"Th-the GPS is broken?" The slightly overweight man’s voice was dry.
"My compass..."
Another female assistant held up her compass, her face pale. "The needle... the needle is spinning wildly..."
Guide He snapped his head up, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding trees, rocks, and the interplay of light and shadow.
Everything looked perfectly normal, yet it all felt indescribably off.
The dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves seemed a little dimmer than before.
The chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects had, at some point, completely vanished.
Even the wind seemed to have died.
A heart-pounding, invisible "force field" seemed to envelop them.
"Get out."
Guide He made a snap decision, his voice low and resolute. "Get out. Now!"
This time, no one raised any objections.
An instinctive fear gripped everyone.
They scrambled to turn around and quickly retreated along the path they’d come from—or rather, what they thought was the path.
The chilling part was that this retreat went unusually smoothly.
After just two or three minutes, the path suddenly opened up, and they found themselves back at the familiar entrance to the area.
The warm sunlight, the clear birdsong, the faint voices of people on the park trail in the distance...
Everything was back to normal.
They all let out a collective sigh of relief, only then realizing their backs were soaked in cold sweat.
"Freaky... This is just too freaky..."
Guide He muttered, his gaze complex as he stared at the patch of primeval forest that had thwarted their three attempts.
Professor Zhou’s expression was grave. He was a scientist, after all. Even though what they had just experienced defied his understanding, he forced himself to remain calm.
"Guide He, has anything like this happened before? Or, are there any particular legends about this area?"
Guide He mulled it over for a moment before speaking slowly. "There are a few legends. The older generation used to say that a Mountain God guards the depths of Cangshan and doesn’t allow outsiders to trespass."
"Some herb collectors also mentioned that there are places you enter and immediately get lost, unable to find your way out. But if you offer a sincere apology and don’t disturb anything, you can sometimes inexplicably find your way out again..."
"But those are just old rumors. With the development of the forest park in recent years, we’ve explored all the outer areas, and nothing like this has ever happened."
He paused, then added, "But to get lost so completely and so... uniformly, this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it. It’s as if this stretch of forest suddenly ’came alive’ and decided it didn’t want us here."
"Didn’t want us here..." Professor Zhou repeated the phrase, lost in thought.
"Professor, what do we do now?"
The man with the glasses was humbled now. He asked in a low voice, "If we can’t get in, can we still conduct the survey?"
Professor Zhou glanced at the sky, then back at the forest, which looked peaceful yet held an eerie quality. He finally sighed. "That’s enough for today. We need a long-term plan for this. Guide He, could you please take us back to our base? We need to organize our findings from today and possibly consult with experts in geology or magnetics."
"Right."
Guide He nodded and led the shaken group away at a brisk pace along the park trail.
...
Donghua Wildlife Park, Leopard Hall.
Yang Qi was helping the zookeeper, Old Li, clean the enclosures while keeping an eye on Big Flower’s condition.
The pregnant leopard’s belly was growing rounder by the day. She was probably due within the next two weeks.
His phone suddenly vibrated.
Yang Qi went outside and answered the call.
"Xiao Yang, are you busy? If not, come to the office. Something urgent has come up," Jiang Kai said quickly.
"Got it. I’m on my way."
Yang Qi hung up the phone, said a quick word to Old Li, pulled off his gloves, washed his hands, and hurried toward the office building.
The atmosphere in Jiang Kai’s office was rather serious.
Besides Jiang Kai, Huang Zhongmu and Mei Ying were also there.
"Minister, Director, Sister Mei," Yang Qi greeted each of them in turn. "What’s going on?"
"Sit."
Huang Zhongmu pointed to the sofa, his expression grim. "We just received a joint report from the Forest Police and the Forestry Bureau. This morning, a scientific research team from the Provincial Capital entered the undeveloped area of Cangshan from the Lantian District side to survey the habitat of the Chinese Merganser."
Yang Qi’s heart stirred, but his expression remained unchanged. "And then?"
"And then..."
Jiang Kai picked up the story, his expression odd. "On the edge of the undeveloped area, they got lost three times in a row. Each time, they mysteriously ended up right back where they started. They just couldn’t get in."
"The rangers guiding them were baffled. Said they hadn’t run into anything so freaky in decades. The research team has already pulled back to their base, but word is already spreading."
Mei Ying added, "The Forestry Bureau is under a lot of pressure. They called to ask if we here at the Zoo have any ’inside information’ or know of any ’special circumstances,’ since the mountain behind our park borders that same area."
"They’re wondering if a recent poaching incident or some other human factor might have caused an abnormal change in the forest environment."
Huang Zhongmu rubbed his temples. "What’s more troublesome is that the team’s leader, Professor Zhou, is highly respected in his field."
"He’s insisting that Cangshan has a ’special magnetic field anomaly’ or is causing an ’unknown mass psychological phenomenon.’ He’s already submitted a report to his superiors requesting an interdisciplinary team of experts with more advanced equipment to conduct an in-depth investigation."
’So they’re going with the "magnetic field anomaly" explanation, just as I’d hoped!’
Yang Qi felt a great sense of relief.
’The effect was even better than I’d anticipated. Not only did it successfully confuse the intruders, but it even led them to speculate about the magnetic field.’
"Xiao Yang."
Huang Zhongmu looked at Yang Qi, his tone a mixture of hope and probing. "You go up the mountain often. Have you noticed anything unusual on the back mountain lately? Or heard anything out of the ordinary?"