I remember very clearly—it was an early autumn afternoon when I completed the final procedure.

Two years and seven months. The Jiaolong Village relocation project was officially completed.

Compared to Yu Shixuan’s inn complex, this place looked ordinary and plain, without any design aesthetic to speak of.

But I knew that after many days and nights, we had created economically practical and warm exterior walls, lightweight steel sloped roofs that could shed winter snow and summer rainstorms, and every component of the building fully utilized solar energy…

It was equally a work created with painstaking effort. Its beauty was a practical beauty, making life a bit more convenient and pleasant for those who lived here.

I stood there, examining every tile, every brick and stone.

I was about to leave, to go to a new place, but my two years would forever be solidified here, more immortal than youth itself.

“Ren Dongxue.” Old Feng rolled down the car window and said, “Get in.”

“Coming.”

I trotted over obsequiously.

The notoriously stingy county was finally allocating funds for tourism development, and Old Feng wanted to secure this project as well, which was why he had stayed until now.

By chance, the two of us had no choice but to ride in the same car to the county seat.

It was still the same as before—I drove, Old Feng rode. Only the car was silent as death.

By now, I had accumulated enough project experience. General An had promised me that by year’s end I should be able to transfer to headquarters. The specific department hadn’t been decided yet. If it was the Engineering Department, that would be better. If it was the Project Department, Old Feng would be my direct superior again.

Actually, after that falling-out, I regretted it for quite a while. Between the two of us, there wasn’t any life-or-death conflict. It was simply that he felt I wasn’t obedient enough, and I felt he was shameless.

—This actually wasn’t really a major flaw. There were far too many shameless leaders in this world.

I thought that the reason we had a falling-out at that time…

Ultimately, it was because I was unwilling to stand on his team anymore. I couldn’t really explain the specific reasons. In any case, I gradually realized that Old Feng was my benefactor, but in the end, we weren’t the same kind of people.

For example, provoking Chi Na first to make him go crazy was basically a form of inducing crime. This move was vicious and clever, but I couldn’t do such a thing.

So I didn’t regret cutting ties with him either.

Wuleji Village was still too remote. When I was driving halfway there, Old Feng in the back seat suddenly said, “Turn left.”

I said, “Huh? Why?”

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

I had no choice but to turn, gradually driving into a wasteland where waist-high reeds gleamed in the sunlight.

“You have deviated from your route. Rerouting for you. Make a U-turn ahead—U-turn—U-turn—”

Old Feng said, “Pull over and stop.”

“Huh?”

I suddenly felt inexplicably nervous. Old Feng wasn’t planning to force himself on me, was he?

A man almost fifty years old—he might throw out his back…

After the car stopped, just as I was about to get out, Old Feng pressed me down in my seat.

“Don’t get out. We’re switching positions. Be quick.”

I was dazed for a moment before I realized—something had happened.

Old Feng sat in the driver’s seat, floored the gas pedal, and our beat-up Jeep shook violently before tearing along the dirt road at an unimaginable speed.

I felt like I was going to throw up.

Old Feng didn’t say a word. His foot never left the gas pedal. When we charged up the slope, we were practically rushing straight toward the sun. I could barely keep my eyes open.

It was also at this moment that I finally heard the roar of an engine.

In the rearview mirror, a black Cullinan, crouching like a hunting leopard, was closely following us.

An ominous premonition gripped my heart tightly. Trembling in the passenger seat, I took out my phone and snapped a few photos.

The two cars were moving too fast—only some blurry afterimages remained. But that lean figure in the driver’s seat reminded me of someone who shouldn’t be appearing…

Chi Na.

How was this possible?

“He’s been following us. By the time I noticed, it was already too late.” Old Feng kept accelerating, trying to shake him off.

This was a vast wasteland, desolate in all directions. Going forward, the county seat was too far away. Going back, Wuleji Village was equally distant.

Our beat-up car could never outrun a top-spec luxury vehicle… but because Old Feng had driven onto a dirt road, the Cullinan’s chassis was too low, and the bumpy road surface should create some obstacles.

But what if he caught up with us? What did he want to do?

On this cold autumn day, my back was covered in sweat. I kept dialing emergency services. At first there was no signal. When I finally got through, I realized I couldn’t explain where we were at all. I could only describe incoherently, “There’s a dirt road coming out of Wuleji, then turn left… Ah!”

I felt as if a giant hand from behind suddenly pushed me forward. My head hit the airbag and I bit my own tongue, my mouth full of metallic sweetness.

We had been rear-ended.

Time seemed to slow down infinitely. I saw thick smoke billowing from the back of the car, the air filled with the intense smell of gasoline. Then the person in the driver’s seat behind us stuck his head out. His cheeks were deeply sunken, his beard extremely long—he looked like a vicious black wolf.

It really was Chi Na. Chi Na, whom I hadn’t seen in two years.

In the golden sunlight, he looked at me and revealed a cold, eerie smile.

Before I could react, Old Feng started the car again. I hadn’t even imagined that our beat-up Jeep could still move.

It rolled forward with thick smoke, as if it would fall apart the next second.

I didn’t dare look back. I only dared to continue frantically calling emergency services. Old Feng suddenly stopped after a sharp turn and shouted at me, “Get out!”

“What?”

“Call the police! Find someone to rescue me!”

I was practically kicked out of the car by Old Feng. The next second, he continued driving forward.

And the Cullinan’s massive engine roar followed after him.

I stood there, momentarily dazed.

Old Feng had driven like a madman to shake him off, and I didn’t know where we were right now.

The land here was severely desertified. The sparse grassland stretched as far as the eye could see. Only at the bottom of the slope was there a patch of withered yellow shrubs.

And the sun was already slanting westward.

I had to go find people, find a road. If I stayed here and Chi Na discovered me, I would surely die.

But I didn’t know which direction to run. My phone had not even a sliver of signal.

I stared at that patch of shrubs, frantically calculating in my mind. It was too orderly—it must have been artificially planted specifically to slow grassland desertification, which meant the vegetation on the other side of the shrubs would be more abundant.

Where there was grass, there would be people grazing. I could find someone to call for help.

Steeling my resolve, I ran toward the shrubs, my ears filled with the thudding sound of my heartbeat, like chaotic drumbeats.

The sun slowly, ceaselessly moved westward.

This was a downward slope. In my panic, I kept falling, kept getting back up, as if performing a silent film with a murder theme.

I finally ran to the front of the shrubs, but the vegetation below was still sparse. I couldn’t see any grassland.

No one was grazing either.

It was at this moment that I realized I had made a fatal mistake.

This was a sloped area.

I should have climbed upward where I wouldn’t be easily spotted. If I walked downward, and Chi Na was above, he could see me at a glance.

I had panicked too much. I thought, perhaps Old Feng had already subdued Chi Na?

Right, Old Feng was so capable—skilled in all forms of combat and grappling. Since I’d known him, there had never been anything he couldn’t accomplish.

How could Chi Na possibly be his match?

The urgent matter at hand was that I had to find people, find a vehicle, call the police.

I ran forward. The sun set westward, and the sky had already darkened so much I couldn’t see the path ahead. But I still didn’t know where this was. I could only grab a handful of dirt every so often to judge its moisture content.

The dirt went from not clumping in my hand to slowly scattering after I opened my fist, which meant my judgment was correct. The further forward I walked, the closer I was to abundant vegetation.

Finally, when I was completely exhausted, I saw smoke rising from cooking fires in the distance.

There were herders here!

A surge of wild joy filled my heart, and I continued crawling forward using both hands and feet.

I could already hear the footsteps of the sheep returning to their pen. I could already hear the voice of a mother calling her children to come back…

Just then, I felt as if muffled thunder exploded at the back of my head. Immediately after, a stream of liquid wound its way down my neck.

Dazed, I wiped it and looked at my hand, only to discover it was fresh blood.

Before I collapsed, my last conscious thought was of Chi Na standing there, licking the blood on the back of his hand with his tongue, exactly like an evil demon crawling up from hell.

The sky over the grassland finally turned completely black.