Could it be that a kindred spirit was also puzzled by this picture before, happened to have lived here, and while holding it in, felt melancholy and used his own feces to graffiti on the door to relieve his loneliness and emptiness? What does 104 mean? Is it a room number? Could this be a hint, telling me to pay attention to room 104? This room is four or five doors away from mine, and I suddenly realized that this was indeed a hint.
Things were getting more interesting. What was happening around me? I stood up, and with a stream of urine, I washed away all these thoughts, shaking as I walked out, deciding not to ponder further. I strolled straight to the door of room 104. Soon, I saw the door open, and a person was inside, bare-chested, using a basin to wipe his body while humming a tune: “Sister, you go ahead, oh oh, brother is waiting in the room, love and affection, don’t let anyone see.”
I looked at the person’s belly and saw many scars on it, resembling a chessboard. However, the person had very long hair and beard, looking extremely unkempt, with a mass of fat on him. A fat guy? I was shocked, but my inertia made me walk past the door of room 104 and head downstairs. As I walked, I thought to myself: This person is a fat guy. Damn, how could a fat guy arrive so quickly? In this weather, he came from one remote wilderness to another wilderness; it shouldn’t be possible to get here so fast.
Moreover, this is Motuo; getting in here is more troublesome than getting out of the Ten Thousand Mountains. But clearly, the fat guy didn’t want me to recognize him, which is why he didn’t look for me. He only left a mark in the bathroom, left the door open for me to see, and sang to hint at me. When I reached downstairs, I didn’t even know what I should do, so I randomly found a place to start smoking. Suddenly, I saw the fat guy pouring dirty water directly from upstairs and shouting downstairs: “Boss lady, there’s no hot water left, bring up two more pots of hot water.”
The door below opened, and the Ba people’s boss lady responded with an “Aye,” taking two pots of water upstairs. The fat guy then said, “Hurry up, or I’ll have diarrhea again. Ever since I came to this damn place, I’ve been having diarrhea every morning at seven o’clock. Is your food not clean?” “No way, boss, it’s absolutely clean. Are you not used to the food here?” The boss lady entered the fat guy’s room, and her voice became muffled.
I lit a cigarette and couldn’t help but laugh. Having diarrhea at exactly seven o’clock in the morning? Fine, I’ll follow you for a diarrhea session at seven fifteen tomorrow morning. When the time came the next day, I went to the bathroom on time. Aside from a fresh, foul smell, I saw a piece of toilet paper stuck to the back of the door with something disgusting, covered in a lot of writing.
I carefully tore it down, thinking to myself that indeed, he had diarrhea; the fat guy really went all out with the act. The paper was filled with information, and after reading it, I understood everything. It turned out that the fat guy had discovered three weeks ago that Agui’s phone was being tapped, but he couldn’t find anyone in the village who was monitoring him. He realized that the purpose of the person tapping the phone wasn’t him, but rather me, who called him every week.
So, he set up a trap, having A Gui hold his phone to the landline. Each time I called, A Gui wouldn’t answer right away; instead, he would notify him to call his mobile phone. Then he would put both the mobile and landline on speaker, making me believe he was still in Guangxi, while in reality, he had already left and was preparing to secretly come to Hangzhou to find me. When he arrived in Hangzhou, he found out I was in Nepal, so he waited for me to return. It wasn’t until I reached Metok and planned to stay for a while that he finally came over. The last phone call he made was almost from Linzhi nearby, and after that, he immediately entered Metok.
Once he got there, he didn’t meet up with me right away but waited for me at the mountain pass, then followed me all the way. He said that if I left a place for more than three minutes, someone would definitely appear to follow me. They were all locals, clearly not very experienced, and could only track me based on their familiarity with the area. They didn’t realize that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware that the fat guy was always watching me from nearby. Because of this, the fat guy couldn’t contact me; he said that as soon as he showed up, he would end up in the same situation as me since the place was too small. He would investigate on his own to see if he could discover anything and, for the time being, couldn’t find a better way to contact me secretly, so he advised me to pay attention to all the restrooms around me.
I flushed the toilet paper down the squat toilet and felt much more at ease. No matter how strong I am, having someone to protect and take care of me is always a good thing. Afterward, I thought about it and realized that at this point, I made a mistake again, but this mistake was quite controversial. According to my previous approach, I should have not thought about anything at this moment and left here with the fat guy first.
However, both the fat guy and I were thinking about figuring out who was still plotting against us and what their purpose was. I pulled up my pants and pushed the door open, feeling that everything could be deliberated over later; the game here had just begun. But as soon as I opened the door, I saw two lamas standing at the restroom door. I was taken aback and asked, “Waiting in line?” The lama shook his head and said, “Mr. Wu, the great lama wants you to go up the mountain immediately.” “What happened?” I asked. “What happened twenty years ago has happened again; someone has come out from the snow mountain.”
I don’t remember if I had ever told the lamas about my whereabouts, but the lamas here have great powers, or perhaps they had come looking for me one by one; I didn’t have time to ponder these things. I followed them up the mountain and arrived at the lama temple, where I found everything in chaos. Everyone looked suspicious and was busily doing who-knows-what; the place resembled a battlefield hospital. The lamas led me to the great lama’s bedroom, where I discovered that another person was sitting inside. This person had his back to me, wearing a Tibetan robe, quietly drinking butter tea.
I felt that the atmosphere was somewhat subtle because as soon as I entered the room, several lamas sitting by the side looked at me with very strange expressions. It wasn’t that their expressions were strange, but rather that they found me strange. This atmosphere made me uncomfortable, so I sat down next to that person and casually glanced to the side. In that moment, I nearly jumped out of my seat and flipped over. My mind buzzed, and I was almost scared senseless. The person sitting opposite the lamas was none other than myself.
No, my mind was in a jumble, and I was somewhat incoherent; it wasn’t really me, but I saw a face that looked exactly like mine. “Is that you?” I exclaimed in shock, unable to close my mouth. The other person looked at me, seemingly indifferent, simply nodding and saying, “I knew you wouldn’t die so easily.” “Who on earth are you!” I shouted, “What kind of monster are you, and why are you impersonating me?” I tried to rush over and strangle him, but he immediately stood up and took a few steps back, causing my attack to fail.
Then he waved his hand, saying, “We no longer have any conflicting interests, so you don’t need to be so extreme with me.” “No need?” I continued to curse, “Damn it, if you were me, would you not be extreme? Today, not only do I want to be extreme, but I also want to take you down!” “Haha, actually, I am you, and you are me.” He took another sip of butter tea, “This isn’t what I want either; we are both victims.”
The fire in my heart grew stronger, feeling utterly unreasonable, and I just wanted to take him down first. At that moment, the great lama spoke up. “You two don’t need to argue in this manner; let’s first resolve the issue at hand.” I looked at my counterpart and then at the great lama’s indifferent expression, suddenly feeling like I had seen this scene somewhere before. Was it in “Journey to the West”? Was the great lama like the Buddha, and I was like Sun Wukong, while the other was the Six-Eared Macaque?
I cautiously sat down. This guy had once tried to put me to death, and I would never return to a state of unpreparedness. So I kept my distance from him, always ready to defend or attack. I asked the great lama and this person, “What exactly is going on?” The great lama replied, “This gentleman suddenly appeared at the temple gate this noon, just like what happened twenty years ago. He told my young monk that he came from the snow mountain.
Because he looks exactly like you, I thought you were playing a joke on our young monk, but after interacting with him, I realized you are indeed two different people, so I quickly brought you back. I want to know what this is all about.” The fake Wu Xie said, “I spoke a few words with them and realized you might also be here, but they wouldn’t let me leave. I thought it would be good to meet you and clarify many things.” “You came from the snow mountain?” He nodded, and I asked, “Since you want to clarify things, tell me, who are you? What is your purpose?”
He picked up the butter tea, refilled his cup without any hesitation, and said, “I told you, it won’t do you any good.”
“I just want to die, so just tell me,” I said. “Unfortunately, I’ve just started to enjoy life a bit, and I don’t want to accompany you. I can only tell you that my matters and the experiences you’ve gone through are best kept separate,” he replied. “Time has passed; you are all free now. Don’t investigate further; don’t ruin the results. If you continue to get entangled, you might unknowingly fall into another great mystery.”
“I don’t care; a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water. Besides, I’m not entangled in anything. I’m just here by coincidence.”
“Aren’t you the one who found your way here?” He looked somewhat surprised. I nodded, and he set down his teacup and asked, “Then how did you come here?” I thought to myself, how should I respond? Should I tell him I was set up? Is it necessary to tell the truth? So I shook my head and snapped, “What business is it of yours?”
“You don’t understand the environment you are in,” he suddenly stood up. “If you didn’t come here on your own, then we are in big trouble.” After he stood up, he quickly scanned the room and asked the lama, “Master, does this room have any other exits?” The lama shook his head. Just as I was about to ask him what he was doing, the door to the room suddenly swung open, and several people walked in.
It was those Hong Kong people. Along with the lama and his group, there were about ten people crammed into the small room. The leader among them was someone I recognized at a glance, a slightly older middle-aged man named Zhang Longban; I couldn’t remember the others.
“Indeed, you fell into the trap. With the same kind of character, can’t you at least think a little better?” The fake Wu Xie sighed. “Why have you all come uninvited?” the lama asked. Zhang Longban said nothing, just looked at the two of us and said, “You two don’t need to think of any tricks; with your skills, it’s absolutely impossible for you to leave this room. It’s not easy; you two have finally gathered in one place, so some of our questions can be revealed.”
“And you are?” the guy who looks like me asked, “Who are you? Why set this trap for us?” “Before I determine whether you are reliable, I won’t disclose any information, just like you.”
“You really know me well,” the fake Wu Xie said, “but you may be overestimating yourselves.” After saying this, he suddenly moved closer to me, trapping me in his arm and dragging me backward. “Clear a path, or your objectives won’t be achieved.” Zhang Longban looked at us as if we were fools, and he stepped aside, revealing the girl behind him. She raised her hand, holding something up; I realized it was the slingshot I had made. Almost instantly, I heard the sound of something cutting through the air. The fake Wu Xie, who had me in a chokehold, trembled all over and fell to the ground, pulling me down with him.
I quickly rolled over and got up, only to see that guy curled up on the floor, clutching his face in pain. I turned around and saw the girl aiming the slingshot at me. I immediately shouted, “Stop! I’m being good—” Before I could finish, she flicked the slingshot, and I cried out as I fell to the ground.
