Chapter 50

It was a Saturday. The sun was bright and the sky was cloudless. What a perfect day to sleep in!

Six o’clock in the morning.

“Yo~ Descendants of the mountains love the sun!…”

Cheng Nuo was woken up by the familiar ringtone. He struggled to pick up his phone on the table.

“Hello?” Cheng Nuo said. He was still feeling sleepy.

“Cheng Nuo, you lazy pig! Get up! The sun is… the sun is already out!” It was Xiaoxiao’s lively voice.

But it was still dark outside!

“Xiaoxiao, no, I mean, my dear elder sister[1]! Could you please let me sleep just for a little longer? This is the second time! The second time you’ve woken me up at 6 AM!” Cheng Nuo growled.

At that instant, Cheng Nuo had the urge to block Xiaoxiao’s number.

Xiaoxiao felt wronged. She sounded as if she was about to cry. “(sobbing)Cheng Nuo… do you hate me now?”

“No. Of course not!” Cheng Nuo changed his tone at once. He said amicably, “But could I trouble you not to call me so early again?”

Xiaoxiao replied, “I simply wanted to remind you that we are going mountain climbing today.”

Cheng Nuo was surprised. “I didn’t know you were going too!”

“I am,” Xiaoxiao said, nodding. “Not only me, Mu Leng agreed to go too. So, Cheng Nuo, do seize this wonderful opportunity!”

Cheng Nuo was speechless. “Sure, okay. Noted. I’ll get up now. See you later!”

After he hung up the call, Cheng Nuo went downstairs for a 30-minute morning exercise. This time, he didn’t run into his neighbor Cheng Nan.

They had agreed to meet at 10 AM. Hence, it would be fine so long as Cheng Nuo reached the foot of the mountain before the agreed time.

…

Luo Mountain sat in the south of Qing Cheng. It stood magnificently on the coast of the Yellow Sea with its peak reaching more than 1,100 meters, and it had earned itself the name of “the first mountain on the sea”. Luo Mountain had many branch ranges, and this time, Cheng Nuo’s class was going to conquer its summit, Giant Rock Peak.

At 10 AM, 13 students from class 18 gathered at the foot of the mountain. There were seven boys and six girls.

Since all of them were classmates, they were friends with one another. It was going to be a pleasant outing.

However, when they saw Cheng Nuo, they felt strange.

“Cheng Nuo, look at your outfit… Aren’t you overdoing it?” Qingqing couldn’t help but ask.

Cheng Nuo had a large mountaineering backpack and a pair of hiking boots. He seemed fully equipped in his hiking jacket, hiking pants, gloves, wristbands, and knee pads, as well as a pair of very fashionable sunglasses. He would have looked like a professional mountaineer if he had had an alpenstock.

“Haha, just in case,” Cheng Nuo said, scratching his head.

He didn’t have a choice!

In fact, it wasn’t his plan to dress like that. When he told his mom that he was going mountain climbing, Jiang Lan had forced him to wear his father’s full mountaineering build, despite Cheng Nuo’s strong objections.

There was indeed an alpenstock at home. After much persuasion that he would be fine without one, Jiang Lan had finally let go.

“Alright, then. Let’s go in,” Qingqing said after everyone had arrived. Then she led the group to the ticket kiosk.

A few years back, it was free to visit Luo Mountain. But after the government took over, all visitors had to be charged a certain amount of fees so as to tap into the tourism industry of the city, which had been contributing tens of billions of Yuan to the local economy every year.

If you wanted to climb mountains and admire the scenery of the first mountain on the sea, sure, only after you paid the entry fees!

Actually, there were other unofficial routes where tourists could enter the mountains free of charge, led by local villagers. We won’t go into much detail here.

As responsible, young citizens, Cheng Nuo and his friends would definitely not flout the rules. They paid the original price of 80 Yuan per person before they entered.

Needless to say, Cheng Nuo’s mountaineering suit had attracted much attention.

It was the peak travel season of the Labor Day holiday. Hence, the line outside the ticket kiosk was very long.

Many people had turned to look at them as soon as Cheng Nuo had entered the ticketing hall.

Actually, most people had come chiefly to admire the scenery and relax. Few were here to train their mountaineering skills. But Cheng Nuo… looked very professional.

Luckily, he didn’t stand out too much, because quite a number of people came with those kinds of fancy outfits.

“Cheng Nuo, where did you get your equipment? It looks cool!” Hao Shuai asked.

“Well,” Cheng Nuo replied smilingly, “It’s my dad’s. I borrowed his.”

They had waited for more than ten minutes before it was finally their turn to purchase the tickets. After that, the group boarded the bus with their tickets.

The starting point of Giant Rock Peak was not at the foot of the mountain. Instead, it was halfway up, at an altitude of more than 400 meters.

Hence, they had to take the bus there first.

After ten minutes…

The group boarded the bus one by one.

Cheng Nuo looked up at the azure sky and inhaled the fresh air deeply.

“Air quality: 11, temperature: 28 degrees Celsius, relative air humidity: 60%, UV index: 4, atmospheric pressure: 101.211 kiloPascals, Wind speed: 0.54 m/s…”

Several lines of weather forecast flashed past Cheng Nuo’s mind.

“Look, Cheng Nuo! It’s so high!” Xiaoxiao said as she was pulling onto Cheng Nuo’s shirt excitedly.

Cheng Nuo glanced around.

“Altitude: 945.37 m…”

“Altitude: 987.27 m…”

“Altitude: 1011.54 m…”

…

“Altitude: 1132.74 m…”

Cheng Nuo looked around and saw that the average altitude of the mountain peaks here was around 1,000 meters, and the summit was at 1132.74 meters.

Their current altitude was 402.86 meters.

That meant that they had to climb 729.88 meters to reach the summit. If each step had an average height of 10 centimeters, they had to climb 7,300 steps.

“Okay. Let’s go! Let’s conquer the summit!” Qingqing said as she waved her fist excitedly.

As the event organizer, Qingqing was the group leader. She had to encourage her group to move forward together.

“Xiaoxiao, give me your bag,” Cheng Nuo said before they started climbing.

“Why?” Xiaoxiao asked cautiously. Her hands covered her bag at once in a protective manner.

Cheng Nuo spread his hands and forced a smile. “What do you think? I’m worried that you may get tired too soon while carrying your bag.”

Xiaoxiao thought for a while and agreed with Cheng Nuo. She then passed her pink bag to him.

“Woah! What’s inside? So heavy!” Cheng Nuo exclaimed once he took the bag.

“Volume: 3.5 m cubed, Weight: 5.24 kg.”

“More than five kilograms! No wonder it feels this heavy!”

[1] A respectful term of address for girls of similar age