Not long after, a guy waving a small flag squeezed into the crowd, yelled and shouted, and then a bunch of people followed him and rushed in one direction, like a flock of birds suddenly startled in the forest.
Wang Yao finally realized that these people were probably all part of a tour group.
A group of restless old men and women, unwilling to stay at home and contribute their remaining energy, yet unwilling to learn new knowledge or keep up with the times, have spent their time and money traveling and sightseeing when they have nothing to do. These guys are not affected by holidays.
The three of them squeezed towards Jiming Temple, but after walking only about a hundred meters, they could no longer move. There seemed to be several long queues ahead of them. Hui Shuo ran up to ask and found out that they needed to buy a separate ticket to enter Jiming Temple and could only queue up after buying a ticket.
Wang Yao looked around and immediately deflated. Even if he sent Hui Shuo to buy tickets, at this rate, they probably wouldn't get into Jiming Temple until noon. They still needed to take photos. So he and Hua Tuo discussed it and decided to save Jiming Temple for when they got back and go up the mountain first.
The three abandoned Jiming Temple and went to buy cable car tickets to go up the mountain.
"Damn it, didn't we buy tickets? Why does Jiming Temple still charge us money?" Hua Tuo muttered in confusion as he walked.
Wang Yao wasn't quite sure either. The three of them squeezed past a large group of tour groups waiting for their guides, and then walked past an extremely busy restroom. A set of stairs appeared in front of them, hidden among the green trees, with a long queue at the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh! I remember now, there used to be a toilet here. It was originally a thatched shed, but it was later replaced with a brick one. Now... tsk tsk..." Hua Tuo turned his head and looked at the people queuing in front of the toilet, and exclaimed as if he had just woken up from a dream. He had finally found his memory.
After hearing what Hua Tuo said, Wang Yao turned his head to look at the toilet. He saw that the toilet was built in an antique style. At first glance, it looked like it was made of wood, but upon closer inspection, he found that it was actually made of reinforced concrete, just made to look like an antique building.
"Damn it, the road up the mountain is right ahead, but..." Hua Tuo blinked and looked ahead, only to see that the cable car station had closed off the road up the mountain. It seemed that he couldn't go up the mountain without buying a cable car ticket.
Before they came, Hua Tuo kept boasting about how familiar he was with the eighteen temples of Yunling. Originally, Wang Yao and he didn't want to take the bus or the cable car. They only planned to buy a cable car ticket for Hui Shuo. But now it seems that the three of them have to stay together because there is no way to get there.
Wang Yao found the cable car ticket office in the crowd. He saw that there were quite a few people queuing to buy tickets, so he looked around and found that the cable car reached different stations. The cheapest one was called Xiaotiantai, which cost eighty yuan.
The scenic spot they wanted to visit, the Gathering of Immortals, required a cable car ticket costing 100 yuan, and the highest point, the Reclining Buddha Spitting Out the Sun, cost 120 yuan per person. They suddenly felt like giving up, so he quietly called Hua Tuo aside.
"Hey, can you use teleportation...?" Wang Yao pointed to the sky, meaning that if Hua Tuo used teleportation to take them up there, wouldn't that save them several hundred dollars?
“No, no…” Hua Tuo shook his head repeatedly upon hearing this. “There are too many people on the mountain. If I teleport up, I can’t guarantee I won’t bump into someone. If I accidentally push someone off the cliff, that would be a disaster.”
"When you learn to teleport, be careful. It's best to target deserted, uninhabited places. Avoid using it in crowded areas like this, as it's easy to cause an accident."
Since the immortals' wages were low, Hua Tuo guessed that Wang Yao was worried about the money, so he planned to buy the tickets himself. However, Wang Yao felt embarrassed and insisted on buying them himself. Hua Tuo didn't argue and just reminded him to put the bill on the books first and pay for his own tickets later.
Wang Yao hesitated for a moment, then didn't insist any further. He only earned 400 yuan a month, and he hadn't even received it yet. Hua Tuo's salary couldn't possibly be lower than his, so there was no need for him to put on a show. As for Hui Shuo's money...?
Everyone knows it's Hui Shuo's money, not Wang Yao's. How can he be so generous for that fake monk?
They went back to queue and waited for ages before finally buying three cable car tickets. Wang Yao immediately chose the 100-yuan tickets, deciding to deal with the group photo issue first.
After buying the cable car tickets, the three of them went back to queue and moved forward step by step. Because the queue was divided into three directions, the flow of people in line was diverted, which made it a bit faster. However, by the time they got into the cable car, it was almost 10 a.m., and Wang Yao and Hua Tuo were worried that they might be late for the group photo.
Fortunately, Qunxianhuicui is not far from the cable car station, and it didn't take the three of them long to walk there. This place is also called Zhongtiantai, which is a flat area on the top of a mountain, surrounded by a ring of peaks of varying heights and shapes, just like a group of immortals having a round table meeting.
This is also the origin of the name "Gathering of Immortals". The altitude here is high, the mountain breeze is gentle, and the scenery is beautiful on all sides. Tourists come here to take pictures and linger. The platform is decorated with a circle of teacups, and in the middle is a huge teapot, as if it were specially prepared for the immortals to hold a meeting.
Wang Yao glanced at the teapot and burst out laughing. He saw Zhao Ke and a few guys from the Business Department sitting on a wooden frame next to the teapot, staring blankly. Zhao Ke's chubby appearance was surprisingly well-matched with the teapot's plump shape.
Wang Yao hurriedly ran up to greet them. When Zhao Ke and the others saw the three of them, they also forced a smile and exchanged pleasantries with them. Wang Yao wondered why they were the only ones who had arrived. Logically, there should have been several groups from the office that had set off before them.
“They’ve all gone to Yunji Temple. We’ve been there many times before for team building activities, but we don’t want to go again,” Zhao Ke said.
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