Darkness slowly eroded the moon, like a giant in the sky eating a pie bite by bite, the bites oozing crimson blood that stained the clouds.
Huang Liang knew this was a natural phenomenon.
When the Earth blocks the Sun, the atmosphere refracts red light onto the surface of the moon. During a total lunar eclipse, even though the Earth is in shadow, we can still see the red moon in the sky; this is called a blood moon.
Logically speaking, a blood moon is a rare sight. But Huang Liang had a bad feeling. He recalled some folk tales that said a change in the moon's color foreshadowed disaster, and red corresponded to bloodshed, often considered a harbinger of war.
The snowstorm stopped when the entire moon turned into a hazy, blood-red shadow.
The earth was unusually quiet at this moment, while a giant red moon hung menacingly in the sky in the darkness.
Huang Liang peered into the darkness around him, and for some reason, he felt there were people there. He thought of the cloaked man in black again. That face was as terrifying as the moon in the sky at that moment.
He heard Hong Kui's heavy breathing and turned to look. The blood moonlight shone on Hong Kui's face, making him look like a drunkard.
Huang Liang knew that Hong Kui was suppressing his emotions; from the moment the moon showed a sliver of light, he had been emanating abnormal mental fluctuations.
Looking at the hazy shadow of the white wolf in the moonlight ahead, Huang Liang said softly, "Stop suppressing it. You've been suppressing it for half your life."
Hong Kui suddenly roared, like thunder that had been trapped in the clouds for a long time, finally bursting out, accompanied by a powerful mental storm that resounded through the mountains.
His face was instantly covered in white down, which grew at a visible speed. His mouth split open, revealing long fangs. His eyes gleamed with a green light, but what they reflected was the blood-red moon in the sky.
He walked slowly forward until he reached the rock where the white wolf had stood.
The white wolf, which had been holding its head high, finally lowered its head and looked at Hong Kui.
As if encouraged, Hong Kui suddenly leaped onto the giant rock tens of meters high in a manner impossible for a human.
Huang Liang saw Hong Kui's body and the white wolf's body gradually merge into one, but he couldn't tell whether it was a man turning into a wolf or a wolf turning into a man.
The surroundings were deathly silent. Even the nine dogs had stopped whimpering, as if something was stuck in their throats, preventing them from making a sound. They just huddled together in fear.
Just then, a glimmer of light appeared in the distant darkness, flickering like a firefly on a summer night.
The white wolf howled to the sky, then jumped off the boulder and walked towards the light.
Huang Liang didn't see Hong Kui. He knew that the white wolf in front of him was Hong Kui.
The Indian guide and the nine Alaska Malamutes followed silently behind the white wolf, as if it were a pre-arranged and self-evident event.
The white light drew closer, while the moon in the sky gradually dimmed.
When the crimson color completely faded, the white wolf was gone.
Hong Kui returned to his original appearance.
Huang Liang discovered that they were standing right next to their campsite, where they had set up their tents, without moving an inch.
Everything that just happened was just a dream.
Whether it was the lingering spirit of the gods here, or Hong Kui's own spiritual outburst, that caused them to have this dream.
The dream is over, and everything returns to reality.
This is a winter night on Alaska's highest snow-capped mountain. The wind is howling, and snow is falling. The night remains dark and gloomy.
But even in this weather, near the campsite, they saw the block of ice—
That was the purest thing Huang Liang had ever seen in his life.
It was like an icicle hanging upside down from the eaves of my old home on a clear winter morning after a snowfall, clean and translucent, hanging there upside down in the darkness of the night.
The darkness, profundity, and uncertainty of the night dissolved instantly in its light.
It is so close, yet so distant.
Like a wanderer who has been away for many years returning to his hometown, he sees the earthen wall, the window with paper-cut decorations, and the girl looking out from the window 500 meters from his home at the village entrance.
Huang Liang's heart began to pound.
He walked towards it unconsciously and reached out to touch it. It was right in front of him, but he couldn't touch it no matter how hard he tried.
A dazed state of mind spilled from trembling fingertips, striking the icicles like radio waves and permeating the icy world.
He saw his sister's radiant face, the sunlight illuminating her bright smile.
"Brother's back!" the younger sister exclaimed with delight.
"Is this my sister-in-law?" the younger sister asked again.
Huang Liang then saw Martha nestled beside him like a mimosa.
"Brother is back with sister-in-law!" the younger sister shouted happily as she ran away from the windowsill.
The fence gate next to the earthen wall opened, and Dad and Mom came out smiling to greet them.
"Great! Great! It's good that you're back!" Their smiles were like a field of rapeseed flowers in April.
A hen flew up from the yard and landed on top of the mud wall, clucking loudly, but was quickly drowned out by the sound of a tractor coming from afar.
Old Yu drove over in his hand tractor.
The tractor was loaded with things: neatly folded red silk quilts, wooden boxes with big red "double happiness" characters pasted on them, boxes and boxes of pastries, thermos flasks wrapped in red silk... and even a red-painted toilet.
Old Yu carried things down one by one, chuckling as he said, "I knew Pengcheng was back, and with a foreign wife no less. We don't understand foreign customs, so consider these things as a belated wedding for them! I'll go to town later and get half a slaughtered pig. Old Zhao, don't be stingy with your chickens today!"
Father laughed heartily and said, "I know, I know, you don't need to tell me."
As if understanding, the chickens on the wall clucked and flew away in fright, their wings kicking up a lot of dust.
" Pengcheng?" Martha asked, puzzled. "Isn't your Huang Liang?"
He was taken aback. "Ah— Pengcheng? Pengcheng! I think my name is Pengcheng!"
My sister said, "Brother, your name is Pengcheng! Have you forgotten?"
He answered with a sudden realization, "Yes, my name is Pengcheng. Zhao Pengcheng, my name is Zhao Pengcheng!"
Martha innocently raised her face, pointed to the low house behind the mud wall, and said, "So, Zhao Pengcheng, will we be living here from now on?"
Mother affectionately took Martha's hand and said, "My dear daughter-in-law, this is it, this is your home."
The younger sister said, "Brother, now that you're back, you won't leave again, right?"
He said hesitantly, "I won't go anymore, I won't go anymore, sister, I'll never go again..."
Just as he was about to step into the courtyard, he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder and was pulled hard, causing him to stumble backward.
He saw his mother leading Martha through the door, his father chasing the old hen in the yard, Yu Jianguo driving his tractor to town to pick up pork. The black smoke from the tractor billowed like a ribbon in the air.
The younger sister made a face, then went back to her room and waved at him from the windowsill.
He saw a long icicle hanging from the windowsill, reflecting his sister's face, the paper-cut decorations on the window, the sun in the sky, and the receding earthen wall and the figures of his parents...
Hong Kui gripped Huang Liang's shoulders tightly.
He had reached the edge of a cliff without realizing it, with a bottomless abyss below. The howling mountain wind roared through the valley like the roar of a giant trapped at the bottom of the abyss.
Only that one icicle hung upside down in the void ahead.
Huang Liang could clearly see his own face on the icicle, as well as Hong Kui, the Indian guide, and the nine Alaska Malamutes.
Behind them stretched the entire Mount Denali, blanketed in snow, its summit adorned with the Sun, moon, and stars.
Everything reflected in it becomes clearly visible.