shrugged his shoulders, ”Wouldn't it be fine if you bring it?”

We're driving San Mao's car, a 4.0 capacity Toyota Prado. This was the only valuable property that San Mao had acquired after working for more than ten years. Because of this, he and his parents went through a long war. As a result, in the three years since they bought the car, his mother never spoke to him, and she told me several times that crazy housing prices had caused them to no longer have the ability to help their children buy a decent house in this city. If San Mao didn't buy a car, then he could buy a house anywhere with their lifetime savings and the payment for the car … Every time she talked about it, she would shed tears because San Mao was not up to the task and because she couldn't persevere anymore.

San Mao, on the other hand, viewed this car as a treasure, and had even reached the level of a fetishist. If he had to choose between a scratch on a random girl and the car that he was dating with, he would definitely kick her out of the car without hesitation!

”Good child, your father is taking you out to have fun …” San Mao started the engine, caressed the dashboard behind the steering wheel and mumbled to himself. There was a perverted look on his face, saying that a man's serious expression was the most handsome, perhaps this was San Mao's most handsome state.

It was a hot, humid summer day, and the afternoon air was so stuffy that it seemed like it was about to leak out. We followed the slightly dilapidated highway westward, and as we headed west, we could see more and more barren hills and mountains outside the window. The trees were beginning to thicken, the houses in the village were slowly becoming sparse, and the traffic on the road was becoming sparse.

At night, the situation became even more lonely, even the laughing San Mao and the Daoist Priest all shut their mouths, and only smoked quietly one after another. Occasionally, there would be a train, rumbling past the parallel tracks, the body of the train would be brightly lit, and every single window would have a shadow of a person flash past them.

”We're here …” San Mao softly spat out these two words.