I wake to discover that I am stranded more than a thousand meters above the ground, standing on the top of a stone pillar that rises through the clouds. I have no memory of how I reached it, no obvious route down, and no idea whether anyone else is nearby. The impossible location turns a simple question—how do I get home?—into a test of observation and survival. As I search the pillar for clues, I begin to suspect that arriving here was not an accident and that the sky around me is hiding an even larger mystery.
Chapter 26: Flakes of Snow
All six stages were complete. Finally, it was time to be sent home. “When will the crew meet up next? What kind of movie will we be making?” the female office worker asked the director. “No comment,” the director replied to the office worker in a completely emotionless tone. “Usually, we reconvene in three to five days. As for what movie we’ll shoot next, you’ll only find out when you come back. With so many newcomers on this crew, I’d guess the next round won’t be too difficult—probably one out of every eight will be eliminated,” the woman in sunglasses answered for the director. “Bro, you saved my life this time. I owe you one. If I ever get the chance, I’ll definitely repay you.” Gao Fei held out his hand to Li Teng. “No problem.” Li Teng and Gao Fei shook hands. Even though he’d survived, Li Teng still wasn’t very happy. He didn’t win the 100 points—it was such a bad deal. After a brief farewell ceremony, the group boarded a bus under the “escort” of a number of staff members. The bus drove through the film studio for twenty minutes before arriving at a nearby airport. Eight black helicopters were parked at the airport. Unlike on the way there—when the helicopter had dropped Li Teng off at a helipad by the sea On the way back, however, they boarded at the main airport. Li Teng soon realized why. Before boarding the helicopter, everyone had to go through security and undergo an extremely rigorous inspection at the security checkpoint; aside from the clothes on their backs, they were not allowed to bring anything else onto the helicopter. As for clothing—shirts, pants, socks, shoes, and the like—they were not allowed to wear more than what was necessary for their basic needs. The clothes sold at the film studio had no decorative elements such as belts or ropes, and the shoes had no laces—presumably to prevent them from tying their clothes together to form a rope and climbing down the stone pillars. Even the woman in sunglasses had her cell phone confiscated; staff placed it in an airport locker for temporary safekeeping. After waving goodbye to each other, Li Teng, Gao Fei, and the others boarded their respective helicopters. Once everyone was inside, the helicopter doors closed. Just as on the way there, the cabin was pitch black; they couldn’t see a thing. “For an extra, getting a private helicopter to pick me up and drop me off—that’s really nice treatment,” Li Teng sighed deeply. A moment later, he seemed to remember something. He reached out and felt around the cabin, finding the same box he’d had on the way there. Unfortunately, the box was empty—there was nothing inside. It seemed that the helicopter only provided a small amount of food and water when returning to the film studio. There was nothing on the way back. With nothing to do in the pitch-black darkness, Li Teng sat idly for a while before lying down in the cabin. Perhaps because he was tired, or perhaps for some other reason, Li Teng soon drifted off to sleep. He didn’t know how much time had passed. Li Teng was jolted awake by a cold draft, accompanied by the sound of music drifting in from somewhere. Only after waking up did Li Teng suddenly realize where he was. The helicopter had brought him back to the top of Shizhu Peak. The music was coming from the top of the helicopter’s cabin—it had been played specifically to wake him up. The helicopter’s door opened, and the cold wind blew in from outside. Along with the cold wind came flurries of snow. It was already getting dark outside. Seeing the snowflakes still swirling outside the cabin, the incredibly narrow summit of the stone pillar more than a thousand meters high below the helicopter, and the thick layer of snow piled on his ragged bed atop the summit, Li Teng was instantly overwhelmed by fear and despair. Climbing down the rope ladder from the swaying helicopter and returning to the narrow top of the stone pillar was a grueling challenge in itself. Not to mention the question of how he would spend the night once he got back there. The snow was still falling.
