“Why on earth did we come hiking? I’m dead tired!”

Brother Xiang drenched in sweat, complained loudly. But he wasn’t the only one. There was me, Little Fatty, Tai Long, Han Sifan, Jin Xishan, Xique, Xia Yumeng, and even Liu Tianyi. The nine of us were scaling an unnamed mountain at the edge of Chongqing and Sichuan.

Why were we here? Well, it all started when Jin Xishan’s grandpa fell seriously ill. Since her dad was too busy to visit, he sent Jin Xishan to check on her grandpa. Bored out of her mind, Jin Xishan thought, why not drag us along? And with school giving us a seven-day break for the summer heat, we all agreed. Eight friends, four guys and four girls, hiking and having fun—sounded like a blast! Except… where on earth did Liu Tianyi come from?

Liu Tianyi glanced disdainfully at Brother Xiang. “You’re a grown man, yet you’re complaining about being tired? The girls aren’t even whining.”

“Shut it! Your sissy face is enough to annoy me.” Brother Xiang gulped some bottled water, then turned to Jin Xishan with uncharacteristic gentleness. “How much longer do we have? This is killing me.”

“Probably… we’ll reach a temple before nightfall. Just a little more effort. We’ll rest there tonight and continue tomorrow,” Jin Xishan replied with a smile, unfazed by Brother Xiang’s grumbling. Honestly, her whole dorm was like that—each girl was gentler than the last, except for Han Sifan.

Hearing this, Brother Xiang paled but had no choice but to keep trudging along in silence.

After two more hours of hiking, the sun had set, and we finally arrived at the so-called temple Jin Xishan mentioned. And wow, what a dump. Not only was it run-down, but it didn’t even have a signboard. The outside was a mess, and the inside? The floor was littered with dry grass, and cobwebs hung everywhere.

“Hey, look at what this temple worships! So weird,” Brother Xiang pointed to the center of the temple. I looked up and, huh, no kidding. Instead of a Buddha or a celestial deity, there stood a towering stone monkey. Not the Great Sage Sun Wukong, though—this one felt eerie. The monkey had two glaring eyes and a third eye on its forehead. Its face radiated fury, and just looking at the statue made it seem like the monkey exuded killing intent.

“What’s this? A mix between Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen?” Tai Long joked, clearly not taking the stone monkey seriously. I said nothing, pulling three sticks of incense from my bag. I carefully placed them before the statue and murmured, “We’re just passing through and borrowing a place to stay. Please be magnanimous and forgive us for any offense.”

It’s a rule we live by—when in doubt, pay your respects. Who knows how many malevolent deities are out there? Better safe than sorry.

We set our bags down, tidied up the temple a little, and with night falling fast, started a campfire in the center of the temple. After all, bears roaming the mountains are no joke, and a fire is a solid deterrent.

Bored, we sat by the fire fiddling with our phones until Jin Xishan, noticing the low energy, suggested, “Don’t look so gloomy, everyone. How about I tell you a ghost story?”

“Come on, big sis! We’re not kids. You think you can scare us with a story? Don’t bother!” Little Fatty protested, though his trembling voice betrayed him. Clearly, he was scared already.

“No worries, we’re used to this kind of stuff. Go ahead!” Brother Xiang and I exchanged a glance. Real ghosts don’t scare us—how could a story?

“Do you know what this mountain is called?” Jin Xishan asked mysteriously.

We all shook our heads.

“It’s called Mei Mountain. Mei, as in ‘ghostly’.” She gestured toward the stone statue. “There’s a type of demon here called a Mei Hou. Legend has it, they feast on human organs. This temple was built to appease them. The elders say that every three years, they would sacrifice a virgin boy and girl, leaving them here in the temple. By morning, the Mei Hou would have devoured their insides.”

Jin Xishan’s delivery was so dramatic it felt like she’d lived it herself.

We weren’t particularly fazed. I mean, what’s there to be scared of? But Little Fatty was pale as a sheet. “Big sis, stop! That’s too creepy!”

“It’s true,” Jin Xishan said with a teasing grin. Clearly, she just wanted to mess with us. But honestly, I wasn’t bothered. It’s just a monkey, right? So we joked around a bit more before grabbing our sleeping bags and settling down in a row to sleep.

I don’t know how long I’d been out, but I woke up to the chill of the wind. Still groggy, I opened my eyes halfway, not getting up. You know that feeling—you just want to lie there a bit longer after waking up.

The moonlight streaming through the window was soothing. Except… wait. Didn’t we close all the windows before sleeping? The temple had large windows on all four sides, and we’d made sure to shut them to keep out bugs and snakes. I even double-checked before lying down! But now, one of the windows was wide open, and cold mountain air was rushing in.

I didn’t dare move immediately. Jin Xishan’s story surfaced in my mind. Could it be the Mei Hou? There was no way one of us had gotten up to open the window in the dead of night. Everyone was fast asleep.

Squinting, I scanned the room cautiously, searching for the so-called Mei Hou. Suddenly, I noticed a pair of glowing red eyes on the stone statue.

With the moonlight illuminating it, I saw it clearly—a monkey, about half a meter tall. Unlike the statue, it didn’t have three eyes, but its pitch-black fur glistened, and its claws, at least three centimeters long, looked razor-sharp. Its glowing red eyes stared at us, as if debating whether to attack.

Brother Xiang was sleeping to my left. I nudged him gently with my leg. He groggily opened one eye and whispered, “What’s your problem? Go to sleep!” Then he zipped his sleeping bag shut, as if to block me out entirely.

I was on the verge of losing it. Calling Han Sifan wasn’t an option either—she was on the other side of Little Fatty and Jin Xishan.

I frowned, thinking hard. The monkey seemed alone, hesitating because of our numbers. If I could lure it outside and deal with it quietly, the problem would be solved. It didn’t seem particularly formidable.

I got up, pretending not to notice the monkey, and walked to the temple door. Once outside, I headed into the forest, stopping in a clearing after about a minute. Reaching into my bag, I touched the three Fire Talismans I’d prepared in advance. A cold smile crept onto my face. Time to test these talismans. They’d better work this time.

Now, I just had to wait for the monkey to take the bait. And trust me—it definitely would.