Edited—

The train traveled for a day and a night.

The scenery outside the window grew increasingly desolate, and as the train pulled into the station, they finally reached their destination.

It was snowing heavily outside, and thick snow had accumulated on the ground. Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong, wearing bulky down jackets, formed a sharp contrast with Lin Zhushui in his thin windbreaker.

Several university students also got off here. They had been hesitating, but before getting off, they still came over. Seeing that Zhou Jiayu looked relatively approachable, one of the girls struck up a conversation: “Masters, may I ask where you’re going? If it’s on the way, we could go together.”

Zhou Jiayu remembered this girl’s name was Xiao Ju—she was the one who had seen the mountain spirit outside the window that night. He said, “Sorry, we’re probably not going the same way. Why did you all come to such a remote place for tourism?”

Xiao Ju muttered, “One of my classmates insisted on choosing this place, saying there’s some especially beautiful ice sculpture exhibition here… Well, now we haven’t seen any ice sculptures, but we’ve seen quite a few ghosts.” She was clearly a bit angry, her tone carrying some resentment.

Zhou Jiayu smiled and said, “Then you all must be careful. Don’t go too deep into the mountains. If the snow keeps falling like this, the station will probably be closed. If you can leave, leave early.”

Xiao Ju said, “I know.” She pouted. “Then can we exchange phone numbers? In case I encounter something, I’m really scared of running into those things.”

Zhou Jiayu hesitated for a moment, but still exchanged phone numbers with the girl.

After getting Zhou Jiayu’s number, Xiao Ju left happily. Shen Yiqiong said resentfully from the side, “Zhou Jiayu, how come you have such good luck with women?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Everyone around me is male. How do you figure I have good luck with women?”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Did you forget? Before, that female ghost came looking for you too.”

Zhou Jiayu’s expression twisted slightly. “Next time there’s an opportunity like that, I’ll definitely let you have it.”

Shen Yiqiong said quite happily, “You’re too kind.”

Zhou Jiayu was truly speechless toward Shen Yiqiong, thinking to himself that lovesick young men were truly terrifying.

The people on the train got off one after another. Lin Zhushui wasn’t in a hurry to exit the station; he seemed to be waiting for someone.

Zhou Jiayu had originally thought Lin Zhushui had arranged to meet someone local, but he hadn’t expected to see a long-unseen figure outside the platform—Shen Musi.

Shen Musi was dressed in thick winter clothes and waved at them, saying, “Sir! Yiqiong! Jiayu!”

Shen Yiqiong was emotionally moved and said, “Shixiong, why are you here?”

Shen Musi said, “Come out first, we’ll talk slowly.”

A snow off-road vehicle was parked outside. Shen Musi got into the driver’s seat, and Shen Yiqiong climbed into the passenger seat, saying, “Shixiong, long time no see. How did you end up at Mount She?”

Shen Musi said, “Shifu had me come over in advance to scout the location.” He glanced at Shen Yiqiong and said, “Yiqiong, how did you get dark again?”

Shen Yiqiong: “…” His whole person seemed to freeze. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, “Shen Musi, can you not say something human for once?”

Zhou Jiayu was holding back laughter in the back seat.

Near the station was a small town. Because of its remote location, the economy wasn’t developed. Zhou Jiayu noticed that there were very few motor vehicles in this village. From beginning to end, he had only seen one motorized vehicle, and that vehicle was a tractor…

“Not many people come here. There’s only one guesthouse.” Shen Musi said, “I’ve booked rooms for you. You’ll have to make do.”

Lin Zhushui didn’t care about these things and asked, “Did you find the thing I asked you to find?”

Shen Musi said, “I found it, but I haven’t gone to take a look yet.” He paused, then continued, “The journey there is a bit far. If I go over, I probably won’t be able to come back to pick you up.”

Lin Zhushui nodded.

The group entered the guesthouse. After discussion, they decided to eat something, rest for a night, and set out tomorrow.

Shen Musi said the guesthouse food was especially terrible. After eating it for three days, he couldn’t swallow it anymore, so he went to town to buy some meat and vegetables to cook himself.

When he said this, his eyes very obviously glanced toward Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Fine, fine, he got it. Cooking, right?

With food to eat, everyone was quite happy. Zhou Jiayu looked at the ingredients and decided to simply make pork stewed with vermicelli.

He soaked the vermicelli, prepared the pork, and put them together to stew.

At least there was gas here. Shen Yiqiong stood nearby with eager eyes, looking into the pot, saying, “When will it be ready?”

Zhou Jiayu lowered his head to chop vegetables: “Are you an elementary school student? If you have nothing to do, peel me two cloves of garlic!”

So Shen Yiqiong began peeling garlic.

The two chatted as they worked. Zhou Jiayu said the town seemed to have nothing much. Although it was small, the aura was very pure. Since arriving here, Zhou Jiayu hadn’t seen any black qi at all, nor did he have that uncomfortable feeling.

“I also think this town is quite normal,” Shen Yiqiong said. “But Mount She isn’t in this area. We still have to go deeper into the mountains. Before, Sir had dealings with their people…”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What are their people like?”

Shen Yiqiong said, “What are they like… Hmm, it’s hard to say. After all, every clan has good people and bad people; you can’t generalize. But these kinds of ancient clans are generally quite conservative. They won’t welcome unfamiliar people.”

Zhou Jiayu made a sound of acknowledgment.

After the food was ready, they also steamed a large basin of rice.

The appetites of four grown men naturally couldn’t be small. Zhou Jiayu stewed all three jin of pork, adding cabbage, sweet potato vermicelli, and other ingredients. He also made a dipping sauce with minced garlic. After setting everything out, he called them over to eat.

Although the dish was simple, the flavor wasn’t affected at all. Moreover, the pork from town wasn’t fed any feed, so it was especially fragrant. The vermicelli was handmade, and the cabbage cooked in it tasted sweet and delicious.

“Delicious, delicious.” Shen Yiqiong was extremely happy eating the vermicelli.

Shen Musi’s expression was also more relaxed than before. It seemed the saying that food could comfort the soul was indeed true. As long as it was something Zhou Jiayu made, almost nothing was ever left over. This time was no exception—the large basin of pork stewed with vermicelli was completely finished by them, and in the end, Shen Yiqiong even used the remaining broth to soak a bowl of rice.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Let’s save the remaining broth. We can use it for noodles tomorrow morning.”

Shen Musi nodded. “We’re going to Mount She the day after tomorrow. We need to prepare some things first. Those down jackets of yours won’t do; you need to change into military cotton coats, and also snow boots—” As Lin Zhushui’s eldest disciple, his personality was very meticulous, forming a sharp contrast with Shen Yiqiong’s carefree nature.

Lin Zhushui said, “Rest early.”

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong both said okay.

Spending a night sitting in a hard train seat was always an excruciating experience, especially when they had been tormented by those mountain spirits for half the night. Zhou Jiayu entered his room, did a simple cleaning, boiled some hot water to soak his feet, and then planned to go to bed.

“It’s so quiet here.” Zhou Jiayu sat by the window soaking his feet. It was only around four in the afternoon; the sky was still light, but there were hardly any people walking on the street. Across from them was a small shop, which had also closed early. At this moment, snow was still rustling down, making a soft沙沙 sound, making the whole town seem even more silent.

Jiba squatted on top of that turtle, slowly preening his feathers, and said, “Yeah, there aren’t many people. The population of this town probably isn’t large.”

From the time they left the train station to entering the guesthouse, they hadn’t seen many people. The guesthouse front desk was also empty. According to Shen Musi, the auntie who worked the front desk could only be seen in the morning. By afternoon, she was gone, supposedly going back to do housework; working at the guesthouse was just a side job. That made sense—there were no outsiders here for ten days or half a month at a time. Sitting there doing nothing didn’t seem very useful.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Hmm… living in such isolation from the world doesn’t seem too bad.” Although it was still early, he was a bit sleepy. He tidied up the bedding and prepared to sleep.

This guesthouse probably hadn’t been used for a long time; the bedding emitted a damp smell. Zhou Jiayu roasted it with a stove, then climbed into bed. Lying on the bed, he took out his phone and looked at it, discovering that the signal here was very weak—barely one bar, and it kept dropping from time to time.

Zhou Jiayu held his phone and played a game he had downloaded earlier for a while. The sky outside the window darkened. He was deeply engrossed in level 132 of some match-3 game when he suddenly heard a strange sound by his ear.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Jiba, do you hear some sound?”

Jiba said, “I hear it… coming from the window?”

Zhou Jiayu was already quite experienced. In fact, every time he heard this kind of sound, nothing good happened; he always encountered something. This time, hearing the sound, he lay in bed without moving and said, “Would it be better if I pretended I didn’t hear it?”

Jiba said, “But that sound is getting closer…”

The sound was indeed getting closer. If it could have been described as faint before, now Zhou Jiayu could clearly describe it. It was the sound of a heavy object being dragged, the heavy object pressing on the accumulated snow, making creaking sounds. Zhou Jiayu really wanted to pretend he heard nothing, but the sound seemed to have reached right beneath his window.

“I’ll just take a secret peek, okay?” Zhou Jiayu seemed to be discussing with Jiba, but it was more like he was comforting himself. “What if something climbed right under my window and I didn’t notice…”

Jiba said, “Then be careful.”

Amidst the strange sounds, Zhou Jiayu put on clothes, carefully got out of bed, and walked to the window.

The outside was completely shrouded in night. But probably because snow covered the ground and rooftops everywhere, the outside didn’t seem particularly dark; rather, it was brightly lit.

Zhou Jiayu crouched below the window, poking out just his eyes to look outside.

He saw several people walking on the road. They wore thick winter clothes, and their attire wasn’t strange; they looked like ordinary villagers from the town. But the thing behind them seemed somewhat unusual. It was an ice sculpture, exquisite and beautiful, carved into a woman with flowing long hair, raising one hand in a waving gesture. Every detail of the ice sculpture was complete; it had even carved out strands of hair, and the expression was vivid and lifelike. It was evident that this was a very precious work of art.

The several people walking in front had ropes over their shoulders. The ropes dragged a wooden plank, and on the wooden plank was placed that ice sculpture.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Jiayu remembered that the female student Xiao Ju had said this place had a tradition of holding an ice sculpture festival, and his heart relaxed slightly. It seemed this wasn’t some strange situation—just villagers from the town transporting an ice sculpture. He had just thought this when he noticed something, and the expression on his face completely froze.

He saw that the face of the ice sculpture, which had clearly been facing forward, had now turned its head. The direction it turned was exactly toward the guesthouse where Zhou Jiayu was hiding. Those eyes without pupils stared straight at the window emitting faint light. Zhou Jiayu even had the illusion that their gazes met. He sucked in a cold breath, directly ducked down below the window, and didn’t dare poke his head out again.

“Creak, creak—” The sounds gradually grew distant, finally disappearing from Zhou Jiayu’s ears.

Zhou Jiayu covered his pounding heart, swallowed, and said, “Jiba, that wasn’t my imagination, right?”

Jiba said, “No, I saw it too. That ice sculpture turned its head, right?” And it turned a full 180 degrees.

Zhou Jiayu deeply regretted his damned curiosity. He said, “I shouldn’t have looked…”

Jiba said, “Since nothing happened, don’t worry about it. Sleep early.”

Zhou Jiayu agreed with Jiba’s suggestion and quickly climbed back into bed.

After those several people dragging the ice sculpture walked away, everything became quiet again. The cold wind howled, blowing against the window with banging sounds, as if that thin glass would shatter the next moment. Lying in bed, Zhou Jiayu felt his body was terribly cold. Winter was like this—when you first got into bed, it was hard for your body to warm up, especially your feet, which were almost numb from the cold. His originally tired body was unable to fall asleep because of the bone-chilling cold. Zhou Jiayu tossed and turned. It was almost past ten o’clock, and he still hadn’t managed to brew any sleepiness.

He was really terribly cold and said, “Jiba, I’m so cold. What should I do…”

Jiba said, “Why don’t you go ask Sir? He should have a way.”

Zhou Jiayu hesitated for a moment. “But it’s so late. It doesn’t seem good to disturb Sir.”

Jiba said, “Don’t think so much. If you don’t sleep tonight and get sick tomorrow, that would be more troublesome.”

Zhou Jiayu thought that seemed to make sense, so he put on clothes while shivering, went out, and knocked on Lin Zhushui’s door.

“What’s wrong?” A moment later, Lin Zhushui came to open the door for Zhou Jiayu. Compared to Zhou Jiayu at this moment, he was actually wearing only a thin black sweater. The sweater was form-fitting, and on Lin Zhushui’s body, it showed off broad shoulders and a narrow waist, looking exceptionally good. Normally, Zhou Jiayu might have secretly taken a few more glances, but today he was really too cold. He felt his whole person was going numb. He said, “S-Sir, I’m so cold. I can’t stand the cold anymore.”

Hearing this, Lin Zhushui frowned and directly reached out to touch the back of Zhou Jiayu’s hand. It was indeed icy cold. He said, “Come in.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Huh?”

Lin Zhushui repeated, “Come in.”

So Zhou Jiayu entered Lin Zhushui’s room in a daze.

This room didn’t even have a charcoal fire going, yet it didn’t seem cold at all. Zhou Jiayu huddled in a chair. Lin Zhushui turned and said, “I’ll pour you some hot water.”

Zhou Jiayu was already frozen silly. He didn’t know why he had suddenly become so cold. A moment later, Lin Zhushui handed the water to him, and his expression was still dazed.

Lin Zhushui squatted down half-way, reached out, and touched his forehead. “Zhou Jiayu?”

Zhou Jiayu was almost unable to speak. He held the water and gulped it down. Only when the hot water entered his stomach did he suddenly feel heat erupt from his stomach, flowing along his blood to his heart and limbs. The cold was driven away, and his whole person instantly relaxed.

“Why was it so cold…” After recovering, Zhou Jiayu was still shaken by the cold from just now.

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak. He suddenly reached out and pressed down on Zhou Jiayu’s head, then slowly leaned in.

Zhou Jiayu was startled by Lin Zhushui’s action. Looking at Lin Zhushui’s face so close to him, his heart began beating uncontrollably and rapidly. The two faces were very close. As long as Lin Zhushui leaned down a little more, their lips would touch…

Zhou Jiayu was so excited he nearly fainted. Just as his heart was pounding like a drum, Lin Zhushui suddenly blew a breath toward his ear, then reached out and took something out from behind his ear.

Seeing what was in Lin Zhushui’s hand, Zhou Jiayu was stunned. On Lin Zhushui’s fingers was a small blue paper slip. He didn’t know when it had appeared, but its shape was like a blue hexagonal snowflake.

And this paper slip, pinched in Lin Zhushui’s hand, actually began to slowly melt.

Zhou Jiayu was dumbfounded. He immediately remembered the thing he had seen outside the window just now.

Cold snow water dripped from Lin Zhushui’s fingers onto the ground, but he seemed to know what Zhou Jiayu had encountered before and opened his mouth to ask, “What did you see?”

Zhou Jiayu came back to his senses and stammeringly told Lin Zhushui what he had just seen.

Lin Zhushui frowned slightly upon hearing this. “An ice sculpture? You saw an ice sculpture?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Yes, several people dragged an ice sculpture past outside my room. I took a glance through the window.” He held the empty glass in his hand and said, “Then I saw the ice sculpture turn its head and look toward where I was hiding…”

If this had happened before, Zhou Jiayu himself wouldn’t have believed it. But now, after experiencing so many things, he had no choice but to believe.

Lin Zhushui, however, didn’t seem surprised by the existence of this ice sculpture. He only said softly, “How could it be here? Could it be that they left Mount She.”

Hearing the words “Mount She,” Zhou Jiayu asked, “Sir, does the Xu clan of Mount She have some relation to ice sculptures?”

Lin Zhushui nodded and said that because of the geographical location, Mount She had snow for six months out of the year, so they had a culture of making ice sculptures. But their ice sculptures came in types. One type was ordinary, and the other was used for sacrifices. Legend had it that their sacrificial ice sculptures were very special. Only those with the Xu clan’s direct bloodline could touch them; even if others took one look, something would happen. Of course, these were all rumors within the industry; no one had witnessed them with their own eyes.

“They like paper people, they like ice sculptures, they like everything that looks human but isn’t human,” Lin Zhushui said. “In their eyes, inanimate objects around them that can be controlled are more trustworthy than other humans.”

The paper man that had been attacking Zhou Jiayu definitely had an inseparable relationship with the Xu clan. This was also the reason Lin Zhushui had come to Mount She. He wanted to find the culprit and cleanly cut the grass and pull out the roots.

“Then the ice sculpture I just saw was one they use for sacrifices?” Thinking about it now, the craftsmanship of that ice sculpture was indeed very special. At least Zhou Jiayu had never seen such exquisite carving before.

“Perhaps.” Lin Zhushui said, “Sleep in my room tonight, to avoid any accidents.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Huh? S-Sir, isn’t that inappropriate?”

Lin Zhushui said indifferently, “What’s inappropriate about it?”

Zhou Jiayu still wanted to argue, but for a moment couldn’t find an excuse. He couldn’t exactly say he was gay. Just that moment of hesitation, and Zhou Jiayu lost the chance to refute. Although Lin Zhushui’s tone was gentle, there was a hint of not allowing refusal.

Helplessly, Zhou Jiayu could only go back to his room to get a quilt, then climbed onto Lin Zhushui’s bed. Fortunately, the beds in this guesthouse were big enough, and it was winter, so the two of them completely didn’t need to worry about physical contact. But even so, Zhou Jiayu’s heart was pounding like a drum. He lay on the bed with his eyes closed, stiff as a block of wood.

In contrast, Lin Zhushui seemed somewhat puzzled by Zhou Jiayu’s reaction. Lying beside Zhou Jiayu, he said softly, “Why are you still so afraid of me?”

Zhou Jiayu said in a small voice, “I… I’m not afraid of Sir.”

Lin Zhushui said, “Then what are you nervous about?”

Zhou Jiayu forced an explanation: “I’m just not used to sleeping with other people…”

Lin Zhushui said, “Bear with it for tonight.”

His calm and composed tone finally made Zhou Jiayu vaguely realize that he seemed to be overthinking things.

In Lin Zhushui’s eyes, he was merely a likable junior. Added to that, his constitution was special and always attracted strange things, which was why Lin Zhushui paid him a bit more attention. Those actions that made him feel nervous, if placed on someone else, would just be normal concern. It was like if Shen Yiqiong had encountered this today, Lin Zhushui would probably also have him sleep in the room. After Zhou Jiayu figured this out, for some reason, his mood suddenly became a bit low.

Lin Zhushui beside him emitted even breathing sounds; he seemed to have already fallen asleep.

Zhou Jiayu looked at the ceiling, feeling his eyelids gradually grow heavy, and fell asleep like this.

This night was peaceful and warm. Zhou Jiayu wasn’t disturbed by cold or dreams, and slept until dawn.

The next morning, it was no longer snowing. A bright sun hung in the sky, and the sky was a beautiful azure blue with a few pure white clouds floating in it.

When Zhou Jiayu woke up with a yawn, Lin Zhushui beside him was already gone. Zhou Jiayu put on his clothes and slowly went out the door, just in time to see Shen Musi.

Shen Musi was startled to see Zhou Jiayu coming out of Lin Zhushui’s room. “Zhou Jiayu, what happened? Did you encounter something last night?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “How did you know?”

Shen Musi said, “If you didn’t encounter something, how would you be coming out of Sir’s room?”

Zhou Jiayu thought for a bit, then asked in a small voice, “Musi, have you also slept in Sir’s room?”

Shen Musi said quite frankly, “I have.”

Zhou Jiayu’s heart sank. He thought, as expected, he hadn’t guessed wrong.

But then Shen Musi’s next sentence lifted his heart up again. Shen Musi said, “I often go to Sir’s room to sleep on the floor.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Huh… s-sleep on the floor? He felt the dejected little person in his mind suddenly jump up and shout at him: Zhou Jiayu, Sir treats you specially. They all sleep on the floor, but you slept in the bed!

Shen Musi said with a startled expression, “Zhou Jiayu, what’s wrong? Why are you smiling so terrifyingly?”

Zhou Jiayu touched his nose and said, “Nothing, nothing. Come, let’s go eat breakfast.”

Shen Musi looked at Zhou Jiayu with suspicion. It was the first time he had seen Zhou Jiayu walking while bouncing and hopping, almost as if he had been possessed by Shen Yiqiong.

Probably because he was in a good mood, the noodles Zhou Jiayu made in the morning were especially delicious.

Shen Yiqiong actually quite liked eating noodles—as long as those noodles weren’t made by himself.

While eating, Shen Musi briefly explained the situation at Mount She. Although Mount She was remote, roads had already been built there, so it was relatively convenient for them to go over. Moreover, most of this area was plains, so they didn’t need to worry about roads being blocked.

Zhou Jiayu listened curiously, “How long have you been here?”

Shen Musi said, “About a month or so.”

A month… That meant he should have come over when Zhou Jiayu was first being hunted by the paper man. It seemed Lin Zhushui had long anticipated that they would make this trip and had Shen Musi come over first to make preparations.

Today they needed to make preparations for entering the mountains. Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong went to town to buy winter coats and winter boots, changing into thicker cold-weather clothing.

Although these clothes didn’t look good, they were good at keeping warm. Zhou Jiayu thought they were quite comfortable to wear.

Although there were few people in this town, they weren’t resistant to outsiders; rather, they seemed quite welcoming. When Zhou Jiayu was buying things, he casually asked and found out that this town really did have a tradition of holding an ice sculpture festival, and the ice sculptures were almost preserved from early winter until early summer.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Then how come I didn’t see any ice sculptures after coming in?”

“They’re all at the venue by the river,” the local said with a bit of an accent. “You have to pay admission to go over.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Oh, I see.” It seemed this town had plans to develop tourism, but because of its geographical location, it was probably hard to develop. After all, it was too remote. Besides those young people who came on a whim, no one would come this way.

Shen Yiqiong said, “What’s wrong, Guan’er? Why do you look so serious?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “I’ll tell you when we get out.”

After the two left the shop, Zhou Jiayu briefly told Shen Yiqiong about what he had seen last night. After hearing it, Shen Yiqiong was very surprised. “You really saw an ice sculpture turn its head?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Yeah, I was almost frozen to death.”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Then after we finish buying things, should we go to the river and take a look?”

“Sure.” Zhou Jiayu agreed.

When they got back to the guesthouse, Lin Zhushui and Shen Musi were gone. They had said they had some business to take care of and told them to be careful. Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong discussed it and decided to still go take a look at the ice sculpture place. According to the townspeople, the place wasn’t far; walking a few hundred meters south would let you see it.

The ice sculptures were built by the river, probably for convenience in getting ice.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong walked a few hundred meters in the direction the villagers pointed and saw a very vast plain. From afar, they could see all kinds of crystal-clear sculptures arranged on that plain.

There were ice walls built around these sculptures. If you wanted to get close to look, you had to buy a ticket.

Shen Yiqiong was still childlike at heart. Seeing these things, he was incredibly excited. He rushed over and bought two tickets. The ticket seller was an old man, completely wrapped in clothes. Besides his eyes, you could barely make out his features.

Before, Zhou Jiayu had thought the ice venue was built by the riverside. Only now, upon arriving, did he discover the venue was located above the river. It had only just snowed for the first time outside, yet the river inside was already frozen solid. It seemed the temperature here was indeed low all year round.

The tickets were twenty-five each, not expensive. Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong entered the ice venue one after the other.

The ice sculptures in the venue came in various forms—people, animals, and buildings. Shen Yiqiong saw a huge slide and even ran over to slide down it twice.

Zhou Jiayu searched for something among the ice sculptures. In fact, the direction those people had dragged the ice sculpture last night was also south; he just didn’t know if this place was the final destination.

All the ice sculptures here were very exquisite. Zhou Jiayu saw several ice sculptures in the shape of swans. Their feathers were depicted in minute detail, and their wings-spread posture looked as if they would take flight the next moment.

But after walking around the venue, Zhou Jiayu didn’t see yesterday’s sculpture. He couldn’t say whether he should be happy or disappointed. He called out to Shen Yiqiong, planning to go back.

Shen Yiqiong was happily bouncing on the ground, even shaking off his scarf.

Zhou Jiayu thought he was simply an immature elementary school student. He bent down, about to pick up his scarf, when he noticed some marks on the ice surface. When he carefully saw what those marks were, his whole body froze.

Shen Yiqiong still didn’t know what was going on and said, “Guan’er, what’s wrong?”

Zhou Jiayu didn’t speak. He lowered his head and pointed at the ice surface.

Shen Yiqiong, seeing this, also bent down. After carefully looking at the ice surface, the hair on his back stood on end. Under the ice surface, it was actually covered with densely packed palm prints. These palm prints had clearly been left when the river water was about to freeze but hadn’t completely frozen yet. Now, only blurry outlines could be seen, but they were indeed the size of human palms.

“Haha, w-what is this?” Shen Yiqiong’s expression was a bit stiff.

Zhou Jiayu said, “…We didn’t see wrong, right?”

Shen Yiqiong said with a bitter face, “I’d rather I had seen wrong.”

The entire ice venue only had the two of them as tourists. Before, they hadn’t felt there was any problem, but now they felt their whole bodies going numb. Along with it, the surrounding ice sculptures also became eerie.

“Let’s go back.” Shen Yiqiong didn’t feel good. He said, “It’s… there’s nothing worth seeing anyway.”

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself that when you were just playing in the snow like a puppy, you weren’t saying that. But he didn’t say it out loud. He nodded and agreed with Shen Yiqiong’s suggestion.

When they left, the old man who collected the ticket money kept staring at them and asked in a rough voice if they had any opinions.

Shen Yiqiong and Zhou Jiayu shook their heads like拨浪鼓s, thinking damn, how would they dare offer opinions? The people who offered opinions had their palm prints frozen into ice flowers.

After leaving the ice venue, they hurried back to the guesthouse. The two huddled in their room like quails, not daring to go anywhere.

Lin Zhushui and Shen Musi only returned in the afternoon. The moment they entered the room, they saw two good babies sitting with the windows closed, huddled in chairs, looking at them with eager eyes.

Shen Yiqiong said, “Shixiong~~~”

Shen Musi was shocked. “Shen Yiqiong, are you not possessed? What does that expression and tone mean? Are you possessed?”

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

Lin Zhushui was a bit more perceptive than Shen Musi and said, “What happened?”

Zhou Jiayu quickly told them about what they had encountered at the ice venue.

After hearing it, Lin Zhushui was noncommittal and said softly, “Then have you considered that those ice sculptures might have some relation to living people?”

Zhou Jiayu had thought of this before. Hearing Lin Zhushui say it, he practically wanted to huddle together with Shen Yiqiong and shiver.

Without even looking, Lin Zhushui guessed Zhou Jiayu’s expression. He was in quite a good mood as the corners of his mouth curved up. “Don’t be scared. I was joking.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Sir, you’ve changed.

Lin Zhushui said, “There should be some misunderstanding. The Xu family of Mount She doesn’t have a tradition of human sacrifice.”

If that was the case, then how to explain those countless palm prints? But looking at Lin Zhushui’s expression, this matter probably wasn’t very serious. If Zhou Jiayu had really gone alone, he would have suspected he had seen wrong.

As Lin Zhushui’s devoted fanboy, Shen Yiqiong naturally treated Lin Zhushui’s words as truth. If Lin Zhushui said it was fine, he completely relaxed. He even happily said that the ice venue was actually quite fun; that slide was really high…

Looking at Shen Yiqiong’s appearance, Zhou Jiayu felt that sometimes he quite envied him. After all, fools always seemed to live longer…

“Rest well tonight,” Lin Zhushui finally said. “We’re going to Mount She tomorrow.” After saying this, he paused slightly, then turned toward Zhou Jiayu, “If you’re scared, you can also come sleep in my room tonight.”

The moment Zhou Jiayu heard these words, his whole face began to flush red. Before he could make a sound, that idiot Shen Yiqiong shouted, “Sir, I’m scared too! I want to come too!”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

So that night, Zhou Jiayu gritted his teeth and slept on the floor together with Shen Yiqiong. Shen Yiqiong even said, “Guan’er, what’s wrong? Why do you look so terrifying?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Noth—” He squeezed out, “Sleep!”

Shen Yiqiong was full of confusion.

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: I officially declare that I have officially slept with Sir!

Lin Zhushui: Official? Then shall we do an unofficial one?

Zhou Jiayu: (:з」∠)