Love in Cthulhu

Chapter 22 Villa in the Mountains

It was already afternoon when we reached the top of the next hill. The terrain here was flat, with few trees but lots of grass. It felt like we could set up two boats with machine guns and defend the key passage in the mountains.

"Ah~~~~ Ohhhhhh!"

After resting for a while, the first thing Jian Xi did after catching her breath was to put her hands next to her mouth, using them as megaphones, and imitate Tarzan, declaring her victory over the valley.

However, her happiness didn't last long. After clearing her lungs, she had to take rapid breaths to replenish her lungs. The cold air rushed into her throat, and stimulated her, causing her to cough violently again.

“This area is a transition zone from hills to mountains. If you want your shout to have a clear echo, you’ll have to find a low cliff and yell at it.” Zhou Nan handed over a thermos cup filled with hot water that he had specially prepared before leaving.

Given Jian Xi's style, she would say that it's better to buy a bottle of mineral water on the way than to bring her own. But drinking cold water in this kind of weather would only exacerbate her bad habit. Even though she is called Miss Monster, Zhou Nan still hasn't changed his old habits.

"You're a liberal arts student, why don't you understand romance at all? Such a mood killer is something only straight men in science and engineering would say!" Jian Xi glared at him irritably, swallowed a mouthful of hot water, and held it in her mouth for a while before swallowing it.

"If I could have done well in chemistry, I wouldn't have switched to humanities." Zhou Nan also drank some water and took a deep breath. The air was slightly chilly, but standing here was indeed refreshing.

"Isn't it really for the literary girl of your dreams?" Jian Xi poked him with a finger, a lewd grin on her face. "If you want, I can wear glasses and pretend to be quiet too."

These words struck a chord in Zhou Nan's heart. He turned to look at Jian Xi, whose bright, spring-like face was so close to his, and whose flowing hair wrapped around his neck, smelling like sunshine and dew.

At that moment, the eyes and the heart started fighting. The eyes said, "Yes, that's the girl." The heart said, "Don't be stupid. Wait until you get to the point where you can sleep with someone, and you're in the middle of it all." Suddenly, the person's head split open, revealing fangs and tentacles, and said, "Tonight, we're going to play a game of offense and defense reversal with you. Let's see if your chrysanthemum will still behave."

"Forget it then. Your style is just you, there's no need for you to cater to me." Zhou Nan shook his head.

"But some people say that the process of dating is about changing and compromising with each other. Isn't it normal for a boyfriend to let his girlfriend dress according to her own interests? If I were a man, I would also let my girlfriend wear a white lace dress every day to show off her long legs!" Jian Xi was very excited.

"So the fact that you're missing a part in your life is the greatest mercy from heaven, otherwise you would definitely have become some kind of womanizer, ruining countless young women." Zhou Nan took out binoculars from his bag.

His eyesight is not very good because of his poor posture while reading at a desk for long periods of time. It started to decline after the second year of junior high school. However, he usually only wears glasses when he is sitting at the back of the classroom and does not wear them in daily life.

The circular viewing hole slowly swept across the distant mountain peaks. The contour maps in textbooks, which were completely unreal, could only be automatically filled in by standing here. Although he was a local, he had hardly ever been to these hundreds of miles of Qinling Mountains. The only time he had been there was when his grandparents passed away one after another, when he went to the cemetery in front of the cemetery with his family.

Suddenly, a bright red light flashed past the edge of the viewing hole. He quickly turned the telescope back to its original view and was somewhat surprised to see a row of villas in this remote and impoverished area where the local population was dwindling.

They were definitely villas, all two-story buildings in a European pastoral style. He had only ever seen those flashy red roofs and white walls on TV.

The land was flat, and the original trees around it were all leveled, paved with bricks, and replaced with ornamental trees such as camphor, ginkgo, and osmanthus.

This county was a nationally designated poverty-stricken county just a few years ago. It only recently shed its "poor" label. How could it possibly have the money to build these collective buildings? Forget about being so bored as to build villas; even if they were built, who would live there? Are they counting on the local villagers?
"Jianxi, come and take a look at the situation of those villas." Zhou Nan waved to someone behind him.

"Master! Wukong is here! Where?! Where?!" Jian Xi raised her hand like Sun Wukong and looked into the distance. Her eyesight was good, both eyes were 2.0. "Oh, the Zixu Lake project."

"Zixu Lake? Where's this lake?"

"I told you to go out more, instead of staying cooped up all the time. You don't even know about such an important thing."

Jian Xi gave him a disdainful shove, but she was secretly pleased. After all, he was usually the one lecturing, and it was a rare opportunity for her to show off as a teacher.

"Then where did you find out?" Zhou Nan asked, somewhat unconvinced.

"Flyers, they've been handing out flyers in a big way. Zixu Lake is a conglomerate, named after Wu Zixu, who trained his troops on the Han River back then, right? They registered the trademark for him. It's supposedly a cultural tourism company that specializes in tourism development, and those villas are their project."

"Build villas in the mountains, sell them to ghosts?"

"A villa-style resort hotel, with amenities? I've never seen one like it before?"

"Really not." Zhou Nan felt a little ashamed. He had never even left the province in his entire life; he was just an ignorant little kid.

"Oh baby, don't cry, don't cry. It's okay. You're still young. You'll have plenty of time to travel all over the world!"

Realizing she had made a mistake, Jian Xi quickly changed to a coaxing tone, patted Zhou Nan's head, and rubbed his face until it turned black before sticking out her tongue to stop.

She knew that Zhou Nan felt a little inferior to her. That was just how his family was; they didn't like to accept kindness from others easily and believed in reciprocity. It was fine when she was younger, but as her parents' business got better and better, the gap between the two families widened.

When the new phone arrived, she dragged him to buy it. When she gave it to him, he stubbornly refused to accept it, and in the end, she had to coax him relentlessly.

Sending something to this extent is truly something else.

But she was happy to do it, especially when he was being stubborn and his pride was overflowing. She found it more and more fun. Some people say that shy girls are cute, but she thinks that boys who are too proud to be shy or demure are more interesting. They are just stubborn little kids.

"I heard this group is very wealthy, and they've been in this business for over a hundred years. The county government was overjoyed when they found out they were coming to build a hotel," Jian Xi continued.

“Even I know that running a hotel involves more than just looking at the view; you also need to consider the location and the customer base,” Zhou Nan said.

“I told you, there are supporting facilities. Look over there.” Jian Xi pointed to the valley. “They are building a summer resort hotel. After it is completed, they will widen the valley and connect it to the Han River, turning it into an artificial lake. It is said that in the future, guests staying at the hotel can directly enjoy boating and racing, and it has its own natural swimming pool.”

"It still sounds ridiculous."

It's not that he has any complaints about his hometown, but he knows how the place is after living here for so many years. Just by growing up, he can feel the population loss. When he was a child, the breakfast stalls outside the compound were so crowded that people had to set up stalls on the ground.

Now, they're scattered everywhere; only one shop remains after all the others have closed.

It is said that this county will be abolished and converted into a district next year, and will be completely incorporated into the city, which may be able to take over the city's industries and population.

But the city itself has stagnated, so how many people can afford to travel around and stay in hotels, let alone travel more than 20 kilometers by car?

Are these people really sure there's nothing wrong with their investment and construction? They must be out of their minds to spend so much money on a villa holiday hotel!

"Should we go take a look?" Jian Xi suggested. "It's too far, and besides, you don't want to get tired."

He could see the perimeter fence surrounding the villa complex. The main structure of the buildings was more than half completed, but construction was still underway, with signs prohibiting unauthorized entry.

"It's not like we're going in. We're just going to wander around the outer area. Besides, it's downhill over there. Is downhill the same as uphill? We can always go back the way we came." Jian Xi said, already grabbing her backpack and walking downhill.

She's always been a woman of action, and once she says she'll do something, she does it. Zhou Nan had no choice but to tell her to be careful and follow in her footsteps.

It doesn't look far from the mountain, but it's actually quite tiring to walk there. The vegetation on this side of the mountain faces the sun and is growing well. Even in winter, there are still knee-high grasses swaying in the wind. Jian Xi was found in this direction.

They arrived outside the barbed wire fence surrounding the villa complex. It was clear that the construction team had put a lot of effort into the project; even in a place that few people would visit, they had still erected a barbed wire fence covered with netting. Although it was inconvenient to go inside, they could still see piles of old debris and machine parts in the corner, next to which were prefabricated houses for people to live.

"It looks so beautiful once it's built!" Jian Xi exclaimed as they walked around the roadblocks.

Everything was freshly painted, with white walls, red roofs, and brown walls. The pastoral colors were very fairytale-like and dreamy. Little girls often have no resistance to this kind of thing. It seems that every girl in the world has a dream of living in a forest, and this place fits that perfectly.

Zhou Nan wasn't particularly interested in whether it was ugly or beautiful; he was simply shocked by the scale of the place. From what he could see so far, there were more than thirty small villas, and there seemed to be some even larger buildings further inside.

This place must have been a somewhat lively village before. I can make this judgment because there are still one or two old houses that have been half demolished. The beams are so rotten that they are almost hollow, and they are probably very old. You can't even see cement or red bricks. The walls are made of very old lime mortar.

"Let's come here to play when it's finished! I've never been on a boat before!" Jian Xi was immersed in her pink bubble fantasy.

"When we were kids, there was a toll on the bridge across the river, but you forgot about the ferry boats underneath? We rode on them together; the motor was louder than a tractor," Zhou Nan said.

“That’s not romantic at all!” Jian Xi glared at him fiercely. “I’m talking about a boat, the kind you can row yourself slowly.”

"Wouldn't it be best if there was also a covered boat that we could go inside?"

"Yes, yes, yes! It's rare for you to finally understand."

Zhou Nan thought to himself, "What do you mean by 'getting enlightened'? You've just watched too many TV dramas and are longing for the painted boats of the Jiangnan water towns. Don't I know you?"

He thought Jian Xi would definitely be disappointed. Even if this place were built in the future, it would only raise the valley. The artificial lake wouldn't be that big, and there was no way it would be big enough for a pleasure boat. But things like speedboats could be made, and maybe they could play around with something like a quick retreat.

"Since we're already here, let's go in and take a look!" Jian Xi rubbed her hands together mischievously.

"What are you doing? This is a construction site." Zhou Nan grabbed her foot that had already stepped out and pulled her back.

"But I don't see any construction going on, not even a soul in sight." Jian Xi stood on tiptoe and looked around. "Weren't we here on a date today? What kind of date is it if there's no adventure and no fun?"

Zhou Nan's heart skipped a beat; he hadn't even thought of this before.

Yes, they are now officially boyfriend and girlfriend. Even if he doesn't acknowledge it from the bottom of his heart and thinks it's just fake, the girl there is still Jian Xi. He has to go crazy with her. Whether it's the past or the present, she has to get close to touch anything she's curious about before she'll stop.

"Then let's go in and take a look." He relented.

"Explore! Explore!"

Jian Xi always moves very quickly. She was already leaning over the fence and stepping on the wire to climb over, but the top layer was covered with barbs, and she was afraid of cutting herself or her clothes, so she wasn't very agile.

"Come on, give me a hand!"

Zhou Nan crawled directly under her, lifted her thighs, and pushed her up. There were stakes next to her for securing her; if he could reach those, it would be easier to flip her over.

The skin-to-skin contact startled Jian Xi. She was wearing a down jacket that went above her knees, and her leggings, which emphasized her leg shape, were rather thin. Zhou Nan's hand, which was holding her legs, radiated a strong heat as he pressed her legs tightly against his shoulders. It felt like a tingling electric current was flowing through her body.

"What are you doing!"

A loud shout came from the side, and a worker actually came out of the prefab house. Jian Xi was so startled that her hand trembled, and with a tearing sound, her cuff cut a hole in the barb.

"Oh no! Someone's coming! Run! Run!" She didn't have time to worry about her clothes and hurriedly patted Zhou Nan.

She didn't even need to remind him; upon hearing that shout, he had already turned tail and run. The workers were rushing over quickly, but they couldn't fly over the fence covered in barbs.

Zhou Nan ran incredibly fast, the wind whipping Jian Xi's hair wildly in her face. After her initial shock, she suddenly burst into laughter: "This makes it seem like we really came here to steal! If we have nothing to hide, can't we just say sorry?"

"Nonsense! If we don't run, are we going to let them catch us and yell at us? What if they try to extort money from us? Or should I just leave you here and explain to them!"

"No way!"

She was happy because she remembered that when they used to get into trouble, they would both run away like this, without any brotherly loyalty, mainly just to show that she could run faster than her brother.

Those memories are both real and blurry. Growing up means becoming sensible, and becoming sensible means you won't do those naughty and lawless things anymore.

But at this moment, with danger approaching from behind, the feeling of running away with her friends was unique to her. She suddenly understood why Jian Xi used to be so enthusiastic about this kind of thing.

At the construction site, a worker watched their retreating figures from afar and dialed a phone: "Boss, someone else has come to the construction site."

"who?"

"They looked like two kids trying to climb over, but they couldn't."

"Be careful, the number of people will actually increase as the year draws to a close."

"Don't worry, boss. With me here, no monsters or demons will get close." He hung up the phone, the construction hammer in his hand slowly falling, his eyes cold and sinister.

(End of this chapter)