Chapter 50: A Dark Shadow on the Highway!

Evening, Dormitory 304, Yanhai University.

"Taozi, have you seen the trending searches yet?!"

"Hahaha, it's like heaven is helping me..."

Wang Chengyu was holding his phone, discussing something with Jiang Tao with an excited expression.

Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed at the door.

The dormitory door pushed open, and a figure walked in from outside.

"What the—??"

Seeing the newcomer, Wang Chengyu’s expression froze. He asked in surprise, "Brother Nan? You're back so soon??"

Lin Nan, who had just returned from Nanjiao City, casually took off the travel bag from his back.

Hearing Wang Chengyu's voice, he gave a weary nod.

Seeing this, the two inside the room crowded around with curiosity.

Wang Chengyu was visibly more excited as he questioned Lin Nan

"Brother Nan, what happened? Do you know it rained in Nanjiao?!"

"Yeah, of course I know."

Lin Nan replied casually while tidying his things. "I happened to run into it right when I arrived."

Wang Chengyu gave a cheeky grin, becoming even more animated

"Hey, isn't that just too coincidental?!"

"It hasn't rained in Nan Province for ages, but the moment Brother Nan goes there, the rain starts falling!"

"It's almost like..."

Wang Chengyu paused, intentionally drawing out the last word.

Lin Nan’s movements stopped for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly.

However, in the next second, Wang Chengyu continued

"It's almost like even the heavens are helping us!"

Hearing this, Lin Nan felt a wave of speechlessness.

Based on his tone just now, he thought the fat guy had noticed something was off and guessed the truth.

Turns out, he had overthought it...

Lin Nan shook his head and continued packing his travel bag.

Immediately after, Wang Chengyu seemed to remember something else and, driven by an explosion of the urge to share, said

"Oh, right, Brother Nan, look!"

As he spoke, Wang Chengyu scrolled through his phone, presenting the relevant content to Lin Nan.

Lin Nan took a casual glance. The screen displayed several popular comments and private messages from netizens.

"The news about the rainfall in Nan Province has gone viral online. From this morning until now, our follower count has almost doubled!"

"Some fans even saw your IP address and said you're possessed by the Rain God! Wherever you go, it rains."

At this point, Wang Chengyu sighed with genuine admiration

"Brother Nan, how did you ever come up with the wild idea to go to Nanjiao to find the 'Ink Kirin'? Looking back now, that idea was absolutely brilliant!"

"You really managed to ride this wave of hype."

After listening to Wang Chengyu's machine-gun-like chatter, Lin Nan gave a hollow laugh

"Maybe... luck is also a part of strength?"

After a few more words of small talk, Lin Nan finished tidying up his belongings.

The long journey had been exhausting, and he hadn't been able to sleep well on the bus.

Once he relaxed, a wave of drowsiness hit him again.

Lin Nan simply lay back down on his bed and said to the two

"I'm beat, brothers. I'm going to catch up on some sleep."

Seeing Lin Nan in this state, Wang Chengyu and Jiang Tao exchanged a look.

Both were stunned, muttering in confusion

"Old Lin, how are you this exhausted?"

"What were you doing in Nanjiao all last night??"

"Climbing mountains..."

Lin Nan uttered those last two words before pulling the quilt over his head and falling asleep.

The remaining two in the room looked at each other again.

Wang Chengyu slowly gave a thumbs up and praised

"Tsk, climbing mountains at night. How elegant!"

At this moment, in his daze, Lin Nan seemed to be dreaming.

In his dream, he felt as if he had turned into a gust of wind, with the forests on either side flashing past him at high speed.

...

Meanwhile, on the Heshan Expressway leading from Nan Province to Dongshan Province, a private car was driving along.

A family of three sat inside.

The man driving was talking to his wife in the passenger seat.

In the baby seat in the back was a male infant who was still babbling.

The infant's large, watery eyes curiously observed the scenery flashing past the car window.

His clear gaze was filled with curiosity and wonder toward this world.

The drizzling rain continued to fall, and the scenery outside the window receded rapidly.

As the infant gazed out, his wandering eyes suddenly locked onto a specific spot.

Children of this age usually have short attention spans.

Yet, the infant's gaze did not shift even an inch.

It seemed that amidst the rapidly changing scenery, something... had captured the baby's fascination!

"Goo... eeh..."

Soon, the infant let out a bell-like giggle unique to babies.

While giggling, he began to play around in his seat, babbling

"Baba~ shoo-shoo~"

"Yes, shoo-shoo~" the man in the driver's seat repeated with an affectionate expression.

He didn't think much of it, assuming the baby was simply reacting to the scenery outside.

However, following the man's perfunctory response, the infant seemed not to have received the desired feedback and began squirming restlessly in the back seat.

He even made urgent, babbling sounds.

"What's wrong with the child today?"

The mother in the passenger seat asked in confusion, turning around to look at the baby.

She saw that the infant's little face was motionless, his eyes still fixed tightly on a certain point outside the window.

His chubby little hands were also pointing incessantly toward the window.

Seeing this, the mother frowned and looked in the direction the baby was pointing.

However, after her gaze searched through the curtain of rain outside the window, she suddenly saw something unusual, and her expression froze.

Her mouth fell open instinctively, and she raised her hand to point ahead and to the side, calling out hurriedly

"Hu... Husband! Look! Look quickly!"

"What is it?"

"On the mountain ahead, is there a dark shadow?!"

"That's impossible..."

The man driving responded instinctively.

But when he looked in the direction his wife was pointing, he couldn't help but freeze. His expression turned to one of shock, and his eyes widened in astonishment.

If he weren't currently gripping the steering wheel, he would have wanted to rub his eyes vigorously!

On the mountain road to the side ahead, there was indeed a dark shadow!

Like a gust of wind, it was racing along the mountain path beside the highway, covering several meters with every leap!

"Holy crap, what is that??"

The man in the driver's seat lost his voice, staring intently to get a better look.

The dark shadow was neither far nor near, roughly three hundred meters away.

Furthermore, the size of the shadow was comparable to a private car.

Under the beating rain, a thin mist seemed to surround its body.

It even had a pair of long horns on its head, looking quite majestic.

Yet, a creature of such build was somehow able to stay directly ahead of them in their line of sight.

Clearly, its speed was capable of keeping pace with a moving vehicle!

In fact, as the shadow seemed to be gradually shrinking in distance, it appeared to be even faster than the car!

"That looks like... a deer??"

The man tried to match its appearance to what he knew.

But looking at the speed at which the shadow was racing, he couldn't help but shake his head repeatedly.

"No!"

"Can a deer run that fast?"

...

At this time, nearly half of the vehicles traveling on the Heshan Expressway had encountered this dark shadow.

As the sky grew darker, the vehicles on the highway began to turn on their headlights.

With the help of the lights, many people saw the true form of the shadow!

Under the blurred illumination...

What met their eyes was a robust, powerful black deer!

Although its size was clearly not small, its every movement was like a bolt of lightning—extremely light and swift!

Moreover, the black deer's path was not rigid at all.

Sometimes it would leap rapidly along the mountain path on the right side of the highway, and sometimes it would actually leap onto the highway itself!

It would even race side-by-side with passing vehicles!

It was as if it were playing around, competing with them in a test of speed!

Despite how dangerous the situation appeared, no accidents occurred.

The black deer seemed highly intelligent; it never drove against the flow of traffic on the highway, nor did it get too close to any vehicle.

Even so, the people on the highway were nearly driven mad by the sight.

Many began calling the relevant authorities

"Hello? Is this the Forestry Bureau??"

"I saw a deer on the highway!"

The call to the Forestry Bureau was quickly connected.

Upon hearing that a large wild animal like a deer had appeared on the highway, the staff member immediately became alert, asking urgently

"What is the exact location? Is the deer injured? Has it caused any traffic accidents?"

"Uh... no, none."

"None??"

This unexpected answer left the Forestry Bureau staff member stunned.

It wasn't uncommon for wild animals to run onto the road.

Usually, when the Forestry Bureau received such reports, it was either because the animal had already been hit by a car and was injured, or because a driver had swerved to avoid it or been startled, leading to a crash.

But according to the reply, none of those things had happened?

How was that possible??

This was a highway with heavy traffic and very high speeds.

If a wild deer appeared, it would most likely flee in panic and cause an accident!

The staff member at the Forestry Bureau couldn't even begin to imagine the specific scenario and could only guess wildly.

Could it be... the deer was stuck in the guardrail?

However, as the staff member continued to ask, the response from the other end of the line left them completely bewildered.

"None of that!"

"Because this deer runs faster than the cars on the highway!"

"And in the time it's taken me to talk to you, we're almost unable to keep up with it!"

Hearing this, the staff member was utterly speechless.

"You're still chasing it?"

"And you can't keep up??"

Seeing that the caller only seemed to realize the absurdity of the situation just now, the man explained, as the matter was indeed quite unbelievable.

He quickly gave an affirmative reply

"Yes. Judging by the direction it came from, it probably came from Nan Province. It's already on the Heshan Expressway and is most likely heading toward Dongshan Province!"