Lin Feng, Chongxi, Xiao Qi, and the others walked up to the table, looked at the word that I wrote, and laughed. Tao Gang and Deputy Director Zhao did a search of the house, but they couldn’t find anything. The rooms were all empty without any hard evidence left. Then Deputy Director Zhao sent someone to collect things like fingerprints. However, unexpectedly, there was no trace of the suspect in the whole house!

I took up the rice paper, folded it, put it in my pocket, and said to Tao Gang, “Do you know the reason why that man replied to you with weird and short sentences when you questioned him?” Tao Gang said, “I have no idea!” I said, “The reason was that he was the man who called the police. He made a copy of the phonecard of his neighbor from upstairs and called the police. In fear of being recognized by you that he was the caller, he had to control his speech!” I took out the cigarettes, handed one to Tao Gang, lit it, and then said, “This case has been a scheme since the beginning. There was a spy in the police station who tipped him off on when you would arrive here. Then he called the police knowing that you would come. When you were at the house, he cast a spell on you. After that, Xiao Zhang volunteered to attend to you, by which he got access to your phone and contacted Zheng Shuang!” Deputy Director Zhao asked, “What should we do to support you?” I answered, “Nothing for now. Keep your phone online. When we need your support, we will contact you!” Deputy Director Zhao said, “Okay!” I shook hands with him and said, “See you!”

After we said goodbye to Deputy Director Zhao, we drove to the east, found a gas station, filled up the tank, and headed out to the outside of the town. After we left the county, I pulled out the calabash gourd, put the rice paper on its opening, and said the incantation. Then the Bee Scout came out. Lin Feng asked me, “Can you see the Bee Scout in daylight?” I said, “It’s okay. My spirit sight can see the direction of its aura!” In this way, I drove following the Bee Scout. It flew quite fast. But compared to the speed of the car, it looked very poor. Our car drove at a moderate speed.

As we drove, the road started to get narrower, and the environment became more and more bleak and desolate. On the way down, Chongxi fell asleep already at the backseat. Although the road condition was terrible, he still managed to sleep like a baby. What a carefree bloke he was. Gradually, the grassland around became more and more sparse. Although the field was still green, the height of the grass ahead became shorter and shorter. Lin Feng muttered, “It feels like northern Shaanxi.”

After this kind of landscape lasted for dozens of kilometers, an outline of a mountain showed up in the distance ahead, and green plants started to thrive. When we drove closer, we found that there was an area full of glimmering water. It was a reservoir! When we reached the road around the lake, the landscape became better. Seeing that the Bee Scout flew to the lake, I took out the calabash gourd hurriedly. I withdrew the Bee Scout into the calabash gourd before it flew too far. We wouldn’t be able to follow it if it flew far into the lake! While we were driving along the road, a grassland resort came into view! We found a 24-hour parking lot and parked our car. We asked around and were told by the locals that the edge of the reservoir was about a dozen kilometers ahead. Over the hills, there were no signs of human habitation. The east side and the south side were cliffs. And there was no road in the east. On years with high precipitation, the water would flood over the hill and run down the cliff on the east side. The reservoir was built based on the terrain utilization here. This year was a year of low precipitation. The east side of the hill was a wild grassland. If we wanted to go east, because the cliff on the east was a dead end, we needed to climb up the cliff on the south side and then head east through the grassland on the southern foothill. After we asked for directions, we geared up and set off.

It was not yet past 10 a.m. The grass on the grassland down the cliff was quite tall. Although there was no water, judging from the variety of grass, there should be stagnant water before long. The weeds were tall and full of dew. We all got water on us. Luckily our outdoor jackets were of high quality and breathable but waterproof. Then we reached down the cliff. The cliff wasn’t very steep with some trees and protruding rocks that we could use. Climbing up there should be easy. The three of us spread out in a distance of 30 meters and started climbing at the same time. This way we could avoid hitting each other with the falling stones trodden down by the one above.

Lin Feng was the fastest climber, and Chongxi was a bit slower than me. Halfway through, we sat on some rocks to take a break. We didn’t think that the cliff would be so high before we started climbing. We looked up from time to time during climbing, but we didn’t seem to be moving up! Although our legs felt weak, we had to hold on straight to the end. Therefore none of us complained! It wouldn’t help even if we did. From a distance, I saw Lin Feng getting close to the top. Then I quickened my pace. Suddenly, I sensed a shadow skittering from afar!

I gazed up at it. Shit! There was an eagle heading towards Lin Feng as quick as a flash. I called out, “Brother Lin, look out! There is an eagle!” Lin Feng turned his head and found that the eagle was swooping down. He lowered his head unhurriedly. And the eagle roared past over him! Then it adjusted its angle and prepared to attack again! At this moment, without a second thought, I held on to a tree with my left hand, took out the calabash gourd on my right side, uncovered it, and rapidly spoke the Imperius Curse. With a black gale, the spirit of the eagle was drawn into the calabash gourd. Then I hastily put the lid back on. The eagle suddenly fell off the cliff from which it was hovering around. And with two bumps, it dropped down! I said in my mind, “That was close!” With great strides, Lin Feng climbed up to the top of the cliff. I shouted to him, “Brother Lin, look out for us. If there are any more eagles, let me know in time.” After that, the two of us hurried our pace and climbed up!

Logically speaking, under this circumstance, there should be an eyrie on the cliff. The eagle attacked us because it wanted to protect its chicks from getting hurt. That’s why it would proactively attack a target nearby. There should be another eagle around if one showed up. Therefore I must climb up to the top faster with a better pace. With Lin Feng and I to distract the eagle, Chongxi would be safe! While getting closer to the top, I found that the wind was quite strong, whizzing around my ears. It gave me a cool feeling though!

After I reached the top, I took out the calabash gourd in haste. Then I got so busy looking for the other eagle that I didn’t even take a rest. Lin Feng was encouraging Chongxi at the other side, who was panting as heavily as an air bellow. I felt quite weird that there were no signs of another eagle all around! Let alone the eyrie! Perhaps… The eyrie was hidden well! After Chongxi climbed up to the top, we three sat on the top, resting and drinking water! After a short while, we started to smoke. Thanks to my windproof Zippo lighter, we got to light the cigarettes. None of their lighters worked in such a strong wind.

We had a discussion and decided that although our target was in the east, we were not heading east. Looking distantly, the landscape in the east was yellowish, which implied that there was a water shortage. If there was no water, we might not hold on for long because we didn’t bring enough water. What was even worse was that a place without water was a place without animals. Our chance of finding food was also small. Therefore, the southern foothill that the locals mentioned should be where we should go after we went downhill! It was almost noon. We had some solid food and headed downhill.

Before we moved, we had a look at the lie of the mountain and the plant distribution, predicted which direction would have a river, and then we headed downhill. The hillside was gradual. But my legs still felt weak. I should have exercised more before I hiked. I wasn’t strong enough! When we almost reached the foot of the hill, we found a creek. Although it was a small one, it was flowing water. The water we brought was already half gone. But we didn’t throw the bottles away. I told them beforehand to keep the bottles. And even if there was water during the journey, we shouldn’t drink it directly. Because if anyone of us had stomach pain, that would be serious! After walking along the creek for a while, it had become wider. We looked into the distance, and there weren’t any villages. We knew that we had to stop. Then we sat down to have a rest and discussed how to last the night!

We made a camping plan. The first step was to find wood, which was a piece of cake for me. The pine trees around were not too tall and branched out before they could grow as tall as a human, which was to our use. We put some logs on the top of a few small pine trees and covered them with pine needles. We didn’t need it to keep out the rain, just the dew. In the direction where the wind came, I also hung some pine needles to shape a bevel. After that, I picked a piece of wormwood and said to them, “Take a look at the plant and pick some more of this!” Chongxi asked, “What is this plant? It doesn’t smell good!” I told him, “This is wormwood. They can repel mosquitoes! You don’t like them, neither do the mosquitoes!” After we collected enough wormwoods, I told Chongxi to find dry pine branches and Lin Feng to whittle some sticks. Then I started to cut off some yellow roots from the trees growing at the side of the creek. Lin Feng didn’t understand what we were doing. I told him, “Follow my instructions, and you will see it soon!” After I got the roots, I separated them, attached a few strings to them, and made a few sets of traps that could catch birds by tangling their feet. Then Lin Feng and I made a few fishing traps, caught some locusts, removed their feet, and used them as bait. The last step, we twined some wormwoods on the pine branches and also spread them on the ground. And we made a fire in front of the little cabin we built. Now, we could finally sit down, have a cigarette and take a rest. While we were talking, I spalled some wormwood, put them into the bottle with water, and boiled them. Chongxi asked, “You want to drink this?” I answered, “Some people in the south do cook them for food! But the reason that I boil it is to help us repel mosquitoes after sunset. After it boils, we cool it down and apply the water on our exposed body parts.”

Xiao Qi laughed sitting at the side and said, “Shiyan, where did you learn all these tricks? That’s almost like a Man vs. Wild episode!” I said in my mind, “You also know Man vs. Wild?”