How old are you exactly?

  Without waiting for his response, I continued: "Come on, let me analyze it for you. The previous group of donkey friends who entered the mountain was over a month ago, and you also said that after you took over her phone call, due to some misunderstandings, no one had contact with her again. So, strictly speaking, your girlfriend has been missing for more than two and a half months. After finding out she joined this adventure group, you locked your target on Hei Zhu Gou. In fact, you're hoping to find her quickly, but at the same time, you also don't want to find her here. I'm afraid the latter is what you really want, so you came in without hesitation, right?"

  Luzong had been quietly listening to me speak, but upon hearing the last part, his eyes clearly showed more surprise.

  I chuckled and continued, "Then now that we've found this earring that looks like it might belong to your girlfriend Dongdong, you can't rule out the possibility that she did come in without being certain if it's hers or not. Even if it doesn't match the one she's wearing in the photo, you still can't easily conclude that it's not hers. At this point, you're feeling anxious, worried, and sad, because once you acknowledge that this thing is real, you know what the consequences will be. To put it bluntly, you've actually lost your footing."

  After a moment of silence, Lu Xun slowly spoke up: "Xu Jiu, are you always this calm? Your friend is definitely inside, and it's already been five days since then. Aren't you anxious?"

  "What's the hurry? Rushing will only make us lose our judgment, and all I can do is to do my best and leave the rest to fate." I narrowed my eyes and gazed into the depths of the night, saying softly. There was one thing that only I knew clearly - Peng Ye might be the real culprit, and this was something I had suspected since I recognized that earring. But before we actually found his body, it still represented a glimmer of hope, and I couldn't reveal this secret because I was afraid that Lu Xun and the others would return empty-handed prematurely.

  In such a dense forest, I alone can't get through, and whether the thing that's fighting Peng Ye is human or beast, it's not something I can handle on my own. I need to rely on their strength to find Peng Ye.

  By this time, I had eliminated all successive doubts.

  He didn't say a word and chased after it as soon as he saw the black shadow flash by. If he had any other intentions towards me, he wouldn't have done so. I reckon at that time he linked the black shadow with the traces of repression over there, so he rushed out without regard for danger.

  "After a long silence, Lu suddenly blurted out: 'How old are you anyway?'"

  This time I was stunned, really couldn't keep up with his thinking speed, "Why are you asking this?"

  "According to the information: Xu Jiu, 24 years old, unemployed. But I see your tone of speech is like that of a 33 or 43 year old, and you even call yourself 'sister', I don't have a sister as young as you."

  I'm really being laughed at by him, and he's actually coming to entangle this age thing again. In fact, I also understand that he is borrowing this to divert the topic, and doesn't go to break it, pretending to be serious: "Can you fake report your age on the form? You should know that I must be younger than you?"

  The successive reactions are even more amusing, and he really reports his age: "I'm 28, no older than you?"

  "You also said I'm 33 years old, isn't that enough to be your older sister?"

  He didn't say a word, and didn't turn his head, with a sulky expression. At this time, there was a commotion from the side, and both of them turned their heads to look, only to find that Old Iron had emerged from the tent, yawning, and when he saw me and Lu Xun sitting together, he looked slightly stunned, scratched his head in confusion, and asked: "Did we discuss having girls on duty before?"

  I suddenly lost my smile, stood up and patted the grass dust on my butt, "Big brother, I'm sleepy, let's go to sleep first." When I crawled into the tent, I still heard Old Iron muttering to Lu Xun.