Chapter 690: She Was Extremely Lucky (2)
Xu Weilai tapped into the text message and scrutinised every single word carefully before she placed her phone down and leaned back against the headboard. Around five minutes later, she got out of bed, changed her clothes and left the room.
She first contacted the rescue centre in the resort to request for a team to be dispatched immediately to conduct a search in the mountain. She then asked for an emergency kit and stuffed it into her backpack before she put on her raincoat and boots and made her way up the mountain on her own.
The wind was very strong, and it was pouring heavily. Rain blew in Xu Weilai’s face and she could only lower her head and trudge on with difficulty.
While she was not a skilled hiker, but she had good physical strength and, with some determination, managed to plod along steadily despite staggering back a few steps occasionally when the wind got too strong.
The mountain was barely developed so as to maintain its original state and thus, the stairs was only paved in a small section of the mountain. There was only mud and sand beyond this area and after being washed over by the rain, the roads became slippery and muddy, making it increasingly difficult to walk on.
After hiking for more than 40 minutes, Xu Weilai began to pant with exhaustion. She leaned back against a huge boulder to block out the rain before she fished out a bottle of mineral water from her backpack, unscrewed the cap and chugged it down.
In the latter half of the night, the rain showed no signs of stopping and in fact became heavier than before. The further up the mountain Xu Weilai trekked, the weaker the signal on her cell phone was. Xu Weilai had initially intended to call the rescue team to check if they had come up the mountain, but the call couldn’t seem to get through at all.
“Forget it. It’s better to depend on yourself than on others,” she decided.
Judging from how uneasy Qiao Chu seemed earlier on, Xu Weilai could tell that they needed to locate Zuo An as soon as possible. Otherwise, it would be terrible if something untoward really happened to him.
Xu Weilai picked up a long branch from the ground and stabbed it into the ground to support her body and prevent herself from being blown off course by the strong wind. Even though she was trudging along in smaller steps than before, at least she wouldn’t fall.
The last thing that Xu Weilai wanted was to injure herself before she managed to find Zuo An.
She had studied the map before making her way up the mountain. There was a straight path that led straight up to the top of the mountain and it was also the shortest path. As this was Zuo An’s first time trekking this mountain, Xu Weilai believed that he would likely choose a more conservative path and thus, it was possible that she could find some clues if she searched along this path.
The ideal situation that she hoped for was that he was simply deterred from descending the mountain by the strong wind and torrential rain. If that was the case, then they would be able to make their way down the mountain as soon as she finds him. Xu Weilai genuinely hoped that nothing untoward would happen to her boss and that he could stay safe.
The thunder boomed and a burst of lightning struck on a tree not far ahead from Xu Weilai. Taken aback by the close shave, her heart pounded wildly in her chest and she staggered weakly and her body swayed left and right under the force of the raging wind. . Failing to stabilize herself, she slipped and tumbled down the slope.
Xu Weilai yelped in surprise as she rolled down the mountain uncontrollably. Despite her attempts to grab onto something to cus.h.i.+on her fall, the soil was too slippery and there was nothing for her to cling onto it. She could only roll down helplessly.
After tumbling down for a long time, she finally came to a stop and by then, her head was spinning so badly that she could only lie on the ground weakly and only managed to recover from her daze after a long time.
Forcing herself to sit up, she scanned her surroundings dazedly and realised that she had almost rolled over the edge of the cliff. If the large boulder at the end of the cliff hadn’t been there to stop her, she would have plunged to the bottom of the mountain and be smashed to pieces.
Xu Weilai leaned against the boulder limply with a sense of lingering fear in her heart over how lucky she was to have survived the close shave.
After Xu Weilai fully recovered from her shock, she tried to observe her surroundings to see how she could resolve her current predicament. But much to her surprise, she spotted a black shadow crouching on the other side of the rock.
Her heart skipped a beat and she had a sudden premonition.