IHWL – Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Geodogs

There was a limerick that had been circulating in geological circles —— From a distance, they looked like beggars, and up close, they looked like refugees, but on closer inspection, they were engaged in geological exploration.

    Although this statement was a bit ‘over’, geology-related work was indeed hard work and wasn’t at all that sight. Laymen thought that oil extraction and mining was a business of turning stones into gold! But in reality, it was the normal life of geologists, who were exposed to the elements.

    Take now as an example. Several young people in the second year of the Graduate School of the University of Geosciences were holding a geological hammer in one hand and a compass in the other and conscientiously taking samples in a mass quantity state.

    The team was all men, so they had no taboo topics. The few of them derided each other while knocking on the mountain, and only all kinds of ethical stems could be heard flying all over the sky. In just a few minutes, everyone took turns to be the father.

    The two men had the best relationship. They were classmates during their undergraduate studies and followed the same teacher in graduate school. They lived in the same dormitory, pushed the tower and played ball during their leisure time, so their relationship was naturally close.

    One of them was the ‘Squad Leader’ and the other was called ‘Big Head’

    Squad Leader said, “By the way, our director talked to me a few days ago and asked me if I wanted to take my PhD straight away.”

    Big Head quickly asked, “Did you agree?”

    Squad Leader: “Agree my hair, huh! Look at our senior brother’s hair. Before studying for a PhD, he had a lot of hair. But look at the back of his head after studying his doctorate!”

    Big Head: “It’s really quite bald.”

    Squad Leader: “Look at our Director. There are only three locks of hair on his head. Why do you think he still combs it? He might as well just name each strand!”

    Su Jishi had been trying to find a suitable opportunity to interject, but unknowingly stood in place for a long time and listened to a class meeting. They were so lively. If these two children were to take off their gears and change into a long magua((a mandarin jacket worn over a gown)), Deyunshe((Deyun Club – the most popular and well-known Chinese Traditional Cross-Talk (a form of comedy performance from China) group in China)) would definitely have two more pillars.

    Xiao Xia couldn’t hold herself back and burst out laughing.

    Big Head froze from hammering the mountain and subconsciously twisted his head, following the sound.

    Xiao Xia immediately stood upright, assumed the weakest, most helpless and pathetic posture, shyly waved her hand, said: “Hi, may I ask…”

    Big Head’s head turned down with a ‘whoosh’ with a speed that almost twisted his neck.

    Xiao Xia: “???”

    Seeing him so flustered, Squad Leader also curiously turned his head and immediately clapped eyes with Su Jishi.

    Su Jishi gave a friendly smile and quickly listed two or three ways to start a conversation in her mind, invariably from the field of geology, which both sides were familiar with.

    But before she could speak, the Squad Leader suddenly went weak on his knees and fell into the snow with a thud.

    Su Jishi: “???”

    Half a minute later, Squad Leader struggled to crawl out of the snow, clutching the hand of a classmate beside him and asking in a trembling voice, “Am I hallucinating or is this a recording of the whole show?! My Jinjin! How can my Jinjin be here?!”

    ”

    What a coincidence!. The Squad Leader was not only Su Jin’s male fan, but also a devout fanatic.

    The Squad Leader didn’t lose his mind alone. Several of his friends in the team were also stunned. The hammers and compasses in their hands crashed to the ground, and some even scooped a handful of snow and rubbed it on their head, trying to make themselves ‘awake and sober’.

    The result of their sobriety —— the beautiful person smiling winsomely in front of them was indeed Su Jin.

    Indeed! Indeed! Yes! Su! Jin!!!

    The Squad Leader almost fainted.

    Seeing that the several young men were about to start expressing their infinite love to her, Su Jishi rushed to speak before them, “Do you have any food? My assistant and I haven’t eaten much all day.”

    “Yes, yes, yes!”

    Geodogs’ backpacks had always had no shortage of energy-supplementing nutrition bars. And they each brought a thermos bottle filled with hot tea!

    Five thermos bottles were handed to Su Jishi and Xiao Xia at the same time, and the five older men said in unison, “Drink more hot water!”

    Su Jishi hesitated for a few seconds, but in the end she couldn’t beat the Squad Leader’s dog eyes and took the thermos cup with Su Jin’s picture from his hand.

    Once again, the Squad Leader almost fainted with excitement.

    After drinking hot tea and eating cookies and chocolate, Su Jishi and Xiao Xia’s bodies finally warmed up.

    The group found a place to take shelter from the snow.

    Big Head sneaked a peek at Su Jishi several times and saw her covered in dust and dirt. However, she showed no embarrassment and calmly sat on a large boulder with her eyes shining. Her beautiful eyes were fixed on the geological hammers in their hands with an inexplicable trace of nostalgia. She was exceptionally beautiful, and was particularly surreal. It was just that he still couldn’t understand why a famous star was stranded outside this kind of wilderness.

    Was she real? Not a collective hallucination of the few of them after working too hard, digging rocks?

    He had a belly full of questions to ask, but Su Jin had the topic firmly in her hands and unknowingly let him spill all of their information.

    Su Jishi asked, “By the way, can you guys lend me your phone so I can make a phone call?”

    She had been missing for so long. It was imperative that she get in touch with Fang Xie and the others. And then, inform Mu Xiulun of her safety.

    Shua-shua-shua, five phones were handed to Su Jishi simultaneously.

    The result: three phones had no signal, and the other two froze and shut down before she could fully enter all the numbers!

    Su Jishi felt helpless and anxious. Without any other choice, they could only follow this group of children, back to their base camp —— This time they went out in the field to work with several senior brothers and sisters, who were taking their doctorate; it was freezing cold today, and the few pitiful little ones were sent out to collect samples, while their senior brothers and sisters stayed in the camp to write reports.

    They called it a camp, but it was actually a small village at the foot of the mountain. The place was a typical karst landscape, and with increasing exposure and distinctive production, it had developed into a fixed camp over time. Every year, students from the Mining and Technology University, the Geoscience University, and the Petroleum University went on field trips and chose to settle in that village.

    The village was developed quite well. Not only did it have telephone lines, it was also connected to the Internet a few years ago!

    Without delay, several people immediately picked up their bags and headed towards the village. With a map, compass and a live guide this time, Su Jishi and Xiao Xia would never get lost again!

    The snow was getting smaller and smaller, and gradually, a gap was finally revealed between the clouds. The golden sunlight spilled down from the gap, illuminating their way ahead.

    Suddenly, an ear-piercing mechanical sound came from afar, whistling from the distant sky —— the crowd looked up and saw a helicopter riding the sunlight, cutting through the sky in a golden glow and flying over their heads!

    “F*uck! Which stupid d*ck called for help again?” Big Head looked up at the shadow cast by the helicopter on the snow and asked with a tone mixed with envy and ridicule.

    The area was unique because of the terrain, so it attracted plenty of hikers, who would come to climb and enjoy the scenery. According to the regulations, the place was closed every November, but there were always disobedient hikers and photographers, who would deliberately cross the police cordon. They’d cross into the snowy mountains and try to find the beauty of the snow-capped mountains in their hearts.

    Consequently, eight out of ten people would get lost in the deserted mountains. In the end, there was no choice but for families to pay out of pocket to call high altitude rescue, flying helicopters to look down from the sky and find their traces.

    Otherwise, as their doctor brother had said; this barren mountain was rich in three kinds of animals —— wild boars, tourists, and geodogs.

    Big Head looked enviously at the plane as it flew further and further away and whimsically said, “I wonder, if we call it, will it come down and send us straight back to camp?”

    Squad Leader made a hammering gesture with his geological hammer: “Do you think that’s a cab? Let me hit you on the head right now and make sure you can sit in your dreams for as long as you want!”

    Su Jishi looked at them, holding hammers and joking around, and in a trance actually found the feeling of going out in the field once as a freshman —— Looking at how young these geodogs were, they still had so much hair to squander.

    She had only been away for half a year, but she could no longer remember what it was like to carry a backpack and go exploring in the field with her partners.

    *

    Thousands of meters above the sky.

    The pilot was concentrating on the helicopter, and beside him, a rescue worker was holding binoculars and carefully searching for Su Jin.

    This was a professional rescue aircraft. The cabin was spacious enough to carry two stretchers side by side. Presently, two paramedics were standing by, nervously preparing various medicines. They placed the drugs for frostbite at the top, and silently calculated how long a comatose patient with low-temperature frostbite could last in such cold weather.

    Mu Xiulun sat in the back row of seats, his lips pursed, and with a terrifying ‘stay-away’ aura, lingering around him. His body was taut, and his fingers were crossed, as if he was praying, and or fighting with himself.

    His eyes glowed that of wolves and fell on a huddled figure at his feet —— there lay a man whose limbs were bound. He was obviously tall, but he had now tightly shrunken into a ball. His face was full of bruises, and his ten fingers were twisted abnormally. Nosebleeds were dripping all over his face, crouching on the ground like a bereaved dog, being taught a lesson defenselessly.

    If Su Jishi and Xiao Xia were here, they would have screamed when they saw the man’s face —— because this man was the bodyguard who had thrown them thousands of miles into the deserted mountains!

    Mu Xiulun somehow used a method, and in just a few hours, he kidnapped Mu Minde’s most powerful and crooked bodyguard, and used all means to finally force him to talk and admit what he had done.

    Mu Xiulun didn’t even try to show some mercy for his father before he did it. Even if he had to tear all traces of civility between them and meet with that hypocritical old man, he would willingly do so.

    He tossed the bodyguard directly into the helicopter and took him to ‘identify the crime scene’.

    But the bodyguard said that it was too dark last night and was also snowing, so he couldn’t remember where he had thrown Su Jin out of the car.

    They circled the sky over and over again, meeting villagers, hikers, and groups of geological exploration teams.

    Just now, they flew over another group of seven exploration team, but Su Jin and her assistant were still nowhere to be seen.

    Su Jin, Su Jin, Su Jin…

    Mu Xiulun silently recited her name in his heart. He knew that this was only her ‘pseudonym’ —— As for her real identity, he hoped that after finding her, she would tell him herself.

    The author has something to say: Yes, the hero came to the rescue the heroine under the auspicious clouds!

    …However, the heroine simply doesn’t need his rescue…