The Human History of Those Gods: A Continuous Stream

"From now on, you won't need to grow herbs. You'll just eat and sleep all day. I have money, lots and lots of money..." Seeing that Li Jushuang didn't react, he figured the mountain spirit probably didn't even know how much money was. He added sullenly, "Anyway, just tell me what you need, and I'll buy it for you."

"Um."

Hearing Li Jushuang's "hmm," Liang Song perked up again: "What do you want? Think of one. Diamonds, a watch, a sports car—think of one." He was certain this country bumpkin knew nothing and would bombard him with questions: What are diamonds? What are watches used for? Is a sports car something that runs on its own? Is it expensive? How much does it cost? These questions would give him a chance to impress her. Unexpectedly, Li Jushuang only seriously replied, "Hmm, let me think."

After saying this, Li Jushuang fell silent again. Before she could feel too much disappointment, Liang Song's mind turned to something else: "When I got up this morning, I looked along the lake. The pass where I met you and Nandou last time, if it were blasted open, the lake water could be diverted to that meadow below. Maybe your dilapidated Taoist temple could be exposed, and then you could go home."

"When I get back, I'll get someone to blast open the mountain pass, and then I'll renovate your dilapidated Taoist temple. The walls need to be raised, stone lions need to be installed at the entrance, and a few security guards need to be hired." Thinking of this, Liang Song suddenly felt at ease. "We also need to build a few more houses. I'll live in one, and you can live in another. We'll plant medicinal herbs in the yard, the expensive ones, ginseng, angelica, poria, whatever's expensive. But I need to go back first. Do I need any permits for blasting the mountain? I need to find out."

"Um."

Li Jushuang opened her mouth as if to say something, but ultimately remained silent. The two lay side by side, neither speaking. Li Jushuang's hair had a faint scent of cypress, which smelled very pleasant.

"Li Jushuang, what do you use to wash your hair?"

"Soapberry and arborvitae powder. In autumn, we go to the back mountain to collect soapberries and arborvitae seeds, peel them, remove the seeds, dry them in the sun, and grind them into powder."

"Give me a wash too, my hair is starting to stink."

"Um."

Liang Song patted Li Jushuang's hand with relief; his hand was small and cool.

"What are we going to do tomorrow...?"

How can we know what tomorrow will bring today?

At this moment, Liang Song felt that Li Jushuang was very mature. Although she was clearly just a child, she acted like an adult in her forties or fifties. Liang Song was almost 30 years old, but she acted like a teenager.

"Alright, Li Jushuang, what shall we do today?"

"I'm going to sleep today."

Liang Song was relieved; sleeping was something he excelled at. Besides sleeping, what else was he good at? Working out, picking up girls, shopping, racing cars, and playing games. He realized he hadn't logged into the game for several days. He wondered if the girl named Lan Ningxueyuan in the game had married someone else. He was probably overtaken on the game's leaderboard; that damned King of War, Kabinu, was definitely not content with being a perennial runner-up and must have spent money again while he was away. His combat power should have surpassed his by now.

When I get back, I still need to take down Kabinu. I need his permission to dominate the rankings... Then I remembered my credit card. I wondered if Sun Wuliang had paid it off for me. Then I remembered that April 4th was Liang Dangyi's birthday. I wondered if I could make it back in time. I kept thinking about these things. My mind was spinning like a top, never stopping for a moment.

In the afternoon, neither Li Jushuang nor Nan Dou were around. Liang Song did 1000 sit-ups and 200 push-ups and was fine. Touching his stubble-covered face, he roughly calculated that Sun Wuliang should have found him by now, and he could return soon. He was satisfied with his caution and restraint; in this situation, waiting for rescue was the best course of action.

As night fell, Li Jushuang returned. Liang Song couldn't figure out what he had been doing, so the two of them started a fire and cooked porridge. Li Jushuang seemed preoccupied, responding with only "uh-huhs" to whatever Liang Song said. Liang Song was somewhat annoyed, so after playing with the cat for a while, he went to bed on the couch.

------

Sun Wuliang arrived at the Langang campsite in the middle of the night. It was called a campsite, but it was really just three tents. There were eight people camping there that night; apart from Shi He and Wang Lantian, the others had gone to bed early. Hiking in the mountains at night is very dangerous, but fortunately, a new sightseeing route was built to a place not far from Langang this January. The road isn't finished yet, but walking along it is relatively safe.

The equipment of Liang and Song was piled up on the ground.

"Secretary Shi instructed me to make sure you confirm whether these things belong to Liang and Song."

Sun Wuliang spotted Liang Song's shoes immediately: Norrona. Despite being covered in mud and almost completely deformed, Sun Wuliang recognized them instantly. These shoes were specially made for Liang Song by the Norrona brand, with the initials of Liang Song's name and the date of manufacture engraved on the soles.

He rubbed the mud off the sole of his shoe with his finger to make Liang Song's name clearer. "It's Liang Song's," he nodded. Outdoors, shoes are the most basic means of transportation, an essential piece of equipment that can be discarded in any situation.

Wang Lantian looked very serious. He touched his chin, looked up and asked Shi He, "Two more sets of diving equipment will arrive tomorrow. Chen Song and I both have diving certificates, so we can go into the water."

Shihe fell asleep.

He leaned against an outdoor chair, his head drooping, his hair falling over his forehead, and below his forehead, his eyebrows were long and delicate, like distant mountains.

Sun Wuliang scrutinized Shi He's face. He had fair skin, a slender nose, and soft lips, making him appear androgynous. It was undeniably a perfect face. Sun Wuliang recalled the rumors circulating about Liang Dangyi and Shi He and thought to himself, "With looks like that, it's no wonder people speculate and fantasize about him so much."

Wang Lantian lowered his voice: "He hasn't slept for several days in a row, he's too tired, let him sleep."

The only sound in the tent was Shi He's even breathing. In the excessive silence, a sense of helplessness overwhelmed Sun Wuliang like a tide. He struggled for a moment and asked softly, "Liang Song, you haven't already met with something?"

Handing over a box of instant rice, Wang Lantian said noncommittally, "It's all uncertain right now. All we know is that a high-altitude lake called Salukama in the northwest has breached its banks, and the lake water has submerged a large area of ​​meadows at the foot of the mountain."

He paused, then continued, "Liang Song's equipment wasn't discovered by our team. I didn't actually survey it, so I can't guess what the situation was like at the time. However, in an emergency, reducing the load might mean discarding some equipment that isn't immediately needed, but you wouldn't take off your shoes to reduce the load, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Severe hypothermia can completely damage the body's lower nervous system. The lower nervous system is the neural structure in the nervous system that is responsible for basic physiological functions and simple reflex activities. When it is destroyed, a person can no longer feel cold. Instead, the brain will think that it has received a heat signal. So when a person is extremely cold, they will abnormally feel that their body is particularly hot. When they are hot, they will take off their clothes one by one. I don't know if this can be considered a kind of mercy from nature."

"Both are deaths, so what's the difference between freezing to death and burning to death?"

"That's hard for us to understand." Wang Lantian looked at Sun Wuliang. "Actually, there's another possibility."

"What?"

"When wading or swimming, a pair of shoes will increase in weight by three to five times if they get wet. If a mountain or lake dam breaks and you want to swim to safety, you will have to take off your shoes."

"At this temperature, even if you manage to escape, what are your chances of survival?"

"There are still some."

Sun Wuliang swallowed a mouthful of rice, opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Wang Lantian continued, "As rescuers, we always hold onto a sliver of hope, no matter what the situation. We won't give up until the very last moment. At this time, you can't overthink it; just do the work. Thinking too much won't help at all."

"This is the first time you've encountered this situation. I'm a local, I grew up in these mountains. Later, our entire village was relocated when the reservoir was built. Because I'm familiar with the terrain, I've been cooperating with the police station in the search and rescue work in the Ai Mang Mountains for many years. How should I put it? All search and rescue work must be carried out scientifically and systematically, but the results are often unscientific."

Sun Wuliang turned his head and looked at him.

"Yes, that's not scientific. Sometimes logical reasoning doesn't work well in search and rescue. One year, a female traveler went missing in the Aimang Mountains. Her family found her and contacted us after five days. As you know, 72 hours is the golden time for search and rescue. After 72 hours, the chances of survival drop significantly."

"Later we found her travel bag and large slip marks on a cliff, so we judged that she may have fallen off the cliff from there. Then we went around to the bottom of the cliff, which was a very wide river valley, but we didn't find any clues. The grass and trees were undisturbed and the river was shallow."

"At the time, we all thought she was probably dead, but a day later, we found her 25 kilometers upstream in the valley. Apart from some scratches, she was almost unharmed."

"She didn't fall off the cliff?"

Wang Lantian looked at Sun Wuliang and said, "I don't know about that. I haven't seen her since we came down the mountain. I only heard about it from the insurance company. Her memory has been a bit confused since then. Sometimes she says she did fall, and sometimes she says she didn't. But if she did fall, why is she almost unharmed? If she didn't fall, how could she be in the valley below the cliff?"

Wang Lantian stretched his legs. "So, don't draw any conclusions until the very last moment."

Sun Wuliang hummed in agreement.

"We still have to look on the bright side." Wang Lantian sat up straight. "No matter what, we still have to send people into the water tomorrow. Although there are still many possibilities, and we don't want anything to happen to Liang and Song, we still have to go into the water and search."

Wang Lantian pulled a blanket over Shi He and gently draped it over him. Sun Wuliang reached out and fiddled with the walkie-talkie on the ground; the crevices were full of mud. Wang Lantian said, "This wasn't cheap; it might still work if we fix it."