Under the rain curtain, a middle-aged man hugged his son, his face showing the joy of having gained and lost.
The cold rain fell, but it could not extinguish the vitality in his eyes.
"Xiaoyuan, where have you been this afternoon?"
Back in the lobby, after the brief joy of family reunion, the couple immediately asked questions about their son's whereabouts.
Why can't I find any trace of Xiaoyuan after searching the surrounding area?
Regarding this question, the boy's answer made people laugh and cry: "I ran into a room and sat down, and accidentally fell asleep."
The houses he mentioned refer to other courtyards within the farmhouse. Some of these courtyards are occupied by employees, while others are vacant or used to store debris.
In this way, it is quite reasonable. The family who had been coerced by the man with earrings first found out that their son was missing, and subconsciously thought that something unexpected had happened.
This caused them to focus all their attention on the outside world during the subsequent search. Instead, they were under the dark lights and ignored the courtyard itself inside the farmhouse.
"It's a false alarm, it's a false alarm."
The old man who came back from the kitchen couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief after hearing the whole story.
Among the people present, only Gao Yi remained silent.
The moment the child appeared, he was ready to take action and directly control the child.
But what happened next was puzzling. Gao Yi quickly used [Mysterious Surprise] to check the other party, but he didn't find any traces related to the mystery on Xiao Yuan.
So Gao Yi chose to stay put for the time being. He wanted to follow up and observe the child's movements.
Because the breakthrough point in this incident may lie with Xiaoyuan.
"Fuck."
Suddenly, a curse sounded at the entrance of the lobby. Everyone turned to look and found that the person who came was actually the man with earrings who came to the mountain in the afternoon.
At this time, there was no spot on his body that was not dripping. Just looking at it made him feel extremely embarrassed. He completely lost the frivolous and arrogant demeanor he had when he forced the middle-aged man last night.
"Brother Shan, what's wrong?"
"Yes, didn't you take that man up the mountain? Why didn't he come back?"
The young people immediately gathered around and cheered.
"How does my mother-in-law know?"
The man with the earrings cursed again, looked around with a guilty conscience, and found that there was no sign of the alpaca weirdo. Then he felt relieved and said quickly: "He is like a ghost. As soon as I turned around, he disappeared.
Who knows where it went."
"Ah Shan, you're not really going to hit a ghost, are you?"
"Stop talking nonsense."
The man with earrings took off his wet coat, hung it outside the door, and called out urgently: "Waiter, waiter, come here and take my order."
"It's really not a place for people to live in these mountains right now. It's cold and hungry."
At this time, the two groups of people sitting on both sides of the lobby finally had their respective troubles come to an end and returned to the calm situation at noon.
Now they just need to wait until tomorrow morning to hike out of the mountain and try to find rescue.
"It's getting late, please let the kitchen cook quickly."
The old man said to the shop owner: "Everyone is trapped, and their mentality will inevitably be low. This dinner is treated as our treat."
The shop owner looked at the young man's table.
The old man's face was expressionless, as if asking again: What do you think?
The shop owner looked understanding and walked towards the kitchen.
In early spring, the days are still short and the nights are long, not to mention being in the mountains in the rain. As the time comes to 4:30, the outside world has become completely dark.
The rain had no tendency to decrease at all. Along with the strong mountain wind, the cold poured straight in, making everyone shiver.
It wasn't until the store owner closed the lobby door that I felt much better.
"Come on, let's sit together and stay warm."
The old man greeted Gao Yi and others, and they gathered at the table. Then, he slowly pushed a heater over, plugged it in, tried to heat it up, and then nodded with satisfaction.
There were ten people at this table. They were Gao Yi, his cousin, the shop owner and his son, the middle-aged man's family, and three foreign tourists.
Ignoring the noise coming from the other side, the old man smiled at first, as if he were doing something normal, and said in a casual tone: "Don't worry, our village will organize manpower to ask for help from the outside world early tomorrow morning."
"Before, before roads were built, we also had communication with the outside world. People like us, the older generation, used to travel over mountains and ridges to go to big counties to exchange things, so we are very familiar with the roads."
"There's nothing to worry about."
After hearing what he said, the sad expressions on the faces of the other people also softened slightly.
"What I said makes sense, what's there to worry about?"
The foreigner in the peaked cap has a rough appearance and a straightforward temperament. He immediately clapped his hands and echoed: "I think it is fate that I am trapped here with you all today. How about we introduce ourselves and get to know each other?"
"good."
As soon as these words came out, the other two foreigners, speaking with different accents, also echoed in succession, as if the three of them knew each other in this way.
Without the Internet, idle time is idle, and naturally the other people here have no intention of objecting.
"Then let's start with me, my name is..."
Starting from the peaked cap, passing by the other two foreigners, and then to the store owner and his son, they began to introduce themselves one by one.
But Gao Yi was indifferent to this. At this time, his eyes were completely focused on Xiao Yuan.
The several events that happened today are scattered like fragments. No matter how you piece them together, you can't come up with a tenable idea.
So he could only stare at Xiao Yuan, trying to find some clues from this lost child.
But it's a pity that since the other party came back, he didn't show anything unusual.
This gave Gao Yi a headache.
It's really too difficult... Why can't these monsters and monsters just take action? There's nothing here that can threaten its existence.
Why should it go to such trouble to isolate everything first?
Thinking about it from another angle, the subsequent impact of isolating everything is that the people here have no way to escape.
Does this mean that...the other party is temporarily unable to deal with himself and others, so he isolates the outside world first and waits for some factor to be completed or eliminated?
But this doesn't make sense. Since the other party can destroy the winding mountain road, why can't it deal with humans?
"Ayi?"
The cousin's voice ringing in his ears pulled Gao Yi out of his thoughts. Only then did he realize that his eyes had been on Xiao Yuan for a long time, making the little boy look very awkward.
"I'm sorry, I was thinking about something, so I got a little distracted." Gao Yi admitted generously, without any embarrassment.
Seeing that nothing happened, the middle-aged man cleared his throat and introduced himself: "Zhang Chaoxian, a staff member of Donghai Antique Appraisal Co., Ltd. I originally wanted to bring my family here to try something new before going to work, but I didn't expect to encounter such a thing.
"
Having said this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly, his face looking like he was disappointed.
Gao Yi glanced at him and found his words very interesting. He mentioned the name of his company and his specific situation, but just used the word "personnel" to vaguely explain it.
I'm quite wary.
After a round of introductions, the ten people present were already familiar with each other. Under the enthusiastic guidance of the peaked hat, several people at this table also began to become active.
The heater warmed the lobby, and the waiters came with the food. For a moment, the farmhouse seemed to have returned to the leisure time of the past. There was no network disconnection, no road closure, and only the quietness of the years remained.
The old man even took out his home-brewed rice wine and wanted to give everyone a taste to warm their bodies.
But Gao Yi didn't want any of them to drink alcohol tonight and relax their due vigilance.
"By the way, cousin."
His seemingly unintentional words suddenly rang out at the table.
"Tell me, why didn't those climbers come back?"
The old man's hand that was about to pour the wine stopped.
The entire atmosphere at the table suddenly came to a standstill.