"Not even halfway?" Shen Yu nearly dropped his umbrella, turning his head in disbelief. "We've been climbing for over an hour, and you're telling me we're not even halfway?"
Jiang Minjie not only had plenty of mountain-climbing experience, but also the miraculous ability to miss every social cue. At that, he launched enthusiastically into an explanation.
"Yeah, we're winding around the mountain as we climb. It takes at least two hours, but now that it's raining..."
With rain on top of the crowds, it would clearly take more than two hours.
Shen Yu looked at the mountain path with no end in sight, then at the dense sea of people, caught between going on and turning back.
The whole group slowly came to a stop. Too embarrassed to hold everyone up, Shen Yu braced himself against the imitation railing and forced himself to keep huffing and puffing up the mountain.
Whether because he was dispirited or simply too tired, the arm Shen Yu rested on the railing kept accidentally rubbing against it. After swinging back and forth so many times, his fragile bracelet finally snapped partway through the climb.
The round beads gave Shen Yu no chance to save them, rolling down the craggy rocks. By the time he reacted, they were already gone.
Ji Cიცen had been following behind to watch over him and had not expected the sudden mishap either. Seeing Shen Yu's tired, aching body go rigid, he stopped as well.
The rain, the crowds, the sheer cliffs-with all those factors combined, there was no way to recover the scattered beads.
Ji Cიცen was considering how to comfort his deskmate when someone behind them urged them on. Shen Yu had evidently noticed that everyone was backed up, and he gritted his teeth and continued forward.
The downpour