C50 Maple

This is a valley, which seems unremarkable in Googleearth.

The exact location of this coordinates is not far from us, about 400 kilometers southwest of Qianchao City. This was the border between the three provinces. From the satellite map, it was surrounded by dark green mountains. Not even a road could be seen. I remembered one time at a table, a friend of San Mao's who was drinking wine and bragging, said that at the border between our province and Western Mountain Province, it was the place where the two cannons were stationed. All the mountains there were hollowed out, and in the middle of the mountain, the best weapons of our country were hidden.

"What is this place?" muttered the Taoist, staring at the map on the computer screen.

"Won't we know if we go and take a look?" I blurted it out like a man in a trance.

The Taoist looked up at me sharply, his eyes sparkling.

It wasn't that I was brave, or as curious as the Taoist. In that instant, I felt that the SOS signal had been sent by MaggieQ, and I didn't even think about it, as if it were fated to be, as if it were only natural that I should go and save her, and then I remembered that this strong, uncontrollable impulse was like a salmon returning to its native land to lay its eggs, and then dying of exhaustion; like a male praying mantis attracted to its mother and eaten willingly after mating.

San Mao was also called back by us. He had always known that we were investigating, but he had always scoffed at our theory, thinking that the person with the severed neck was just an illusion. He didn't even believe that the MaggieQ I told him about was pointing a gun at me. But as soon as I told him we were going into the mountains to explore, he came back jubilantly.

"Finally I have a chance to use you," I said to myself as I picked up my ancestral bird backpack, weighed it in my hand.

I bought this backpack when I was dating a donkey friend for a while, but before I could use it, she saw through my desire to get close to her just to sleep with her, not really liking the reality of outdoor sports. After she told me she was a Lala, we became good buddies, but I never went out again.

The backpack was fully equipped, and for me, who had been so focused on picking up girls at the time, everything was the best I could buy — a professional Magellan field GPS, a Zeiss Glimmer telescope, Wolf's Claw tent and sleeping bag, Bell's survival knife, and even a complete gas stove and cooking utensils.

For the Taoist priest, who was always ready to run, equipment was even more of a problem. He rolled up his bedroll on the floor of the study and stuffed a few clothes into his backpack, preparing to leave.

The two of us carried a big backpack and were about to go out like refugees. San Mao stared at us in a daze at the door with his round eyes.

"Where's your stuff?" the Taoist asked at the same time.

San Mao shrugged his shoulders, "Wouldn't it be fine if you bring it?"

We're driving San Mao's car, a 4.0 capacity Toyota Prado. This was the only valuable property that San Mao had acquired after working for more than ten years. Because of this, he and his parents went through a long war. As a result, in the three years since they bought the car, his mother never spoke to him, and she told me several times that crazy housing prices had caused them to no longer have the ability to help their children buy a decent house in this city. If San Mao didn't buy a car, then he could buy a house anywhere with their lifetime savings and the payment for the car … Every time she talked about it, she would shed tears because San Mao was not up to the task and because she couldn't persevere anymore.

San Mao, on the other hand, viewed this car as a treasure, and had even reached the level of a fetishist. If he had to choose between a scratch on a random girl and the car that he was dating with, he would definitely kick her out of the car without hesitation!

"Good child, your father is taking you out to have fun …" San Mao started the engine, caressed the dashboard behind the steering wheel and mumbled to himself. There was a perverted look on his face, saying that a man's serious expression was the most handsome, perhaps this was San Mao's most handsome state.

It was a hot, humid summer day, and the afternoon air was so stuffy that it seemed like it was about to leak out. We followed the slightly dilapidated highway westward, and as we headed west, we could see more and more barren hills and mountains outside the window. The trees were beginning to thicken, the houses in the village were slowly becoming sparse, and the traffic on the road was becoming sparse.

At night, the situation became even more lonely, even the laughing San Mao and the Daoist Priest all shut their mouths, and only smoked quietly one after another. Occasionally, there would be a train, rumbling past the parallel tracks, the body of the train would be brightly lit, and every single window would have a shadow of a person flash past them.

"We're here …" San Mao softly spat out these two words.

I looked up and saw a line of words shining on the road — "Welcome to Xu Qiu County (fictitious place name)".

This is the nearest civilized place to that nameless valley, and the place where we planned to rest for the night. From the map, we could see that this was probably a county town, but we didn't sense any business atmosphere. Apart from a brand-new four-lane main road, everything else was shabby and barren. Most of the buildings on both sides of the road were two or three stories long. Most of the streets were only accessible to one vehicle, and there were many places where the spacious body of Prado could not be entered at all. There were few lights or pedestrians on the roads at around nine o'clock in the evening. It was not easy to find a brightly lit location. When he approached, he saw that it was actually the county government.

There are times when I feel like I'm traveling through time. The narrow, narrow streets and low buildings that looked so much like the little county town of my childhood made me feel as if I'd run into something I hadn't expected to see twenty years ago.

"I think we're going to sleep on the car today!" With a cigarette in his mouth, the Taoist stuck his head out the window like a dog and blew the night wind.

We just came out of the Hotel at Xu Qiu County. That's probably the best hotel here, with three stars on the name list. Hotels named after local names were generally not too bad, at least health was guaranteed. But we were told we had no room because the hotel was hosting an expedition from the province.

"Unlucky!" "Huh?" San Mao spat outside the window, but immediately followed up with a surprised voice, pointing ahead, he said: "That place is not bad!"

I looked up and saw red light ahead of me. When we got closer, we discovered that the two sides of the street were lined with shops decorated with pink glass windows. "Yi Ye Beauty Shop", "Little Red Foot Bath", "Youth Hair Gallery", "Crystal Hotel" … All sorts of vague signs sparkled in the night.

Behind each of the pink glass windows sat a group of girls who were wearing revealing clothes. When San Mao slowed down his speed and passed by them, they all stood up and waved to us warmly, like sisters who had been separated for many years. Through the pink glass windows, it looked like an absurd play.

"This is the red light district!" San Mao shouted, excited to the point that his pimples were about to burst.

"Every pink window has a sad story behind it …" The Taoist sighed.

"Stop messing around, we still have to do some serious work tomorrow!" I hit San Mao's hand to stop him from supporting the local entertainment industry.

"Heh …" This was the proper thing to do! Since they were already here, how could they not try out the local dishes? Besides, aren't we looking for a place to stay? It seems like this damn place is pretty good. How about where do you want to live? "You can't possibly stay in that twenty yuan guest house at the entrance of the city, right?" After he said that, I also felt that it was right. After walking around the city, I didn't see any hotels that cared about appearances, but this place seemed to have a few that were at least decent and should still be able to sleep.

"Which family is good? Which family was good? "They look pretty good. Dao leader, I've already chosen to have a syndrome of being a staff officer with you!" San Mao didn't care about me at all. He just stretched his neck and looked left and right, like a puppy that smelled sh * t but couldn't see anything.

The Taoist had already stuck his head out of the back seat and was looking around, his eyes wide and ripping through his old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses.

"This one!" This one is not bad! " The Taoist suddenly patted San Mao's seat and shouted.

"This one?" San Mao doubtfully mumbled: "How is it better?"

"Good name!" The Taoist shook his head and said.

I looked up at the sign — The Maple Night Resort.

I observed again and felt that this was a good place. Although it was also a pink window, there was still a proper lobby with no exposed girls. It seemed relatively formal.

"What about his name? "So ordinary …" San Mao was still muttering to himself.