"Are you saying there's a mole in the expedition team?" I asked, puzzled.

Zoe shook her head in denial. "Not exactly a mole. More like a Z organization member with a higher clearance, someone who knows the core secrets."

"In that case, why hide this from your father and insert such a person into the expedition team? I mean, if the Z organization wants to explore Devil's Gulch, why keep it a secret from everyone else?"

The question was directed at Zoe, but I was also using it to organize my thoughts.

"If there were a treasure in Devil's Gulch, a treasure that could change many things, even the world, would you tell others about it easily?" Zoe replied without hesitation. "...Of course, this is just my assumption. No one knows what's in that gulch."

What Zoe said made sense.

Using a scientific expedition to attract scholars to help with research, presenting it as dangerous, and not informing them about the possible treasures it contained. It seemed the Mormon Expedition team were nothing more than a group of advanced lab rats.

The woman driving the car remained silent, occasionally glancing at me through the rearview mirror, her eyes filled with distrust.

The car traveled south along national and provincial highways, without taking many detours. Zoe and I drifted off to sleep during our conversation, swaying with the car.

When I woke up, it was completely dark. The car had turned onto a narrow, unpaved country road, barely wide enough for one vehicle. There were no lights, and the road was full of potholes. The Jeep had to alternate between high and low beams to avoid the muddy pits. The vehicle shook violently.

I was still drowsy and didn't know how many hours we'd been driving or where we were. The driver had also changed. Zoe was now behind the wheel instead of the silent woman.

"Where are we going?" I asked Zoe, rubbing my eyes.

"Almost there. Once we drive down this dirt road and through the woods ahead, we'll reach our destination."

I looked in the direction we were heading. Not far away was a dark, looming hill. Were we going to drive up the mountain?

The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back down. I was on someone else's turf, so I should talk less.

A small path wound through the trees on the hill, with a gentle slope and a smooth surface. The Jeep climbed the hill easily, and within fifteen minutes, we arrived at two wooden cabins. There were lights on in the cabins, and it seemed someone was inside.

"It's easy for the Z organization to track and notice us if we stay in the city, so it's best to be cautious," Zoe said, parking the car in front of the cabins and motioning for me to get out.

At that moment, two men walked out of the cabin: one tall and one short, one fat and one thin, one old and one young.

I didn't know the name of the short, skinny old man. He spoke in a local dialect that I couldn't understand at all. The tall, fat young man wore trendy clothes, looked energetic, and had a greasy face. He spoke with a Beijing accent. As soon as I got out of the car, he rushed to help me with my luggage, calling me "Young Master" every other word.

Zoe glanced at the fat man. "You never act serious for a single moment. You're so long-winded."

The fat man whistled when he heard that. "Oh ho, Miss Foreigner, you're the most serious one of us all. I'm taking you as my role model..."

Seeing that the fat man was about to continue, Zoe quickly covered his mouth. If he were allowed to keep talking, he would dominate the conversation all night, and no one else would get a word in.

The two wooden cabins had a total of four rooms. The old man took one, the fat man took one, Zoe and the woman took one, and I was assigned the last one. While helping me make the bed and organize my belongings, the fat man told me about the things I needed to pay attention to while living there.

The fat man told me that the old man's surname was Zhang, and everyone called him Old Zhang. Old Zhang was the caretaker who stayed behind on this mountain. Poaching was rampant in the 1980s, and there were six caretakers here at that time. Later, as the economy improved with the reform and opening up, no one wanted to stay in the mountains patrolling every day. Everyone wanted to go out and see the world, so they all went out to work. In the end, only Old Zhang was left to stay in the mountains. He lived alone, never married, and had no relatives. He grew his own crops, occasionally hunted wild chickens and rabbits, and went down the mountain once a month to collect his salary and buy some necessities.

"Everything's good on the mountain, except there's no damn electricity," the fat man complained. "If I, Fat Master, hadn't been resourceful enough to bring a few flashlights, I'd probably fall into the latrine when I go out to shit at night."

Then the fat man introduced me to where to eat, wash, and go to the toilet... He talked about all sorts of trivial matters. I suddenly understood why Zoe had covered his mouth earlier.

After a quick cleanup, Zoe called me over for dinner.

In front of the wooden cabins was a wooden round table, and the seats were a few wooden stumps. Today, Old Zhang had specially hunted two wild rabbits and made us a feast. I had to admit that Old Zhang was a skilled cook.

During dinner, Zoe introduced me to the fat man and the silent woman. The fat man was named Shi Chuan. He was a soldier who had just retired in the past two years. Don't let his weight fool you; he was very agile. After retiring, he started participating in small boxing matches and was a famous "king of boxing" in the circle. His winning strategy was to spew trash talk to anger his opponents, affecting their mentality, and then find a weakness and knock them out with one punch.

So, the fat man's long-windedness came from here.

The woman who hadn't said a word was named Han Yu. She was a mathematical genius, a doctoral student at Tianjing University currently on leave. She had an autistic personality and was unusually sensitive to numbers. Her advisor admired her very much and had planned to let her graduate with her doctorate early and recommend her to a foreign university research institute for postdoctoral work.

Han Yu didn't say a word, just kept her head down and ate. When she was introduced, she looked up at me and nodded. The fat man teased her, tearing off a braised rabbit leg and putting it in her bowl. "Little Yu, eat more. What else do you want to eat? Fat Master will prepare it for you tomorrow."

Han Yu didn't mind the rabbit leg the fat man gave her. She rarely said a soft "thank you" and buried her head in eating her rabbit leg.

Zoe rolled her eyes at the fat man and said, "A weasel offering New Year greetings to a chicken is up to no good."

The fat man said anxiously, "You can call me a weasel if you want, but you can't call my Little Yu a chicken. You have to apologize to her!"

I didn't know if he was really angry or pretending.

"I was just using a metaphor," Zoe said unhappily.

I smoothed things over, and the fat man regained his smiling face. "I'll give Young Master face and not argue with Miss Foreigner!"

Zoe gave the fat man a big eye roll.

Later, Zoe introduced my background to everyone, perhaps they already knew, so she didn't go into much detail.

The fat man chimed in, "Young Master, I was supposed to pick you up today, but something came up and I couldn't get away. Don't blame me, Fat Master."

Zoe nodded. "That's true, but I still had to give you the option."

"The option? So, I could have refused your 'invitation' at the time?" I said with a wry smile.

"Of course, you could have, but you should know that everyone who refuses me dies," Zoe said with a strange smile.