Chapter 88
This mountain reminded Gu Pan of White Tea Mountain. It was also in the afternoon, similarly enveloped in dense forest. However, that time, they had gotten lost, an experience that left a group of armchair mountaineers "too embarrassed to mention." But now, Gu Pan felt no sense of being lost; instead, his goal seemed increasingly clear. This sense of purpose came from Zhang Mo's entrusted task and even more from Ling Hanlu. He remembered when he had slipped and fallen in White Tea Mountain, his mind had gone blank. As he tumbled down the steep slope and his right arm crashed into a rock, the excruciating pain brought Ling Hanlu's smiling face to his mind. It was like a painkiller. Months later, Gu Pan came to another mountain with a mission. Though the terrain here wasn’t as treacherous, the crunching of dead leaves underfoot echoed in his heart, making him feel that this journey was even more a matter of life and death. He forged ahead, delving deeper into the forest, feeling as if he were step by step approaching some final destination, or perhaps an endpoint. As the sun set, the mountain grew colder, and Gu Pan instinctively pulled his neck into his shoulders. Far from the village and its sounds, the pine forest was so quiet he could only hear the wind rustling through the branches. And within that wind, now and then, came the faint sounds of life. A shadow. It moved a few times, then knelt beside a large rock. The man’s deep