The poor girl from the 1970s was forced to kiss by the damp educated youth.

Originally, it was thought that Shi Xin would not come to Sandong Village for the next few days after the foundation was laid, but before dawn, there was a loud knocking on Chen Zhi's door.

"Who?" Xi Lang asked.

"Brother, it's me, your Brother Shi." Shi Xin's tone was anxious.

Xi Lang got out of bed and opened the door, where Shi Xin looked hurried.

"Why are you here at this time?" Xi Lang asked.

Shi Xin wiped his face. "I have a few men who are trapped in the mountains and can't get out. They set off from the neighboring county at 2 p.m. yesterday and haven't seen them since. Someone saw their car enter Qiweng Mountain."

Xi Lang had never heard of Seven Elders Mountain. "What's so special about it?"

"That area is even lower, with one valley after another, and it's shrouded in mist all year round, making the roads very difficult to travel. A few years ago, when we were building the road, there was a flash flood, and more than twenty people died there." Shi Xin felt scared just thinking about it.

Xi Lang's expression turned serious. "Does nobody usually use that road?"

"Not many. Usually, it's mostly freight trucks that go there. But it rained there a few days ago—" Shi Xin's voice trembled, "Brother, maybe you shouldn't go either, I'm scared."

Xi Lang didn't speak.

Chen Zhi frowned. "How many people haven't returned?"

"There are four of us here, in two vehicles. Besides our people, there are also people from the aluminum mine. They have four trucks that are also missing. In addition, two trucks from the machinery factory haven't returned either. I didn't notice at first, but Uncle Guo's side was the first to realize something was wrong, because the two trucks from the machinery factory went into the mountains the day before yesterday. The machinery factory was the first to discover the problem."

Xi Lang: "Isn't anyone going to look for it?"

Chen Zhi: "Could it be that the road is damaged and the car can't move?"

"I'd rather the road was broken," Shi Xin said, on the verge of tears. "The problem is, none of the people who went in to look for us have come out. It's only a few kilometers; even on foot, it could be covered in an hour. But several people were riding bicycles, and not a single one of them came out to warn us."

If it weren't for this, they wouldn't be so worried.

Chen Zhi looked at Xi Lang, "Do you want to go take a look?"

Xi Lang nodded, "Mm."

Chen Zhi: "Then I'll go too."

She was worried about leaving Xi Lang alone.

Xi Lang didn't refuse. "Okay. Pack two sets of clothes at home, and also pack the snacks, biscuits, and candy that Brother Shi brought today. We'll take them with us on the road."

Xi Lang went to ask for leave, and Chen Zhi poured a glass of water for Shi Xin, telling him to sit and wait while she started packing her things.

I don't know what Xi Lang said to the captain, but he came back after a while. "The captain agreed and gave us two days off."

Shi Xin arrived in a small truck with a bed that could accommodate people, but since it was the middle of the night, Chen Zhi and Xi Lang didn't go into the bed; instead, they squeezed into the passenger seat.

Chen Zhi was still sleepy, and as the car swayed, she fell asleep without realizing it.

It started to rain, initially just a light drizzle, but the rain grew heavier and eventually turned into a downpour.

Shi Xin felt a chill creep down his spine; he had a feeling that something was off about the rain, that it was even a little eerie.

The rain intensified, and the car slowed down. Shi Xin wore a watch, and when the hour hand pointed to eight in the morning, it was still pitch black outside, and he could hear nothing but the sound of rain.

"Normally it only takes two or three hours to get from our town to Qiweng Mountain, but now we've been driving for more than four hours." Shi Xin thought that they might have entered the Qiweng Mountain area and were trapped in the mountains.

Xi Lang didn't answer. He looked out the window, his sharp features shrouded in a dark cloud, making people inexplicably afraid.

Suddenly, a light appeared ahead.

Shi Xin's first reaction wasn't joy, but rather nervousness as he stared at Xi Lang, swallowing hard. "What's ahead—"

"It's a person," Xi Lang said.

Shi Xin breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't that he was cowardly, but the last incident had left him with lingering fears, so he had to be more cautious.

Ahead was a car, a machine factory vehicle, also there to find someone, but it broke down when it got here.

There were six men in the car, four of whom looked to be in their forties or fifties, while the other two were younger, in their early twenties.

"Our colleagues from the police station came too. We initially followed their car, but our car broke down, and we lost them," said the man from the machine factory.

"Which unit are you from?" another person asked.

Xi Lang and Chen Zhi, one a sent-down youth and the other a farmer, both looked at Shi Xin, wondering what the true identity of this black market boss was. There were no cars in the village.

"We are forestry workers." Shi Xin was very calm, which showed that his identity was verifiable and there would be no problem.

There is indeed a forest farm in Bayuan Town, which is some distance from Sandong Village. Chen Zhi had only heard of it.

"Are you all here looking for someone too?" Shi Xin asked.

"That's right, several of our comrades are trapped inside."

The rain was so heavy that you had to shout loudly for each other to hear each other.

"Want to go together?" Shi Xin asked.

"That would be perfect."

Chen Zhi and Xi Lang didn't get out of the car to say hello. The people below could only see that there were people in the car, but they couldn't tell whether the people in the car were men or women through the glass and the rain.

Six people from the machine factory, wearing raincoats, stood on the truck bed.

The car continued moving forward.

The road ahead became increasingly difficult to navigate. Shi Xin's visibility was reduced to almost two meters; beyond that, he could see nothing at all. The headlights were of little use, so he could only continuously reduce his speed and cautiously feel his way forward.

"Brother, why do I feel the temperature getting lower and lower?" Shi Xin's voice trembled slightly, whether from the cold or from fear, it was hard to tell.

Xi Lang took out a talisman from his pocket, folded it into a triangle, and put it into Shi Xin's chest pocket.

Shi Xin looked at the talisman and thought to himself, "So my brother really knows how to do this." He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt a little warmer.

After driving for another half hour, Xi Lang suddenly spoke up, "Stop the car."

"Huh?" Shi Xin was puzzled, but did as instructed.

"Do you have raincoats?" Xi Lang asked.

"Yes, we do. But we only have two raincoats, though we do have three umbrellas," Shi Xin said apologetically.

There were only two seats on the bus, so he didn't bring any raincoats.

Xi Lang handed a piece of clothing to Chen Zhi and helped her put it on, saying, "I'll hold the umbrella for you."

The three got out of the car, each holding an umbrella. Chen Zhi and Shi Xin were still wearing raincoats that reached their knees.

"Why did you park?"

The people in the truck bed also got off.

The six men subtly observed Xi Lang and his group. When they saw Chen Zhi, the girl, they frowned. "Why did you bring a woman with you? This is ridiculous."

"Gender equality, women hold up half the sky, and you people in the machinery factory still engage in gender discrimination?" Xi Lang's voice was cold.

"Of course not."

The factory workers denied it.

"But in places like this, women are considered yin, so coming to such places will bring bad luck."

"Break down feudal superstition, comrade, your kind of thinking is unacceptable." Xi Lang's tone was completely flat.

Shi Xin: "......"

Brother, you're the biggest superstitious person here. Is it appropriate for you to say that?

The factory workers were speechless again. At this moment, a slightly older man said, "Alright, let's talk about business."

"Yes, yes, comrade, why did you stop the car and not continue moving forward?"

Shi Xin himself was also unsure, and cast a questioning glance at Xi Lang.

Xi Lang looked up at the rain, his gaze deepening. "The car has been driving for half an hour, but it hasn't moved more than ten meters."

"It's so dark, how can you tell the car isn't moving?"

"Yeah, it's so dark, you can't see anything."

"But under normal circumstances, we should have been out of Qiweng Mountain in half an hour."

However, they are still in Qiweng Mountain.

Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but shudder.

So the situation at Qiweng Mountain was indeed strange.

"Damn it, I should have just hired a fortune teller."

"You'll need to find the right people; nobody dares to do this kind of thing these days."

The people at the machine factory were all talking at once.

Finally, a young man said, "Something's not right here. Should we head out?"

Everyone was silent.

Xi Lang ignored the people from the machinery factory and walked ahead first.

Chen Zhi followed behind him.

"Wait for me, bro." Shi Xin jogged to catch up.

"And what about us?" the machine factory worker asked.

"Two people went back first to contact the factory and ask them to send someone to pick them up, while the remaining four continued forward."

The water on the ground was deep, reaching up to knee-deep.

Xi Lang led the way, Chen Zhi was in the middle, and Shi Xin brought up the rear. When the people from the machinery factory caught up, they silently followed behind them, the seven of them forming a line.

After driving for about fifteen minutes, a car appeared ahead.

"It's a police car. We were following behind this car when we arrived," said the man from the machinery factory.

"There's no one in the car."

Where did they go?

No one can answer.

Continuing on, they found two more vehicles, one of which was a police car, along with more than a dozen bicycles. The rainwater had submerged most of the wheels, and there was no one at the scene.

"Everyone has disappeared, neither alive nor dead." The people at the machine factory grew increasingly uneasy; the situation was too bizarre and too abnormal.

"Have they already—"

"Why don't we go back first?"

They began to consider leaving.

"Okay, let's go back first and come back to look for it when the rain stops."

"Yes, let's come when the weather is better."

Without asking Xi Lang and the other two for their opinions, they turned to leave.

Just then, someone pointed to a spot and asked, "Is there someone over there?"

"where?"

"Right there."

"I saw it, someone was carrying something on their back."

"No, it's clearly carrying loads, carrying stones."

"I saw them paving the road."

paving?

What kind of road should be paved on a rainy day?

They must have seen a ghost.

Now, not only the four people from the machine factory, but Shi Xin's expression also changed. He clutched the talisman in his chest pocket, hid next to Xi Lang, and whispered, "Brother, did you see that?"

Xi Lang hummed in agreement.

Chen Zhi was puzzled. Could it be that she was the only one who didn't see anyone, but only sensed something that made her uncomfortable?

Let's keep moving forward.

Xi Lang said, lifting his foot to continue forward.

"You want to keep going? Are you out of your mind?!" The people at the machine factory thought Xi Lang had gone mad.

Xi Lang didn't even turn his head. "It's too late for you to leave now. You can't get out."

No one denied Xi Lang's words, because they could no longer find their way back; they were surrounded by water and could not distinguish east from west or north from south.

"Nobody knows the way, how do you know you're going forward?" someone retorted.

You don't have to believe it.

Xi Lang didn't care; he came looking for someone and had no obligation to explain.

"Those people are coming towards us!!!"

"Oh my god, they're really here! What do we do? What do we do?"

"Follow them, hurry up and follow them!"