Lan Ke Qi Yuan

Chapter 1: Chess game

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The quiet forest is filled with singing birds and fragrant flowers, and the cool temperature beside the mountain stream makes people feel very comfortable.

A group of people were busy here, playing and setting up tents and building a camp.

This was a camping activity privately organized by colleagues from the company. Of course, all the participants were young people, because the older people did not have enough physical strength to carry tents and other equipment for hiking.

Originally, everyone hoped that the company would organize a camping trip, but the company organizes group tours every year, with tour guides driving buses. So this year, many colleagues simply did not follow the company, and instead let several colleagues with outdoor experience take the lead in organizing it themselves, which led to this mountain climbing camping trip.

Ji Yuan has only been working in this software company for two years. His hair is still jet black, so he is naturally a young man. So this time, after setting up the tent, he was playing online mobile games with another colleague.

“Hey, hey, hey, Ji Yuan, Ji Yuan, give it to me quickly, give it to me~~ Hey, I’m dead!”

"What's the point of giving you a big move? You fell down in two seconds after being cast. It would be better if I could escape. Now, I got a double kill in the bottom lane..."

"My my... Next time you play shooter, I'll assist you!"

"No, no, no... I'll ask for help from passers-by..."

Although this place seems to be in the mountains, a base station can be seen on the top of the mountain in the distance. Two people were playing with their mobile phones and there was not much delay in the Internet speed.

Of course, there are still places in China with extremely poor or even no signal, but most people have long been accustomed to having signal everywhere. This is the confidence brought by the perfect infrastructure and equipment, which makes people unconsciously forget about the signal.

The place where they set up their tent was on a relatively flat hill with a clear stream on the side, which was an excellent place for camping in the wild.

There are more than a dozen people in total. A large number of them are taking pictures outside, and a few are adjusting their tents. The only ones who seem to be free are Wang Gang, Ji Yuan and Li Jun.

Wang Gang was preparing to build a clay stove for barbecue with stones. He looked at the camp and saw that only Ji Yuan and Li Jun had time.

"Ji Yuan, Da Jun, stop playing games and go find some firewood. We'll need to light a fire soon, or you'll just have to eat cold canned food for lunch!"

A colleague from a distance shouted to two people sitting at the entrance of the tent.

"knew!"

"OK."

Li Jun and Ji Yuan both responded, then looked at each other. Since they had been scolded by their teammates, they just quit the game.

The two stood up and walked towards the woods on the edge, entering the denser shade of the trees.

There was no shortage of firewood in the forest, and fallen branches were everywhere. Li Jun dragged a large branch around, swinging it from time to time and shouting "Hehe Hahei". In Ji Yuan's eyes, he looked like a fool.

In order to prevent being infected and also to avoid being accidentally injured by Li Jun's "crazy" stick technique, Ji Yuan hurriedly stayed away from this guy.

Like most young people today, Ji Yuan’s grandfather had a bunch of brothers and sisters. His father was the only son, but Ji Yuan also had several aunts. But in Ji Yuan’s generation, he became an only child.

Perhaps it is because fewer children and grandchildren are more precious, so some of the simple and crude naming patterns of the old Ji family, such as "Jinhua, Yinhua, Guoxing, Cuifen", suddenly became poetic when it came to the grandson's generation. The grandfather also consulted his uncle, who had been a Feng Shui master for decades, to think about it together, and finally chose a single name "Yuan", which satisfied the whole family.

"Ah... The air in the mountains is so good! Traveling should be to places with beautiful mountains and clear waters."

Ji Yuan sighed and didn't rush to collect firewood. Instead, he wandered around in the woods first and brought it back on the way back to save effort.

After walking around for about a minute, Ji Yuan suddenly discovered that there were several extremely thick trees in front of him, which looked much larger than the surrounding trees.

"Da Jun, Da Jun, come and look, there are some super thick trees here, Da Jun!"

Ji Yuan shouted towards the other side and found that the guy was still playing with the stick, so he ignored him for the time being. He planned to go over and take a look himself and then bring everyone to see it later.

When he got closer, Ji Yuan had a more intuitive understanding of these trees.

Just the outermost tree has many exposed roots, tangled together on the ground, some of which are estimated to be as thick as thighs.

'Wow... there are still such old trees here?'

Niutou Mountain is not a very famous tourist attraction, but there are many people who come to the mountain for picnics, barbecues, etc. It stands to reason that someone should have posted a photo of such a thick tree online, right

However, Ji Yuan just thought about it casually and turned to the other side which was blocked by a big tree outside.

"Huh!"

A doubtful sound came out of his mouth.

On that side, in addition to several other equally sturdy ancient trees, there was actually a chessboard in the middle of the trees. To be precise, it was a tree stump with a chessboard on it.

Ji Yuan subconsciously took a few steps forward and came to the tree stump where the chessboard was.

Looking around, I didn't see any warning signs to alert tourists, and of course no one was playing chess.

On the chessboard, black and white pieces are crisscrossed, the black pieces are like formations, and the white pieces are like dragons. It is a typical Chinese Go game, and it is also a half-played game.

This made Ji Yuan a little curious. Did Niutou Mountain intend to develop a scenic spot

However, the chessboard and its surroundings were already covered with fallen leaves and dead branches, with bird droppings and rotten fruit scattered here and there. Whether it was a real chess game or a decorative display, it was obviously a long time ago.

Then his eyes swept to a special object behind the chessboard. There was a rusty object next to an old tree. It was obviously swollen and deformed due to excessive rust.

Ji Yuan walked a few steps closer and took a closer look. After thinking about it, he felt that it looked like an extremely rusty axe.

"Wait! Could this be the legendary Lan Ke chess game!?"

This idea also made Ji Yuan laugh. The decoration really looked like the real thing and it also aroused Ji Yuan's interest.

He returned to the chessboard and looked carefully at the black and white pieces on the board. Ji Yuan, who originally didn't know much about Go, suddenly felt that the big white dragon looked more and more awkward. It could be very coherent, but it lacked a connection. He also felt a sense of threat of being surrounded and killed by the seemingly chaotic black pieces.

The point is that for some reason, the feeling of the white dragon being missing a corner made Ji Yuan's obsessive-compulsive disorder come on. He glanced at the two wooden chess boxes beside the chessboard several times, and then, as if possessed by a ghost, he reached out and took a white piece.

This chess piece is very heavy in the hand, and feels like a piece of iron, but it feels like ceramic. Ji Yuan weighed it, looked around with a guilty conscience, and reached out to place the white piece in the center of the board, which is the "Tianyuan" in Go terminology.

"Okay, now I feel much better!"

Ji Yuan clapped his hands and took out his cell phone from his pocket, intending to take a few photos and record some videos, and then ask everyone to come and take a look.

I pressed the unlock button on the phone several times, but the unlock prompt didn't pop up.

"What the hell! What's going on? Is the battery really out?!"

The phone was actually out of battery, and Ji Yuan pressed and held the power button. The phone vibrated, turned on, and then turned off automatically. When he pressed it again, the power-on button didn't even pop up.

I just finished playing with my phone and it still had at least 80% of the battery left, but now it automatically turned off without me noticing.

Ji Yuan turned his head and looked outside, but he didn't see the army that was wielding sticks before.

'Forget it, go get the power bank.'

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan walked towards the camp. After a few steps, he found that the sky was getting dark.

After walking for a few minutes, Ji Yuan was confused. He saw the flowing stream and the flat hill, but where was the camp

Not only was no one from the company gone, but all the tents were gone. What the hell was going on

This isn't April Fools' Day, and setting up a tent and camping is so hard work, only a fool would tear it down right away as a prank.

Ji Yuan looked around and saw two people in some kind of uniform sitting and resting by the stream in the distance, so he walked closer and asked.

"Excuse me, buddy, have you seen where the campers in front of us have gone? We just set up the camp not long ago!"

The two of them visibly shook, startled by the sudden sound.

Then he turned around and looked at Ji Yuan in surprise. Although they were resting just now, they were also paying attention to their surroundings. It seemed like this man appeared suddenly.

When one of them heard Ji Yuan's question, he answered subconsciously.

"Camping? Just now? No one has been camping in Niutou Mountain these past two days. Everyone is busy looking for missing persons."

"ah?"

This answer made Ji Yuan even more confused.

"Someone's missing in the mountains?"

The company group checked before coming here, and found that there was nothing going on here, and even the weather was good.

"Yes, he's been missing for more than half a month. A young man named Ji Yuan went camping with his colleagues from the company. By the way, who did you go to the mountains with? Where are your companions? Do you know anything about the search and rescue of missing persons?"

As the search and rescue team members spoke, they carefully looked at the person in front of them and felt that the person's appearance was somewhat familiar. When Ji Yuan, who was standing next to them, heard this, he was stunned.

'Missing? Me?? Half a month?? '

Ji Yuan’s first reaction was absurdity, and his second reaction was that he felt something was wrong.

Before the astonished Ji Yuan could say anything, he felt a strong sense of dizziness.

Everything went dark before his eyes, and Ji Yuan seemed to lose all his strength in an instant. He was overcome by a strong feeling of weakness and dizziness, and then his legs went weak and he fell down.

And during this process, Ji Yuan's body became thinner at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his lips became extremely dry and cracked as if they were rapidly weathered.

"Sir? Sir, what's wrong with you? Be careful!"

"Hold him, hold him!"

"Not good! Call for reinforcements!"

The last sound Ji Yuan heard in his life was the screams of the two search and rescue team members that seemed to come from the sky.

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