To avoid drawing attention from others, Hu Li and Jing Li purposefully stayed behind to wash up. As he followed Jing Li into the tent, Hu Li glanced around and noticed that the lights in the other tents were all turned off.
Though the approaching footsteps outside were muffled, they did not escape Hu Li’s keen hearing.
Moreover, Jing Li had previously erected a barrier around the entire tent for the sake of privacy. So, for someone to enter the barrier’s range so stealthily and at this particular time made Hu Li suspicious of their identity and intentions.
Just as Hu Li was pondering this, a soft voice suddenly came from outside the tent, “Jing Li, are you asleep?”
The voice was deliberately lowered, as if afraid of disturbing the occupants or startling something else.
If it were not for the two inside the tent having exceptional senses, and the current silence, they might not have even heard it.
Hu Li: “…”
After recognizing the speaker, Hu Li felt slightly relieved.
The person carried traces of Jing Li’s spiritual energy, and the barrier erected by Jing Li must have detected the same aura, allowing their approach.
However, thinking about this, Hu Li suddenly felt sympathetic towards the person’s situation.
For an ordinary person with higher education to suddenly have demonic energy disrupting their aura and witness such supernatural phenomena, their entire worldview must be on the verge of shattering. However, they dared not speak of it to others, and had to endure the misunderstandings of those around them, which was really pitiful.
With this in mind, Hu Li’s gaze toward the dark silhouette cast by the moonlight on the tent now held a touch of compassion.
Outside, Su Mengran did not seem to sense anything amiss. After speaking and receiving no response, thinking Jing Li might not have heard, he slightly raised his voice and asked again, “Jing Li? Are you asleep?”
This time, there was a response.
“Not yet.” Jing Li glanced at Hu Li, his expression calm as he addressed the one outside, “Come in.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the tent flap was lifted, and Su Mengran entered from outside.
Probably because he didn’t expect that there would be other people in the tent besides Jing Li, Su Mengran paused noticeably when he saw Hu Li. His gaze swept over the two of them, and then he smiled a little awkwardly and said, “The leader is also here.”
“Yes, he came to chat with me for a bit.” Jing Li casually explained, then asked, “Did you have something to discuss with me?”
Though phrased as a question, Jing Li already had a good idea of the purpose behind Su Mengran’s visit.
Sure enough, Su Mengran’s expression changed slightly when he heard his question, but the next second he glanced at Hu Li next to him with some hesitation, obviously having some concerns.
“It’s alright, Hu Li is one of us.” Jing Li quickly explained.
Su Mengran paused briefly, then his eyes lit up, “He, he’s the same as you…?”
Considering that they were still in the wild, Su Mengran didn’t explain his words, but he firmly believed that the two people in front of him would understand his meaning.
Jing Li gave him a look and nodded, tacitly confirming it.
While he was unsure of what peculiar notions Su Mengran had entertained, he and Hu Li were indeed the same. Both of them were demons.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Jing Li simply asked, “Is this about Hu Feifei’s matter?”
Su Mengran faltered for a moment, then quickly nodded, “Yes, after being bumped by her on the plane, I suddenly became abnormal. I always saw a cloud of black and red mist turning into a skull following me. Later, I also saw this same colored mist on Hu Feifei’s body, but since you patted my shoulder, this thing suddenly disappeared.”
Once the floodgates opened, Su Mengran no longer held back.
Looking at the two, he asked cautiously, “So I just want to know, is Hu Feifei a demon? Does she… eat people or something?”
“Pfft.” Seeing the evident concern and alarm on his face, Hu Li suddenly laughed, pulling Su Mengran close to his side. Eyeing him with amusement, he remarked, “Seeing a bit of mist and conjuring up all these ideas – it’s a pity you’re not an editor, you’ve got quite the imagination.”
“There are no demons in this world. Looks like you’re just scaring yourself silly.”
“And even if Hu Feifei were some man-eating demon, why would she be in the entertainment industry? Wouldn’t a remote, desolate place be more convenient for her to do evil?”
With Hu Li’s teasing, the atmosphere in the tent lightened considerably, and Su Mengran’s expression visibly relaxed.
But he still had doubts, and he didn’t completely believe Hu Li’s words, so he looked up at Jing Li again.
Compared with Hu Li, he believed in Jing Li, who had helped him before.
“Hu Li isn’t lying to you.” Meeting his eyes, Jing Li nodded. “You and Hu Feifei have merely been tainted by something unclean, but it’s gone now, so don’t worry.”
He didn’t need to involve this ordinary person into the world of monsters, so he didn’t go into details. He simply intended to calm the man down for now, then erase his memories of the black mist later when he was asleep.
Seeing Jing Li’s earnest manner, Su Mengran finally believed him.
Recalling how Jing Li had taken Hu Feifei to the seaside and she had returned visibly weakened, he became even more convinced that Jing Li had cleansed her of the unclean thing.
With this realization, Su Mengran’s gaze towards Jing Li became infused with even greater respect.
“Alright, it’s getting late, and we have more to do tomorrow. Time to head back and get some sleep.” Seeing Su Mengran about to ramble on, Hu Li quickly patted his shoulder, adding, “I was just about to go back myself, we can walk together.”
By this time, it was indeed late, and Su Mengran, having resolved his fears, was also feeling fatigued. Nodding, he bid farewell to Jing Li and exited the tent, with Hu Li following behind.
Seeing them off, Jing Li pulled the tent flap closed, expanded the barrier to encompass all three of their tents, then extinguished the light and settled into his sleeping bag.
Lying down, he extended his spiritual awareness to monitor the surroundings, only relaxing once he heard Su Mengran’s even breathing. He then gently released a tendril of spiritual power to infiltrate the other tent.
*
The next morning, everyone hurried to wash up, have breakfast, and prepare before the live broadcast began at 9 o’clock, marking the start of their new journey.
“Alright, let’s execute the plan we discussed last night. I hope we can all gain a lot today.” Hu Li cheerfully encouraged the guests, then picked up his trekking stick and took the lead. “Let’s go!”
The others responded in kind and followed behind.
The viewers watching the livestream, who had not heard the previous night’s plans, immediately erupted in frustration.
“Aaaargh, what plan are they even talking about?!”
“I thought coming early might let me catch some inside information, but I guess I was hoping for too much.”
“I hate it the most when people only tell half the story, it’s so frustrating!”
“Ugh, I just want the production team to hurry up and edit the previous content so I can see what they discussed last night!”
…
Amid the clamor in the livestream, the five guests climbed to the mountaintop, selected a new campsite, and left their luggage and Hu Feifei there. The remaining four then split into two groups to search the left and right sides of the mountain.
Su Mengran and Ling Mei’s side had a relatively gentler terrain, and they soon disappeared from sight.
Jing Li and Hu Li’s route was much steeper, with denser vegetation. The two carefully made their way down, one wielding a trekking stick to clear the obstacles.
Fortunately, after passing the initial steep section, the path gradually became more open, reducing the difficulties.
“This side looks really difficult to get through, and I don’t see any signs that someone’s been here before. The production team can’t be that stupid, hiding clues in a place like this, right?”
Hu Li said as he cleared the path, looking back at Jing Li, “Are you sure we really need to search all the way down?”
Jing Li was about to respond when he suddenly felt a tug on his clothes. Turning back, he saw a tree branch had caught on his clothes, straining them almost to the point of deformation as he walked.
He paused, stepped back a bit, and was about to reach out to untangle it when he caught a glimpse of a glint in the corner of his eye. Looking down, he saw a small hole at the base of the tree branch that had hooked his clothes, and a card with the show’s logo was quietly lying there.
Hu Li, seeing Jing Li get caught by the branch, followed his gaze and immediately felt a sting of embarrassment. “……”
Damn, they’re going this far?!
The camera crew happened to zoom in on the tree branch and the hidden card, and the viewers in the livestream erupted in laughter.
“Hahahahaha, they just finished complaining, and now they’ve found the clue! I just want to ask Hu Li if his face hurts?!”
“Hahahaha, look at Hu Li’s expression, I can practically hear him cursing in his head!”
“Hahahaha, I’ll laugh first in respect. But you know, Jing Li’s luck is really amazing.”
“Jing Li’s luck +1 first randomly finding the unconscious pheasant, and now getting snagged by the branch to discover the hidden card.”
“Seeing everyone say that, I can’t help but feel more convinced of Jing Li’s ‘koi’ identity…”
“Me too…”
“I don’t care, I’m going to post a Weibo about wishing for good luck by reposting the ‘koi’ right now. Who knows, it might actually work!”
“The sister in front, come back and tell us when you’ve posted it, I’ll repost it too.”
…
The livestream was immediately abuzz with renewed discussions about Jing Li’s ‘koi’ identity. The fan who had randomly decided to post a ‘wishing for good luck’ on Weibo with Jing Li’s photo actually did it and shared the link back.
Seeing this, many others joined in, either just going along with the trend or finding it amusing, which caused small sensation in the livestream.
However, the two people in the livestream were unaware of this. Hu Li was still dissatisfied, frowning at the hidden card.
“…The production team is too shameless! Who would ever find something hidden in a place like this?!” he grumbled, crouching down to retrieve the card.
Seeing that Jing Li had freed his clothes from the branch, Hu Li opened the card to take a look.
“An auction?” he read the content on the card, then turned to Jing Li with a thoughtful expression. “What does this mean? Could it be that the treasure was once displayed at some auction? Or is the source from a certain auction house?”
Those were the only two possibilities he could think of.
“Very likely.” Jing Li nodded in agreement, then suggested, “Let’s keep going, maybe we can find more clues.”
“Alright.” Hu Li responded, putting the card in his backpack and continuing forward, though he sounded somewhat unconvinced, “But I think the chances of finding more clues are pretty slim. The trees are too dense, and the path is so difficult here. The production team wouldn’t make it this hard for themselves, would they?”
Jing Li just smiled without a word, but the viewers in the livestream were quick to tease.
“I’d advise you not to speak too soon…”
“Looks like someone has already forgotten the humiliation of being proven wrong earlier.”
“For some reason, I’m kind of looking forward to seeing him get slapped in the face again.”
…
Amid the viewers’ gleeful jeering, Jing Li and Hu Li made their way down from the mountaintop. Though the path was relatively flatter here, the dense vegetation still made it challenging, and they had to constantly swing their sticks to clear the obstacles.
After walking for an hour or two, even the most resilient person would start to feel fatigued. Hu Li was beginning to grow weary.
“Let’s rest for a bit.” He tossed his trekking stick to the ground and sat down, leaning against a large tree. “We’ve searched all this way and haven’t even found a hint of a card. I bet my guess was right, there’s probably nothing left.”
Jing Li also found a big tree to sit under, casually placing his stick beside him. Just as he was about to speak, he felt something beneath his hand. Brushing away the dried leaves, he revealed the familiar logo card.
Hu Li, looking over, was left speechless. “…”
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