In front of the 16th stone gate

  Under the successive calls, the rest of the people also gathered around and listened to his arrangement: "We will rest until 3:30 and head inside, trying to rush for two more hours, if we haven't found it by 6 o'clock, we'll find a place to set up camp."

  But Lao Tie shook his head and said, "No way, we can't make it to six o'clock. We must start preparing to set up camp by four thirty. Because the mountains are full of fog, in the late afternoon a thick fog will rise, and if we're not careful, we'll get lost in the forest and won't be able to come out."

  He hesitated for a moment and looked at the two police officers, "Will 4:30 be too early?"

  One of them said: "Listening to Lao Tie is not wrong, he has been running in this mountain for a long time and has more experience than anyone else. In the past few days when the team arranged for people to search, it was indeed foggy very early, precisely because of this, we cannot conduct an in-depth search."

  Old Iron heard the people's police comrade's affirmation, and immediately showed a proud expression on his face, patted his chest and said: "Don't worry, I can definitely lead you in to find the person, guarantee one person will not fall behind."

  I took a look at Lao Tie, chuckled lightly, and indeed he's an honest man. This kind of guarantee wouldn't dare to be given by anyone else. Take the two civil police officers who came together with us, for example - their faces were pale. From their eyes, you could tell they had a fear of what was behind Shi Men Guan, but due to some reasons, they couldn't help but put on a show and pretend to be brave, going through the motions.

  This is the conclusion drawn from observing everyone's words and deeds when walking silently along the way. No wonder these two missing persons cases have been silent all the time, the reason is here, I'm afraid the police search range is also at this Shimen Pass, all because of fear of the curse of the Valley of Death, dare not to go deep.

  After the discussion, everyone found a place to sit down and eat. They sat next to me one by one, and in a voice that only I could hear, said: "Xu Jiu, can you put away that resentful and worldly expression on your face? What are you thinking in your heart, I know. Although I also have doubts about the police's search and rescue efforts like you, we need to rely on them later."

  A look of disdain for the world? Do I have one? Before I could ask, he spoke again: "Don't deny it, that slight curve of your mouth, others can't see it, but as soon as I see it, I know you're secretly despising people."

  Furrowing his brow, he spoke as if he knew me well. Embarrassed by the crowd, I didn't dare to refute him and chose to ignore him instead.

  He saw me not responding, so he shut his mouth, thinking he would get up and go to his brother's place. But instead, he didn't budge, sat next to me, lit a cigarette, and started puffing away, lost in thought. I reckon he was thinking about his girlfriend. The smell of smoke wasn't overwhelming, within my tolerance, so I didn't scold him or stop him. My gaze couldn't help but fix on the wisps of smoke at his fingertips, gently swirling, hiding a cluster of sparks.

  Suddenly something was thrown over from the air, I reflexively raised my hand to block it, and found a long white cigarette silently falling at my feet. Following the trajectory of the throw, I looked over and saw that it was Liang Ge. When he saw me looking over, he said: "If you want to smoke, come have one, don't just stare with envy."

  I narrowed my eyes, didn't make a sound, and stared at him for two seconds. When I turned my gaze away, I noticed that a slender hand stretched out from beside me to pick up the cigarette on the ground. Then he said: "What's with girls smoking? Brother Liang, don't corrupt people, give this cigarette to me."

  Liang Ge sneered, "It's still unclear who corrupted whom."

  I paused for a moment, opened a bottle of water with my eyes downcast, and took two sips. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lu Xun putting the cigarette he had picked up into his cigarette case, and heard Liang Ge teasing: "Don't you always say that this cigarette is too strong for you?"

  "So I put it in the box." Lu continued to answer seriously, but Liang Ge burst out laughing and ignored him, turning his head to talk to San Kuai Zi instead.