C34 (1/2)
Eight years ago, a tea shop called Qin Mu opened for business. The owner was a Sichuan citizen, known as Old Qin.
Although he was the owner of the teahouse, Old Qin stayed out all year round and rarely took care of the teahouse. The reason was that Old Qin loved to explore the wilderness and always traveled through mountains and rivers to dangerous places. Over time, Old Qin's reputation spread, and he even used the tea house's precious land to get to know and take in trees as a disciple. After the two explored together a few times, Old Qin soon gave up on the tea shop business and established the current Qin Mu Adventure Club with Qiao Mu. They rented an office space and successfully registered as a company.
In the following years, the Qin Mu Club began to attract a group of Wilderness adventurers and began to recruit students. Business also gradually flourished. Until last year when Old Qin decided to go behind the scenes and leave the club to Qiao Mu.
In these past eight years, Qin Mu Club had accumulated quite a bit of reputation in both reality and the internet, and no accidents had ever happened. It could really be said that everything went smoothly for them.
At almost the same time, Zhou Yang and the rest of the six members of the expedition team advanced to what was now known as China's number one ghost village, making Qiao Mu feel apprehensive. Qiao Mu knew in his heart that if another accident were to occur, the impact that it would have on the entire club would be self-evident.
At this moment, Qiao Mu was sitting in his office chair, quietly thinking about something.
At this moment, his cell phone rang.
The caller had indicated that Yang Jie was Qiao Mu's wife who was working at the television station.
”Hello, brother, are you busy?” Yang Jie's clear voice came out.
Qiao Mu and Yang Jie had been married for almost ten years, but Yang Jie liked to call Qiao Mu ”brother”.
”I'm not busy. Tell me, what's the matter?” Qiao Mu replied.
”Last night, I heard you say that this morning, Zhou Yang and the others are going to the Flower Snake Village, right?”
”Yes.”
”Oh, I'm here. I just received a piece of news and it was yesterday. I wanted to let you know.”
As a reporter from a television station, Yang Jie would often gather all sorts of information and help Qiao Mu.
”What news?” Qiao Mu asked.
Just yesterday morning, a large bus with around twenty people on it turned over on the mountain road near Flower Snake Village. After the accident, the police and rescue team immediately set off, and about the time when it was about to get dark, they found the bus at the foot of the mountain.
”Missing?” Qiao Mu frowned.
”Yes, he's missing!” Not even a corpse! Then, why would I need to tell you about this matter? It's because the place where the bus flipped over is just right within the boundaries of the Flower Snake Village. ”
”Is that so …” Qiao Mu's heart sank. ”That bus is still there?”
”He's still here, but his car is already destroyed and the roads around are not good enough for him to drag the bus out of there. And the key point was that those people had disappeared! The car didn't matter. The most important thing was the lives. ”Oh yeah, bro, I have a few photos of the scene in my phone. I'll send them to you later.”
”Alright. Has the accident been identified? Was it natural or artificial? ”
”I'm not sure. The driver can't even find him now, so how can we appraise him?” So when I heard this news, when I remembered that Zhou Yang and the others were going to the Flower Snake Village s today, I wanted to inform you first. Oh, by the way, are you really not going with them this time? ”
”I can't go. Zhou Yang is leading the expedition, Brother Xiong and Xiao Wang are working abroad, only Miao Yue and I are currently left in the club, once I leave, no one will be guarding the house. ”
”That's right, then should we inform Zhou Yang and the others about this?”
”I have to tell them, call Zhou Yang later, tell them to be careful and come back early.”
”Alright, I'll hang up first.”
Just as Yang Jie hung up, a few pictures from her phone were uploaded to Qiao Mu's phone, showing the scene of the bus accident. She glanced through it and saw that the bus wasn't as badly damaged as he'd expected. The overall frame was still intact, but the car definitely couldn't be used again.
”He's gone missing …” He wondered about this strange accident.
What does disappearance mean? If someone had died in the car, the body would have been found at the scene of the accident, and if all of them had been lucky enough to survive, they would have stayed where they were or called for help as soon as possible, but they had all disappeared. Someone else must have taken control of them or disposed of their bodies.
Qiao Mu quickly came to a conclusion because he could not think of any other possibilities.
Just as Qiao Mu was worrying and was about to call Zhou Yang personally, a knock came from the office door, and was then gently pushed open.
It was an old man in his sixties, wearing a hat and a black jacket.
”Yo, Master, why are you here?” Seeing that person, Qiao Mu hurriedly stood up with a face full of joy.
The old man was Qiao Mu's master, one of the founders of the Qin Mu Club, Old Qin.
Ever since he had left, although Old Qin often invited Qiao Mu out for a chat and tea, he rarely came to the office to ask about the club's situation. Thus, the moment Qiao Mu saw Old Qin, he knew that something must have happened to him today.
Qiao Mu respectfully invited Old Qin to sit down and soaked him in Old Qin's favorite drink. After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two of them got down to business.
”Ah Mu, do you know why I'm not going to Mr.Guo's funeral?” Old Qin said.
”I think it's because I'm afraid it'll be too painful. Actually, it's the same for me.” Qiao Mu sighed.
”That's right. I've been a brother for so many years. I've lost them all just like that. I'm getting old and I'm much more fragile than before. My heart is truly in pain now!” Old Qin patted his chest.
Qiao Mu nodded. He knew that although he and Old Qin had known each other the earliest, they still had a master-disciple relationship, and there was some enmity between them. Unlike Old Qin and Guo Yong, he was close in age and had a common topic. The phone call Guo Yong made right before he died was to Old Qin.
”These few days, my mind is filled with the matter of Mr.Guo telling me on the phone before he died. I can't eat much, and I can't sleep well, so I came over specially today to talk to you about it.”
”Sure, I only have a rough understanding of the Mr.Guo. Originally, when you didn't come, I planned to ask you clearly.”
”The entire process of the Mr.Guo is quite simple. I told it to the police once, and you know it as well. It was him and his son, Xiao Yi, who went to the mountain forest on the island to step on the ground. It was him and his son, Xiao Yi, who went to the mountain forest on the island to step on the mountain forest. After about two nights, Mr.Guo found a hole in the water and drilled out. However, because he was infected by the toxic water in the mountain, his heart was attacked by the toxic water and he quickly died. Actually, what Mr.Guo told me was not only these, I never told anyone else. At that time, the more I thought about it, the more Mr.Guo made me think that what he said was probably true. ”
”Oh? What else did the Mr.Guo say? ” Qiao Mu was instantly alert.
”He said that when he and his son were trapped in the mountains, they could hear the female ghosts calling out to them every night, and then the toxic water would come out from the crevices in the rocks. And when he dived into the bottom of the lake, he saw a huge female corpse spreading poison gas. ”