The Temperature of the Electric Fence

The cold wind was like sandpaper, ruthlessly chafing Li Ming's cheeks. He tightened his old cotton coat and continued his arduous trek on the mountain path. With only three days left until the New Year, he had to get back to his hometown before New Year's Eve, no matter how difficult it was to buy train tickets, no matter how hard this mountain road was to traverse.

Li Ming was a junior at a regular university in Wuhan. This time, he hadn't been able to buy a direct train ticket home and had to transfer several times. The last part of his journey required him to hike through a mountain forest. He knew that there were wild boars in the area during the winter, and the villagers had set up some electric fences to hunt them, so he was extra careful.

While passing a low slope, he saw a bare tree with a yellow warning tape wrapped around its trunk. The words on the tape were blurred, looking like “Beware of Electrocution.” Li Ming's heart tightened, and he subconsciously slowed his pace. He remembered the village chief saying that the voltage on the hunting fences was very high, and anyone who touched them could be seriously injured or killed.

He carefully detoured around the tree and continued forward. The sky was overcast, as if it were going to snow. Li Ming looked up at the distant mountains, his heart filled with longing for home. Suddenly, he felt his footing give way, and his body uncontrollably pitched forward.

“Thump!”

After a dull thud, Li Ming lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying on a bed in a small clinic, covered with a thick quilt. An old doctor in a white coat was sitting by the bed, his brow furrowed.

“You’re awake? You’re lucky to be alive,” the old doctor said slowly. “You’ve got some nerve, daring to touch that electric fence.”

Li Ming struggled to sit up but felt weak all over. “Doctor, what…what happened to me?”

“You were electrocuted, but the current wasn’t too strong, and it didn’t hit any vital organs, so you got away with your life,” the old doctor stood up. “Luckily, the owner of the electric fence arrived in time and brought you here.”

Li Ming was startled. “The owner of the electric fence? Who is it?”

The old doctor pointed to the door. “There he is, waiting outside. He says he wants to talk to you.”

Li Ming looked towards the door, puzzled. A man in a gray jacket was standing there. The man was tall, dark-skinned, and had a hint of unease and apology on his face.

“I'm the owner of this electric fence, my name is Wang Dagang,” the man said, his voice a little hoarse. “I didn’t expect anyone to accidentally touch it, I'm truly sorry.”

Li Ming looked at Wang Dagang, his mind filled with questions. “Why did you set up an electric fence? Isn't hunting prohibited here?"

Wang Dagang sighed. “Alas, I didn't want to either. But my family has elderly parents and young children to feed. I had to take the risk to make sure they have enough to eat. The subsidies the village gives are too small, not enough to support my family."

Listening to Wang Dagang's explanation, Li Ming felt a mix of emotions. He felt wronged for the suffering he had endured, but also sympathetic to Wang Dagang’s plight.

“You...was the voltage on that fence too high?” Li Ming asked with difficulty.

Wang Dagang hesitated for a moment and said, “I'm not sure, I bought the electric fence secondhand. The seller said it was standard voltage and wouldn't be fatal. I even tested it with a voltmeter, and it was fine."

Li Ming frowned. He recalled the feeling of being shocked; it had felt like being hit by high-voltage electricity, not standard voltage. “Then...could you take me to see the electric fence?”

Wang Dagang nodded. "Of course, it's the least I can do."

They walked out of the clinic together to the place where Li Ming was shocked. When Li Ming saw the tree with the warning tape again, he felt that something was amiss. He looked closely and realized that it wasn't the same tree he had seen before. He remembered clearly that the bark of the previous tree was rough, but the bark of this tree was very smooth. Also, the warning tape on the previous tree was yellow, but the tape on this tree was red.

“What...what's going on?!” Li Ming asked, puzzled.

Wang Dagang scratched his head. "Oh, you mean that tree? I accidentally knocked it down while cutting firewood this morning, so I just found this tree to replace it. I happened to have some of this color of warning tape left over."

Li Ming felt dizzy. A terrifying thought flashed through his mind. He pointed at the grass nearby. "Then...where's the old tree?"

Wang Dagang led Li Ming to the edge of the grass and pointed at the ground. “There, it's right here."

Li Ming bent down and brushed away the dead leaves. He saw a black wire connected to a stump, which was covered with scorch marks. Li Ming now understood that he hadn't been shocked, he had been electrocuted to death.

Wang Dagang was still chattering on, his voice seeming to come from far away. Li Ming looked at Wang Dagang, his eyes filled with an indescribable sadness and a sense of powerlessness against reality. He suddenly recalled a philosophical paradox his teacher had mentioned in class: if a lie is repeated a thousand times, it becomes the truth.

He slowly closed his eyes, everything around him became blurry, and he could only hear the wind howling, as if mocking this absurd world.

“Li Ming, wake up, are you okay?” Wang Dagang's voice was filled with concern.

Li Ming opened his eyes and saw Wang Dagang looking at him with a concerned expression. The sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the ground. Everything seemed so real, yet so surreal. He stood up, brushed the dust off his clothes, and smiled at Wang Dagang.

“I'm fine, let's go, we should go down the mountain early,” Li Ming said, his voice a little hoarse.

They walked side by side, the setting sun casting long shadows of them on the mountain path, like two black dots about to disappear.