She was probably on a snowy mountain. Judging from the surrounding environment, the mountain was extremely desolate and uninhabited. She did bring a thin down jacket—although it could protect against the cold, she could not withstand the cold outdoors for a long time.
She had only been on the mountain for a while, and her hands and feet were already shaking.
The new students who entered the space-time rift with her vanished without a trace. Presumably, they had been teleported to a different place. The sky was bright now. She glanced at the time on her watch, and it was exactly nine o’clock in the morning.
Lin Xinghe guessed that the school wanted to test their outdoors survival skills first. Just like in the ancient era department exam broadcast she watched, the students were expected to survive in an uninhabited area.
Lin Xinghe rubbed her hands together and started moving. She climbed to a high place first, looking for a path down the mountain.
Unexpectedly, just as she got to a ledge quite high up, she heard the hum of machines in the distance. She looked up and saw a helicopter flying by. Lin Xinghe didn’t hesitate to pick up the broom in her hand and wave it vigorously. The pilot noticed Lin Xinghe and brought her aboard.
In addition to the captain, there was a little girl nodding off on the helicopter.
As soon as Lin Xinghe sat down, the captain scolded, “Didn’t you see the bad weather warning written at the bottom of the mountain? There will be a blizzard soon, so why are you still hiking up the mountain? Nowadays, young people don’t know how to appreciate their lives. Waste of national rescue resources.”
Lin Xinghe sincerely replied, “You are right, I will not make such stupid mistakes again in the future. I must cherish my life and save resources for the country!”
Lin Xinghe’s good attitude softened the captain’s countenance, and his tone was less severe. He added, “You are lucky that I received a rescue mission and came into the mountains to save people. If you hadn’t met me, when the blizzard came, you would have been frozen to death or buried by the snow. This mountain is very evil—it’s said that sixteen people died when they came to explore here. If I had come late or hadn’t met you, you would have become the seventeenth.”
Lin Xinghe heard a clue, so she got excited and asked, “What legend?”
The captain’s mien shifted slightly, his voice low, and he said, “Don’t ask so many questions, and in the future, don’t go where you don’t need to be.” He stopped talking. Noticing this, Lin Xinghe stopped asking questions.
She glanced at the little girl sitting next to her. The girl looked only three or four years old, wrapped in an army green blanket, and the exposed halves of her ears were white from the cold.
The captain had already turned around and left the snowy mountain, and he said that he had received a rescue mission, which should have been to save the little girl.
That was a little weird. How did a little girl who looked no more than five years old get up the mountain herself?
Lin Xinghe took out a candy from her backpack, handed it to the little girl beside her, and asked warmly, “Little sister, do you want candy?”
The little girl finally raised her head, revealing a pair of round eyes. Her whole face was covered in a thick layer of strange dirt. She glanced at the candy in Lin Xinghe’s palm and shrank back without saying a word.
The captain then said, “Her mother was quite courageous, taking a child only a few years old to climb the snowy mountains. Both of them have been missing for three days. The father reported the case. The mother was found on another hill yesterday—she was already in shock when help arrived, so they sent her to the city hospital for emergency treatment. She is still in the ICU and has not come out. Fortunately, I found the little girl today. ”
The little girl shrank even lower.
Not long after, Lin Xinghe and the little girl arrived at the rescue center. A staff member came to ask about Lin Xinghe’s situation, and seeing that she was fine, she let Lin Xinghe leave. Unexpectedly, the little girl grabbed Lin Xinghe and refused to let go.
The staff tried to dissuade her over and over, but finally they had no choice but to tell Lin Xinghe, “Her father has already heard the news and is now coming from the city. It’s a bit far, so the earliest he can arrive is tomorrow.”
Lin Xinghe replied thoughtfully, “It’s okay, I’m here on vacation and have nothing else to do. I can help take care of her for the night.”
“What a relief. You can spend the night with her here and rest in our overnight rooms; they have hot water for baths.”
Lin Xinghe didn’t grow up with her parents or have younger siblings either. When she saw the girl who looked like a glutinous rice dumpling,* she loved her from the bottom of her heart and took the little girl by the hand to the room provided.
*Glutinous rice dumplings are similar to mochi. This term is usually used to describe a little kid who’s super cute with the classic pinchable chubby cheeks
While the helicopter was landing, she had observed the town under the mountain. It had been twelve o’clock at noon in the small village, but there were hardly any people on the street. Piles of snow were everywhere, and it seemed like a deserted town .
The rescue center was also very simple and the facilities in the room were relatively old, but the heating, hot running water, and beds were heaven and earth compared to the frozen ground on the snow-capped mountains.
Gu Taoyao once again sighed enviously at the luck of her deskmate! They all started from the same place, but the other four freshmen were still huddled together on the snowy mountain to keep warm. They found an abandoned wooden house and were preparing for the imminent arrival of the snowstorm.