Camping Companions

Private aircraft regulations had loosened considerably now. Whether it was filing flight routes or applying before takeoff, the process was relatively simple. Basically, one application for a route remained valid long-term.

For temporary short-distance flights, even without filing, the authorities generally ignored them as long as no one reported them. This was especially true outside cities—as long as one did not make too much of a spectacle, there was usually no problem.

To be honest, those idiots flying homemade drones near airports posed far more serious risks than illegal helicopter flights ever could. The authorities cracked down on illegal drone flights far more aggressively than on private helicopters flying without authorization.

Of course, there were also far more people playing with drones than helicopters.

Qin Luming waved his phone around. The helicopter picked up his location, gradually descended, and hovered above his head before lowering down the equipment he needed by cable.

Sun Yuechi, Qin Xiaotian's secretary, leaned half her body out to greet Qin Luming, then directed the helicopter back.

Qin Luming waved as he watched the helicopter leave. He knew Sun Yuechi; she had probably been with Qin Xiaotian for ten years. She had gone from a beautiful young lady to a full-figured woman. Qin Xiaotian had never married, and Sun Yuechi had never married either... As a young man, Qin Luming could not make sense of the tangled feelings between these middle-aged artsy men and women.

Qin Luming looked toward the distant horizon. The fish-belly-white clouds were gradually losing their last light. In another half hour, there would be no natural light left at all.

Qin Luming first found a powerful flashlight, an LED Lenser X21R. It was affordable, practical, and highly useful, with a maximum output of 3,200 lumens. Qin Luming selected its lowest setting of 200 lumens, which could provide continuous illumination for a day and a half. Unfortunately, he could not find a stand to secure it, so he placed the flashlight on a distant rock to shine this way before beginning to unpack the rest of the equipment.

He had brought two power supplies, each somewhat larger than an ordinary car battery. One was for the laptop, phone, and other devices Qin Luming needed, while the other was specifically for the surveillance equipment.

Qin Luming put up the tent first. There was no rush to install the surveillance equipment; he could do that when he was ready to sleep.

He had no intention of letting Zuozuo and Caicai come out and take turns watching the dam... If they could be relied on for something like that, pigs would turn into beauties.

Although they would definitely be interested in pitching a tent and camping, Qin Luming did not need them causing trouble. He would let them out to keep him company after the tent was set up; otherwise, anything he did would take twice the effort for half the result.

It was already an hour later when Qin Luming finished putting up the tent. It was not one of those luxurious tents meant for tourist resorts, but a relatively simple one. The main thing that took time was driving in the stakes. This was wilderness, after all—he had to guard against some large wild beast suddenly charging over in the middle of the night and sending the tent flying.

He had taken classes in wilderness survival and outdoor safety precautions in high school... Since it had been a private school, courses covering self-rescue and first aid were compulsory, and few parents objected or thought they interfered with proper studies. Qin Luming had checked the surroundings, and this was a reasonably suitable campsite.

There was a good chance he would have to stay here for three days, so Qin Luming took out the entrenching shovel he had specifically requested and dug a small pit around half a meter deep downwind. He laid a thick layer of deodorizing gravel at the bottom, turning it into a urinal, then set up a small screen between the urinal and the tent. It would keep out odors and protect privacy, because he definitely would not be the only one using it.

After digging the urinal, he dug another pit behind a tree, fifty centimeters long, forty centimeters wide, and a little over a meter deep, to serve as a toilet. He swept up a great many leaves to fill the bottom, then sprinkled some deodorizing sand over them. That way, when something heavy and wet fell in, it would sink into the soft leaves, while the surrounding deodorizing sand would shift with the settling and wrap around it.

The deodorizing sand was biodegradable and would not kill the beneficial bacteria capable of breaking down feces.

Having finished all that, Qin Luming looked at the entrenching shovel in his hand with satisfaction. This really was a fine thing... Having an entrenching shovel in the wilderness could greatly improve one's odds of survival. It was an absolute godsend, and in many situations it was far more useful than a Swiss Army knife.

If he wrote a novel called "Traveling Back to 1644 with an Entrenching Shovel," how should it unfold? Qin Luming habitually gave the matter some thought, but then felt a little hungry and prepared to summon Zuozuo and Caicai to make dinner together.

A burst of shouting came from nearby. Qin Luming was slightly surprised. Who would climb to the top of this wilderness mountain so late at night?

When he turned around, a powerful beam shone toward him, landing on his face. It wavered a few times, then fell on his body again, as though someone were sizing him up.

Qin Luming raised a hand to block the light. He could hear men and women talking, but the person holding the flashlight kept the beam trained on him.

Qin Luming was a little annoyed. He turned around, picked up his own flashlight, adjusted its beam focus, then directly raised the brightness from 200 lumens to 3,200 and shone it at the group.

"Fuck!"

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Ow..."

"Oh my God, what happened?"

Qin Luming's flashlight did not boast flashy figures of tens of thousands of lumens, but its focusing effect was superb. It could illuminate targets more than six hundred meters away, and at maximum brightness, looking directly into it at close range could temporarily blind someone.

Qin Luming was never polite to people who recklessly used high beams while driving. Usually, after flashing his headlights, honking, and slowing down to warn them, if they still refused to turn off their high beams, Qin Luming would pull out a powerful flashlight like this one and see who went blind first.

"Bro, turn off your light."

"Handsome, we didn't mean to."

Qin Luming was not a petty person either, so he immediately turned off his flashlight. After all, only one person in their group had been waving a flashlight around.

Seeing Qin Luming turn off his flashlight, the person holding the flashlight shone it over again, swiftly sweeping it across Qin Luming's face before pointing it elsewhere. Even so, someone beside him snatched the flashlight away.

The group came over to greet Qin Luming. They turned out to be members of a local outdoor activity group from City A, who had organized a weekend camping trip. The weather forecast said tomorrow would be sunny, so they planned to camp on the mountaintop tonight, get up in the morning, shoot some short videos, and post them on Douyin. This dam had recently become a popular check-in spot in City A.

Qin Luming searched for check-in videos and photos of this dam in City A. There really were quite a few people dressed in gear and looking highly professional, presenting an image of sunny living, outdoor experiences, enthusiasm, and fulfillment, earning countless comments, reposts, and likes.

Boring.

Qin Luming frowned slightly. If this group ran into Zhou Nan, they would probably disappear without a trace just like Gu Qing'an.