Qingshan Wild Man Valley

Chapter 12

He slowly released me, and I looked incredibly embarrassed, as if I were completely absorbed and still wanted more.

The savage stared at me for a while, and seeing that I was dazed, he picked me up and carried me into the small mosquito net.

Inside the mosquito net, the smell of insecticide had dissipated, leaving only the faint, sweet scent of the invincible insecticide from a distant past—scents from childhood, summer days, grandma fanning herself, the outdoor bathtub, and the watermelon on the bench…

The savage held me in his arms. His hair was smooth and soft, thanks to the top-quality salon hair mask I used every day. A lock of hair fell down beside my ear, and I picked it up and smelled it—"It smells so good...!!" I exclaimed.

The savage seemed to smile. He put his arm around my shoulder to make me more comfortable. I turned over, grabbed his sleeve, and mumbled in my sleep, "Savage, I love you so much..."

...

With their relationship with the savage restored to normal, the two finally had the leisure to sit down and discuss their future.

I've been out of the valley for a while now, and I know that it's the early Song Dynasty, the beginning of the first year of the Jingde era of Emperor Zhenzong of Song. But to be honest, I'm not good at history. At most, I can only say the phrase "impoverished and weak," which is the only thing I know about this dynasty that I've never seen.

Furthermore, regarding the valley we climbed out of with the savage, it was surrounded by mountains of rich colors. Therefore, looking at the landscape, the "Green Mountain Savage Valley," which I officially renamed again, certainly wasn't located in the heart of the Central Plains. Of course, that's obvious. Now, the savage and I are traveling on the border of Song territory, heading southwest for over half a month, crossing countless mountains—actually only a few, just a lot of peaks—and encountering a handful of villages and towns along the way, finally entering the territory of Chengdu Prefecture.

Therefore, I started to think back and wondered if the place where I and the wild man came out was actually near Jiuzhaigou. Because the only mountains I remembered from Sichuan that were far away were Huanglong and Jiuzhaigou. Along the way, the wild man and I had seen several high-altitude landscapes and Mirror Lake and Colorful Pool. So I had no doubt that it was not Mount Emei, Mount Qingcheng, or Mount Siguniang, because those mountains were all just places for a few days' trip around Chengdu!

Imagine myself and the wild man, if we really managed to climb out of some unknown ravine in Jiuzhaigou after a lot of hardship, the sense of accomplishment would be much better than standing on the Jungfrau in Switzerland looking at the mere few thousand meters of Europe's highest peak. After all, it is China's own land, full of passion and enthusiasm. Although the scenery in my eyes in early spring cannot compare to the golden autumn, it is already a rare and precious green, pale red, and light orange, which are my favorite and most precious color combinations, now spreading endlessly under this blue sky.

Along the way, I dragged the wild man to the highest mountain peak to watch the sunset, weaving through the sounds of birds and insects. He led the way, and I brought up the rear. At times, sunlight pierced through the treetops, and the vast expanse of pure oxygen made me dizzy and cough... I shook the wild man so he could see the wisps of mountain smoke, and complained to him about the ponds we passed: they were clearly small, yet they insisted on making themselves so colorful...

Things will be different more than a thousand years from now.

More than a thousand years later, I won't walk for half a day without encountering a single person, there won't be only me and the savages, and there won't be the pristine and desolate mountain scenery... So much so that when I finally saw the gradually increasing flow of people, the main road, and the occasional horses and oxcarts, I felt out of place.

It was as if I had suddenly traveled from the valley back to the bustling city after the holiday. The contrast was as if the unspoken silence between me and the wild man was abruptly blocked by the shouts and noise of the crowd.

The savage had initially resisted leaving the valley, probably for the same reason. When there are only two people, you can only see the one beside you; but when there are more people, your mind wanders quickly. I just don't understand what caused the savage to change his mind after just one night's sleep. Why did he want to take me out of the valley? Did he really change his nature after eating the mushrooms?

He simply smiled and remained silent, avoiding any further response.

Nearly a month has passed since we started our journey, and the cities we've visited have become more and more bustling. As we got closer to Chengdu, Yecai suddenly remembered to ask me: What do you want to do in the future, and where do you want to go?

This is such a difficult question, because I don't know any of these places. I only know that there was a capital city called Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, and a prosperous city called Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. The savage looked at me expectantly, waiting for my answer, and I almost cried.

Then we'll just go wherever we end up. Later, the wild man concluded that no matter what I did, he would be with me; he had already made that promise.

However, there's still one problem: the expenses of my journey with the wild man. Logically, the two of us are perfectly healthy and strong; at worst, we shouldn't starve. We'd be struggling to survive in the wild, which must have been incredibly difficult. The wild man has no memory, and I lack common sense; this combination is definitely not a good way for us to survive…

One of the livelihoods

One day, I was resting with the savage in a small village. After thinking hard, I came up with a way to earn some extra money, so I quickly pushed the savage out and asked him to gather all the men, women, and children in the village for me, saying that I wanted to perform special skills for money.

The savage stared at me, his face full of black lines.

I know I'm not very capable, and I don't look like a street performer, but the savage doesn't doubt me. He doubts my strategy of having him go out on the street to solicit customers. He's mute, do you really think he can use both hands to solicit customers?

"Here you go!" I handed him my precious knock-off phone, picked out a few really cheesy songs and taught him how to play them. I told him to take the phone and walk around every corner of the village, just like in a game where you lure monsters to earn experience points. He should stand next to each villager, wait for them to follow him, and then attract a bunch of sunflower seeds. It's that easy.

He nodded and pressed the play button—"With a loud bang, the knock-off phone emitted a deafening metallic sound."

I immediately laughed. The Huawei boss said that this knock-off phone has no advantages except for its loud speaker. He said that he was afraid you would be hard of hearing and could not hear it, so he could make it as loud as you wanted. He said that if you turned the volume up to the maximum, it could penetrate not just one small village, but five small villages.

Not long ago when I went home, my mom gave me five or six of these phones, and I brought them all back with me. The one that came in handy right now is this one with a super loud speaker. I also have another one with solar charging and an ultra-long standby time of 1,920 hours. Such powerful features are quite unusual for someone like me who lives in a rural area.

So much so that I feel like I'm a vendor every time I go home.

As the savages walked away, the joyful singing of a man and a woman echoed through the sky. I saw the simple villagers who were wandering around the streets gradually approaching the savages, so I felt relieved. I turned around and, just then, I saw a kind person set up a table under a big tree for me to put my son on.

About fifteen minutes later, the savage started walking back because I heard the awe-inspiring ringtone of the cell phone, and the gradually gathering clamor of voices. People were making comments like "gods" and "monsters," but they were all staring at the cell phone in the savage's hand like curious children, and at the A4 paper that I was holding up, which read: Street Performing.

The savage turned off his phone and walked towards me, his face deathly pale and covered in cold sweat.

I looked up at the sky, and something was wrong. It was a bright and sunny day. People should have a rosy complexion after walking in the sun, not pale lips.

"There won't be a next time!" he said to me, moving his lips.

"Is the savage shy?"

He ignored me.

"It's okay, Qingshan will take care of you. You can do it again next time. You'll get used to it after a while."

...

Once the crowd was in place, I held up a can of chewing gum, which was actually just a warm-up.

"Does anyone want to see bubbles growing in people's mouths?" I asked loudly.

At this moment, everyone was still quite simple and honest, standing still, their clothes varying in color, each waving their hands and saying, "Boring/I don't want to/It's okay not to look/Actually, looking won't make me gain weight/Can't we have something new..."

Isn't this new? I was speechless.

Immediately afterwards, someone said in a low voice, "It's quite novel for that young lady to show her face in public, why are you making such a fuss!"

"How did you know it was a young lady?" someone immediately asked. "I thought it was a young man."

“You don’t understand,” the man said with a smile. “Young man, you have a flat chest, while young lady is curvaceous and full-figured.”

"I really didn't realize it until you mentioned it," another person chimed in. "This young lady is so pitiful. The economy is bad, and she still has to travel the world while staying with her husband..."

"How do you know that (the mute)... is his husband?" someone else asked.

"Is that even a question? If not her husband, then who else could it be but her own father?"

"Pah!! Is it because the older brother is inadequate?"

"Brother, are you staring at her with wide eyes, looking completely infatuated and lustful...?"

A savage with lustful eyes?!

I turned around abruptly—the savage was indeed standing to the side watching me. When he saw me turn around, the corners of his naturally upturned lips turned up even more, and his eyes held a hint of expectation.

Yeren has indeed become more cheerful lately. He can remain calm and composed even when he hears people around him saying such nonsensical things. Instead, he laughs slowly and steadily. If I didn't know him, I would think that his laughter comes from the bottom of his heart.

But I knew perfectly well that his smile was not genuine at all; at best, it was just a way of deceiving me.

Since leaving Savage Valley, he gradually became more normal in his behavior, but at the cost of becoming much more hypocritical in an instant.

I wanted to comfort him, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. So I tried everything to annoy him, provoke him, or make him happy.

At that moment, as I was blowing bubbles, the savage looked at me with gentle eyes and a calm expression.

He should still remember the first time he chewed gum. I gave him the last piece of orange flavor, but I was unwilling to give up, so I put my mouth close to his lips and tried to steal the tempting orange aroma from him. His tongue was very soft, and the gum disappeared... It wasn't until my front teeth touched his lips that I realized I had already swallowed the gum.

The crowd began to murmur again: "This young lady is too much! She just puts some white, gooey stuff in her mouth and that's it?"

Immediately, someone defended me, saying, "Those are bubbles."

“What’s so great about bubbles?” one person said. “Watch me blow them with my saliva…”

Therefore, no matter where the times go, bored people, especially men, can always learn one or two boring but showy skills, such as blowing bubbles with saliva.

Seeing the situation change, I couldn't help but go to see the savages again.

He stood in the sunlight, and compared to the villagers around him, his white clothes were unremarkable, yet he appeared tall and thin in the contrast. I like thin people, but the wild man had recently been vomiting everything he ate, as if he had anorexia, and I felt he was somewhat malnourished.

At this moment, a few NPCs moved away to go home and cook (purely guessing). I became alert; customers were leaving... So I quickly turned around and ran to a pile of props by the tree, pulled out an A4 sheet of paper, and hurriedly wrote in my absolutely terrible traditional Chinese characters:

Soaring into the sky.

I held the A4 paper high in my hand and shook it—wait, this time the savage was stunned.

He was closest to me among the crowd, so he was the first to see those four words. Immediately, he frowned and walked towards me.

“Savage…” I grinned obsequiously at him under the shade of the tree.

The savage smiled slightly, reached out to smooth my hair, and casually took the marker I had clipped to my ear. He uncapped the marker, pulled my hand over, and wrote: "Are you performing for money, or are you selling me?"

"It's a marker!!" I quickly pulled my hand back. "You savage—it's so hard to wash off!!" I scrubbed my hands clean vigorously. "If you do this again, you'll have to serve me a bath tonight!!"

The savage was stunned for a moment, then reacted instantly, grabbed my hand with lightning speed, and quickly added a few more strokes.

"Savage..." I seized the opportunity to step forward and hug his slender waist, then yelled, "Everyone come and see! Free to watch, paid to try! Soaring to the sky! Soaring to the heavens and down to the earth—savage!" Seeing that the time was right, I looked up and gave the order, "Up to the treetops—Charge!!"

...

One second...

Two seconds...

Three seconds...

Quietly...

The savage stood still.

The villagers stared at each other in disbelief.

"You savage!" I glared at him, cowering in his arms. "What are you doing? Fly away!!"

The wild man's distinct eyelashes drooped down, his face as white as a White Rabbit candy. He looked down at me, his expression backlit, but I always felt that something was flowing in his eyes... After staring at each other for a while, the wild man seemed to sigh, but then again, he didn't. He didn't use any force, but gently pushed me away, and then with a burst of breath, flew to the top of the treetop.

The onlookers reacted strongly, applauding and cheering.

It's nothing like blowing bubbles with my chewing gum.

I craned my neck; this must be an extremely high level of lightness skill... right?

The savage stood still, his foot planted on a branch of a tree of moderate thickness, while I stood under the tree, chin raised, trying to see him.

The third month of the lunar calendar, the fourth month of the Gregorian calendar...

The sunlight, like golden rays, pierced through the gaps in the green leaves and into the eyes, so bright it was dizzying. Yet that white figure was so far away, his clothes swaying and his long hair flying wildly.

How could he not take me up to see the scenery? I was disappointed.

The savage landed lightly, and without taking another step, he was already standing face to face with me.

"What do you mean?!" I took a big step forward, our noses bumping into each other, my eyes wide with surprise—"Who told you to perform the 'soaring into the sky' act? I wanted you to carry me and demonstrate for them. You're the rocket, and I'm your customer—so they can come over one by one, pay, and I'll carry you up—but you went up alone, without a single thing in your hands. How can anyone trust you? Who would dare entrust their life to you just like that?!"

The savage stared at me, and suddenly he realized that I was angry.

I turned my head away and ignored him.

I reached out, and the savage gently shook my arm. If he could speak, I guess he would immediately say, "Don't do this... don't do this... I don't want to, I don't want to..."

However, that person was me, not a savage.

The savage was always silent. He silently took my hand and silently wrote on my palm: "You are afraid of heights, how can I carry you up?" He silently let me vent my anger on him, and then silently endured it.

"Wild man," I softened my voice and coaxed him, "if you could talk, the first thing you'd say is 'Sun Qingshan, I love you, love you, love you, love you so much'—okay?"

The savage's face turned slightly red, like the new black tea flavor of White Rabbit candy, a pale brick color.

However, he nodded, nodding very firmly at me.