Once day-break came, searing heat fell upon the house. It was enough so much so that if a car was in the area you could fry an egg on top of the car in one and a half minute. However to Zhao Wei, the warmth in his bones was much more welcome than last night's cold. He reminisced the suffering of sleeping without moving and inch so that no gaps were made in the blanket.
In the first 4 hours of the morning Zhao Wei continued to make ropes and practice sewing. Although it wasn't a requirement for survival, he figured if he needed to mend anything, he still could and it would be good practice for dexterity. He didn't start with much just stitching some sheets together. Out of everything, the resource Zhao Wei lacked the least was fabrics.
There were only 2 suitcases Zhao Wei did not open and these were Shi Di Wen's and That of the person he forgot. He hadn't opened Shi Di Wen's yet was simply because he hadn't needed to do so yet. But for the other suitcase, for some reason he always felt nervous when he thought of opening it, sometimes he felt extremely warm and his face turned crimson when he touched it.
Today he opened Shi Di Wen's. Out of his expectations, he actually packed a hunting knife, sleeping bag some canned food and a water flask. He remembered the day when they arrived and the guy's face had black lines all over when he looked at the house. Apparently when he was told they were going to stay on top of a mountain he took it very literally. Checking his back pack, Zhao Wei found a flint for camp fires as well as solar charged batteries.
He stored the sleeping bag in his room, the rest he put in a smaller back pack with some containers except for the hunting knife which he stuck to his belt. Additionally he brought a few meters of the make shift rope he had made, which he coiled around his left arm. Besides that he pulled a wagon with a larger bundle of the make shift rope tied together to a several meter cable.
He however took off his boots, deciding to go barefoot instead. He thought if he was to keep traveling, at some point his shoes would break. At that point if he had no shoes to replace them it'd be harder for him so might as well get used to going barefoot and make more calluses on the bottom on his feet. At night, he could just wrap them in cloth and continue as the sport shoes he and the others brought didn't give much better insulation either. Additionally, he read in a story that by being barefoot a person would leave less footprints.
Moving out from the driveway area, he went down the slope which usually circled around the hill. After moving a few tens of meters he was met with a break in the same direction as the split on top. Stretching for a few minutes Zhao Wei breathed deeply to calm himself. He tied the cable around a tree and pulled while leaning back to see if it would hold his weight. Once satisfied, he took the rest of the cable and ropes and threw it down the side.
He stepped on the edge and looked down, he couldn't see the bottom yet or even where his rope stopped. Turning around he looked at the small safe haven and said "See you tonight."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Picking up the rope, he pushed off the wall slowly moving down. There wasn't much to see yet, but Zhao Wei could smell the forest, the thick aroma of wood, leaves, mud and humidity intermingled together to overload his senses. But there was one more scent which he didn't want to think of. Blood.
As he moved downwards he could constantly feel the the light from the top getting dimmer. And although it was almost 34 degrees when he left around the 6th hour, in the middle section where Zhao Wei was currently at, it was around 21 degrees at room temperature. Worst of all, moving downwards, the forest became quieter. It wasn't like those depicted in movies where all the animals were chirping and singing, down here it was every living beings hunting ground and if anything made noise they were the prey.
Zhao Wei's hands began to bleed a little because he kept sliding down using the rope and he felt them losing strength from the pain. He was only keeping from letting them go to avoid dying altogether. The palms of his feet were losing skin layer by layer as it scraped against the cliff wall.
Finally he reached the end of his rope, this was when the real climb began. He pulled himself towards the cliff face and with one hand, he gripped a jutting rock with one hand and found a grip with the other. Moving his legs downward he started moving down like climbing down a ladder.
After just 4 minutes of climbing, Zhao Wei was exhausted. With his bloody palm each move downwards became harder as it made the grips slippery and stretched the wounds. His legs were on the brink of slipping almost every second. By this time he could see the forest floor, what he saw from above shocked him. The sunlight was filtered by the leaves at the canopy on top of the trees turning it emerald which brought the same hue to the forest floor. Plants more bizarre than any he had ever seen in any country's exhibitions lined the forest floor. The roots of the trees were as tall as trees were as tall as trees in the old world and the grass grew to at least 2.5-3 meters.
The forest floor was so beautiful that Zhao Wei's focus momentarily lapsed for a split second. But, this split second was nearly fatal as Zhao Wei had gripped a rock which wasn't stable which pulled away from the cliff face. With how slippery his hands and feet were, Zhao Wei couldn't recover back and just tumbled backwards, falling from a height of 2 floors high. Whether it was pure luck or plot shield, his fall was slowed by two branches which pushed out under him but this still wasn't able to slow his decent much. However when he reached the ground it wasn't a thud! but a plop! which was heard.
Zhao Wei had landed on wet mud instead of tough ground. He was extremely disoriented from the fall, but at-least he wasn't dead. Gathering himself, he took some of the mud and smeared it on his palms and feet to cool the inflammation as well as mask the smell of blood on them. After scouting his area, he tried to mark a few trees with his knife to make sure he didn't get lost. But to his dismay, the trees were tough like iron, compared to it, the knife was like nothing as Zhao Wei couldn't leave a single scratch but instead chipped the edge a little. While the knife was ruined the trees only had lost a layer of dirt.
Zhao Wei decided to smear mud on a section of it instead. After he was done he finally had time to breathe and think, but the only thoughts that came o his mind was, "Dear God, I'm actually in a forest."