Sudden Calamity

"Woo~~~ Woo-woo~~~"

"The red sun rises over Shaoshan, oh! The eastern land shines bright, hey! The red sun rises over Shaoshan..."

The sonorous singing echoed through the picturesque mountain forest alongside the train.

Sunlight streamed through the window and fell across his face. Through the glass, he could see the dense jungle and its tall, straight trees.

A warm breeze blew in through the window, making him feel especially comfortable.

Reflected in the window glass, a lean face appeared before him. It looked nothing like his original face.

His features were neat and proper, with a strong scholarly air between his brows. He had thick eyebrows, large eyes, and a small cap on his head.

He glanced down at his hands. A notebook was gripped in one of them.

Neat lines of handwriting filled the page from top to bottom.

June 20, 1968. Weather: clear.

I've been assigned to work as a forest ranger in a place called Black Forest Hill. On the day I set out, I searched the map for ages but couldn't find it.

They said it was a beautiful place with clear waters and lush mountains, but all I saw in their eyes were four words... barren mountains and badlands.

He closed the notebook. The name Chen Shaoguo was written neatly on the cover. Evidently, this unfamiliar name belonged to the role he was supposed to play.

"Shaoguo!"

As he sat there, dazed, a girl with a long braid came up beside him. Xu Tong looked up, and information about her surfaced in his mind.

Her name was Fu Qiuling. They were classmates in middle school and had grown up together in the same courtyard. They were childhood sweethearts.

She sat down across from him and secretly slipped two eggs into his hand.

"Shaoguo, when we go back, you have to wait for me!"

Xu Tong froze. Before he could say anything, the train had already stopped, and several girls in the seats beside them called out for her to get off.

"Wait for me, okay? You have to wait for me!"

The girl waved vigorously, then disappeared from view amid the jostling crowd.

The carriage was suddenly half-empty. The cheerful singing and laughter from before fell silent, too. He looked around, but saw neither Mad Dog nor the other three teams from earlier.

But his own appearance had changed. The others' appearances had probably changed as well, but...

He recalled what the host had said before shoving him through the door. Without thinking, he began to scribble in his notebook with his fountain pen.

As he wondered whether that old hag had been lying to him, the conversation in the seats beside him caught his attention.

"Grandpa, are there really immortals?"

The little boy beside him held up a picture book and asked the old man.

The old man smiled. "Of course there are. When they were alive, they did many good things. In the end, they sacrificed themselves to get rid of evil, and people revered them as immortals."

His words immediately made his son and daughter-in-law look uneasy. They glared at the old man, and his daughter-in-law snatched the picture book from the child and tossed it onto the floor.

His son looked troubled, too. "Dad, don't make things up. Immortals? That's all fake."

Everyone on the train turned to look. The old man awkwardly turned away and didn't dare say anything more.

Xu Tong picked up the picture book from the floor and flipped through it. The quality was so terrible it was practically falling apart. Most of the pictures had come out as black, blurry smudges.

It was obviously the work of some unlicensed little back-alley workshop, and the story inside was even more absurdly simple.

It said that some people encountered a Drought Demon, and the vast fields withered, yielding not a single grain. Many Taoist priests and Buddhist monks came to subdue the monster, but the Drought Demon beat them until they fled in terror, then swallowed them whole.

Then a Taoist priest from the Lu Clan arrived. Knowing he couldn't beat the Drought Demon, he tricked it, saying he had a magical pill on him. He tricked the monster into swallowing him, then cut a hole in its belly and killed it.

The story was simple and full of holes, but he still read it with great interest. By the time he finished, the train had already come to a stop.

"Chen Shaoguo! Chen Shaoguo!"

As soon as the train stopped, a villager in a sheepskin coat leaned against the window and shouted Chen Shaoguo's name.

At the same time, a notification sounded in Xu Tong's ear.

[Main Mission 1: Go to Black Forest Hill]

[Mission Objective: Reach Black Forest Hill within thirty-eight hours.]

[Mission Hint: If I were you, I definitely wouldn't eat too much.]

"Chen Shaoguo! Chen Shaoguo!"

The train was about to leave, and he still hadn't found this so-called Chen Shaoguo. The herdsman Old Bart was getting anxious.

"That's definitely the right train. Could the kid have run off?"

Muttering to himself, Old Bart leaned against the carriage window again and shouted, unwilling to give up.

"Chen Shaoguo!"

But nobody answered. The train was already starting to move, and Old Bart anxiously chased after it, hoping to get a few more shouts in. After taking just two steps, he suddenly felt someone bump into him from behind.

His foot slipped. He watched helplessly as his head pitched toward the train wheels.

Fortunately, someone behind him grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back with all their strength.

"Ow!"

Old Bart landed on his backside. Watching the train pull away, his face turned deathly pale, and his legs went weak.

If he'd fallen beneath the wheels, he probably would have died right there.

"Old-timer, are you all right?"

Turning around, he saw a young man standing behind him with a bag on his back, looking at him with concern.

"I-I-I'm... fine!"

Old Bart said he was fine, but he could barely get the words out. After all, he'd just had a close brush with death. Anyone would need a moment to calm down.

"Here, have some water. Take a moment."

Xu Tong helped him over to a nearby bench, opened the canteen at his waist, and let Old Bart take a few sips.

That finally calmed the old man, who looked to be in his early fifties.

"Hey, you know, that guy bumped into me and ran off without even apologizing."

Pointing at the spot where the man had vanished, Xu Tong cursed under his breath. "That's it, I'll go after him for you!"

Old Bart was still shaken, and he hadn't even found the person he was looking for. He had no interest in pursuing the matter. "Forget it, forget it. Thank you, young man. If you hadn't been there, my life would've been over."

As he spoke, Old Bart studied the young man in front of him. Seeing his rosy lips, neat features, and fair skin, he suddenly froze. "Are you that... Chen Shaoguo from the capital?"

"How did you know?" Xu Tong asked, looking surprised.

"Oh, I've been looking for you forever! Young man, I'm from our Forest Farm. When I got the notice, I came here a day early and waited, worried I might miss you."

Old Bart slapped his thigh, beaming with joy. He got up from the bench and warmly took Xu Tong's hand. "I've finally found you! And you just saved my life, too. What a coincidence!"

Truthfully, Old Bart had been very reluctant to take on this assignment. His superiors had repeatedly stressed how important it was, and the Forest Farm's leaders had specifically urged him to come a day early.

The whole way here, he'd cursed Chen Shaoguo's ancestors for eighteen generations.

But if Xu Tong hadn't been there, he would have rolled right under the train wheels. There probably wouldn't even have been enough of him left for a whole corpse.

"Yes, yes! It really is fate," Xu Tong replied, nodding repeatedly. He thought to himself that it was no wonder they'd crossed paths—he'd been watching Old Bart ever since the train pulled in.

After chatting for a while, Old Bart took Xu Tong out of the station. To repay him for saving his life, Old Bart spent his own money, trading a half-jin ration coupon for two bowls of black liangfen and a pot of liquor.

As the bowls of liangfen were set down, a sharp vinegar smell filled the air. Chopped green onions and a spoonful of chili had been sprinkled over the black jelly. It didn't look appetizing, but the taste was smooth and delicate. After one bite, the stuffy feeling that had built up during the train ride vanished.

Xu Tong dug in for a few bites, but remembering the mission hint, he didn't dare eat too much.

Seeing that he couldn't finish, Old Bart simply ate Xu Tong's leftovers as well. He scraped up the bottom of the bowl and drank every last drop of the sauce.

After eating and drinking their fill, neither of them dared delay. They set out at once.

The Forest Farm had even sent its only horse-drawn carriage to pick him up. As they rode, Xu Tong asked Old Bart about it and learned that...

Black Forest Hill was a full day's journey from Luoping Township, where they were now.

They would have to travel through the night and wouldn't get back until tomorrow night.

Xu Tong's mouth twitched involuntarily when he heard that. He immediately regretted not eating more.

Fortunately, after last time's hunger, he'd already put a few beef patties, a few steamed buns, and several bottles of mineral water into his Prop Catalog before entering the Script World this time.

The road grew narrower and narrower until, eventually, there was no road at all.

The carriage jolted over uneven grass, bouncing and swaying. Old Bart was used to it, but Xu Tong was nearly shaken senseless.

He had no idea how long they'd been traveling when night fell.

Stars glittered overhead. The sky was packed with them, and some people in the real world might never see such a sight in their entire lives.

"Comrade Xiao Chen, look over there. You can go anywhere else you like, but whatever you do, don't go into those mountains."

Xu Tong sat up and followed Old Bart's gaze. In the distance was a pitch-black shape; he couldn't make out a thing.

Old Bart continued, "Most of the people over there are wild Miao, and they don't welcome outsiders like us. Besides, the mountains are deep and the forests are vast. Without someone who knows the way, you'll be trapped in there until you die."

"Oh!" Xu Tong nodded, unconcerned.

As they were talking, the horse suddenly stopped. No matter how much Old Bart urged it, it wouldn't move.

"Damn beast, move!"

Old Bart raised his whip and lashed the horse several times, but it refused to budge. Just as Old Bart grew irritated...

A hazy white shape appeared in the distant woods. Its features were impossible to make out, but it vaguely looked like a woman.

The shape seemed to float toward them on the wind. Just then, an eerie shriek came from the mountain forest beside them.

"It's... It's... the old immortal's wrath!"

At the sight, Old Bart seemed to recall a local legend. His face changed, and he hurriedly jumped down from the carriage. "Get down on the ground and kowtow as hard as you can toward that white figure!"

The harder Old Bart kowtowed, the more chilling the shrieks from the surrounding forest became. He was trembling uncontrollably with fear.

Xu Tong watched the white shape ahead, curious. If I took off my pants and charged over there, would she run, or would I?

As he debated what to do, his ears twitched. He looked up at the mountain forest beside them and saw the trees overhead crack and splinter. It sounded like something was rolling down. His expression changed, and he hauled Old Bart off the ground and lunged forward.

The moment they hit the ground, a gigantic boulder came crashing down the slope with a bang. The horse and carriage were crushed into a bloody pulp...