The Shawan Camp on Wo Mountain is located at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, and currently, more than thirty tourists are stranded there.
The rescue team will bring up sufficient supplies, but due to the poor road conditions, they will inevitably need to stay at the camp for some time.
Chu Tingwu greeted everyone around, and the older man who wanted to hike down the mountain followed her around. Finally, when she had some free time, he asked:
"Miss, when will the others arrive? Can we contact the people below? Can I let my family know I'm safe? Oh, and I also have a friend who was hiking with me. We were both staying on the mountain, and he left early in the morning. He hasn't returned yet—"
The older man wanted to go down the mountain not just to contact his family but more urgently to confirm the safety of his friend. With modern communication methods cut off, everyone felt a void in their hearts... He hoped that once he got down, he would learn that his friend had already descended the mountain. If there was no news, at least he could pass on the message.
Chu Tingwu: Why didn't you say so earlier?
Due to the distance and high altitude, the signal was insufficient, so the walkie-talkie in Chu Tingwu's hand was currently useless. However, she had brought a radio receiver, which she left with the people on the mountain—a radio station had also been set up below. The walkie-talkie was mainly for when the rescue team members were nearby and needed to communicate with each other. Both she and her cat were equipped with location devices. If she were to go missing, the police could still locate her based on the signal.
When Chu Tingwu prepared to leave, everyone in the camp was quite surprised. This rescue team member had come alone and was now leaving alone, leaving only supplies and information behind. Despite her not being physically strong, the sight of her departing back made everyone feel uneasy.
The older man even stopped her: "Why don't I go with you? I've been hiking for several years, and I'm pretty nimble on the mountain... You're heading this way, are you going further up? At least I can help you carry the life detector!"
Chu Tingwu politely declined: "Stay here. Otherwise, if you go down the mountain and get into trouble, we'll have to come rescue you."
Hmm... it didn't sound very polite.
Actually, before her, others had already tried to persuade the older man, but their words carried a hint of hope, making him feel eager to go down on his own.
Chu Tingwu's tone wasn't harsh, just very calm, which made the older man feel less inclined to move and a bit embarrassed.
Then, he saw the rescue team member, who introduced herself as from the "Starcloud Charity Foundation" but was wearing a "Blue Ocean Foundation" jacket, call her cat and quickly disappear into the night.
After some distance, the light from the drone above also disappeared, further stirring concern in everyone's hearts.
After Chu Tingwu left, everyone dozed off briefly. At dawn, they were awakened by members of the rescue team—
Seeing so many strangers in "Blue Ocean Foundation" jackets in the camp, everyone's eyes welled up with tears. Although they hadn't been able to descend the mountain yet, their hearts felt much more at ease.
Zheng Rong also approached to ask about Chu Tingwu, expressing his gratitude: "It's a good thing you had a member come ahead of time to bring medicine for my mother. Otherwise, we really wouldn't have known what to do!"
The leader waved his hand, then seemed to recall something: "By the way, when did she arrive? Where is she now?"
Zheng Rong: "Hmm, about five hours ago? Then she went back up the mountain."
The leader: "..."
A few hours?
How did she get up here so quickly? Even if she took a shortcut, it wouldn't be that fast, right?
He couldn't help but repeatedly inquire, suspecting that the people in the camp might have hallucinated, but Zheng Rong's puzzled expression confirmed it. He muttered:
"So it really wasn't the Blue Ocean Foundation..."
He had thought the girl had just mixed up the names, but it turned out she had just worn the wrong jacket. So, what is this Starcloud Charity Foundation? Is it in Jincheng? I'll have to look into it later.
The leader: "=="
No, he was certain it wasn't. Later, when he meets Yan Ping, he'll have to ask who this person really is!
-
Yan Ping and another team from the rescue squad were together.
The situation on the mountain was severe. On their way up, they encountered injured individuals and had to manually carry them down the mountain—both injured were not tourists but original residents of the mountain, likely because "those who are good swimmers drown." They encountered an aftershock while descending.
This made Yan Ping even more worried about other residents on Wo Mountain—
Wo Mountain isn't just a tourist destination; it's a series of mountains surrounded by smaller hills. Wo Mountain is the highest peak, but the surrounding hills also have names, though they aren't as prominent.
Over the years, the government has been working to relocate residents from the mountains, but many still live in poverty, unwilling to leave their "homeland."
They refuse to live in free resettlement housing and communities below, insisting on staying in the inconvenient mountains.
In addition to scattered households, there is even a village on the mountain.
Before leaving the mountain, Yan Ping thought: I hope they've already met Chu Tingwu... and I hope Chu Tingwu doesn't wander off and stays safely in the camp.
-
Although Chu Tingwu wasn't in the camp, the people there busied themselves for a while before hearing other voices.
It was an excited shout, coming from two unfamiliar faces, clearly tourists... and a familiar cat leading the way.
The leader: "Three Five Five!"
The two tourists finally saw the large group and immediately felt their knees go weak, almost collapsing to the ground.
Others hurried over to help them up and learned:
"You met one of our rescue team members... ah, the one who was alone, with this cat?"
"She left the cat with you and went ahead on her own? After dawn, the cat started leading you down the mountain?"
"Her name, for the flag—ah, well, actually, she's from the Starcloud Charity Foundation, not our rescue team. She just borrowed a jacket. Starcloud Charity Foundation, this, this person, yes, he's more familiar with it!"
Zheng Rong, who was pointed to: "?"
He, he only knows the foundation is in Jincheng!
The leader was a bit worried: From what he heard, Chu Tingwu seemed to be heading further up. Wouldn't she get carried away with the rescue? Actually, it's safer for the stranded to stay in place and wait for rescue. Under such circumstances, attempting to descend the mountain on their own is more dangerous. As long as there's enough water, waiting for rescue is definitely more secure.
The tabby cat seemed thirsty and drank some water nearby. Others transferred their gratitude for Chu Tingwu to the cat. After drinking, the cat looked around, then glanced at the direction of departure, seeming a bit hesitant. Finally, it stayed in place and didn't move.
Meanwhile, Chu Tingwu wasn't as the leader imagined—still rushing around—
She was sleeping.
More accurately, she was "proctoring" a dream class.
The leader's concerns were also her considerations—her olfactory system could cover several kilometers. When fully activated, she could detect the presence, traces, movements, and emotions of other living beings in the area using only her sense of smell.
Of course, for wild animals, evolving this ability is primarily for hunting purposes.
However, Chu Tingwu was using it for rescuing people.
Only when she activated it did she realize: "I don't think I've ever smelled people like this before..."
Perhaps because she lived among people, she instinctively lowered her sensitivity to human scents, becoming more alert to the presence of animals. Now, various complex emotions and odors filled her nostrils... Chu Tingwu felt a massive "unease."
Some people believe they can maintain a stable mindset during disasters, but in reality, when disaster strikes, most react with blank minds, weak limbs, and even fail to immediately take cover.
The same was true now. Regardless of their expressions, the true emotions couldn't be concealed.
Chu Tingwu was enveloped in this mood. She sat on a huge boulder embedded in the soil, hugging her knees and taking a deep breath, inexplicably exclaiming:
“Nature is so vast.”
The system also awkwardly replied: “Uh…”
For the system, it only knew data and didn't really understand emotions—humans might naturally exclaim in the face of nature's power, but to the system, it was like NPC dialogue, distant behind a screen.
Yes, vast, magnificent, beautiful.
But wasn’t it still just made up of 1s and 0s?
And yet now, feeling the emotions of the young one, hearing her sigh, it somehow felt like it could understand.
But for this piece of code, what did “understanding” even mean?
The young one had already jumped down and continued forward. The system pondered for a while and suddenly realized—
It didn’t understand how great nature was, but it became aware that when nature roared, it was powerless to protect the young one in that instant.
Only by realizing its own helplessness could it grasp the "greatness" of nature, this ruthless creature.
Even though, in the system’s vast data, Earth was just an ordinary planet, but when the young one was here, the natural landscapes became special, and the entire planet became special, something it had to treat with utmost care.
The system suddenly exclaims: "You're still so young."
Chu Tingwu: “?”
Why bring that up all of a sudden? Wasn’t she growing up?
Chu Tingwu: “Stop with the nonsense. I’m going to sleep. Pull everyone nearby into the dream space.”
Having confirmed the locations of the people around her and that they weren’t seriously injured, only that their emotions and hormones might lead them to make wrong decisions, Chu Tingwu used the [Dream Resonance] technique.
Making everyone dream was far more efficient than going around one by one to calm them down, asking them not to run around or go down the mountain on their own.
The only problem with Dream Resonance was that Chu Tingwu, as the medium, had to be in the dream herself.
There wouldn’t be any more aftershocks. Sitting on a higher, relatively open spot, she closed her eyes under the moonlight, not caring whether it was clean or not—after all, everyone was in the same state.
The next second, everyone within two kilometers was pulled into the “dream.”
But for them… it might be a nightmare.
-
Wan Jiao sat on the open ground in front of the village, feeling inexplicably sleepy.
After the earthquake began, no one dared to stay in their homes, so everyone gathered in the square in front of the village.
The so-called square was already one of the few flat spots on the mountain—
From a distance, Wan Family Village looked like a series of red-roofed buildings of varying heights. The way up and down the mountain was via a “sky ladder,” almost a 90-degree steel structure that required climbing with both hands and feet.
But the people of Wan Family Village were used to it. Long ago, even these steel ladders didn’t exist; they used rope ladders to get up and down.
Most young people had already moved down the mountain, but people like Wan Jiao, who were older, still didn’t want to go down—living on the mountain was good. There were cheap, almost free houses, a supermarket, a square, and even a community activity center.
But living there, Wan Jiao always felt cramped.
Their accents were different from those down the mountain, and he didn’t know how to use the unfamiliar appliances. All he could do was plug in a rice cooker… So after barely half a year living down the mountain, he rolled up his bedding and returned to the simple house on the mountain.
Now.
Wan Jiao looked at the house not far away.
It had collapsed.
He felt his mind go numb. What was a house? A house was a small coffin made of wood and mud. He lived in his own little coffin every day, always feeling that he would be taken by the heavens tomorrow. Then he would feel at ease, feeling that although he hadn’t done anything in his life, it was still complete.
But now his coffin had been taken away first.
He lowered his head, and tears fell to the ground.
Around him, people were talking, and there were cries. Wan Jiao thought of his grandchildren down the mountain, wobbled to his feet, and then plopped back down.
Dust swirled around him as he fell asleep.
He opened his eyes vaguely in his dream—
The sky outside the window was gray. He pushed the door open and looked into the distance. The mountains were just layered silhouettes of dark green against the horizon. The houses were intact, the world quiet, and he could hear the distant calls of other animals, the chirping of birds.
Wan Jiao raised his hand: “Go, go!”
The birds were still chirping, and Wan Jiao instead lowered his hand. His heart raced a little, always worried that if he made too much noise, the ground would start shaking again.
But no, the earthquake didn’t happen.
He turned back into the house, crawled back into his bed… and fell asleep again.
But the elderly in the village could be fooled like this; the younger people pulled into the dream couldn’t.
So, when Hao Qin and her fellow hikers leaned against each other and fell asleep, they woke up to find themselves in a classroom.
Everyone around them was writing, and when she just stood up, the teacher came over: “What are you doing? You can’t hand in your paper early.”
Hao Qin: “Ah… ah—”
She awkwardly sat back down.
Her intuition told her she was still dreaming, and dreaming of an exam was normal, right?
Hao Qin simply lowered her head and started looking at the exam paper. People who had been through years of exams in China generally had a natural sense of awe for classrooms and teachers. Since it was a dream, she might as well see what was on the test.
Hao Qin: “…”
Hao Qin: “…?”
Wait, this should be biology… but why, why did these words together make no sense to her? This was biology, right?
The teacher came over, tapped her desk, and let out a questioning “Hmm?”
Hao Qin hurriedly pulled out a pen and started pretending to scribble on her draft paper—
To be honest, her heart was beating faster than during the earthquake.
Although she couldn't understand the questions and had long forgotten the content she learned in high school (she suspected this wasn't high school material), she still managed to start filling in the exam paper.
After about two hours, the bell finally rang, and Hao Qin breathed a sigh of relief, only to be swept out of the classroom by her classmates. She: “Where to?”
A stranger: “Back to our own classroom, come on.”
So they were switching classrooms for the exam.
She followed them vaguely, pushed the door open, and “Ah!”
She saw her friend! Her friend was here… and there were some obviously unfamiliar but not student-like people too.
Her friend saw her and her eyes lit up.
Her heart pounding as she sat down, she hadn’t even had time to talk more with her friend when the door opened, and a strange female teacher came in to hand out papers.
Hao Qin: Wait!
The female teacher: “Your papers… what are you even testing… I’ve only graded the first few, too lazy to continue, everyone swap and grade each other’s, I’ll start explaining!”
Was this dream too realistic?
Hao Qin absent-mindedly clutched her friend's paper, listening to the teacher at the front of the classroom explaining the questions. As she listened, she actually began to think… this question, hmm, how should this be done, why did she get the next one wrong…
No!
She hadn’t even learned this, of course she’d get it wrong!
After vaguely listening to the explanation of the paper, she felt like she was about to wake up, but not long after, she was taken to a new classroom by the “classmates” to take a math exam.
Hao Qin: “…” Kill me.
Biology she could bluff, but math, if she didn’t know it, she really didn’t know it! Not even in a dream!
Just as she was despairing over the math problems on the exam paper, Hao Qin felt a push: “Wake up, wake up? Oh, why did everyone fall asleep?”
Hao Qin: “I, I really can’t do it…”
The rescue team volunteer: “Ah?”
-
The system: “So humans can dream on their own.”
Chu Tingwu: Otherwise?
Human thought was more complex than that of animals, but she found… it seemed easier to fool.
Not to deceive people, but to directly fool their brains.
During the exam breaks and after the exam, Chu Tingwu did wake up for a while, but the others remained asleep—continuing to dream, with their brains automatically filling in the gaps of their dreams.
For example, the questions, or the feeling of being unable to solve them. Some thought they were just spacing out in their dreams for a few minutes, but in reality, nearly an hour had passed.
And during that hour, Chu Tingwu found the unlucky soul hanging off the edge of a cliff.
The one the hiking brother mentioned—the friend who had gone up the mountain.
The person was in a semi-conscious state, likely having slipped and fallen, getting stuck in a crack in the rocks.
The "cliff" was more of a steep slope, about seven or eight meters high, with the person stuck around the five-meter mark.
Chu Tingwu unfastened her gear, took out a specialized climbing piton, and then—
She pointed at the drone, which awkwardly turned away. Chu Tingwu smiled silently.
She took a step forward, leapt, and landed directly at the top of the seven-meter-high slope, hammering the piton into place.
After that, she began descending, securing each piton, and then reached the hiker's side.
The hiker's belongings were scattered everywhere, some already damaged. Perhaps the sound of the hammering had woken him up, and he opened his eyes groggily.
Chu Tingwu was hanging by the side, using her fingers to wedge herself into the rock crevice to stabilize herself: "I'm... forget it, I'm a volunteer from the Blue Ocean Foundation Rescue Team. Don't struggle, I'll help you secure your gear."
The hiker opened his mouth, then weakly raised his finger to point at his mouth.
Chu Tingwu flipped over on the cliffside, pulled out a bottle of water from behind her, twisted off the cap with one hand, and held it to his mouth.
He finally regained some strength, gulping down water while looking at Chu Tingwu and nodding slightly.
After drinking, he grabbed the bottle with his hands.
At that moment, some loose rocks tumbled down, and his face turned pale.
Chu Tingwu, however, showed no change in expression. She stabilized herself on the rock wall with just her foot, took a deep breath, pressed her body against the cliff, and reached out to help him put on his gear.
"Once I get some strength back, I can put it on myself. Be careful, though... sigh..."
He glanced down and noticed that Chu Tingwu was barely standing on the tips of her toes, looking extremely precarious. It was so unnerving that he didn't dare move.
Chu Tingwu: "It's fine. This rock wall still has a bit of an incline, so I can stand with my feet. It's much better than those that are almost vertical."
On those, you'd have to use a three-point support method to hang someone up.
The hiker: "?"
"Much better"—did you really climb those kinds before?
"You..." the hiker said again, "You're helping me put this on, but what about yours?"
Chu Tingwu glanced at the top, then at him, indicating with her eyes: I was able to hammer the piton at the top—do you really think I need one?
He fell silent.
After the safety gear was secured, he tested it, then slowly freed his limbs. Small rocks and dust fell as he carefully propped himself against the rock wall, enduring the pain, and began his slow descent.
When he finally touched the ground, despite his composure, he nearly collapsed from relief.
Then, he immediately looked up, wanting to see the volunteer—
Chu Tingwu was standing beside him, picking up the nearby bag and slinging it over her shoulder: "I found your camera equipment. The rest is broken, but I managed to salvage your ID. Check if anything's missing."
He: How did you get down so fast?!
He shook his head in confusion, and Chu Tingwu helped the most injured person down to the camp, finally reuniting with the main group.
Over the next few days, the government worked to clear the roads while transporting supplies back and forth.
The impact of this earthquake wasn't too severe. Since the epicenter was close, the surrounding areas weren't greatly affected—just some shaking. The city had timely notifications, so there were no casualties, but the self-built houses in the villages suffered the most damage, and there were landslides that trapped people on the mountain.
While Chu Tingwu was editing her video, the disaster statistics were completed. There were sixty-three injured, mostly minor injuries, mainly in the Nanyue District. There were three severe injuries, all on the mountain, who had already been sent for medical treatment.
The economic losses were still being calculated, but Chu Tingwu had taken a week off and gathered enough footage. It was time to go back to class.
Yan Ping, along with Xiao Yan, saw her off to the station. He had been holding back all the way, finally unable to contain himself:
"Uh... did you manage to capture any footage of Xiao Yan's performance during the earthquake?"
He wasn't planning to make a documentary, was he? Although earthquakes aren't good, it's an important piece of footage! Later, the neighboring city sent rescue dogs to assist... but Xiao Yan also did a great job... pawing, he really wanted to show off... no, document it! If he didn't get any footage, he felt like he'd missed out.
Chu Tingwu: "Don't worry."
Yan Ping: Your drone just followed you around—not very reassuring.
Chu Tingwu: "I got footage from the rescue team."
Yan Ping: "That's good."
But he still had some concerns... the random drone footage might not be up to par.
—Director, please make sure to keep my kid's "screen time."
What he didn't know was that this part was actually being filmed by the director's personal cameraman.
Yan Ping also gave Chu Tingwu some local specialty pastries from Kongsu City, trying to bribe the director.
After returning to school, the director shared the bribes with her classmates.
Chu Tingwu had been away for nearly half a month, and everyone... was extremely envious.
Except for her closest friends, most people only knew that Chu Tingwu had been involved in some kind of police-related filming and hadn't been in the city recently. The person sitting in front of her turned around and asked: "Did you go anywhere fun?"
Chu Tingwu: "Yeah... went hiking."
Chang Yixin, who had called Chu Tingwu after the earthquake: "..."
Front seat: "Oh, oh, there aren't many good mountains nearby. During my summer vacation, my parents took me to climb Mount Tai, and I thought I was going to die. Was your hike fun? Did you make it to the top?"
Chu Tingwu: "Didn't reach the very top. The height was just average, in our province."
Front seat: "Ah, our province doesn't have much to offer... there's a winter camp coming up soon, no holidays, or else we could've gone hiking together."
Chu Tingwu nodded.
Chang Yixin, who knew everything: "…………"
What are you nodding for?!
