In the early morning of the next day, a man and a woman drove a miniature car on a small dirt road in the mountains and forests yesterday. The man sat in the passenger seat, in his fifties, close to sixty, with obvious stubble pricking out the epidermis on his cheeks and growing haphazardly on his chin and mouth, wearing a camouflage suit, a pair of military-style rubber-soled cloth shoes on his feet, and a green rucksack in his arms. The woman was driving a minicar, and her delicate face was slightly tired. The apricot yellow professional outdoor suit covered her delicate curves. The car radio broadcasts the news program:

"Today, the joint archaeological team has made significant progress in the archaeological excavations of the two river basins in the Middle East. Among the recently discovered ruins of an ancient city, several artifacts have been unearthed. Among them is a fragment of a stone slab carved with the symbol of the "trident", which has aroused great interest among scientists. The fragment is presumed to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. Moreover, the form of its symbols is completely different from the written symbols used by local contemporaries. Research is ongoing. The following is the weather forecast for the day on the 19th. “

The steady and slow speed gradually stopped, and the two got out of the car silently, bathed in the morning light of this silent mountain forest. Yang Guangcheng, who simply stretched out his thick arms, broke the silence and once again stated the various reasons why he thought that Shen Mingde should be called to find the lake together. And Xiao Jing thinks that both of them are direct relatives of Zhou Tengfei and Yang Chuan, but Shen Mingde is not, so he shouldn't trouble people like this. Yang Guangcheng took out a compass from his backpack, set a direction that was more westerly than yesterday's back and forth, and then walked into the woods in the discussion of his own opinions.

The noise of the fifth alarm clock did not wake Shen Mingde, but Nini approached the cool nose of the tide on his lips. It is said that some cats will test their owner's snort after they fall asleep to make sure that the owner is still alive. After seeing Shen Mingde's reaction, Nini excitedly ran to the cat food bowl where she usually eats, and meowed twice. The bowl was empty. Shen Mingde didn't get up quickly, he removed the book called "Energy, Proof of the Soul" from the quilt. It is a book that discusses the existence of the human soul through physics, chemistry, and various disciplines. Shen Mingde stretched his sore limbs, turned over and got up and sat on the edge of the bed. He brushed his hands and rubbed his cheeks in the hope that he would soon wake up. The soles of his bare feet felt a chill from the wooden floor. The strong sunlight shone through the gap in the middle of the curtains, and sprinkled on the milky white furniture in the spacious bedroom, but it seemed a little cold and lonely.

He rubbed his eyes and noticed that there were already three messages in the voicemail on his phone. The first is greetings; The remaining two were to ask him if something had happened, so he didn't come to the company. He used the information to think that the company reported that it was safe, took a shower, and set off in the direction of the company without breakfast. On the way, he called Xiao Jing and Yang Guangcheng twice, and the last phone call came from Xiao Jing's panting voice. Xiao Jing said that they had already walked in the mountains and forests once, and they had found nothing, and were currently resting on the mountainside. They didn't talk for too long, and after Shen Mingde told them to pay attention to safety, the two sides hung up the phone.

When he walked into the company, the employee who was on duty at the front desk looked a little surprised. Later, Shen Mingde learned that there were already some rumors in the company. According to the rumor, Shen Mingde, like Zhou Tengfei and Yang Chuan, disappeared after going to a mountain forest. Shen Mingde walked around the company, used his appearance to break the rumors, and encouraged employees to work with peace of mind. At this time, Shen Mingde received a phone call, which was from the Ligou County Police Department. The phone said that no clues had been found so far, and that officers from the Missing Persons Investigation Bureau were investigating nearby villages. If there is time again, I hope Shen Mingde will come to the police station to learn more about the situation.

Yang Guangcheng and Xiao Jing walked on the way back to the starting point, which was sometimes a new route farther to the west. In this mountain forest, so far not to mention a lake, not even a single puddle has been seen. Xiao Jing couldn't help but wonder, could it be that this so-called "lake" was just a piece of stagnant water, and it dried up or seeped into the ground within a few days? Or is it a pool of water gushing out of an underground river, and it has flowed back underground for a few days? He told Yang Guangcheng his thoughts. Yang Guangcheng couldn't help but be speechless. If that's the case, it's even harder. With the strength of the two of them alone, it would have been difficult to find those two people in such a large wood. Yang Guangcheng told his plan, if it was really as Zhou Tengfei recorded, then the lake should be at the foot of the mountain on the western slope. They can finish this trip first. Then they set out again, and walked along the western slope of the mountain, where they might well see the lake. Xiao Jing did not object, because the plan sounded practical and effective.

About forty or fifty minutes, Shen Mingde came to the Ligou County Police Station and was questioned. The conversation was not very long, and at the end of the conversation, he was told that the police had also brought in an old ranger to find out the situation today. However, no information about the location of the accident provided by Shen Mingde was a lake. Shen Mingde suddenly became interested, he hoped to find the old ranger, and said that he wanted to talk to him directly. So, he followed the police officer to the conference room on the second floor. This room is a rectangular room that is isolated from the other offices. Several patchworked, long, cream-white wooden tables stretched from the doorway to the edge of the windowsill. Just by the window, an old man held a fountain pen in his hand and a few pieces of manuscript paper in front of him. He said a few words and looked up at the window. The old man was dressed in a shabby military coat, and the few willow hairs he had meekly lay on his scalp. His skin is dark and rough, which is very much in line with the classic image of a mountain farmer in Shen Mingde's heart. The police officer briefly made introductions to the two of them, and then left the conference room. After Shen Mingde sat down, he saw that a relatively young thin and tall police officer was carefully wiping trophies and certificates near the display case next to the door of the conference room. Shen Mingde took out a cigarette and respectfully handed it to the old ranger, who looked a little flattered. Shen Mingde saw that this trick was still very useful, so he opened his mouth to explain his intentions.

Xiao Jing followed closely behind Yang Guangcheng. The slope is not too steep, but it is still very physically demanding to move sideways on the slope with one foot high and one foot low. At this time they were advancing along the edge of the western slope. Xiao Jing suddenly felt that Zhou Tengfei's description of the location of the lake was not accurate. Because the little dirt road into the woods does not point straight to the north. If you follow Zhou Tengfei's description of "walking all the way along the small dirt road to see the lake", then it means that the lake is about 320 degrees to the northwest. Yesterday, however, they walked uphill in this direction. Just now, they continued to drift westward, 300 degrees to the northwest, and also went up the mountain. Then the lake may not be due west or southwest of the western slope of the mountain. Rather, it is on the northwest side of the mountain. When Xiao Jing came back to her senses, she found that a thin white mist had shrouded the woods, and the sunlight seemed to dim.

In the conference room of the county police station, Shen Mingde and the old ranger sat face to face across the conference table. The old ranger didn't say at first that he had seen any lakes, only that the forest was evil. Later, seeing that Shen Mingde insisted on inquiring about local legends, the ranger told Shen Mingde such a story: The old man said that there is such a lake, and there is a village next to the lake, and that place is evil. The people in the village don't worship the gods or the immortals, and we don't know what it is. In our village, we call that thing "the evil in the mountains". No one had seen them, but they had been seen in the village with statues and tablets. Some brave people once looked at the tablet in the past, and it seemed to say something "Mountain Maitreya" on it. Do you say that this "Maitreya Buddha" must not be to save suffering? As a result, it will plague our village. In the summer, the half-sized boy ran to the lake to bathe, and then there was no shadow. Let's go to the village to ask for someone. People said, "That is offending Shan Maitreya and being taken away." If you go to the theory, they will start beating people. Later, the village by the lake became feverish. Someone in our village saw that the dead man was not buried or burned, but was thrown directly into the lake. Some people say that they have worshiped evil spirits and have been punished. Some people also say that there are water ghosts there, and they catch stand-ins. Why don't you have someone in the village who goes for a swim and it's gone? Later, their village may have invited a master to hang a ball made of branches on the tree outside the village and set up a "formation". Then the lake was nowhere to be found.

The white mist thickened and enveloped the trees. Xiao Jing was still a little excited at first, she thought it was because of the proximity to the lake, and the fog produced by the lake. Yang Guangcheng was not so optimistic, and he reminded Xiao Jing that this could also be a miasma. It is the poisonous gas produced after the death of animals in the woods, so be careful. Although Xiao Jing thought that only the heat in the southern rainforest might have contributed to the formation of miasma, she still put on the hood of her jacket and covered her mouth and nose with her hands. In the distance, the shadows of the trees rubbed, and only black outlines could be seen under the white mist. The branches and leaves swayed strangely with those ignorant "gnats cages". Although Xiao Jing gradually suppressed her uneasiness about the "Grasshopper Cage" during this morning's journey, now, a fear arose from the bottom of her heart. She stood still, watching in horror what was going on around her, but found nothing. She felt a chill run down her spine, and a cold gaze was coming from behind her. She jerked her head back, as if the thing had disappeared in the fog.

Suddenly, the old ranger's voice was lowered and he asked, "Do you know what's in that ball?" ”

Suddenly, Shen Mingde noticed that the tall thin police officer who was cleaning the display shelves in the conference room just now had gone out. Only the two men who sat by the window were left. The room was unusually empty. The rectangular conference table stretches straight to the whiteboard in front of it like an airplane. The contents of the whiteboard had been largely erased, but in a small area illuminated by the sun, Shen Mingde vaguely saw a distorted humanoid silhouette. Just as Shen Mingde concentrated his eyes on distinguishing what kind of picture it was, a ray of sunlight quickly faded. The sun hid in the clouds, and the conference room was suddenly enveloped in a gloomy atmosphere. When Shen Mingde came back to his senses, the ranger was still talking to himself: A person touched the village by the lake. The man wandered around the village for a while, and saw no one. He wondered if all the people in the warm village were dead, and when he saw that there was no one around, he had a bad thought, so he wanted to pick up a few things to use at home. He picked up two small practical objects in the yard of his house. Suddenly, something didn't feel right, and someone behind him was staring at him. This is the weakness of the thief's heart, he thought, and put the thing down. But it wasn't good, he felt a crowd around him, staring at him. There's nothing around him. This is a burst of hair in my heart. He walked briskly towards the entrance of the village, and felt something follow him. He didn't think he was in trouble with something. He spread his legs and ran in the direction in which he had been. Ran until the upper breath was out of breath and then stopped to rest for a while. This time he felt much more comfortable, and no one chased him or stared at him. He walked in the woods for a while, and there was a road in front of him, and he was familiar with this dirt road, and he let go of this heart. When he looked back, he saw the balls hanging from the tree. I wondered, what the hell is that? So I found a branch and picked one down. It was the size of an apple, and I had it in my hand. It's like a small cage, swinging twice, as if there's something in it. Later, guess what's there?

Yang Guangcheng lost his sense of direction in the fog. He turned around and saw Xiao Jing's pitch-black silhouette crouching in the mist not far away. He felt a little relieved as he walked in the direction where Xiao Jing was squatting. Those "gnats cages" floating in mid-air made him upset at this time. They were rows and columns, swinging back and forth with the branches, challenging every cell in Yang Guangcheng's body. Yang Guangcheng picked up a long and thick branch, and glared at those "gnats cages" angrily. With two deep breaths, the arm supported the branch and pointed in the direction of the sky.

When Xiao Jing turned around, she could no longer see Yang Guangcheng's back. She glanced around, but felt a rush of air rushing over her face. It wasn't Yang Guangcheng, the air flow was felt from under his face. There was something beside her that she couldn't see. No, in an instant, she changed her mind. Not one, it's a group. They surrounded Xiao Jing's side, staring at her. They were tall and short, with air currents at different heights, and she felt them at different heights. This scene made her feel familiar, once in her dreams. In that dream, she was lying on her back on the bed in her bedroom, which was dark. But she could see a group of black-clad men in black robes and hoods walking silently and orderly from outside the bedroom door, one after the other. Those black-clothed people surrounded the bed, but Xiao Jing couldn't move, didn't dare to move. Xiao Jing could only roll her eyes to observe them. Those people were tall and short, fat and thin, but their movements were uniform. They put their hands crossed in front of their abdomen and were silent. Only one person bent down and approached her face. But when it was close enough for Xiao Jing to feel the man's breathing, she was surprised to realize that there was only a black hole under the pitch-black hood. Xiao Jing no longer wanted to care about her image, her emotions finally broke through the dam of reason, and she shouted Yang Guangcheng's name loudly.

The old ranger stared into Shen Mingde's eyes, slowly left his seat, and leaned forward as much as he could. At this time, the pungent smell of inferior tobacco hit Shen Mingde's face, and he couldn't help but hold his breath. The ranger put his index finger in front of Shen Mingde and whispered, "A little piece of dried finger tip."

The door of the conference room was opened, and a breeze carried fresh air into the room, and Shen Mingde finally remembered how to breathe. He impatiently poured out the breath in his lungs like turbidity, and greedily breathed two breaths of fresh air from outside the door. Just one voice said, "There's a meeting here in a moment." Shen Mingde thanked him and left the police station in a hurry. Shen Mingde ran out of the police station and stood at the door, the spring afternoon breeze and the fragrance of plants, he felt a trace of sweetness, very comfortable, and there was not a single cloud in the blue sky.