At dusk, a thin mist hung over the land.
On a country road, a Porsche Cayenne drove slowly along.
Two people sat in the car.
The man driving was surnamed Sun. He looked about thirty-seven or thirty-eight, broad-shouldered and stout, with a thick back and a full waist. His willow-leaf eyes seemed never able to open very wide, yet they were shifty and bright, as if they were four eyebrows, and his smile concealed a blade.
The man in the passenger seat was surnamed Huang, roughly the same age as Mr. Sun. He had sword-like brows, downcast eyes, a broad nose, and thick lips. At first glance, his features were fairly angular, but unfortunately, like Mr. Sun, he was easygoing and fleshy, with too much flesh on his face. Add to that his naturally short neck, and he gave the same impression as Mr. Sun: a fat head with big ears, the same greasy middle-aged look.
“Brother Sun, we’ve been circling for more than two hours. Are you lost?” Mr. Huang looked out at the somewhat familiar scenery outside and asked for what must have been the umpteenth time.
“Don’t panic,” Mr. Sun replied. “I’m following the navigation. You don’t believe me, but surely you trust the navigation?”
“This place is the middle of nowhere…” Mr. Huang said doubtfully. “I don’t think the navigation is necessarily accurate either.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Upon hearing this, Mr. Sun immediately replied with the brazen indifference of a dead pig unafraid of boiling water. “You can see for yourself. It’s so remote out here, and it’s all mountain roads. Let alone asking someone for directions—there isn’t even a road sign. We can only keep following the navigation.”
“So when we passed that gas station earlier, I asked if you wanted to ask a local how to get there,” Mr. Huang said. “You insisted the navigation would be fine. Look at us now—aren’t we in trouble?”
“What good is a Monday-morning quarterback like you now? We’ve already driven all the way here. We can’t exactly turn around and go back, can we?” Mr. Sun said.
“Ugh…” Mr. Huang sighed. “I swear, I really can’t take this anymore. Why did I ever agree to go on a road trip with you? Someone like you can even take the bullet train in the wrong direction. Once you get away from the main road, chances are you’ll die in the mountains. Today, I’m finally going to die at your hands.”
“You shut your damn mouth—” Mr. Sun drawled. “Don’t panic. There’s still plenty of gas, and it isn’t that late yet. Worst comes to worst, we just drive back.”
The two went back and forth, peppering their words with occasional curses. To an outsider, it might have sounded like a quarrel, but in truth it was simply their usual way of talking to each other.
Sun and Huang had known each other for years. Their regular work was in game commentary and livestreaming; from the car they drove, one could tell they were among the more successful ones in that field. But from their builds, one could also tell that neither of them did much outdoor activity or exercise.
Today, too, they had acted on a whim, deciding at the last minute to drive themselves to some obscure scenic spot to wander around. Who would have thought they would get lost?
After another moment, the mist grew thicker and thicker.
The road grew worse and worse as well, forcing Mr. Sun to slow the car down even more.
Suddenly…
“Huh?” Mr. Huang, who had been staring blankly out the window, seemed to catch sight of something in the mist. He whipped his head around and pushed up the glasses on his nose. “Brother Sun, I think there was a person by the roadside just now.”
“What?” Hearing him, Mr. Sun thought for a moment and answered. “Why didn’t I see anyone?”
“I only caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure standing in the mist,” Mr. Huang said.
“Damn it, don’t scare me.” Mr. Sun immediately lost his nerve. “Was it actually a person?”
“Damn it, if it wasn’t a person, could it have been a ghost?” Mr. Huang’s rhetorical question had its logic.
The two discussed it for a few more sentences and still decided to turn back and take a look. If there really was someone, maybe they could ask for directions.
Since there were no real traffic rules on a mountain road like this anyway, and they could turn around anywhere, they immediately headed back.
As it turned out, when Mr. Sun drove back to the spot from before and stopped, the two opened the windows and looked closely. They found that it really wasn’t a person, but a stone statue.
Perhaps because it was so old, the statue’s head and body were damaged. Only a rough outline could be discerned; there was no way to tell whether it had been carved as a human, a demon, an immortal, or a Buddha.
“Hey, look—there’s a road behind it.” Mr. Huang had sharper eyes. After looking around for a few seconds, he vaguely spotted a fork behind the statue.
“Then… shall we drive in and take a look?” Mr. Sun said.
“Ugh, we’re already lost anyway, so let’s go take a look,” Mr. Huang said. “There’s a stone statue here, so the road behind it probably leads to a temple or something. If we go, we might run into someone and ask for directions.”
“If you put it that way… I guess it does make some sense.” Even as he muttered, Mr. Sun had already begun turning the steering wheel.
And so they drove into the side path behind the statue, and the two of them disappeared together into the misty forest of the evening…