"I'm sorry, I'm fine, I'm still busy. Qi Dongsi apologized to Ji Linyuan and reported her safety.

"It's okay, didn't you say you came back before dawn last night? Why haven't you come back, I'...... I haven't slept all night, I'm waiting for you ......" Ji Linyuan's tone at the end of the sentence gradually decreased, as if he was afraid that Qi Dongsi would talk about her, but he was full of grievances.

Ji Linyuan's words made Qi Dongsi feel fierce in his heart, extremely painful, and felt that he was sorry for Ji Linyuan, and he had broken his promise more than once. He said apologetically, "I'm sorry......"

Ji Linyuan didn't think about asking for Qi Dongsi's apology, she took the initiative to ask, "Where are you? When will you come back?"

Qi Dongsi estimated the time he would spend looking for the old man, and said, "I'm on the mountain now, and it may take another hour or two to come back." ”

"Which mountain, Feng Jun and I came to look for you. ”

Qi Dongsi hurriedly refused: "No, you wait for me at the hotel, there is something unexpected on my side, but I can handle it myself." ”

Ji Linyuan knew that Qi Dongsi didn't want to get involved when he was on a mission, and it was just a temptation just now, so she sighed lightly and admonished: "Oh, okay, then you should be more careful yourself, by the way, don't answer the phone." ”

"Okay, I will, then that's it first, bye-bye. ”

"Bye-bye. ”

After hanging up the phone, Qi Dongsi fell into a puzzle, he rarely fell asleep, and he never even woke up on the phone, how could he sleep so dead last night, and what did that strange nightmare mean?

Don't dare to think about it, for the time being, deal with the matter in front of you first, and go back to see Ji Linyuan as soon as possible, Qi Dongsi put away his distracting thoughts and began to carefully search for the traces of the old man.

Qi Dongsi is very experienced in finding people in the mountains, he first observed the distribution of these things from the top to the bottom, because most of the people who jumped off the cliff would be blocked by these things halfway, and there was rarely a situation of falling to the bottom.

Qi Dongsi found that there was a broken branch on the cliff at a height of twenty meters, judging from the traces of the fracture, it was a fracture caused by the impact of a heavy object, so it can be speculated that the old man had at least fallen there, and then according to some possible landing points under the branch, some clues should be found.

Below was a bush more than a person high, and Qi Dongsi hunched over to those few possible landing points, because he was too focused, and several times he was almost scratched by thorns.

After searching several landing points and not seeing the old man's body, this inevitably made Qi Dongsi suspicious, could it be that the old man could still be alive if he jumped from such a high place? At that time, the old man was already inconvenient to walk on both feet, and under such a heavy fall, even if he didn't die, he would lose half his life, and if he left with difficulty, he would inevitably leave some clues, but after looking for so many places, he still didn't see any traces, it couldn't be that what happened last night was a dream, right?

By the way, and the dark shadow......

Qi Dongsi sat on a rock, closed his eyes lightly, carefully reviewed every detail of last night, and tried to distinguish the difference between dream and reality, and the conversation with the old man convinced him that everything had really happened, and that the old man who knew the truth was killed by the old man, and if the old man's body could not be found, there were only two possibilities, either he was not dead, or the body was taken away by others, the black shadow......

There are two possibilities that are meaningless for Qi Dongsi, and it is necessary to determine the final whereabouts of the old man, and finally Qi Dongsi decides to expand the scope of the search, even if he does not see the old man's body, he must find some traces of leaving.

Qi Dongsi took the previous most likely landing points as the center, and searched for the past in clockwise order in the four directions of southeast, south, and northwest, and spread outward with a radius of about 500 meters.

Starting from the east to search and search, Qi Dongsi has a wealth of experience in jungle activities, he knows the most likely route and terrain for a person in the forest, according to his previous experience, he searched quickly, the search for the east side took about twenty minutes, but there was no gain.

Continue to search from the south route, the south road is relatively rough, if you want to leave from this direction, it will be very difficult, especially for people like the old man who are seriously injured and have difficulty moving, so Qi Dongsi did not focus his search in this direction, and after a general search, there were no clues.

The remaining two directions, west and north, the north being the place leading to the depths of the canyon, are more rugged and treacherous than the south road, and obviously unlikely, and if you do go in that direction, you will definitely leave a lot of clues.

Qi Dongsi pinned most of his hopes on the direction of the west, and he began to walk towards the west with great concentration, while also slowing down so as not to miss any clues that might be left behind.

There was a road to the west that led to the bottom of the mountain, and Qi Dongsi slowly searched along this road, and there were indeed traces similar to footprints within fifty meters of the range, which made him very excited, and the feeling of seeing hope was like this.

Found the footprints, just need to follow the footprints, Qi Dongsi sped up and looked for the end of the footprints.

But after following the track with hope, at a distance of about two hundred meters, the series of footprints suddenly disappeared, Qi Dongsi looked around, and found no new clues that could be continued, which made his heart fall from a high place, as if the rising hope was shattered all at once.

Qi Dongsi didn't believe that his judgment was wrong, he thought back to which step he had gone wrong, according to his own experience, the west was the most likely departure direction in the four directions, and there was indeed a series of footprints, it was certain that these were human footprints, not animal footprints, but why did it suddenly disappear here?

Qi Dongsi was very puzzled by the sudden disappearance of the footprints, and there was no trace of a person leaving the bushes where the footprints disappeared, it was impossible for a person to disappear from that place out of thin air, so where would he go?

Qi Dongsi rearranged his thoughts, assuming that the old man fell from it last night and did not die, but he would definitely leave a bloodstain, but he did not see any blood at the scene. If the old man took the initiative to wipe the bloodstains, then it would be impossible to clean up every bloodstain in the dark, unless it was a clear vision this morning, that is, the old man was likely to leave this morning.

Leaving this morning, according to the old man's physical condition, it is impossible to go far, now this series of footprints is so clear, it can be concluded that it was left this morning, in this desolate deep mountain, it is impossible for the villagers under the mountain to come up early in the morning, then there is only one possibility, this footprint is left by the old man.

But why did the old man suddenly disappear halfway, this is what Qi Dongsi is difficult to understand, he doesn't believe in ghosts and gods, let alone Eastern metaphysics, there must be other scientific methods to help the old man get out of here.

Once again, Qi Dongsi carefully observed the situation around the place where the footprints had disappeared, and he was sure that he would be able to find clues to the old man's departure here.

Suddenly, Qi Dongsi saw a long trail of being pressed down in the bush on the left, and at the other end on the right, there was a steep hillside, and on the hillside there was a big old tree, and he found that there was a circle of steel wires torn by metal tools on the branches.

This discovery made Qi Dongsi's disappointed heart stir again, and he quickly climbed the tree on the hillside, and carefully observed the ring of steel wires wrapped around the branches.

From the point of view of the material and firmness of the wire rope, it is used to bind and transport something, which is similar to the function of the transportation cable car in engineering construction, and the opening at the fracture is very smooth, which is cut by metal instruments or even lasers.

Standing at this big tree and looking down, it happened to be in a straight line with the overwhelmed bushes on the other side of the road, Qi Dongsi finally smiled again after observing it, he probably already knew how the old man disappeared halfway.

His gaze fell to the end of the bushes on the other side, a col where it seemed too late to trace down the river.

Qi Dongsi tidied up his belongings, and then came to the other side of the road, he burrowed into the bushes, and walked forward along the tracks of the overwhelmed bushes, which happened to be in a straight line with what he had observed in the big trees before.

There are thorns under the bushes, Qi Dongsi can't walk too fast, he can only go around carefully, this time he didn't wear professional clothes, walking in these dense thorns, and if he is not careful, he will be scratched.

After about twenty minutes, Qi Dongsi finally came to the end of the bushes, and at the end was a small stream flowing downstream, the water was gurgling and cool, and after washing his face, Qi Dongsi began to look for the traces of the old man's departure.

First of all, he observed whether there were any wire ropes similar to those on the branches of the trees above, and after a little search along the straight line, he could see that there was a steel wire tied to a thin and long stone with the same broken steel wire, Qi Dongsi immediately stepped forward to inspect it, and found that it was exactly the same material as the wire rope wrapped around the big tree above, and he was even more convinced that the old man had left in this way.

It seems that the old man left in a hurry, and some wire ropes were found near the stones, and there was even a piece of wire rope that was intact.

Qi Dongsi observed the environment around here, and it was a wiser choice to go down the river, and it was also easier to escape from the direction, but after he took a few steps, he suddenly remembered one thing, with the old man's survival habits, the deep mountains and old forests seemed to be a more suitable choice.

Qi Dongsi fell his eyes on the slightly longer wire rope just now, this wire rope still has the value of use, but he gave up at this time, indicating that the old man can no longer use it, since this is the case, then it is very likely that the old man left up, or did not leave, maybe he is hiding somewhere near here, licking his wounds.