pertwk Chapter 40: Clues about "Staff"
Chapter 40: Clues about "Staff"
The rising sun casts its light across the pond.
Fulong Mountain is lush and green, and the birdsong is clear and melodious.
The hiking trails on Fulong Mountain are actually quite wide, and because they are close to the foot of the mountain, they are not steep.
The starting section of the hiking trail on Fulong Mountain is quite wide, paved with flat bluestone slabs, and the slope is very gentle, making it quite easy to walk on.
One side of the trail is close to the mountain, where gnarled tree roots grip the rocks like giant claws, while the other side is also covered with old trees with twisted branches, and beyond that is a dense secondary forest.
Under the bright sunlight, the towering peaks seemed to be edged with gold, and the distant White Dragon Pool looked like a huge piece of jade in the morning light, while the waterfall hung like a silver ribbon.
Lin Weiwei walked at the front of the group with light steps. As she walked, she observed the rock walls and vegetation on both sides of the trail with great interest, as if looking for some special marks or traces. Occasionally, she would take out a small notebook and quickly jot down a few notes.
Li Jiu walked beside Lin Weiwei with steady steps. Ever since he finished talking with Professor He, he had accepted the fact that his spiritual sense had awakened, and he had been scanning his surroundings with his eyes the whole way.
The twisted trees and deep shadows, in particular, always made him feel uneasy, as if twisted snakes were coiled beneath those tree trunks.
Tang Mubai was clearly unusually excited, sometimes rushing to the front of the line and sometimes falling to the back, like a Qin king circling a pillar, stopping every now and then to take a few random pictures of the strangely shaped trees with his old phone.
He eventually managed to join the four-person group chat created by Lin Weiwei.
He was using a temporary phone borrowed from the Mushroom House; it was a bit old, but better than nothing.
However, when his gaze inadvertently swept over some bushes beside the path, his body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment, as if he had seen something. He then covered it up with a larger movement, as if trying to dispel some kind of unease in his heart...
Zhang Fanjie walked at the back of the group, observing the two people and the monkey in front of her while also vigilantly scanning the gaps in the forest behind and to the sides.
Her right hand seemed to be habitually resting on the buckle of the canvas tool bag at her waist, as if she were about to pull out a transformation device and transform into armor at the slightest disturbance.
She seemed uninterested in the surrounding scenery, and appeared to be more focused on finding interesting spots worth exploring.
The group's first goal was to reach the first viewing pavilion along the hiking trail—Zhenyue Pavilion.
After walking for a while, Li Jiu saw that the outline of the Mushroom House had disappeared into the mountains and forests behind him. Unable to suppress his questions any longer, he asked, "Lin Weiwei, what did you mean when you said in the lobby that the Mushroom House was unreliable?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Weiwei slowed her pace and turned her gaze away from the scenery along the way, saying, "Let me make this clear first, this is purely hearsay!"
Li Jiu was startled: "Holy crap, are you going to start stacking armor right from the start?"
Lin Weiwei gently touched her delicate nose and smiled helplessly: "There's nothing I can do. The news is just too explosive, so this is really just a form of self-protection..."
Upon hearing this, Tang Mubai stopped playing on his phone and curiously came over.
Lin Weiwei paused for a moment, then continued, "Because I received some news that some of the rooms in the Mushroom House are occupied by dragon servants."
"This—?!" Tang Mubai's eyes widened suddenly, his voice rising, "Really?"
Lin Weiwei nodded with utmost seriousness: "Absolutely true!"
Tang Mubai immediately pouted and said, "Then why don't you just go to the Mushroom House and stake it out if you want to film the Dragon Servant? It's too much trouble to go through all this trouble climbing the mountain!"
Lin Weiwei rolled her eyes in annoyance: "Please, Young Master Tang! Do you think Long Shi is a monkey in a zoo? Going to someone's lair to take photos? You might not be afraid of dying, but I am!"
Tang Mubai shrugged, his gaze sweeping over Zhang Fanjie's bulging tool bag and Lin Weiwei's camera: "Judging by your fully armed setup, I seriously doubt the word 'afraid of death' even exists in your dictionary... I bet the Mushroom House is too heavily guarded, so you came to the mountains to try your luck, right?"
Li Jiu thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that instead of living there, they're imprisoning them? For example, after they captured the Dragon Servant, they imprisoned him in a specific room?"
He saw the monks from Jiding Temple come to arrest the Dragon Servants last night. If there are some Dragon Servants in the Mushroom House who have been captured, then that would make perfect sense.
Lin Weiwei said, "It's not impossible, but of course, what I just said was only a small part!"
"Anything else?" Tang Mubai pressed.
Lin Weiwei gave him a deep look: "The other one is related to you."
"Huh???" Tang Mubai was stunned, a barely perceptible hint of panic flashing in his eyes. He pointed to his nose and said, "...Me???"
Lin Weiwei nodded and said, "In the past, some reckless people claimed to have seen a dense swarm of snakes in White Dragon Pool, and then secretly took diving equipment into the mountains, bypassed the Mushroom House, and went to dive and explore White Dragon Pool..."
Li Jiu's heart skipped a beat: "How are these people doing?"
Lin Weiwei said, "There's been absolutely no news."
"Missing? Or...?"
"After they went diving, the staff discovered them, quickly brought them ashore, and then took them into the Mushroom House... No one has seen them since."
"They were killed by the Mushroom House?" Tang Mubai asked, surprising everyone.
Lin Weiwei shook her head: "Nobody knows."
"Didn't anyone call the police?"
Lin Weiwei chuckled: "Of course there are, but... 'Who here accuses this official?'"
"Uh, this..." Li Jiu choked for a moment.
Lin Weiwei said, "The Fulong Mountain authorities detained these people on the grounds of illegally damaging the natural ecological environment. Their official explanation was that after being detained, they voluntarily became 'staff members' of Fulong Mountain, assisting with the scenic area's security work and so on..."
"Staff"...?
Li Jiu felt as if struck by lightning; almost instantly, he thought of the rule in the Longtan Visitor Guide that mentioned "staff members"—
Our staff will patrol the surrounding forest area outside the scenic area from time to time. If you see indistinct figures in the forest outside the riverside area, do not panic. Please make sure they are staff members.
When you spot staff members, never approach them or respond to their waving or calls!
Do NOT go near them!!!
The problem is so serious, no wonder the advice is "Never go near them!"
No way, this makes logical sense?!
Has anyone seen those people since?
"Of course not," Lin Weiwei said.
"Not a single one?" Li Jiu asked unwillingly.
Lin Weiwei nodded firmly: "That's right."
"The staff at Fulong Mountain are actually a very mysterious group... You think they're the kind of people you see at the Mushroom House reception desk?"
"Completely wrong!"
"Based on information pieced together by our newspaper over many years of tracking, the 'staff' truly responsible for the 'core area' and 'abnormal events' within the Fulong Mountain Scenic Area... are likely not limited to the category of 'people'!!"