Chapter 8 The Yard by the River (Seeking Recommendation Tickets)

  That night they were arranged to stay in the staff dormitory, and the thin man assigned them rooms and specially reminded them not to run around on the mountain.

  Xu Mo had something on his mind and thought of the frozen river, asking Liu Qian: "You've been here before, do you know if there's a river nearby?"

  "What are you looking for by the river?" Liu Gan asked casually, not pointing at Xu Mo, and pointed in the direction of the thatched cottage with a wave of his hand. "There's actually a river over there, after crossing the thatched cottage we cleaned up this afternoon, and walking a bit further, we'll arrive."

  "I'll go take a look."

  Although the sky was not yet completely dark, he hesitated for a moment and made up his mind. He walked alone along the mountain path, heading in the direction of the thatched cottage. After passing the thatched cottage, he continued on, walking about two or three miles, until he saw a small river.

  The river originates from the top of the mountain, flows into the valley, converges into a spring, and then flows down the mountain. At this time, the weather is cold and has already frozen.

  Xu Mo tried to find out which section of the Book of Revelation was on the river, and walked down the mountain along the river.

  By the river, he saw several golden toads again, and also saw the black toad mentioned by those people at dinner time, a white spider as big as a palm, and in addition, there were centipedes over ten centimeters long with silver-white bodies, covered in patterns, and praying mantises seven or eight centimeters long.

  Xu Mo's heart was chilled: Could it be that this place was truly a poisonous mountain? What about the thing in the river that looked like it was alive, as described in the Book of Revelation? Was it also a poisonous insect? But what did this poisonous insect have to do with him? Would he accidentally get bitten by the poisonous insect in the river?

  He made wild guesses, proceeding cautiously forward, his eyes fixed on the river, which looked almost identical everywhere, and every place seemed to be that section of the river in the Book of Revelation. He didn't have the book with him, nor could he compare it now, so he continued moving forward.

  The sky gradually darkened, and after a while, he saw a huge courtyard by the river, surrounded by iron railings. On top of the railings and in the yard, there was a street lamp every few steps, and next to each lamp on the railings, there were rotating surveillance cameras monitoring the outside environment. Through the railings, you could clearly see rows of canvas tents.

  "Is this... also a mountain lodge? It's strange, why is it surrounded by a fence and equipped with cameras?"

  Xu Mo's heart was filled with doubts, and just as he wanted to move forward again, he suddenly heard several dog barks. Five large dogs came out of nowhere and surrounded him in the middle, growling at him in low voices, as if they were about to pounce on him at any moment.

  Just as they were in a state of panic, someone suddenly shouted: "Don't bite people!"

  The ferocious dog's charge was suddenly halted, and then a figure emerged from the shadows, shining a flashlight on Xu Mo. The light flickered across his face as the person coldly asked, "What are you doing?"

  Xu Mo was dazzled by the flashlight and could only see a dark blur. Surrounded by five vicious dogs, he felt uneasy and replied, "I'm just taking a walk."

  "Want to take a walk?" The man repeated coldly, then asked: "What do you do?"

  "I'm doing part-time work, collecting rent for houses in this mountain resort." Xu Mo replied honestly.

  "Working part-time?" The man's tone softened a bit, "Working part-time, why do you have to run around everywhere?" Without waiting for Xu Mo to respond, "Didn't Little Chen instruct you?"

  Xu Mo didn't know how to respond, and that person had already impatiently waved his hand, "Hurry up and leave, you can't come here, don't come again."

  As he said that, he moved the flashlight away from Xu Mo's face, but the five vicious dogs did not retreat and were still staring at Xu Mo.

  Xu Mo rubbed his eyes again and looked at the five fierce dogs, who, upon meeting his gaze, bared their teeth and let out a few low growls, as if ready to pounce. The person emerging from the tent did not stop them either.

  He had no choice but to retreat and return by the same route.

  After returning, they found that Liu Qian and several others had picked up some firewood from the mountain and actually lit a bonfire in the courtyard of the staff dormitory. They also roasted some potatoes, yams, and sweet potatoes that they had somehow found on the fire.

  Besides the five of them, there were two other men by the bonfire.

  The staff dormitory of the mountain inn was a three-tiered bunk bed, with six people in each room. In their dormitory, apart from Xu Mo, Liu Qian, Zhao Hongzhe and Xu Tao, two more people moved in, namely the two by the fire pit.

  They were all men, and it was natural for them to get familiar with each other more quickly. These two people, one named Hou Gui, in his thirties, looked like a honest and simple countryman, the other was about twenty years old, named Ma Wu, looked very sharp, his movements seemed to be trained in martial arts.

  Seeing Xu Mo return, everyone laughed and beckoned him over.

  Xu Mo walked for half a day, his thin clothes had long been chilled to the bone. He squatted down by the fire and immediately felt warm. Picking up a wooden stick, he poked at the flames and asked with a smile: "Where did you find these mountain herbs and potatoes?"

  Su Yan quickly replied: "Did Brother Hou bring us here to dig in the mountains?"

  Xu Mo uttered an "oh" and glanced at Hou Gui.

  Hou Gui rubbed his hands and smiled foolishly: "These are all wild things, they don't count for much. I'm a rural person, my home is just beside the mountain, so finding this kind of thing is naturally easier for me. If it weren't getting late, we could set up traps to catch pheasants and wood pigeons to roast and eat."

  Su Yan was very interested in these things and said: "There is no time tonight, but it can be tried tomorrow."

  Ma Wu took out a pack of cigarettes from his body, which was ten yuan per pack of silver-white sand, and handed it to Xu Mo, "Smoke."

  Xu Mo shook his head, "No, thank you." He didn't have the habit of smoking to begin with, and lately he had a cold, so it was even more unlikely that he would smoke.

  Ma Wu was taken aback, then chuckled and said: "Not smoking is a good thing, I also rarely smoke. The reason I brought it is mainly to let people know."

  Then he threw one to Hou Gui, and then to Zhao Hongzhe. Xu Tao didn't smoke either. Guo Xia took the initiative to ask for one, and Liu Qian asked him, shaking his head, "No need, it's the same."

  He took out a pack of cigarettes from his body, which was the same as Ma Wu's silver-white sand.

  Ma Wu smiled and said: "Try mine first." He tossed a cigarette over, Liu Qian caught it in his hand, took some firewood from the bonfire to light it up, and started smoking.

  Then everyone chatted and bragged, saying some irrelevant words, ate something to share, waited until the sky was late, the firewood was burned out, and they dispersed one by one, returning to their rooms to sleep.

  The dormitory had heating, so that night, Xu Mo slept exceptionally sweetly, and the matter of quiet breathing was completely thrown to the back of his mind.

  The next day after breakfast, repeated yesterday's task, cleaning up those thatched cottages.

  At over ten o'clock, they brought out another house and were pushing a handcart to the square to pull beds and furniture when suddenly an engine roared and a red small car drove into the square.

  Xu Mo couldn't help but turn his head and look over.

  The car door opened and a man in a black suit came out, pointing at them with his hand and said in a commanding tone: "You few, come over here."

  A young woman's voice came from inside the car, "Two people are enough." The voice was pleasant, but with a hint of laziness and a commanding tone, obviously used to giving orders.

  The man in the suit immediately changed his tone and said, "Two people will come."

  He walked over to the other side of the car, opened the rear door and placed his arm on the door frame to prevent anyone inside from bumping their head when they got out.

  A young girl wearing a red dress walked out with her head down, handed the red purse in her hand to the man in suit, looked up at the distant mountain and nodded in approval, "The environment here is not bad!"

  That girl was only eighteen or nineteen years old, but she had a slender waist and long legs, her figure was tall and slender. Adding to that the high heels on her feet, standing there, she seemed to be about 1.8 meters tall.

  She was extremely beautiful, and from afar, she seemed to be a work of art. The distance between them was great, but he could still sense her elegance. That one set of gorgeous red clothes, set off by her own person, seemed like a white cloud wrapped in a red cloud.

  The man in the suit took over the bag she handed over and said with a flattering tone: "Master knew that Miss would come here for vacation, so he specially renovated it in advance."

  "Haha!" The girl glanced at him and said, "You're quite a talker."

  The man in the suit looked at Xu Mo and others again, saying displeased: "Why haven't you come yet? Are your ears deaf? Didn't you hear what I said?"

  The words carried a very obvious tone of rebuke.

  The girl in red looked up at the mountain again and said to the man in western suit: "I'll go ahead, you let someone bring my luggage up."

  Without looking at Xu Mo and others, he walked towards the mountain, and when he passed by Xu Mo's side, a fragrant breeze was brought up.

  At this time, he was close enough to see the girl's profile, but her beauty left him dazzled and unable to discern any features except for her long eyelashes blinking a few times, causing his heart to skip a beat.

  Su Yan stared at the girl and said in a dazed tone: "So beautiful!"

  The girl heard, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. She glanced at her, then immediately turned her face away, but with a few more proud looks, she walked forward with her head held high.

  The man in the suit followed the girl over, and as he passed by them, he pointed at Liu Qian with a cold tone: "You two, send the luggage from the trunk to the villa area on the mountain."

  Liu Qian glanced at the girl's back, reluctantly turned his head around, and whispered to Xu Mo: "It's Shen Bancheng's daughter and her bodyguard, let's go take a look."

  "Alright." Xu Mo nodded in response.

  Zhao Hongzhe and Xu Tuo were still staring blankly, when Guo Xia angrily stretched out her hand and pinched their arms a few times, saying: "What are you looking at, two dead ghosts? What are you looking at?"

  "When you see a beauty, of course, you have to take another look." Zhao Hongzhe said nonchalantly.

  Xu Chao continued: "Don't see Qian Ge, Mo Ge, Su Jie are all watching? If they look like you, people will ask to watch and won't even look."

  "Get out!" Guo Xia glared with wide eyes, "Am I ugly? You two flies still want to stick around?"

  Xu Chao whispered, "Can't find a better one?"

  Guo Xia sneered: "Better? You might as well take a piss and look at yourself, what kind of virtue is that? Can you see yourselves in the likes of someone like that?"

  This sentence also scolded Xu Mo and Liu Qian into it.