Mountain Rangers

Old Miao casually put the wooden door on, then stepped on the footprints that had been deposited for decades and walked towards the mountain. The scenery around him seemed to be unchanged from yesterday, but for Lao Miao, the slightest change might change his life.

He roughly measured the length of the young leaves on the trees with his fingers, calculating that by tomorrow at the latest, he would be able to sow the seeds in the reclaimed land. Along the way, he picked up some dead branches, ready to go home to live boiling water, before the weather becomes wet, the last year's uneaten tea boiled. If you are lucky, meet mushrooms and wild vegetables or something, then today's dinner will be more worth looking forward to.

Today's road, and the usual patrol route, are not quite the same, Lao Miao from time to time also need to raise their heads to look at the sun, and head down to find footprints, to clarify where they are in the mountains.

Soon, Miao found the guy who caused him to take a long way around. He took out his walkie-talkie and reported to the mountain forest management office at the bottom of the mountain. He had been notified earlier that a traveler had been lost on the way up the mountain. Indeed, he didn't know what to do. He didn't take the route provided to the tourists but had to challenge the off-the-beaten-path place to go, and when the accident happened.

At this time, the tourists opened their eyes, and senses after rebooting, began to collect a lot of information around.

Old Miao turned off the intercom, squatted down beside the tourist, and asked, "Did you feel any pain anywhere?"

The tourist shook his head in some confusion.

Old Miao asked again, "Try to try to move on your own, slowly do not rush."

The visitor reluctantly stood up, but some weakness. He looked up and saw that there were still traces of his slide on the hillside and said, "I'm lucky to have fallen like that."

Such a person has seen a lot of, old Miao deep knows what to say is useless, just with eyes pointing the direction, said: "Let's go."

There is no imaginary rescue scene, not even hot water, and dry food, the tourists are very unhappy in their hearts, feel that they are suffering from accidents, and should not be treated so indifferently, but can only whisper a few complaints, follow.

Old Miao cooperated with the tourists, slowing down to walk in front. The tourist followed silently and waited until he was tired of seeing the scenery around him before he gathered his courage and asked, "What is the name of the old man?"

"Just call me Lao Miao. I am in charge of guiding people like you."

Being called "people like you", the tourist was half angry and half ashamed, with the former accounting for about 5% more.

The tourist tentatively asks again, "What will, what will you do with me?"

"I don't know, the back of the matter is not under my control."

Could not set out any more useful information from the old Miao, tourists can only pray that the old Miao's leadership is a reasonable person, set close to maybe criticize and educate a few lines on the line. Then look at the old Miao, who does not understand the world, perhaps because of this, will be sidelined to this kind of post-it.

After planning what to do, the tourists once again picked up the mood of sightseeing, but the more you look at it, the more wrong it is.

"Old Miao, the path we took is going up towards the mountain, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's right."

Not expecting to get such a dry response, the tourist immediately felt like falling into an abyss of ten thousand feet - what did this eccentric-looking old man want?

It is said that when a person is in a crisis, the body will burst out a powerful survival instinct to help people get through it. And reflecting on the visitor, it is in the head, flying through all the details after the encounter with Old Miao.

The tourist's brain was violently hit by a remark that Lao Miao had made, which was not addressed to him, but the content of the speech was unusual.

It was when the tourist was still not fully awake, and he was in a daze when he heard Lao Miao reporting to others through the intercom, which mentioned the words "target found, confirmed dead".

"Why did you report to others that I was dead?" The tourist stopped and questioned loudly, his voice became unlike his own due to overexcitement, "Are you trying to trick me into going somewhere else, kill me, and then take my stuff?"

If you think about it this way, some of Old Miao's strange actions make sense.

Old Miao that did not admit, nor refute, just blandly pointed to the sky, and said: "See for yourself."

The tourists subconsciously raised their heads, only to find that just now was a clear day, somehow covered with a layer of black cloth, dark gray clouds formed a bizarre spiral, like the road to the unknown and fear.

"This is, what is it?"

"Seeing that, all the more reason, not dead." Old Miao skillfully explained, "My job, in addition to searching for people missing on the mountain, is also responsible for sending ghosts like you, who don't know they're dead yet, to where they should be."

The visitor was expecting the seemingly rigid old Miao to smile and say, "I'm just kidding," and finally, in a moment of silence, conceded defeat and admitted, "It seems I am, indeed, dead."

Once you let go of a certain obsession, the body becomes so light, an invisible force, pulling the tourists into the spiral road.

Old Miao watched the departure of the tourist until he completely disappeared and the sky returned to blue again before he moved to walk towards the cabin. Lao Miao has long given up asking these people "what they think before they die", after all, when they met them, they are already dead.

As for what happens after death, both those who stay in this world and those who go to the other world are no longer under Lao Miao's control.