People in Lijia Village go to the mountains to hunt or pick wild fruits, mushrooms, herbs, etc., and they all have familiar hills. Most of these hills are far away from nearby villages to avoid conflicts with life in these villages.

In this way, there are both good and bad places. Once the people entering the mountain have something, the people in Lijia Village cannot know in time. Therefore, whenever there are people in the village who enter the mountain, they often walk together, so they can take care of each other.

This time, the place where Li Li and others hunted was a mountain called Niujiao Mountain. It was named because the middle of this peak was flat and the two pointed ends were pointed like ox horns.

Niujiao Mountain is a small 20 miles away from Lijia Village. It takes about an hour to get there on weekdays. Now it is snowing heavily, and the snow on the ground is getting deeper and deeper. It is a very laborious thing for the group to pull their legs out of the deep snow at knees. This familiar road seems to be unable to reach the end no matter how you walk.

If it weren't for the urgent idea of ​​finding relatives, the weak woman and half-aged child would have been unable to support it. Even so, the group had rested three times on the road and took nearly two hours to reach the foot of Niujiao Mountain.

The dark night was set against the ground with white snow, and Mulberry Ye looked up slightly and saw Niujiao Mountain standing in front of him.

Speaking of which, Niujiao Mountain is not tall, and it is only a hundred feet long. At this time, the entire mountain was covered with deep snow. It was impossible to see the path on the ground that was stepped out by the crowds entering the mountain. It was also impossible to know whether the next step would fall into the deep pit covered by snow.

"Miss Ye, Brother Dashu, Linzi and three other people are chasing Jiazi and the others from here. We are going to find it from here now?" Li Li asked with a windbreaker lamp and pointed to the place where the snow was covered in the distance, which was completely invisible to the road.

When the others heard Li Li’s question, they also looked at Mang Ye.

Along the way, Sang Ye made some analysis after asking Li Li about the situation. Everyone thought her analysis was reasonable, all because she believed that the reason why the eighteen missing people did not come back was not necessarily in danger in the mountains, or maybe it was because the heavy snow closed the mountain and lost.

In addition, when she was at the village chief's house, Sang Ye took the initiative to stand up and convince the village chief. These villagers who were at a loss and knew where to go to look for him vaguely placed their hope of finding people on Sang Ye, and now they hoped that she could make an idea.

"Well, let's go and take a look first." Sang Ye nodded, inserted his cane into the snow and carefully explored the way to prevent falling into the snow pit or encountering a slope.

Others followed one by one and did not dare to be careless at all. It would be slow to walk slowly by this method, at least it was safe not to worry about falling into dangerous places.

Until they walked to where Li Li pointed, two forks appeared in front of everyone, and they looked at Sang Ye for a moment, otherwise they would not know which direction to look.

"Ye'er, which path do you think you should take? Or do we look for it in two directions?" Liu was worried about her husband's safety and couldn't wait for a moment, so he asked to look for it separately.

"Wait first, let me think about it." The mulberry leaves, whose eyes had adapted to the darkness, looked at the two forks, and gradually calmed down and began to sense the conscious plants around them.

Like many animals that need to hibernate, many plants will hide in winter and spend the difficult winter, especially the wild grass that turns yellow as soon as autumn begins, and the big trees that will lose all their leaves in winter. Once they fall into a deep sleep, no matter how the mulberry leaves sense, they will never respond to it.

Only a small number of trees that can still remain green in winter, such as pine and cypress. However, in the cold winter, the awareness of these trees is far less active than that in spring and summer, and they do not "stay awake" every day. Most of the time, they are also sleeping, but they will wake up from time to time due to the influence of the weather and the environment.

Mang Ye was not sure whether the eighteen missing people had encountered trees with clear consciousness. If she had them, she would be sure to search them until she found them. If there were no or only encountered a small number, it would take a lot of time.

"Huh?" Sang Ye suddenly opened his eyes and his eyes fell on the snow-covered ground more than ten feet away from the fork on the left. He hurried over to dig up the snow with both hands.

"Ye'er, what's wrong with you?" Sang Ye

The strange behavior scared everyone. Yu and Liu were a little scared and hurried over to pull her.

"Sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, please help me. There is something underneath. Maybe we can tell where our elder brother and second brother went." Sang Yetou said without looking back, and the movement of digging snow in his hand accelerated a little more.

This sentence is like lighting a bright light for the person in the darkness and confusion. Why did the women who didn't have time to dig snow know that there was something under the snow? They rushed forward and helped dig the snow together: "Hurry, hurry, everyone dig faster, dig the things on the ground quickly."

With so many people helping, the snow deep in the knees was quickly dug out a large pit. Under the illumination of the windproof lamp, everyone clearly saw something buried in the snow, which was a large stone everywhere in the mountains.

"Why is it a stone?" An old man who lost his son sat on the snow in disappointment, muttering to himself as he looked at the big rocks in the snow pit, and the other people involved in the snow digging had a slight face.

Before digging the snow, they thought that what was buried below was the objects left by the eighteen missing people, but it turned out to be an ordinary stone. It was too common for the stones to appear on the mountain, and they could not expect it to tell them whether the missing person was heading to the fork on the left.

But Mangye did not give up. She tried hard to move the big stone away and saw a crisp grass under the big stone.

No, it is not a grass, it is a shepherd's purse that has just grown five leaves. Who would have thought that shepherd's purse would grow in such cold weather? This made the mulberry leaves very happy and hurriedly communicated with the shepherd's purse that was out of trouble.

"Huh, I was crushed to death, almost crushed to death!" The little shepherd's purse who survived the disaster was busy stretching its branches and leaves, and the sighs also sounded in the mind of Mangye at the first time. Obviously, it did not grow under a big stone, but was pressed by the big stone after it grew out.

Just now, it was just that the little shepherd's purse was heard calling for help from the weak cry for help that the mulberry leaves appeared in the snow, and then rescued the little shepherd's purse.

"Little Shepherd's Purse, for the sake of my help, can you tell me if anyone has walked past here yesterday?" Sang Ye squatted down and looked at Little Shepherd's Purse, trying his best to control his consciousness to communicate with Little Shepherd's Purse.

Plants have very simple thinking. If others treat them well, they will be their own people in their eyes.

When she heard the question of her life-saving benefactor, Xiao Shepherd's Purse said hurriedly: "Yes, it's just that a two-legged beast stepped on me yesterday and accidentally hit a big stone. The big stone rolled down and pressed me down."

"Really? Thank you, thank you." Mang Ye was very happy to get the accurate letter from the little shepherd's purse. In return, she covered the soft snow again on the little shepherd's purse so that it would not freeze to death.

"Wow, it's so warm and comfortable, thank you, my benefactor." The muffled sound of the little shepherd's purse came from under the snow, and I happily thanked Sang Ye.

Sang Ye smiled, stood up and said to Li Li and others who were looking at him with a strange look on his face, "Let's go this way. My elder brother and the others walked from here yesterday."

Li Li looked at the direction that Sang Ye pointed, and asked in disbelief: "Miss Ye, how do you know this is the road? Just that big stone?"

This is a very ordinary question, and if another person asks it, he will ask it. What's more, even if no one asks it, Sang Ye will explain it to avoid being seen as different from ordinary people.

Therefore, Mangye did not take Li Li's doubts to heart, but nodded according to his words, pointing to the shepherd's purse that had just been buried and said, "Just just now, there was a shepherd's purse under the stone. Several leaves of shepherd's purse were smashed by the stone. The damaged area looked very new. If I guessed correctly, it should be that my elder brother and the others drove this big stone yesterday when they passed by. The big stone hit the shepherd's purse when it rolled down!"

Speaking of this, Sang Ye's eyes swept across Li Li's face. Seeing his face showing a sudden enlightenment, he knew that he believed it and continued: "You have said before that you were the only ones on this mountain yesterday. If it weren't for my elder brother, who would have passed by here? Looking at the depth of the snow, I know that it was not caused by animals passing by after you returned to the village."

What's more, where there are people, most animals will escape. Niujiao Mountain is located outside the mountain.

I think the wild deer that appeared again yesterday was lost and misunderstood, otherwise it would be impossible for larger animals to appear here.

Sang Ye's analysis was very convincing. The eleven or twelve-year-old children understood and looked at her admiringly.

Li Li and others believed it and instantly cheered up: "The direction is confirmed, so let's go find someone quickly. Maybe they can be found before dawn."

Mulberry Ye had no objection, and continued to take the cane while exploring the way forward and communicating with the surrounding plants. He was not optimistic about the statement that he had found someone before dawn.

"Miss Ye, how did you know that there is a big stone under the snow, and there is another shepherd's purse under the big stone?" Li Li, who was silently thinking about the big stone and the little shepherd's purse, couldn't help it and came to Sang Ye to ask her.

The others also raised their ears and wanted to know how mulberry leaves knew about this. If they had this matter, even if they had a big stone, they would not have thought that there would be so many twists and turns under the stone, which pointed them in the direction.

Sang Ye naturally couldn't tell the truth, and he looked surprised on his face and asked Li Li: "Didn't Brother Li see that the snow-covered ridges there are higher than elsewhere?"

"Ah? So that's it. I didn't see the difference without looking carefully." Li Li patted his head in annoyance and secretly warned himself to be careful, but he didn't know that the snow in the world was as white as white. Standing so far, it was impossible to see that far at night. How could he know the thickness of the snow-covered ridge?

Seeing that Li Li didn't notice this, Sang Ye naturally would not give in to explain, so he simply said all the words he had thought of before to block everyone's possible questions:

"At first, I thought it was my elder brother or someone who accidentally left something behind and then ran over to dig the snow. Unexpectedly, it would be a big stone. Later, I noticed that the snow covered the big stone was thin, so I felt suspicious. When I moved the stone and saw snow under the stone, shepherd's purse appeared again, it confirmed my guess."

"So that's how it is." Everyone's faces once again showed a sudden look of enlightenment. The eyes of their eyes at Sang Ye became even more admirable, and they also had more confidence in finding their missing relatives.

In order to preserve their physical strength, everyone just fumbled the road and walked carefully, and rarely spoke again. However, the mountain road was bent, and not long after walking, everyone appeared in front of everyone, one left and one right forks.

"Ye'er, which road to go this time?" Without waiting for the others to ask, Yu, who was so arrogant that he admired his sister-in-law, was the first to ask anxiously.

Her husband was gone, and like several other women who came out to find her husband, she risked her danger to search for her, just to find her man as soon as possible.

"Sister-in-law, I have no traces of my elder brother and the others left here. I will check these two forks first to see if I can find some clues." Sang Ye had just communicated with a cypress tree and had already determined which direction my elder brother and the others were going, but she couldn't say it out loud.

"Okay, go find yours, let's look around to see if they tie a strip of cloth on the tree, carve something to mark or something." Yu said, "I was afraid that my sister-in-law would delay her, and immediately searched everywhere.

Others also carried windproof lights to check around, especially the tree trunks on both sides, for fear of missing tips left to them by missing relatives.

Mangye also paid attention to everything around, trying to see if he could appear like he did just now, but after searching for it, only a cypress with consciousness appeared.

But yesterday the cypress fell asleep, and I didn’t know if someone passed by it. After Muang Ye asked, the cypress told her that there were no traces here. If you carefully open the snow under it, you can find a few remaining footprints.

The footprints left yesterday had long been covered with snow, but the weather was too cold, and the snow in front almost solidified and hardened, and the footprints left would also solidify. Later, the snow covered on it would be fluffy and could not completely eliminate the traces of footprints.

Mangye thought this was a good idea, so he dug it up in several places pointed out by the cypress tree, and indeed a remaining footprint appeared under the snow.

Why footprints can stay

Everyone present understood. This time, without the need for mulberry leaves to explain, everyone knew that it was right to look for the fork on the right, and also let them know a way to track it.

When I encountered a fork again, I would dig the snow without telling everyone about the traces of footprints. This would make the search faster and save a lot of time.

The heavy snow was still falling, and the snow on the mountain was getting deeper and deeper, and it was particularly difficult for everyone to search along the way.

The only thing that is thankful is that I have not encountered any beasts along the way. Perhaps it is because the snow is too heavy and the snow is too deep, so the beasts hide it if they are unwilling to come out for food. This is a good thing for Sang Ye and others, and it is also a good thing for the missing persons.

Following the remaining footprints, Mang Ye and others did not forget to leave marks along the way, so as not to get lost and unable to walk out. They also pointed out the direction for the villagers who might enter the mountains during the day to help find people.

After searching all the way, the sky gradually became brighter. No one knew how long the time had passed, how far he had walked, and no one knew where he was now. Just looking at the increasingly towering mountain mist and the increasingly difficult mountain road, there was still no trace other than footprints.

Moreover, these footprints became more and more messy. Several times, people had to return after finding the wrong direction. As the number of times increased, they could not even find one person. Some people inevitably became irritable.

Sang Ye estimated that he had been searching for at least three hours. Looking at the tired and panting old man and the children who could hardly walk, she couldn't bear it, so she pointed to the depression in a valley not far away without wind and snow and said, "We have been searching for a long time. Let's go there first to take some dry food, and we will have the strength to continue searching later."

"No, Ye'er, the person has not been found yet, we have to continue looking for it." Liu, who was increasingly anxious, was unwilling to stop and rest, and insisted on continuing to look for it: "Or let them stay here to rest if they can't walk, and continue to look for it if they can walk?"

Yu Shi felt that she still had the strength to look for her and could continue to look for her. Just as she was about to agree with Liu Shi's words, Sang Ye said with a decisive voice: "Stay, take a break, take a moment and eat something before looking for it, otherwise if you encounter something bad later, you will not even have the strength to escape."

Li Li and others, who also didn't want to rest, stopped talking when they heard this.

So the group came to the shelter where Mangye pointed to, sat on the stone without snow, took out the dry food he had prepared in a hurry last night and started to eat it in big mouthfuls. When they felt thirsty, they grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it into their mouths.

No one was interested in having sex while eating silently, but a few half-year-old children couldn't sit still. As soon as they had some strength, they wandered around.

At this moment, a child accidentally threw a snowball, which hit the snow-covered rocks without any hesitation. As a result, a sound of snow continued to fall, and suddenly a dark hole appeared. The child pointed at the hole and shouted: "Look, there is a cave here!"

Everyone subconsciously turned their heads and saw a hole that was half a person tall and wide appeared in front of them.

Before the adults could dissuade them, a few half-aged children rushed in with excitement. However, the next moment, they ran out in panic and cried, shouting in horror: "There are dead, there are many dead people inside."

Off topic

Do you think Xiao Yezi has the potential to be a detective? In order not to make others suspect that she is special, every analysis makes sense!
Chapter completed!