Unlike the multi-layered soles of ordinary shoes, the shoes with this footprint left behind fine lines, somewhat like ripples in water caused by a stone.
Wang Tianxiao recognized these shoes; they were rubber-soled shoes that had recently become popular on the market.
Qingcheng is arid and receives little rain all year round. Even when it snows in winter, the snow is hard to melt, unlike in the south where a little snowflakes often fall in winter but melt before they even reach the ground.
That's why the people of Qingcheng love to wear shoes with multi-layered soles.
This thousand-layer sole, as the name suggests, is made by gluing together many scraps of cloth layer by layer with a paste made from boiled flour (called "ranzi" here), which can be about one centimeter thick.
Then, they began sewing the soles with ropes made of hemp, securing each layer of cloth in place.
The soles made in this way are very sturdy; even nails can't penetrate them. Except for poor waterproofing, they are almost perfect soles in other situations, keeping your feet warm in winter and cool in summer, and breathable without feeling stuffy.
However, making these soles is really inefficient. From cutting the shoe pattern to gluing the sole, drying, and sewing the sole, it often takes a long time to make a pair of shoes.
Moreover, making shoe soles is an extremely arduous task.
Because the soles of the shoes are made of many layers of cloth and glue, once they dry, the soles become very solid, and it is impossible to pass a needle through them. So the women have to use an awl to make a hole, pass a rope through it, make another hole, and then pass the thread through it again.
With this back and forth, you can imagine how long it would take.
During the off-season, there is still some time to make shoes, but once the busy season begins, people are exhausted from working in the fields every day, so they don't have the time or energy to keep making shoes.
It's even more troublesome if there are many children in the family. You finally manage to make a pair of shoes, but they're still growing. The shoes fit their feet perfectly when you make them, but after they're finished, they're too small and pinch their feet, which is quite troublesome.
Because of this situation, with industrial progress, a ready-made rubber sole gradually emerged, which could be easily installed simply by buying it and nailing the upper onto it.
Not only does it greatly reduce the workload of shoemaking, but the rubber sole is also waterproof, which is an advantage that multi-layer soles do not have.
Once this type of sole was introduced, it quickly became popular among the people of Qingcheng. From then on, apart from a few people with special sentiments who continued to make the multi-layered sole, most people began to switch to rubber soles.
At the end of 1984, this type of rubber sole did not become popular in Qingcheng. People who could wear these shoes were usually those who had returned home from working in other places.
Of the three, Mi Xiaoqing happened to be working in another city and only recently returned at the end of the year, so she was wearing a pair of shoes with rubber soles.
Of course, it's not that other people can't wear such shoes, but it's unlikely to be such a coincidence. Based on the current clues, it's basically certain that Mi Xiaoqing has been here in this mountain.
In that case...
Wang Tianxiao stood up and began to observe the surrounding terrain.
The cage was placed on the eastern side of Yangziling, near a not-too-steep slope covered with wild wolfberry bushes. Now that it's winter, the leaves have long since fallen, and the wolfberries on the branches have been eaten clean by various small animals and birds, leaving only bare branches.
They were densely packed, some taller than a person, blocking the steep slope ahead.
Looking ahead, the vine of wild goji berries stretched for at least a hundred meters, almost endless in the moonlight.
The path over the wolfberry branches is a narrow one-meter-wide path, not a proper road. If you don't look carefully, most people wouldn't even notice that there's a path here.
On the other side of the path is a mountain wall. Apart from deer and wild goats, it is not impossible for humans to climb up, but at least one would need some superb skills to scale walls.
Wang Tianxiao continued walking along the path for a while, and to his surprise, he found a snakeskin bag in the wolfberry bushes by the roadside. Inside were several rabbits, still alive for the time being.
Following the trail and parting the wolfberry bushes, he discovered that a small path seemed to have been carved out by human hands, extending downwards through the wolfberry bushes.
this……
He gasped.
He knew that the wild wolfberry grew on the edge of a cliff, behind which was a steep slope, not a 90-degree cliff, but at least 60 or 70 degrees.
It's possible to slowly drift down, but if you suddenly lose your footing, you'll really fall into the valley.
Whenever this happened, Wang Tianxiao was extremely anxious.
As expected, something happened to the three of them.
If there were no problems, they would have already returned, so why haven't they come back yet?
The fact that the little rabbit in the bag was left aside indicates that the situation was very urgent, and there was no time to take it with them, so they had to leave the rabbit where it was.
So, what's the urgent situation?
After a little thought, we can draw a preliminary conclusion.
One or even several of the three fell down the slope for some unknown reason, and the others had no time to react and had to follow.
As a result, the people behind also failed to stop and fell off the cliff along with those in front.
Wang Tianxiao rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. He knew that being anxious or fearful at this moment was meaningless. If something had really happened to them, the sooner they were found, the greater the chance of saving them.
He began smashing the withered wolfberry branches to both sides with the butt of his gun, while also carefully watching his footing, moving forward little by little, not daring to be careless in the slightest.
The hillside was frozen solid and a bit slippery to walk on. The slope was relatively gentle at first, but after walking about ten meters, it suddenly became much steeper, from about 10 or 20 degrees to about 40 or 50 degrees.
He had no choice but to lower his center of gravity and slow down as he continued his exploration.
After another ten meters or so, the withered branches of the goji berries completely disappeared, leaving only a bare hillside and some scattered small trees. Under the moonlight, the hillside seemed to be covered with a layer of silver light.
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