At four in the morning, Middendorffi and Eli appeared in the first-floor living room right on time.
The townspeople had left the door open, and it was the darkest hour before dawn, but the parlour was quite busy. Apart from Henry, who had already come down for breakfast, there were three other people - a middle-aged couple, and a young man. There was also the couple who owned the B&B, busy in the kitchen and living room, serving bread, salad, and milk.
Henry saw that the two men had come down and hurriedly greeted them as they joined him for breakfast, adding that the other three tourists present were also going to the wild lake, and that they would all set out together after eating.
The young man's eyes lit up when he saw Eli and he came over to greet the two, "Good morning, I'm in the live streaming business, my name is Musk, Elon-Musk. what are your names?"
"I'm Middendorffi," Middendorffi answered briefly on Eli's behalf, knowing he didn't like non-essential socialising, "His name is Eli."
"Ooh, such a Musk introduction." Musk laughed, "It's the first time I've met someone who doesn't have any exclamations about my name, everyone else thinks it's my screen name, but I'm actually on the internet under my real name, hahaha."
After he finished all this chit-chat, he noticed that the two didn't make much of a move, and coughed lightly in some embarrassment before getting to the point, "So, I'll be on a live stream later, so I might be filming you guys, do you mind?"
Middendorffi didn't really care, but Eli spoke up, "Mind."
"Uh ..." Musk actually wanted to film him, after all, coming to this remote place was really nothing to see other than mysteries. It was so hard to get a good looking guy that was recognisable to the naked eye, Musk didn't want to miss out on the traffic, and maybe even cut the film out and push it afterwards!
"That, Mr Eli, you see we're all along for the ride, when the time comes for me to live stream and film everywhere, it's inevitable that other people will be in the picture." Musk continued to advise, "At most, I'll ask you a few questions, it won't be very intrusive."
"Don't ask me questions, don't film me specifically." Eli tossed this off coldly and dragged Middendorffi off to breakfast. Seeing this, Henry wiped his mouth and got up to come over to pat Musk's shoulder, "Come on bro, my friend is very unphotogenic and sensitive to the camera, so don't look for him. Otherwise he and you really portrait rights, you still trouble is not it?"
Musk answered with his mouth, but in fact, he didn't think so. He still intends to find a way to "accidentally" take a picture in the subsequent live broadcast, and then said in the live broadcast room, "he does not like to be photographed, don't ask", this is not to make it clear that he did not mean it? If anyone takes a screenshot or a short video later, it's not his responsibility at all.
He also asked Henry: "What are you guys doing here? Are you also filming that strange rumour?"
Henry snorted: "Just for fun."
Musk wasn't convinced. Fun? There was nothing here, just wild mountains and water, and the guys hadn't brought any camping stuff or fishing rods, so what was there to play with? These people also did not bring other equipment, it does not look like shooting video or research. The more mysterious they were, the more interested Musk became in them.
But he didn't ask any more questions. The group ate breakfast and followed the people who had set out from the other townspeople up the mountain in the dark. The trails were trodden by people, wide and narrow, with thick leaves in some places, and slippery with the mountain dew. Tourists are holding torches or searchlights, in twos and threes, helping each other to move forward. Along the way, some people exclaimed that they would have been lost in the mountains if they hadn't had someone to guide them.
Middendorffi was also pulled along by Eli. He didn't need to be, but Henry wanted to pull him in case the unarmed youth fell on the mountain, leading Eli to take the initiative. Pulled or not, Middendorffi naturally moved closer to Eli and whispered, "I'll scout."
Eli gives a low "hmm".
The black mist then disperses silently through the night once more.
The tourists didn't advance very fast, and the crowd ended up arriving almost forty minutes after the usual twenty-minute climb for the townspeople. And by the time they arrived, there were already others fishing, some lighting was on around the lake, and there were tents and whatnot not far away. Everyone wasn't talking very loudly, partly because of the atmosphere, but also because everyone was still mentally sleepy and didn't have much energy.
Henry asked Middendorffi in a low voice, "Want to go around the lake?"
"No need." Middendorffi was certain, "Nothing right now."
"Okay." Henry said, "We'll wait then, I should have brought a couple of small stools up to sit on."
Eventually they found a large rock and sat or leaned on it, playing with their mobile phones while they waited.Eli stood right next to Middendorffi, leaning on the rock rather than next to him.Middendorffi then inclined his head to talk to him in a low voice, "No scouts around, nothing in the lake either. I'd like to follow the current and check underground."
Eli still didn't stop him, but this time he admonished, "Be careful, and come back as soon as you sense something wrong."
"Yeah." Middendorffi answered, and then opened the drawing function of his mobile phone. He probed where the underground river was and drew the corresponding line on the drawing. He was probing several caves that led to the underground river at the same time, so he drew several equal-scaled lines.Middendorffi's drawings were always precise, but it was a pity that no one else could read them except Eli. Henry thought he was drawing a maze or some such contraption when he poked his head in to see.
They sat like that for a while, when a bit of muffled pale light finally began to appear in the sky; it would soon be dawn. Several of the young men who had come to the scene - including Musk - were ready for it, and had switched on live streaming or video filming. That beaming light of theirs was so bright that looking straight at it could blind anyone, and it was a little off-putting to the anglers who came to fish. But the anglers were used to a lot of people coming here every day lately, and they didn't really point their fingers at the anchors or filmmakers.
There are some other people, all set up a variety of long shot ... cameras. Even some people have already sat on the boat on the lake, the boat has been replaced with a motor, presumably intends to sail over to see it as soon as the strange thing appears.
Over the next half hour, as the crowd waited with bated breath, the sky gradually brightened.
Even the sun shone through the clouds to the trees, to the lake, to the people. And there was nothing out of the ordinary on the surface of Wild Lake, where everyone and all the machinery was aimed.
"Hey, not again today, break it up break it up."
A sigh came from the waiting crowd, "If it's going to come out, it's going to start before full light. Now that it's all lit up, it's definitely gone, let's go."
The others seemed to be used to it and didn't struggle much, they all started packing up their things and preparing to go down the mountain. Only the fishing people were still sitting so calmly where they were, and there was even someone who caught a fish. Musk, who had nothing to shoot, ran to shoot the starting rod, and also discussed with the angler half a day what kind of fish that was, and what kind of fish were abundant in this lake.
Henry didn't care what the others had to say and just asked Middendorffi, "What's to say, anything strange?"
Middendorffi shook her head.
"Guess it's really not today then." Henry asks, "Going? Or go around?"
Middendorffi looks at Eli, who knows he's already searched everywhere nearby, and there's little point in still wandering around the lake, so he says, "How much charge do you have left on your phone? Aren't you going back to charge it?"
Before Middendorffi could reply, Henry was happy first, "You two, you're practically electronic device addicts ..."
"Where are you going, three?"
Musk suddenly came over holding up his gimbal and mobile phone, "That thing definitely won't show up today, hey, I've been here for three days and still no movement. What are you guys going to do next? I was here the other day ..."
Eli glances at his camera and doesn't even wait for him to finish, pulling Middendorffi with him.
Musk was a little embarrassed, but for goodness sake, he was an anchor and tried to continue to strike up a conversation with Henry again. Henry was not so cold, but also threw down a "Excuse me", and then left.
Musk now completely helpless, can only charge at the live camera said: "There is no way ha, everyone, I tried my best, originally wanted to let you see the wild handsome man. But the handsome man is too cold, not allowed to film. Next time I run into them I'll try again and secretly film them, I really tried hard in order to give you guys benefits hahaha ..."
Back in town, the day was spent hanging out and doing nothing.
Towards evening, however, Henry suddenly comes knocking on Middendorffi's door to their room and enters, "Eli's picture is still posted online."
Middendorffi asked, "Is it that Musk?"
"Yes, not really." Henry returned, "Didn't he film you guys for a few seconds on the air today? Someone took a screenshot of his face from the video, posted it online, and got one of those KOLs or Agencies that look for hot guys. and then someone else posted a picture of Eli that they used to sneak on the street as well, and the post got a little heat."
He said as he sent the URL to both of them, "Or Laura just saw it while she was messing around on the internet looking at dudes, and as soon as she saw it was Eli, she immediately asked me if I wanted to tell Eli about it. I thought about it, and even though Eli doesn't seem to care much about other people, I came to tell you."
Middendorffi clicked on the post, sliding through it as she said, "Someone was filming him the first day he went shopping for clothes down the street."
"Right? I'm not surprised." Henry added as a reminder, "By the way, the picture that was number one on the hot comments did seem pretty cool, and Laura explained to me half the time how good the angle was and how good the composition of the capture was."
Middendorffi sniffed and also slid back to look at the number one hotly rated photo. It was a picture of Eli's half-face, gazing off into the distance, his long black ponytail rather flowing from the motion of turning his head. Add to that the fact that the background was all imaginary - including Middendorffi just two steps away - and Eli was even more dusty.
Middendorffi reads the comments below, a sea of unintelligible ones like "prprprprpr", like "Batman tripping over people", like "fuck me !!!! " Middendorffi also saw a comment that, when read, said "I'm going to use this picture as my phone screen".
Middendorffi seemed to feel good about the offer, and silently downloaded the picture and turned it into the background of her phone screen.
Henry was still there talking at Eli: "If you mind, the 'Collector' can find a way to delete this post. But after deleting this one, there could be others. You'll need more permissions if you want your photos to disappear completely from the internet ..."
"Never mind, don't bother." Eli didn't care about that sort of thing in the first place, he just didn't enjoy the feeling of being in the spotlight, it wasn't like he couldn't adapt.
"Alright then, just ignore it, go cold turkey, I guess the netizens will forget about it in a few days." Henry nodded, "Then you guys rest early today, you still have to get up early tomorrow morning. If you don't want to be photographed, I'll give you a hat in the morning?"
"No need."
"Alright then, good night ..."
Henry came and went in a hurry.Eli re-locked the door and looked back to see Middendorffi still there swiping through the posts, a little bemused, "Still looking? My pictures that good?"
Middendorffi looked up and directly lit up the unlocked interface of her mobile phone for him to see.
Eli: "..."
He was now feeling a lot more emotions than just helplessness, all at once. Holding these thoughts down, he approached Middendorffi and stared at him, "Why are you using my picture as a screen?"
"People on the internet said it was a good fit."
"'People on the internet said'?" Eli said, "What do you think yourself?"
"I don't know." Middendorffi retrieved his phone and looked at it carefully, "... But I wouldn't think of changing it to my screen when I look at another picture."
Eli listened to him talk, truly lost in one sentence and happy in the next. It wasn't until much later that Eli would sharply comment on this behaviour, "You're PUAing me again."
Right now, however, Eli just pulled out his own phone and pointed it at Middendorffi.
"Then you'll let me take one for the screen, too."