Gu Xiaoshuang was a third-year student at Xihai University.
Unlike the seniors and fellow juniors who were already worrying about finding jobs as graduation season approached, she still had one last summer vacation to enjoy.
All her courses for the exam month had wrapped up. She had already finished the exams for the subjects that counted toward her GPA, and only two easy online courses remained. Once those were done, she could officially start her vacation.
The bolder students had already packed their suitcases and gone home. Gu Xiaoshuang was more cautious. She half-heartedly reviewed the two easy courses while leisurely planning how to reward herself.
No classes, no exams, getting ready to go home—anyone who had been to college knew what an intoxicating state that was. She had even started looking at a two-day, one-night tour of the neighboring city.
There wasn’t much to do in the neighboring city, but that wasn’t the point. The point was the sense of ceremony that came with rewarding yourself.
Although Xihai Province had “sea” in its name, it had little in common with the glamorous, bustling seaside cities of the outside world. The downtown CBD consisted of little more than a Wangfujing and a Wanda. Once there, you found yourself a milk-tea shop and bought a drink, then wandered around a high-end trinket store without buying anything for the rest of the afternoon. After stuffing yourself with all-you-can-eat barbecue or pre-made dishes from the mall, you headed home.
By their third year, they had played those tricks to death.
That was when she saw an advertisement from an upperclassman in the class group chat, recommending that everyone visit Hama Valley Hot Springs.
The sulfur springs were good for the skin, the newly opened facilities were clean, and the place wasn’t far from the university, the post claimed.
The upperclassman was always active in the group chat. Back when she had first entered the university, he had helped carry her luggage while taking the opportunity to sell her a campus SIM card that was both slow and unreliable. His credibility wasn’t exactly stellar.
Several male students who knew him well immediately started teasing him.
“Where are you working as a manager now, Young Master Bo?”
“Don’t lure us into the mountains and sell us off as piglets!”
Liu Bo didn’t miss a beat. He posted the location and an introduction to the scenic area. It was a newly developed natural hot spring, operated by a senior sister from the university, and students could get twenty percent off with their student IDs. When everyone said they didn’t believe him, he even uploaded the entrepreneurship proposal the school had submitted for the project.
Afraid that no one would show up, the Rich Guy sent a large red envelope to the group. The passphrase was: “I miss you so much at Hama Valley.”
Powered by money, the chat immediately began chiming nonstop.
The girl in the lower bunk, Li Qian, suddenly called up to her. “Xiaoshuang, did you see that? The twenty-percent discount?”
Gu Xiaoshuang poked her head over the side of the bunk. “Is it for real? It isn’t some scam, is it?”
“Xiang Yu. You and Liu Bo were both student-assistance scholarship judges. You even reviewed her application and said that, since she came from an orphanage, she should receive the highest level of aid.”
Li Qian didn’t even look up as she enthusiastically searched for information about Hama Valley Hot Springs.
“Liu Bo is there too. Surely the counselor wouldn’t be a scam artist as well.”
“If you go, I’ll go.”
“It looks kind of shabby to me.” Li Qian held her phone up toward the upper bunk, too lazy to climb down.
“Look. The promotional photos make it look like a public restroom. It doesn’t seem very clean.”
“Didn’t they say they renovated it? Why aren’t there any current photos?”
“Nope. It hasn’t officially opened yet. But let me tell you, there is one good thing about newly opened places.” Li Qian gave a mischievous little laugh.
“It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet or a new gym. When they first open, the quality and equipment are at their best and newest. The first time we went to that 388-yuan seafood buffet, they had lobster and sea urchin laid out for everyone to eat. Two months later, everything was limited, and they’d take forever to restock. You know what I mean?”
“That makes sense.” Gu Xiaoshuang flipped upright in one smooth motion. “So if we’re going, we have to be among the very first customers!”
“Exactly. The water quality is almost guaranteed to be good right after opening. Otherwise, they wouldn’t expect to stay in business.” Li Qian gave a seasoned critique.
“We should go early and be the first people to soak in their pools. That way we won’t be bathing in everyone else’s bathwater. And since they haven’t promoted the place much, it probably won’t be crowded either.”
“You’re making it sound kind of disgusting…”
“You can’t afford to wait with these things. Didn’t you hear about that century-old hot spring in Fukuoka, Japan? Someone exposed the fact that they changed the water only twice a year, and the bacteria count was more than three thousand times above the limit…”
Li Qian picked at one of her manicured nails and said casually, “Anyway, we’ll only go once. Once it gets crowded, we won’t come back. We’re just going to enjoy it while it’s newly opened and clean.”
“Sure. Let’s go tomorrow. Should we ask Xiaoli and Ayue to come too?”
“They’re both on their periods. We’ll go check it out first.”
“Sounds good.”
The road to Hama Valley was not easy to navigate. The valley was separated from the city by the Cang River. Although it was only a river crossing away, the driver had to take a long detour to find a bridge. The university’s new campus was only a little over ten kilometers away in a straight line, but the drive still took half an hour.
The two girls clutched their wallets, wincing at the fare. But when they followed the navigation app and got out at the Hama Valley end, they discovered that there was actually a ferry across the river. They simply hadn’t noticed it through the thick mist over the center of the water.
A clear bamboo flute sounded across the river. Then a bamboo raft slowly emerged from the thin mountain shadows.
One bamboo raft, one fishing net, one cormorant, one lantern.
“Wait, isn’t that—” Li Qian stared in shock and shook Gu Xiaoshuang hard. “That’s the picture on the twenty-yuan note! A cruise down the Li River!”
On the bamboo raft, a tall and upright swordsman leisurely worked the oar.
He wasn’t particularly tall, but he wore a sweeping green robe, and the broad brim of his bamboo hat concealed most of his face. He stood half-turned, striking the “a forty-five-degree entrance makes you look cool” pose once described by an actor who had played Erlang Shen. A long sword was even strapped to his back.
He seemed a little short for the role, but he had certainly nailed the atmosphere. The bamboo oar traced graceful arcs through the water.
Every so often, a breeze lifted the hem of his robe. The hat swayed gently, and the little boat drifted leisurely toward the shore before coming to a smooth stop.
The two girls stared, dumbfounded, at this somewhat crude but spectacularly entertaining performance.
The person on the raft removed her bamboo hat.
It turned out to be a young woman.
“I saw your car go past, but you didn’t hear me when I called,” the girl rowing the raft said with a wide grin. “Here for the hot springs?”
The two of them blinked, then nodded in perfect unison.
“Our hot springs are great, but our supporting services are top-notch too.” Ji Kailing was just as bright and enthusiastic as ever, gesturing animatedly with both hands.
“After you finish soaking, come back to this spot. At noon, two, five, and seven, a ferry will come pick you up and take you across the river, so it’ll be convenient for you to get a taxi back into the city. Of course, you won’t be taking mine. This is just a welcoming ceremony.”
She picked up a comically oversized red megaphone from beside her feet and bellowed, “Erlong!”
A ferry came roaring out of the river mist. Its engine sounded like a tractor, and the boat was covered with life jackets and fire extinguishers.
It wasn’t particularly large, but it looked incredibly safe.
The person on board waved at them from a distance in greeting.
After finishing her instructions, Ji Kailing creaked and groaned her way over in the bamboo raft to join the ferry.
The two girls had been chattering nonstop on the way there, but now, as they walked toward the hot springs, they suddenly fell quiet.
“Qianqian.”
“Hmm?”
“You were right.” Gu Xiaoshuang grimaced. “A newly opened scenic attraction might have all kinds of problems, but one thing is guaranteed—they’ll put their whole heart into it…”
“Actually, it’s pretty impressive. If they swapped her out for a handsome guy, you’d probably be drooling all over the floor.” Li Qian pressed a hand to her forehead. “After we’re done soaking, we can take the boat back. This little scenic area is surprisingly considerate with its services.”
“The scenery isn’t bad either.”
The two of them gradually made their way to the entrance of Hama Valley and looked up at the towering mountains on either side.
Mountain ranges overlapped one another, rising majestically into the distance. A sea of clouds curled gently around the slopes, while dense green trees covered the vegetation-clad mountainsides. Here and there, bare rock faces were crisscrossed with gullies—a stretch of pristine wilderness untouched by human hands.
The most immediate change upon entering this area was the air at the tip of one’s nose. It was heavy with warm moisture, dense enough to sink into the lungs. Thanks to the area’s glacial geothermal conditions, it also carried a strange, warm, damp scent—the mineral-rich fragrance of steam rising from hot springs.
Refreshing to the heart and soul.
Gu Xiaoshuang thought of the phrase commonly used in elementary-school compositions.
It had a hundred-percent attendance rate whenever she wrote about lotus flowers, but this was the first time she had truly experienced the power of those four words.
The farther they went, the more alluring that heavy, damp fragrance became. It silently seeped into their pores, and their limbs and bones gradually relaxed.
Normally, did hot springs really smell this strong? The scent was so enticing it reminded her of a hot-pot restaurant.
The two of them quickened their pace without even realizing it. Gu Xiaoshuang swallowed and finally couldn’t resist asking, “Do you smell the hot spring? It’s pretty pleasant.”
“I do. The air in the mountains really is better.”
They didn’t even need to check the navigation. They simply followed the scent and found their way there. The path was paved with bluestone slabs. It had rained just the night before, yet the road wasn’t muddy at all. The stone absorbed water exceptionally well, so not even a splash flew up as they walked.
The hot spring’s entrance was sturdy and beautiful. Its wooden structure and gray-tiled roof blended naturally with the atmosphere of the deep mountains. Although wooden buildings instinctively brought Japanese hot springs to mind, there was none of that cramped, awkward feeling of paper doors and windows here. The design was open and dignified.
At the entrance stood a massive, timeworn stone carved with four bold, sweeping characters: Glacier Hot Spring.
Low flowers, grasses, and pine trees flanked the gate. The man-made landscaping blended seamlessly with the natural surroundings, creating an air of antiquity.
Inside was an enormous, luxurious lobby. The building had been designed with a high ceiling, allowing the air to circulate freely. Sunlight from outside poured in unobstructed, while a large wooden chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting a soft glow. The whole place was clean and spacious.
On the right was a bamboo daybed sofa for receiving guests, topped with soft rush cushions. On the left stood a long, naturally textured wood-and-stone reception counter. The overall style was simple and elegant.
The entire venue gave off a sense of openness and tranquility.
“This place is nice.” Li Qian instinctively lowered her voice and spoke quietly to Xiaoshuang.
Gu Xiaoshuang suddenly felt a little uneasy. “Do you think it’ll be expensive?”
There was a ferry, a stone-paved path, and this grand establishment. It was obvious that a great deal of money had gone into building the place.
The people who had promoted the hot spring were upperclassmen from their school, so she had never considered the possibility that they might accidentally wander into a high-end resort.
The promotional picture had shown what looked like a public restroom, while the actual location was a magnificent palace of carved beams and painted rafters. She might not have eaten pork, but she had at least seen pigs run.
Li Qian clearly hadn’t considered that possibility either. The corner of her mouth twitched. “Then we can only set an alarm and pretend something came up so we can leave early.”
They were already there. There was no way they could turn around and leave, forcing the boatman to row them back.
The two exchanged a glance, their hearts pounding as they nervously approached the front desk.
The person behind the desk was Xiang Yu, who was busy beyond belief. She was contacting influencers about running advertisements.
Earlier, Ji Kailing had messaged her to say that the promotional campaign was seriously lacking. The wild tourists they had finally managed to attract didn’t even know there was a ferry, and some had driven in circles for ages. They might not be willing to come again next time.
They also needed to post a recruitment notice for a pretty-boy. They couldn’t keep making Director Ji row the boat across the river. They needed someone who could cosplay a wandering swordsman.
They weren’t asking for the breathtaking, perfectly sculpted face she had seen after eating those mushrooms last time. At the very least, the person had to be over 180 centimeters tall, with a good-looking face and a well-proportioned figure, someone who could draw people in.
When Xiang Yu looked up, she saw two young women standing hesitantly at the entrance, poking their heads around like frightened little animals.
“Hello. Is this the price listed on the platform? Are there any additional charges?”
The slightly taller of the two, a bespectacled girl, took out her phone and showed Xiang Yu the group-buying voucher she had purchased online.
The public hot spring cost fifty yuan per person and included a towel and slippers. Swimsuits could be rented separately. The deluxe package cost one hundred yuan, a private room cost one hundred and fifty, and skin care treatments cost two hundred.
“Yes, those are the prices.” Xiang Yu smiled warmly. “There are pools with three different temperature levels for you to choose from.”
In her personal opinion, the outdoor hot springs would have been more appealing.
She had inspected the natural hot springs built into the mountainside. They made full use of the advantages offered by the subtropical forest. Ancient trees with twisted, gnarled branches grew right beside the pools, while the lush, magnificent mountain scenery appeared almost otherworldly through the drifting steam.
Unfortunately, the beginner renovation package didn’t cover such a large area. Once the construction work was finished, Xiang Yu had eagerly run up the mountain to check out the outdoor wild spring.
It was still just as scalding and murky as ever. Bubbles continued to glug and rise from the boiling spots, making the whole thing look positively sinister.
To keep careless tourists from climbing up and jumping in, she had even made Liu Bo carry a pile of barrier tape up the mountain and cordon off the pool.
The visitors had no idea what Xiang Yu was thinking. Seeing that the prices matched those on the platform, they both breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed, chattering away as they discussed which pool to choose.
