We finally reached the summit.
Ah Heng, barely breathing, collapsed onto the large blue stone, pointing at the smug boy beside her—"Yan hope, can you stop eating snacks and rest for a while?"
The boy in red sat cross-legged on the ground, but wished he could bury his head in his bag and rummage around—"Spare Ribs, my little spare ribs, where are you? Come out, come out!"
Ah Heng sniffed, chuckling, "Luckily, I hid the ribs in my lunchbox beforehand."
Before he could finish gloating, the guy pounced on him. Ah Heng protected his backpack, looking righteous and awe-inspiring, just like Dong Cunrui blowing up a bunker.
"Ah Heng, daughter, Heng Heng, I'll only eat two, uh, no, one, just one, hehe..." Yan hope said coquettishly.
Everyone got goosebumps.
Xin Dayi threw a banana peel at him—"Damn it, Yan hope, are you disgusting enough to kill me?!"
Ah Heng suppressed a laugh, pulled Yan hope, who had rolled up his sleeves and was grinning, and said sternly, "You sit here and stay still for five minutes, and I'll give you ribs."
"Okay." Yan hope smiled, her big eyes narrowing, her white teeth flashing, looking incredibly obedient.
Mary shuddered—"Godshy, is this still Yan Yaojing?"
Siwan smiled and said, "Aren't you used to it yet? When Axi is crazy, she can be a wild and unruly person, but when she's well-behaved, she's a good girl who gets a little red flower."
Si Er hummed – “Brother Yanxi, I’ve been used to it for sixteen or seventeen years and I still haven’t gotten used to it, let alone Mary. It would be abnormal if I got used to it.”
Da Yi nodded in agreement, "That's right, that's right."
Yan hope looked at Si Er with a bit of embarrassment, his usual sharp tongue completely gone, and he just smiled awkwardly.
When we arrived, everyone brought a lot of food. We sat under the maple tree, which cast a lot of shadows. During the meal, Da Yi and Mary bickered, which became the spice of the meal. Laughter filled the room throughout the meal.
We went up the mountain a little late. Now, after dinner, the sun is already setting in the west, hanging over the Mingshan Mountain and slowly sinking down, waiting for the coastline to warm us, hoping for a good night's sleep.
"Let's gather some firewood," Siwan said, looking up at the sky.
The six people were divided into three groups: Mary, Yan Xisi'er, and Siwan Aheng.
Ah Heng glanced at Si Wan, and although she found the grouping strange, she didn't say anything. She just followed him and headed east.
It had rained a few days ago in Mingshan, and the branches were knocked to the ground. Stepping on them was soft and comfortable, but most of the branches were still wet, making it a bit troublesome to pick them up.
"Aheng, look ahead." Siwan smiled and pointed ahead, remembering something.
"What?" Ah Heng was taken aback, then carefully considered her words—"Oh, a stream?"
The gentle flow of the stream, accompanied by the falling maple leaves, creates a soothing sound.
Siwan nodded – “It was two years ago, during our junior high graduation trip, that Yanxi discovered it.”
Ah Heng rubbed the dry leaves off the firewood, squinted, and smiled—"By then, had he already returned?"
"Hmm?" Siwan's eyes widened slightly, her brows furrowed, a look of inquiry and confusion on her face.
"Take a leave of absence from school."
"Heh... um, yes, Yan hope had already returned by then." Si Wan smiled, lowered her head, and lightly touched her heart with the tip of her right finger.
There was silence for a moment. After picking them up and going back, everyone else had returned as well.
Mary's finds are alright, most of them are usable, but most of Yan Xisi'er's are unusable.
"It's obvious." Siwan smiled and glanced at the young master and young lady. "That's why we separate the two troublesome personalities together so they won't cause any more trouble."
One sneered, the other scoffed; they actually looked somewhat alike.
Children born into wealth often possess this ability to be pampered and idle.
Ah Heng thought for a moment, then just smiled.
As darkness fell and the moon rose high in the sky, the leaves began to rustle and whisper in the wind.
A flint and steel was found, and Ah Heng was put in charge of everything. She often spent the night on the mountain with her adoptive father when she was young, and she was used to small tasks such as gathering firewood and starting a fire, so it was not difficult for her.
Ah Heng had everyone break off pieces of firewood and pile them up in a staggered fashion. He picked up a flint and steel, struck it several times with practiced ease, and brought it close to the pile. A tiny spark ignited instantly, brightly illuminating the mountaintop and the young faces of the boys.
Da Yiyan cheered, and the two of them, holding hands and acting crazy, started dancing the hula.
It moves, octopus-like hands, swaying, moves, octopus-like hands, swaying, while mimicking Tarzan's classic roar.
The rest of the people were speechless.
Ugh, it's all a mess.
"I bet even Mount Tai isn't as powerful as my daughter." Yan hope opened his arms, his vanity soaring.
"It's not you! Hurry up, the audience is watching, keep up with the rhythm!" Xin Dayi grinned, her bright smile sparkling, grabbed Yan hope, swung her hand, and continued wearing her grass skirt.
Siwan and Sier laughed so hard they almost fell over.
Ah Heng, feeling helpless, covered her face.
"A pair of mentally challenged kids, pshaw!" Chen Juan curled his lip, but the smile in his eyes was gentle and kind.
After the two silly boys finished their antics, everyone sat around the campfire. Xin Dayi was in high spirits—"Hehe, let's tell ghost stories! What a great atmosphere, what a wonderful mood!"
Siwan and Chen Juan were both bold, and although Si'er was frail and sickly since childhood, she was not one to back down. So everyone nodded in agreement.
Ah Heng was perfectly fine, but when she turned her head, Yan hope seemed to have suffered a major blow, his whole body stiff.
“Brother Yanxi, I’ve always been afraid of ghosts and gods,” Si’er laughed.
Yan hope angrily said, "Who said I'm afraid!"
“Now I’ll begin!” Da Yi chuckled strangely. “What I’m going to tell you today is something that actually happened on Ming Mountain.”
Everyone trembled, Yan hope trembled, trembled endlessly...
"Three years ago, a group of students, just like us, came to Mingshan for camping. The next day, on the way back, a girl with a particularly long braid got her braid caught in the bus door when she got on, and then the bus started moving..."
"And then?" He waved his hand, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
Da Yi deliberately tried to scare Yan hope by lowering his voice—"Then, that girl with the long braid was dragged to her death by the bus."
Yan hope was so frightened that his forehead was covered in sweat.
Ah Heng frowned, feeling that this story seemed familiar...
Everyone listened intently, not daring to utter a sound.
"A few years later, another group of daring students heard that Mingshan was haunted, by a female ghost with a long braid. They took advantage of their graduation trip to Mingshan to search for the ghost. One of them was particularly brave and ditched the others to search alone. However, he still couldn't find her by nightfall..." Da Yi talked on and on, deliberately raising his voice to create sound effects when he got to the slightly scary parts.
Yan hope stared blankly at Da Yi, sweat dripping down his face.
Ah Heng smiled, gently hooked Yan hope's little finger with her little finger, shushed him, and carefully bent down to stand up.
Everyone's attention was on Dayi, and they didn't notice Aheng tiptoeing around.
"As a result, someone patted the student on the shoulder from behind, and the hairs on his body stood on end. A faint voice came from behind him..." Da Yi spat as he spoke.
"Are you looking for me?" a faint voice asked.
Someone patted Xin Dayi on the shoulder.
Xin Dayi turned around, froze for three seconds, then screamed—"A ghost! Aaaaaaah!!!"
She buried her face in her hands and burst into tears!
Everyone stared in disbelief at the "ghost," who casually turned off the flashlight shining on his face. He had dark eyes and hair, and a gentle, clean face.
One, two, three—unable to hold back, they all burst into laughter.
Xin Dayi sensed something was wrong, and turned around while trembling and howling. It turned out to be—Aheng.
"Aheng!!!" Xin Dayi was furious.
Ah Heng held the flashlight thoughtfully—"If I remember correctly, this story was broadcast on the movie channel's midnight drama slot two days ago. It seems to be called 'The Long Braid Horror'?"
"Xin Dayi!!!" Everyone was eager to try.
The terrifying atmosphere vanished in an instant.
After chatting for a while, everyone got sleepy, pulled out their sleeping bags, and prepared to go to sleep.
Yan hope, however, remained by the campfire, engrossed in reading a comic book.
Ah Heng laid down a layer of branches, thinking it was soft enough, before taking out her sleeping bag. She glanced back casually and saw the sleeping bag in Si Er's hand, and was stunned.
In the blink of an eye, Yan hope was still flipping through the pages about Sanzang shooting the enemy.
"Ah Xi, aren't you going to sleep?" Si Wan closed her sleeping bag, feeling very sleepy, her eyes barely open.
Yan hope shook his head, his eyes remaining fixed on the book.
Seeing this, Siwan smiled, closed her eyes, and turned her body slightly to the side, adopting a sleeping posture.
As for Dayi, he was already snoring after only a few minutes, probably because he had been both teasing and being teased, and had already exhausted himself.
Wrapped in a red sleeping bag, Si'er said goodnight to everyone and fell asleep peacefully.
Mary didn't sleep at first, dawdling for a long time. Seeing that Yan hope didn't move at all, she got bored, yawned, shrank to the place furthest from the campfire, and lay down with her head tilted to the side.
As for Aheng, she had already fallen into a deep sleep.
He closed his eyes to rest, not knowing how much time had passed, until Yan hope's footsteps faded into the distance, before slowly opening his eyes.
She quietly walked over, following the footprints on the damp soil.
Where the footprints disappeared, a bright and open space appeared.
The moonlight was bright, and the stream was clear. The boy sat on the sandy bank, his back bent, gazing into the distance. He was thin and frail, yet he seemed to be steadfastly guarding something.
Ah Heng recalled the golden, swaying wheat ears in the summer fields.
"Aheng." He had already noticed her presence and waved from afar.
"Aren't you sleepy?" she asked.
"My eyes are bigger than others, so it takes me longer to close them when I'm sleepy." He had a lot of fallacies to his name.
"Why did you give the sleeping bag to Si'er?" She frowned slightly.
She had already noticed it when Si'er took out the red sleeping bag.
“Er’er said she didn’t bring it.” Yan hope smiled, her big, dragon-eye-like eyes crinkling.
"I remember when she took out the food, she accidentally pulled out a purple sleeping bag."
“I saw it.” Yan hope nodded.