Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Snow Mountain

Jingkong Mountain is an extremely high peak in the Ruilin Mountain Range, the largest mountain range in the region, which extends to Deon State. Due to its year-round snow cover and convenient transportation, it has become a popular destination for winter travel.

Although it was called a club, there were about a dozen people in total. They chartered a car to the foot of the mountain, and a group of people excitedly got off to change their equipment.

"Wow—" Even though he was prepared, he was still startled by the cold when he got out of the car. Shan Qi pulled his collar and touched the snow with his elbow: "It's not the busiest time yet. Let's climb up first and then choose a good place to ski."

Ying Shixue nodded. The local guide was a bearded man who was enthusiastically introducing the scenery of Jingkong Mountain to them. The group was divided into two or three groups according to age and walked along the mountain path.

Dan Qi got along with everyone. While talking to him, he would occasionally play around with the other children his age in front of him. Ying Shixue followed slowly behind the group when suddenly a commotion came from the front of the group.

"Mingli, it's a deal then. If I break your record while skiing down, you'll give me a set of professional ski equipment!"

"You've been provoked, Ah Li." Si Chengjun smiled and nudged Song Mingli's shoulder. "They said they're going to break your record."

"Ouch!" Shan Yan smacked his dim-witted cousin on the head. "When your brother Mingli was your age, he was already skiing all over the mountain. And you broke his record."

"Brother, why are you boosting others' morale and belittling our own? My athletic talent isn't bad either," Shan Qi muttered, rubbing his slapped head. "The student surpasses the master, new talents emerge in every generation..."

Song Mingli spoke up: "We can give away ski equipment." Shan Qi looked at his brother: "Brother, did you see that? I told you Mingli would agree."

"As for surpassing me," the young man said, his brows arching in the sunlight, "it's impossible, not even in the next life—"

Dan Qi was stunned for a moment, then jumped up in anger: "Brother Mingli!"

Dan Yan burst out laughing, and the atmosphere in the team became much more lively. Since everyone present was roughly the same age, they quickly became familiar with each other through jokes. Ying Shixue looked over there, and as she stepped onto the stairs, she lost her balance and swayed, almost falling backward—

"Watch out." A large hand caught her from behind, and Ying Shixue used the force to steady herself and look at the person who came.

Xi Bo succinctly stated: "The ground here is slippery and the slope is steep, so be extra careful when walking."

He was probably not very old, with light gray eyes that were rare to people here. He was tall and thin, but his face was already showing signs of handsomeness.

Ying Shixue slowly withdrew her gaze: "Thank you."

Xi Bojian smiled slightly: "It's alright." He seemed to want to say something more, but Shan Qi had already turned around to look for him: "Xiao Xue?"

Ying Shixue subconsciously went to reply to him. After Shan Qi walked over and chatted with him for a while, he glanced at him again and saw that the gray-eyed person had quietly returned to the end of the line.

"Xiaoxue? Xiaoxue?" Ying Shixue looked at him, and Shan Qi frowned: "Why are you daydreaming again? I just saw you stop here for a while. Are you alright?"

Ying Shixue shook her head. "It's nothing... You just said you wanted to go skiing?"

As expected, Shan Qi was drawn in by his words and started talking non-stop again. By the time they reached the mountainside, it had been almost two hours. After discussing with the local guide, they decided to rest and replenish their energy. Ying Shixue sat on a flat area and ate the beef jerky she had brought up from below: "Are all the people who came this time from our school?"

“Yeah,” Shan Qi said, stuffing a cookie into his mouth.

Ying Shixue: "Who are they?"

Dan Qi grunted, but didn't think much of it. He had grown up here and knew most of these people: "It seems there are sixteen people in total, the youngest daughter of the Bai family, the two brothers of the Lin family..." He rattled off the list like a rhyme.

“There’s another one,” Shan Qi paused, leaned closer and lowered his voice, “You see that guy sitting on the rock? His name is Xi Bojian, he’s the Xi family’s illegitimate son, he’s in the high school, and he was just brought back a couple of years ago.”

"It's strange," Shan Qi murmured, "If you hadn't mentioned it, it would have seemed like I hadn't even noticed him at all." He was the last person I remembered when taking attendance.

Ying Shixue lowered his eyelashes. He had just observed that this person had been walking at the back of the group and had hardly spoken to anyone. Shan Qi asked, "Why is he here too?"

Ying Shixue: "Can't he come?"

“No, not exactly,” Shan Qi scratched his head. “It’s just that there’s an older brother in the family who was originally chosen to lead the next generation of the Xi family. He wasn’t very well-liked in the Xi family, and he usually avoids these kinds of activities to avoid suspicion.”

Ying Shixue let out an "oh" and continued eating her beef jerky. Suddenly, a cool breeze swept by. Ying Shixue looked up and saw that dark clouds had gathered in the sky, gradually obscuring the sunlight behind them.

Shan Qi also noticed: "...It looks like it's going to be cloudy."

However, the dark clouds seemed to last only a short while. A dozen minutes later, the snow cleared up again, and the tour guide seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Someone next to him joked, "Is it that amazing? I saw your face change just now."

The tour guide's expression was serious: "The weather on the snow-capped mountains is unpredictable. Even if you check the weather forecast carefully, unexpected things can still happen. If there's heavy snow, we have to go down the mountain immediately." "Okay, okay," the other person urged before he finished listening, "Can we go skiing now?"

He said that, but he had already bypassed the tour guide and started calling out to his friends. Song Mingli was kept away by Shan Qi and a group of kids who wanted to perform and teach him. Si Chengjun and Shan Yanming could also skate, but they just stood by and watched him make a fool of himself, since it was rare to see their friend get embarrassed. Suddenly the tour guide rushed over: "It's going to snow heavily. We have to go down the mountain immediately."

Some people still didn't realize the seriousness of the problem and were still laughing: "No way, we finally made it up here, and we haven't even..." "Get down the mountain right away!" the tour guide shouted again, this time with obvious anger.

Sure enough, the ground darkened in the short time it took to speak, the wind was biting and stinging our cheeks, and snowflakes began to fall from the sky. The tour guide said, "It's not suitable to go up the mountain in such windy weather. If it starts to snow again, there is a high chance of a thick snow accumulation. Last year, a small avalanche occurred at Jingkong Mountain because the heavy snow and too many tourists disrupted the balance of gravity. We must go down the mountain immediately."

Song Mingli's face turned cold: "Tell everyone to pack their things and go down the mountain immediately."

Everyone composed themselves and stopped talking. They started packing their things. Just as the tour guide had said, snow began to fall and visibility dropped sharply. The tour guide led the way, saying, "Everyone stay close to your companions. We'll take a headcount every now and then."

They left as dejected as they had come in high spirits. The power of nature was so fleeting and terrifying that no one dared to ride anymore. They all put on their protective gear and moved on in silence. The tour guide said, "Be careful not to slip in the snow. Stay close to the people in front of you!"

The snow quickly piled up into a thick layer, and the group trudged forward, one step at a time. Ying Shixue walked behind and was next to a girl who looked younger than him. She was clearly frightened by this situation for the first time, but she tried to remain calm.

Ying Shixue was silent for a while: "It's okay. At our current speed, we can get down the mountain before the heavy snow arrives."

The girl nodded vigorously, about to say something, when suddenly her foot slipped: "Ah—!"

The freshly fallen snow made the ground soft and slippery. She sank deep into the snow and lost her balance, about to fall backward. At the last second, Ying Shixue grabbed her and pulled her towards him. Falling downhill in this weather was no joke. Sensing the danger, the girl instinctively grabbed him for leverage to climb back up. People nearby noticed and were about to come over, but Ying Shixue, blown by the wind, didn't have time to turn around: "Don't come any closer!"

However, it was too late. The snow surface collapsed rapidly under the overload of gravity, and the person who came froze on the spot, not daring to move. Ying Shixue felt that the layer of snow under his feet was about to give way in an instant. Finally, at the last moment, he pushed the girl onto solid ground. Due to the inertia, he fell down the hillside with the collapsing snow!

The group suddenly stirred. "Someone fell!" The ground guide braved the wind and snow to come over: "What happened? What happened?"

Dan Yan and Song Mingli were walking at the front of the group. Hearing this, they turned around as well. Dan Yan, who was rubbing his frozen nose, bumped into Song Mingli unexpectedly and exclaimed, "Ouch!"

Song Mingli felt as if his blood had frozen: "Where's Xiaoxue?"

Dan Yan was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening: "Holy crap." Before he could say anything more, Song Mingli had already taken three steps at a time, pushing through the crowd to the spot where he had just fallen.

The snow was heavy and the small person who fell only left a pitiful mark, which would soon be covered by the snow. Song Mingli's face changed immediately. The boy who came was terrified: "I, I just saw her fall and wanted to help her up, but as I was walking, the snow suddenly collapsed."

The tour guide was so anxious he was about to vomit blood: "How can you not watch where you're walking? It looks solid in the snow but you can't step on it. With this strong wind, he could roll down. I'll go find him—" he said, and started to walk down.

Song Mingli grabbed him and said, "You can't go, I'll go."

At this point, the tour guide didn't care about the young master or the employer. If something really happened, no one could bear the responsibility. He yelled, "Where are you going! Do you know how dangerous it is down there!"

Song Mingli was unexpectedly firm: "Take them down the mountain. If you delay any longer, the snow will block the road and no one will be able to move!"

“I’m his brother. I’ve been here several times in the winter before. I’m going to find him!”

The tour guide was momentarily stunned, staring at him blankly. Song Mingli looked at him in return, his eyes displaying an extraordinary composure and an irresistible persuasiveness.

Finally, the tour guide gritted his teeth and said, "Fine! I'll take them down first, and then I'll come back to find you as soon as I get the rescue team!"

The team split up, and Song Mingli borrowed a probe from the local guide and used it to search down the slope, bracing himself against the snow.

The large snowflakes blown by the wind blinded him. He wiped his goggles while trying to see his surroundings as much as possible. The snow was piling up and he couldn't shout. He could only search with his remaining vision.

Finally, after more than ten minutes, he saw a staggering figure in the snow. The wind and snow were howling, making him sway. The strange color seemed to be swallowed up by the snow in an instant.

Song Mingli's eyes suddenly welled up with tears. He quickened his pace and walked over there. Finally, Ying Shixue saw him too: "—Brother."

However, upon closer inspection, he noticed that Ying Shixue's walking posture was extremely awkward. He caught the person who was about to fall and asked, "Did you twist your ankle?"

Ying Shixue nodded despite the pain. He had been exposed to the cold wind for too long, and his face was pale and his lips had completely lost their color.

She couldn't take it off to examine it closely either. Ying Shixue's voice was hoarse: "It's okay, I can walk."

Song Mingli told him to lean most of his weight on him: "Lean on me."

The wind and snow grew heavier, and the two walked forward closely together. Ying Shixue's senses were temporarily dulled by the cold and pain, but even so, he still felt something was wrong when he stepped on a soft patch of snow again.

A violent feeling of weightlessness washed over her. Unlike any previous fall, her body was almost powerless as she plummeted several meters in an instant. Her hands stretched out in vain, but she couldn't grab anything to hold onto. Everything rushed past her eyes in a chilling, chaotic blur. Ying Shixue only remembered someone holding her tightly in their arms. After the collision and the fall, a sudden pain shot through her back—and she finally landed on the ground.

Ying Shixue propped himself up from the position where he had fallen to the ground, while Song Mingli, who was lying on his back, was cushioned by the ground beneath him.

Song Mingli tentatively propped himself up on his elbows: "Ahem, we've fallen into a dark rift," he looked up at the dark clouds above, "we've coughed."

This is a common and extremely dangerous trap found on glaciers and snow-capped mountains. Some of these traps are formed by natural fractures and can be tens of meters deep. The area around the traps is all solid ice and hard soil, with no footholds, making it difficult for people inside to climb out on their own. Fortunately, the one they fell into was not very deep.

Song Mingli withdrew his gaze from the sky and comforted him, "It's alright, just stay here for a while and wait for the snow to pass." He stopped speaking because he saw an extremely shocked, even fearful, expression on Ying Shixue's face.

He looked down and saw blood flowing from his nose and the corner of his mouth, dripping onto his clothes and spreading into a glaringly bright red stain.