Chapter 1169: 阴云山腰

By: Sanyin Yinyu

Pedestrians bustled through the station entrance. Amidst many strange glances, drops of sweat trickled down the foreheads of a group of young men dressed in suits.

"What does this mean??" Another boy rushed forward, snatched the phone, and, refusing to believe it, dialed several numbers, but they were still disconnected.

"I... I don't know... I've been blocked on WeChat too..."

"Have we been scammed??"

"That was over three hundred yuan!! Brother Pao only borrowed a total of..."

"Big Head! Didn't you say he was your buddy?!"

The group huddled together, their faces flushed with anger, questioning the boy responsible for arranging the wedding car.

Big Head held his phone, trembling all over, like a child who had made a mistake and was about to burst into tears.

"Brother... Brother Pao... I didn't mean to... I just wanted to save you some money..."

The boy wearing a large red flower on his chest stood silently at the bustling station entrance. Beneath the eaves of the unfamiliar city, his figure appeared awkward and small, and confusion, like a vast sea, swallowed his eyes.

Suddenly, as if he had remembered something, he clenched his fists tightly.

"It's alright, Big Head," Brother Pao said, looking at the town in the distance, his voice incredibly calm. "If there's no car, then so be it... Even if I have to walk, I'll walk there to pick up Xiaoyu."

The boys standing around him froze, stiff and silent. An inexpressible sense of oppression spread among them.

"Who said there's no car?"

Sun Bumian's voice came from behind.

Everyone turned to look, and saw Sun Bumian holding a lion dance head, a faint smile playing on his lips.

"How can the groom pick up his bride without a car? It doesn't matter for the others, but the bride certainly needs a place to sit."

"But we..."

"Wait a moment."

Sun Bumian glanced at his phone, then walked directly to the adjacent exit and, without a word, opened the door of a black Audi.

The driver, who was waiting in the driver's seat, was startled, but after recognizing the figure outside the door, he froze.

"Mr. Sun... Sun? What are you doing here? Where is the person supposed to meet you with a sign at the exit?"

"Get out."

"...Huh?"

"Get out," Sun Bumian repeated, lifting his chin. "I'll drive myself."

"But Mr. Sun, Director Sun's office requested..."

"Fine, then I'm going back to America." Sun Bumian turned and started walking towards the station.

"No, no, no, no, no..."

The driver, looking utterly bewildered, was thus shooed out of the car. Sun Bumian got into the driver's seat, pressed the accelerator, and drove the car to the entrance of Gate 2...

Under the shocked gazes of the boys and Chen Ling's peculiar look, Sun Bumian coolly pushed the small round sunglasses on his nose.

"Everyone in."

Chen Ling naturally took the passenger seat. The other boys exchanged glances and immediately squeezed into the back. The back seat, which was originally only big enough for three, was now crammed with five people, like a sardine can about to burst out of the windows.

Sun Bumian expertly pressed the accelerator and drove towards the silhouette of the distant mountains...

"Holy crap, Brother Pao!! An Audi!!"

"This is my first time riding in such a nice car... Brother Pao, have you ever ridden in an Audi before?"

"I... of course I have," Brother Pao said, sticking out his neck. "It's quite comfortable to ride in..."

"Even if it's not a Panamera, an Audi is still really good!"

"Yeah, yeah!!"

"Brother, from now on, you're my big brother. I owe you for this, and I'll definitely repay you in the future!" Brother Pao said, his face flushed red, looking at the figure in the Tang suit driving the car.

"It's nothing, really."

Sun Bumian waved his hand dismissively.

Brother Pao hesitated for a moment, then respectfully spoke to Chen Ling, who had been mostly silent in the passenger seat:

"From now on, you're my big brother too!"

Chen Ling: ?

Chen Ling's mouth twitched. He figured the boy must have mistaken him for a performer as well, especially considering his attire, which was similar in style to Sun Bumian's. However, Chen Ling couldn't be bothered to explain himself to these young men, so he just remained expressionless and silent.

"Can any of you drive?" Sun Bumian suddenly asked.

"I... I have a driver's license," Big Head said, cautiously raising his hand.

"You're going to Wushan Town, right? Once we get outside the town, I'll need to do the lion dance to lead the way. You can drive then, the groom will sit in the back, and anyone else who doesn't fit can just walk slowly."

The five of them, squeezed in the back, looked visibly excited. Although they had been scammed out of a few hundred yuan, the "big brother" they gained for this small price was far more reliable than anyone else!

"No problem!"

"Director, you've finally arrived."

As the car door opened, a group of figures in black uniforms stood on the road, and Sun Zhongliang slowly stepped out of the vehicle.

The driver, holding a black umbrella, walked to his side. The wide canopy shielded them from the overcast sky and the occasional drizzle. Sun Zhongliang's tired gaze fell upon what lay ahead...

An old-fashioned hotel, perched halfway up the mountain, stood solitary beneath the ominous clouds.

"How are the renovations coming along?" Sun Zhongliang asked in a deep voice.

"This hotel was built in 1956, almost seventy years ago. It's been abandoned for too long, and with such limited time, three days isn't enough to fully repair it. We've only been able to focus on the exterior facade and the conference hall for now..." a staff member replied helplessly.

"Given that the rooms aren't habitable, we've booked accommodation for our guests at hotels in the town for tonight."

Sun Zhongliang nodded slightly. "Is everything ready for check-in and so forth?"

"It's ready. Most of the guests have arrived, but..."

The staff member paused for a moment, an odd expression on his face. "We just received news this morning from the station that Mr. Sun didn't use the special pick-up service. He even told the driver to get out and drove here himself..."

Sun Zhongliang waved his hand, speechless. "Just let him be. Try to meet any of his requests, as long as he doesn't go back to America."

At the mention of America, Sun Zhongliang seemed to recall something. "Oh, by the way, have we heard anything from our people stationed in America?"

"We just received news this morning that an American laboratory suddenly detected a signal not belonging to Earth's frequency band... It's suspected to be an entrance to another parallel world and might be related to the satellite failures of the past few days. America's top researchers are now rushing there one after another, trying to figure out what they're investigating."

Sun Zhongliang was deep in thought. Just as he was about to say something else, his phone rang.

Sun Zhongliang looked at the mysterious number on the screen, his expression immediately turning extremely serious. His fingertips, holding the phone, unconsciously tightened.

"That's a call from above. I need to take it."

With that, he walked through the crowd, heading alone to a secluded spot.

No one knew what Sun Zhongliang discussed with the person on the other end of the line.

They only saw him from a distance, standing alone under his umbrella in the rain, gazing down at Wushan Town below the mountain. Even after hanging up, he didn't immediately return, but remained motionless, like a statue... lost in thought.