1: Prologue 1: Prologue Evening, a thin fog.
On a country lane, a Porsche Cayenne slowly made its way.
Inside, sat two people.
The driver was a man surnamed Sun, appearing to be in his late thirties, built like a bear with broad shoulders and a thick back.
His eyes, slim like willow leaves, seemed forever half-closed but sparkled with mischief, as if he were hiding knives in his smiles and had four eyebrows instead of two.
The man in the passenger seat was surnamed Huang, around the same age as Mr.
Sun, with eyebrows that drooped at the edges and a broad nose and thick lips.
At first glance, his features were distinct, but alas, like Mr.
Sun, he was wide-hearted and corpulent.
His face was too plump, and with his naturally short neck, he bore a striking resemblance to Mr.
Sun: chubby-cheeked and greasy in middle age.
“Brother Sun, we’ve been circling around for more than two hours, are we lost?” Mr.
Huang, recognizing the vaguely familiar scenery outside the window, asked for what seemed like the umpteenth time.
“Don’t panic,” Mr.
Sun replied.
“I’m following the navigation.
You might not trust me, but you ought to trust the navigation, right?”
“This place is all wilderness…” Mr.
Huang continued hesitantly, “I’m not sure the navigation is accurate here.”
“So what do we do?” retorted Mr.
Sun with a tone resigned like a pig unconcerned with boiling water, “As you can see, this place is too remote, all mountain roads, there’s nobody to ask for directions, not even a road sign; we can only keep following the navigation.”
“That’s why I told you to ask for directions at that gas station we passed earlier,” Mr.
Huang said.
“You insisted we didn’t need to because we had navigation.
Look where that got us, huh?”
“What’s the point in bringing that up now?
We’ve already made it this far.
Surely we’re not going to turn back now, are we?” said Mr.
Sun.
“Ugh…” Mr.
Huang sighed, “Why did I agree to this self-driving tour with you?
Someone like you, who could sit the wrong way on a bullet train, is likely to end up dead on a mountain road.
Looks like I’m really going to end up dead because of you today.”
“Shut up,” Mr.
Sun drawled, “Don’t panic.
We still have plenty of gas, and it’s not that late.
If it comes to it, we’ll just drive back.”
The two men went back and forth like this, sometimes even interspersing their conversation with swear words.
While it might sound like a quarrel to outsiders, in reality, this was just their normal way of communicating.
Mr.
Sun and Mr.
Huang had known each other for many years, working as game commentators and streamers.
Judging by the car they drove, it was clear that they were quite successful in their field; however, their physiques also made it apparent that they rarely engaged in outdoor activities or exercise.
On a whim, they had decided to drive to some obscure scenic spot for the day, only to get lost.
A short while later, the fog thickened.
The road conditions worsened, forcing Mr.
Sun to slow down even more.
Suddenly…
“Eh?” Mr.
Huang, who had been gazing out the window, thought he saw something in the fog.
He turned his head sharply and pushed his glasses up his nose.
“Brother Sun, I think there was someone by the side of the road just now.”
“What?” Mr.
Sun asked, puzzled, “I didn’t see anyone?”
“I only caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure standing in the fog,” said Mr.
Huang.
“Damn, don’t scare me,” Mr.
Sun quivered momentarily, “So, was it a person?”
“What else could it be if not a person, a devil?” Mr.
Huang’s retort had a point.
After deliberating for a moment, they decided to turn around and take a look.
If it really was a person, perhaps they could ask for directions.
Since there were no traffic rules to speak of on this mountain road, turning or making a U-turn was simply a matter of choice, so they immediately went back.
And when Mr.
Sun drove back to the spot and they both peered out their rolled-down windows, they discovered it wasn’t a person after all, but a stone statue.
Possibly due to age, the statue’s head and body were damaged, leaving only a vague outline.
It was hard to tell whether it depicted a human, a devil, a Daoist immortal, or a Buddha.
“Hey, look, there’s a path back there,” Mr.
Huang had sharp eyes.
After searching around for a few seconds, he could faintly make out a fork in the road behind the statue.
“So…
shall we go in and take a look?” Mr.
Sun said.
“Ah well, we’re already lost; might as well take a look,” Mr.
Huang replied.
“There’s a statue here, which suggests that the road might lead to a temple or something.
Maybe we’ll find someone to ask for directions.”
“If you put it like that…
it does seem to make some sense.” Mr.
Sun muttered, already beginning to turn the steering wheel.
And so, they drove onto the mysterious path behind the stone statue and both vanished into the foggy woods…