Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

Gao Lian introduced Cheng Mo and Liu Yun to them: "This is my wife, Liu Yun."

The middle-aged woman stood up, smiled, and nodded, "Hello, both of you."

Cheng Mo and the other person also greeted Auntie.

Gao Lian pointed to the young woman: "This is my eldest daughter, Gao Dazhuang."

The girl, who had been smiling, immediately fell silent upon hearing this: "Dad! He has a proper name!"

She stood up, with a gentle smile, and said in perfect Mandarin, "Hello, my name is Gao Yuting, nice to meet you."

Her mother chimed in from the side, "Oh, this isn't like you at all."

The girl chimed in, "Sister, you shouldn't have patted your chest and said, 'Little sister, in this remote Northeast, if you need anything, just call your sister, she'll take care of it!'"

Gao Yuting glared angrily at her mother and younger sister, wishing she could sew their mouths shut.

Gao Lian watched the mother and her two children laughing and joking with a smile. He did this on purpose; it was a family dinner and he didn't want it to be too serious, so he used his eldest daughter's words to lighten the mood.

He turned to his wife and daughter to introduce Cheng Mo and Xia He: "This is Cheng Mo, the young Master Cheng, a highly accomplished disciple of Master Cheng of Liangyi Temple. This is Miss Xia He, a chivalrous and courageous woman who is just as capable as any man."

Cheng Mo cupped his hands in greeting: "Uncle Gao, you flatter me. I'm just a humble Taoist priest."

Xia He said sweetly, "Hello, Auntie. Hello, Sister Yuting. Uncle Gao, please don't flatter me, I'm embarrassed. Auntie, you look so young. If Uncle Gao hadn't introduced you, I would have thought you were Sister Yuting's older sister."

Liu Yun beamed from ear to ear: "Oh my, this girl has such a sweet tongue. Please, have a seat."

Gao Yuting also said, "Hello, Xia He, and hello, Cheng Mo."

Gao Erzhuang raised his hand from the side: "Dad, Dad, what about me! You haven't introduced me yet!"

Gao Lian chuckled and pointed at her: "Yes, and my youngest daughter, Gao Erzhuang, whose full name is Gao Yushan."

Gao Yushan stood up confidently: "Hello, older brothers and sisters! My name is Gao Yushan, you can also call me Erzhuang. I don't care as much as my sister does, it's just a name~"

Gao Yuting: "..."

She gritted her teeth and said, "You can just introduce yourself, why drag me into it?"

Xia He particularly liked the two girls' personalities, greeted them with a smile, and sat down next to them.

Before long, the three of them started chatting.

Cheng Mo sat down next to Xia He.

Gao Lian asked the waiter to serve the food.

One dish after another was served up – sweet and sour pork, pork stew with vermicelli, chicken stew with mushrooms, pickled cabbage with pork belly and blood sausage, stir-fried potatoes, eggplant, green peppers, and green peppers, braised pork slices, braised pork ribs, and a large pot of mixed stew, steaming hot, the aroma wafting straight into your nose.

……

Gao Lian raised his glass: "Master Cheng, Miss Xia, you've come all this way, let me toast you. We Northeasterners aren't so particular, as long as we drink well."

Cheng Mo picked up his glass, which contained a soft drink: "Uncle Gao, you're too kind."

Xia He also picked up her glass and took a sip, but was so overwhelmed by the spiciness that she stuck out her tongue: "Spicy! Spicy! Spicy!"

Wang Fang exclaimed, "Oh dear! Miss, you've made a mistake. Here, this drink is yours!"

She took the wine glass from Xia He's hand and handed her a drink.

Gao Yuting also chimed in, "This tastes good, girl."

Xia He took the drink, took a sip, and smiled at Liu Yun, "Thank you, Auntie."

Liu Yun waved her hand: "Don't be so polite, eat more vegetables."

……

After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

Gao Lian drank two glasses of wine and got a little tipsy, and his speech started to go incoherent.

"Let me tell you, Master Cheng, this Northeast region is no ordinary place. Those immortals in Changbai Mountain, any one of them has hundreds of years of cultivation! Back in my day..."

Liu Yun chimed in from the side, "Stop bragging. Wasn't that incident big enough last time?"

Gao Lian blushed and coughed twice: "That was an accident."

Xia He became interested: "What's wrong, Uncle Gao? Tell me."

Liu Yun shook her head with a smile: "His men are unreliable far too often."

Gao Lian panicked: "What do you mean unreliable? That was a special case! Cola Novels—Your Private Pocket Library, Accessible Anytime."

Liu Yun looked at him and said, "Then tell me about it."

Gao Dazhuang and Gao Erzhuang also pricked up their ears, as their father rarely talked about those things with them.

Gao Lian took a sip of wine and began to speak.

"Back in the year before last, I had a guy named Zhang who was a bit of a simpleton."

"That winter, heavy snow blocked the mountains, and strange things happened in the mountains. There was a village of about a dozen households at the foot of the mountain. With nothing to do, the villagers either hibernated or drank alcohol. Then one day, the village started to lose face."

Xia He frowned: "The person was stolen? Was it done by Hanabusa?"

Gao Lian shook his head: "At first, no one took it seriously. They thought they were just visiting relatives or going to the city to work. But then seven or eight people went missing, both men and women, young and old, and that's when we realized something was wrong."

Xia He was even more curious: "What's going on?"

Gao Lian clinked glasses with Cheng Mo and took a sip of wine: "People disappeared near the village—some went to the foot of the mountain to collect firewood and never came back; some went to the river to break the ice and fish, but no one was ever seen; and some went to the foot of the mountain to pick mushrooms, but they didn't bring back any mushrooms and they disappeared too."

He picked up a piece of meat, chewed it, and swallowed it. "After Comrade Hat checked, he found something was wrong, so he dragged us into it. Little Zhang was in charge of that area, leading people to search the mountains for several days, but they didn't find a single hair. It was like they had been snatched away by a ghost."

Erzhuang shuddered in fright and grabbed her sister's hand tightly.

Gao Yuting teased her, "You're such a grown-up, are you still afraid of ghosts? This place is full of immortals, there are no ghosts. With your father and the immortals protecting you, what are you afraid of?"

Gao Yuting teased her, "You're such a grown-up, are you still afraid of ghosts? This place is full of immortals, there are no ghosts. With your father and the immortals protecting you, what are you afraid of?"

Erzhuang didn't respond, but listened even more carefully.

Gao Lian continued, "You might not know Xiao Zhang. He's the kind of person who's single-minded; once he's made up his mind, nothing can change it. When he couldn't find anything in the mountain, he came up with a terrible idea—to use himself as bait. He disguised himself as an ordinary person and loitered at the foot of the mountain."

He slapped his thigh.

Snapped!

"Hey! Damn it, I found an old cotton-padded jacket from a peasant woman, put on a tattered straw hat, carried a basket, and pretended to be an old woman going to collect firewood. I wandered around the foot of the mountain every day."

Liu Yun was displeased and slapped him across the face: "Why are you slapping your own thigh instead of me?"

The tense atmosphere dissipated immediately.

Gao Erzhuang quickly stretched his body, craning his neck: "What's next? What's next?"

Cheng Mo turned to look at the little girl, realizing she was both incompetent and playful.

Gao Lian rubbed the spot where he had been slapped and continued, "Xiao Zhang wandered around at the foot of the mountain for several days without any problems, so he relaxed. That afternoon, he looked at the smoke rising from the village chimneys and thought that he had wasted another day, so he slowly walked into the village."

The group knew something was wrong as soon as they heard that, and quickly sat up straight.

"When Xiao Zhang walked to the stone bridge at the entrance of the village, there was a person squatting under the bridge fishing."

Gao Lian continued, "The man was wearing a long robe and a straw hat, holding a fishing rod, and looked quite relaxed. Xiao Zhang even asked, 'Did you catch anything?' The man grunted and started reeling in his line, meaning he hadn't caught anything."

Cheng Mo's heart skipped a beat, and he vaguely guessed what was going on.

"Xiao Zhang didn't take it seriously and continued walking back. After a few steps, the fisherman caught up and shouted 'Hey!' from behind." Gao Lian suddenly raised his voice, and Gao Erzhuang shuddered in fright.

"Guess what?" Gao Lian took a sip of wine and smacked his lips.

The little girl asked expectantly, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Gao Lian chuckled: "He put a hand on Xiao Zhang's shoulder."

Xia He and Gao Dazhuang blurted out almost simultaneously, "A wolf's arm around the shoulder?"

The two exchanged a glance.

Gao Dazhuang was quite surprised: "You've heard of this legend too, girl?"

Xia He nodded: "My grandfather served in the army here for a few years. He mentioned it to me when I was a child."

Gao Erzhuang asked curiously, "What does 'wolf on the shoulder' mean?"

"We have a saying here that an old wolf that has become a spirit can imitate people," Gao Yuting explained to her sister.

"The wolf would put on the clothes of the people it had eaten, wear a straw hat, and sit by the roadside. When someone passed by, it would silently follow them, placing its paws on their shoulders. As soon as the person turned around, it would bite their throat in one swift motion."

Gao Erzhuang exclaimed, "Ah! Are wolves that scary?"