Chapter 44: Rainy Wild Temple (6)
The logistics vehicle that was supposed to be following behind fell behind at some point and failed to catch up.
Behind the guest car, there was empty darkness.
"Brother Yan, why did you suddenly stop the car?" Zhang Wubing called the driver again, but he was asking Yan Shixun: "The Starry Sky Glass Hotel we booked is only two hours away from us after crossing the mountain. If we stay here for the night, there is no place to sleep, right?"
"We are already out of the coastal area. It has been raining for many days, and the mountain has been soaked." Yan Shixun asked calmly, "The mountain road between the two mountains is not too short. Can you ensure that there will be no landslides or other accidents? It is a one-way street. If something happens, we will be stuck in it and can neither get out nor retreat."
Zhang Wubing on the other side shrank back and didn't dare to answer.
When Yan Shixun mentioned this matter, he suddenly realized that he was indeed inconsiderate and had not thought of this level.
but……
"Brother Yan, is your phone out of battery and turned off?" Zhang Wubing was both confused and wanted to divert Yan Shixun's attention. He wanted to change the subject: "I just called you, why is your phone turned off? So I can only call the driver to find you."
Fearing that Yan Shixun would blame him, Zhang Wubing thought for a moment and added, "Just do as Brother Yan said. Let's find a village here to stay for the night, and then set off tomorrow morning when the rain stops. I remember looking at the map before and there was a village nearby. I've already turned my car around and headed to where you are, Brother Yan. We'll be there soon."
He even muttered in confusion: "Strange, I checked the weather forecast and it didn't say there would be heavy rain? Could it be that because the route was changed midway, it's raining here but not over there?"
cell phone?
Yan Shixun was not the kind of person who would hold his cell phone in his hand all the time. So he didn't remember to touch his cell phone until Zhang Wubing asked him.
But he found nothing.
However, Yan Shixun didn't have time to look for his phone. He asked Zhang Wubing, "You sent the new route to the logistics vehicle, right? When was the last time you received a call from the logistics vehicle?"
Zhang Wubing was confused by his brother Yan's question, but he still answered obediently: "I sent it, and it seems that there was no contact after dark. What's wrong, brother Yan?"
"The logistics vehicle is not following us."
“…”
Zhang Wubing: “???!!”
Frightened Zhang Wubing drove back quickly with the director.
While waiting for Zhang Wubing, Yan Shixun did not allow the guests to walk around or leave the car. The actress originally said that the car was too stuffy and she wanted to get out for some fresh air, but she was frightened by Yan Shixun's sharp gaze and retreated, not daring to speak again.
The raindrops hit the roof of the car like stones, and the sound was so loud that it seemed to be able to smash a hole in the metal roof.
The lights inside the car were no longer warm and cozy. Instead, they seemed like lights that attracted monsters. In the endless dark mountains and wilderness, they became targets that could be swallowed by the monsters at any time.
The guests in the car fell silent, waiting anxiously.
Bai Shuang, who was sitting by the car window, shrank back even more, subconsciously wanting to stay away from the darkness outside the window. Her heart was beating wildly, and her hands and feet were cold from the wind. She couldn't help but hold on to her coat tightly, wanting to give herself a sense of security.
It was as if outside, there were some dangers and monsters approaching that she couldn't see.
Even the audience who were watching the live broadcast were infected by the spreading depression and silence and became impatient.
[It was raining so hard that I thought it was the noise from the live broadcast equipment or the noise from the engine when the car started. I was still complaining that Yan Shixun made a hasty decision and stopped the car without considering the safety of others. Now that the car has stopped and everyone is silent, I realized that the rain was really too heavy. Yan Shixun made the right decision not to stop the car across the mountain.]
[It has rained a lot recently in the summer. Brother Yan is right. The soil on the mountain has been loosened by the rain. If there is a landslide or rockfall, it will be no joke. There are no street lights here, and the driver's vision is poor. It is easy to get into an accident.]
[I am a little worried about the lost car. Did it take the wrong route? Or did something happen to it?]
[I have agoraphobia, and I’m particularly afraid of open spaces. This scene really makes me cry.]
[It's raining heavily this night, so it's not safe, especially if we're going to Wild Wolf Peak? The name sounds like there are wild wolves there. Didn't people name places based on their characteristics? Maybe it's called Wild Wolf Peak because there are wolves there.]
[My grandmother’s family lives in Wild Wolf Peak. When I was young, I often went to Wild Wolf Peak to play. As mentioned above, it was originally named after the wild wolf. However, when my grandmother moved from Wild Wolf Peak to the city, about 20 years ago, I rarely heard of wolves there.]
[I went to Wild Wolf Peak to take photos of the stars, but it seemed deserted. Our entire photography team stayed there for several days, but we didn’t see a single person. There was also a mountain god temple that was so deserted that it was about to collapse. You could tell at a glance that the temple had not been used for a long time. There were spider webs all over the place, and the head of the mountain god statue was gone. Instead, a nest of small animals lived on the statue, and no one took care of it.]
[No way? I went there with my family more than ten years ago. There were many villages there.]
[You also said that it was more than ten years ago, something happened at Wild Wolf Peak, and then...]
The rain was getting heavier and heavier. The guests were sitting in the car restlessly, but even the most difficult actress kept her mouth shut. Not only was it because the biological instinct for survival made them quiet so as not to attract the attention of predators, but also because Yan Shixun's face turned completely cold. He stood at the door of the car waiting silently. The dangerous and fierce aura spread silently from him to the surroundings, lowering the air pressure in the entire car.
Suddenly, a blurry light appeared from the rain, bumping along the road towards the guest car.
Judging from the outline, it should be the director's car that was originally exploring the way ahead.
"Brother Yan!"
Zhang Wubing, who was wearing a one-piece raincoat, was blown up by the wind, and the whole raincoat was inflated like a tumbler. When illuminated by the weak light, a strange shadow was projected on the ground that was not human at all, but more like a jackal-like animal.
The crackling sound of heavy rain hitting the ground covered up a lot of noise, making it difficult to hear or see clearly.
Zhang Wubing wiped the rain off his face and strode to the back to check the situation of the logistics vehicle. As a result, there was no light on the entire road behind. Even if he raised his line of sight, he could not see anything.
When driving in the wilderness on a rainy night, the car will always turn on the lights for illumination, but there will be only darkness behind.
The logistics vehicle really didn't catch up.
Zhang Wubing was almost crying with fear, the cold raindrops fell into his neck, making him shiver. He shone his high-beam flashlight in a circle behind the car in suspicion, and then ran back as fast as he could, as if he would be caught by ghosts if he ran a little slower.
"Brother Yan! Brother Yan, please open the door and let me get in. It's raining so heavily outside." Zhang Wubing knocked on the door of the guest car.
I don’t know why, but when Zhang Wubing looked up at the car window, he felt that Zhang Yan Shixun’s face reflected in the window looked stiff and pale, and his lips were extremely red.
"Squeak, snap—"
The car door opened.
A chill blew from the car toward Zhang Wubing, causing his already rain-soaked body to shiver.
"Come up." The person above was smiling, but the smile was stiff and weird.
The guests on the bus were equally stiff, sitting upright in their seats like paper figures.
When they heard the voice, they all turned their heads, and their dark eyes, like glass beads, looked at Zhang Wubing.
Her lips were too red, and her smile looked like a forced smile made by digging a hole in paper.
Zhang Wubing wondered in his heart: Is the air conditioner in the car turned up too high?
…
The driver's phone rang.
"Yan, brother."
Perhaps the heavy rain interfered with the signal. The voice of Zhang Wubing coming from the mobile phone sounded hollow and distorted, with a hissing noise.
"I have contacted the logistics vehicle. They just took the wrong road due to poor signal. The road condition is bad now. They should wait here and come back to meet us tomorrow. It's raining too hard and the road is narrow here. It's hard to go back. So I'll stay in a nearby village. We'll meet up tomorrow."
Yan Shixun also knew that although Zhang Wubing was timid and cowardly, it was precisely because of this that he paid special attention to safety issues. After realizing the danger of driving at night in heavy rain, it was not difficult to understand why Zhang Wubing chose to stay nearby and wait until dawn before setting off.
So after asking about the situation on Zhang Wubing's side, Yan Shixun nodded in agreement.
"I'll have to ask you all to stay in a nearby village tonight." Yan Shixun turned around and said to the waiting guests, "There are so many of us, we can't risk traveling at night, let's wait until the rain stops."
At this time, the car that was initially mistaken for the director's car also drove over from the opposite direction. Through the rain, it could be seen that it was a small van commonly seen in villages and towns.
After seeing the guest car parked on the side of the road, that car also stopped. Two men got out and trotted over.
“Boom boom boom!”
They knocked on the car door and shouted, "Is your car broken down? Do you need help?"
The actress in the car screamed and shrank back in fear.
When a stranger knocks on the door on a rainy night, who knows whether the person on the other end is a good person or a bad person? It makes people feel uneasy and a little scared.
After seeing that the people in the car didn't react, the two men seemed to realize that what they did would indeed scare people, so they said embarrassedly: "Don't worry! We are not robbers! We are from a nearby village. When we saw you parked on the side of the road, we thought your car was broken, so we wanted to come and see if you needed help. After all, it's raining, and if we see other cars on the road in trouble, we will help us if we can. We don't know how to do other things, but we do hard labor all year round, and we can still help with car repairs."
The car door opened a little, and before the two men could react, Yan Shixun's thin and strong body quickly got out of the car, and then the car door immediately closed behind him.
Yan Shixun opened the black umbrella in his hand and looked at the two people calmly with an inquiring gaze, which made them feel creepy.
After a while, he gave a polite fake smile and asked, "Ask around, is there any farm stay or B&B nearby? Or do you know of anyone in the village with an extra room? It's raining so hard, we need to stay for one night."
The two looked at each other, scratched their heads and thought for a while before they tentatively said, "Actually, we saw that the rain was too heavy to stop and we couldn't go back to the village, so we planned to stay nearby. If you don't mind, would you like to come with us?"
One of them pointed to the path next to them and said, "There is a mountain temple over there. There is also a Taoist priest who lives there all year round. It is kept very clean and there are rooms for passers-by to rest. We plan to sleep there for one night. If you think it's okay, come with us. Otherwise, it will take more than an hour to get to the nearest village. If it rains, you dare not drive fast, so it may take even longer."
There is a mountain god temple managed by a special person, it seems that there must be a mountain god here.
The mountain god is a righteous god who manages the mountains, rivers and lakes. The people, livestock, plants and fertile land in the nearby mountains and forests are all protected by the mountain god. He also drives away ghosts and guards spirits.
Since it is a mountain temple, there should be no problem.
Yan Shixun thought about it for a while before he nodded, his tone slightly softened: "Then please help lead the way."
The two answered readily, and the guest car followed behind their minivan, and in less than ten minutes they arrived at the mountain temple they mentioned.
Seeing the warm yellow light coming from the mountain temple from afar, the guests, who had been nervous, breathed a sigh of relief. Before the car came to a complete stop, fatigue spread through their limbs after their nerves relaxed. Their hands and feet felt weak and they were as tired as if they had run a marathon.
They just wanted to wash up, change into clean clothes, and then go to bed to have a good night's sleep. So the guests looked at the mountain temple more eagerly, eager to get off the bus.
The sound of the car stopping in front of the gate seemed to alarm the people in the mountain temple.
A row of lights lit up, making the mountain temple, which was already warmly lit, look extra bright, giving people a sense of peace on the rainy night.
A middle-aged man in a tattered Taoist robe walked out with a hunched back and opened the door of the mountain temple.
"Master Dao, the rain is too heavy. Let's stay here for one night."
The two men parked the car and quickly ran to the eaves of the temple gate to shelter from the rain.
They pointed at the guests who were getting off the bus one after another and said to the middle-aged man, "We met these people on the road. They also want to stay overnight. Taoist priest, are there enough rooms?"
Yan Shixun, who got out of the car first, looked at the middle-aged man calmly and carefully when he looked at him, scanning him from head to toe without a trace of emotion.
Generally, people who practice Taoism appear younger and more energetic than their peers because they can understand the nature of Taoism.
However, the middle-aged man was just the opposite. Not only was his body hunched over like an old tree, but his face was also covered with wrinkles like tree bark.
His hair was not combed neatly like the other Taoists Yan Shixun had seen. It was not the common Tai Chi or Hunyuan hair, but a messy hairstyle that Yan Shixun had never seen before.
In contrast to his not-so-good appearance, the middle-aged man gave a cheerful answer: "Don't worry, there's enough room. Come in, everyone. I just boiled a pot of water, so you can take a hot bath to get rid of the cold."
The two men smiled and went in first. The actress and other guests didn't think too much and hurried over with umbrellas. The female guest who didn't want to get her makeup ruined by the rain didn't even look at the middle-aged man. She asked where the room was and rushed over immediately.
Only Annan, Yuan Baishuang and others stood there looking at Yan Shixun, waiting for him to speak.
The last person to get off the car was the assistant director.
The tall man stood beside the car body, blending into the shadow cast by the car body. Even at night, the brim of his baseball cap was still pulled down very low, and he stared at Yan Shixun quietly without leaving any trace.
"What's wrong?" The middle-aged man saw that the people here had been silent for a long time, and couldn't help but smile and said, "Don't worry, the conditions in our mountain temple are pretty good. You seem to be from the city, right? Many people stay here during our temple fair every year, and there are many offerings, so the rooms are well repaired. At least you can stay for one night."
"Otherwise, there is no hotel in the village, and it would be hard for you to find a place to stay besides this."
The middle-aged man spoke frankly and cheerfully, and there seemed nothing unusual about him.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, with the potential for a rainstorm. The umbrellas held by everyone were no longer useful, and the rain was soaking up to their shoulders.
The rain curtain cut off all connections with the outside world and made the road blurred, as if the mountain and the temple were an independent little world and it was impossible to leave this space.
Yan Shixun observed for a long time before he turned his gaze away from the entire mountain temple and nodded to the middle-aged man: "Thank you for bothering me."
As Yan Shixun took a step forward, An Nanyuan and others followed him in.
The driver originally wanted to sleep in the car and watch it, but the middle-aged man smiled and invited him in, saying that it was more comfortable to take a shower and sleep in the quilt on a rainy day, otherwise it would be troublesome to catch a cold.
The driver, who was about to refuse, hesitated for a moment after what the middle-aged man said, but still couldn't resist the laziness rising in his body, so he agreed with a smile and prepared to take a hot bath before returning to the car.
Only the assistant director stopped his long legs when he was about to step over the threshold of the mountain temple.
He turned his head slightly and looked at the couplet posted outside the gate, his cold and emotionless eyes frozen.
The red couplet paper has faded and been damaged severely, and only a few remaining words can be vaguely seen on it.
...haunted for...
It is a common couplet. The whole sentence should be, appearing and disappearing mysteriously to ward off disasters.
Missing God.
Does not eliminate disasters.
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