Volume 1 Chapter 23 New Discovery

  From over ten o'clock, the little snake walked alone along the river downstream until two o'clock in the afternoon. He neither saw the end of the cliff nor found a way out of the mountain range. After some thought, he decided not to follow the winding river anymore because he discovered that there were many springs in this mountain area and he wouldn't die of thirst even if he didn't walk along the riverbank. Moreover, the heavy rain that had just poured down and soaked him to the bone also left water accumulated everywhere inside the mountain. Therefore, he decided to head east in a straight line. Although this method was clumsy, it was the most effective way out under these circumstances - walking straight forward, no matter how vast the forest was, would eventually lead him out, even from the tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna.

  Walked for a day, didn't find a way out.

  Another day has passed and I still haven't found a way out.

  By the third day at noon, he roughly estimated that he had walked about 70 miles in three days. He pulled out his geographical knowledge from his brain and was stunned.

  Judging from the plants, yellow earth and crisscrossing fault lines he saw along the way, as well as the scorching weather, he guessed that he was probably in central China, and most likely in Shaanxi Province, although he didn't believe that he could have traveled from Shandong to Shaanxi in just twenty minutes.

  If he was really in Shaanxi, after walking 70 or 80 miles without being able to get out of the desolate and uninhabited deep mountains and old forests, with his knowledge, he could only think of one possibility, that is, he was now in Qinling.

  The Qinling Mountains are a major east-west mountain range in central China, starting from the north of Lintan County, Gansu Province, at Baishui Mountain, which separates it from the Daxue and Kunlun Mountains. To the east, it passes through the southern part of Tianshui's Maiji Mountain into Shaanxi. At the border between Shaanxi and Henan, it divides into three branches: the northern branch is called Huashan, the remaining ridges extend eastward along the south bank of the Yellow River, commonly known as Mangshan; the central branch is Xiong'er Mountain; and the southern branch is Funiu Mountain. A small part of the mountain range extends from Shaanxi to Yu County, Hubei. The Qinling Mountains are 1,600 kilometers long, tens of kilometers wide in the north and 200-300 kilometers wide in the south, with a vast area, majestic momentum, and magnificent scenery. According to legend, it was the territory of the Qin State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and also the highest mountain range of the Qin State, hence its name Qinling.

  Thinking of this, he almost fell down. Qinling is roughly east-west trending, stretching for over a thousand kilometers. And if he headed east, he would be walking in the same direction as Qinling, which means that, unless something unexpected happened, he would have to walk over a thousand kilometers before he could get out of the mountains.

  He sat down on the ground, not wanting to take another step. Had he walked for three days in vain? If so, should he change direction and head south or north? But what if he continued walking a little further and found a way out? Would changing direction now lead him to run hundreds of miles of mountain roads without finding a way out?

  He hesitated.

  Hesitating, can't just wait for death here? Lying on the ground for a while, he took out his mobile phone and pressed the power button. The phone's battery was already running low, and after mysteriously arriving in the deep mountains, he turned it off to conserve power for emergencies since there was no signal.

  Still no signal. He sighed and quickly turned off his phone again. His phone only had one bar of battery left, so he had to use it sparingly.

  Get up and walk again, the Long March of 25,000 miles back then was all measured by our predecessors with their two feet. This is only one-tenth of that journey, what's there to be afraid of? Moreover, even if Qinling Mountains are longer, it's impossible for over a thousand kilometers to have no human habitation at all. He encouraged himself. He stood up, patted the dust off his body, found the direction east and continued on his trek.

  Insisting is always right, especially insisting on the right thing, will definitely get a corresponding return. Four hours later, with swollen legs, Little Snake began to congratulate himself that his firm decision to head east was correct.

  Because he found a small path.

  In the late afternoon, he arrived at a small mountain top in the midst of a continuous range of great mountains. This mountain top was small because it was only one of many high peaks and looked much smaller than the others. It was just a small hill connected to the waist of a great mountain. The hilltop was covered with low, stunted pine trees and deciduous shrubs, occasionally dotted with a few locust or elm trees. He was exhausted, having not found any hope of escaping the mountains for three consecutive days. He sat down on the ground in despair.

  Ouch! He had just sat down when he suddenly jumped up, his butt having been pricked by something and it hurt.

  He stroked his sore buttocks while looking at the place where he had just sat down, and only now did he notice that on top of the lush green grass nest, a small green branch was lying horizontally.

  When he saw the branch, his heart thumped wildly. He looked up along the branch and when he saw the whole plant, his excitement could no longer be suppressed. He let out a loud shout of "Ah", startling three or five birds in the forest.

  That is a Sichuan pepper tree.

  Pine trees and elm trees can be wild, but in his understanding, pepper trees have no reason to be wild.

  The Sichuan pepper tree was only as thick as a big thumb, leaning between two pagoda trees. If it hadn't been pricked, the little snake might have missed this plant that excited him.

  Only a small flower pepper tree with three or four years of tree age appeared in front of him, his spirit was suddenly lifted to the extreme, his eyes scanned around, he made more discoveries, just ten meters away from the front, he found another shadow of a flower pepper tree, next to the flower pepper tree, there was actually a faintly visible small path.

  He was extremely excited, almost jogging forward, the more he walked, the more Sichuan pepper trees there were. Later on, he saw a whole patch of Sichuan pepper trees and the road signs became clearer. The fir trees by the roadside showed obvious signs of pruning and cutting, and at the stump, the color of the wood had not changed yet.

  The lush pepper tree indicates that there have been signs of human activity here, and the newly pruned tree stumps make Little Snake certain that someone has passed by within the last three days.

  This reassured him, finding signs of human activity, his spirits immediately lifted, feeling full of strength throughout his body, the steps that had just been dragging suddenly became light and quick, he almost ran along a faint path between the pine trees.

  But as he walked, he felt his head getting dizzier and the road in front of him seemed to be shrouded in mist, his feet trampling on the mountain path felt like stepping on cotton, and his body had a feeling of instability.