Chapter 36 "Young clan leader, there's a woman, beautiful..."
The mountains stretch endlessly, and the weather is extremely hot.
Cheng Ying carried her mailbag and followed Da Huang, walking on a narrow road on a mountain over 800 meters high in the Ayi Mountains.
The mountaintop is very steep on both sides, with few trees and only a mountain path about one meter wide. The path is overgrown with weeds, and the mountain wind blows constantly. Without the shelter of trees, a person who is thin or weak can easily be blown down the mountain.
However, it is summer now, and the wind on the mountaintop is not as strong or cold as in autumn and winter. It is not blowing all the time, so Cheng Ying can fully accept this mountain wind. She does not feel tired when walking. The wind on the mountaintop also blows away the hot air, making it very cool to walk.
Having walked this mountain path for many years, Dahuang had become accustomed to the wind at the summit. It was shorter than Cheng Ying, and the weeds on both sides of the path were more than half a person's leg tall, which could block a lot of the mountain wind. Dahuang had little resistance and ran very fast.
The two walked for about an hour and a half on the straight, occasionally winding mountaintop. Dahuang stopped beside a small pine tree less than a meter tall, turned around and looked at Cheng Ying, barking once.
The two had been walking for a long time, and occasionally they would see a few small trees growing on the cliff below the road. There were no trees like these growing by the roadside; the roadside was full of weeds.
Cheng Ying stopped and looked at the tree carefully. She noticed that the grass next to the tree had been trampled on, and there was dry, cracked yellow soil stuck to the leaves on the grass, all leaning towards the cliff on the right.
Cheng Ying suddenly realized: "Dahuang, this tree is where my dad used to rest, and it's also where Cheng Chunfu pushed him off the cliff?"
"Woof!"
Yes, human, you are so clever!
When Dahuang recalled the scene of that bad man pushing his owner down the mountain, it couldn't help but bare its teeth and let out a low, threatening growl, as if it wanted to bite the bad man in its imagination to death.
It probably didn't realize at the time that the young man who followed his master to deliver mail would push his master off a cliff.
The moment it saw its owner fall down the mountain, it panicked and wanted to jump down after it to save its owner.
However, it was very clever and knew that it would surely die if it jumped down. So it hurriedly took a long detour down the mountain to find Cheng Jiantong. Only afterward did it remember the bad guy and wanted to bite him to death. Cheng Jiantong kept it in the yard of his rented house and asked his colleagues to help feed it. No one opened the door, so it couldn't get out.
Seeing its appearance, Cheng Ying reached out and patted its head. "Don't be angry. The bad guy who pushed my dad down the mountain has been arrested by the police and will be sentenced soon, spending his life in jail. Although my dad is now paralyzed on one side, he's still alive, so you can still come to my house to see it often."
As if it understood her words, Dahuang stopped growling and stuck out its tongue to lick Cheng Ying's palm, showing affection and indicating that it was thirsty.
The two walked for most of the day, and not only was it thirsty, but Cheng Ying was also thirsty.
Cheng Jiantong's choice of this place as a temporary resting spot was clearly reasonable.
Cheng Ying put down the shrunken mailbag containing only a letter and a small parcel, sat down by the small pine tree, took out the water bottle from her shoulder bag, gave half of the water to Da Huang, drank the rest herself, and then took out two dry biscuits, one for each of them.
After eating and drinking, and resting for a while, the man and the dog continued on their way.
Cheng Jiantong had told Cheng Ying that after passing the resting place on the mountaintop, it would take about an hour to reach the location of Pucang Village.
Pucang Village is located in a valley at the foot of Ayi Mountain. To reach Pucang Village, you must carefully descend from the top of Ayi Mountain, as the mountain is high and the road is steep. If you are not careful while climbing down, you can easily fall down the mountain.
Of course, in order to facilitate the travel of the people of Pucang Village, the government built a rugged road that can be driven across Jinzi Mountain, which is half the height of Ayi Mountain.
But that road was a winding mountain road, mostly built on steep mountainsides, and the route was too long. Cars were rare in those days, and ordinary people couldn't afford them or drive them. So there were hardly any cars or people on that road, and it eventually fell into disuse.
Cheng Jiantong didn't have time to take that road. For many years, he always chose to take the mountain path that the people of Pucang Village often took.
Fortunately, Pucang Village doesn't receive letters and packages every month. The packages Cheng Jiantong delivers are usually not very big or heavy, mostly small items. By the time they reach Pucang Village, there are usually only a couple of letters or small items left. The mailbags are empty and not heavy to carry, so carrying them up and down the mountain is no problem for him.
The mountain climate is unpredictable, especially in the location of Pucang Village, which is surrounded by endless mountains and dense forests. After walking for about half an hour, the weather, which was originally sunny with blue skies and white clouds, and where you could clearly see the green forests of the distant mountains from the top of the mountain, suddenly changed. The sky darkened and the wind on the mountaintop became very strong, almost making her lose her balance.
"Oh no, it's going to rain!" Cheng Ying sensed something was wrong, steadied herself, and sped up.
Big Yellow also sensed something was wrong, turned around and barked twice at her, signaling her to speed up, and led the way forward.
In the back pocket of Cheng Ying's mailbag was a military green cardigan raincoat issued by the post office. When it rained, she could wear the large raincoat to protect the mailbag and find a safe place to take shelter from the rain.
But now she was on the mountaintop with nowhere to take shelter from the rain. In addition, the wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the temperature on the mountaintop dropped sharply. The weeds on both sides of the mountain path were being violently blown by the strong wind, and every now and then dry weeds and soil were blown into the air, almost getting into Cheng Ying's eyes and making it hard for her to open them.
She quickly put on her raincoat, put the mailbag under it, and focused on getting down the mountain.
A man and a dog ran wildly on the mountaintop. In the distance, dark clouds gathered thicker and thicker, with faint lightning flashing within them. Not long after, a series of muffled thunderclaps resounded.
Big Yellow barked, startled by the thunder, its limbs trembling reflexively. It paused for a second before continuing to run forward.
Animals like cats and dogs are extremely sensitive to sound. Their hearing is so acute that they can hear even the slightest noise, while loud noises can frighten them into a state of anxiety.
Many cats and dogs are more afraid than people when they hear loud thunder during thunderstorms, and will reflexively seek a safe place to hide.
Dahuang is a mongrel. No matter how smart and capable it is, it is still afraid of loud thunderous sounds because of its sensitive hearing.
It ran very fast, and Cheng Ying was not slow either. Cheng Ying was a female soldier who excelled in physical fitness and combat training in the army. In the past, when she was in the army, she would experience several times a week when the company commander or regimental commander would suddenly blow the whistle in the middle of the night for marching training. She would carry heavy marching packs and run dozens of kilometers of weighted training.
For her, navigating mountainous terrain like this, carrying a nearly empty mailbag, was child's play.
What would normally be a half-hour journey was reduced by more than half the time thanks to the frantic running of the man and dog.
Soon, Big Yellow stopped next to a large clump of grass and lay down beside it, panting heavily.
Cheng Ying also stopped, rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath, and asked Da Huang, "Have we arrived yet?"
Big Yellow stepped on the clump of grass, scratching at it with its paws, as if to say, "Yes, we've arrived."
Cheng Ying walked to the spot where the grass was, stood by the grass and looked down. At the bottom of the steep, slightly sloping cliff, there was a stone staircase, each less than ten centimeters long and wide, winding down to a place that could not be seen from below.
Those stone steps, each about half a meter apart, were carved out piece by piece by the Miao people of Pucang Village before the founding of the People's Republic of China, using iron tools such as pry bars and hammers, along the rock face of the mountain.
Beside those stone steps hung a very dark iron chain, about as thick as a child's arm, which snaked down the stone steps until it disappeared from sight.
The cliff face at this location is dark red, covered with plants, grasses, and trees that partially obscure the stone steps. Unless you stand in this spot and look down carefully, you won't be able to see the steps.
As you go down, there are more grasses and trees growing, eventually connecting with the dense forests below to form an impenetrable thicket. Standing on the mountaintop, you can't see anything below at all.
Cheng Ying frowned involuntarily as she looked at the steep stone steps and the dark, old, and seemingly unrecoverable iron chain.
One end of the iron chain was hidden in the grass. She had just parted the grass to take a look and found a very hard rock underneath with a round hole carved into the middle. The iron chain passed through the hole, and the joint was made of molten iron, forming a closed iron buckle. The grass next to the clump was overgrown with weeds, completely concealing the thick iron chain. If someone passed by here, they wouldn't be able to see the chain unless they were looking carefully.
The people of Pucang Village are indeed mysterious. They even made the old entrance to their village so secretive. No wonder no outsiders had ever entered Pucang Village before the founding of the People's Republic of China.
After completing her basic training in the army, Cheng Ying was noticed by her superiors and joined the women's special training team because of her outstanding training. In the years that followed, she went through all kinds of dangerous terrains and trained in those places.
Faced with such a seemingly dangerous situation, relying solely on an iron chain swaying in the wind to descend from a mountaintop 800 meters high, an ordinary person with a fear of heights would probably be so frightened that their legs would go weak and they would be unwilling to go down. However, Cheng Ying was eager to give it a try.
She first tied the rope around Big Yellow's neck to her own waist, then slung the mailbag and other items over her shoulder. She reached out and pulled on the iron chain, testing its strength to make sure it wouldn't break. With both hands on the chain, she turned her back to the air, facing the cliff, and tentatively stepped down a stone step, calling to Big Yellow to follow her down the mountain.
When Dahuang was a puppy, Cheng Jiantong would tie it to his back and carry it down the mountain together. As it grew up and became bolder, he trained it to follow him down the mountain.
The path down the mountain was not straight and steep, but rather sloped downhill. The slope became steeper as you went down, and there were trees on both sides of the path to block the view. In addition, the rope around Da Huang's neck was tied to Cheng Jiantong, so if Da Huang slipped, the rope could hold it and prevent it from falling down the mountain. Therefore, Da Huang had become accustomed to walking on such stone steps and followed Cheng Ying down the mountain without showing any fear.
Cheng Ying descended very quickly, not stepping on the stone steps, but pulling herself down the iron chain. She paused every few meters to avoid sliding too fast, losing her grip on the chain, and falling off the mountain.
The sky grew increasingly dark; in the middle of the day, it was almost as dark as the bottom of a pot, visibility decreased, and lightning flashed more and more frequently, indicating that a downpour was imminent.
Cheng Ying was still on Mount Ayi, which was 600 to 700 meters high. There was nowhere to take shelter from the rain, and she was at risk of being struck by lightning. She had to slide down quickly.
Big Yellow couldn't keep up with her speed, and several times she pulled him so that his limbs were dangling in the air, hanging straight on the rope.
It remained silent, or rather, Cheng Ying didn't hear its low whimpering amidst the deafening thunder.
After descending nearly a hundred meters, Cheng Yingcai realized that her descent speed was too fast and Da Huang couldn't keep up. She quickly pulled on the iron chain, braced her feet on a stone step, and stabilized herself. With one hand, veins bulging, she held the iron chain and with the other hand, she lifted Da Huang and placed it in the narrow space where her feet were. Using the strength of her leg muscles from years of training, she clamped Da Huang's body between her legs, released her grip, and continued to slide down quickly.
The feeling of weightlessness made Da Huang whimper and struggle a little.
Amidst the thunder, Cheng Ying shouted, "Dahuang, don't move! If you move, I won't hold the chain tight enough, and we'll both fall down the mountain. I'm carrying you down the mountain as quickly as possible."
Whether or not Dahuang understood her words, it quickly quieted down and obediently became her leg ornament.
The path down the mountain was difficult to walk. The strong wind kept blowing the iron chain and Cheng Ying, making it hard for her to keep her balance. She kept swaying along the iron chain near the stone steps, and every now and then she would crash into the hard rocks. She was scratched by the branches and leaves of the cliff plants and trees growing on both sides of the stone steps, which made her wince in pain.
Cheng Ying exerted all her strength to try to stabilize her body and avoid hitting the rocks. As her vision darkened, her descent slowed down.
It was too dark for her to slide down as quickly as before, as she could easily be blown down by the strong mountain winds. She had to proceed steadily, stepping on the stone steps and trying to keep her body still as she went down.
Just as she was about to let go of Dahuang and step onto the stone steps on the cliff, a loud "boom" resounded, and a deafening thunderclap exploded in the sky. After a blinding flash of lightning, a torrential downpour followed.
The dark clouds that had been gathering for almost twenty minutes poured down from the horizon, and the mountains and forests were filled with the sound of heavy rain, like flowing water, washing over the branches and leaves of the trees.
Fortunately, Cheng Ying had put on a raincoat beforehand, so she didn't get soaked. However, the rain was so heavy that the hood of her one-piece raincoat was quickly blown askew, and the downpour soaked her head so much that she couldn't open her eyes.
Amidst the roaring rain, she shouted, "Big Yellow, can you see?"
"Woof!" Big Yellow barked, its raincoat no longer providing cover.
It's so dark, the rain is so heavy, and the dog can't see anything!
A man and a dog remained halfway up the mountain. Lightning struck the rocks and trees near them intermittently, and thunder roared and gathered at the top of the mountain. If this continued, they would be struck by lightning sooner or later.
Cheng Ying gritted her teeth, clamped her legs around Da Huang's body again, and decided to take a gamble. She took a deep breath, resisted the urge to wear gloves, and quickly slid down the chain. Her palms rubbed against the chain, causing her skin to chafe and feel a stinging and burning sensation. She continued to clamp her legs around Da Huang and slid down quickly.
She didn't know how long she slid down, but the blood on Cheng Ying's hands from the friction of the chains was increasing. Just as she couldn't help but let out a muffled groan in pain, a blinding bolt of lightning suddenly ripped through the sky and struck the rock less than half a meter away from Cheng Ying. The strike produced some sparks, which frightened Da Huang into howling and struggling.
No matter how Cheng Ying tried to soothe Da Huang, it was no use. Da Huang struggled more and more violently. Cheng Ying had to use all her strength to keep her body steady in the wind and rain, hold on to the iron chain, and squeeze the struggling Da Huang with her legs to continue sliding down.
Gradually, Cheng Ying felt her strength being exhausted and her body becoming weaker and weaker. In Da Huang's struggle again, she was unable to hold Da Huang's body with her legs, and Da Huang, weighing nearly 60 pounds, fell straight down.
The other end of the rope around the big yellow dog's neck was tied around Cheng Ying's waist. As it fell down, it pulled her down with it.
Cheng Ying exhausted her strength and could no longer hold onto the iron chain. Her hand slipped, and she fell down the mountain with Da Huang.
The sudden feeling of weightlessness left Cheng Ying momentarily blank, but she quickly regained her senses and calmly calculated how far she had descended the mountain path.
When she calculated that she was only two hundred meters away from the bottom of the mountain, she gritted her teeth and stretched out her hand, trying to grab onto anything she could to slow down her and Da Huang's descent.
Finally, after descending nearly a hundred meters, he managed to grab a cypress branch growing on the cliff face with his right hand, and temporarily stabilized himself after the branch shook violently.
Big Yellow was hanging stiffly on a rope five meters below her waist, constantly letting out frightened howls.
The branch Cheng Ying was holding was no bigger than two fingers. The trunk was small and the tree was not very old. The branch Cheng Ying was holding was bent very badly and was in danger of breaking at any moment.
The location she and Da Huang were at was far from the stone steps and iron chains leading down the mountain. She was exhausted and unable to climb the steep rocks back to the stone steps. She could only rely on the blinding flashes of lightning that occasionally ripped through the sky to look down at the situation below.
Rain and white mist swirled around the foot of the mountain, obscuring the view of its bottom. The area below was covered by forests, with tall branches and leaves layered upon each other, obscuring the landscape below and preventing any glimpse of the scenery.
Cheng Ying looked around for a while but couldn't find a good place to settle down. Instead, she noticed that there seemed to be some colorful things moving among the treetops in the woods.
She frowned and looked down carefully in the flashes of lightning on the horizon. Suddenly, she noticed that the colorful things looked like different kinds of snakes and spiders, as well as many insects, crawling along the cliff face toward where she was.
She was startled, wondering if she was seeing things. With difficulty, she stretched out her left hand, which hadn't been holding onto the branch, wiped the rain from her eyes, and continued looking down.
You wouldn't believe it until you see it; the colorful snakes and spiders, along with many other insects she couldn't name, were already less than ten meters away from the cliff face. Their speed was astonishing.
Big Yellow seemed to have seen those things too, sensed the danger, and kept barking and struggling, which caused the already precarious tree branch, which was on the verge of breaking at any moment, to suddenly emit a crisp snapping sound.
"Ah—!" Cheng Ying's mind went blank, and she couldn't help but let out a scream as she and Da Huang fell down the mountain.
Fortunately, tree branches continuously acted as a buffer during the fall, cushioning the impact of the descent.
The foot of the mountain was covered with various vegetation. The dense forest had been left uncut and cleared for many years. A thick layer of fallen leaves mixed with soil and dry branches had accumulated under the trees. Cheng Ying was not far from the foot of the mountain. If she and Da Huang fell down, they would not die instantly, nor would they be smashed into pieces.
Even so, the moment she landed, Cheng Ying felt as if her bones were about to shatter. The intense pain from her body and brain hitting the ground caused her head to go black, her ears to ring, and her consciousness to gradually fade.
However, she did not faint. She lay in the pile of decaying leaves, feeling the large raindrops pelting her face, so painful that she could not make a sound.
The rain kept lashing her face, and she couldn't open her eyes. She could only hear Big Yellow howling softly nearby, its voice weak, as if it was also badly injured.
She tried to move, but the excruciating pain prevented her from doing so. She tried to scream for help, but no sound came out. All she could see was a blurry, dark scene of rain.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but just before she was about to faint, her mind was still hazy, and she heard a series of rustling sounds, like many snakes, insects and spiders crawling in the woods.
Her eyelids twitched; such a sound at this time was definitely not a good thing.
Remembering what Cheng Jiantong and Zhuo Zuilan had said about the many poisonous snakes, insects, and spiders in the Pucangzhai Valley, she felt a chill in her heart. Was she going to die here today?
Soon, a colorful blur appeared in her vision, and it seemed that a spider bigger than her palm had crawled onto her face, while she heard a hissing sound of a snake flicking its tongue.
Cheng Ying was horrified. She had thought about many ways she could die in her life, such as dying of old age or illness, but she never imagined that she would be bitten to death by snakes, spiders, and insects.
The crucial point is that she is still conscious, but her body is completely immobile. She can only watch helplessly as those colorful, seemingly venomous snakes, insects, and spiders crawl around her, trying to bite her to death.
What terrible sins did she commit to deserve such a horrific death, comparable to being slowly sliced to death?
Cheng Ying closed her eyes in despair, feeling only sorry for Da Huang. It was her first time delivering mail, and Da Huang had an accident with her, falling down the mountain and being bitten to death by these poisonous insects and snakes.
If her mother saw her and Da Huang's remains, I wonder how heartbroken she would be.
In her dazed state, she wasn't sure if the spider and snake had bitten her. She seemed to hear a series of footsteps, followed by an excited young man's voice shouting, "Young clan leader, there's a woman, a beautiful woman!"
"A woman?" A deep, pleasant male voice rang out. "Take her back and make her your bandit queen."
Cheng Ying heard these two sentences clearly and felt that their voices and intonations were particularly strange, as if someone was speaking broken Mandarin, which made her feel awkward.
She wanted to ask who the two people were, whether they were Miao people from Pucang Village, but her stubborn struggle for a long time seemed to relax as if she had received a suggestion after hearing someone's voice, and gradually became blurred.
In the end, she didn't get to ask any questions before she fainted.
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