The secluded mountain forest was alive with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers, and the cool temperature by the mountain stream was particularly refreshing. A group of people were busy here, playfully setting up tents and establishing their camp.
This was a camping trip privately organized by company colleagues. Naturally, everyone participating was young, as the activity involved hiking with tents and other gear, which would be too strenuous for older individuals.
Originally, everyone had hoped the company would organize a camping trip, but the company’s annual trips were always guided bus tours. So this year, many colleagues decided not to join the company trip. Instead, they asked a few colleagues with outdoor experience to lead their own excursion, which led to this mountain camping adventure.
Ji Yuan had only been working at this software company for two years. With his hair still thick and black, he was definitely among the younger employees. After setting up his tent, he was currently playing a mobile game online with another colleague.
“Hey, hey, hey, Ji Yuan, Ji Yuan, quickly give me your ult! Ah, I’m dead!”
“What’s the use of giving you my ult? You’d be down in two seconds anyway. I could have escaped if I’d used it on myself. Now look, you just gave them a double kill bot lane…”
“My bad, my bad… Next game, you play AD carry, and I’ll support you!”
“No, no, no… I’d rather find a random teammate for support…”
Although they appeared to be deep in the mountains, a base station was visible on a distant peak. The two friends were engrossed in their game on their phones, experiencing very little network lag.
While there are still areas in China with poor or no signal, most people have long grown accustomed to having coverage everywhere. This widespread availability, thanks to advanced infrastructure, makes people forget about the concept of signal strength itself.
They pitched their tents on a relatively flat hill beside a clear stream, an excellent spot for wild camping.
There were over a dozen people in total. A large number were currently outside taking photos, and a few others were adjusting their tents. It seemed only Wang Gang, Ji Yuan, and Li Jun were idle.
Wang Gang was preparing to build a stone stove for grilling. He surveyed the campsite and realized that only Ji Yuan and Li Jun were free.
“Ji Yuan, Dajun, stop playing games! Go find some firewood. We’ll be starting the fire soon, or we’ll be eating cold canned food for lunch!”
From a little distance away, a colleague called out to the two people sitting at the tent entrance.
“Got it!” “Okay.”
Li Jun and Ji Yuan both replied, then exchanged glances. Since their teammates had already flamed them relentlessly, they simply quit the game.
The two stood up and walked towards the adjacent woodland, entering the denser shade of the trees.
Firewood was plentiful in the mountain forest; fallen branches were everywhere. Li Jun dragged a large branch around, occasionally swinging it while shouting "Ho ho ha hey," looking like an idiot in Ji Yuan’s eyes.
To avoid being “infected” or accidentally hit by Li Jun’s “madman” stick-wielding, Ji Yuan quickly put some distance between himself and his friend.
Like most modern young people, Ji Yuan had many siblings among his grandparents’ generation. While his father was an only son, Ji Yuan also had several aunts. By Ji Yuan’s generation, however, he was an only child.
Perhaps because there were fewer children and grandchildren, they became more cherished. The Ji family’s previously straightforward naming convention, with names like “Jinhua,” “Yinhua,” “Guoxing,” and “Cuifen,” suddenly took a poetic turn for Ji Yuan’s generation. His grandfather even consulted his granduncle, who had been a Feng Shui master for decades, for ideas. They eventually settled on the single character “Yuan,” and the whole family was very pleased.
“Ah… the mountain air is so refreshing! This is exactly the kind of beautiful place one should visit for a trip.”
Ji Yuan sighed, not rushing to collect firewood. Instead, he decided to wander through the woods first, thinking it would be less effort to gather the wood on his way back.
After only about a minute of walking, Ji Yuan suddenly discovered several incredibly thick, massive trees ahead. Visually, they appeared many times larger than the surrounding trees.
“Dajun, Dajun, come quick and look! There are some super thick trees here, Dajun!”
Ji Yuan called out towards the other side, but seeing that his friend was still swinging the stick, he decided to ignore him for now. He planned to go take a look himself and then bring everyone else later.
As he approached, Ji Yuan gained a more direct appreciation for the trees.
Just the outermost tree had numerous exposed roots, tangled and gnarled across the ground, some of them estimated to be as thick as Ji Yuan’s thigh.
‘Wow… are there really trees this old here?’
Ox Head Mountain wasn’t a particularly famous tourist destination, but it attracted a fair number of people for picnics and barbecues. Logically, someone should have posted pictures of such massive trees online, right?
However, Ji Yuan merely considered it briefly before moving to the other side, which had been obscured by the large trees.
“Oh!”
A sound of surprise escaped his lips.
On that side, in addition to several other equally massive ancient trees, he saw a chessboard. More precisely, it was a tree stump with a chessboard laid out on it, nestled among the trees.
Ji Yuan instinctively took a few steps forward, reaching the tree stump where the chessboard rested.
He looked around but saw no warning signs for tourists, nor anyone playing chess.
Black and white pieces were intricately intertwined on the board. The black pieces formed a defensive array, while the white pieces resembled a dragon—a typical Chinese Go board, with a game half-played.
This made Ji Yuan curious: was Ox Head Mountain perhaps being developed as a tourist attraction?
However, the chessboard and its surroundings were covered in fallen leaves and dead branches, interspersed with bird droppings and rotting fruit. Whether it was a genuine game or merely a decorative display, it had clearly been there for a very long time.
Then his gaze fell upon something peculiar behind the chessboard: a heavily rusted object next to an old tree. It was clearly swollen and deformed from excessive corrosion.
Ji Yuan walked closer for a better look. After a moment’s thought, he concluded it resembled an incredibly rusted axe.
‘Wait! Could this be the legendary "Rotten Axle Chess Game" from folklore!?’
The thought amused Ji Yuan himself; the setup indeed bore a striking resemblance. It also piqued his interest.
He returned to the chessboard and meticulously examined it. As he looked at the board full of black and white pieces, Ji Yuan, who wasn’t very familiar with Go, suddenly felt that the “dragon” formed by the white pieces looked increasingly awkward. It could have been continuous, but it lacked a vital connection, giving a sense of being threatened and surrounded by the seemingly chaotic black pieces.
Crucially, for some reason, the incomplete look of the white “dragon” triggered Ji Yuan’s obsessive-compulsive tendencies. He glanced several times at the two wooden Go boxes beside the board. Then, as if possessed, he reached out and took a white piece.
The Go piece felt surprisingly heavy, almost like iron, yet its texture was like ceramic. Ji Yuan weighed it in his hand, then, feeling like a thief, nervously glanced left and right before placing the white piece in the very center of the board—the "Tengen" point in Go terminology.
“Perfect, that feels much better!”
Ji Yuan clapped his hands, pulled out his phone from his pocket, and planned to take some photos and record some videos before calling everyone else to see.
However, he pressed the phone’s unlock button several times, but no unlock prompt appeared.
“What the hell! What’s going on? Is it really dead!?”
The phone was indeed out of battery. Even when Ji Yuan long-pressed the power button, the phone would vibrate as if turning on, then immediately shut down. Another press wouldn’t even produce the startup screen.
He had just finished playing on his phone, and it had at least eighty percent battery. Yet, it had inexplicably turned off on its own.
Ji Yuan turned to look outside but didn’t see Dajun, who had been swinging the stick earlier.
‘Never mind, I’ll go get my power bank.’
With that thought, Ji Yuan walked towards the campsite. After just a few steps, he noticed that the sky had grown surprisingly dim.
After walking for a few more minutes, Ji Yuan was stunned. He saw the gently flowing stream, and the flat hill, but where was the campsite?
Not only were none of his colleagues around, but all the tents were gone too. What the hell was going on?
This wasn’t April Fool’s Day, and setting up a camp with tents was a lot of hard work; only an idiot would immediately dismantle it for a prank.
Ji Yuan looked around and saw two people in some kind of uniform resting by the stream a little further away. He quickly walked closer to ask them.
“Excuse me, guys, did you see where the campers who were here earlier went? We just finished setting up our camp not long ago!”
The two men visibly flinched, startled by the sudden voice.
They turned to look at Ji Yuan in surprise. Although they had been resting, they were also observant of their surroundings; it was as if this person had suddenly materialized.
Hearing Ji Yuan’s question, one of them instinctively replied.
“Camping? Just now? No one has been camping on Ox Head Mountain these past few days. Everyone’s busy looking for a missing person.”
“Huh?”
This answer left Ji Yuan even more bewildered.
“Someone’s gone missing in the mountains?”
The company had checked before organizing the trip; there hadn’t been any issues here, and the weather was perfectly fine.
“Yes, they’ve been missing for over half a month—a young man named Ji Yuan, who came camping with his colleagues. By the way, who did you come here with? Where are your companions? Haven’t you heard about the search for the missing person?”
As the rescue worker spoke, he carefully observed the man in front of him, finding his appearance somewhat familiar. Meanwhile, Ji Yuan, standing beside him, froze upon hearing that last sentence.
‘Missing? Me? For over half a month?’
Ji Yuan’s first reaction was a sense of absurdity, followed by a feeling that something was deeply wrong.
Before a stunned Ji Yuan could say anything more, a strong wave of dizziness washed over him.
His vision went black. Ji Yuan felt as if he had instantly lost all his strength; an intense feeling of weakness and dizziness enveloped him. His legs gave way, and he collapsed.
Furthermore, during this process, Ji Yuan’s body visibly thinned, and his lips became extremely chapped, as if rapidly weathered.
“Sir? Sir, what’s wrong? Be careful!”
“Catch him, catch him!”
“This isn’t good! Call for backup!”
The last sounds Ji Yuan heard in this life were the startled cries of the two rescue workers, as if echoing from a great distance.
[24 seconds from now] Chapter 24: New Resident in the Ju'an Pavilion
[5 minutes ago] Chapter 48: Old Soldier and Mulberry
[5 minutes ago] Chapter 56: The Beginning
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