Folang Village is located in the mountains thousands of meters high. The village has existed for as long as the oldest tree in the mountains has lived.
In the early morning, before dawn, the sound of birds penetrated the clouds. On the slope of the back mountain stood three or four young men dressed in shabby clothes, all of them unemployed vagrants from the next village. They surrounded a black-haired man and seemed to be discussing something, but the atmosphere was not very good.
"Sixth Uncle and his team are building a tourist village recently, and they haven't had time to install surveillance cameras on the mountain yet. You Que, you're the driver, and we can't do this without your help."
The man called Youque was leaning against a pine tree, his bangs had been neglected for a long time and were almost covering his eyes. He was very thin and tall, wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, and his bony hands were hanging quietly at his side, holding an unlit cigarette.
He probably wanted to smoke, but considering the dense forests all around him, he gave up. He said in a bland voice, sounding a little inhumane: "I told you, don't come to me for this kind of thing. It's not worth it to go to jail for a few dollars."
A young man in the lead tried to persuade them: "Don't make a mistake. There is a big fat sheep among the tourists this time. The number of bags he carries alone is this many. If we can grab a ticket, we won't have to worry for a few years."
You Que smiled wryly: "How do you know the bag he's carrying isn't a fake?"
Another person said, "He is a big star. He stayed at my B&B last night. I saw him clearly. Without the mask, he looked exactly like he did on TV. And he has all the qualities of a rich young man. He doesn't look like a poor guy at all."
You Que was too lazy to listen to their chatter: "I have to leave soon, so I'm leaving first."
He was about to leave when the leading man grabbed his wrist and said, "Youque, listen to me. When you drive the tourists up the mountain later, turn directly onto Shifo Road. You don't have to do anything else. You will get a share of the money after the job is done."
The tour guide saw You Que and walked a few steps forward: "You Que, why are you here just now? We have been waiting for you for half an hour."
Upon hearing this, You's father sighed and hated his second wife with a vengeance, but he didn't want to quarrel. He could only smoke a cigarette and sulk alone.
He got in the car and sat in the driver's seat. He put on a yellow tourist hat and turned on the loudspeaker next to the seat as required. The propaganda slogan recorded by the village chief came out from it. The half-baked Mandarin mixed with the local accent sounded quite funny:
Father You hummed when he heard this and tapped the pipe in his hand: "Let's go have breakfast. We have to drive up the mountain after breakfast. Let's fill our stomachs first."
You Que saw him and called out "Dad".
The tour guide turned off the loudspeaker before it finished playing.
Strictly speaking, this bus should not be considered a bus. At best, it is a converted small bus.
You Que had no choice but to start the car and drive up the mountain, driving steadily along the winding mountain road in the morning mist. He stared at the road ahead, and couldn't help thinking about what his group of friends had just said. He was inevitably a little upset, and the car speeded up and made several sharp turns in succession.
She was too lazy to continue the verbal battle. She picked up her little son who was playing at the door and went into the kitchen. She took out a bowl of steamed egg custard from the pot and said, "Come on, Zhuzi, be good. Mom will feed you."
After he finished speaking, he ignored the choking look on You's father's face, stood up, kicked over the porcelain bowl on the ground, slammed the door and left.
There was a fork in the road ahead, and logically one should turn right, but for some reason, You Que suddenly turned the steering wheel and turned into the mountain road on the left.
You Que remained calm and said, "The road was blocked by fallen rocks yesterday."
Ah Ying wiped the hem of her skirt and said unhappily, "Don't accuse me of abusing him as his stepmother. There are only a few eggs. You take one chopstick and I take one chopstick. There are no more eggs. Let's wait until the hens lay eggs tomorrow."
Before he walked far, he vaguely heard someone spit behind him: "Bah, you are all from prison, why are you pretending to be a good person!"
You Que could drive, so he was dragged over by the village chief to be a driver. His daily job was to drive the few tourists who were fooled up the mountain for a ride. When he got to the bottom of the mountain, the tourists were already waiting in the car, and only a young tour guide wearing a yellow cap was standing at the door waiting.
You Que paused when he heard this, then returned to normal and walked towards a village house at the foot of the mountain. He pushed open the fence door outside and saw an ancient well inside. Next to the well sat a hunchbacked old farmer, puffing on his pipe.
You Que sat by the kitchen window and heard everything going on inside. He quickly finished the porridge in his bowl, went into the house, took out a black backpack, put some water and biscuits in it, and was about to go out to work when he suddenly heard You's father sighing in disappointment: "Why didn't you learn something else in the first place? You had to learn to steal things like others, and hang out with those bad friends all day. Now it's hard to find a job!"
Ah Ying sneered, "Go to the city? Even if he wants to go to the city, he has to be accepted by someone. He hangs out with the little hooligans in the village all day long, and he was in jail for stealing. The fact that he can find a job as a driver is a gift from the village chief."
At this moment, a plump peasant woman suddenly walked out of the kitchen, holding a bowl of hot porridge in her hand and picking up two pickles with chopsticks. She walked quickly towards You Que and said, "Oh, You Que is back. Hurry and eat it while it's hot. This is hot porridge that just came out of the pot."
You Que found a stool to sit on and buried his head in his food. He had no intention of arguing, but the woman refused to let him go. She leaned against the kitchen door and asked, "You Que, I heard that you are a driver now. Has the village told you how much money they can give you per month?"
You's father tapped his cigarette holder hard and said, "Shut up and say less. He can make a lot of money as a driver. I will send him to work in the city next year."
The tour guide withdrew his gaze and said nothing more.
You Que asked coldly, word by word: "You went out to work and never came back for more than ten years. You didn't send a penny home. You finally came back last year with a concubine and a little son. You didn't care when I was hungry and had no food to eat. You didn't care when my mother ran away with another man. Why do you care about me now?"
Ah Ying slapped him lightly and said angrily, "Eat your food, why are you talking so much!"
Several villages at the foot of the mountain have recently been working together to build a tourist attraction. Every household pooled some money, bought a car that was neither new nor old, and put up a few shabby advertisements, and the structure was finally set up.
A tourist in the back seat was nearly thrown off the ground and couldn't help but yell, "Fuck you! You're driving so fast, are you in a hurry to be reborn? Can you slow down?!"
“Squeak!”
The higher the vehicle went, the harder the mountain road became. You Que had already slowed down to the limit and even picked up a young man from the same village. But this bus was old and many parts should have been replaced long ago, but the village chief was stingy and refused to repair it.
You Que didn't give her a good look at all, and said coldly: "It has nothing to do with you."
Ah Ying's voice suddenly became shrill: "It has nothing to do with me? Of course it has something to do with me. You eat and live for free at home every day, and everything costs money. You should at least give me some household expenses, right?"
Father You saw the pickles in the bowl and frowned: "Aying, aren't there eggs fried in the kitchen? Pick one for him."
Hearing this, You Que raised his eyes slightly from under his hat brim, looked at the rearview mirror, and slowed down a little: "Sorry, the mountain road was slippery this morning, and I couldn't stop."
The tour guide looked up at him and asked, "Why don't you take the Stone Buddha Road?"
You Que shook off his hand and walked down the mountain without looking back: "I told you, don't look for me for this kind of thing."
You Que glanced at him and said, "It's not finished yet."
"Dear tourists, welcome to Folangshan. There are not only tiankeng ruins here, but also ancient civilizations. We offer luxurious accommodation for five days and five nights, with all meals and lodging included. It is better to act than to be moved. The Little Yellow Duck Tour Group welcomes you..."
He suddenly blurted out these words, which made You's father stunned.
Tour guide: “Don’t let it go.” It sounds unpleasant.
You Que made up an excuse: "I was late for dinner, let's go, get in the car."
Zhuzi pointed at the bowl and said, "Mom, you are lying. There are eggs in the pot."
Hearing this, You Que walked to You's father with an expressionless face and squatted down. His eyes were light brown in the sunlight, but his pupils were dark and creepy. "What does it have to do with you?"
Another sharp turn.
You Que frowned, and it was obvious that the brakes were not working. He slowed the car down to the lowest speed and drove forward at a steady speed. However, just as he passed the last big bend, there was a crisp cracking sound from the top of the mountain, followed by several large rocks that came crashing down with the sound of breaking wind, landing squarely on the windshield.
"boom!"
Mount Folang is too high and earthquakes often occur. Protective nets are nailed on the nearby mountain walls to catch the rubble. A piece of the mountain's protective net was washed away by rain two days ago and we haven't had time to repair it yet. Unexpectedly, it happened to be repaired today.
You Que noticed that there was falling rubble in front of him, so he quickly stepped on the brakes and turned the steering wheel to avoid it. However, he did not expect that there was a loud noise suddenly from above the roof of the car. A huge rock fell and directly smashed through the roof. There were immediate screams in the car, and the car body was also tilted for a moment.
"Shit! Rocks are falling! Run!"
"Don't move! The chances of the rocks hitting the same spot are slim! What if you run around and get hit again?"
"Drive away from here!"
There was a village not far ahead. You Que was about to adjust the direction and drive away from the dangerous area when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist. He looked down in surprise and found that the fragments of the windshield had pierced his arm at some point, and blood was all over his arm.
In the blink of an eye, the bus slid backwards rapidly due to the slope of the mountain road, and the rear end hit the guardrail hard - "Bang!"
There was another loud bang, and the yellow bus fell directly down the mountain road and disappeared into the thick clouds and fog, and no sound was heard anymore.
A golden flying insect flew out from the forest, rested on the broken railing, fluttered its wings, and flew away after a while.
You Que lost consciousness when he fell off the cliff. When he woke up again, he heard panicked cries, sometimes near and sometimes far away, which made his head ache:
"Oh no! Run! The pirates are attacking!"
"Save me! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
Occasionally there were a few loud gunshots.
“Bang! Bang!”
You Que opened his eyes with difficulty, and what he saw was a gloomy sky. He stood up shakily, but found himself in the wilderness. A group of panicked people were running towards them from a distance, and several black starships were floating in the sky behind them, chasing them not far away.
what happened?!
You Que looked stunned, but before he could figure out what was going on, he was hit hard on the shoulder by one of the fleeing people. He groaned and covered the wound on his arm, staggering back two steps, only to find that the man was more seriously injured than him, and fell to the ground with a "thump", with several bloody bullet holes on his back, and his clothes were soaked with blood.
You Que was shocked when he saw this, and hurried forward to check on him: "What's wrong with you?!"
The man had a very strange appearance, with brown hair and brown eyes, a high nose and deep eyes. Because of the gunshot, blood was constantly flowing out of the corner of his mouth. He tightly grasped You Que's arm, as if grasping a life-saving straw, and uttered a few words intermittently: "Save... Save me... I don't want to die..."
As they were talking, the panicked crowd behind them had already run over, trampling and crying. The pursuing starships had been firing at the ground, and the bullets had already hit You Que's feet.
“Thump, thump, thump, thump!”
You Que quickly rolled on the ground to avoid the bullet, but the man was not so lucky and died completely.
You Que finally realized that it was not advisable to stay here for long. He found that his black backpack had fallen not far away. He immediately picked it up and ran with the crowd, but the starship behind him was chasing him relentlessly.
You Que lost too much blood, and his vision began to go dark. He was left far behind by the crowd. He found a dense forest not far ahead, and quickly ran into it. The lush branches and leaves inside could effectively block the flight path of the starship.
As expected, those starships abandoned You Que who was fleeing towards the dense forest and turned to chase the rest of the crowd. The sound of gunfire gradually faded away.
You Que just kept running, his heartbeat getting faster and faster, his breath getting more and more rapid. He didn't know where he was, nor did he know why someone would shoot in peacetime. He only knew that the man just now really died in front of him, and if he didn't run, he would die too.
The scenery on both sides of the dense forest was rapidly receding, and many elusive and dangerous creatures were lurking in the dark. They seemed to be eager to have a feast, but staring at the blood flowing from the man's body, they all felt fearful without exception.
You Que didn't know how long he had been running. The sky that was just beginning to brighten had turned completely dark. Fortunately, this small forest was not very big. When the moon rose, he finally reached the exit.
The dense forest behind him that blocked out the sun was like an invisible cage, which You Que left far behind. A small town appeared in front of him, and the dim lights were like a life-saving straw in the dark night, giving people a glimmer of hope.
The tense nerves in You Que's mind relaxed, and he finally lost all his strength and fell to the ground. He moved his fingertips with difficulty, trying to get up from the ground, but it was difficult to gather his breath once it was gone. In his trance, he only felt as if there were several people surrounding him, and the sound of their voices kept pouring into his head.
"Hey, why is there a bug here?"
Someone shone a light on the back of You Que's neck and exclaimed, "There are no insect patterns on the back of the neck. It's actually a male insect?"
"He's covered in blood. Could he be dead?"
"She's pretty, let's drag her back first."
This was the scene when You Que and the male insects of Guigu met for the first time. He recalled the situation that day countless times, but still didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky.
Fortunately, I was rescued.
Unfortunately, Guigu and his friends were not good people. At best, they were a group of street thugs who cheated and deceived people, and he himself was showing signs of being dragged down into this trap.
In a cheap rental house, the light was dim. On the bed lay a man who was fast asleep. When the alarm clock struck seven o'clock, he woke up on time, then froze for a while before slowly sitting up from the bed.
I had that dream again.
You Que wiped his face with his hand, still unable to understand why he ended up traveling to this strange world when he had only fallen off a cliff.
He got up from the bed, opened the drawer and found a few medicine bottles. He skillfully changed the bandage on the wound on his arm, wrapped it with gauze in a few seconds, and then walked into the small bathroom to wash.
The mirror above the sink reflected a pale, thin male face with indifferent eyes, just like the handsome male models in magazines, except that he looked a little lifeless.
You Que brushed his brown hair and stared at his brown eyes in the mirror. He still felt that this face was very different in this small border town. He quickly brushed his teeth and washed his face, but suddenly heard a knock on the door. He paused:
“Boom boom boom!”
You Que wiped his face with a towel and walked quickly to the door, but did not open it immediately: "Who?"
A voice came from outside: "Excuse me, is this Mr. Eugene? We are the staff of the local marriage matchmaking agency, and we would like to investigate your family situation."
You Que paused after hearing this and said: "Wait a moment."
After he finished speaking, he turned back to the bathroom, took out a red box from the washstand below, densely dotted his face with many ugly pockmarks, and then pasted a red and swollen fake scar on the right side of his cheek until his real face could no longer be seen. Then he put on a mask and went to open the door.
“Click—”
You Que opened the door and found a worker standing outside in a blue uniform with a number on his chest. He was indeed an investigator from the Marriage Arrangement Agency. "Excuse me, what can I do for you?"
When the investigator saw You Que wearing a mask, he was stunned for a moment: "Sir, why are you wearing a mask?"
You Que said simply, "I'm allergic."
The investigator stared at him for a few seconds, and as expected, he saw a patch of red and swollen skin under the gap in the mask, and then he looked away: "It's like this, sir. The empire has been promoting the birth rate of the whole people. A new policy was just issued last month. Whether it is an outsider or a local resident, everyone must participate in the matchmaking activities of the introduction agency. When we checked the rental information, we found that you just moved in last month, and you are single, right?"
Upon hearing this, You Que subconsciously looked back at his empty rental house and could only hum.
The investigator asked, "Could you please show us your ID card so we can register with you?"
You Que frowned slightly when he heard this, and said "wait a minute", then turned back to his room and dragged a black travel bag out from under the bed. He unzipped the backpack, dug out an ID card from it, and stared at the photo on it, his expression stunned for a moment.
The photo shows a man with brown hair and brown eyes, and the name column clearly says "Eugene". It is obvious that this ID card does not belong to You Que.
On the day of escaping in the suburbs, the situation was so chaotic that You Que took his backpack and ran away. Later he found out that he had taken the wrong one. The backpack contained some scattered money and miscellaneous identification documents. Judging from the photo, it should be the unlucky man who died under the star pirate's gun that day.
You Que was an illegal resident in this strange world. He borrowed this ID card when he rented a house, but he didn't expect to be found at his door.
He returned to the door with his ID card and handed it to the investigator: "My ID card."
The investigator took it and scanned the information with a machine: "Sir Eugene, your blood purity is 26%, and you are 24 years old. We will choose a partner who meets your conditions for you during the later matching process. We will notify you as soon as we have any news."
You Que didn't look too interested: "Thank you."
The investigator handed his ID card back to him and left, and gave him a small gift before leaving.
You Que closed the door, and the air became completely quiet. He turned and walked to the living room, opened the curtains, and found that the street below had begun to become noisy, and it was crowded with people.
No, maybe not a person.
But... a bug.
You Que sat by the window, lowered his head and stroked the ID card in his hand, and a rare sense of uncertainty arose in his heart.
How can a human hide his identity and survive in a world full of bugs
(End of this chapter)