After Seven Years Patrolling Changbai Mountain, I Angered the Old Forest

My name is Chen Shoulin. I’ve worked as a ranger in the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve for seven years.

I know these woods so well I could walk through them with my eyes closed. I’ve seen all kinds of things: black bears, wild boars, poachers.

That is, until yesterday, when I chased an injured roe deer into an old forest that wasn’t even on the map.

There was a line carved into the bark. It wasn’t made with a knife. It looked as if someone had scratched it out, stroke by stroke, with some kind of sharp object.

“Enter the mountain and don’t look back. Look back, and your soul won’t make it out.”

I didn’t take it seriously at the time.

Now I want to turn back, but it’s already too late.