A Narrow Escape from Death

Lan Mu was deep in the old-growth forest. It was late, and night had fallen. Even after changing back into a human, he did not dare wander around.

He could only lean against the giant wild boar's body and fiddle with his phone, hoping to find someone to rescue him.

But then he discovered in despair that there was no signal!

"Damn it! Seriously?"

No matter how Lan Mu fiddled with his phone, there was simply no signal here.

He could not make an emergency call. Did he have to walk out by himself?

Lan Mu looked dejectedly at the dark forest and gave up on traveling at night. He decided to make do here for the night.

For him, aside from the moonlight, the light from his phone was his only source of illumination, and it only had one-third of its battery left.

From his experience, if he kept the screen on, it would only last two hours.

With no other choice, he could only read his text messages first.

There were twenty-one messages. Nineteen were from his boss, Editor-in-Chief Liang.

The other two were from his friend and colleague, Cheng Ming.

He checked Editor-in-Chief Liang's messages first. Though there were many, they all basically said the same thing...

Where the hell did you die?

"Ugh... I've been missing for seven whole days! Editor-in-Chief, did it never occur to you to call the police?"

Lan Mu read the messages berating him one after another. Editor-in-Chief Liang had practically cursed him as an irresponsible, arrogant employee with no sense of the bigger picture, someone who had deliberately disappeared and committed every imaginable offense.

In the final message, Editor-in-Chief Liang said that he had skipped work without reason for four days, had not gone to interview the relevant departments he had already arranged to meet, and had offered no explanation whatsoever. He had reported the matter and dismissed him.

"My dear Editor-in-Chief Liang, you're really so kind to me. Did you never consider that I might have had special circumstances?"

"Ugh... I can't lose this job."

Lan Mu really liked working at the newspaper agency. It was stable, paid well, and was exciting. It suited his temperament and was right up his alley. In short, this job was important, and he did not want to lose it.

So he wrote a long reply, emotionally charged and overflowing with tears, putting every writing technique he had learned in journalism school to use. He was determined to keep his job.

His excuse was that he had been attacked by criminal forces while secretly investigating poaching, fallen off a cliff, survived the disaster, and discovered the Poaching Gang inside the protected area. He had even witnessed them kill a rare giant wild boar.

To make it more convincing, he had deliberately taken pictures of the wild boar and described what had happened from multiple angles.

Of course, he concealed his experience of transforming into the White-haired Lion for seven days. It would remain the most memorable secret of his life.

However, the extra-long message failed to send, just as expected. There was no signal at all, so he could only save it helplessly in his drafts.

As for the messages from his friend Cheng Ming, they were simple. One told him that another good friend, Ma Xiang, had gotten engaged to his girlfriend.

The other asked where he had gone. Why had he not contacted the newspaper agency, failed to complete the work assignment he had arranged, and suddenly disappeared?

Lan Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. So that was it? He had gone missing, and Cheng Ming had only sent one text to ask about it?

"Our friendship is supposedly so deep, yet you care less about me than Editor-in-Chief Liang does!"

Editor-in-Chief Liang had sent nineteen whole messages, worried sick.

Lan Mu was in no hurry to reply to Cheng Ming. He would talk to him after he got home.

He checked his battery. Only ten percent remained, so he hurriedly shut the phone off. The surroundings instantly plunged into darkness.

"Good thing it's summer. Otherwise, after spending one night here, I'd definitely fall seriously ill!"

Lan Mu leaned against the wild boar and tried to sleep, but he could not fall asleep no matter what. All kinds of mosquitoes and insects surrounded him, while the dead boar's corpse had attracted plenty of poisonous bugs and ants.

For some reason, none of those insects landed on him, but just having them buzz around nearby was annoying enough.

Unable to bear it any longer, Lan Mu decided to leave and find a better place to spend the night.

But just as he stood up, he saw lights approaching in the distance. It seemed a group of people was coming this way.

"People? Great!"

Lan Mu was not happy for long. When he saw the group emerge, his heart sank.

There were twelve people in total, and seven of them were the poachers he had encountered that afternoon!

Five of them were injured, their already-treated wounds wrapped in white bandages.

"Why did they come back? Right, they couldn't bear to abandon the giant wild boar's body. After so much time had passed, they must think the White Lion had long since left."

"I was stupid to stay here... But maybe this isn't a bad thing. I've already changed back into a human. Maybe I can use them to get me out of this damned forest?"

Lan Mu narrowed his eyes as he calculated. The lights shone on his face, making it impossible for him to open his eyes.

"Boss! There's someone here!"

"Who are you?"

Hearing the poachers' question, Lan Mu answered naturally, "I'm fucking unlucky. I fell from the observation deck and nearly died. Look at my clothes, they're so torn I can't even wear them anymore! I've been walking all day, it's already dark, and my phone has no signal. I thought I'd never make it out!"

"You finally came to save me! The Fuzhou rescue team really is prompt!"

After hearing him, the poachers exchanged looks. They understood what he meant: he had mistaken them for rescuers.

But what had he just said? He fell from the observation deck?

A burly man held up a flashlight and stepped closer. After taking a look, he pointed at Lan Mu and shouted, "Boss, it's him! He's that reporter!"

"Huh?" Lan Mu froze. What was going on? He had already turned back into a human, yet they still recognized him?

But then he realized that they even knew his profession!

"Ah! You..." A chill rose up Lan Mu's spine.

The burly man bared his teeth in a cold grin. "What about us? Heh heh."

"Uh, nothing. You know me? Did my friends ask you to rescue me? No, that's not right. I'm not a reporter! I'm just a waiter." Lan Mu pretended to stay calm, not daring to identify who these people were.

But he was now one hundred percent certain that these poachers were the thugs who had ambushed him and thrown him off the observation deck seven days ago!

"Quit pretending. Here, isn't this your ID? Morning Light Newspaper Agency, city editor, beat reporter Lan Mu. Heh heh, what a long title... You're the one Laozi personally threw down!" The burly man directly pulled out Lan Mu's work ID and flung it into his face.

Lan Mu's face turned ashen. He remained silent, forcing himself to calm down as he bent over and picked up his ID.

"Damn it, you're still alive? You really are lucky!" The burly man kicked Lan Mu in the stomach. The tremendous force sent him stumbling backward, nearly knocking him down.

Lan Mu steadied himself after the kick, enduring the agonizing pain as he said coldly, "You're utterly lawless..."

"I only asked the observation deck staff about poaching, and you wanted to kill me? How dare you treat human life so lightly?"

The burly man slapped Lan Mu across the face with a crisp crack and said with foul breath spilling from his mouth, "Human life?"

"Which one of us brothers doesn't have a few lives on our hands? We fled back from Lingnan and finally found such a good place. There are no forest rangers, and the management is lax. There isn't much valuable game, but it's enough to get by. Yet you had to cut off our source of income?"

"Damn it, you really were smart. You immediately suspected that the forest patrol guards were our people. It's only because Xiao Tang opens the back door for us that we can hunt in the protected area so openly every week. If you, a damned reporter, ruined that for us, would we be drinking the northwest wind?"

Lan Mu was baffled. After thinking about it, he understood that the Xiao Tang they were talking about was probably the scenic area worker he had questioned repeatedly seven days ago.

Damn it! I only asked a few more questions because his answers were vague.

His mental fortitude couldn't be that bad, could it? Had he never seen a reporter's professional questioning before? He actually told you I suspected him... God! I've been wronged!

"You... You want to silence me over such a ridiculous reason?"

The burly man impatiently raised his hunting rifle and pointed it at Lan Mu's head. "A ridiculous reason? Who cares what the reason is? You can't be allowed to live!"

"It's late at night and deserted here. This is the perfect place to kill someone and leave the body behind. One shot, and no one will ever know!"

"By the time decades pass, your bones may have decayed, and no one would ever find you. Hahaha!"

As he spoke, the burly man tightened his grip and prepared to pull the trigger. Lan Mu felt death approaching. It was the same feeling as seven days ago, when he had fallen from the cliff and lay crippled on the ground waiting to die.

No! Fuck your whole family! You're just going to kill me so casually?

"W-Wait!"

Lan Mu trembled wildly, clenching his teeth so hard they nearly shattered.

At that moment, he yearned for strength as never before—the terrifying strength of the White-haired Lion, strength so great that these people would be nothing but ants!

"Right! The White-haired Lion!"

"Don't you want to know where the White Lion is?"

The burly man sneered. "What White Lion, Black Lion?"

"Wait! Huang Sheng, put down the gun!" It was the Old Hunter, whom Lan Mu had seen that afternoon. He hurried over and pushed the burly man aside.

Huang Sheng lowered his gun in confusion. "Boss, what is it?"

The Old Hunter ignored him. His eyes gleamed as he asked Lan Mu, "Did you just say White Lion? A male lion covered in snow-white fur?"

Seeing Huang Sheng lower the gun, Lan Mu's tense heart relaxed slightly. He let out a breath, knowing that he was safe for the moment.

"Yes, a white-maned male lion!"

The Old Hunter suddenly smiled and tried to grab Lan Mu by the collar. As soon as he raised his hand, pain shot through him. Both of his shoulders had been badly injured, and blood seeped through his bandages.

Enduring the pain, the Old Hunter's eyes flashed with savagery and hatred.

Only then did Huang Sheng react. "Boss, the White Lion he mentioned couldn't be the one you encountered..."

The Old Hunter sneered. "There can't be many white male lions like that in the entire world..."

"Little reporter, did you see our fight with that White Lion this afternoon?"

Lan Mu shook his head. "I don't know. I only arrived at night..."

"Don't lie, kid!" The Old Hunter interrupted him with an expression that saw through everything.

"When you had a gun pointed at your head just now, you already exposed everything. You must have been there and seen it with your own eyes!"

"Otherwise, you would never have said so confidently, 'Don't you want to know where the White Lion is?'"

Hearing that, Huang Sheng smashed Lan Mu with the butt of his gun and snarled, "Damn it, knew you weren't honest. Talk!"

Lan Mu swallowed. He secretly cursed himself for still being too inexperienced and said, "Yes. I saw everything."

"I was nearby at the time. I heard gunshots and came this way. I saw a mighty white male lion pounce on one of you and claw him."

"I hid behind a tree in the distance and watched. You couldn't defeat the White Lion, so you ran away."

Huang Sheng raged, "What do you mean, ran away? What the fuck do you know?"

"Hey." The Old Hunter stopped Huang Sheng from hitting him again and sneered. "Running away is running away. There's nothing we can't admit."

"Tell me, where did the White Lion go after we left?"

Lan Mu opened his mouth. Looking at the group surrounding him with Hunting Rifles, he suddenly fell silent.

"Hmph. Kid, if you don't talk, you die. If you do, there's still a chance you'll live." The Old Hunter's voice was sinister.

Lan Mu was not stupid. He knew that if he talked, he would definitely die. Only by refusing to talk did he have a chance to survive.

Besides, he had no way to tell them. He could only make something up. He himself was that white-maned lion. Where was he supposed to find a White Lion for these people?

Seeing Huang Sheng raise the gun butt to strike him again, he said indifferently.

"I know where the White-haired Lion's den is."