My girlfriend is a Miao demon.

Wangshan is rainy, Nanshan is rocky.

Shounan Mountain is a karst landscape, a vast mountain range formed by the dissolution and erosion of rocks by rainwater, rivers, and groundwater, which continuously settle, deposit, collapse, and accumulate. The boulders in Shounan Mountain are naturally mostly limestone, which is why there are peak clusters, peak forests, and isolated peaks on the ground, as well as underground caves, underground rivers, and underground lakes.

A southerly wind can help distinguish rock types. It's the same film crew that once ventured deep into the primeval forest to shoot, the same six-month internship, and they even created another documentary about geological exploration.

At that time, Xiang Nanfeng was an assistant screenwriter in the team, so during that period, he visited four national geological parks with the team and saw no fewer than 300 kinds of rocks. Although he certainly didn't have the ability to distinguish hundreds of kinds of rocks, recognizing common stones was by no means difficult.

"Wait a minute, Luyao, how come this stone wall is made of bluish-white stone!"

"What is bluish-white stone?"

"You must know what white marble is! The steps of the three main halls of the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Jinshui Bridge at Tiananmen Square are all made of white marble from Dashiwo in Fangshan, Beijing. The white marble from Dashiwo in Fangshan is white marble."

"so what?"

"My God, how did we get through this! How did we get through this! Have you heard the story of Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) building the Forbidden City?"

"When people in the Ming Dynasty wanted to transport white marble from the suburbs of Beijing to the city, they had to plan the route in the summer, dig a well every kilometer along the way, and then fetch water from nearby sources when it was coldest in winter. They would then pour the water to freeze it and build a special ice road to transport the stone into the city."

"It's a thousand miles from Beijing to Wangshan. How were they transported here? And these deep mountains, so high up, how were they brought in and brought up? How much manpower must have been involved!"

"This stone wall? Oh, no, this stone tablet, from Beijing?"

"Even if it's not from Beijing, it definitely doesn't come from Wangshan. Let alone Wangshan, this kind of stone isn't even produced in this province."

"Really? It doesn't look any different from other rocks to me. They're all pretty white, just a bit flat. Couldn't it be part of the mountain?"

"You mean this small patch was simply ground out on the spot? Impossible! It absolutely cannot be part of the mountain; it's just weathered and embedded in the soil due to accumulated layers of earth. Look around; there are definitely cracks there! Let me tell you, all the white stones on Shounan Mountain are white limestone, mainly composed of calcium carbonate, but look at this..."

Xiang Nanfeng thrust his trekking pole forcefully into the grass growing along the outer edge of the rock face, then bent down to feel the edge to confirm his guess. However, as he bent down and squatted, the beam of light from the headlamp above began to move across the smooth surface of the rock face, and both of their gazes simultaneously focused on the center of the beam:

"What...what is this?!"

On the bluish-white stone wall, the dense patterns are all about five centimeters square, arranged in an orderly manner like a string of beads, with a row horizontally and a column vertically.

"Words? Are they words?"

"I don't know, but I guess so?"

Without exception, all those patterns were incised lines, clearly incised inscriptions.

Unfortunately, the area is exposed to wind, sun, and rain, and the stone carvings are embedded in the limestone. Over the years, the flowing water has eroded the surrounding limestone, and the dripping calcium carbonate has continuously deposited, so the preservation of these stone carvings is extremely poor. The two of them shone their headlamps all over the place, but they couldn't recognize a single character.

"It should be seal script. Yes, it's seal script. The lines are all the same width, and it seems to lack any brushstrokes. Yes, it's seal script!"

"It's been many years, hasn't it?"

"I'm afraid so. Most of the seal script steles date back to the Qin Dynasty. Of course, judging from the weathering and water erosion here, the preservation conditions are too poor, so they probably won't last that long, but they should still be at least several hundred years old. But..."

Xiang Nanfeng had actually thought of something, but his rational thinking was quickly interrupted by his instincts. He felt a chill run down his spine and shivered involuntarily. The moment his eyes met Luyao's, they immediately understood each other's inner fear.

Luyao jumped to her feet and grabbed Xiang Nanfeng. The two of them, stepping on a relatively gentle rockfall strip formed by the rolling rocks below the stone tablet, quickly retreated towards the low-lying area as if fleeing in panic.

They walked for quite some time before Gui Luyao, who was leading the way again, gradually slowed down:

"Nanfeng, do you think... do you think anyone would build a tomb on a mountaintop?"

Xiang Nanfeng thought to himself, "Who says there isn't? The Mancheng Han Tombs in Baoding, Hebei, are the tomb of Liu Sheng, the Prince of Zhongshan, right on this mountain, and it's just a rocky mountain like this." But he didn't dare say it aloud. Just then, the two of them walked onto a square stone platform. He instinctively took two big steps there, overtaking Luyao, and then, while pulling her along, he kept turning back to reassure her, "Don't worry, it won't be an ancient tomb. Who would build a tomb on a rocky mountain? Besides, 100 years ago, the entire Wangshan City was either farmland or barren land; there wasn't even a county town. Who could build a large tomb on Wangshan!"

"Really? You're not kidding me?"

"Of course, why would I lie to you? Hey, these stones are so slippery, watch your step, they're really slippery."

Xiang Nanfeng was right. After the two of them walked over the square stone platform, the soil under their feet inexplicably became wet and slippery. When the headlamp shone on it, the fresh mud occasionally reflected a dazzling luster.

"It looks like it just rained here."

Xiang Nanfeng muttered something, but Gui Luyao didn't respond. Instead, she gripped Xiang Nanfeng's hand even tighter.

Xiang Nanfeng could vaguely sense that Luyao's hands were gradually becoming cold and sweaty. However, their current location was not secure. To their left was a mountain that was rising higher and higher, while the space to their right was gradually becoming empty: the tall trees had not appeared for a long time, and there seemed to be no more low shrubs at their feet.

Although judging from the feel of the ground, it was still hard limestone, the same mountain with the broken white stone monument on its summit, the visible rock and gravel became less and less under the lights, replaced by increasingly thick and slippery black mud.

The road beneath my feet is getting harder and harder to walk.

Xiang Nanfeng wanted to persuade her again, but ever since they crossed Bijia Mountain, he had been having second thoughts, both in his heart and in his words. He particularly couldn't understand Gui Luyao's various acts of willfulness on this trip:

A night hike up Nanshan Mountain, a sweet and peaceful Christmas Eve?

We've climbed mountains; we've reached high places to gaze at distant peaks, watch the sunrise over a sea of ​​clouds—where can't we see this?

And since you've already gotten lost, why not just wait until dawn and wander north with your compass, leaving the mountains from wherever you feel like it? Why not just find a safe, sheltered spot and wait until daybreak?

Before this, Xiang Nanfeng had repeatedly tried to persuade her, but without exception, Gui Luyao had rejected his advice with various excuses or simply brushed him off. However, having come this far, even though Luyao no longer insisted and even shrank back to let him lead the way, he had given up any thought of turning back. Should he turn back here to find that enigmatic half of the tombstone?

In this deep, dark forest, he didn't want to risk another misfortune. Besides, the road beneath his feet was visibly sloping downwards.

The path was too steep and too slippery. He and Luyao were wearing the most ordinary hiking boots and carrying the most ordinary hiking poles.

Xiang Nanfeng knew very well that going down this path would be difficult, but climbing back would likely be even harder. And even if he could climb, Luyao probably couldn't. Fortunately, he believed his judgment of the surrounding environment was becoming increasingly accurate:

Right now, they are winding their way down the cliff face of a high mountain. Once they reach the bottom of the valley, they only need to move along the valley towards the lower elevation and then take the opportunity to head north. Eventually, they will be able to get out of the mountains.

That was a road of no return. It wasn't until later that Xiang Nanfeng truly understood that it really was a road of no return.

At that moment, he couldn't remember how long they had walked, because visibility was extremely limited in the dead of night. He was on edge, fearing he might lose his footing and fall. He didn't have time to check his phone or look around. All his attention was focused on his footing, whether each step was firm and where his next step should land.

He was focused on getting down the mountain as quickly as possible, on reaching the bottom of the valley. But when the slope beneath his feet finally became flat, he suddenly became alert. Even when he focused the beams of his headlamp and trekking pole lights on the ground, he could no longer see the tops of his shoes.

"South wind, south wind, why is there such a thick fog!"

Gui Luyao tightly hugged her left arm, and a tense atmosphere began to spread in the thick fog.

"This fog is really thick; I've never seen such thick fog before. But don't worry, thankfully we've reached the bottom of the valley. It's safe here; just watch your step."

Xiang Nanfeng tried hard to control his emotions, but the tension, like the pervasive fog in the air, was inevitably seeping into his lungs. Was this really a valley?

Xiang Nanfeng asked himself honestly, and felt incredibly guilty. Because at this moment, the four lights above their heads, in their hands, and on their bodies had all become the smallest lights in the night sky, like four fireflies scattered across an endless field.

Without a light source, all sense of direction is lost.

"The fog is too thick, let's save some electricity!"

Xiang Nanfeng simply turned off the light on his hiking pole, and Gui Luyao followed suit and turned off hers. Perhaps it was psychological, or perhaps it was because the fog at the foot of the mountain was really too heavy, but Xiang Nanfeng felt that all his clothes were soaked through, so wet that they could almost be wrung out.

Gui Luyao was certainly doing the same; her right hand had already silently tightened around Xiang Nanfeng's arm. They were no longer holding hands, but shoulder to shoulder, each using their other hand to grip their trekking poles, treating them like guide sticks for the blind, taking one step at a time. With each step, gravity squeezed the air from the soles of their shoes into the slippery, sticky mud, then released it again, the "plop plop" sound from beneath their feet like the eerie cries of mountain spirits echoing through the thick fog of the empty mountains.

This place is incredibly eerie!

It's so quiet, eerily quiet!

How could there be no wind on Shounan Mountain in December?

Xiang Nanfeng quietly opened his mouth and took a deep breath, trying to open every pore of his body to sense the air flowing around him. But that air, that mist, was clearly a strange, still liquid in the world. There was truly no wind, not even a breath. The only flowing breath was his and Luyao's rapid panting.

"Nan...Nanfeng, I'm...I'm sorry...How about...how about we stay here and wait for dawn?"

"No, our clothes are soaked. We need to get out of here quickly, or we'll get hypothermia!"

"But we can't see anything, which way do we go?"

"Go where the fog is thinner, go where the fog is thinner, find a place with wind, and when the wind blows, the fog will dissipate!"

The south wind is right: where there is fog, there is no wind, and where there is wind, there is no fog.

Fog is essentially a condensation of water vapor formed by extremely fine water droplets and suspended particles in the air—a paradox. Without wind, the water vapor condensate cannot be evenly distributed; with wind, the condensate can be evenly distributed, but it is immediately blown away. Therefore, even the largest and thickest fog must be layered and clustered.

Xiang Nanfeng removed and turned off Luyao's headlamp, leaving only the light source on Xiang Nanfeng's head, and then began an extreme escape through the gaps in the thick fog.

Neither of them knew how long the escape lasted or how far they ran. Xiang Nanfeng only checked his phone once along the way; it was exactly midnight on December 25, 2011.

After that, they ran for an unknown amount of time and distance before their steps suddenly stopped in front of a rectangular stone about ten centimeters high.

With a sharp clang, Xiang Nanfeng's hiking stick struck a rock, the sound echoing through the empty mountains like a timpani suddenly struck in a symphony.

What is that? Is it a rock?

No, definitely not. Xiang Nanfeng tapped around its edge with his trekking pole; it was much more regular than natural rock. Its shape was a perfectly standard cuboid, a long stone strip. Xiang Nanfeng tapped it upwards again, and a new echo appeared, the timbre and frequency clearly identical to the previous stone strip.

"What is that? What did you encounter?" Gui Luyao asked nervously.

"It's...that's..." Xiang Nanfeng kept repeating his actions, the repeated feedback from the hiking stick making him almost unable to believe it. "That looks like...it's a step, Luyao, it's a step!"

One floor... two floors... three floors... four floors... five floors... six floors!

Xiang Nanfeng was stunned. How could this be? How could this be! How could there be steps in the mist of Shou Nan Mountain? How could there be a building deep inside the rarely visited mountain? Where do these steps lead? Where are we?!

The pale beam of his headlamp drew a crescent-shaped curve in the thick fog, as if Xiang Nanfeng was slowly raising his head following some unseen force. A chilling sense of suffocation, like a massive hydraulic press already in operation, was pressing down on him. He could even hear the cracking sounds of the seven vertebrae that made up his cervical spine twisting as he raised his head.

It was a colossal behemoth, a behemoth that looked down upon him as if he were an ant. Xiang Nanfeng froze on the spot, his right hand, holding the hiking stick, also hovering in the air.

What is that? What on earth is it?!

However, beyond the fog lay only endless suffocation; all he could see was the unspoken terror that permeated his heart within the fog.