Chapter 14

That handshake clearly broke the ice. The tension on both sides eased.
Wei Yuan let go.
Jiang Shan’s face froze. She had caught sight of her own hand, still hanging in the air.
It was filthy—hard to look at.
Five fingers. Nails so long they could have belonged to a ghost in a horror film.
Black grime in every crevice.
Jiang Shan: “…” Her pupils dilated.
Was that her hand? How had it become like this? If there had been a mirror, she would have seen herself—dirty and dishevelled from head to toe.
The shock and fear on the others’ faces hadn’t come from nowhere. The way she looked now, she really didn’t resemble a “normal human.”
As if she hadn’t washed her hands or cut her nails in half a year.
She jerked her hand back.
Her shock and confusion didn’t escape Wei Yuan. His gaze deepened.
“How did you end up here alone?” Wei Yuan asked gently.
Jiang Shan looked at him. Confusion flickered in her eyes. For the first time she hesitated. “I came to find them.”
Wei Yuan pressed: “Find who?”
She didn’t know how to explain. Her memory stopped at “last night”—she had come up the mountain to find Xiao Chen and the missing tourists.
But there was something else in her head—a muddled, chaotic feeling.
She didn’t know her face had gone pale beneath the grime.
Wei Yuan’s gaze grew more intent. His tone was patient, coaxing. “Did you come here with Hand-in-Hand Tours?”
He wanted to confirm her identity.
When she heard the tour company’s name, she could only nod slightly.
Wei Yuan and his companions all drew a breath.
Wei Yuan asked her quietly: “Do you know what date it is today?”
She looked at him. Was that a trick question?
“The fifth. March the fifth.”
She had stressed the month. She knew yesterday—March 4th—was when the tour was supposed to return, when the whole group had vanished. So today had to be the fifth.
Everyone was staring at her, dumbstruck. Someone said: “See, she’s lost it…”
If before they had been afraid of her, now they looked at her as if she were a fool—or mad.
She didn’t know she was being written off as insane. She looked warily at Wei Yuan and his meaningful expression. “Wh-what’s wrong?”
Wei Yuan looked at her—not with the same odd look as the others—and said slowly: “Today is August 12th, 203x…”
August. It was August now. More than five months had passed since the date she had given.
The world outside was in chaos. The mountain was dead silent. Jiang Shan, the only one left alive, was lost.