It is said that it was the third day after a heavy snowfall on the mountain when my girlfriend and I arrived at Bataishan for a trip. Although there are eight peaks, human strength is limited, and we only planned to visit two or three of them.
We parked our car in the parking lot of the first peak and then took the scenic bus along the winding mountain road to the fifth peak. This Wutai Mountain is naturally not comparable to the other famous Wutai Mountain. There are no Buddhist temples here, and even the snow is not abundant. The only scenery worth mentioning is the glass bridge hanging over the cliff, half-hidden in the mist—there were no people on it.
Since it wasn't the weekend, there weren't many tourists. There were only about ten other visitors on the same bus as us, and everyone gathered in front of the only snack stall here, where the food options were limited to fried potatoes and hot dogs. I tried both, and the taste was quite ordinary.
Next, we continued to climb a few dozen wooden steps and arrived at the cable car station for the seventh peak. The cable car, hanging from a thick steel cable, made a creaking sound in the cold wind sweeping through the valley, and between the two high walls in front and behind, it generated some sounds similar to sighs, as if expressing a sense of helplessness.
We didn't see any staff. After calling out "Is anyone there?" a couple of times without a response, my girlfriend pointed to a window on one of the high walls and said it might be there.
The glass of that window was semi-transparent, unable to convey a clear image to the human eye, but we could still clearly see that there was indeed light on the other side and shadows of people moving in front of it.
"I'll go take a look," I said.
"I'll go," my girlfriend said, squeezing my hand, "Your hands are so cold; put on the gloves I bought for you!" She pouted as if she were acting cute.
"Okay, okay, right away."
My girlfriend turned and walked toward the window.
"Are you taking the cable car?" a voice suddenly came from behind us, startling me.
I turned my head and saw a middle-aged man in a black down jacket, clearly a staff member.
"It's really cold today," he said.
"Ah." I turned back to call my girlfriend, but she had already walked back. At that moment, I hadn't noticed that the window with the flickering shadow had already disappeared. By the time I recalled this, my girlfriend and I were already sitting in a cable car compartment that could hold four people, heading up the mountain.
"Don't blame me. You must have seen it wrong," my girlfriend said, refusing to discuss the topic further after a few exchanges with me, and I really couldn't be sure if I had seen it incorrectly. "How do you feel at this height?" she pointed to the cable car window amid the slight swaying and the wind that sounded like an old woman weeping coming through the small hole at the edge of the cable car door.
I looked out and saw a sheer cliff. In the valley filled with plants, mountains, and the peak, it appeared very abrupt, as if no seeds could attach to it after the cliff had collapsed and formed, preventing any roots from sprouting, blooming, bearing fruit, or growing in size. I looked back at the valley, where it seemed the highest point had some thick snow accumulation. I felt a slight dizziness. "I'm a bit afraid of heights," I admitted, "You have to hold me tight; don't let me fall, or you'll be boyfriend-less." I was teasing her.
"Stop it!"
"Look around; it's just the two of us. Come give me a kiss; no one can see." I continued.
"I warn you..."
My girlfriend extended her right index finger at me, then suddenly moved it to my shoulder, pointing to somewhere behind me. "What is that?" she shouted, seemingly a bit panicked.
I hurriedly turned to check, but a slightly cold thing pressed against my face—it was my girlfriend giving me a gentle kiss on my right cheek.
I turned back to look at her; she picked up her phone and pretended to take a picture of the scenery. I noticed a blush on her face, and I knew it wasn't entirely due to the cold.
That was a few seconds of indescribable happiness, swaying in a small house with icy clouds, fresh love blooming like sunflowers under the scorching sun.
However, this happy moment ended too soon because I shouted, and before that, I had seen a blurry giant black shadow sweep across the mountain top. Although it was unclear, I could vaguely recognize it as the silhouette of a person's upper body, and it was a giant. "What is that!" I couldn't help but exclaim.
My girlfriend trembled, seemingly startled by my loud voice, but she quickly realized something and turned to look into my eyes, saying, "I'm not as silly as you; I won't be fooled."
"No... that was really big..." I said, but the shadow had already vanished into thin air.
My girlfriend must have sensed that I wasn't joking; when she looked back, there was only a misty white cloud left.
I felt dizzy again. This was my first thought, or at least it was what my consciousness tried to convince itself. Dizziness was the most scientific explanation; everyone experiences dizziness and hallucinations. The rational behavior pattern is to ignore the hallucinations or find the cause of the hallucinations. This was my first trip out with my girlfriend; I couldn't let hallucinations ruin it.
"What is it?" my girlfriend asked, looking confused.
"Nothing, I must have seen it wrong again." After saying this, I suddenly realized that this was a line often used by characters in horror movies, and those who use such lines often have bad outcomes.
"Wow~ wow~" Suddenly, the cawing of a crow echoed.
"Oh, there are actually crows on the mountain," my girlfriend glanced at me, seemingly worried, wanting to find a topic to help me relax.
But I was still thinking about that shadow and didn't respond. Amid some anxious thoughts, I told myself that I was a writer of fantasy novels, and I needed to think about things that seemed impossible but could happen. I knew that those things I considered hallucinations might have other explanations—mirages? Parallel universes? Time travel? Or was I going crazy? Or was some existence trying to convey a message to me? Could it be that this mist actually had hallucinogenic properties? Oh my, was I dreaming?
"What's wrong?" my girlfriend held my left hand, her eyes full of concern.
I reached out my right hand to her face and gently pinched it.
"Ah!" my girlfriend exclaimed in pain, "What are you doing? That hurts!" She lightly hit me.
"Oh," I said softly, "I'm not dreaming."
"Why don't you pinch your own face?"
Just as I was about to make an excuse, I noticed that our cable car was nearing the end of the line. "So fast!" I wondered why the one-way ticket, which cost 40 yuan per person, only covered such a short distance. At the same time, the density of the fog suddenly increased significantly. A sense of foreboding rose from my feet, sweeping over my thighs and hips, brushing against my spine and neck, twisting into a knot above my head.
The cable car compartment slid onto the platform and stopped automatically, then the door opened by itself.
I observed the cable car door, which clearly had no electronic devices, let alone automation equipment. Then I realized that the cable car shouldn't have stopped; we had entered the car while matching its speed. I glanced at my girlfriend; she was still covering her face but clearly looked anxious.
Our eyes met, and unease fermented in the silence.
The compartment stopped swaying for the last time, and in an instant, everything fell silent, leaving only our breathing, which had noticeably quickened due to panic.
"What...," I swallowed hard, "What should we do?"
"It might be because the fog is too thick," my girlfriend tried to explain our situation, "But honestly, why is there not a single person around?"
"I'll go take a look," I said, but then realized that in horror stories, one should always act together; splitting up is a big taboo. "Let's get off together." I reached out and took my girlfriend's hand, feeling her trembling slightly. "Don't be afraid," I said, "I'm here."
After leaving the cable car compartment, we circled around the platform several times but saw no living beings. Because of the thick fog, we also had no visibility of the surrounding scenery; we didn't know where we were. After a brief discussion, we decided to leave the platform and move forward along the snow-covered flat path outside.
This flat path was wide, but we chose to walk not far from the mountain wall to avoid getting lost in the fog—at least we could return to the cable car station along the mountain wall. With each step, we soon saw three red characters: "Bataishan."
"This is it, for sure," my girlfriend clearly breathed a sigh of relief, "We need to come here; this is the seventh peak, and the ski resort is just ahead."
"Okay, that's good." I had no doubt about my girlfriend's words because I had seen her diligently preparing for the trip beforehand. She would never get our location wrong.
"The eighth peak can be reached by walking or taking the roller coaster," my girlfriend continued, her tone much more determined, "It should be just ahead."
After walking a few more steps, I heard some kind of sound, a call that seemed to come from an extremely distant, vast place, reverberating through the deep abyss after bouncing back. The sound seemed to contain some kind of message, like a plea, but more like a warning. "Did you hear that sound?" I whispered, instinctively worried about disturbing whatever existence it might be.
"The wind," my girlfriend replied with just one word, but her tone clearly carried fear.
After walking a few dozen more steps, we saw a simple archway, and the original four characters "八台仙境" had become worn and faded due to years of wind and sun exposure, looking even more desolate in the winter cold.
Enduring and deliberately ignoring the faint call we could hear in our ears, we passed four closed vendor booths and entered the ski resort. Surprisingly, there was someone here—a middle-aged man in an ordinary black down jacket. He stood at the entrance of the ski resort, hands in his pockets, slightly hunched over, with a beard that hadn't been trimmed for at least five days.
Seeing someone other than us immediately eased our panic, and we quickly approached him to ask, "What's going on here?"
"Everything is normal," he replied in a flat tone.
"We can't see anything, and there's that..."
"Can't you see me?" he interrupted.
"You can hear it, right?" I continued to ask, "That sound is a bit scary."
"The mountain is so high; it's normal to have some strange sounds," he suddenly sighed, "Yesterday, I heard someone shouting from that cliff, 'If you keep pushing me, I'll jump off and commit suicide,' so it's nothing serious." His tone remained generally flat.
"What!" My girlfriend looked visibly shocked.
"And then there was a scream, as if someone really jumped," the man continued.
"Did someone jump?" my girlfriend asked, gripping my hand tightly.
"I went to check; there was no one there."
"That's because he jumped!" My girlfriend and I looked terrified.
The man pulled his right hand out of his pocket and pointed to a high place in the thick fog, then said, "When there are people on the Golden Ding, strange cries will come out, like 'I love you' or 'So-and-so is the best,' there's no need to make a fuss. Oh, the most common sound they make is actually just one word: ah~. The sound is also drawn out a bit."
"That's a call that echoes through the mountains; it has its own charm, how can it be confused with suicide?" my girlfriend argued.
"Exactly, exactly," I echoed.
"In any case, it's 120 yuan per person," the man said, appearing indifferent.
"What?"
"The ticket is 120 yuan each, 240 for two, to go skiing." He slightly tilted his head to the right.
"How can we ski in this thick fog?" My girlfriend and I had never skied before, let alone in such low visibility.
The man turned to look behind him, then glanced back at us, and a look of realization appeared on his face as he raised his right hand and waved.
Just as I was puzzled by the meaning of his behavior, I saw the thick fog behind him gradually thinning. I saw tire tracks in the snow, along with a rotating towing device, small snowmobiles, and a tracked snow vehicle.
In shock, we scanned the QR code to pay for our tickets.
"Be careful," the man stepped aside to let us enter, and we even forgot to ask for a ticket receipt.
Inside the ski resort, there were five visitors who seemed to be having a great time, which immediately relaxed my girlfriend and me, and we quickly joined in. We first played on the seesaw, swing, and small slide, then rode snowmobiles for a while, followed by several rounds of tubing, and finally tried skiing on two boards—falling was inevitable, but the fun made us quickly forget the strange occurrences we had experienced earlier. We even took a lot of photos.
When we finally managed to master the skill of not falling but were already a bit tired, we decided to take a selfie kissing on the ski resort and then planned to leave. Just as we were discussing angles, we suddenly realized that the ski resort had once again become empty.
That indescribable sense of eeriness quickly dampened our enthusiasm for taking photos. We exchanged glances for two seconds, mutually recognizing that our most urgent task was to leave this place, go down the mountain, and return to our own home.
After changing back into our shoes in the small house next to the ski resort, I carried my backpack toward the exit. But just a few steps after leaving the small house, we found that the situation had suddenly changed. We appeared on a vast snowy plain. This transformation happened in an instant, without any transition that I could perceive.
This was a world under a clear blue sky, pure blue painted the entire sky, with only the slanted white sun casting bright but not hot light, and the ground was an endless expanse of pure white. As far as the eye could see, it was all like this. Looking back, we couldn't even see our footprints behind us. In other words, we had suddenly appeared here.
My girlfriend and I stared at each other, shocked.
"Where is this...?"
"Where is this?"
"North... North... Antarctica?"
"What should we do now?"
As a modern person who has read a lot of fantasy stories, whether consciously or subconsciously, I had prepared myself psychologically for such strange events. "We need to find a way to leave here," I stated the obvious, but I had no idea how to leave.
"Is it possible for us to leave here?" My girlfriend's face showed obvious melancholy, even a hint of despair.
I held her hand, originally wanting to say something like "I'm here" or "I'll protect you," but in such a situation, I truly had no confidence in the future, so I fell silent and could only gently stroke my girlfriend's head.
"This might be an illusion," my girlfriend suddenly brightened, as if she had a unique idea, "Just like the Peach Blossom Spring."
"What? What does that have to do with Zhang Fei?" I was quite puzzled.
"Zhang Fei? What does he have to do with it?" My girlfriend looked even more confused.
"Isn't it about the Peach Garden Oath?"
"What Peach Garden Oath? I'm talking about the Peach Blossom Spring, the ancient text by Tao Yuanming, which says 'not knowing there are Han people, regardless of Wei and Jin.'"
My girlfriend said, "Remember? You need to memorize it." She spoke in a teacher's tone.
I had some impression but it was already vague, so I could only nod in agreement. At this point, I thought of taking out my phone to call the police or find other ways to get help. But when I took out my phone and tried to operate it, I found that it had completely stopped working—it had turned into a brick. My girlfriend's phone and camera were the same.
I started to panic. I also realized that I was a bit panicked. Then I began to repeat my "mantra" to suppress the panic: "DON'T PANIC!"
This imperative sentence in the negative form comes from a humorous science fiction novel that I really like, and I even had it tattooed on my right arm a few years ago when I was in Shenzhen. To this day, I still stubbornly believe that this is the most useful advice I have ever received in my life. Don't panic!
I didn't expect to completely suppress my panic; I just needed my brain to leave enough space for rationality. My rationality first divided the illusion into two categories. The first is an illusion outside the body, meaning this illusion is a carefully constructed external environment designed to deceive the body's senses; the second is false information directly projected into human consciousness, meaning the illusion does not exist in the external world, there are no false lights and sounds, only molecules and electrons that directly affect consciousness.
But rationality also said that for me, there is actually no difference between these two ways of perceiving the external world—ultimately, I still lack the ability to distinguish between the two. Suddenly, I felt like I was on a small boat, drifting helplessly in the surging waves, the nature of the waves had no essential connection to me, and all I could do was paddle a few strokes in this undulating world, hoping that this effort would help me find a safe route or at least make the drifting a bit more comfortable.
My girlfriend squeezed my hand tightly, bringing a bit of peace to my tumultuous rationality. "It's good that we're together," she said loudly to ensure I could hear her, "I remember the entrance to the ski resort is in that direction," she pointed to a certain direction ahead, "Let's head that way and see what's going on."
"What if we can't get out?" I felt a bit discouraged.
"If we can't get out..." My girlfriend looked at me, "We will definitely be able to get out!" Her gaze suddenly became sharp, making her seem reliable and trustworthy.
"Okay." I straightened my chest and tried to muster some spirit, thinking that if I were alone, I might have given up.
With each step, we moved forward in the direction of our memory. The sun in the cloudless sky resembled a giant eye, watching our four feet draw intermittent lines in the snow.
After walking for about ten to twenty minutes, if the entrance to the ski resort was hidden here, we would have already passed it, but we still stood on a pure white expanse under a pure blue sky. There wasn't even a breeze.
Along the way, we exchanged some encouraging words, occasionally expressing some affection. But deep down, we both knew that unless a major turning point occurred, if this continued, we would eventually exhaust our strength. We also knew that the other was thinking the same thing, but we didn't say it out loud; that was our tacit understanding.
However, at that moment, a major turning point appeared at my girlfriend's feet.
At that time, we were walking on a snow ridge, trying to determine the direction to proceed, but she suddenly slipped and fell sideways. I didn't hold onto her hand tightly, and in shock, I watched her roll down the snow slope.
I stepped forward to chase after her, but I also slipped, falling backward and rolling down the other side of the snow slope.
"Ah~" At that moment, I heard a sigh, not from my girlfriend, but more like it came from the sky, from the sun, followed by a sentence in Sichuan dialect: "This human is so foolish. This game is boring, show girl, you win."
Rolling down the snow slope, soon my body was covered with a layer of snow that kept accumulating. I turned into a big snowball, continuing to roll down the slope. In my memory, this snow slope wasn't long, at most about ten meters, but the sensation of rolling indicated that the situation had changed—my snowball was rolling faster and faster down what seemed to be an endless slope. I thought my girlfriend was probably experiencing the same thing and was getting further away from me.
Soon, the dizziness caused by the spinning reached an uncontrollable level, perhaps for self-preservation, or perhaps just because it was too uncomfortable, my consciousness shut down. I fainted.
Waking up was a collision. It felt like two eggs crashing into each other, but unlike everyday experience, this time both eggs shattered. Of course, I didn't actually know if the collision we experienced was like that; it was just an image that unconsciously formed in my mind after regaining consciousness upon seeing the snow blocks around my body. In the bright moonlight and sparse starlight, I saw my girlfriend lying beside me, curled up and shivering. I hurried over to hug her and wake her up.
"Where is this?" she asked me, reaching out to touch my face, clearly confirming whether I was also part of the illusion.
I wasn't. I glanced around and quickly adapted to the brightness of the night, recognizing that we were on a mountain top platform, next to a sign and a statue of a crowd. "I don't know where this is," I had to admit, but I clearly felt very cold.
"Let's go check that out," my girlfriend pointed to the sign nearby.
I released my girlfriend and went to take a look, seeing five large characters in the center that read "Bataishan Jinding" and a small character "Ba" in the lower right corner. Then I glanced at those statues, which were clearly the Eight Immortals.
After telling my girlfriend, she immediately understood where we were. "This is the highest point of Bataishan," she said, "The character 'Ba' is missing a 'sea' in front and has lost a bit behind." She took out her phone and long-pressed the power button, and surprisingly, it turned on.
I quickly turned on my phone as well. There was a signal! I even received a news report from a friend about workers protesting unpaid wages and layoffs at a pharmaceutical factory in Chongqing, but I didn't have time to read it now. "We made it out!" I shouted happily.
"We'll go down the mountain when the sun rises," my girlfriend said.
I helped my girlfriend stand up and looked toward the reddening skyline, where the sun was about to rise, and in that gradually brightening light, we clearly saw a giant shadow slowly fading away.
Postscript: This story contains both truth and fiction. Thanks to my girlfriend Ming Mo for accompanying me and correcting this article.