This Damned Thirst for Survival

He put the bag down on his back and took out three coins. Jiang Luo caught a handful of snow to wipe his hands before shaking the trigrams. The other three men crouched beside him, watching unblinkingly.

Jiang Luo put his things away and took out his compass, “Let’s go.”

Half an hour later, the sky became dark and gloomy, with a fierce wind and thick clouds overhead, the tell-tale signs of an approaching blizzard.

The three Lian Xues were so convinced by Jiang Luo that they called him “senior brother” with such sincerity that it gave Jiang Luo goose bumps.

Another half hour passed, and the snowflakes were severe, combining with the cold wind to whistle across the mountain.

The three boys were fine, but Lian Xue was so pale that it was hard to walk in the snow.

Jiang Luo divined with his fingers for a moment and looked relieved as he turned and shouted, “We’re almost there, hang on.”

After saying this he coughed a few times.

The cold wind poured down my throat with every word, making my throat hurt.

Lian Xue’s spirits were lifted and he had the strength to walk forward again.

When the snowstorm came, it was so grey and dull that they couldn’t see anything. I don’t know how far they had gone when a few warm lights suddenly appeared in their eyes, fluttering in the wind and snow.

Lian Qiang said excitedly, “There’s someone up ahead!”

With the light, there was an instant strength in the legs and feet. A few people buried themselves in the direction of the light and a fine wooden cottage cottage appeared in front of them.

Jiang Luo knocked on the door first and asked Lian Xue in a low voice, “Is there a wooden hut like this inside the mountain?”

“Yes,” Lian Xue leaned weakly against the wall, “when the summer comes, there will be people coming to the mountains to escape the heat. They’ve built quite a few little cottages, people who can build cottages in the mountains are from very privileged families, we’re saved.”

As soon as Lian Xue’s words left his mouth, a slightly older voice came from inside the door, “Here it is.”

A few people stood up straight as the door was opened by an old man in his fifties dressed like a butler with a smile on his face and deep lines, “You are?”

“We were climbing in a snowstorm, could you please take us in for the night?” Lian Xue asked.

The old man looked at them, then outside at the snow and wind, and stepped back with relief, “Of course you can. Come on in, boys.”

When they stepped inside, the warmth immediately hit them, and several people felt as if they had come to life, shivering as they took off their snow-soaked down jackets under the old man’s guidance.

The mountains do not have the convenience of heating within the city, and the oldest form of heating by fire is still used. In addition to the old people, there are two groups of people sitting restrainedly on the sofa.

One group was an elderly couple sitting next to each other, kindly looking at Jiang Luo and helping them dry their clothes by the fire, chatting about the sudden snowstorm. Another group of four young students, two men and two women, also had their duvets off and were baking by the fire, looking like the unlucky ones who had been caught in the blizzard.

The four students waved at them in greeting, and a curly-haired girl said, self-effacingly, “You’re here on the mountain to collect the wind, too?”

“Huh?” Lian Bing was confused, “What’s there to pick up on the mountain on this snowy day?”

“It’s the snow days that make it rare,” replied the hooded man inside the student who had been fiddling with his camera with his head down, “We haven’t had such a blast of snow this early in the morning over here, and the four of us are here specifically to take pictures for the occasion.”

Another old couple sat back and poured hot water for them, “We two old men are stuck here too. When the snow stopped in the morning, we rushed to deliver firewood, but the roads are not easy to walk on in snowy weather, and our legs are useless, so we had just climbed up to deliver the firewood when the blizzard came, and we have to thank Housekeeper Yan for letting us shelter here from the blizzard.”

Housekeeper Yan hung up the clothes meticulously and went to the kitchen to bring two plates of snacks before smiling, “It was a hard trip up here, so feel free to stay here until the storm is over. Our host family is a good man and most eager to entertain guests.”

At these words, the air loosened up to the naked eye. The group were all good company and names were soon exchanged.

The four young students are part of a photography club at a nearby university, and the hatted man, Du Ge, is the club’s president. The curly-haired woman, Qin Yun, is the club’s vice-president. Another man and a woman are members of the club, probably also a couple, neither of whom are very talkative.

They were all about the same age and could reasonably talk about many topics together, but the three Lien family siblings were completely head over heels for their chatting topics, completely unaware of current popular stems and hot topics, and could only sit awkwardly by the side and laugh along.

The four students didn’t care, but Yu Guang had looked at Jiang Luo several times. Du Ge suddenly pointed his camera at Jiang Luo, “Can I take a picture of you?”

The couch didn’t fit so many people, so Jiang Luo simply sat cross-legged on the carpet as the long-haired youth glanced boredly into his lens, “Better not.”

Du Ge regrets putting away the camera but doesn’t give up, “Okay, but hopefully you’ll change your mind about letting me take one before we part.”

Qin Yun’s smile stiffened as she tugged at Du Ge’s sleeve and half-jokingly reminded her, “Didn’t we agree before that I would be your next model? I’ve been waiting for you for a year and you haven’t even taken a picture of me.”

Du Ge’s expression remains unchanged, ” Qin Yun, inspiration comes and goes, I can’t help it.”

He tucked his arm away and his sleeve broke free from Qin Yun’s hand.

Qin Yun was embarrassed for a moment, but when Butler Yan came out of the kitchen, Qin Yun asked first, “Grandpa Yan, is the master’s family here too?”

Butler Yan said gently, “Yes. Our gentleman has only just returned and is resting in the master bedroom, so please do not take our gentleman’s rudeness personally.”

Qin Yun waved his hand, “No matter what, no matter what.”

Between one question and another, the previous embarrassment was brought to a close. Qin Yun became curious again about the master’s house that Yan’s housekeeper spoke of. This was the first time she had seen a so-called housekeeper in real life, and she actually wanted to ask more, but she was too embarrassed to continue as no one else was talking.

Housekeeper Yan continued, “I am preparing dinner, do you all have anything to avoid?”

The crowd shook their heads in thanks and Jiang Luo held out his hand, “Sorry, I don’t eat fish.”

Housekeeper Yan smiled, “No fish for dinner tonight, don’t worry.”

After refusing the requests for help, the butler went back into the kitchen. With nothing else to do, Jiang Luo’s occupational hazard got the better of him and he got up and walked around the ground floor.

On the first floor were the master bedroom and the guest bedroom, and he could not venture up there without Yan’s guidance. After looking around, Jiang Luo came to the conclusion that the owner of this villa must have a very high standard of dress or be an extremely self-absorbed person.

Mirrors of all sizes are everywhere, roses still budding in winter are placed in the corner, and on the coat rack at the entrance door hangs an elegant black gentleman’s hat and a trench coat without a single crease.

Even with so many people walking through the room, the carpet by the door is clean and untouched by the elements. The old housekeeper, who is in his fifties, is sharper and more thorough in his work than the young man.

There was nothing wrong with the feng shui pattern, and the villa was big enough to accommodate all of them. Jiang Luo went back to the sofa and stared at the fire.

The housekeeper came out in the middle of the day, saw that they were bored and found them two poker games.

An hour later, dinner was ready. The stern butler took a separate portion of food up to the first floor and after a few moments he brought it back as it was.

He sighed and didn’t say anything, but greeted the sidekicks, “Use it first, everyone.”

The dinner was sumptuous and tasted delicious. The room was so hungry that they couldn’t be bothered to talk during the meal, and only when they were full did they have mouths to praise Housekeeper Yan’s cooking.

Housekeeper Yan shook his head and laughed, making them a cup of easy-to-eat flower tea.

The tea is fragrant and the chalet keeps out the snowstorm and the hissing wind. There is a TV inside, but no one turns it on, because everyone knows that in a snowstorm like this, it will be impossible to watch it.

After the meal, the elderly couple went to their room to rest. But the young man was not yet sleepy. Du Ge fiddled with his mobile phone for a while, frowning and sighing, “I still don’t have a signal here, do you have one?”

Jiang Luo took out his mobile phone, which he hadn’t used for ten days, to check on it, and his phone also showed no signal.

It was too boring to sit around and someone soon suggested a game, “There’s just enough poker here, why don’t we play the game of kings?”

Lian Xue, three people who hadn’t played before, listened carefully to the rules, “The person who draws the king card can order the other two cards to take orders at will, and if they don’t, they are punished, right?”

Qin Yun was familiar with the game, there were eight people at the table and she drew nine cards, “Yes, the one who draws the ghost card is the king.”

Jiang Luo was not interested, holding his chin up as he watched Qin Yun’s red nail-polished fingers shuffle the cards. As Qin Yun was about to deal out the cards, Butler Yan, who was sitting at one side, suddenly stood up and respectfully said to the first floor, “Sir.”

The crowd froze and looked up towards the stairway.

On the first floor, near the handrail of the stairway, there was a man standing at some point.

The man was tall and he wore a form fitting black bathrobe as he looked down at the people below, “What’s the game here?”

His thin lips curled up high and he smiled lazily. An elusive split in his handsome face, from the full corners of his forehead to the high bridge of his nose, was cut by the shadows of the first floor corridor, “Your voices are too loud, slightly disturbing me.”