Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Bloody Videotape

The herbal picker sitting opposite me murmured for a long time before saying, "I didn't want to get rich either. But it was not easy for me to get these tapes, and I also took risks. I almost lost my life." "Show A-Gump the tape first!" He Jun urged him in local dialect. He Jun was my driver and tour guide when I traveled to Shennongjia on May Day. 20 hours ago, He Jun suddenly called me, saying that a herb collector wanted to sell a batch of video tapes he picked up in no-man's land.He remembered that my work was related to film and television, so he called me immediately and asked if I was interested.Without even thinking about it, I put down the phone and immediately bought a ticket from Shanghai to Yichang. After 20 hours, I have sat face to face with the herbal picker.

The herbal picker hesitated and took out a video tape from the rattan basket and handed it to me.It was a professional HD tape, clearly damaged with the remains of rotting leaves and grass in the gaps. The herb picker saw my disappointment, so he hurriedly said, "There are more than thirty dishes. Most of them should be good." "Even if it's good, what's in it? Maybe it's tape that was lost or forgotten by the crew that went into the mountain to shoot the film, or maybe it's a waste tape that they didn't need and threw away?" When I said this, I felt a little strange.Why didn't I think about these issues when He Jun called me?Instinctively, I thought it must be a videotape recording some mysterious or terrifying image.The inexplicable excitement that lasted for more than 20 hours became rational a few seconds ago, and I felt that I was a bit reckless and hasty to come here in a hurry.

The herb collector was stunned, obviously he couldn't give an answer.But soon he took out a handful of rags from the herb basket and spread them out on the table.The dirty cloth was yellowish brown in different shades, and the dark part was a little dark red, like bloodstains. "What's the smell, take it away!" Both He Jun and I instinctively backed away. "What is this?" I wondered. "Clothes. Found near the belt." "Whose clothes are these?" I asked subconsciously. The herbal picker looked at me strangely.Apparently he felt he had given the answer.

"Why do you think the belt belongs to the owner of this bloody shirt?" I knew I was asking another stupid question. "This dress has straps, some straps." "Where did you find it?" "On the mountain." "What do you want to do with them?" The herb collector turned his gaze to He Jun, and said with some dissatisfaction, "Didn't you tell this gentleman?" "I've said it. Be quicker, how much are you willing to sell it for?" He Jun pressed him. He hesitated and said: "You tell me. Tell me the price. It's about the same. I don't expect to get rich. Just give me some hard work. In order to carry these belts down the mountain, I didn't have a single herb this trip. picked up."

"I don't know if these straps will work. Well, I'll give you eight hundred dollars. What do you think?" I still decided to buy these straps first. Even if I bought something worthless for 800 yuan, I didn't lose much.Plus, like the beginning of a cheesy horror movie, the shattered gore coat certainly evokes the imagination. "One thousand yuan, I'm a cheerful person." The herb collector showed a sly look. "You are so greedy!" He Jun couldn't help scolding his fellow countrymen. I counted a thousand yuan and handed it to the herb picker.He put it in his pocket without counting the number of people collecting medicine, and then took us to the place where he parked his motorcycle, and handed me a cardboard box of beer, which contained a whole box of video tapes.

Before leaving, he asked me if I wanted those bloody rags, and I shook my head.He threw away the rags and drove away on his Jialing motorcycle. I wanted to find out what was on those tapes before I left Woodfish.If it was found to be a pile of trash after bringing it back to Shanghai, it would definitely be passed around as a joke. Finding a machine that could play these tapes became my first problem, which was not easy.The model of that box of videotapes basically belonged to SONYHDCAM. At that time, this was a brand-new high-definition professional videotape.Whether a place like Muyu would have a device capable of playing such a videotape, I'm actually not sure at all.

With the mentality of giving it a try, after I stayed in the hotel in the town, He Jun and I rushed to the local TV station immediately.But the result disappointed me. This is a township-level TV station. In addition to broadcasting some local news, it mainly rebroadcasts the programs of Hubei TV Station.Director Li who received me said that the current equipment in the station is very old and basically belongs to the outdated analog SP type.The high-definition video recorder I mentioned, Muyu has a set, which belongs to the nature reserve. Because of the need to shoot the golden monkey, a national protected animal, an organization recently sponsored a set of such high-definition equipment. He does not know the specific model.However, the person who manages and uses this equipment is his friend, and he is willing to help me get in touch.

His name is Gao Qiang, and he is a documentary photographer. He has been shooting documentaries in Shennongjia Nature Reserve for more than 20 years, and his works have won many international awards.When the director introduced Gao Qiang to me, he couldn't help showing respect on his face.It is conceivable that a documentary photographer who shoots wild animals alone in the virgin forest must have a strong sense of responsibility and extraordinary will.It is to be expected that such a man should be respected.Unfortunately, Gao Qiang is currently out of town. He went to France to attend a film festival and came back two days later.

I decided to stay and wait for Gaoqiang.Although I could easily find an HD player when I returned to Shanghai, my curiosity about the contents of those video tapes was not to the point where every second counts.Moreover, the last time I came to Muyu, due to time constraints, there were many places that I didn't have time to visit. This time I just made up for the previous regret.So, I made a two-day tour plan for myself. That night, I was in the same room with that box of videotapes, but I seemed to have completely forgotten their existence, and I didn’t even touch them. The next day, He Jun took me to visit Shengtiantai.

It has been developed into the main scenic spot for sightseeing, and it is a tourist attraction that needs to buy tickets to enter, which makes people somewhat uncomfortable.The so-called reconstruction of natural landscapes into parks for tourists to watch is everywhere in Shennongjia. Shennongjia has undergone large-scale deforestation since the 1960s. At that time, various loggers entered this virgin forest that had been silent for thousands of years, and quickly razed this place, which has the reputation of a museum of animals and plants, to wasteland.It was not until the 1990s that people of insight strongly appealed for protection that the government decided to stop logging.But the remaining primeval forest area is less than one-tenth of the original.Entering Shennongjia today, although it is also lush and lush, it is basically a secondary forest, which was planted in the past few decades.The so-called primeval forest has to travel through the mountains for several days to have a chance to see its true colors.

The so-called Shengtiantai comes from the legend about Shennong.Legend has it that Shennong collected herbs for the people, and was appreciated by God, who decided to take him to the kingdom of heaven to enjoy happiness.Shennong hesitated for a long time in Wandering Cliff, reluctant to leave his homeland.Forty-nine days later, he was picked up by a crane sent by God at the Shengtiantai, and "crossed the crane and ascended to heaven". Shengtiantai is 2114 meters above sea level, surrounded by open, it is a circular platform with an area of ​​about 30 square meters, just like the top of a mountain has been cut off neatly.It is said that this is not artificial.According to people's imagination, the cranes produced by the painters of the past dynasties are similar in size to animal cranes-cranes should be able to fly anywhere.So why choose such a place?Although it is a legend, there should be some basis, right?Even if it is a whimsical fabrication, why choose a place that is very similar to a helipad on the top of a modern high-rise building from any angle, which is very convenient for aircraft to take off and land?The legend of Shennong dates back to 5,000 years ago. He is as famous as the Yellow Emperor and is the founder of the Chinese nation.However, humans in that period were basically in a backward slash-and-burn society, and the history of modern aircraft was only a few decades old.What is the reason that people at that time had such imagination, and word of mouth passed on this history to this day? Shennongjia is located at the junction of Hubei, Shaanxi and Chongqing, at 31 degrees north latitude, and belongs to the temperate zone with excessive tropical and cold zones.The 31st degree north latitude is a special geographical indication. At this latitude, there are also pyramids, Devil's Bermuda, Mayan ruins, Sanxingdui, Mount Everest, Noah's Ark, and the Sahara Desert.Civilizations and unanswerable questions arose in this latitude.The occurrence of these civilizations far exceeded the technological level of human civilization at that time. So, who created so many eternal mysteries?Is it an alien?Various evidences continue to support this assumption.The world is vast and the universe is boundless. Human civilization can never be the only civilization in the universe, let alone the most advanced civilization. According to this theoretical calculation, "Shen Nong ascended to heaven across a crane" is not just a myth invented by human beings.Is the so-called crane an alien aircraft?As a "stationary" for aircraft to land, the ascending platform is really a good choice - many places at 31 degrees north latitude are very suitable for taking off and landing aircraft. I spent the day unknowingly while I was traveling and thinking wildly. He Jun and I had dinner at a small restaurant in the town, and we were a little dizzy from drinking a little wine. Saying goodbye to He Jun, I went back to the hotel room.The room smelled of decay and mildew.At first I thought it was the damp carpet, but it turned out that the source of the smell was the box where the video tape was kept.Because the windows of the room had not been opened all day, the smell from the box lingered for a long time. I opened that box, and the smell inside was stronger.In fact, even a brand new videotape has an unpleasant chemical smell, which I am familiar with, but there is also a moldy, rotten smell in the box, which is almost suffocating. I opened the window and spread out all the straps one by one, as if to dry things.At this time, I began to carefully look at these video tapes purchased for a thousand yuan, and thought to myself that maybe they were discarded waste by a certain film crew. I noticed, however, that most of these tapes have the protection lock on. On the side of almost all professional video tapes, there is a protective lock that prevents recording. When the red lock is pressed, even if you put the video tape in the video recorder and press the recording button, normal recording cannot be performed, and the video recorder will generally display Video recording is prohibited.This is a protective function to prevent important images from being washed out accidentally, which is very important in the operation of the video recorder. I also saw that the date handwritten with a ballpoint pen on the sticker of the video tape box was mostly blurred due to humidity, but the time ranged from July 2nd to September 10th—that should be the date record of the filming of the tape .Because of editorial needs, a new tape is usually used with the date written on the sticker before it is loaded into the camera.When the tape is removed from the camera after filming, record the time of removal.According to the general work procedure, the cameraman's assistant will record information such as the shooting date on the sticker of the video tape, and also record the general content of the tape in the notebook, so that the editor can have a quick review before sorting out the materials. For a rough understanding, this book is usually called a record sheet.However, there was no notebook in the box. According to the time recorded on the box, if these tapes were taken in the nature reserve located at 31 degrees north latitude, from the beginning of July to the beginning of September, it happened to span the entire summer and enter the autumn.Autumn here comes very early, and in late August, the temperature at night is already very cool.But at this time, Wuhan is still hot and humid.Therefore, many people come to Shennongjia to escape the summer heat in this season, and it is the busiest tourist season of the year. Those who enter the primeval forest for shooting during this time period must be prepared to cope with summer and autumn clothing and equipment.The photographers of these videos must have had heavy equipment.So, what is the goal of these filmmakers who entered the virgin forest with heavy equipment on their backs?Why did they throw away the tapes they had already filmed?Or was it accidentally lost?Why wrap the tape in that bloody coat?I couldn't help thinking of the bloody coat, and regretted not taking it from the herb picker.Now, the fragments of that bloody coat may have been cleaned up as garbage. The next day, I didn't go to Banbi Cliff according to the travel plan, nor did I ask He Jun to accompany me, but went to Muyu Mountain Villa by myself. Muyu Town is very small, and the residents live along the small river, which is crystal clear.After the closure of the mountain in the 1990s, the local area used its unique natural resources to develop tourism, and a large number of construction projects were carried out in Muyu Town, which originally had only a few hundred people.Now, tens of thousands of people live here.Even so, it took only fifteen minutes to walk from one end of town to the other.Muyu Villa is located at the entrance of the town, so it's easy to find. I went there because I saw the words "Muyu Mountain Villa" vaguely written on the sticker of a video tape, and the date was July 2, which was the earliest date among these dates.I immediately called He Jun to confirm that there was indeed a small hotel called "Muyu Mountain Villa", so I canceled my travel plan for the next day. Muyu Villa is a four-story cement building, which looks very new.Such new and newly built hostels can be found everywhere in the small Muyu.But this one is the only one. Although the main building is lackluster, it can be equipped with pavilions, pavilions, suspension bridges and pavilions, which is very pleasing to the eye. Walking into Muyu Villa, there was no one at the front desk. "anyone there?" No answer.The desk drawer by the front desk was opened, and it was clear that there were some banknotes in it. I didn't know whether to withdraw or not.Hesitating, a man comes down the stairs. "Hi." I hurriedly greeted. "Hello." "are you boss?" "I am, staying at the hotel? There are no rooms. Today is Sunday. You must make a reservation this season." He looked about sixty years old and was obviously chatty. "I don't live in a hotel. But I really want to live here for a while, and experience it. It's very clean and elegant." "It's okay, it's okay. I designed and built this house myself." "Really! Are you an architect?" "No, no. When I was young, I went to the mountains and went to the countryside in this area. I was very emotional. After I retired, I used all my savings to buy this land and build this hotel. I wanted to be an architect since I was a child. Now It can be regarded as the fulfillment of a long-cherished wish. I decided to retire here with my wife." He probably thought that I came here because I admired the building.I followed suit and talked about architecture with him.After a quarter of an hour, I changed the topic to the right track: "Did a film crew be hosted here last July?" "July? There are often film crews staying here. The crew of "The Great Sage of Love" also stayed here the year before last. Nicholas Tse also came to live here. July?" After thinking for a while, he walked to the front desk, took out a folder from the filing cabinet and looked through it. "That's right! There is one, which was checked in on July 2." He said, and he took me to his memorial column, which was covered with photos. "Hey, does it look like an exhibition hall?" The boss was triumphant. Because it has been a long time, there are already photos stacked on that wall, hanging on the wall like a relief work.Take photos with important customers who come to visit, and post the group photos on the wall of the store for everyone to watch. This is not only an honor for the store, but also a little entertainment for new guests.Many stores do this.And in this secluded small hotel, these photos may have a special effect on the lonely old man.Whenever the long winter comes, these photos may be the best companions to accompany them to pass the boring time. He searched for a long time under the stacked photos, and finally found a group photo. In addition to the boss in the photo, there were seven smiling people, five men and two women.Some of them are holding cameras, some are holding microphones, which looks like a standard film crew.They were all unfamiliar faces, probably not so-called celebrities.However, probably in the mind of the boss, people who shoot movies and TV shows are all eye-catching, and they can all be included in the ranks of celebrities. "Oh, these seven people. Are you talking about them?" The photo seemed to evoke his memory, "I remembered it when I saw the photo. Although everyone reconciled as before and took a group photo when they left, they are here During the stay, there was actually a little unpleasantness." "What's wrong?" I was very curious. "It's nothing. That is, there was a little conflict between their photographer and me. He drank too much on the day he arrived and vomited on the sheets at night. I asked him to pay for cleaning the next day. They lived When I came in, the price I negotiated with me was very low, so I listed all these extra fees and charged them separately, and they agreed without hesitation, but when I asked for a cleaning fee, the photographer was very upset and told me I argued. Of course, they still paid the fee. Their director, I remember, was a girl, the youngest among them. They said she was born in England, but she spoke Mandarin very well. She Apologizing to me made me feel embarrassed. It was not a big deal. So when they left, we were very happy. They went to the mountains to shoot some documentaries, and then they never came to me Here it is. The day they checked out should be July 3rd. I have a record here." The boss checked the records, "Yes, the room was checked out on July 3rd." Comparing the dates on the video tapes, I can basically conclude that those video tapes belong to the film crew who once lived here temporarily.So, did they leave safely?If nothing unexpected happened to them, the tape I paid a thousand bucks for was worthless. I asked the question: "So, do you know when they came out of the mountains?" "I can't tell. But they will definitely come out. Although people often disappear in the mountains, I haven't heard of so many people disappearing all at once." He said with a smile. The boss is very hospitable and entertained me with Tieguanyin, which has been treasured for many years.We sat around a tea tray made of wooden roots and sipped Kungfu tea with relish. Although my requirements for tea are very strict, I must also admit that the temperature and heat of the tea made by the boss are just right.Coupled with the pure river water here, the brewed tea has a unique sweet taste. Sipping tea, I suddenly became interested in what he mentioned about someone missing in the mountains, so I asked a question. The boss told me about a recent disappearance. When a tourist went to Banbi Cliff, he left the plank road built there and never came back.Because once you leave the artificially built plank road, there is almost no difference in the topography after entering the mountains - you can see exactly the same peaks and trees, and you can't find objects that can be used as references, and it is easy to fall into the mistake of repeating back and forth Lost, can't find a way out.The altitude here is very high and the oxygen is thin. After you sit down and rest after exhausting your energy, you may never wake up.That's what happened to the person who disappeared on Banbi Cliff.In fact, the place where he died was only three miles away from the tourist area.Five days later, he was found in a cave.The way he leaned against the stone wall seemed to be alive.Obviously, he wanted to hide in a stone cave to escape the cold, but he never thought that he would never be able to open his eyes again. "People carried him down the mountain on a stretcher. The man seemed to be alive. There was no physical injury, only the skin on the palm of his hand was scratched, and there were some bloodstains. It's just... the bloodstain was a bit special, it was a square shape, as if carved by hand. " "Written on it?!" "Hehe, amazing! People here have the custom of making myths. Savages or something. Hehe." Basking in the warm sun and tasting the high-quality tea, I feel indescribably lazy and comfortable, but because of such a detail, I can't help but feel a chill down my spine. In Shennongjia, the legend of the savage has been widely spread.Nearly three hundred witnesses claimed to have encountered wildlings.There have been legends about savages since ancient times, and they have also been found in some written records, but there have never been any specimens or photos to prove it. In the 1960s, the country organized a large-scale scientific expedition, and the military also got involved at that time.It is said that the soldiers conducted a blanket search of the entire Shennongjia, but found nothing in the end.However, the main purpose of the military’s participation in the scientific expedition was not to quell the controversy about the existence of wildlings, but because a large-scale military base was being built in Shennongjia at that time, and the military was worried that the so-called wildlings might be lurking there Taiwan secret agents who collect military intelligence—there is a huge military base in the Shennongjia area. This is no longer a secret. On the side of some important highways, there are signs that read "Foreign tourists are strictly prohibited from entering military important places" , very eye-catching. Before leaving Muyu Villa, I asked the boss for the group photo of the seven people, and the boss readily agreed.After I came out, I immediately went to the Internet cafe in the town.In the search bar of GOOGLE, I typed "Shennongjia Documentary Film Crew UK" and searched, but all the results came out were entertainment news about the movie "The Great Sage of Love", but about the documentary film crew I wanted to know about. Not a word was mentioned.I stared at the computer screen in a daze for a moment, then temporarily put this matter behind me, and began to casually browse news and other webpages. It's useless for me to worry about it now, when Gao Qiang comes back, the matter of those video tapes and that film crew will naturally be known.