??Chapter 14: 14. Arrive at White Cloud Mountain_1
Chapter 14: 14. Arrive at White Cloud Mountain_1
The White Cloud Mountain scenic area in Luo City, HN Province, Z County, is nestled in the heart of the Funiu Mountains in the south. It is renowned for its nurous and peculiarly beautiful clouds that create an almost mystical landscape. The Luo City White Cloud Mountain scenic area is a national forest park, a national nature reserve, and a national AAAAA-level tourist attraction, acclaid as “the most beautiful place in China.”
As the coach wound its way up the mountainous road, the clouds around the mountains seed so close they could be touched, and Ren He’s mood brightened considerably.
He woke Little Fatty Xu Nuo with a pat, “Stop sleeping, we’re here, we’re here!”
Xu Nuo looked at him groggily, “Here where?”
White Cloud Mountain, where else?” Ren He replied irritably, “Pack up your things, we’re getting off soon.”
“Are we going to run into Duan Xiaolou and the others?”
So what if we do? They do their thing, we do ours, no one said we have to stick with the group activities, right?” At this mont, the bus had already pulled into the parking lot of the White Cloud Mountain Visitor Service Center, and Ren He dragged Little Fatty off the bus. He knew what Xu Nuo was worried about. If everyone found out the two of them were going it alone, there might be so awkwardness among the classmates, but Ren He didn’t care, they were just a bunch of little brats, what awkwardness.
“It’s already 2 PM, climbing the mountain now doesn’t seem right. What should we do?” Xu Nuo asked.
“Look at you, acting like you’ve never been out before. Let’s check in first to rest and gather strength, we’ll head out at four in the morning to see the sunrise at the summit, and on the way down, I’ll take you bungee jumping!”
“Bungee jumping?!” Xu Nuo exclaid in shock, “You never said we were going bungee jumping!” Xu Nuo’s face turned pale at the ntion of bungee jumping. He thought, with his weight, it would be like jumping off a building and then being hoisted up bit by bit—how could such a thing be taken lightly? He suddenly realized that Ren He always chose thrilling activities; anything exciting was fair ga to him…
“What are you afraid of, bungee jumping has safety asures, it’s not like I’m asking you to commit suicide!” Ren He began to coax Little Fatty.
“I’m not going…”
“So, are you going or not?”
“Not going. Whoever wants to do it can go!”
“Fine, I’ll jump and you can watch,” Ren He wasn’t going to force him.
As soon as Xu Nuo heard that he didn’t have to go, he imdiately bead with joy, “Where are we staying?”
“I booked it before we ca, the White Cloud Hotel,” Ren He led Little Fatty forward.
With a hiss, Xu Nuo took a sharp breath, “I heard that’s a newly built five-star hotel. Aren’t we being too extravagant? Wouldn’t it cost over a thousand yuan to stay one night?”
“It’s not that much. In such a remote place, a standard room is just over 800 a night. What we aim for in life is happiness. We have enough money. Look at the farmhouse courtyards nearby, they look clean enough, but their blankets and sheets are only changed after several guests have stayed, and there are bugs!” Ren He rembered a harrowing experience from a previous stay at a farmhouse. One morning, he woke up to find a giant, knuckle-sized, decorative spider perched on his leg, nearly scaring him to death; that creature was clearly poisonous!
It was after that incident that the words “farmhouse” cast an indelible shadow over Ren He. He wasn’t afraid of much, only spiders—it was simply because they were too ugly…
Suddenly, Xu Nuo looked at Ren He with suspicion, “Why do I feel like you’ve changed so much?”
“Stop talking nonsense, keep up,” Ren He snapped.
When they entered the White Cloud Hotel, they didn’t notice that just behind them, a group of more than twenty students was heading towards a farmhouse not far from the White Cloud Hotel. A male student led the way, “Everyone, I ca to White Cloud Mountain with my family last year. This is the best farmhouse I’ve stayed in. Follow , and you won’t be wrong—it’s clean and hygienic. The owner’s stir-fried leek flowers with eggs are second to none!”
“How much for one night?”
“80! And that’s split between two, so actually each person only needs to fork out 40 bucks, pretty economical, right!?”
As soon as everyone heard it was only 40, they felt a weight lift off their shoulders; it was within their budget. Although everyone present usually had pocket money that was among the top in their school, how much could a regular middle school student’s monthly allowance really be?
They weren’t children of the wealthy after all.
“Eh, am I seeing things?” The male student leading the way glanced over at White Cloud Hotel by chance, and saw sothing that took him by surprise.
“What’s up? What did you see?”
“I just saw two people walk into White Cloud Hotel, from the back they looked a bit like Ren He and Xu Nuo,” the male student sounded sowhat incredulous.
“Impossible, Ren He is definitely still at ho with nowhere to go because he’s broke, haha. Even if Xu Nuo has money, they couldn’t possibly be staying at White Cloud Hotel, I an, one night there is like a whole month’s allowance for us, you must have seen wrong.”
The male student leading the way laughed too: “Right, I must have been mistaken! Let’s go, let’s hurry and take our luggage to the farmhouse.”
Nobody took this little episode to heart, but there were two in the group whose gazes lingered on the White Cloud Hotel, pondering sothing, Duan Xiaolou and Yang Xi.
A male student ca over and gallantly offered, “Xiaolou, Yang Xi, shall I carry your things for you? Guys should handle things like carrying luggage.”
Duan Xiaolou and Yang Xi both shook their heads and smiled: “No need, we can manage.”
So of the other girls weren’t happy: “Hey? Why don’t you help us but only offer to help Xiaolou and Yang Xi?”
The boy, dealing with the embarrassnt of being refused, found an opportunity to save face: “Who says I won’t help? It’s just that Xiaolou and Yang Xi are closer to . Co on, I’ll help you.” And he took the bag from one of the girls.
However, the girl wasn’t grateful at all, everyone knowing full well what was going on, and retorted with a cold sneer, “Xiaolou Xiaolou, calling her so intimately, do you have the right? It should be class president, you know.”
Red-faced and flustered, the boy struggled to say anything in response, and soone changed the subject to smooth things over: “What do you think Ren He can do with his 5 bucks of allowance a month?”
“He could go to the internet café for two hours, then watch others play gas…”
“Hahaha!”
“That day when Ren He jumped off the school building, I thought he was really going to do sothing drastic, scared
silly, for real. How could the school not discipline him at all?”
“Yeah, last sester, a boy in Class 1 got caught climbing over the school fence during daylight and received a major derit. But Ren He got away scot-free, can’t figure out if Director Liu is losing it or what?”
At this point, Duan Xiaolou casually interjected: “Alright, it’s not nice to talk about soone behind their back.” Yang Xi glanced at her thoughtfully, wondering what was on her mind.
Ren He kept sneezing continuously in White Cloud Hotel: “Who the heck is badmouthing , huh? Little Fatty, make sure to bundle up when we climb the mountain at dawn, the temperature at the summit will be freezing cold!”
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