Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I froze. Then a string of dog barks rang out.

I turned around and saw several black shadows racing toward me across the snow like arrows loosed from a bow.

Behind them was a burly figure. He wore a dog-skin hat and a fur-lined coat, shouting something at me as he charged over, waving his arms for all he was worth.

Before I could react, a big black dog had already darted up to me. It clamped its teeth around the hem of my coat and yanked me backward with all its strength.

I hadn’t been standing steady to begin with, and the pull sent me stumbling.

But that stifling, restless feeling vanished in an instant.

Only then did I realize I had somehow walked right up to the edge of the road.

If the dog hadn’t dragged me back just now, I would have stepped over the highway guardrail!

And on both sides of this stretch of road, the ground dropped into Wild Ditch, already buried beneath several layers of snow.

If I had rashly climbed over like that, I probably wouldn’t have taken more than two steps before falling into a snow hollow.

Just then, I faintly heard that human voice again.

I hurriedly looked in the direction where I thought Wu Da was. But this time, I didn’t see a single figure-only one mound of snow after another.

For one fleeting moment, the voice that kept repeating seemed to grow clearer.

But it wasn’t Wu Da crying for help. It was four broken words: “Take… one… more… step.”

The hairs on my back stood on end. I backed away fast, and the man who had rushed over grabbed my arm.

The big black dogs circled him, barking. Through his thick scarf, he shouted at me, “Are you one of the coal truck drivers? Where are the rest of you?”

The man who came to save us was called Cheng Daliang. He was in his forties, and we called him Uncle Cheng.

Uncle Cheng had originally been a forest ranger in the old woods nearby, and it just so happened that these two days were his days off.

He had brought his dogs down the mountain, planning to head home, but then he ran into this heavy snowstorm too and took shelter at a small lumber mill nearby.

When Grandpa Wang was searching everywhere for someone to rescue us, he calculated our route and figured we should be closest to that lumber mill. With nothing to lose, he called the mill to try his luck.

The workers at the lumber mill had already gone on their New Year break, but by sheer coincidence, Uncle Cheng was there to answer the phone.

Without another word, Uncle Cheng brought his dogs out to look for us.

Uncle Cheng had me lead him back to the truck, then got the others out of the cab.

By then, it wasn’t just me. Even the people who had stayed in the truck the whole time were nearly at their limit.

Uncle Cheng had no choice but to get us to the lumber mill as quickly as possible.

Along the way, we tried calling Wu Da’s name in every direction, but there was never any response, and we didn’t find a single trace of him.