Tonight, I knew it was destined to be a sleepless night.
If sleeping in the car last night was bad luck, then sleeping out in the open tonight was truly a first for me.
The hushed, low voices of Wen Lingyu and Qiu Lu kept drifting from the tent, too faint to make out clearly. Xu Zirong lay there for a long time, his breathing rapid and irritable. Finally, he simply sat up, not a trace of sleep in his eyes, and silently kicked at the ashes by the bonfire.
“Can’t sleep?”
Xu Zirong frowned and shook his head, then nodded again. He irritably turned his head away and, after a long silence, said, “I feel like I f*cking dragged you all down.”
I said, “Don’t think that way. Even I could get lost.”
Xu Zirong wiped his face, and only then did I realize he was crying. I didn’t say anything, nor did I turn to look at him, much less offer comfort. Perhaps for him right now, comfort would only be awkward.
I looked out at the pitch-black, dense forest.
The forest at night was full of dark shadows. With even a slight night breeze, the inky figures would sway and waver, adding a touch of eeriness to the night.
“Rustle—rustle—”
It was the sound of wind blowing through the trees again.
But Xu Zirong suddenly straightened up, his pupils widening, a look of shock on his face.
No, wait!
There was no wind at all!
In an instant, I understood what that sound was.
It was… the teeth-grinding sound of countless insect legs scraping against the ground as they crawled in swarms.
“Those insects…” Xu Zirong ignored the heat, picked up a slightly longer branch from the bonfire, held it like a torch, and illuminated a small area further away.
One black insect after another, like monsters lurking in the dark, lay dormant not far off. They crawled in swarms, winding along the edge of the path, their carapaces faintly reflecting the firelight.
“Why are they back again!”
Xu Zirong let out a low roar of anger, raising the branch to burn the insects.
I grabbed his arm. “Are you crazy? Fire spreads instantly in the forest; we’ll be dead in moments!”
Trees are most afraid of fire. Even though it’s early summer now, if a fire starts, it’ll be completely uncontrollable. Even if we make it out alive, we’d be convicted of arson and locked up for ten or eight years.
Xu Zirong angrily put down the makeshift torch. “What the hell are these things, always bothering us!”
His gritted-teeth expression clearly showed he wanted to spray them all to death with a can of insect killer.
I said, “Could it be that they were attracted by the food we bought? These bugs are relentless, but they haven’t actually harmed us.”
“Damn it! F*ck!”
Just then, the tent flap was pulled open, and Wen Lingyu and Qiu Lu poked their heads out. Both were wide awake and looked worried.
Qiu Lu asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you swearing?”
Xu Zirong hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back.
Wen Lingyu didn’t say anything, just looked at me with a pair of watery eyes, full of concern.
My heart softened. I didn’t want the girls to keep being scared, so I said, “It’s nothing, you two go back to sleep. Any danger will be handled by Xu Zirong and me out front.”
They exchanged glances and then lowered the tent flap.
I was afraid Xu Zirong would act impulsively again and do something irreversible, so I kept a close watch. Fortunately, although there were a few minor bumps that night, it passed peacefully.
The next day, the weather was clear.
The sky was high and the clouds were sparse, just scattered wisps, with the sun shining directly down. The dampness in the forest was baked away, leaving our skin feeling sticky. Of course, this also might have been because we hadn’t showered for three days.
The four of us were disheveled. Wen Lingyu’s bangs were almost greasy, clinging to her forehead in strands. Qiu Lu’s long hair was matted, and she could only roughly comb it with her fingers. Xu Zirong’s face was smudged with ash, likely from tending the bonfire. Of course, I wasn’t much better; my white shirt was no longer recognizable by its original color.
The bonfire, which had burned all night, left a patch of black scorch marks on the cement ground. We silently packed up our belongings, preparing to set off.
But where to go?
Qiu Lu’s face was pale and hesitant. “Do we really have to keep going?”
Two days of travel had made her much thinner, and all the color had drained from her face.
Xu Zirong said, “We’ve walked so far, getting more and more off track. It doesn’t look like we’re heading towards any town.”
Wen Lingyu hesitated, “But our car broke down, and we don’t know how far we’ve walked, we’ve been lost for ages. If we just wander aimlessly in the mountains, we…”
I said, “There’s still a concrete road here, which at least proves someone has been here, someone has used it. If we turn back, then yesterday’s efforts will have been in vain.”
The three of them fell silent again.
In my opinion, we had already walked for so long that the sunk cost was too high. And even if we went back, we still wouldn’t know where to go, so it was better to stick to one path and see it through.
“Ai…” Qiu Lu let out a low sigh, licking her lips, which were already dry and peeling. She took out her water cup, but not a single drop came out.
Seeing this, Xu Zirong quickly took out his own water cup, but it was also empty.
“I don’t have any water either.” Wen Lingyu said dejectedly.
My water bottle had been empty last night, and now my mouth was parched too.
Qiu Lu couldn’t even cry tears anymore. “What should we do…”
Without water, death wasn’t far off.
Stranded in the mountains, disoriented, without water or food… This seemed to be the graveyard fate had designed for us.
They no longer had the courage to go on, and my mind was buzzing with confusion, filled with a sense of being lost.
Water, where to find water…
Perhaps driven by a strong will to survive, a sudden thought flashed through my mind!
“I know where there’s water!”
They all looked at me, surprised.
“There must be water in the nearby woods! At least a small pond!”
“How do you know?!” Xu Zirong asked.
I replied, “Did you hear the frogs last night?”
Wen Lingyu paused, then quickly showed a look of sudden understanding.
I said, “Last night I heard frogs croaking in the woods. Goethe said, ‘It’s not that every place with water has frogs, but where there are frogs, water can always be found!'”
Xu Zirong and Qiu Lu looked utterly bewildered, their eyes wide, actually looking a bit like a couple.
“This f*cking works?!” Xu Zirong said, craning his neck.
“I’ll go with you to find water; the girls can stay here and watch the luggage.” I suggested.
Qiu Lu immediately said, “There’s no one out here, what luggage do we need to watch?”
Wen Lingyu also nodded, “I’ll go with you guys too. It’s better to have someone to look out for each other if something happens. There’s no phone signal now, so we can’t communicate. What if we get separated?”
Since the two girls were so insistent, I said, “Alright, then we’ll all go together. But the forest floor isn’t like concrete; the path is hard to walk, so you must be careful.”
Wen Lingyu and Qiu Lu nodded repeatedly. We put on our backpacks, leaving the large tent behind, and set off into the forest together.
The forest ground was slightly damp, covered with wild grass that reached our knees. We couldn’t see the ground at all at first glance, only feeling softness underfoot. We were used to walking on hard concrete and asphalt roads in the city; we truly hadn’t walked on a “path” that could barely be called one.
However, Lu Xun used to say, “There was never a road to begin with, but when many people walk on it, a road is made.”
I walked at the front, with Xu Zirong at the back, and the two girls followed closely behind us.
The deeper we walked into the woods, the denser the trees became, the darker the light, and the more overgrown with weeds it was. Fortunately, the trees were tall and the grass was low, so walking wasn’t too difficult.
I pushed aside the overgrown grass in front of me, tapping and poking with a wooden branch I’d found, just in case there were snakes, insects, rodents, or ants in places we couldn’t see.
It was my good luck, really; my wooden branch seemed to brush against some animal several times, perhaps a snake, but it didn’t attack. It just slipped away before I could even glimpse its shadow.
We walked cautiously for a while when suddenly I heard a clear, babbling sound that was like heavenly music to my ears.
“It’s the sound of water!” I blurted out in surprise, encouraging those behind me. Immediately after, my eyes brightened—
The trees, which had been blocking out the sky, parted slightly, revealing a small patch of daylight!
A stream, about two meters wide, was gently flowing down from an unknown source. The sun was directly overhead, shining onto the stream and casting a dazzling reflection. The stream was so clear it perfectly mirrored the lush trees on both banks, as if there were a forest world within the water itself. The stream banks were made of dark brown mud and sand, and stepping onto them left a soft footprint.
“Fantastic! It’s a stream!” Qiu Lu’s eyes lit up, and she rushed forward impatiently. She bent down and filled her cup to the brim. She didn’t mind the slight muddy sediment inside and immediately took a large gulp, instantly quenching her unbearable thirst.
My throat had been so dry it felt like it was on fire, so I quickly cupped some clear stream water into my mouth. The forest stream water was icy cold upon entry but had a sweet taste. It slid down into my stomach, instantly invigorating me.
“Lulu! Take it back and boil it before drinking!” Wen Lingyu’s lips were so dry they were peeling, but she still insisted, “Raw water from outside can easily have parasites; it’s not safe to drink.”
Qiu Lu splashed some water on her face and laughed, “I’m practically dying of thirst! I’d rather be bitten to death by parasites in my stomach than die of thirst!”
“Don’t talk about dying!” Wen Lingyu said softly.
“Oh…” Qiu Lu responded, then bent down and, catching Wen Lingyu off guard, splashed a handful of water on her face. “We good sisters die together!”
Wen Lingyu feigned annoyance and immediately launched a counterattack.
For a moment, the heavy atmosphere of the group was considerably lightened by their laughter. Discovering this small stream turned out to be the only lucky thing that had happened to us in days.
I found a large rock and sat on it to rest my feet. My gaze idly swept across the dense forest. The lush greenery here was a welcome sight for my eyes.
Suddenly, across the stream, a strange stone caught my attention.
I frowned, concentrating on it.
“What is it?” Xu Zirong walked over.
He was a sports student with excellent eyesight. I pointed to the opposite bank and asked, “Look, that thing… is it a stone tablet?”
