Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“Brother Long!”

Dashun’s voice was hoarse. The truck was tilting, and the three of them had to hold it down. It wasn’t easy for them to get off.

I jumped straight down from the truck. “Leave it to me.”

The moment I jumped, those roots eagerly burrowed under my feet.

But I was holding that five-hundred-jin Mount Tai Stone firmly in my arms, and my feet were planted on the road like nails.

Just then, those figures wearing Blue Cloth Gown had already reached the roadside. Among them was a familiar face-Sun Guangxin.

Too many roots surged forward. The guardrail, which had been perfectly fine, started to warp, deform, and even fracture.

The mountain wind followed, howling as it whipped up. Several fallen locust branches shot toward us like arrows in the gale!

Liu Xun and Ren Song screamed. Dashun shouted at me, “Brother Long, watch out!”

I didn’t look back. At the last moment, using the slight friction from the unloading board, I finally set the Mount Tai Stone down firmly on the road surface!

In an instant, an invisible ripple spread out, and all the abnormalities vanished into nothing.

For the second half of the Chongsha, Dashun drove. I was nearly spent, drifting in and out of a dazed sleep.

We didn’t run into any more trouble on the road. Liu Xun and Ren Song were silent as mice, not uttering a peep.

By the time daybreak came, we had finally reached Huayu Port.

Soon after, Liu Xun got a call from the company. Both trucks had been found, along with the people.

But the situation was gruesome. They’d crashed at the exact spot where the Mount Tai Stone had originally been placed.

The camera footage showed that Chen Hai and Sun Guangxin’s truck suddenly accelerated, chasing Wang Cheng and Huo Yu the whole way.

It caused Wang Cheng and Huo Yu’s truck to slam into the Mount Tai Stone, and Chen Hai and Sun Guangxin crashed into it right after.

The blurry footage showed Sun Guangxin tugging at his collar while driving, as if he’d suddenly come down with some illness.

Two large trucks, one rolled over, the other flew over the guardrail.

Of the four people, Chen Hai and Wang Cheng were rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. Sun Guangxin and Huo Yu were confirmed dead at the scene.

When Liu Xun put down his phone, his face was as pale as paper, and his hands were shaking.

Ren Song was still trying to comfort him, saying that since the trucks were found, maybe the insurance would cover it.

Peng You called too. They were on their way to the hospital to see Wang Cheng.

Over the phone, Peng You’s voice was full of regret. “I saw the photos from the scene. It was a terrible crash.”

“Wang Cheng is one lucky bastard. Of the four of them, he’s the only one who kept his shoes on.”

“Usually, in a crash this bad, if your shoes fly off, it’s hard to survive.”

After hanging up, the four of us found a place to park.

But as we got out of the car, I suddenly noticed that Ren Song wasn’t wearing any shoes.

“Where are your shoes?”

I asked Ren Song. He stared blankly for a moment, then turned to look at Liu Xun. “Brother Liu told me to leave my shoes with Chen Hai.”

Liu Xun avoided Ren Song’s gaze, fiddling with his phone off to the side.

It turned out that when we’d run into Wang Cheng and Huo Yu, Chen Hai had been there too, right behind that big truck.

He’d spun a web of lies that Liu Xun wanted to hear, winning his trust.

But Liu Xun wouldn’t take off his own shoes.

Three days later, Ren Song died.

I heard he died right in front of Liu Xun, hit by a small car. After he died, his eyes never closed, staring fixedly at Liu Xun.

Later, Wang Cheng and Chen Hai were discharged from the hospital one after the other.

Wang Cheng recovered quickly, with no lasting effects on his mind or body. His mother’s illness also took a turn for the better.

But Chen Hai was different. Even after being discharged, he remained sickly and weak. His feet swelled up so badly he often couldn’t put on shoes.

For a long time after that, I never heard any news of Liu Xun.

When I did hear about him again, it was already his seventh-day memorial.

It seemed he’d been tormented by some mental illness for months. In the end, he went to the Mount Tai Stone on Huai Mountain Old Road and took his own life.