5

From Sendo Avenue along the eastbound, across a few intersections, into the Puxin District, I haven't been to this place recently, but it was different before, because it was close to home, and I often came here with Qinghe and Arbor. The city itself is a basin, and the central city is built around the eastern part of the basin, so the eastern end is surrounded by mountains.

It's been a long time since I've been here.

I miss it, but a feeling of irritability also comes with it.

This is also where my dreams burst.

I pedaled harder, and soon I saw a familiar figure.

It was the black tram of Qinghe.

He wasn't going fast, and I was able to catch up with him.

I'm tracking, after all, and I'm careful about everything I make, including the sound of pedaling.

In less than ten minutes, I was at the foot of Mount M. Because this mountain is connected by two mountains, it looks like an M on the satellite, so we call it the M mountain, and the real name is really unknown. - Of course, this information was also told to me by my mother, after all, I didn't know how to look at satellite maps before.

Qinghe stopped at the foot of the mountain, and sure enough, he also came here yesterday, and there was no cement road on the ground here, and the ordinary dirt road was soaked by rain, and the humid air aggravated the dampness of the soil. If you step on it, your shoes will definitely get muddy.

I was about 100 meters away from him and suddenly there were very few people around, except for campers and people who live in the neighborhood, very few people would come here.

I also stopped the car and walked on.

The wind is very strong, and the northwest wind usually blows in winter, and the northwest wind is blocked by the mountains here, and the wind that has nowhere to go is like a child venting his temper, constantly stirring the air in the vicinity, causing the air flow here to be quite abnormal.

Qinghe, who was standing in the wind, seemed unmoved.

I took the tree as a hide, and I moved forward step by step.

This is where my dream shattered.

It was here that I met Qinghe, and I still remember the events at that time clearly. During the summer vacation of the fourth grade of elementary school, we were asked to observe a creature in our summer homework, and I remember that there were mountains not far east of my home, so I put on my backpack and walked eastward, and finally I took the wrong path and came here by mistake. But after all, I had already reached this place, so I climbed this mountain, which made me realize that this mountain not only has a lake, but also has a lot of biological species, and for me, who aspires to be a doctor, the abundance of biological species here piqued my interest. Attracted by the beetle and the beetle, I don't know how high and how high I climbed. In the end, lost.

By the time I realized I was lost, the sun had already set. Everything in front of me grew dark. It was only after I had been in high spirits that I realized that fear existed.

I don't know what to do, but I can't stay where I am. After calming down. I looked around and saw some grass trampling marks, and I thought someone had walked through it. I pulled out the compass in my bag and found that the direction was north. I sprinkled the red beans I had prepared in my bag on the ground as a marker to prevent me from getting lost again. - I walked for a long, long time, and the magic of the excitement to dispel fatigue was gone, and the fatigue filled my body. To make matters worse, because it was summer, I was only wearing a short sleeve, and the night in the mountains was much colder than I expected. Every once in a while, I would let out a sneeze that would unconsciously speed up my pace to ward off the cold. I felt like I had walked for a long, long time, almost to the point of despair. It was getting darker, the air was getting colder, and from time to time I heard the sound of owls and rats scurrying. Every time it scares me, I feel creepy, and my hair stands on end.

That's when I saw a red light source. For a moment, I even thought it was a ghost fire or a hallucination of hell. When I looked closely, I realized where the light source came from – a few burning candles.

I walked into the light source and found that there was a temple built on a hill. During the Chinese New Year, you can often see it in your hometown, a temple dedicated to the Jade Emperor.

There was a man standing in front of the temple, dressed in black, and I could not even see his presence if it weren't for the faint candlelight reflecting his silhouette.

"You...... Good? ”

I feel a little relieved to see people, but I think of people who come to the mountains at night like this in such a situation. Quite possibly a bad guy, maybe even a fugitive, a murderer who had to hide in the mountains! If so, then my situation is even more dangerous.

"Huh......?"

He turned, [a notebook in his hand], and his tone was puzzled, perhaps he wondered why there were people here.

But he didn't show much surprise, put the notebook on the table, and calmly took off his coat and handed it to me.

This confused me, because my expression didn't show that I felt cold. Rather, I am deliberately restraining this emotion and being wary of the people who appear in front of me.

But he handed me his coat instead.

After hesitating for a few seconds, I sneezed heavily. I couldn't help it, so I took my coat. Anyway, it's already like this, it's just me and him here, he really wants to be violent against me, and I have no power to resist, I can only let him slaughter, be controlled by him, and become his own.

"Are you lost?"

He asked me calmly.

I nodded in panic.

“……”

It was then that I took a closer look at the man's face by candlelight. It was a childish and lovely face, but the eyes looked very lazy, no doubt a boy, who looked a little older than me, maybe in the fifth grade?

I took a closer look around the area, and there was nothing but a temple.

Why is he here at this time?

I didn't ask because it might be personal privacy. But in terms of this environment, he is certainly not the one who lives here.

"Come with me, I'll take you down the mountain."

I saw him walk to the temple, pick up a bag on the ground, and take out a flashlight from it, yes, why didn't I even prepare a flashlight.

He turned on the flashlight and greeted me with a "hey", ah, he didn't know my name.

"That...... My name is Xiao Lianwen, and Xiao is the bamboo prefix of Xiao. What is your name? ”

It's a very important thing, otherwise I wouldn't know what to call him.

He hesitated for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and replied:

"Renqing River."

I just saw this in my notebook yesterday. It should be the word "Ren". I also passed the exam, so I shouldn't have made a mistake.

I followed him, but I stepped on a falling branch and suddenly slipped and fell.

"Wow!"

I was frightened and screamed unconsciously.

By the time I reacted, my hand had already been grabbed by Qinghe.

Without saying a word, he patted the mud off my body with his hand.

"Let's go."

He never let go of my hand for the rest of the journey.

I can't remember how I got home. After talking to her mother about it, she was surprisingly not too angry. But the big-mouthed woman told Qiaomu's mother about it, so it soon became me and Qiaomu to come to this mountain to play together. - Multiple people are safer. It is said that the reason is this.

But I often see Qinghe here, and more dramatically, my mom ran the store at the time, and Qinghe's dad was the owner who bought our store. I saw the word "Ren" in my mother's purchase notebook at the time, which actually referred to Qinghe's father.

I told my mother about it, and she happily invited Qinghe to her house.

Since then, Qinghe and Qiao Mu and I have often played together.

Such days went on for almost two years.

[Until that accident happened.] It was the weekend of our sixth grade. 】

[The broken stones are like a solid blade, cutting off our daily life and my dreams. 】

My vision was filled with bright red blood, and the sharp pain made it difficult for me to breathe, and I covered my eyes in pain, and stepped into the air again, and the whole person fell down the mountain. Not far down the hill is a lake. With a bang, I was drowning in water. The cold body made me aware of my situation, and the pain in my eyes added to my fear.

Why the hell is this happening.

I couldn't breathe anymore, my throat was squeezed by the lake, and the pressure of the water made my whole body uncomfortable.

The consciousness is gradually moving away, and the end of life is really going to be a horse.

I think of many, many things from the past, some happy, some angry, some sad, and some terrible.

It's a human emotion, an emotion that I can't express very well.

Suddenly, I didn't feel so cold anymore. I don't feel the cold anymore. My consciousness was already in jeopardy, and even the last vestige of "life" was about to leave me.

In the only remaining feeling of light in my eyes, I saw a different black shadow, a black shadow erupting with vitality, black though black, but it was brighter than all light, hotter than all fire. The instinct to survive made me stretch out my hand, and the shadow grabbed my hand, and my consciousness was interrupted here.

When I woke up again, the pain in my left eye prevented me from opening it, and I barely opened my right eye to find me lying on the edge of the lake with the arbor sitting next to me. I subconsciously looked for Qinghe, but there was no sign of him.

"You're awake!"

Qiao Mu was excited, and he was overwhelmed with excitement. There were still tears on his face.

“……”

I finally understood the situation, and someone rescued me from the lake.

After a while, the elder brother and sister dressed in white came up from the bottom of the mountain, and Qinghe was among them.

I was taken to the hospital, where the explosion injured my left eye, when the doctor asked who had lifted me out of the lake.

Both boys were silent.

But soon, Qiao Mu nodded slightly.

[This is not unexpected, because I know that Qinghe does not know how to swim. In the past, when he was playing by the lake, Qiao Mu often laughed at Qinghe, who couldn't swim. 】

Soon after that incident, Qiao Mu, who had been admitted to a key junior high school in advance, moved out of the city, and Qinghe never came to the mountain again.

So here it becomes the "past" that we will not mention.

These things in the past, although they are far away, always fresh in my memory.

I continued walking towards Qinghe, just when I was less than 30 meters away from him.

"I'm sorry."

I hadn't fully approached him, but I heard his voice, and he suddenly said three words that I didn't expect.

I wondered who he was talking to, could it be that there were invisible creatures?

Just then, he suddenly looked at me. I can't help but send chills down my spine.

“……”

I've hidden it well, or is it just my own feelings?

"I'm sorry."

He repeated those three words again, and I realized that he was talking to me.

“…… You're Renqinghe, right? ”

I walked out, and it seemed that there was no need to hide it.

"You must be Ren Qinghe."

A wonderful feeling came, and this conviction was unmistakable.

[Floods can't destroy dikes, wildfires can't destroy forests, strong winds can't blow over fortified buildings, and cold winds that blow across the sea from the northwest are only strong on the outside. 】