Volume 1 Chapter 24 The Old Man in the Mountain

  "He must have been walking for several days in a row, and with poor food and rest, plus the great mental stress beforehand, he was exhausted." Fat Chen was quite satisfied with his own judgment.

  "I thought so at that time too." The little snake nodded, "I decided to walk for another half hour and then find a place to rest. So I endured the dizziness and continued walking. After walking for more than ten minutes, just when I was about to collapse, a voice suddenly appeared in my ear."

  "A sound? A person? A ghost? A monster?" Fat Chen teased.

  "It should be a person." The little snake thought for a moment, "I heard it was an old man's voice, right next to my ear."

  "What did he say?" Hearing the old man, Hong Jun immediately remembered the once-familiar hoarse voice and asked.

  "And without saying much more, he said one sentence, 'Don't stop, if you fall down now, you'll never get up again'." the little snake said.

  Hong Jun wanted to ask, but he restrained himself and let the little snake describe the sound he heard to see if it was the same as what he had heard. This was too difficult. Unless the voice had a very distinctive feature, it couldn't be described in words. And the voice he had heard at the time was just an ordinary one with an elderly tone. Moreover, at that time, he only said two words "withdraw", and now he couldn't even grasp his tone accurately, let alone describe the sound to others to verify it.

  The little snake continued to speak: "I heard this voice, and immediately came to my senses. It wasn't because I was excited by the sound of a human voice, but because I realized that there were no people around me at all, and yet this voice was right next to my ear. Could it be that ghosts or monsters are haunting me? I was so frightened that I immediately became alert, and forgot about my dizzy head and tired legs. I almost ran and crawled forward at the same time."

  I ran over a mountain ridge, parted the pine branches in front of me, and suddenly a small stone house appeared before me. From the wall to the roof, it was all made up of stones and stone pieces. This kind of stone house was originally used by farmers as a shelter from rain and temporary overnight rest place. However, with the development of rural areas in recent years, few people have spent the night outdoors for farm work, so the stone houses gradually lost their use, many have collapsed, and this craftsmanship has also been lost.

  I've seen many stone houses, nothing strange about that. What's strange is that in front of one of the stone houses, there was a person sitting there. In front of him was a stone table with a set of Chinese chess on it. He held a teacup in his left hand and fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan in his right hand, fully focused on playing against himself. Was he living here?

  Suddenly, a mysterious old man and a stone house appeared. I was a bit skeptical, so I slapped myself several times to make sure this was real. After some hesitation, I decided to walk forward.

  I take two steps forward and one step back to move forward.”

  "Take two steps forward and one step back?" Hong Jun repeated, and suddenly understood that the little snake was probing its way forward, making preparations to escape immediately if things didn't look good. That's right, in a desolate wilderness, running into someone who is leisurely playing chess would make anyone feel that something is not quite right. Maybe that person is a ghost or monster. Hong Jun once again thought of the female ghost.

  The little snake smiled awkwardly, laughing at his own cowardice: "I slowly approached the stone house, and as I got closer, I saw the person sitting there clearly. It was an old man, over 70 years old, with a ruddy complexion, white hair, and a cluster of silver-white whiskers fluttering in the mountain wind. Sitting there, it really had a bit of an otherworldly feel to it."

  "You've met a fairy." Xu Ming teased.

  "Hey, back then I didn't even dare to hope that I'd run into a fairy, running into a person was already like hitting the jackpot." The little snake's face grew redder and looked like he couldn't handle his liquor.

  "When I saw that it was an old man, my heart put down half of its guard. Being young and strong myself, why should I be afraid of an old man? I psyched myself up, just about to greet the old man, but unexpectedly, he spoke first." The little snake said, recalling the scene at that time.

  "You've finally arrived here." The old man put down his teacup and said.

  The little snake on the tip of his tongue was startled, what did he mean by finally arriving here? Was it because this old man in front of him had made a move? The heart that had just been put down immediately picked up again.

  "You, you..." The little snake's words became less fluent.

  The old man detected tension in the little snake's words and raised his head. The face with a slender build and elegant bones was full of smiles.

  "How is it that you managed to survive in the mountains for several days, but now that you're here, you're suddenly afraid?" the old man asked back.

  "This, how did you know I've been in the mountains for several days?" asked the small snake, suppressing the shock in his heart.

  "Hahaha, now that you've entered my Soul-Confusing Formation, what is there for me to not know?" The old man laughed loudly.

  "What's this 'Soul-Confusing Formation' you speak of?" The little snake was even more astonished.

  "Sit down and rest for a while, have some water, you're already getting a bit dizzy." The old man gestured to the little snake to sit on the stone bench across from him. The little snake hesitated, but still walked over with trepidation, its buttocks barely touching the stone bench as it sat down, but its legs were tense and ready to jump up and run away at any moment if the old man turned into a fierce ghost or something else unfavorable happened.

  "Lost your way, young man?" The old man didn't mind the little snake's behavior, but instead poured him a cup of slow-boiled water and handed it over. Seeing the little snake hesitate to take it, he smiled: "Don't worry, this is honeysuckle tea, it clears the mind and lifts the spirit."

  The little snake no longer hesitated, took a sip and finished it in one gulp, the fragrance was refreshing. Since the old man knew everything about being trapped on the mountain, if he wanted to harm him, there would be no need to wait until now. So even if he had ill intentions, it's unlikely that he would use them now.

  After drinking the tea, the little snake's fear disappeared. He looked at the old man's kind face and opened his mouth: "Grandpa, do you live here?"

  "Yes, I'm the forest ranger here. I've lived here for over 20 years." The old man burst out laughing loudly, his hearty laughter brought a gust of mountain wind that blew on my face, dispelling the dry heat, and the dizziness in Little Snake's head also disappeared.

  After hearing the old man's answer, the little snake felt a surge of joy in his heart. The old man lived here and must know the way out of the mountain, so he was already on his way out.

  His mood was greatly improved, and his buttocks were also sitting steadily. The words that were trembling with fear just now were asked again, and they were much more relaxed: "Old man, you just said I've been trapped here for a few days, how did you know?"