Under the rain curtain, a middle-aged man hugged his son, his face showing the joy of having gained and lost.
The cold rain fell, but it couldn't extinguish the vitality in his eyes.
"Xiaoyuan, where have you been this afternoon?"
Back in the lobby, after the brief joy of family reunion, the couple immediately asked questions about their son's whereabouts.
Why can't I find any trace of Xiao Yuan after searching the surrounding area?
Regarding this question, the boy's answer made people laugh and cry: "I ran into a room and sat down, and accidentally fell asleep."
The house he mentioned refers to other courtyards within the farmhouse. Some of these courtyards are occupied by employees, while others are vacant or used to store debris.
That being said, it makes sense. The family who had been coerced by the earring man found out that their son was missing and subconsciously thought that something unexpected had happened.
This caused them to focus on the outside world during the subsequent search. Instead, they were under the dark lights and ignored the courtyard itself inside the farmhouse.
"It's a false alarm, it's a false alarm."
The old man who came back from the kitchen couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief after hearing the whole incident.
Among the people present, only Gao Yi remained silent.
The moment the child appeared, he was ready to take action and directly control the child.
But what happened next was puzzling. Gao Yi quickly used [Mysterious Surprise] to check the other party, but he didn't find any traces related to the mystery on Xiao Yuan.
So Gao Yi chose to stand still for the time being. He wanted to follow up and observe the child's movements.
Because the breakthrough point in this incident may lie with Xiaoyuan.
"Fuck."
At the entrance of the lobby, a curse suddenly sounded. Everyone turned to look and found that the person who came was actually the man with earrings who came into the mountain in the afternoon.
At this time, there was no spot on his body that was not dripping. Just looking at it made him feel extremely embarrassed. He completely lost the frivolous and arrogant demeanor he had when he forced the middle-aged man last night.
"Brother Shan, what's wrong?"
"Yes, didn't you take that man up the mountain? Why didn't he come back?"
The young people immediately gathered around with cheers.
"How does my mother-in-law know?"
The man with the earrings cursed again, and looked around with a guilty conscience, and found that there was no sign of the alpaca weirdo. Then he felt relieved and vomited: "He is like a ghost. As soon as I turned around, he disappeared. Who knows where it went."
"Ah Shan, you're not really going to hit a ghost, are you?"
"Cut the bullshit."
The man with earrings took off his wet coat, hung it outside the door, and called out urgently: "Waiter, waiter, come here and take my order."
"It's really not a place for people to live in this mountain right now. It's cold and hungry."
At this time, the two groups of people sitting on both sides of the lobby finally had their respective troubles come to an end and returned to the calm situation at noon.
Now they just have to wait until tomorrow morning to hike out of the mountain and try to find rescue.
"It's getting late, please let the kitchen cook quickly."
The old man said to the shop owner: "Everyone is trapped, and their mentality is inevitably low. This dinner is our treat."
The shop owner looked at the young man's table.
The old man's face was expressionless, as if asking again: What do you think?
The shop owner looked understanding and walked towards the kitchen.
In early spring, the days are still short and the nights are long, not to mention being in the mountains in the rain. As the time came to 4:30, the outside world turned completely dark.
The rain had no tendency to decrease at all. Along with the strong mountain wind, the cold poured in, making everyone shiver.
It wasn't until the store owner closed the door to the lobby that I felt much better.
"Come on, let's all sit together and stay warm."
The old man greeted Gao Yi and the others, and they gathered together at the table. Then, he slowly pushed a heater over, plugged it in, tried to generate heat, and then nodded with satisfaction.
There are ten people at this table. They were Gao Yi, his cousin, the shop owner and his son, the middle-aged man's family, and three foreign tourists.
Ignoring the noise coming from the other side, the old man smiled at first, as if he were doing his usual thing, and said in a casual tone: "Don't worry, our village will organize manpower to ask for help from the outside world early tomorrow morning."
"Before, before roads were built, we also had communication with the outside world. People like us, the older generation, used to travel over mountains and ridges to go to big counties to exchange things, so they knew the roads very well."
"Nothing to worry about."
Hearing what he said, the sadness on the faces of the other people also softened slightly.
"What I said makes sense, what's there to worry about?"
The foreigner in the peaked hat has a rough appearance and a straightforward temperament. He immediately clapped his hands and echoed: "I think it is fate that I am trapped here with everyone today. How about we introduce ourselves and get to know each other?"
"good."
As soon as these words came out, the other two foreigners, speaking with different accents, also echoed in succession, as if the three of them knew each other in this way.
Without the Internet, idle time is idle, and the other people here naturally have no objection.
"Then let's start with me, my name is..."
Starting from the peaked cap, passing by the other two foreigners, and then to the store owner and his son, one by one began to introduce themselves.
But Gao Yi was indifferent to this. His eyes at this time were completely focused on Xiaoyuan.
The several events that happened today are scattered like fragments. No matter how you piece them together, you can't come up with a tenable idea.
So he could only stare at Xiaoyuan, trying to find some clues from this lost child.
But it's a pity that since the other party came back, he didn't show anything unusual.
This gave Gao Yi a headache.
It's really too difficult... Why can't these ghosts and snake gods just do it? There is nothing here that can threaten its existence.
Why should it go to such trouble to isolate everything first?
Thinking about it from another angle, the subsequent impact of isolating everything is that the people here have no way to escape.
Does this mean that... the other party is temporarily unable to deal with him and others, so he isolates himself from the outside world and waits for certain factors to be completed or lifted?
But this doesn't make sense. Since the other party can destroy the winding mountain road, why can't it deal with humans?
"Ayi?"
The cousin's voice rang in his ears, pulling Gao Yi out of his thoughts. Only then did he realize that his eyes had been on Xiaoyuan for a long time, making the little boy look very awkward.
"I'm sorry, I was thinking about something, so I got a little distracted." Gao Yi admitted generously, without any embarrassment.
Seeing that nothing happened, the middle-aged man cleared his throat and introduced himself: "Zhang Chaoxian, a staff member of Donghai Antique Appraisal Co., Ltd. I originally wanted to bring my family here to try something new before going to work, but I didn't expect to encounter such a thing. "
Having said this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly, his face looking like he was disappointed.
Gao Yi glanced at him and thought his words were interesting. He mentioned the name of his company and his specific situation, but just used the word "personnel" to vaguely explain it.
I'm quite wary.
After a round of introductions, the ten people present were already familiar with each other. Under the enthusiastic guidance of the peaked hat, several people at this table began to become active.
The heater warmed the lobby, and the waiters came with the food. For a moment, the farmhouse seemed to have returned to the leisure time of the past. There was no disconnection of the Internet or road closures, and only the tranquility of the years remained.
The old man even took out his home-brewed rice wine and wanted to give everyone a taste to warm themselves up.
But Gao Yi didn't want any of them to drink alcohol tonight and relax their due vigilance.
"That's right, cousin."
His seemingly unintentional words suddenly echoed across the table.
"Tell me, why didn't those climbers come back?"
The old man's hand that was about to pour the wine stopped.
The entire atmosphere at the table suddenly froze.
