"Tell me, doesn't this thing look like a person?"
In the mist-shrouded mountains, a nearly three-meter-wide path wound through the landscape, bustling with people coming and going. This was the mountain road into the city—below lay a drop of dozens of meters, above stretched peaks that vanished into the fog.
The sun had already risen, but its light could not pierce the fog enveloping the mountains. Passersby stopped in their tracks.
Halfway up the mountain stood a sturdy old tree, beside which jutted a rough gray stone. Its surface was uneven, resembling a human face, and faint outlines of hands and feet could be seen around it.
"Smiling Face Stone, huh? This is your first time seeing it, right? It’s been here since I was a kid. Look."
At the base of the old tree sat a simple shrine, littered with paper ash and gold ingot candles. After a brief prayer, the two people moved on.
Finally, the sun broke through, casting a beam of light onto the stone. As the mist gradually dispersed, the whole mountain was bathed in brilliance, and a steady stream of travelers continued along the path.
Without exception, every passerby would stop and bow before the Smiling Face Stone.
Strangely, no moss grew near the stone. That’s how the legend began: in places like this, shrouded in mist and lacking sunlight, moss should thrive—lush green patches everywhere. But only around this peculiar Smiling Face Stone, the ground remained bare.
Over time, stories spread that the Smiling Face Stone possessed a spirit. Even more curiously, beneath the stone, vibrant wildflowers would often bloom in great clusters.
Times were changing. The war had only recently ended, and the city was being rebuilt. This little road, ancient as it was, connected several cities together.
With a click, a person in overalls and thick glasses raised a camera and snapped a photo.
"It really does look like a human face."
"Maybe it really is haunted. Look at all those beautiful flowers blooming beneath it."
A woman's voice spoke, but the man with the camera laughed dismissively.
"That’s just superstition. As successors of socialism, how could we believe in such things?"
Times kept changing. Passersby dressed in increasingly trendy clothes, and the road itself was being rebuilt, with plans to widen it.
"Hey, you can't move this stone! It's our local spirit stone—you’ll bring retribution upon yourselves."
An elderly man shouted as a construction crew finished placing explosives, preparing to blast the mountain and widen the road.
"Enough chatter. This is an order from above."
The old man cried, hoping they would spare this place, but the construction crew ignored his pleas and finished setting the explosives.
With a thunderous boom, the mountainside was blasted open. When the dust settled, the crew moved in.
But at that moment, everyone stood dumbfounded before an unbelievable sight. The old tree had fallen, the mountainside was shattered, yet the Smiling Face Stone remained standing, its back now exposed and still connected to the mountain wall.
It looked just like a person—the Smiling Face Stone had a face, hands, and feet, all fused together.
Some of the workers grew fearful, but the foreman grabbed a hammer and strode over.
"Just smash it. This disgusting stone."
With a clang, the hammer struck, but the Smiling Face Stone didn’t budge. No matter how hard they hit, the stone was like steel—utterly immovable.
Word spread to the city, and a geological survey team arrived to inspect the strange stone. But when they got there, the stone had miraculously vanished without a trace.
Things seemed to settle down, but days later, someone spotted the Smiling Face Stone jutting from the roadside of a mountain path near a village.
The whole village was abuzz—the stone that had vanished from the city road was now here. The Village Chief, overjoyed, led everyone in worshiping the Smiling Face Stone.
A year after the village began worshiping it, a heavy rain fell and lasted for days. One night, everyone in the village heard a voice: "Go to higher ground."
When the villagers awoke, they were terrified—everyone had heard the same message in their dreams. That day, the old man led the entire village to higher ground.
That night, a flash flood struck. A landslide destroyed most of the buildings, and everyone thought of the Smiling Face Stone.
People revered the Smiling Face Stone as a deity, but it was nowhere to be found.
After the disaster, the village relocated. Time passed—cars, planes, and ships entered daily life, and the city grew rapidly.
The small village that suffered the landslide became a small county town. In the place where the disaster struck, the legend of the Smiling Face Stone endured. Over the years, many searched the mountains, but none succeeded.
Then, the vanished Smiling Face Stone reappeared, causing a sensation. A group of hikers found it at the summit, looking exactly like the old photo in the city museum.
Many curious people came to see it. Some tried to take the Smiling Face Stone away, but no matter what they did, it wouldn’t budge.
Some even tried to chip off a piece for testing, but not a single grain of sand could be removed. No one knew what it was made of, or why it was there.
Driven by curiosity, more and more people grew interested in the stone.
But at this critical moment, the Smiling Face Stone vanished again. People searched the entire mountain but found no trace of it.
At that time, a couple arrived in the long-abandoned village and began to level the old foundations, planning to build a natural farm there.
Through hard work, the couple became wealthy within a few years. The farm grew in size, with a large output.
One day, while the wife was working in the orchard on the mountain, she suddenly discovered a strange stone. Alarmed, she called her husband and some workers from the nearby county.
They soon realized it was the Smiling Face Stone. After hearing many stories, the couple simply smiled at each other. This time, the news didn’t spread like before.
In an age dominated by material desires, such strange tales were no match for TV dramas and movie stars—they drew no attention anymore.
The wife was a kind and meticulous woman. She found the Smiling Face Stone unsettling, so she painted it, turning it into a smiling face.
From then on, the Smiling Face Stone became the Smiling Face Rock, and the farm thrived under the couple’s management.
After the wife became pregnant, the husband hired more workers and took great care of her. The couple often strolled through the orchard, sharing stories about the Smiling Face Rock. But none of the tales were as miraculous as those they’d heard before. For years, the stone showed no signs of anything unusual.
The rainy season returned, but this year it was particularly harsh. Days of heavy rain caused the soil on the mountain to slide, filling the edges of the orchard.
The couple grew anxious—their child was nearly due, and the farm was their home. Many advised them to leave, but the husband sprang into action, braving the rain to secure the mountainside with wooden stakes and nylon nets, hauling bags of sand to stabilize the slope.
That night, both dreamed of the Smiling Face Rock, which urged them to leave and promised their home would remain safe.
The next day, the rain grew heavier. Looking at his wife's pregnant belly, the husband finally decided to leave. Everything they'd built might be lost, but he said they could start over.
They recalled the strange dream and smiled at each other. Before leaving, they prayed for the safety of their home.
That night, the rain intensified, causing a landslide. Thunder roared as torrents of mud and trees swept down the mountain.
In the night sky, the Smiling Face Rock hovered above, watching the landslide. Suddenly, a crimson bolt of lightning struck the stone with a crack.
With a bang, the stone shattered. A plump little hand emerged, and streams of black mist surged from the ground, instantly forming a barrier that stopped the landslide at the orchard's edge.
In the stormy night, lightning flashed and thunder rolled. A pair of black eyes, a small, frail figure with outstretched arms, seemed to be controlling something. The whole night passed.
The next morning, the couple returned, stunned to find the entire mountain gone, with dazzling sunlight pouring in.
The mountain that had blocked the morning sun had vanished—just as in their dream, a miracle had occurred.
The husband rushed to the orchard, but the Smiling Face Rock was nowhere to be found.
Word spread, but soon faded away. Attention shifted elsewhere, and groups of students left for another place because of an unrelated event.
In the mountains, a mud-covered, black-haired, black-eyed baby crawled along. Grinning, he revealed razor-sharp teeth and lunged at a vicious fish in a stream, splashing water everywhere.
The baby caught a live fish and immediately stuffed it into his mouth, chewing away.
Satisfied after eating, he tilted his head back and laughed with joy.