After settling down in Dalami City, Old John took out the papyrus and iron gall ink he had packed from the gas station and continued experimenting on the paper, trying to decipher the text in Everlyâs photograph.
When he grew tired of research, he would step out of the room and use the materials he had gathered to repair Everlyâs Grand Cherokee, which had suffered some minor damage during the campus shooting incident. He would also take the opportunity to improve the carâs performance, using the work to clear his mind.
As for Rebecca, she was the kind of person who couldnât sit still. After wandering around the city for a bit, she quickly found a busy flea market, returned to her old trade, and started setting up a stall to do fortune-telling.
In short, both of them adapted well to life in the new city and kept themselves quite busy.
With that, Everly could finally return to school with peace of mind and continue her studies.
From Monday to Friday, she and Misha attended classes as usual, using their free time to write reports and papers. On weekends, the two of them would move to the small cabin. During the day, Misha would go to work, while Everly stayed behindâtinkering with the car alongside Old John, or wandering through the birch forest, reviewing some of the wilderness survival skills she had learned in the past.
Two months passed in the blink of an eye. From November to the end of December, everything around Everly remained unusually calmânot a single strange incident occurred⊠though, perhaps things were happening quietly in places she couldnât see, in ways that didnât affect her. After all, during final exams, there were inexplicably a few more empty seats in the exam hall.
But then again, this was a university. In eight out of ten horror movies, reckless American college students end up as the main characters, so a higher body count was hardly unexpected.
Everly had long since learned to turn a blind eye to suffering that had nothing to do with her. Once exams were over, she and Misha smoothly switched modesâfrom student life straight into winter vacation.
Misha wasnât an only childâshe had older brothers and sisters, as well as a younger brother. Since winter break wasnât very long to begin with, and seeing that Everly wasnât going home, she thought it over and decided to stay in Dalami City as well, moving into the rangerâs cabin with Everly.
The cabin had two floors, and after clearing out some unnecessary clutter, it was just right for four people to live in comfortably.
Around this time, after nearly a full semester of work, Old John had finally finished deciphering the text on the note.
He handed the decoded version to Everly. She gave it a quick glanceâand immediately felt her vision go dark. She couldnât understand it at all, and realized that figuring out its meaning would require a lot more effort.
Worried that her grandfather might piece together from small clues that she was searching for the Fountain of Youth, she quickly took a photo of the text and tucked it into her notebook, planning to deal with it laterâafter the semester started and her grandfather had returned to the gas station.
There were still nearly two years before the transit of Venus, so that matter could wait. What mattered more right now was: how should they spend the upcoming winter break?
They had been busy with school before, but now that vacation had begun, Everly and Misha naturally wanted to play the role of good hosts and take Old John and Rebecca out to enjoy the area. After all, it wouldnât make sense for them to travel such a long distance for nothing.
As for what special activities Dalami City had to offerâŠ
âOf courseâskiing!â At the mention of it, Rebecca instantly became excited and held up her tablet high for everyone to see.
On the screen was an aerial view of a ski resort.
Rebecca was absolutely right.
New Osebuch State was located in the northeastern corner of the country, at a relatively high latitude, surrounded by several mountain ranges. From open vantage points in Dalami City, looking east and north, you could see rolling stretches of white, snow-covered mountains. Even during the heat of summer, their peaks remained blanketed in snow.
With such favorable geography, it was only natural that the stateâs most developed industry was winter tourism.
Not just RebeccaâMisha and Old John were clearly interested in the idea of skiing as well. After all, strictly speaking, all four of them came from lower-latitude southern regions. There were mountains, and it did snow in winter, but the thin layer of snow there was barely enough even to build a snowman. Skiing had always been something they only saw on TV or in magazines.
Truthfully, if it werenât for Everlyâs slight wariness of âsnowy mountainsââa setting often favored in horror storiesâshe herself would have wanted to try skiing too. I mean, itâs skiing! Watching people on TV glide down snowy slopes with agility and grace, like dragons in motionâit just looked incredibly cool.
But now⊠one vote, two votes, three votesâsince everyone except her wanted to go skiing in the mountains, then so be it! She couldnât avoid everything just because of potential danger. If she did, life would be pretty meaningless.
With the decision made, the next questions were where to go skiing, when to go, and what to bring.
About 46 kilometers from downtown Dalami City, on Mount Nathanjoya, there was a ski resort called Pence Ski Resort, which claimed to host tens of thousands of visitors each year. The image Rebecca had shown earlier was its promotional picture.
Pence Ski Resort was the closest ski resort to Dalami City. Everly pulled out her phone and searched online for information about it.
Originally, the place had just been a snowy slope. Because of its gentle incline, thick snow cover, and lack of exposed rocks or ice, locals used to climb up there in winter just to ski for fun.
Later, someone spotted a business opportunity and signed an agreement with the government, enclosing the surrounding land and developing it into a full-fledged ski resort. Around Pence Ski Resort, they built souvenir shops, mountain restaurants, ski lodges, and many other facilitiesâand overall, the online reviews were quite good.
After looking into it, Everly found that Pence Ski Resort was relatively âclean.â There had been no bloody murder cases, nor any sightings of mysterious creatures like yetis. It was simply a mid-sized ski resort. Aside from a few inexperienced skiers ending up in the hospital each year with fractures from falls, there were basically no negative rumors surrounding it.
By comparison, it was actually Mount Nathanjoyaâthe mountain where the resort was locatedâthat had more troubling stories.
Mount Nathanjoya was a mountain range stretching east to west. Starting from the western foothills, crossing the glacier at the summit, passing over a 2,000-meter mountain pass, and then following the ridge down to the eastern foothillsâthis entire route was considered one of the âthree most magnificent snow mountain trekking routes in the United Statesâ within mountaineering circles. It attracted a large number of outdoor hiking enthusiasts eager to take on the challenge.
But mountaineering was no trivial matter. Many people were drawn in by the breathtaking scenery shown in documentaries, yet ignored the complex and ever-changing weather at the summit and the rugged, dangerous terrain. Without sufficient preparationâor even proper trainingâthey rashly attempted the route, only to lose their lives to hypothermia, falls, or other accidents.
A quick search online turned up numerous cases of deaths and disappearances related to the Nathanjoya route.
The most recent one had happened not long ago: three hiking enthusiasts had planned to traverse the route in winter but lost contact midway. Their worried families contacted a rescue team to search the mountain. However, due to strong winds at the summit and the difficulty of the operation, the rescue team was still hesitating and had yet to set out.
When Everly first came across these reports, she felt instinctively resistant.
A mountain where so many people had diedâno matter how or whyâit simply didnât give a good feeling.
So she set aside Pence Ski Resort and went on to investigate three other ski resorts within a 200-kilometer radius⊠only to discover that situations like Mount Nathanjoya were far from unique.
Most ski resorts are built on mountain slopes or at the base of snowy mountains. But those hiking enthusiasts were basically like they had some kind of system that screamed, âIf I donât conquer every snow mountain in existence I will explode.â They climbed one mountain after another, and the more difficult the peak, the more it fueled their determination and desire to challenge it. Over time, the snow mountains around Dalami City had essentially become resting places for countless âfallen heroesâ of mountaineering.
The three alternative ski resorts Everly found included two built on mountain slopes, which suffered from issues similar to Pence Ski Resort. The third was an artificial ski resort, where the slopes were simply constructed by piling up earth. At least there, no one would go âhikingâ and lose their life on the way up the hill.
But after digging a little deeper, Everly discovered that this artificial ski resort seemed to be under some kind of curse. Ever since it was built, someone had died there every yearâalways skiers who inexplicably fell, suffered skull fractures, and died. And this yearâs âunlucky oneâ had not yet appearedâŠ
At this rate, it was better to just go to Pence Ski Resort.
The other ski resorts were often over a hundred kilometers away from Dalami City. In winter, the roads were covered in snow and ice. Even with anti-slip tires, long-distance driving wasnât easy. If they ran into trouble on the roadâlike bandits or somethingâthey wouldnât be able to escape far.
Compared to that, Pence Ski Resort at least had the advantage of proximity.
After confirming the destination, the next step was planning the travel schedule.
Even Pence Ski Resort was 46 kilometers from Dalami City. Normally, that distance wasnât a problemâa full-speed drive would take less than an hour. But in winter, New Osebuch State was constantly snowing almost everywhere. Even though snowplows were operating continuously, road conditions were still terrible. Driving too fast could easily cause the car to skid.
In that case, what should have been a one-hour drive might end up taking three or four hours. Round trip alone would already take up most of the day. Add in breaks and lunch, and after subtracting all that, if they went and returned the same day, the actual time they could spend at the ski resort would be a pitiful three hours at mostâbarely enough to enjoy anything properly.
If they were going to a ski resort, of course they should experience everything they wanted to try!
âHow about booking a room at a mountain lodge?â Misha suggested. âWe can go in the morning, ski in the afternoon, stay at the lodge at night, then ski again the next morning. If weâve had enough, we come back; if not, we stay another night.â
âThat could work⊠but itâs peak travel season right now. Can we even still get rooms at places nearby?â
That question immediately deflated everyoneâs enthusiasm.
Just like Chinaâs May Day and National Day travel peaks in her previous life, Americans also loved to travel in groups around Thanksgiving and during the Christmas-to-New-Year holiday period. During this time, if you didnât book in advance, it was basically impossible to find a room.
As expected, after calling every lodge and hotel around the ski resort, the result was the same: from December 23 to January 1, almost every place was fully booked.
By the end of the calls, Everly had already given up and was preparing to check again after the January 2 return rush had passed.
But just as she was about to hang up, the hotel receptionist on the other end hesitated for a momentâand then told her that they actually had three rooms available and could accept guests at any time.
Hearing this, Everly did not feel happy.
Instead, she instantly became alert.
Something felt⊠suspicious.
According to the map, that hotel was located halfway up the mountain, less than two kilometers in a straight line from the ski resort. With such convenient access, those rooms should have been booked long ago. So why were there still three left?
Also, the receptionistâs reaction was strange. A room was either available or it wasnâtâthere was no reason to hesitate like that. Yet they had paused for a long time before finally saying there were rooms available. It felt like they were hiding somethingâŠ
While keeping her suspicions to herself, Everly pretended nothing was wrong and asked curiously, âWhy are there vacant rooms? I mean, your hotel is so close to the ski resortâshouldnât everything be booked out by now?â
âIt was fully booked, actually, butâŠâ the receptionist sounded hesitant.
âWhat is it? Is there something wrong with the rooms?â
âWell⊠uhâŠâ The receptionist seemed unable to hold out under the questioning and finally sighed. âNormally I shouldnât disclose guest privacy, but⊠sigh. Miss, have you heard that recently three hikers attempted to traverse Mount Nathanjoya and went missing halfway through?â