As the plane started dipping for their arrival, Hui Yin parted the plush curtains and looked at Lu Shen in shock.
"We're in Zhangjiajie?"
Lu Shen laid down his newspaper and got up from the leather couch to stand next to her. From the window, all that could be seen of the view below was a vast spread of green with white cracks in it, like expanding tree roots.
Lu Shen paused, and tucked in a lock of wayward hair behind her ear.
"You once said you wanted to climb the 999 steps of the stairway to heaven."
Hui Yin wanted to say, "Well, I already ascended them," but thinking it would shock him too much, she kept quiet. Hn, she really did mention it to him once before. There was a door-like cave in Zhangjiajie that was created after a cliff collapsed during ancient times, which they called as the 'Heaven's Gate'. Hui Yin had fancied in her younger years to take a photo of her climbing it and caption it with the sentence, "I climbed the stairway to Heaven, and knocked on Heaven's door."
She thought it was funny.
Now that she had already died once, Hui Yin felt that maybe her sense of humor needed some readjustment.
The hired car waited for them at the airport, but Hui Yin excused herself for a brief moment and went into a nearby souvenir shop. Lu Shen trailed after her, looking suspicious.
"Stop being so paranoid and wear this." She slapped a nondescript black cap on his head and handed him a pair of sunglasses. "You stand out too much. If we're going to tour around Zhangjiajie, I don't want girls shrieking around and bursting my eardrums."
Hui Yin had also bought a mask to cover the lower half of her face, because although she was sure that no one would recognize her, the man beside her was too eye-catching. She didn't want anyone to associate her with him and create future problems.
Their chauffeur was an old man who smiled a lot, and Hui Yin liked him instantly as she opened the door to the passenger seat...only be caught by Lu Shen's arm as it wrapped around her stomach and forcefully dumped her body on the backseat.
"Sit there." This tone of absolute command that impeded any further arguments, who else could say it like this but the Great Dragon King?
Would it kill him to add 'please' at the end of his sentences?
Tyrant, despot, dictator, autocrat...
Hui Yin grumbled these insults in her mind as the car followed the curving road amid the tall trees that projected upwards to the sky. Most sections of the road were on the cliff edge, which gave Hui Yin a breathtaking view of freestanding obelisks and limestone mountains with their jagged peaks.
"How beautiful," she mumbled to herself, her eyes taking in its rugged beauty. "One day I'm going to withdraw from society and live on a treehouse here."
Lu Shen, who was leaning back on his seat with his eyes closed, twitched a little when he heard this.
What nonsense is this girl saying now?
Withdrawing from society...was she planning to become a Buddhist monk?
"You're both lucky you came to visit Tianmen at the right time," the driver chattered cheerfully. "The weather is just right—it's often chilly and rainy out here, so it's good that you don't have to tour around with an umbrella. Well, the fog's always there like a blanket, it's better if you both watch your steps. Stumbling and slipping down is pretty common, especially on the skywalk..."
Lu Shen carefully took out his earbuds and inserted it into his ears.