The moonlight was like flowing water, and Linda, calm and elegant as a chrysanthemum, sat beside me. She wore a soft white dress and draped a sea-blue school jacket over her shoulders. Hugging her knees, she turned to me with a bright smile and asked, "Andrew, aren't you cold?"
"Not at all!"
I shivered slightly as the mountain breeze blew past, but stubbornly insisted otherwise.
"Hehe, me neither."
Linda smugly tugged her jacket tighter around her and continued pointing at the stars, telling all kinds of mythological tales. She shared a nostalgic memory: "I remember when I was very little, my grandma told me that if you use your finger to trace your crush's name among the stars, your wish will come true, and they'll fall in love with you."
"How childish. And you call yourself a teacher—how can you believe such nonsense?"
Linda's gaze turned frosty. "What did you just say?"
"N-nothing! I mean, it's actually quite romantic. I totally believe stars have that kind of magic. I'm going to try it now—write the name of my dream girl: Liu Yan."
As I spoke, I raised my hand and slowly traced three characters in the air: Linda.
She couldn't see exactly what I was writing, but she noticed it was more than two characters. Curious, she leaned closer. "Hmm? That doesn't look like two characters. Is that… my name?"
"Keep dreaming. I wrote 'Fan Bingbing.'"
Linda already looked pretty smug tonight. If I admitted the name I wrote was hers, her ego would've shot through the roof.
Just then, a sudden *crack* came from the distance—like a dry branch snapping underfoot. Linda and I instinctively turned toward the sound, flashlight beams sweeping across jagged rocks and swaying pines rustling like ocean waves in the wind. But we saw no one.
"Andrew, what was that?" Linda asked, her voice tinged with fear. After all, she was still a woman. Alone in the mountains late at night, with eerie winds and dancing shadows, hearing an unexplained sound was enough to spook anyone.
I grew up in the countryside, used to walking at night and catching cicadas or eels in the dark. A little noise in the woods didn't scare me—besides, just a hundred meters away were tents full of sleeping classmates. What was there to fear?
I was about to say it was probably just the wind or a passing animal like a civet cat, but seeing Linda's anxious expression, I changed my mind and whispered mysteriously, "If you hear strange sounds in the wild, it's best to pretend you didn't. Let's just sit back down and keep chatting."
Just as I expected, Linda went pale and inched closer to me. "Andrew, you don't think there's really… something unclean out there, do you?"
Seeing her cling to me, I felt a secret thrill. Leaning toward her, I said in a spooky tone, "Actually, I've heard of weird things happening on Qingyun Mountain…"
Linda's eyes widened. "Like what? I've never heard anything."
"I heard from someone—there were five livestreamers who liked to do creepy stuff like dancing on graves or singing in morgues. They met here to film at Woniu Ridge—did you know that ridge is actually an old cemetery?"
Linda was hooked. "What were they filming?"
I continued, "They didn't know each other but agreed to meet there and explore at night. But when they came back, only four returned. The fifth, a guy named Xu Jinming, had vanished. They asked locals for help but searched all night with no luck. The next day, one streamer noticed Xu Jinming's name on a tombstone… the same tomb he had copied the night before."
Linda's face turned ghostly pale. "You mean… Xu Jinming was already dead?"
"Exactly!"
As I said it, I slyly wrapped my arm around her waist. She didn't notice. "And after that?" she asked.
"They say people sometimes see a man wandering the mountain at night, holding a pen and paper—still copying tombstone names. They say… he doesn't even know he's a ghost."
While I spoke, my hand gently stroked Linda's slender waist. It felt amazing. But that bold move snapped her out of her fright. Her fear turned to fury.
*Smack!* She slapped my hand away and stomped on my foot. "Andrew! You were just trying to scare me!"
My plan was exposed. I gave an awkward chuckle. "Just joking around…"
"Joke, my foot! You really scared me! …Hey, where are you going?"
I started walking toward the nearby pine woods. "To take a leak. Want to come?"
"Pervert!"
I ignored Linda's angry shout, flashlight in hand, and stepped into the darkness. Honestly, it was pretty creepy. I had just finished when I heard soft footsteps approaching behind me. Thinking it was Linda being scared again, I said, "Hah! Didn't you just call me a pervert? If you're coming here while I'm peeing, you're the pervert!"
The moment I finished speaking, a cold, razor-sharp fruit knife pressed against my neck. A low, menacing voice hissed in my ear: "Andrew, right? Don't move if you don't want to die. I'll slit you open if you resist."
The icy blade at my throat made it clear—this was no joke. My breath caught. I didn't dare look back. "W-who are you?"
"You don't need to know. Just keep quiet if you want to live. Don't shout—or I'll spill your guts. Third, tie him up. Fourth, search him."
There wasn't just one guy behind me—there were three. The one holding the knife had a scarred face. His two accomplices were "Third," a tall, skinny man with rope, and "Fourth," a short, stocky one.
The knife glinted under the moonlight. I had no way to fight back and no idea who these men were. If they were just muggers, yelling might get me stabbed.
Third quickly tied me up, and Fourth snatched my phone and wallet. He didn't even check my wallet—instead, he immediately unlocked my phone and started searching through it. That's when I realized: this wasn't about robbery.
My phone was cheap—worth maybe 200 yuan secondhand. Yet they were desperate to check its contents. That's when it hit me: **the photos of David.** These men were here to erase the evidence for him.
"You're… ugh…"
Before I could finish, Scarface grabbed my jaw and stuffed a cloth deep into my mouth, muffling me completely.
At that very moment, footsteps echoed from the distance—it was really Linda this time. She called out softly, "Andrew? What's taking so long? Are you okay in there?"