C1 (1/2)
All units on the 23rd floor of a landmark building on Financial Street were purchased by an animal protection foundation called IFWA. The head of the Foundation is Ashley, a Chinese American. Although she was already 31 years old, she looked to be in her twenties, graceful, capable, and charming. The foundation is funded by Ashley's father, Ma Zhai, who took his family to the United States to settle down and founded the IFWA Foundation when Ashley was very young. For many years he had kept his life a secret from his daughter until the beginning of the year, when he decided to open the foundation's China office in China. Because of the inconvenience of his own disability, he sent his daughter back to China to take care of the daily operations and responsibilities of the foundation.
Ashley's business in China had gone smoothly. Although her father had never set foot in China for decades, he had a wide network of contacts, IFWA had received a large donation soon after opening in China, and any daily troubles would be solved by friends in China. Everything had gone smoothly until they found a place near the western mountain that IFWA was looking for. Ashley had taken a fancy to the hill over there and wanted to contract it as a bird observation and protection station for the Foundation. It started off smoothly, but when she signed a contract with the locals to prepare for the construction, the problem began.
At first, many strange things happened to the construction team. First, they found a strange temple in ruins on the mountain. Then, the workers discussed and said that the forest was not clean and that there were evil monsters lurking in it. Ashley was helpless and changed the construction party. When the workers were preparing to demolish the wreckage of the temple, they all fell ill. It was said that food poisoning had delayed the construction. Ashley had never believed that there could be any ghosts or gods in the world. She thought that someone was deliberately causing trouble, perhaps because of the local government or the villagers, so she decided to go to the scene herself.
It was already past three in the afternoon when Ashley finished receiving the reporters. She called her assistant over and prepared to go to that ancient temple in the western mountains. She was in her early twenties, a bodyguard and assistant whom Ma Yuan had found for his daughter. She came from a very miserable background, and it was said that her father had once been a member of the Kassiri Protection Team, and had been killed by a bandit gang leader. She had been killed in retaliation, and her whole family had been killed. Fortunately, the girl's father's colleague received the news and intercepted this group of thieves and hunters on the way, saving the girl. When Ma Yuanying found out about this, he accepted her into the United States for treatment and recovery. Then he paid for her to go to school and sent her to the famous military instructor Larry Vickers to learn all kinds of shooting and fighting skills. When Ashley was preparing to come to China, Ma was worried about her daughter's safety, so he asked the girl to stay with her as his assistant and bodyguard to take care of her.
With the girl's protection, Ashley was even more at ease. After she sent away the visiting reporters, she told the girl to drive to the West Hill site. Unexpectedly, the traffic jam on the road was very serious, and it was already late when they arrived at the western mountains. There weren't many developments on this mountain, so the car couldn't get to the top. It had to stop at the foot of the mountain. Fortunately, the construction site was not too high and there were stone steps leading up to it.
There were no residents around, only a man sent by the local government to watch the mountain. He was in his early fifties, and everyone called him Old Lin. The girl parked the car in front of Old Lin's house. Old Lin opened the door and came out to greet her. Since they had called in advance, the government also called Old Lin, so he knew Ashley's identity.
”Aiya, why did you guys come over so late? Come, hurry up and enter the house. ”You guys don't wear much. The wind on the mountain is harder than on the edge of your city, so this place is colder.” Old Lin said as he ushered the two into the room.
Entering the room, the two found Old Lin drinking wine, a package of pork head on the small kang table, a bowl of frozen tofu stewed cabbage, and a pot of wine in a bowl filled with hot water.
”I'm so sorry to disturb your meal.” Ashley was a rich man, but he had been well-educated since childhood and had always been respectful to others regardless of their status.
Old Lin felt a bit embarrassed. He grinned and said, ”I have some dirty and broken sheets here. Don't mind them. Sit down, I've changed these sheets.” Then he invited them to sit on the bed and took a chair across from each other. He asked them, ”Are you guys still going up the mountain at such a late hour?”
Ashley nodded and said, ”Mmm, I didn't expect the road to be so congested today. We came here to stop the car and go up to take a look, I want to take a look at that temple.”
Old Lin hesitated for a moment, then said: ”This mountain was nothing much, those workers are just trying to make trouble. What a ball!” I don't believe this, but … Our side has been protecting the environment for the past few years, so there are some animals coming and going on the mountains nearby. Chicken and wild boar can be seen from time to time, and I've heard that there are even wolves, but I've never seen a wild boar before. It's not safe for you to go in the dark at night. ”
”Yes, you don't have to worry about that. We'll go up and take a look, and we'll be back very soon. There shouldn't be any problems, right? This is Beijing.” Ashley smiled and asked Lin not to worry.