Shili Village is located in the valley of Nanshan Mountain.

Maybe it was going to rain. The mountains were filled with moisture and the village was shrouded in milky white clouds. But just when we were about halfway between the village entrance and grandma's house, the sky suddenly cleared up.

The surrounding trees are lush and green, and the bright sunlight shines down from the sky, illuminating the village in the mountains.

Lin Chaoxi and Pei Zhi sent the old man and the little girl home, and then there was a back and forth exchange of words: "Since you're here, just have a meal before leaving" and "No, no, my classmates are waiting for you."

Standing in front of the hut, Lin Chaoxi was held by the old lady's hand and could not leave. He could only look to Pei Zhi for help.

The boy looked around and seemed very interested: "If you really want to eat something casually, we will stay."

When he said this, the old lady suddenly became happy, and told her niece who was in charge of the housework to light a fire and cook, and picked some vegetables she grew in the field. Lin Chaoxi wanted to help, but she was given two tea eggs and asked to sit on a small stool at the door to eat with Pei Zhi.

The little girl was running around in front of the door trying to catch the hens.

Lin Chaoxi and Pei Zhi sat side by side on a small stool and saw the boy with his sleeves of his outdoor jacket half rolled up, leisurely peeling an eggshell.

Lin Zhaoxi: "Didn't we agree not to take a single needle or thread from the masses?"

"Grandma accepted our kindness, so we should accept hers as well."

"You make sense." Lin Chaoxi knocked his egg against the stool, picked it up, and found that it was not broken.

Pei Zhi handed over the tea leaf egg he had just peeled. The top was completely polished, leaving only a little bit of eggshell at the bottom, which sparkled in the sunlight and looked very tempting.

"No, no, just eat it."

"It's my kindness." Pei Zhi said, motioning her to exchange hers.

Lin Chaoxi was surprised at first, but she thought about it and realized that since Pei Zhi didn't refuse her vegetable garden cakes, she shouldn't refuse Pei Zhi either.

"Thank you." Lin Chaoxi simply handed over her uncracker egg.

"You're welcome." Pei Zhi put the peeled one on her fingertips.

——

When we left Shili Village, the sky was still bright and sunny. Birds were chirping in the woods and streams occasionally flowed by the roadside.

Before they left, the old lady took out a bunch of mountain snacks to give them. Lin Chaoxi took some walnuts to nourish his brain and returned the rest.

Pei Zhi, however, acted contrary to his usual behavior. He asked his grandmother for a plastic sheet to protect him from the rain and also took a lighter. He even stood at the door of the woodshed, probably because he was interested in the roll of hemp rope and sickle there, but in the end he didn't have the courage to ask for them.

Lin Chaoxi rubbed the paper walnut in his hand, squeezed it hard, and gave half to Pei Zhi.

"Did you really want to take that coil of rope just now?"

"yes."

"The sickle?"

"It can be used to cut down some broken branches."

"The umbrella?"

"If there is a thunderstorm, an umbrella is made of metal and can't hold up, so it's useless."

Lin Chaoxi couldn't help but laugh: "Don't worry, the weather is so nice, it doesn't look like it's going to rain."

"I know." Pei Zhi said calmly, "It's my problem."

Lin Zhaoxi was stunned: "What kind of problem is this..."

"I gave my backpack to Teacher Jie before going up the mountain, and I forgot to take it." Pei Zhi paused and said, "I'm not used to dealing with things that I'm not prepared for."

He was very sincere. This was the first time that Lin Chaoxi heard Pei Zhi honestly admit his shortcomings, although they were nothing.

"It's a good thing to be prepared." Lin Chaoxi said comfortingly.

As they were talking, they walked into a foggy area, with milky white fog flowing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Was that a cloud we just walked through?" Lin Chaoxi was a little shocked.

"yes."

“What is the difference between clouds and fog?”

"There is no difference in essence. If you must distinguish..."

"I know the answer to this question - clouds will turn into rain and fall, but fog won't." Lin Zhaoxi answered quickly.

She said this to tease Pei Zhi, but she didn't expect that the first drop of rain would fall without any warning.

The weather in the mountains suddenly turned cloudy, and thick dark clouds rolled in, covering the entire sky above their heads.

"Isn't it a bit exaggerated?" Lin Chaoxi looked up at the sky and suddenly, raindrops as big as beans fell on her forehead.

She shuddered and began to hide in fear: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I was wrong, I shouldn't have said such nonsense."

"It has nothing to do with you. It's the rainy season now." Pei Zhi said, motioning for her to take out the things.

Lin Chaoxi quickly put down his backpack and took out the rainproof sheet from it.

Pei Zhi quickly unfolded the rainproof sheet and instructed: "Send a text message to Teacher Xie, telling him that we are in a rainstorm and need to hide for a while, so that he doesn't have to worry. But if he doesn't receive a second message from us within an hour, please call the police."

Lin Chaoxi sent the message immediately, opened the two extra plastic bags Pei Zhigang asked for, put their two mobile phones into the bags, put them in two layers, and tied the bags tightly.

Just as they were making a brief preparation, the rain intensified and the entire mountain forest was covered by a vast curtain of rain. The rain slammed against the mountains, making a loud noise, and a bolt of lightning struck, and Lin Chaoxi shuddered again.

At this moment, Pei Zhi took off his outdoor coat and handed it to her. Lin Zhaoxi took it subconsciously, and the next moment, he opened the rainproof cloth and covered her.

The light was dim under the awning, and they were so close that they could almost feel each other's breath.

Lin Chaoxi held Pei Zhi's clothes, and her thoughts were delayed for a few seconds. She was about to say "No", but suddenly remembered that she was wearing a white T-shirt today, which was mostly wet by the rain. It would be unsightly without a set of clothes.

This was the case when he took the little boy away from the hospital, and when he encountered rain in the mountains. Pei Zhi is a gentleman at heart.

"Thank you." Having just been taught to accept other people's kindness, Lin Chaoxi put on his clothes.

"What's next?" she asked.

"Find a place...to squat down." Pei Zhi said, "It's better to be higher."

Lin Chaoxi was silent for a moment. They were in the middle of nowhere and there was no shop nearby. Squatting down would ensure that the tarpaulin covered their entire bodies and was the best option at the moment.

"I remember passing a platform just now," she shouted.

They pulled the rain cover and walked back a distance. In just a few hundred meters, the mountain streams on the roadside overflowed and flooded the stone road. The water did not form a flash flood, but it was above people's ankles in an instant. The stream water was icy and frightening.

Finally they found the slightly higher platform and squatted down there.

The space under the tarp was compressed to the minimum. They were huddled together. The light around them was dim, but the air was hot and stuffy. They could not tell whether the water on their bodies was sweat or rain.

It was clearly an extremely desperate posture, but perhaps because he had finally reached a safe area, or perhaps even if it was not very safe, he had no better choice, Lin Chaoxi suddenly calmed down.

The thunder disappeared into the empty valley, making a loud noise that almost destroyed the sky and the earth. The rain hit every leaf in the forest, and the sound gathered and surged like waves. At more subtle moments, she could even hear Pei Zhi's breathing and her own heartbeat.

Suddenly, a mountain wind blew up, lifting a corner of the rainproof cloth. In a startled glance, a flash of lightning struck the distant mountaintop. The rain clouds on the mountaintop were a thick purple that could not be dissolved, and the mist was steaming, like a fairyland.

She really wanted to say something, but the situation was just shocking.

After a while, they pulled up the tarp again.

With the help of a ray of light shining through the rain cloth, Lin Zhaoxi looked at Pei Zhi and suddenly smiled with relief.

"It was so beautiful just now."

“Very magnificent.”

"This is actually quite interesting." She looked at her and Pei Zhi squatting in a ball and found it funny. "It was something that happened suddenly and caught us off guard, but it seems like this is also a bizarre experience that I can brag about to them later!"

"Yes." Pei Zhi smiled, which was rare for him. "Try to use more exaggeration to make the story more interesting."

"no problem!"

——

If it weren't for what happened next, this would have been a novel and interesting short trip for Lin Chaoxi. Although he got a little wet, not everyone has the experience of hiding from a rainstorm in the mountains with Pei Zhi and being submerged in stream water up to their ankles.

After the rain subsided, she and Pei Zhi held the rain shelter and continued walking down the mountain.

The mountain breeze blew on their faces, bringing with it a refreshing breath after the rain. The weather in the mountains was just like a child's face, changing in an instant. They had just walked along a section of the mountain road when the sun came out.

They quickly stopped to rest. Lin Chaoxi took the cell phone out of the plastic bag and handed it back to Pei Zhi, while she began to fold the tarp.

Pei Zhi took his cell phone and walked away two steps. Standing in the sunshine, he lowered his head and began to send a message to Jie Ran to let him know he was safe.

The sunlight in the valley fell from the sky and completely fell on Pei Zhi, making him seem transparent.

Lin Zhaoxi raised his head, but was suddenly stunned.

A large area of ​​Pei Zhi's white shirt was soaked by the rain, and the vest inside was also completely wet. They stuck tightly to his skin, making many marks on the skin that were originally covered up become obvious.

They were long or short, with reddish edges, some slightly raised, and some smooth like a faint illusion. She couldn't determine their number or when they were formed, because she couldn't even see them clearly because of the clothes covering them.

But if she was not mistaken, there should be a lot of scars.

Lin Chaoxi was shocked and her mind went blank. She had no idea what was going on.

Just then, Pei Zhi finished sending the text message, he put away his phone and looked up at her.

Lin Chaoxi quickly looked away, pretending everything was normal. She continued to fold the tarp, but her hands couldn't help shaking.

What is going on?

Why does Pei Zhi have so many knife wounds?

The mountain road down was still beautiful, with abundant streams and melodious bird songs, but Lin Chaoxi was immersed in a huge state of helplessness and was completely unable to appreciate it all.

She forced herself to calm down and think about whether there were any clues like this in the cheese world, but she couldn't find any.

Huajuan said that Pei Zhi had practiced MMA since he was young, so the knife wounds might be left by training. And Pei Zhi also mentioned that his family was afraid that he would be kidnapped, so they let him learn fighting, maybe because he had been kidnapped and abused. It is even possible that these knife wounds were purely caused by a fight with someone during his second year of high school...

On the way down the mountain, Lin Chaoxi kept sneaking a peek at the wet area on Pei Zhi's body. Her mind was confused at first, but after careful analysis, she seemed to be able to find many reasons to explain these injuries.

The summer sun was scorching. As they walked down the mountain, they could gradually hear the laughter of tourists. The cloth on Pei Zhi's body gradually became dry, from transparent to blurry until it completely returned to its original color, like a healed wound, covering everything.

When Lin Chaoxi and Pei Zhi stepped onto the lakeside lawn, all the students who were participating in the camping ran over to them, as if to welcome heroes.

"Not bad, you don't look like you're soaked to the skin."

"I made ginger soup for you for nothing."

The students said happily.

Xie Ran walked slowly to Pei Zhi and said, "Tell me not to call you in the future. Just send a message saying 'Please do not disturb if you have anything to say'. No need to say so much."

"It's dangerous to answer the phone during a thunderstorm," Pei Zhi explained.

Lin Chaoxi then remembered that what Jie Ran was talking about was the text message that Pei Zhi asked her to send in the rain. The purpose of sending it to Jie Ran was very clear. He could call all the classmates who wanted to call them.

The classmates surrounded Pei Zhi and walked towards the barbecue stall. Lin Chaoxi fell behind and looked at his back.

No matter what happened in the past, Pei Zhi's logic is now very clear. He always knows what to do and is always fully prepared.

The lake water was sparkling and the lake breeze was refreshing. Lin Chaoxi stretched his waist and the worry that had been rising to his throat finally settled down.

She put her hand back into her coat pocket and felt a piece of paper inside. She subconsciously thought it was the receipt she had left in her clothes, so she opened it without thinking too much.

The paper was slightly wet from the rain, and the writing was blurry but still legible.

Lin Zhaoxi took a look and was then stunned.