The moonlight dragged the stars and opened the curtain of the night. The stars dotted the dark sky, and the stars and the moon accompanied each other.
The air conditioner in the room was turned on a bit high. The cold air blew away the moisture from the bathroom and also took away the warmth from Shi Jin's body.
He pulled his robe closer and turned down the air conditioner.
Perhaps because he was in an unfamiliar place, Shi Jin was a little reluctant to leave his bed.
After turning over for the sixty-third time, he sat up.
Rubbing his sore brows, Shi Jin lifted the quilt.
The hour hand of the wall clock pointed to 12, and the cuckoo hidden at the bottom of the clock popped out, ringing the bell to remind people of the arrival of late night.
Shi Jin pulled her nightgown together and opened the curtains.
There is a light-colored round table on the balcony, and a lounge chair next to the table.
Looking from the balcony, you can just see a crescent moon hanging in the dark night sky.
Shi Jin sat down on the recliner beside the table, his eyes casually cast to his side.
The balcony is not big and there is nothing else on it except a table and a chair.
But the owner of the house obviously also paid attention to the decoration of the balcony. He placed a small white vase on the table with a few light-colored double flowers in it.
Shi Jin did not turn on the lights, and the balcony was covered only by hazy moonlight, like a dream filled with mist, dim and cold.
Unconsciously, Shi Jin recalled what Shi Yi said tonight.
He said: Shi Jin, you are not unaccustomed to it, you are afraid.
...Are you scared?
Shi Jin didn’t know.
Years of habit have made him forget his original ideas. He has adapted to his current life, is unwilling to change, and is also... afraid of change.
Maybe Shi Yi is right.
The hot water in his hands gradually lost its temperature. Shi Jin retracted his fingertips and stood up.
"squeak--"
I heard the sliding door being opened from the balcony behind me.
Shi Jin paused slightly.
In fact, he shouldn't have stopped.
Behind me is a small balcony, and the only source of sound is another villa across the alley.
but......
Shi Jin pursed her lips and turned around.
The wind rises, the clouds move, the night erases the sharp outlines of the trees, and the stars and the moon are like hooks, dotted with prosperous stars, as bright as the Milky Way.
But none of them is as good as the person opposite.
The stars are bright, the moon is shining, but none of them can compare to you.
pity--
"Brother Shi?"
It's a pity that he has a mouth.
Shi Jin silently completed the second half of the sentence in his heart.
The hot water in his hand had completely cooled down. Shi Jin put the cup down and looked at Yu Ci: "What a coincidence."
"It's a coincidence indeed." Yu Ci raised his eyebrows, and the surprise in his eyes was quickly suppressed, and a lingering smile appeared instead: "It seems that we have some fate to meet here."
Shi Jin pursed his lips and explained, "The publishing house is having a team building, I came along."
Yu Ci was amused by his eagerness to explain: "I didn't ask you to follow me, what are you afraid of?"
He pulled open the lounge chair on the balcony, then disliked the fact that it was not clean, so he sent it back casually: "Does your publishing house have team building?"
"Yes." Shi Jin nodded: "Once a quarter."
Yu Ci asked casually, "Why didn't I see you participate before?"
Shi Jin was silent.
Yu Ci raised his eyebrows when he saw this: "What?"
Shi Jin raised his eyes to look at him: "The last team building was in May."
He moved in and started living with Yu Ci in June.
The implication is.
The two didn't even know each other at that time, so how could Yu Ci know whether he went or not.
Yu Ci obviously remembered this incident. He touched his nose and awkwardly changed the subject: "Where are you going tomorrow?"
Shi Jin: "Where are you going?"
"Team building." Yu Ci leaned forward, his hands casually resting on the railing: "There has to be a schedule for tomorrow, right?"
If nothing unexpected happens...
"Qiu Lu Mountain." Shi Jin said.
Chen Yuan’s words today have been bothering him. If it weren’t for the late time he left, he might have gone straight up the mountain tonight.
Yu Ci raised his eyebrows slightly: "Qiu Lu Mountain?"
If he remembered correctly, the itinerary Xu Qian told him about this afternoon was to go to Qiulu Mountain tomorrow?
"Yeah." Shi Jin responded: "What about you?"
His fingertips tapped the cold handrail, Yu Ci's lips curled slightly, and a smile appeared in his eyes: "What a coincidence."
"I'm going to Qiulu Mountain too."
——
City B is a famous tourist city with countless attractions, and Qiulu Mountain is just one of them.
Compared to other tourist attractions that integrate local customs, Qiulu Mountain is just an ordinary mountain. Apart from the fact that the mountain is greener and the air is fresher, there seems to be nothing special about it.
Therefore, most people who come to City B for sightseeing will not choose to go to Qiulu Mountain.
Except for Shi Jin.
After informing Shi Yi and others of his destination the next day, Shi Jin carried his backpack and got on the bus to Qiulu Mountain.
In order to arrive as early as possible, Shi Jin set out very early, almost leaving the house at dawn.
So he didn't know that after he left, some unlucky guy who thought he had made an appointment with him last night turned out to be disappointed and had such a stinky face that it could scare people to death.
Qiulu Mountain is located far away from the city.
Shi Jin sat on a shaky bus, bumping along for two hours before he heard the three words "Qiu Lushan" from the horn on the bus.
He picked up his backpack and found that there were five other people getting off at this stop besides him.
They were a family of three and two middle-aged men, one tall and one short. When he looked over, the two men avoided his sight one after another.
The bus started again, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Shi Jin released the hand that was covering his nose, and his eyes calmly swept over the two men and fell on the gate of Qiulu Mountain.
Qiulu Mountain is not a paid tourist attraction and you can enter and exit freely.
It is called a mountain gate, but actually it is not. There is just a big stone next to the stairs with three big characters "Qiu Lu Mountain" engraved on it.
Qiulu Mountain is high and densely covered with trees, and there is only rich green as far as the eye can see.
Occasionally, a few birds flew over the treetops in the woods, and then disappeared behind the cable car hidden in the woods.
Shi Jin frowned, looked at the series of stairs in front of him that seemed to have no end, and raised his foot.
He didn't walk fast, so he could only hear the conversation of the people who had just got off the bus with him.
The family of three came to the Qiulu Temple on the top of the mountain. The husband heard from somewhere that Qiulu Temple was very effective in protecting the family's safety, so he took advantage of his vacation to bring his wife and daughter here to pray for safety and have some fun.
The other two middle-aged men didn't say a word and climbed the mountain in silence, as if they came here just for exercise.
Qiulu Mountain was indeed sparsely populated by tourists. Along the way, they didn't meet any tourists other than them.
In the empty forest, it was so quiet that only the sound of a few people's footsteps could be heard.
Shi Jin frowned, feeling that he seemed to have overlooked something.
"It's so hot, I don't want to leave."
The daughter of the family of three behind her spoke.
The wife is a gentle and patient woman. When faced with her daughter’s somewhat broken mood, she just gently wiped the sweat off her face and coaxed her to overcome the difficulties.
The husband was a little more stern, his voice was serious, but he was also trying to persuade his daughter.
My daughter was a little aggrieved: "There is a cable car, why do we have to climb up by ourselves?"
Shi Jin didn't hear what his wife said next.
He finally knew what he had overlooked.
Cable car!
He turned around abruptly, and as far as he could see, apart from the family of three, the two men who had been following behind were gone.
He frowned slightly and quickly searched the mountains and forests, but found nothing.
The family of three was startled by his action. The wife patted her chest and took a breath: "Hey, little brother, do you need any help?"
"It's okay." Shi Jin pursed his lips and suddenly asked, "Excuse me, do you know how to take the cable car here?"
"The cable car at Qiulu Mountain is not open to tourists." This time it was the husband who spoke: "The cable car is used to transport supplies to Qiulu Temple on the mountain. Generally, only staff can ride it."
Is that so?
Perhaps the two men just now were staff members of Qiulushan.
They were indeed carrying backpacks just now.
Facing the worried gazes of the family of three, he relaxed his brows and said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome." The wife smiled and said, holding her daughter's hand: "Baby, have you rested enough? Let's continue climbing."
The girl with pigtails nodded.
So the family of three continued to climb.
Shi Jin frowned, took two steps behind, and followed not far behind her husband.
The husband glanced at him, slowed down his pace and started a conversation with him: "Young man, aren't you from here?"
"No." Shi Jin shook his head: "I'm here to travel."
The husband looked at him in surprise.
Shi Jin caught his gaze: "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." The husband shook his head. "I just feel a little surprised. Most tourists who come to City B will not come to Qiulu Mountain. Although Qiulu Mountain is famous, there are actually never many tourists. Basically, it is just local people who come here to play."
"Yes." The wife continued her husband's words: "In fact, there were quite a lot of people coming to Qiulu Mountain before, but after Qiulu Temple was moved to the mountain, fewer people came."
With the establishment of Qiulu Temple, fewer people come here?
This doesn't seem to make sense.
The husband saw his confusion and said with a smile: "You are not a local, so you may not know much about the customs here. The customs here are a bit special. Only temples are accepted here, not temples, so..."
Shi Jin understood.
Translated into plain language, it means that only monks are accepted, not nuns.
but......
Shi Jin looked at her husband.
The husband spoke before him: "We are not locals, we just settled here, and we don't care about these customs."
His wife also nodded: "It doesn't matter whether she is a nun or a monk, we just want peace of mind."
After getting the information he wanted, Shi Jin accompanied the family of three for a while. When they stopped to rest, he said goodbye to them and went up the mountain first.
When they were near the top of the mountain, Shi Jin finally saw people other than them.
His eyes swept over the people in front of him, then dropped again.
There were four people in total, three men and one woman, all of them were quite old, and the youngest looked to be around 35 or 36 years old.
Hearing the noise behind them, those people turned around and then looked at each other.
Shi Jin pretended not to see their gaze and continued to climb the mountain quietly.
The four people stood there for a while and then followed him up.
"It's so hot. I should have known not to come here. It would be much better to go to the underground river."
"Now that we're here, stop complaining. We're almost there, let's go up and rest."
"What kind of crappy guide did you find? It said Qiulu Mountain has beautiful scenery, but I didn't see any color other than green the whole way up."