My girlfriend is a Miao demon.

January 7, 2012, was a Saturday. The weather was gloomy and cold. For migrant workers in southern cities like Wangshan, where there was no heating, it was a good day to stay home and rest during the winter. For Xiang Nanfeng, the weather was also very favorable.

At 6 a.m. that morning, Xiang Nanfeng rented an old silver-gray Hongzhong Jiabao car from the 24-hour car rental shop downstairs. This kind of economy car, which is nearly ten years old, is quite cheap if you buy it secondhand. In Wangshan City, many small business owners and maintenance workers of small enterprises drive such cars, so they are inconspicuous wherever they are parked.

Xiang Nanfeng tossed three bulging large travel bags into the trunk of the car, then drove onto the Jinpu Expressway, heading straight for Wangshan TV Station. He swiped his card, got a parking ticket, entered the courtyard, parked, swiped his card again, entered the building, took the elevator down to the second basement level, where Studio 3 was on his left and Recording Studio 2 was on his right.

Wearing a long overcoat and a baseball cap, Xiang Nanfeng quickly swiped his card and slipped into the recording studio on the right. At that moment, the studio on the left was broadcasting the morning news live, and he, a "crazy person" on sick leave, didn't want to run into Lao Zhang, Lao Wang, and the others when the lights went out.

The recording studio at Wangshantai has one large studio and one small studio; studio number two is the large studio. Inside the large studio, there are two doors. The innermost door is for recording, and the middle door is for monitoring. The door that Xiang Nanfeng opened leads to two offices, one on the left and one on the right, which are both equipment rooms for the digital technology department. Xiang Nanfeng waited on the sofa in the corridor for more than ten minutes before Wells finally arrived.

"Teacher Nanfeng, we're late! We're late!"

"No, I arrived too early, Mr. Ers!"

"Didn't you take sick leave? Such a major surgery, you're pushing yourself too hard!"

"Hey, no way. Don't tell anyone I came here; nobody in my department knows."

"Huh? You don't know? Old Zhang doesn't know either?"

Xiang Nanfeng held up one finger, shook it in front of his eyes, and then made a shushing gesture.

"Huh? Old Zhang didn't know? Don't get me into this mess! This is a huge deal! He even asked about it when I reported it to our director yesterday. He'd never heard of using drones for undercover investigations."

"You're still giving reports?"

"Isn't that obvious? Do you think I own a TV station? Of course I have to report it. This thing is worth over 100,000 yuan, it's a precious treasure."

"What's wrong with the baby? I think you've just left it in the storeroom collecting dust."

"Who told you that? It's not that aerial photography doesn't look good in winter; we used it many times in the fall. Come here, sign here."

The two retrieved the drone from the warehouse, then went out, got into their car, and left. Fortunately, as Xiang Nanfeng had expected, there were few people working on the weekend, and they didn't run into a single acquaintance before leaving the TV station.

The two chatted idly in the car. Because news of Xiang Nanfeng's near-fatal car accident had been circulating wildly throughout the television station for months, they were so engrossed in discussing these matters that they didn't have time to talk about their mission or purpose. It wasn't until the car left the main street, turned onto a side road, and stopped at a public parking lot north of Loujia Village that the two got out, carrying their drone and other filming equipment, and walked across Loujia Village North Road, turning into a small alley. Only then did Wells ask:

"Teacher Nanfeng, what are you trying to secretly film? What's in this village?"

"Don't ask anymore, we're almost there. You'll know when we get there."

Between No. 90 and No. 92 Loubei, there is an unnamed alleyway facing west. The second gate on the south side of the alleyway has a red-and-white tin street sign about the size of a playing card hanging at the entrance. The sign is worn, rusted, and peeling, but the white characters are still clearly visible: No. 90 Loubei Ding. Inside the gate was originally a traditional courtyard house with four rooms facing north, two rooms each on the east and west sides, one of the north rooms serving as a doorway. Now, this small courtyard has been converted into shared rental housing for the "ant tribe" (a term referring to people living in cramped conditions). Not only have three small south-facing rooms been added, but four more flat-roofed rooms have been built in the middle of the courtyard. Except for the two north-facing rooms the landlord keeps for his own residence, the remaining 12 rooms are all rented out, accommodating at least 50 people.

Five days earlier, Xiang Nanfeng had predicted an investigation of Loujia Village. He deliberately took a detour from Bijia Mountain while sleeping at night and rented the easternmost, south-facing room in the courtyard for 500 yuan a month. Because the courtyard was so cramped with additions, the narrow passageway leading to the three south-facing rooms was barely wide enough for one person to pass sideways, offering virtually no natural light. To get some light, they had to install a sliding window, about 1.5 meters long and no more than 30 centimeters wide, in the south-facing wall facing the street. And outside this sliding window was the walled city.

"Professor Ers, I'll keep watch outside for you. As long as no one's around, I'll call you. You can then take the drone out through this small window, fly it over this high wall behind it, fly it inside, circle around inside the wall, and you're done!"

"Is...is this dangerous? What's inside those walls? Could it be...a drug manufacturing base or something?"

"No, no."

"So what are you filming?"

"What are you filming? If I knew, why would I let you film it?"

"Damn it! Ugh!" Wells slapped his thigh, furious. "What a mess! We've gotten ourselves on a pirate ship."

Wells stayed inside to install and debug the drone, while Xiang Nanfeng went out to first circle around the besieged city to keep watch.

As to what exactly was inside this walled city, Xiang Nanfeng had already asked no fewer than ten people, such as his landlord and landlady when he rented the house, the old lady at No. 92 Loubei, and Grandpa Zheng, the son-in-law of Loujia Village back then, etc. They were all villagers of Loujia Village or residents who had lived here for a long time. They obviously wouldn't be completely ignorant about the walled city that was so close by. They had all heard some rumors about it.

However, after asking around among these dozen or so people, Xiang Nanfeng received two completely different viewpoints, both of which, when considered individually, seemed to have some merit:

Some people say that the walled city is empty, with nothing inside. Then why build such a walled city in the first place? It's just a matter of feng shui, and it's hard to say for sure.

It is said that a long, long time ago, at least during the Qing Dynasty, a wise man consulted the feng shui of the village and gave advice, leading to the construction of this walled city. It has been passed down from generation to generation, with repairs made where it broke or collapsed. Initially, the walled city was not this high or thick. It was only because new walls were constantly built outside the old ones and new bricks were added on top of the old ones that it became higher and thicker, eventually transforming into a city.

The elderly people who hold this view are quite credible in one respect: three or four of them were witnesses to the last renovation of the walled city in the 50s. At that time, these elderly people were still young. Although they had never climbed up the walled city or seen what it looked like inside, they all remembered what the walled city looked like before. It is said that it was during that renovation that the walled city became taller and thicker.

Others argue that this walled city isn't a city at all; it's solid inside, made of earth and bricks—basically just a mound. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many ancient cities and villages featured multi-story pavilion-style buildings in their centers. For example, in Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi, the Pingyao City Tower in the very center is the only high-rise building. Similarly, in Gaojiabao Ancient City in Shaanxi, the Zhongxing Tower sits at the center of the north-south axis. These ancient cities were much larger than Loujia Village, so the pavilion architecture used as landmarks was far more sophisticated, featuring double-eaved corridors on the upper floors and cross-shaped streets below.

Loujia Village was just a small, impoverished mountain village in the Qing Dynasty, like Wangshan. It's not surprising that the villagers built a tower in the center of the village, using a mound of earth as a foundation that couldn't be crossed by the street, as this was a low-cost method. Over the years, the wooden pavilion on the foundation fell into disrepair and collapsed, leaving only a bare mound. Judging from the diameter, height, and shape of the mound, it's quite reasonable to call it the foundation of a pavilion-style building.

"Hey, it's just a mound of earth, nothing to worry about! Brother Lou told me that when the wall was renovated and rebuilt in the 50s, his father carried bricks up to the city and climbed up to take a look. He said that the middle part is a little lower than the surrounding area, probably because it has settled over time. It's really nothing!" That's what Uncle Zheng, the son-in-law of Loujia Village, once told Xiang Nanfeng.

Which of these two statements is correct? Or are neither of them correct?

Xiang Nanfeng didn't know either. But as the saying goes, "hearing is believing, seeing is believing." Xiang Nanfeng's personal experience was that he had seen both Loubei No. 93 and a walled city. But it was hard to say which one was true. How could he possibly distinguish the truth from the falsehood based on just what he heard?

So today, Xiang Nanfeng went to great lengths to borrow the station's drone, just to see for himself what exactly was inside this besieged city.

At that time, he was walking at the foot of the besieged city, circling around it.

Gray clouds hung low like a leaden curtain, and the damp air from the south mountain flowed out of the valley, spreading through the streets and alleys of Loujia Village, seeping into people's winter clothes through their sleeves and collars, and clinging to their cold skin.

On the street, the wet cement slabs reflected the hazy sunlight, and stepping on them sent a chill straight up from the soles of your feet. There was no biting wind, but the chill was pervasive and pervasive.

Tomorrow is Laba Festival, and after Laba Festival comes the New Year. Most of the people who came to Wangshan from other places to work have returned to their hometowns. As an urban village known for providing shared rental housing, the street scene of Loujia Village is already much more desolate than the previous week. With such terrible weather, even fewer people are going out.

As the south wind circled the besieged city for the second time, only two pedestrians remained in sight, both of whom had already passed the besieged city and were hurrying southwards.

Just then, a delivery company tricycle drove up and unexpectedly stopped in front of Xiang Nanfeng. The deliveryman neither got off nor spoke, but silently shook his head at Nanfeng, who nodded back. They glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes, and after that brief exchange, the deliveryman started the tricycle again, turned a corner, and drove away. At that moment, Xiang Nanfeng received a call from Wells:

"Hello, hello, Mr. Ers... Mr. Ers, hello, hello!"

Xiang Nanfeng took two quick steps, moving further away from the wall, and found a place with a decent signal. In fact, that place was less than 15 meters away from the back window of his rented room, and if the two of them spoke a little louder, they could be heard without their phones.

"How's it going, Xiang Nanfeng? I'm all ready."

"Okay, I'm all set, let's fly!"

"good!"

Wells put his phone on speakerphone and then put it down. He immediately heard the horizontal window on the back wall of the rental house creaking as it slid along its old, deformed PVC track before hitting the window frame and stopping.

About ten seconds later, a gray drone flew out of the open window. The drone climbed straight up, like a huge wasp, emitting a low-frequency buzzing noise.

Two meters – three meters – four meters – five meters – six meters – seven meters – eight meters…

To curious passersby, the walled city of Loujia Village is an insurmountable obstacle, but for a drone capable of flying at a maximum altitude of 500 meters, it's nothing more than a clod of earth on flat ground. In just three to five seconds, the drone steadily climbed to a height of about ten meters, clearly exceeding the height of the walled city.

"Okay, let's go in!"

"good!"

A response came from the other end of the phone. The drone immediately began to move horizontally, preparing to traverse the narrow alley, less than five meters wide, to spy on the secrets within the wall. However, just as it was about to reach the edge of the wall, the low-frequency noise, like that of wasps, suddenly disappeared, and the drone in the air immediately lost power, plunging headfirst into the cascading outer wall of the city.

"Wow!"

Both people inside and outside the house were shocked. They had been focused, but neither of them expected this to happen. Fortunately, the drone crashed less than four or five meters away from Xiang Nanfeng, and it didn't land straight down, but rather hit the slanted wall and rolled down, giving Xiang Nanfeng time to react.

He sprinted to the wall and barely managed to catch the free-falling drone halfway down. However, due to the great momentum of his sprint, he instinctively slammed his right shoulder into the slanted wall to regain his footing.

"What's going on? What's going on?!"

Xiang Nanfeng hurriedly checked the drone. At first glance, apart from a few extremely minor scratches on the protective cover, it appeared to be otherwise undamaged. While he was inspecting the drone, Wells came running frantically from the alley entrance. He picked up the phone that Xiang Nanfeng had thrown away in his panic, returning it to him while taking the inexplicably crashed drone.

"What's wrong with this drone? Why did it suddenly stop?"

"The signal suddenly disappeared. I went offline, the connection dropped instantly. But that shouldn't be the case; the signal should gradually weaken, it can't just disappear all at once."

"Is the power out?"

"That's even more impossible. The battery was fully charged; it can fly 3 kilometers. It only flew 10 meters? That's really strange; nothing like this has ever happened before. Luckily, you reacted quickly!"

"Of course, it's over ten thousand yuan, how could we dare to react slowly?"

"Come on, come on, let's go inside first, let me check inside."

The two talked as they returned to their rented room. The unexpected malfunction of the expensive equipment had them both on edge, but strangely enough, once inside, they restarted, powered on, took off, moved horizontally, and landed—the whole process was smooth and seamless, and there were no further malfunctions.

"What happened?"

"I don't know."

"Try again."

"it is good."

I tried it again, and then again, but I didn't see anything wrong with it.

"I don't know what happened just now. Alright, you go back to keeping watch outside, we'll fly it one more time."

Xiang Nanfeng responded with an "okay," went out as usual, circled around to make sure there were no outsiders around the city, and the drone flew out of the window, climbed to the top of the city wall, panned, and started shooting:

"Whoosh..."

"Hey! What's going on!"

Just as it approached the wall, the signal was lost, the drone stalled mid-air, and it plummeted. This time, however, Xiang Nanfeng was well-prepared. He had taken off his trench coat and was waiting below, the falling drone landing steadily on the soft fabric. Without waiting for Wells to rush out again, Xiang Nanfeng directly returned the disconnected drone.

"Why is it broken again?"

As soon as the door closed, Wells asked first.

"Are you asking me? Didn't you turn on this machine?"

He answered the south wind.

"Of course I'm asking you. You had a feeling, otherwise why would you take off your clothes and wait down there? What exactly is in there?"

Of course, Xiang Nanfeng couldn't tell him the truth. He did have a premonition, because the drone's sudden disconnection reminded him of the time in his dream world when he and Luyao entered an open area in Shou Nan Mountain, and his phone clock inexplicably stopped at midnight. Perhaps this Loubei No. 93 was also such a forbidden area? Electronic devices about to malfunction, network signal about to disappear?

Yes, yes, that seems to be it!

He had just received a call from Wells while he was at the foot of the walled city. When the call connected, he couldn't hear anything on the other end. And this didn't seem to be a coincidence. He recalled that on the day he was discharged from the hospital, when he first came to the walled city to look for Loubei No. 93, he had spoken to Liangzi on the phone. Coincidentally, he was also standing at the foot of the walled city, and coincidentally, he couldn't hear the other person's voice either?

Yes, this can't be a coincidence!

Inside the rented room, Wells repeated the previous steps: restart, power on, take off, move horizontally, and land. Sure enough, as soon as the drone returned to the rented room, all the inexplicable malfunctions disappeared naturally.

"Professor Ers, I suspect there's a strong signal jammer inside the wall. How about this: prevent the drone from flying over the wall, try taking it directly into the air, flying higher, and zooming in with the camera."

"A signal jammer? Inside there? Okay, let's try it as you say. You can connect it on the ground."

"Okay, don't worry."

After they finished speaking, they resumed the previous operation. This time, they didn't need to talk on their phones anymore, because Xiang Nanfeng was waiting below the window. As soon as the drone flew out of the window, it immediately climbed up from the spot.

"There's no one here, don't worry. Drive slowly. If it gets too steep, observe the situation after reaching 8 meters before continuing."

"it is good."

Two meters – three meters – four meters – five meters – six meters – seven meters – eight meters…

"Hey, okay, no problem this time!"

The drone had ascended to a height of ten meters above the ground, its recording function activated. On the monitor, the drone's transmitted images were clear and stable, revealing the pitted and uneven battlements along the edge of the city's high walls. As the drone continued to climb, a dark, curved line behind the battlements, like a crescent moon, gradually widened and enlarged, revealing a hazy, gray mist.

"They're out! They're out!"

Wells was excitedly talking on the other side of the wall, while Xiang Nanfeng waited anxiously on this side. But almost before Wells finished speaking, the drone overhead stopped again.

"It broke again!"

Although preparations were made this time, the lack of a sloping wall as a barrier meant that when the drone actually fell straight down from a height of ten meters, the predictable, greater descent speed and kinetic energy compared to before would still double the pressure from the southerly winds.

He nervously opened his trench coat, bracing himself for the impact. But just as he felt the drone about to crash overhead, the buzzing of the rotors resumed, and a powerful gust of air swept towards him.

"It's back! It's back!" Wells shouted excitedly from inside the wall. "The connection is back!"

"You can do that?"

"I'll try again!"

"good!"

The drone stabilized its attitude and resumed its ascent in the same manner as before.

Two meters – three meters – four meters – five meters – six meters – seven meters – eight meters – ten meters…

But as if an invisible curse hung in the sky, the drone remained ten meters above the ground, the camera had just been activated, and a narrow, hazy band of fog had just appeared on the monitor when it lost contact and began to fall. This time, however, Wells had learned from experience and managed to regain control of the drone the instant the signal connection was restored.

The two did not speak, and the drone took off again, but the outcome was the same as the previous two times: it lost contact at a height of ten meters.

"Just give up. It's hopeless."

"What exactly is going on, Teacher Nanfeng? What's inside that wall? Were you prepared for this?"

"I was mentally prepared, but I really don't know what it is, otherwise I wouldn't have asked you to film it. Never mind, we definitely won't be able to film it, let's pack up and go home. Just copy down all the videos you just filmed and give them to me. I'll figure out what to do next. Oh, by the way, today's filming must be..."

"Okay, as long as the hush money is paid!"

"In place! In place!"

The two walked out of Loujia Village and returned to the parking lot. It was lunchtime. Xiang Nanfeng drove Wells to Meinian City, a large shopping mall on the way back, and treated Wells to a Japanese meal as a thank you. After dropping him off at the station, he returned to Loujia Village himself.

The roads in Loujia Village are narrow, making parking a real hassle. Xiang Nanfeng parked his car in the public parking lot outside the village and then walked into the village. He had traveled this village road in and out of Loujia Village countless times, from his dream world to reality. The area at the entrance of Loujia Village was strangely planned. Apart from the open-air public parking lot on the east side of the road, which could accommodate three or four hundred cars, the open space on the west side of the road was always empty, consisting of a green belt of about the same size as the parking lot.

The green belt near the roadside is a lawn, with camphor trees and acacia trees inside. It is completely different from the haphazard and illegally constructed buildings in Loujia Village. The view at the entrance of the village is quite open. If you look horizontally, you can see several hundred meters ahead. Apart from the green trees, the only tall building is a gatehouse that is half Western and half local, supported by four Roman columns.

The gatehouse, with its nonsensical Corinthian columns and the three cheap-looking characters "Loujia Village" that looked like they'd been ripped off a tombstone, repeatedly made Xiang Nanfeng, who considered himself somewhat aesthetically fastidious, unable to look directly at it. However, even when he lowered his head to avoid the gatehouse, he couldn't avoid the old stone tablet with the words "Loujia" stuck in the grass.

Every time Nanfeng walks past this stone tablet, every time he looks at it, he feels an urge to pull it out and cut it a few more times. Not to mention that the blank space on the inscription has a top margin but no bottom margin, it's like an old man with a huge forehead who is already quite deformed, but then his legs are sawed off. You can imagine how ugly it would be. Just the thickness of the stone tablet is really unbalanced. Such a small stone tablet is so thick that it's awkward to even glance at it out of the corner of one's eye.

Countless times before, he had brushed past the stone tablet, simply because he thought it was ugly. Xiang Nanfeng always hoped that the moment they passed each other would be even faster. However, this time, perhaps it was fate. He suddenly stopped in front of the stone tablet and stared at it for a long time, unwilling to leave.

Doesn't this white stone tablet look familiar to you?