The GAZ vehicle drove into Hot Spring Ravine and stopped a few dozen meters in.
"Hey, there really is a sulfur smell." Liu Gaolou smiled after getting out. "Look at this water. It really is different."
He took two deep breaths. Li Long got out with his gun and said:
"Don't sniff too much. This stuff is bad for your lungs."
He remembered a funny story Li Juan had told him. During a ninth-grade chemistry class, Li Juan and a male classmate had been called up to the teacher's desk to help with an experiment, which really just meant smelling sulfur after it was lit.
After the boy smelled it, the teacher asked him what it smelled like. He said it smelled just like striking a match. The teacher said that was right, then told him the fumes were poisonous and to write that down.
The whole class burst out laughing-the teacher was making students test poison.
It was a joke, of course. At the time, that little bit of poison hardly counted for anything, and the students were only laughing at how it had played out.
"It's fine. Surely this stuff isn't as toxic as a cigarette?" Liu Gaolou wasn't entirely ignorant. Then he asked, "Why bring a gun? Can you hunt in this ravine?"
"For protection. Once I was soaking in the hot spring here when a bear showed up. Luckily I had my gun beside me, otherwise..."
Li Long spoke as though it were something trivial, but to Liu Gaolou it sounded like a legendary adventure. He jumped at first, then said rather loudly:
"Now I regret it, I really do! Next time I come, I'm definitely bringing my Double-Barrel Hunting Shotgun! Running into bears even here... that really is exciting!"
"Did you know I've encountered more