Chapter 34: Starry Night Journey

  We set out from the hospital on August 27th in the afternoon, and arrived at Wuzhuang that evening. We found Mia's hometown around 10 pm. After knowing the exact location, we drove south overnight.

  This whole journey was driven by Wang Jue alone, and I was worried if he could hold on. He had just been discharged from the hospital, and although the previous car accident wasn't serious, it still left a physical mark. Without resting for a few days, he was pulled out to rush around every day, making my guilt towards him even stronger.

  "Doctor Wang, let me drive instead."

  "No way, this section of mountain road is particularly difficult to drive, you don't have experience driving on such roads, and now it's nighttime, it's too dangerous for you to drive."

  "Why don't we stop and take a break? You've been driving for over ten hours straight."

  "Haha, you're worried I'll get tired while driving? I just took a Ritalin tablet, at least I won't be able to fall asleep for over ten hours. It's the privilege of being a psychiatrist that I can always get my hands on these drugs."

  "Right, I think you told me before that you also gave some to your older sister. What's the effect of this medicine?"

  "This is a central nervous system stimulant that requires a doctor's prescription to dispense, which can relieve fatigue and promote mental agility. Doctors often use it to eliminate the drowsiness and lethargy caused by sleeping pills. When I was studying for my graduate school entrance exam, I took one tablet of Ritalin in the morning and one sleeping pill at night, and lived like a zombie for two months, finally making it into the program successfully. It can't cure addiction, but it can keep people who are addicted to heroin awake for a short period of time."

  Having heard this, I am extremely interested in this magical medicine. If it really can make one's thinking agile, wouldn't that be a kind of medicine that makes people clever? For me, the most difficult problem to solve is that as soon as I pick up a book, I start to feel drowsy. When I go back, I will definitely ask him to give me several bottles.

  Wang Jue drove like this, winding his way up the steep mountain road under the starry sky. I dozed off halfway, wanting to ask him for a piece of Ritalin, but seeing how focused he was, I didn't want to disturb him.

  "Xiaoyu, we've arrived." I don't know how long I had been drowsily sleeping, but I felt Wang Jue pushing me from beside.

  As soon as I opened my eyes, it was already broad daylight. We had been running all night long.

  Wang Jue stopped the car by the side of the road. The two people jumped out of the car, looked around, and found that they were surrounded by continuous mountains. The highway they had taken to get here had turned from a cement road into a gravel road. Looking ahead along the road, the gravel road disappeared into the mountain ridge not far away. Probably that was the end of this road.

  Wang Jue took the backpack from the car, checked what was inside and stuffed the flashlight found in the car into it, saying: "We can only drive up to here, the rest of the way we have to walk."

  "Where are we?"

  "I don't know. I just searched and this place is a GPS blind spot, even mobile phones have no signal."

  "How do we know which way to go?"

  "The old village chief came here, and when he was about to leave, he drew a map for me. We followed the map." Wang Jue held up the map and waved it at me. Without satellite positioning or mobile communication, in this remote place, the map is our only guide to finding Miao girl and returning to Hwang Castle. Fortunately, this hand-drawn map is quite clear, and you can tell that the person who drew it was very familiar with this place.