Sleepless Mountain (9)

I decided to ignore it and pushed forward another hundred meters. This strange shadow, centered on me, also advanced a hundred meters with me. I've climbed many high-altitude mountains and seen countless strange phenomena, but this was the first time I'd encountered anything like it. I had no choice but to stop and wait for Mita, who was at the end of the group, to catch up. Curiously, perhaps this force read my mind, because just as I was thinking this, the black shadow left me and moved towards the summit, disappearing. When Mita finally caught up, I mentioned seeing the black shadow. Mita looked utterly bewildered, saying he'd never encountered such a phenomenon either. Mita's explanation was this: "That was probably due to the angle. It must have been the shadow of some other peak cast over here. As the sun's angle changed, it moved with it, and finally disappeared somewhere else." On the surface, I played along, saying, "Oh, yeah, that must be it." But in my mind, I thought: How could that be possible? What kind of mountain peak casts a circular, disc-shaped shadow of a specific range with no discernible base? And as the sun rises, shadows should only recede down the mountain slope. How could a shadow possibly climb *up* the mountain...? But after spending a long time in the mountains, you inevitably encounter phenomena that are difficult to explain. At times like these, you can't dwell on them too much. What struck me as odd, however, was Mita's hesitant demeanor at that moment, as if he had something more to say but couldn't.