Chapter 1: Thank Goodness
Xishuangbanna is humid.
This lush land south of the Tropic of Cancer boasts well-preserved tropical rainforests.
Every April, as the rainy season begins, the rain falls and stops, stops and falls again, repeating endlessly with tireless persistence.
After the heavy rain, the sunset suddenly emerged.
The lingering glow pierced through layers of clouds and mist, spilling into the Dai village nestled within the rainforest, illuminating the golden spires of the Burmese temple and warming the blue tiles of the stilt houses.
With the Water Splashing Festival just a week away, the number of tourists in the village has been steadily increasing.
Liang Youyun detests holidays; they are too lively, and such liveliness often leads to trouble.
She had long passed the age of scanning crowded festival streets for handsome men.
The dull, fragmented nature of her work had left her eyes astigmatic, no longer able to focus on faces that might once have stirred her heart, let alone care which young woman had captured their attention.
All she cared about was preventing any mishaps during the holiday season; otherwise, as the first secretary stationed in the village, she would bear certain responsibilities.
With less than half a year remaining before her village assignment concluded, safely navigating these final days of “rural service” would allow her to return smoothly and steadily to Beijing.
A promising grassroots track record, promotions, and salary raises—just thinking about it feels wonderful.
Looking back to my first visit to Xishuangbanna two years ago, it was truly terrible.
Liang Youyun’s organization is a key enterprise in China’s national healthcare and wellness sector, with branches across the country that have been dedicated to rural revitalization efforts for nearly a decade.
The company’s strategic planning was excellent; unfortunately, disagreements among senior leadership led to slow implementation, creating a worrisome workplace environment.
Even Liang Youyun, a veteran employee with little ambition and no desire to engage in office intrigue, found herself ensnared in a setup.
For others, being stationed in the village was a delaying tactic; for her, it was a move born of helplessness.
She had become the “sacrificial lamb” in the company’s internal power struggle between two opposing factions.
Fortunately, time flew swiftly; although the two years spent in the village were arduous, they were finally drawing to a close.
During this period, Youyun accumulated substantial practical experience and even found the patience to engage in theoretical research, successfully publishing two professional papers.
Even more intriguingly, she managed to sidestep the company’s major restructuring; the two factions embroiled in internal power struggles ultimately inflicted mutual damage, forcing the group headquarters to reorganize its leadership by appointing a new batch of executives.
Coincidentally, one of the newly appointed leaders had visited Yunnan for an inspection last year and made a special point of coming to see her. He mentioned that the Deputy Director of the General Office would be transferred next year, leaving the position urgently in need of a suitable candidate, subtly hinting that he expected her return and intended to promote her.
Youyun accepted this news with a calm smile. After all, as a seasoned employee well-versed in the company’s operations, familiar with leaders at all levels, and having spent two years supporting the frontier regions, her promotion was undoubtedly what everyone expected. It felt somewhat like Noble Consort Xi returning to the palace—carrying with it at least a glimmer of hope for a triumphant comeback.
Before departing, the leader grasped her hand and stated firmly, “Comrade Liang Youyun, fulfill your duties diligently in this final shift; we look forward to your smooth return to Beijing!”
Youyun understood the underlying message: a “smooth return to Beijing” was secondary, while “fulfilling duties diligently in this final shift” was paramount. The leader was subtly reminding her that under no circumstances should any mistakes occur in her work. Avoiding mistakes meant not standing out, not taking the lead, not pursuing innovation, and not meddling recklessly. Only by passing through quietly and smoothly could everything remain secure.
However, fate does not always comply with human wishes.
The more one hopes for stability, the less likely it becomes.
Sure enough, today’s incident hit a raw nerve.
The village where Liang Youyun is stationed is called Manleni.
In the Dai language, “Man” means “village.” Dai villages around Jinghong typically begin with “Man,” such as Manzhang, Mandiu, Manyuan, and Manhena. Many of these villages have been developed into highly commercialized tourist destinations.
Manle Village is also undergoing development; surrounded entirely by rainforest, its biggest selling point has become rainforest trekking.
The rainforest may be beautiful, but it is far from safe.
The edge of the rainforest blends indistinctly with the village. For the Dai villagers, who have lived this rustic life for generations, such ambiguity is nothing unusual. To outsiders, however, it appears quite different—this place seems like an ideal destination for “adventure.”
Many tourists depart from the village heading into the rainforest, bypassing the more than twenty established and officially marked hiking trails. Instead, they insist on testing routes independently developed by fellow travelers and shared on social media platforms, foolishly attempting to showcase human ingenuity and arrogance in the face of nature.
Early this morning, three college students embarked on a spontaneous trip; after entering the rainforest from the village, they vanished without a trace.
The situation is urgent, posing significant safety risks, and the police have already been notified. The entire local team has been deployed to search for them, yet as the day draws to a close, there is still no sign of the missing students.
A heavy rainstorm just passed, and with the sun nearing sunset, another storm is already brewing in the eastern sky.
Liang Youyun conferred with her colleagues, and they agreed to split up.
However, while the splitting up was real, the action was feigned. She hadn’t eaten anything all day over this matter; hunger had given her a stomachache, made her head spin and her vision blur, and she could barely walk. If she didn’t replenish her energy soon, she would collapse before the university students even found her.
All along the way, she had been trying to steel herself mentally, but the more she thought about it, the more afraid she became, her temples throbbing violently.
On second thought, even if blame were truly assigned for this incident, it wouldn’t necessarily ruin the reputation of an “outsider” like her, a stationed village cadre. Moreover, earlier this year, she had already proposed to her superiors that protective fencing be installed along the village boundaries, though there had been no follow-up since.
The real fear is the negative social impact—accusations that village officials are negligent. Public opinion online is terrifying these days; the wind shifts in an instant, and a single careless remark could drown you.
After the incident, calls from Beijing never stopped. Everyone was terrified she might mishandle the situation, trigger a public relations crisis, set off a chain reaction, and leave the company holding the bag.
Youyun is timid and utterly frightened, worried that because of this, not only will she be unable to return to Beijing, but she’ll also get fired by the company!
Venturing further inward leads deep into the rainforest.
Liang Youyun came to a halt. She was human too, and fear gripped her. Faint trumpeting of wild elephants echoed in her ears; startled birds flapped their wings and took flight from the crowns of the towering trees. Like a bird frightened by the mere twang of a bowstring, she scanned her surroundings anxiously.
“Everyone has their own fate,” she sighed. Given the current situation, her priority was to take care of herself.
Regardless of whether the company fired her or not, she had to make it back alive; starving to death here was absolutely not an option.
So, she spotted a slender tree trunk lying across the path, sat down, and prepared to eat.
Thick mist rises, surrounded by lush greenery; this Wizard of Oz-like scene is perfect for a “picnic.”
She first takes a water bottle from her backpack, filled with locally grown small limes cut in half. A few tiny seeds slip out of the flesh and gently sink to the bottom of the bottle.
She gives it a shake, quickly blending the juice with the water, then tilts her head back and takes a hearty gulp.
So refreshing!
She loved this sour taste that made her eyebrows furrow.
In weather like this, at a time like this, she should have been back home after work, brewing a pot of raw Pu’er tea or grinding a cup of small-bean coffee, then curling up in bed to binge-watch a series or read a book—how delightfully cozy that would have been.
But instead, she had gotten stuck with this troublesome mess! Damn it, what terrible luck!
She couldn’t go any further; if she did, she’d get lost herself.
Human fate is decreed by heaven; may the generous rainforest forgive foolish humanity and spare a path for those three children.
No sooner had she sat down than the man-eating mosquitoes, drawn by her scent, arrived with a buzzing hum, circling above Youyun’s head, waiting for a chance to strike.
She quickly pulled a plastic bag from her backpack, inside which was sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. Carefully unwrapping it, she brought it close to inhale its sweet, inviting aroma.
She devoured it in great bites, one after another. Halfway through, she suddenly heard a dull “thud”—as if something had fallen from a great height?!
Oh no!
Liang Youyun sprang to her feet, turning toward the source of the sound, her ears alert and her heart suddenly racing.
Could it be a wild elephant? Too large a target; unlikely. A monkey? Impossible; monkeys wouldn’t bother with such low shrubs. A tiger? There are tigers in Xishuangbanna—light-footed, fierce-faced, man-eaters! Compared to mosquitoes, these truly can eat people!
A chill ran down her spine. Instinctively, Liang Youyun drew her Dai knife from her bag, flashing the blade, ready for a fight to the death.
Yet a sliver of hope lingered in her mind: it was unlikely to be a tiger. This place was too close to human habitation; tigers wouldn’t wander here without cause, unless they were starving. But how could the rainforest, so rich in resources and like a nurturing mother, ever let her tiger son go hungry?
Sure enough, faint rustling sounds emerged from behind the tree, soft and muffled, as if covered by dead branches and decaying leaves.
Liang Youyun dared not let her guard down; bending at the waist, she maintained a combat stance as she advanced step by step. Every cell in her body shifted into wartime mode, as though her entire being had become ears and eyes. Thus, the sound grew clearer.
“…Hey… is anyone there…”
Yes, that was it, unmistakably clear!
The breathing was heavy, like the dying gasps of someone suffering from asthma.
She quickened her pace, pushing through the tangled tall grass and brushing aside the wildly hanging aerial roots. Just as hope seemed within reach, she nearly stumbled headfirst into a massive pit!
Fortunately, her reflexes were sharp; she managed to stop just in time. Had she fallen in, death would have been certain!
But upon looking closer—something was wrong. There was someone inside! A living person! A grown man!
The man froze in place, head tilted back, staring blankly at Liang Youyun.
The setting sun slanted low, casting the pit into deeper shadow; only those eyes shone like a pool of reflective water, bright and glistening.
Looking into those eyes, Youyun felt inexplicably dazzled by the man’s intense gaze—a look brimming with the joy, wonder, longing, relief, and an indescribable gratitude of one who has found life again against all odds.
It suddenly struck her: could he be on the verge of bursting into tears?
The facts soon proved that she had worried unnecessarily.
People are always eager to cast themselves as saviors, yet forget whether they actually possess the ability to be one.
The man in the pit let out a long sigh, his tension instantly easing. He lowered his head, closed his eyes, placed his hands on his hips, and murmured faintly, “Thank heaven and earth!”
Just look! Such ungrateful humans. Clearly, it was she who had discovered him trapped here, yet he thanked heaven and earth, without so much as thanking her first.
“How did you fall down?”
Liang Youyun sheathed her knife, glanced at the man in the pit, and mimicked his hands-on-hips stance. His grand declarations of “hero saving the beauty” were half-dampened by his muttered “Thank goodness.”
“Are you hurt?” Seeing him somewhat at a loss, Youyun asked again.
He shook his head stiffly. “I’m fine.”
Was this person so terrified that they could barely speak?
Youyun didn’t overthink it; anyway, the student had been found, even if there was only one.
Still, they had to get the person up first.
Coincidentally, the man pointed upward and said, “My backpack is still up there; it contains a rope.”
Only then did Youyun notice a black backpack hanging on a tree branch beside the pit, likely dislodged accidentally before he slid to the bottom.
The pit floor lay roughly three to four meters below ground level, equivalent to a high-ceilinged room. Had the walls not sloped slightly and the bottom not been filled with thick mud, the man’s life would have been in grave danger.
Tying the rope wasn’t difficult, but lacking any wilderness survival experience, Youyun thought she had secured it firmly enough. Yet at the last moment, her grip loosened, and the rope slipped off the tree trunk with a sudden “whoosh!”
Quick-eyed and swift-handed, Youyun managed to grab the end of the rope just in time.
Helplessly, the man in the pit was climbing upward with all his might, and his build was certainly not light.
Thus, force met force in a tug-of-war; before she could react, she tumbled headlong into the pit along with the rope and the man!