Volume 7 Chapter 30 The Second Rain (Part 1)

After leaving the grottoes on the cliff, we adjusted our moods and continued to walk deeper into the canyon.

Because of the influence of the stone carvings in the grottoes, we walked very carefully, paying attention to every movement in the jungle, for fear of encountering an ambush set by the Queen Mother of the West thousands of years ago.

However, as we went deeper, nothing strange happened. We didn’t even see any other relics of the Xiwangmu’s kingdom. Only the rainforest became denser and denser, with roots and branches intertwining, covering the sky, as if we were moving away from Xiwangmu’s palace, not closer to it. Later, my eyes began to blur, and I could only feel that there were green, tangled vines everywhere, as if I were walking through a bowl of green moldy noodles.

I realized what the concept of “jungle” was. The woods I had passed through in Shandong and the Qinling Mountains were a tourist attraction compared to this place. It was hard to walk even 100 meters here, let alone a kilometer. Looking at Pan Zi’s determined face covered in sweat, I wondered how they had survived the war.

We kept walking forward, until the forest darkened and the canyons on both sides became silhouettes.

There was no one in the group talking, only the sound of panting and the sound of swatting mosquitoes.

The fat guy was so disoriented that he was hallucinating. He was humming a folk song to himself to cheer himself up, singing “Why are the flowers so red?

Why are they so red? They’re so red, they’re like burning fire.” He was the pathfinder, at the front of the group, and his singing also helped to cheer us up.

But the fat guy’s singing was really terrible, and he wasn’t singing properly either. It sounded like he was trying to summon the spirits.

Pan Zi couldn’t stand it anymore and yelled at him, “It’s so hot here, can’t you sing something cooler?”

The fat guy said, “What do you know? This is a song of the people from the iceberg. When I sing it, I think of the glaciers in Changbai Mountain, so it’s a little cooler.”

Pan Zi said, “Can’t you sing The White-Haired Girl instead?” That’s more direct, and it saves you from having to think.

The fat guy said, “I’m fucking you, and you’re still asking for songs. Do you really think I’m a radio station, that I can play whatever you want to hear? I’m singing for your face, so don’t give me so much shit.”

As he was cursing, thunder rumbled in the sky, lightning flashed in the clouds, the wind blew, and raindrops appeared in the air.

We all quieted down, looked up at the sky, and saw the clouds brighten through the tree canopy. It seemed as if lightning was moving in the clouds, and the clouds were pressing down on the top of the canyon. Ah-ning sighed and said, “It’s raining on a dark night. It seems that the Queen Mother of the West doesn’t welcome us. We’re in for a hard time tonight.”

The fat man said, “Let it rain. It’s better if it rains. It’s cool when it rains. It’s so stuffy. The eggs in my crotch are hatching chicks.”

We couldn’t help laughing when we heard that. Pan Zi scolded, “Then take good care of your chicks. Don’t wait for the thunder to strike.”

Before he finished speaking, it started to rain. At first, a few raindrops hit our faces, and before we could react, the rain came down in torrents. It was as if the entire forest had suddenly gone quiet, and all the trees were silent. Then, with a loud boom, the entire valley suddenly roared. The rain came in like a whip, slamming into the gaps in the tree canopy, barely missing us.

We didn’t expect the rain to be so fierce, and we were caught off guard. Fortunately, we were at the bottom of the dense forest, surrounded by many large trees with dense canopies. There was a piece of cover made of intertwined vines on one tree. At Aning’s shout, we climbed up to hide from the rain.

Everyone huddled together, as if they had been pulled out of a pot of soup. The fat guy said, “Fuck, this isn’t rain, it’s the Dragon King pissing on our heads.”

At this moment, a flash of lightning lit up the entire canyon. Looking forward with the help of the lightning, I saw that the rain on the cliff wall on one side had already gathered into a large waterfall pouring down. The rainforest was rolling in the darkness, with huge water curtains rushing down on both sides, just like the time when Moses parted the sea.