Chapter 440: Stockade

It was just enough to clear an area two meters wide for an electric car to pass by, which meant some taller grass and wood that could be broken by hand. It was cleared in less than ten minutes.

Mu Xi looked at the road ahead that was not broken by the crushing and had no cracks in the ground, and said, "Ride a little further and see."

Zhao Yeqing trotted forward to check the road conditions ahead.

There is a bend not far ahead. The road in the gap between the mountains also surrounds the mountains. The bend is blocked by the mountains. You can only see the road conditions after running to the front and crossing the bend.

Zhao Yeqing jogged for a distance and passed the bend, making sure that the road conditions before the next bend were intact, and asked Mu Xi to get off the electric bike.

Mu Xi returned the same way. When going uphill, he pulled the rope. When Zhao Yeqing came down with the rope, Mu Xi tied the other end to the big tree above. When coming down again, he rode the electric bike and squeezed the brakes to move down little by little.

When they rode on the road, both of them felt as if they were in another world. It had been a long time since they had ridden a bike on a flat road.

After driving forward for ten minutes, the two finally saw the road that went up the mountain into the village. There was a fork in the road here, and the road ahead was also cut off by a crack in the ground. The only way up the mountain was available.

"It seems that we can only go straight up."

Zhao Yeqing got out of the car, took out a water bottle from his backpack and poured some water for Xiao Hei who was running all the way.

There were two cracks in such a short distance, but there were almost no such cracks on the mountains and meadows.

Zhao Yeqing thought of what he had seen from the Meishan forest ranger's observation tower. The whole town was like the center of a nearby ground fissure, and the cracks spread from the town to the surrounding areas like a dark spider web.

It seems as if this ground fissure erupts in places where human activities are frequent...

Putting aside their thoughts and waiting for Xiao Hei to finish drinking the water, the two of them rode their bikes towards the road up the mountain.

The plants on both sides of the road were so lush that they hung down to the middle of the road. They were mostly tall thatch grass with sharp leaves. At first I could lower my head to avoid the leaves, but as I went higher up the mountain, the leaves hung more and more from above. I had no choice but to get out of the car and cut the grass first.

Or you can bend over and walk through the grass up the mountain first.

The two men parked the electric bike where it was. Xiao Hei, who no longer needed to avoid the thatch, had already run ahead. The two men walked bent over for five minutes before they passed the section with the most lush thatch.

There are some very tall trees on the roadside ahead, and the land underneath is full of soil with tangled tree roots. It may be because of the heavy rain in recent years, and the soil erosion nearby is quite serious. The tree roots have no place to grow, so they can only break through the road and come out.

A small part of the cement road was damaged, but it did not affect the passage of the two people's electric car at all.

There was still no village or Xiao Hei in sight ahead.

The two remembered that the altitude here was not high, so they simply went up first, and then came back to get the car after confirming that there were houses.

After walking up for more than twenty minutes and turning a bend, their vision suddenly became clear.

The mountain walls on both sides of the road no longer extend forward, and are replaced by farmlands that have been reclaimed bit by bit by the villagers. However, they have not been cultivated for many years and have been completely occupied by plants. The traces of the farmlands can only be identified by the very distinctive terraced terrain.

Around the rows of terraced fields, there are wooden buildings with unique ethnic characteristics.

Some wooden buildings have decayed and collapsed, and only a few houses made of brick or with a brick bottom and wood top structure still stand firmly in the mountains.

The place they vaguely remembered was found, and they both breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as Zhao Yeqing looked around, he saw the tea tree they were looking for in the field not far away. The tree was full of tea berries, some of which were so ripe that they burst and fell to the ground.

The purpose of their trip was to see the tea tree. They didn't expect that they had already achieved their goal halfway through the first day. It was incredibly smooth.

The original plan was to be out for two or three days, so there was no need to rush to pick the fruits right away. Zhao Yeqing was in a good mood and walked slowly towards the nearest house, looking around for vegetable and grain fields nearby, hoping that he could find some crops that were not available at home.

The possibility is relatively small. What humans can eat can also be eaten by other animals. If you look carefully, you might be able to find one or two plants hidden in the corner, but a single tree cannot support the field. The weeds are so lush in the field that they might have been strangled to death long ago.

It’s still the principle of survival of the fittest.

Xiao Hei, who was running in front, caught a big green grasshopper, held it with one claw, lowered his head and put it into his mouth in one bite, chewed it twice and swallowed it. Zhao Yeqing couldn't stop him.

Never mind, it’s okay to eat it, just treat it as a snack, but she felt a little uncomfortable just by looking at it.

He took out a piece of dried meat from his backpack and threw it over, "Don't run around, there's food here."

When they arrive in a strange place, dogs are always more excited. They smell everywhere and leave their own scent. But they are afraid that something will come out from there and attack them, so they can't let Xiao Hei run around, they have to follow it.

There are terraces all around here, and when the terraces were being planted, water was released from above. There has been a lot of rainfall in the past two years, and the water flow is too large. It can't wait for the gates to be opened and has to flow down from above. However, it is blocked by the gates set up by the villagers and can only flow away through the drainage ditch.

Generally, the drainage ditches in the village are not clean, as the dirt from the livestock sheds or the overflowing septic tank water will flow into them. However, after so many years, no dirt has flowed through here. The originally dirty drainage ditches are now very clear, with small fish and shrimps jumping around in them.

Even the surrounding air has a fishy smell, which can easily cover up the smell of other animals. Xiao Hei relies on his sense of smell, and if he is not careful, he will be ambushed and injured.

Xiao Hei, who got the dried meat, followed the two people contentedly and walked into the first house.

This is a house with a brick bottom and a wooden top. The upper floor looks a bit decayed. The two men definitely did not dare to go upstairs, so they only planned to take a look at the first floor. They even observed at the door before entering, for fear that the roof would collapse as soon as they walked in.

The moment the door on the first floor opened, the two of them stepped back a few steps, staring at the wooden structure upstairs. When they saw nothing loose or heard any strange sounds, they moved closer to look inside.

The lighting on the first floor is not very good. According to the living habits here, people do not live on the first floor. The first floor is only used to store firewood or raise livestock. The toilets of some houses are also placed on the first floor for easy connection to the septic tank. People live on the second floor.

Mu Xi took out a flashlight, and the super bright outdoor flashlight beam illuminated the first floor as if a light bulb of dozens of watts was on.