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1775 Chapter 44 – Release into the Wild

Their initial journey was particularly dull. They first set off from Changbai Mountain, traveled to Shandong, and then took a boat from Shandong all the way to Shanghai. Zhang Haike believed that places like Luoyang were graveyards of ancient tombs, likely swarming with tomb raiders. Although he might not be at a disadvantage when fighting these seasoned criminals, they were ruthless and had a history of killing, and at that time, firearms were rampant. The Zhang family kids, when facing these old hands, probably had little chance of winning. For them, entering such areas posed too great a risk; there were only two of them, one of whom was just thirteen years old. They had little money and supplies, so it would be better to search for some shallower tombs in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and see if they could strike it lucky.

They lingered around Shanghai for a long time and dug a few tombs, only to find them so barren that it left them speechless; they couldn’t find anything worth taking. They then moved from Shanghai to Hangzhou and then to Jiangsu. Near Xuzhou, they discovered a few larger tombs, but upon entering, they found that they had already been completely looted, leaving nothing but some broken tiles, which could not serve as tokens.

By this time, they had traveled most of China, and their money was nearly spent. They were living off stolen vegetables from gardens. The two were in a dire situation, and Zhang Haike felt that if they continued to waste time like this, they would surely fail the wild release test before the end of the year.

After some discussion, they decided to head west again, towards those ancient grave areas and old provinces rich in cultural relics, hoping to find some overlooked opportunities. However, their plans still did not come to fruition. On their way west, they fortuitously encountered another group of Zhang family members who were also around fifteen years old, totaling three people. This group, like them, had traveled much of China without success. Although there were many ancient tombs in Shaanxi, looting was rampant, and many tombs had already been stripped of valuable items. Some tombs had been looted hundreds of times, resembling a beehive with all the holes, and such tombs were unlikely to yield anything good; going there would be a waste of effort.

Finding an undisturbed tomb among so many was not a simple task for them; it required a great deal of luck. As the five of them pondered by a cell, time had already passed significantly. If they didn’t return by the end of the year, it would not only be embarrassing for them but also a failure in their exams, bringing shame to their parents.

The five decided to take a risk and do something very dangerous—they resolved to steal from a particularly special tomb, one that didn’t require searching for, as it was right there, but no one had ever managed to loot it. This became the catalyst for many events that followed.

At the time, they didn’t even know which province they were in, only that there was a very large village called Ma’an Village, and the ancestral tomb of Ma’an Village was located on the back hill. Ma’an Village had a local armed force, a group of scattered soldiers and deserters from various places, supported by a wealthy landlord from Ma’an Village. These people were seasoned fighters; while they might not have been effective in battle, they were quite capable, and they guarded most of the area around Ma’an Village.

At that time, their idea was to find a way to sneak to the back mountain of Maan Village. This was actually a very dangerous move because the graveyard was guarded, and the scale of these burial mounds was not large; it was just a small earthen hill. It would be very difficult to operate on it.

A few of them ran to the vicinity of Maan Village, pretending to be playing children, carefully gathering intelligence about the enemy. They discovered that the fastest way to reach the burial mound was to dig a tunnel through the forest down to the foot of the mountain and then directly excavate a few ancestral graves. Their goal was very simple: the graves in Maan Village were divided into three levels, with the outermost graves appearing very new, all of which were recent burials, totaling seven.

They learned that Maan Village had been here for thirty-six generations. If the ancestral graves had always been buried in the back mountain, according to burial customs, there should be a very large group of tombs. However, this earthen hill was not very large, which meant there wasn’t much space to accommodate the burial of so many generations. The earliest and most valuable ancient tomb would certainly have a very peculiar location.

They overlooked the burial mounds from a nearby high ridge and deduced the movements of the entire hilly terrain and changes in landforms, trying to find out what the original landform here looked like. Soon they discovered that due to continuous excavation of graves and backfilling of land, the tombs were embedded within, causing the burial mound to rise higher and higher. This meant that the entire burial mound should be a very dense group of ancient tombs. At the beginning, the mound was not this high; it might have just been a small hill on the plain, or it might have been completely unnoticeable. This indicated that within a radius of several kilometers around the mound should be the site of early ancient tombs, and they must be very deep.

Thus, the core question was, where exactly was the most crucial ancient tomb located beneath this burial mound? They knew that if they dug incorrectly, they would have absolutely no second chance.

Among the children playing nearby, one had a particularly active mind. He pondered what could have caused all the ancient tombs to shift towards a few mounds. From the perspective of feng shui, the area had very good geomancy, but why did they have to be on the mountain? It wasn’t necessarily required.

Thinking it over, one suggested, “Perhaps there was a situation where originally this was a flat burial area, and one day a gigantic ancient tomb needed to be built here, requiring a larger earthen mound. This earthen mound would be the original shape of this mountain. The formation of this mound caused the terrain to undulate, and after this undulation, many people would be unwilling to bury their ancestral graves in a place lower than this mound; they would prefer to build them in a higher location. Over time, the owners of the oldest few large graves naturally disappeared, and many people began to regard the earthen mound as a burial mountain. Generally speaking, burying graves on top of each other is considered very inauspicious, but perhaps these owners were unaware, resulting in the current situation.”

In other words, the very bottom of this burial mound should be a very large ancient tomb. The question was how to bypass the guards. The Zhang family’s children measured the distance; digging a pit from the forest to reach this side would be at least two kilometers long, which was extremely labor-intensive and costly. With just the five of them, to dig such a long distance, they would have to find a clever way to do it.

They had to dig the population of this pit very close to the area, so they needed to use sleight of hand. However, from the overall situation, this seemed unlikely because the surrounding hills were barren except for a few lookout posts; it was all yellow mountains, completely exposed, and anyone who approached would be easily spotted.

Yet, they noticed that the patrolling guards were very lax. Indeed, in such circumstances, there would likely be few brave enough to attempt grave robbing here, so there was no need to be overly tense.

Although the Zhang family’s children had their own unique methods for digging tunnels, one of the Zhang children believed that such an ancient tomb was unlikely to have gone unnoticed. If they searched from a distance, they were sure to find traces of someone having dug into this tomb mound. They could find a way to locate these holes and assess whether they were still usable.

At that time, Zhang Haike said, “If there are holes, doesn’t that mean this tomb has already been robbed?”

The Zhang child replied, “Not necessarily. Think about it—why would the local wealthy landowner in Maan Village hire armed guards to protect the tomb? This suggests they likely know there are valuable items inside. Such an ancient tomb would definitely not be something a mere petty thief could rob. Even if skilled thieves have come, they would have left some treasures for future generations. In any case, it is worth a visit.”

1774 Chapter 43 – The Muffled Oil Bottle at Thirteen.

“That means you are his childhood friend.”
Zhang Haike nodded, lit a cigarette, and said, “That’s right, you can use the term ‘childhood friend.’ I trained with him from the beginning, and I know a lot about him—his habits, his preferences—more than you do. If you want to listen, I can tell you everything about him.”
I was still hesitant about whether to believe him when the fat man said, “Just go ahead and speak. But let me tell you, if I find even the slightest inconsistency, we have nothing more to discuss.”
Zhang Haike replied, “Don’t worry, for the sake of better cooperation and my own purposes, I will definitely not deceive you.” As he said this, he gave Zhang Haixing a glance, and she got up and left.
Then, Zhang Haike sighed and said to me, “When he was born, something very significant happened in the Zhang family. This event was the beginning of everything and the root of all decline.”
Zhang Haike really didn’t have much talent for storytelling; he was all over the place, and the fat man was left confused. I was definitely a bit better than the fat man in this regard; summarizing and organizing information is my strength, and I already had some theoretical understanding of the Zhang family and the entire incident. Therefore, I recorded what Zhang Haike was saying in my own words.
For a long time, intermarriage among the Zhang family was very strict. The Zhang clan was extremely powerful and could almost control everything. This family generally practiced internal marriages, and fortunately, with such a large family, there were no awkward issues that arose.
However, the younger brother was an anomaly within this family. No one knew who the younger brother’s mother was. When his father brought him back to the family, it was supposed to be a cold winter. At that time, his father had gone to the Nepal region to transport a batch of goods and was gone for a long time. When he returned, he was holding a baby still in swaddling clothes.
Without a mother’s care, the younger brother grew up in a chaotic environment. In his early years, he didn’t even know who his father was, as the huge and flourishing system of the family made it impossible for him to discern. This was largely why the younger brother was reluctant to speak much.
According to Zhang Haike’s description, the Zhang family’s mansion at that time was located in the Jinling Mountains, consisting of seven connected buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, with as many as thirteen courtyards. This was just the residence of the main branch of the Zhang family; the entire village had dozens of households from the Zhang clan’s external branches. Although they all shared the surname Zhang and controlled many people, the status of the main family was much higher than that of the external branches.
Zhang Haike was a child of the Zhang family’s external branch, so he had very few opportunities to visit the main family’s mansion. Most of the children from the main family were arrogant, so whenever Zhang Haike occasionally entered the main courtyard, it was usually to pay New Year’s greetings, and those children were generally unwilling to play with him.
In truth, Zhang Haike didn’t care much about this, because for him, the authority represented by the main Zhang family was merely supported by the external branches of the Zhang family; it was a kind of tacit understanding.

He believed that he could live more freely among outsiders, as the family rules were numerous and burdensome, often weighing heavily on people. However, what particularly caught Zhang Haike’s attention was a very reclusive child he often saw at the Zhang family home. This child did not speak or play with other children; he merely stood quietly in the courtyard or under the columns by the courtyard, staring blankly at the sky above.

Zhang Haike found this child very intriguing, which sparked his curiosity to understand him better. Moreover, this child was not well-liked by others in the family, which gave Zhang Haike a sense of familiarity and kinship.

Once, when his father took him to the family home for business, his father was discussing matters with other clan members while he wandered alone in the yard. He saw the child again. The child was Zhang Qiling, who was only three years old at the time. After some thought, Zhang Haike mustered his courage to walk over and asked, “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you playing with them?”

The child looked at him, shook his head, and did not speak. This was the first conversation between Zhang Haike and Zhang Qiling.

That day, Zhang Haike stayed in the yard with the little brother. He had a strange resilience, believing that if he kept talking, the child would eventually respond and communicate with him. However, this time he met his match.

The child quietly listened, gazing at the sky, and Zhang Haike couldn’t tell if he was paying attention or understood anything. As he left, Zhang Haike wondered if the child might be sick, abnormal, unable to speak, or perhaps he simply did not understand what Zhang Haike was saying.

After that meeting, it took ten years for them to meet again. By then, Zhang Haike was already fifteen. Children in the Zhang family underwent very strict training from a young age, with rigorous requirements for agility and physical ability. Age fifteen marked a crucial milestone, as children could then seek out ancient tombs and establish their own reputations. The Zhang family referred to this act as “going wild.”

Ten years later, the little brother would be thirteen, so Zhang Haike was particularly surprised to see a boy shorter than him among a group of children preparing to “go wild.”

The process of going wild was extremely dangerous; many children from the Zhang family had met untimely deaths during this venture. However, thanks to the family’s strict training, things gradually improved over generations.

Children in the Zhang family learned from a young age that going wild was a very dangerous endeavor, so they trained diligently. Of course, some children abandoned this training early on to avoid the dangers. While they did not strive for any status within the family, they managed to save their own lives.

Going wild often had dire consequences, and a fundamental mindset among the Zhang family was that the only goal was to complete the task, regardless of the means. Thus, many children would team up to raid an ancient tomb, believing that more people meant greater strength and the ability to work together.

Zhang Haike noticed that the little brother did not seem to have such plans. While everyone else was packing their bags and preparing provisions and travel expenses, the little brother had already set off quietly on his own.

Zhang Haike is a person with a very wide social circle. At that time, he was discussing with a few friends about where to go for tomb raiding. One of his friends had somehow obtained a layout map of an ancient tomb in Shanxi, rumored to be an oil pit, which would allow them to easily acquire antiques once they arrived there. This was also permitted within the Zhang family, as the source of information and the ability to handle and manage intelligence were considered very important skills. If Zhang Haike followed them, this endeavor would likely encounter no problems, and the subsequent events would not unfold as they did. However, seeing a thirteen-year-old boy setting out on his own made Zhang Haike feel a bit worried.

Zhang Haike was very averse to the family system, and his dislike for the family stemmed from this. He didn’t appreciate the rigid rules set by the family and felt that forcing a thirteen-year-old child to embark on such a journey alone was very unfair to the boy. He heard from other children in the family that the boy’s father had passed away when he was around seven or eight years old, and he was raised by uncles and relatives. While he was not raised in an abusive environment, he certainly lacked love and happiness. Moreover, the boy was very quiet, which led Zhang Haike to believe that someone in the family might not want him to continue living.

At that time, Zhang Haike was very confident in his abilities. He had trained his fingers to be much stronger than those of an average person, and his speed had also reached a certain level. Therefore, he could almost be considered a rare tomb raider. In contrast, the boy was still very small and thin, and his finger strength and length were not particularly remarkable, especially since he was only thirteen. The way the boy walked, so frail and weak, made Zhang Haike feel that his chances of survival were slim, so he chose to part ways with his friends and decided to protect this young boy from the Zhang family. This may have been the most successful decision he made in his life.

1773 Chapter 42 – Zhang Haixing

“Now let me introduce our plans for the future.” She took out a hand-drawn map and spread it out in front of me and the fat guy, saying, “In a few days, the two of you, along with me and a German, will begin the real journey into the snowy mountains. We will find the places where our clan leader used to stay, understand everything that happened there, and retrieve the things he left behind. I think everyone agrees on this premise.”

I looked at Zhang Haixing and asked, “Do we really need the German?”

“Yes,” Zhang Haixing replied. “We have reached a consensus with the Germans. My brother knows the specifics better. Right now, I need to give you a basic understanding of the entire route. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Zhang Haixing, and I am a senior mountaineering instructor. All of your actions during this expedition must follow my instructions because this is a snowy mountain, and it’s an uninhabited area. This place is completely different from anywhere you’ve been before. We have no rescue options and no chances of survival. A single mistake could lead to death. Therefore, everything I, Zhang Haixing, say must be followed word for word.”

I waved my hand at Zhang Haixing. I was no longer the Wu Xie who could be easily manipulated. I said to her, “We are equal partners in this cooperation, so it’s not right for one person to have the final say. That’s the first point. Second, we need to formally understand everything that has happened before we consider going with you. No matter what we discussed before, the conditions have changed, so I can clearly tell you that I won’t listen to whatever you say at the moment. I only want to hear what we want to know. Please tell me, what exactly is going on? What did you discuss with the Germans? Who are those Germans? If you can’t explain, have your brother come over immediately.”

Zhang Haixing glanced at the door, and Zhang Haike walked in. It seemed he had been eavesdropping outside.

Zhang Haixing said to him, “This guy isn’t as obedient as I imagined.”

Zhang Haike stood next to me and said, “It’s best if you don’t know about the Germans. They are a nonexistent organization, and their purpose for coming here is different from ours. We are both seeking our own interests, and they have been studying us for a long time. I think you must have encountered Jude Kao and know about his company. After Jude Kao died, his company was restructured, the corporate shell was auctioned off, and all the data was obtained by investors. I can honestly tell you that our relationship with this group of Germans has been maintained for a long time, and both sides have been secretly making moves, but all of this has nothing to do with you. We have just reached an understanding with the Germans, and the purpose is to ensure your safety. If you insist on making things difficult for us and want to know everything, the consequences may be something you can’t bear. You might have to drift along with us for the rest of your lives.”

I asked Zhang Haike, “Is this a threat?”

Zhang Haike said, “Sometimes stating facts can sound a lot like a threat, but you know, I’ve been mimicking you and studying you for a long time. I’ve seen all your transformations, and I know that in this situation, you’re not easily fooled. But please understand that all the pain you’ve experienced in the past came from your quest for the truth, and those questions are fundamentally unrelated to you. Now, you find yourself trapped in a big mystery that concerns you; unless you choose not to believe it and continue to seek answers, instead of gathering more strange and horrifying information. I can tell you clearly that this information has nothing to do with your desire to prove yourself. The wisest thing you can do right now is to see the Germans and us as one group of people.”

The fat man was not fully awake yet; his eyes were fixed on the hexagonal bell in Zhang Haixing’s hand. Zhang Haixing shook it near his ear, and only then did he slowly come around.

I said to Zhang Haike, “So can I choose not to go? If this isn’t a threat, I should have the freedom to choose.”

Zhang Haike replied, “You know I could easily take you with me, but many things afterward require our cooperation. An unfriendly relationship can lead to disaster in many cases, so I will persuade you. I will do everything I can to convince you to go, even tell you many secrets. If you agree, you can ask me any questions within my ability to answer, and I will answer truthfully.”

I said, “I always feel that the questions I want to ask fall into the category of things you can’t answer.”

Zhang Haike shook his head and said, “You’re wrong. I’m not like the people you’ve interacted with before. There are many things I can tell you directly. For example, your friend, the Silent Oil Bottle, our clan leader—I can tell you everything about him because, for us, keeping secrets about him has no significance.”

I looked at the fat man, and he said, “You’re not making this up, are you? The little brother hardly says anything. How could you know everything about him so easily?”

Zhang Haike replied, “He doesn’t speak because of his own issues; for us, his background is not a secret. Do you want to hear it?”

The temptation was too great. I took a deep breath and scratched my head: Surely this guy hasn’t concocted a perfect story waiting for me, but then I thought it unlikely. Given what I know about the Silent Oil Bottle, if they were to fabricate a story, I should be able to spot the flaws. After thinking it over, I nodded and said to them, “Alright, if I can really obtain the information I need, I will cooperate fully with you and help you with everything, and I promise not to ask any more questions.”

Zhang Haike nodded, “You really are a reasonable person; now I find your face a bit more pleasing. Alright, what do you want to know?”

I asked, “Do you know the little brother?”

Zhang Haike nodded, “Of course, we lived together for a long time.”

I was taken aback by this first answer. I asked, “How long? Longer than the time I spent with the little brother?”

Zhang Haike smiled and said, “I met the so-called little brother when we were both two years old. Do you know how many years ago that was?”

1772 Chapter 41 – A Dream of Yellow Millet

When I woke up, I sensed something was off. It took me a long time to slowly regain my memories: the incident with the bug, how I gradually left the lama temple, how I returned to the bar, and how I fainted. My eyelids felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and I couldn’t open them at all. I could only rely on my sense of smell and touch, and I detected a particularly familiar scent.

So, I was taken to the hospital; that’s great. I drifted back to sleep quickly, but this time it was just a brief nap. A few seconds later, I suddenly woke up, and this time I could finally open my eyes.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn’t in the hospital I had imagined. I didn’t see a white ceiling, even though I was quite familiar with that kind of ceiling. Instead, I saw the top of a very ancient building, and upon closer inspection, I recognized it as the structure of the lama temple. At that moment, I turned my eyes around and saw Zhang Haike, Zhang Haixing, and the fat lama sitting not far from me.

I was lying on a wooden floor, surrounded by felt hangings and a lit stove, and the fat man was lying right next to me. I slowly sat up. At that moment, they noticed I was awake and approached me while whispering to each other. My hearing wasn’t quite right yet, so I looked around and asked, “What’s going on? Didn’t I come down from the mountain? Isn’t this place full of bugs?”

Zhang Haixing walked over to me, shaking a bell in her hand. I glanced at it and found it very familiar; after careful examination, I realized it was the hexagonal bell I had seen before. The bell emitted a very crisp sound.

Zhang Haixing leaned down and asked me, “Do you know what this is?” I wanted to shake my head and nod at the same time. Although I knew that hearing this bell too much could induce hallucinations, I really couldn’t recall its name.

Zhang Haixing kept shaking the bell near my ear, and the more I listened, the more awake I became. I gradually felt the heavy, oppressive energy in my mind dissipate. Then I saw a strange stand placed between the fat man and me, with six or seven of those peculiar hexagonal bells hanging on it.

“What is this?” I asked Zhang Haixing as my thoughts began to clear.

Zhang Haixing replied, “I can’t tell you just yet. This is a technique we discovered a long time ago. By combining different types of bells, we can induce various kinds of hallucinations. These hallucinations feel incredibly real, and if I don’t tell you how those experiences are created, you’ll think everything really happened.”

As I carefully looked at those bells, Zhang Long walked over, holding a spoon. He approached me and cautiously poured the contents of the spoon onto one of the bells, and I smelled a special fragrance.

Zhang Haixing continued, “We also don’t dare to use them casually because we don’t know what consequences different combinations will produce, so we seal them with melted rosin.”

I knew that the mechanism behind this kind of thing might not even be clear to them, so I stopped asking. However, Zhang Haixing still continued to explain somewhat smugly, “Our family has conducted extensive research on this, and we’ve mastered twelve different uses.”

“Just now, the one you used is the mildest effect,” she said with a smile. For some reason, I felt that there was a hint of schadenfreude in her expression.

I recalled the various experiences I had in the ancient tomb and knew that if this thing was misused, it could lead to catastrophic consequences. However, I didn’t feel that what they used on me was mild at all, as the coldness and the pain from the insect bites were all too vivid.

I vaguely realized that this seemed to be another test, so I asked Zhang Haixing, “What is the purpose of doing this? What about those Germans?”

Zhang Haixing replied, “Well, my brother will explain it to you later. But I can congratulate you; you’ve passed a stage that is very difficult for an ordinary person.”

I glanced at the fat guy and asked, “What about him?”

Zhang Haixing said, “He’s slightly worse off than you, but with him around, you’ll feel more at ease, so he passes too.”

I asked, “Why is this happening?”

“This kind of bell can leave some people unable to wake up after being affected. For example, him,” Zhang Haixing pointed at the fat guy, “But you’re different; you managed to wake up on your own, which means you’ve experienced something at a higher level than this. Think about it, have you gone through a situation that was very, very illogical?”

I frowned. Zhang Haixing said, “It’s real, but absolutely impossible to happen.”

I didn’t want to think about this any longer; on one hand, my head was pounding, and on the other, I wanted to hear Zhang Haixing continue.

Zhang Haixing said, “Entering the snowy mountains, immunity to this kind of bell is very important. We need to know if you have the ability to withstand all changes. Although we don’t know what kind of scene appeared in your hallucination, we know it must be the thing you fear the most. You were extremely, extremely desperate, and this kind of despair can lead to extreme pain and rejection. But in such a situation, you managed to endure, which is quite impressive. From this, we know you are someone who can accept any difficulty and won’t give up on yourself because of it; you are someone who can solve any crisis. Most importantly, you woke up on your own after the hallucination disappeared, while many people never wake up from it.”

I wanted to tell her, “I’m definitely not someone who can solve any difficulty, and how do you know what the scene in the hallucination was like?” but I simply didn’t have the energy to argue.

Zhang Haixing said, “We can hear you speaking and use language to guide your hallucinations; we can hear everything you said in your hallucination. What comforts me the most is that everything you said was very positive, unlike that fat guy. The things he said in his hallucination were simply unbearable; I don’t even know what he was thinking in a critical moment.”

I looked at the fat guy, who still hadn’t woken up. Zhang Long was gently shaking the bell near the fat guy’s ear. The fat guy slowly began to respond, murmuring, “Don’t go, don’t go, I’d be willing to die for you. Dying under the peony flower, even as a ghost, is still romantic.”

Zhang Haixing glanced at me with a helpless expression. I sighed and thought to myself: for a fat person, if it truly is something they fear the most, it might not be that they can’t bear it, but rather that they are afraid to face it.

Although it was filthy language, perhaps in his hallucination, he was seeing the ghosts of clouds? I looked into Zhang Haixing’s eyes, then at my own palms and body, and realized that there were indeed no wounds on me. What I experienced earlier was indeed an illusion. I sighed inwardly and suddenly began to feel a sense of haze about everything in front of me.

Zhuang Zhou dreamed of being a butterfly; he didn’t know whether he was a butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou or Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly. Many things, is it really necessary to clarify so much?

Zhang Haixing noticed my doubts and said, “You don’t need to be anxious. I know what you’re worried about. In the beginning, we indeed found this thing very dangerous, but just think about it: during the process you just went through, is it reasonable for this to happen? You will understand whether you are in an illusion or in reality.”

Just now, the temple was filled with insects. I looked around the temple and thought about it; this thing was indeed absolutely impossible. All hallucinations come suddenly. If it weren’t so real, I would definitely realize I was in an illusion. The scariest part is that even the pain feels real.

Then Zhang Haixing said, “Think again: are these terrifying things you experienced truly what you fear in your heart?”

I fell silent, touched my body, and Zhang Long handed me a cigarette. I lit it and said, “Everyone is only half-understanding; just let me rest for a while.”

Zhang Haixing was quite spirited, which made me realize she couldn’t be very old. This kind of vitality is quite different from An Ning’s stability. When I made a retort, she became a bit unhappy, glared at me, turned, and left, tossing back a parting shot: “Just wait, my brother talks even more than I do. Let him come and serve you. You can look after yourselves.”

However, Zhang Haike did not appear. After the fat guy woke up, I rambled on and explained things to him. I felt that what happened occurred after we returned to my room. The bell might have been attached to the door; we were so excited when we pushed the door open that we didn’t notice anything unusual, and we didn’t know when the hallucination appeared.

It took the fat guy a long time to believe it. Our bodies felt very weak; it wasn’t fatigue, but rather a sense of exhaustion. By nightfall, Zhang Haike hadn’t come, and Zhang Haixing came again. This time, she brought some things to show us.

1771 Chapter 40 – Misunderstanding

Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn’t the young man at all, but the lama who had just harmed us. I couldn’t even begin to describe the appearance of this lama. His body was crawling with countless bugs, many of which I had never seen before; aside from beetles and mosquito-like insects, there were several other colorful bugs. He looked as if he were completely infested with them.

The胖子 and I approached him, and since we had no clothes left, we grabbed a bamboo basket and a bamboo tray from the room and began to swat the bugs off the lama’s body. After we finished, I discovered that his face was unrecognizable from all the bites, his body was swollen everywhere, and it seemed like some bugs had burrowed into his skin, causing bean-sized lumps to form. He was twitching uncontrollably.

We dragged the lama back, and the胖子 rushed forward to try to close the doors and windows again, but it was too late. The lama had slammed into them so hard that the door frame was almost falling apart, and the door wouldn’t close at all.

Outside, mosquito-like flying insects swarmed into the room. I pulled the lama into a corner, and the胖子 was swatting at the bugs with the bamboo basket while saying, “Damn, it looks like we’re going to die here. This isn’t a lama temple; it’s a damn bug pit. If I have to say something before I die, the most worthwhile thing in my life has been meeting a friend like you.”

Just as I was about to encourage him not to give up, I suddenly saw the lama tugging at me, pointing towards a corner of the room, indicating I should look that way.

Following the direction the lama was pointing, I saw many bamboo baskets and wooden boxes piled up in one corner. The wooden boxes were locked with very old iron locks, but the baskets were quite lightweight. I went over to inspect the gaps in the baskets; they weren’t particularly tight, but they were more than enough to keep those large bugs out. However, it seemed a bit tight for the胖子 to fit inside.

I shouted at the胖子, and when he turned to see me pointing at the baskets, he understood but shook his head.

I was furious and thought to myself, “What are you being so picky about?” I yelled, “If you want to live, get into those baskets and hide!”

The胖子 replied, “Are you planning to chop me up and put me inside?”

I said, “Don’t underestimate the size of the basket. Many people mistakenly think that something of a certain size can’t hold them, but humans are very flexible as long as you position yourself correctly.”

The胖子 cursed, “Bah! This basket isn’t even big enough to be a condom for me!”

I couldn’t argue with him. While swatting at the bugs, I directly pulled him towards the basket and forced him to stick his feet inside. The胖子 had no choice but to squat down, half-pushing and half-allowing himself to go in. Suddenly, his face lit up, and he said, “Ah, it seems I really can fit!”

“You’re not as big as you think,” I replied. “But this way, only your lower body can fit in; I’ll have to use two baskets to contain you.” Saying this, I grabbed another basket, placed it over the胖子’s head, and pressed down hard until he looked like a meatball. Then I quickly went to find more baskets.

There were plenty of baskets here; I picked out two good ones and stuffed the lama into one of them. After that, it was my turn. Since I was much thinner than the胖子, I easily slipped into one.

Crouched inside the basket, I was shielded from the bugs’ attacks, but there were still many bugs that had latched onto my skin, continuously biting me.

I carefully pulled the bugs off one by one with my hands. Through the gaps, I could see the bamboo basket on the fat guy’s side shaking continuously, and I knew he was doing the same thing. Soon, I could no longer see the situation outside through the gaps in the frame. Countless bugs were crawling all over the basket, densely packed. I could hear the sound of their spiny, hairy legs scraping against the bamboo strips, crackling loudly, which was quite terrifying.

The fat guy said, “There’s no time to waste. It’s temporarily safe; let’s see if we can roll out.” I replied, “The threshold here is particularly high. The temples in Tibet are built with high thresholds; we definitely can’t roll out like this. How about we take the bottom off the basket and walk out? We should try to keep the bottom of the basket with us, so even if the bugs come in through the bottom, we can quickly stomp them to death.”

We tried to tear off the entire bottom of the bamboo basket, but we had no tools, and the basket was very tough. Moreover, in such a cold place, we weren’t wearing jackets, and our bodies were frozen stiff, making it impossible to exert any strength. In the end, we could only scrape little by little, and finally, we managed to make two holes in the bottom of the basket large enough to stretch our feet out.

There was no time to fix the broken bamboo spikes at the hole; we stretched our feet out and moved forward little by little. This method was feasible, but the sharp spikes at the hole kept scraping against my ankles, quickly leaving them scarred and bruised. Even so, I couldn’t care less. We moved forward inch by inch, not knowing if the fat guy was keeping up until I reached the door and asked him how he was doing. I heard his voice and realized he was already outside the door.

The fat guy’s actions were certainly much more reckless than mine, but with his tough skin and flesh, he wasn’t afraid of being bitten by bugs. I jumped with all my might, leaping over the threshold and landing in the courtyard. The fat guy asked, “Are we just going to leave that lama behind?” I replied, “Let’s save our lives first; we don’t have time to worry about him right now.”

The two of us moved slowly in the courtyard, and after much effort, we finally reached the courtyard gate and entered the corridor. However, all the bugs followed us, showing no intention of leaving. The fat guy said, “It seems it’s not so easy to shake them off. There’s no way we can inch our way down the mountain like this.” I told him, “In this situation, there’s no such thing as possibility or impossibility. Even if it’s a mountain of knives or a sea of fire, we have to move forward like this.”

The fat guy was at a loss, cursing while continuing to move forward. The next part was very tedious; I had no idea how long we had been walking, stopping, resting, and walking again. All I felt was my knees were weak, my back ached, and my muscles were strained. Relying on a bit of memory and the occasional glimpse through the gaps at some features, we kept moving toward the temple’s entrance. It wasn’t until dusk that we finally jumped out of the temple door. There was still a long stretch of mountain road ahead, and by this time, I was completely exhausted. The bamboo basket couldn’t keep me warm, and all the skin on my body was turning purple from the cold. Coupled with this exhausting way of moving forward, we hadn’t eaten or drunk anything all day. I knew that if we continued like this, we would either be bitten to death by the bugs or freeze to death from hunger.

I walked all the way to the edge of the steps, wondering if I could just roll down. Rolling down, I wasn’t sure if I would survive; after all, the only protection we had was a bamboo basket. If we rolled down, as long as we protected our bodies, even if we ended up covered in bruises, it would be better than freezing or dying from exhaustion.

At that moment, I noticed the bugs starting to leave my bamboo basket one by one. Soon, there were only a few bugs left on the basket, and the ones behind didn’t follow. I peered through the gaps and saw that the fat guy was indeed in the same situation, so I quickly lifted the bamboo basket off my head. The fat guy’s basket was completely empty; all the bugs had flown toward the temple, rushing into the temple door. It seemed their activity range was confined to within that door; they would not step outside of it.

I went over and pulled the bamboo basket off the fat guy’s head, only to find that he had become disoriented from the cold. I patted his face and pulled him out of the basket. The fat guy, still dazed, asked, “Hey, have we already gone to heaven?”

I replied, “Maybe our body temperature is too low; they can no longer sense our warmth.”

The fat guy shivered and said, “Not just them; even I can’t feel myself.”

We huddled together, gritting our teeth, continuously rubbing our bodies as we slowly walked down the mountain against the biting cold wind, which was nearly below freezing. The experiences of the past few years had greatly improved both my physical fitness and willpower; otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to make it down this road.

When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain and arrived at that bar, our skin was nearly frostbitten, yet I surprisingly maintained a very clear mind, which even astonished me. Once inside, I didn’t dare rush to the warmest spot in the room, fearing that a sudden change in temperature might cause my blood vessels to burst.

We stood at the entrance, waiting for our skin to regain sensation and start to feel the sting before we dared to go in. We walked straight to the heater, and the warm air that hit us didn’t make us feel drowsy like before; instead, it caused all my muscles to tremble and spasm, and my skin began to burn with pain.

At that moment, I felt grateful that it hadn’t snowed while we were descending the mountain. The waitress nearby stared at us, dumbfounded by our appearance. The fat guy and I sat down, and before we could even speak, he collapsed onto my seat cushion, nearly knocking over the heater as he fell. In that instant, as I tried to support him, my vision went dark, and then I lost consciousness.

1770 Chapter 39 – Blood Loss

The fat guy exchanged a glance with me, and I said to him, “I don’t know anything, and I don’t know why this blood is useful. Just come with me.” After saying that, we rushed into the courtyard.

I kept my bleeding hand low, close to the ground, and moved forward. All the insects avoided us completely; in fact, there wasn’t a single insect on us, and we made it to the courtyard entrance smoothly.

Strangely, there wasn’t a single insect outside the courtyard. The fat guy turned back to close the door and said, “Damn, I need to put up a sign on the door to warn others that there are nasty bugs inside. These bugs are really well-behaved; they only like to stay in the courtyard. Let’s get out of here quickly.”

“Stop complaining; we need to find a place to rest first, or I’ll bleed out,” I replied. “That cut was too deep, and after all that distance down the mountain, if I don’t stop the bleeding, I’ll definitely die halfway up.”

Cutting oneself is an art in itself. The way that guy could cut himself so stylishly, I bet he had endured a lot of suffering before.

The fat guy looked at my hand, which was covered in blood, and clicked his tongue, saying, “What a waste. You really don’t know how precious food and supplies are when you’re not in charge. Where do we go now?”

I said, “We need to go to the courtyard where the statue of that guy is.”

The fat guy asked, “Why?”

I replied, “I don’t know; I just feel like a place with that guy would be safer. If he’s not here, at least having his statue is better than not having one.”

The fat guy said, “You’re really superstitious.” Saying that, he moved ahead of me. I wondered why they would erect a statue for that guy; was it just because he had once led a great retreat against the bugs here?

In my mind, the place where the statue of that guy stood should be somewhat different.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that this difference would give us even more headaches.

As we continued forward, I noticed that there were no insects in other parts of the Lama Temple. We ran all the way to the statue of that guy, and by then, it was already dawn. It was the fat guy’s first time seeing the true appearance of the statue.

He looked at it and found it strange, saying, “Damn, why does this guy look so tragic here?”

I said, “Don’t worry about that for now; check how my injuries are doing.”

We entered a room, and since it had been abandoned, there was no charcoal stove inside. We were freezing, and our faces began to turn blue. I quickly checked the fat guy’s back and my own, discovering that the insects hadn’t done much harm to us. Although their heads were sharp enough to penetrate our skin, they didn’t seem to want to actually dig in; they just wanted to suck some blood. The fat guy had a few insects that had already gorged themselves, and when I slapped one off, my hand was covered in blood. All the insects on me were already dead; I didn’t have time to remove them one by one, so I just slapped off the most bothersome ones directly. I was sure there were many more on my back, but I was at my wit’s end, thinking: Damn, that Lama is really vicious, making us take off our clothes so these bugs can easily suck our blood.

The fat guy treated the wound on my hand. My hand was a ghastly sight, plasma sticking to my palm, and blood was still flowing out continuously. The fat guy tightly bound my wrist with his own belt to stop the bleeding, then pried open my wound and said, “Why don’t you just chop off your hand? Look, you’ve almost cut through to the back of your hand. This needs stitches. Although I’m pretty good with needles and thread, there’s no equipment here. I can only use a makeshift method.”

“What do you want to do?” I asked as I watched the fat guy pull out a handgun, open the magazine, and start biting it with his teeth.

“Are you going to use fire again?”

“Trust me, it works.” The fat guy unscrewed the bullet tip, set the gunpowder aside, wiped the blood off my hand with his pants, pressed down hard on the wound, and then poured all the gunpowder on it.

I still remember that pain; it was definitely beyond what can be described as pouring salt on a wound. It was much worse than that—pouring gunpowder on the wound.

After he finished, I almost fainted. The fat guy asked, “Where’s the fire?”

I took out my lighter and handed it to him. He flicked it into the gunpowder, but found it wouldn’t ignite at all.

“Hey, this gunpowder is of poor quality.”

I was sweating from the pain and looked at my palm; the gunpowder was completely soaked with blood. However, the bleeding had indeed stopped. I thought to myself, it’s hard to expect the fat guy to be reliable even once.

At that moment, I carefully looked at those bugs and realized they were not fireflies, but a particularly strange kind of beetle.

The fat guy closed all the windows and then went to deal with the dead bugs on my back. I glanced at my non-bleeding hand and had just started to breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly, I heard the windows of the house start to rattle. We looked toward the windows and saw that they were now crawling with those dense shadows we had just seen outside, but the shapes seemed different from what we had just encountered.

Why did they appear so suddenly again? Even if the bugs gathered, shouldn’t there be a process? Why does it always happen like this?

This time, we didn’t hesitate. The fat guy opened the door a crack, and with a buzz, a few bugs squeezed in through the gap before he quickly shut the door. The bugs that squeezed in darted straight toward us, and I suddenly realized that this time, the bugs that flew in were a different kind. They looked somewhat like mosquitoes but were even stranger, with two particularly large wings, pointed heads, and were much bigger than the beetles we had seen earlier.

The fat guy swatted them out of the air, directly smashing a few of them to the ground. When they flew up again, he swung his hand down hard and managed to grab a few in his hand. The fat guy exclaimed, “Ah!” and immediately opened his palm, discovering that the sharp beak of the bug had punctured his palm.

“Damn it, don’t touch this thing! This one is worse than the last!” the fat guy said.

I simply couldn’t understand; it felt like a bug convention was happening, and they were all strange bugs.

We smashed the bugs to the ground and stomped them to death. I noticed that these bugs didn’t seem to be afraid of my blood.

However, there were fewer bugs here than the ones we had seen earlier. We quickly reinforced the windows, jamming the gaps with a lot of debris, and as we did so, I could see the shadows on the window getting denser and shaking more violently.

Suddenly, I heard someone shouting in the yard. “Help… Help…” I was taken aback, and the chubby guy cursed, “Damn, this bug can talk.” The voice didn’t sound right, and I thought to myself: Could it be that the statue of the young man has come to life? The statue is shouting for help. Bang… Suddenly, the door was crashed open, and a blood-soaked person rolled in from outside, collapsing on the ground, covered in all sorts of bugs.

“Young man?” I almost shouted, “The statue really came to life?”

1769 Chapter 38 – Escape

I inexplicably followed the instructions of the fat guy. After we took off our clothes, that person began to dump all the charcoal from the stove onto the wooden floor. The stove was glowing red, and the wooden floor quickly emitted a strong burnt smell. That person used his Tibetan robe to cover the charcoal and soon extinguished all of it. After putting out the fire, he used our clothes to wrap some still-hot charcoal ashes and then told us to hold them against our bodies.

Once we were done, that person grabbed my hand, glanced at my watch, and said, “Now you must understand what I’m saying in three minutes and follow my instructions, because we don’t have much time left. This package in your hands is your only chance of survival.”

I was puzzled as to why it was like this. If it was going to get particularly cold later and we needed something to keep warm, then being completely naked while holding a hot bundle of clothes didn’t seem to be of much use. How much cold could this bundle withstand? Our upper bodies were exposed, which seemed meaningless. If that wasn’t the case, then what was the use of this bundle? Was it because of the ashes inside?

The fat guy asked, “Are we supposed to grab the ashes inside and throw them in the enemies’ eyes to blind them all?”

Just as he was about to respond, suddenly all the windows in the room began to shake. The lama immediately made a gesture for us to be quiet. We covered our mouths and saw many strange shadows appearing on the window glass, which we couldn’t tell when they had shown up. The shadows were very faint, resembling the imprint of tree branches on the glass, but we all knew that was impossible because there were no trees in the courtyard. Seeing that we were almost about to collapse to the ground, the lama grabbed us by the collars and lifted us up, then pointed at the charcoal bundle in our hands and said in a very low voice, “Hold onto this thing and follow me as fast as you can.” After that, he pointed to the door, signaling the fat guy to open it.

At that moment, the windows were shaking violently. I felt extremely anxious because I knew there must be something outside the doors and windows, but what could it be? If they were actual entities, whether people or monsters, their shadows on the window would surely be darker and deeper. The shadows were flickering, and I couldn’t even imagine what kind of scene was outside.

I looked at the fat guy and nodded. He and the lama felt around the doorframe and slowly opened the door. The lama stepped out first, and in that instant, I suddenly saw him open his charcoal bundle and throw all the ashes onto me, then he ran out the door.

The ashes blinded both me and the fat guy, making it hard to breathe; we were covered in them, and we kept slapping at ourselves. Countless flying insects swarmed into the doorway. These bugs didn’t look like butterflies or anything else that could fly; they came at us in droves, filling the room like flies, and once they landed on us, their hard shells burrowed into our skin.

Damn, where did these bugs come from? Just a few minutes ago, there weren’t any. What was going on in this temple? Either people suddenly vanished, or a whole bunch of bugs appeared out of nowhere.

The fat guy was worse off than I was. He yelled, “Damn it, that bald donkey set us up!”

I said, “Why are the bugs not biting him and heading straight for us?”

The fat man replied, “It must be because of that charcoal dust. Quickly throw that package away.”

The fat man and I tossed the charcoal dust package aside, and sure enough, the bugs almost immediately headed towards the direction of the charcoal dust. Soon, our clothes wrapped in the charcoal dust were being bitten to shreds. The bugs burrowed into the scalding charcoal dust and were instantly burned to death, but the ones behind them continued to push forward and dive in.

At this point, we finally had a chance to catch our breath and retreated to the corner of the room. As I brushed the bugs off my body and observed, I noticed that the bugs looked like fireflies.

“How can fireflies bite people?” the fat man said.

I was even more puzzled, because fireflies live in humid environments, and how could they exist in a place where the temperature is below zero for most of the year?

Why would the charcoal dust attract them? Was it because of the temperature of the charcoal dust? That lama must have set us up, making us hold onto the scalding charcoal dust so that our body temperature was higher than his, causing the bugs to swarm us while he could escape unscathed.

If that was the case, this situation would be disastrous. With so many bugs, the charcoal dust would gradually cool down, and they would soon discover that we were warmer.

What to do? As I watched the bugs rush towards the charcoal dust package, with dust scattered everywhere, more bugs were swarming towards the room from outside. With no space near the charcoal dust, they were flying chaotically in the room, some heading towards the charcoal stove, others towards the lamp, and a few scattered ones discovered us and kept flying toward us, only to be swatted dead by us.

The fat man said, “If they love fire so much, why don’t we give them something more intense?”

Saying this, while desperately swatting the bugs off his body, he rushed over to a charcoal stove and kicked it over, sending the scalding coals rolling onto the wooden floor. The fat man tore countless scrolls and Buddhist scriptures off the lama’s desk and threw them into the coals, then, risking being bitten by the bugs, he blew on it forcefully, and the fire immediately ignited. After finishing, he said to me, “Quick, help me throw everything that can burn into here. We need to find a big heat source to attract all these bugs.”

I said to the fat man, “If you do this, you’ll burn the whole temple down.”

The fat man replied, “Damn it, who cares about that now? Those lamas aren’t helping us, so don’t think about them. They probably bought insurance for this place anyway.”

I thought to myself, that’s true; it’s more important to save our lives. So I immediately began to scour the entire room. While swatting, I tore down the insulating felt and threw it into the fire. The felt caught fire easily, quickly producing a lot of black smoke, and soon the room was enveloped in thick black smoke.

The fat man shouted at me, “Stop throwing in the felt! Do you want to suffocate us all?”

I replied, “This black smoke can drive the bugs away.”

The fat man said, “Can’t you see they aren’t even afraid of the fire? Their love for the heat of the fire far exceeds their fear of the smoke. If you don’t kill them, we’ll end up as smoked meat ourselves.”

The fat man said it was too late, and the smoke had already filled the entire room. We could only bend down and continue to stoke the flames. Soon, the desk in the lama’s room turned into a huge bonfire. The bugs rushed toward the fire one after another, crackling as they were burned. Every time we made the fire a bit stronger, the bugs would come over and extinguish it slightly, as if their bodies were filled with moisture.

Before long, everything that could burn in the room had nearly been consumed, and smoke enveloped the entire ceiling. Yet the bugs showed no signs of stopping. Due to the thick smoke, we couldn’t see the situation outside in the yard, nor did we know if rushing out would be dangerous.

The fat man said, “We definitely can’t go out into the yard. Let’s see if there are any other exits in this room. Don’t open the windows near the yard; open the ones closer to the back mountain and see what the situation is.”

I nodded, brushing off the bugs on my body, and quickly ran to the windows near the back mountain. I carefully opened one, and immediately realized something was wrong. The entire wooden house was surrounded by these bugs; as soon as I opened a crack, a wave of bugs rushed in and splattered all over my face.

I slapped my face and returned to the fat man, shaking my head. “The situation is not optimistic. I don’t know where these bugs came from, but there are at least hundreds of millions of them.”

The fat man said, “This doesn’t make sense. Why is this happening? Tianzhen, could it be that we ate too much and are dreaming? Pinch me and see if it hurts.”

“Is that necessary?” I pointed to the wound on his hand. “Doesn’t it hurt that you got bitten like this? If it were a dream, you’d have woken up from the pain long ago.”

After saying that, I thought for a moment. Suddenly, an idea flashed in my mind, recalling my previous encounters with bugs, and I said to the fat man, “Do you have a knife?”

The fat man replied, “What for? To commit suicide? It’s too early for that. Don’t worry, if it really comes to that, I’ll stab you myself to spare you any pain.”

I said, “Stop talking nonsense and give me the knife. Even if I stab myself to death, ten stabs won’t kill me. I don’t want you to stab me either. My fate has always been in the hands of others; even if you are my good friend, I don’t want you to interfere.”

The fat man sighed and pulled out a concealed knife from his lower back. I wiped the knife across my palm, instantly creating a deep cut, blood flowing out.

The fat man asked, “What are you doing? You don’t even know how to cut your wrist properly. Cutting your wrist isn’t done here; it’s done at the wrist. You cut your palm—if you cut your palm off, you won’t even die.”

I said, “Shut up and watch.”

I took my bloodied hand and flung it toward the bugs in front of me. The blood splattered onto the floor, and suddenly, all the bugs scattered, as if they were avoiding my blood. The fat man exclaimed, “Hey, it’s working! Wow, nice job!”

I felt a surge of joy and ignored him. I spread my palm and smeared some blood on the fat man, then took a few steps forward. The bugs seemed to see something terrifying and all retreated with a rustling sound.

1768 Chapter 37 – The King of Enumeration

Then the fat man took a piece of paper from the table. He picked up a pen and began to write. Just by looking at him, I could tell he was using his signature enumeration method.

The fat man said, “First, we need to know where this group of people went. This is a closed temple, located halfway up the mountain, with a snow-capped mountain behind it and the only road leading up the mountain in front. The entire temple is quite large.”

He drew a shape of the temple and asked me if it looked like that. I helped him correct a few details.

The fat man continued, “You see, first, I can be sure they definitely did not go down the mountain, unless they jumped or rolled down, which I don’t think they are that foolish. Second, they took all their equipment with them. If I wanted to give you a scare or create a situation where I suddenly disappeared, I wouldn’t do it this way. I would turn all the lights on, keep them all on, as if we were still chatting, but take all the equipment away. But now, the lights are all off, indicating they didn’t want to confuse you; they don’t mind others thinking they left spontaneously, right?”

I nodded.

The fat man then said, “Since that’s the case, they can’t go down the mountain from the front, and you think they can’t go into the snow mountain, so they must have chosen a path we don’t know about.”

In reality, this reasoning is completely valid.

I continued to nod.

The fat man drew a large circle around the entire lama temple diagram: “This lama temple must have some secrets we don’t know about. It is located at the junction between this world inside and the outside world. This position is inherently strange and may not be as simple as we think. It could be a station designed by the people inside, and there might be some secret passages or hidden rooms here.”

I thought for a moment and found it somewhat reasonable.

The structure of this temple is extremely complex, with so many rooms that it’s overwhelming. Even the people living in the temple only move around in this area; many areas have never been visited. Moreover, this temple is very well designed, not built naturally along the mountain, which means it has undergone some verification in terms of feng shui.

I studied architecture, and I’ve always had this feeling, but after all, this is a lama temple, which is not my area of expertise, so I didn’t dare to say much.

The fat man outlined the rooms of the great lama, the Zhang family, and the Germans, as well as the places where other people lived, and then drew a line: “You see, other lamas live here and here. If the Zhang family wants to discuss issues with the Germans and also needs to pack up quickly to leave, these people cannot be mobilized quickly. The secret passage they use to leave here must be within this activity area, so that everyone can make it in time. We can run a test to see how long it takes to move back and forth in these places, then compare that with the time we were trapped, and we can roughly figure out the possible route.”

I looked at the fat man, thinking his reasoning was very clear, but when he said the word “trapped,” my heart sank. “Trapped.” I glanced at the lama lying on the ground and wondered if that was the case.

“Actually, there are several situations that could resolve all the contradictions in this matter,” I said. “For example, if you put a tiger and a lion in the Roman Colosseum, and the tiger is particularly strong while the lion is particularly heavy, they would carry the tiger and the lion inside, and then also put a gladiator in there. At that moment, the whole Colosseum would be filled with various animals: the tiger, the lion, the gladiator, and many staff members. When they release the tiger and the lion from their cages, what do you think will happen?”

The fat man fell silent for a moment and said, “I understand. You mean they are the staff, and we are… we are the tigers?”

I replied, “Wrong. We are the gladiators. Once the tiger and the lion are released, the staff will of course have to evacuate immediately.” I looked at the window. “The gladiators are dazed in this temple, while all the staff have hidden away. Perhaps the tiger and the lion are watching us from somewhere we don’t know.”

In fact, my speculation seemed a bit absurd, because I felt that if things developed this way, it wouldn’t be very reasonable. The Zhang family, the Germans, and the lama couldn’t possibly be completely in cahoots; otherwise, the time they took to reach a consensus would have been too short.

Maybe there’s another scenario: perhaps when the Zhang family was negotiating with the Germans, the lama suddenly rushed in and said to them, “Run! Something’s about to happen.” So they gathered their wits and decided to run first.

Wait a minute, could it be that this lama was sent to notify us? For some unknown reason, he mistakenly thought we were the tiger and lion, and that’s why he shot at us? I sat up straight, thinking, Amitabha, this is bad. This explanation seems to make the most sense! The act of disguising a handgun is inherently questionable; the most likely scenario is that this lama is simply an amateur who was so frightened that he made such a strange move.

I immediately rushed over to the lama, thinking, Master, I truly didn’t mean to do this.

This time, I was much more attentive. In the words of the fat man, I approached him with a sense of guilt rather than a mindset of treating a prisoner well. As I used hot water to help the lama massage his acupressure points, he suddenly coughed and curled up. I quickly helped him up, and saw the lama open his eyes, looking quite dazed for a moment. When he saw the fat man and then me, his expression suddenly changed drastically. He sat up abruptly, but perhaps I had indeed hit him too hard; as soon as he stood up, he collapsed back to the ground and began to vomit.

After he finished vomiting, I pulled him up again. He looked at me and the fat man and asked, “What time is it now?” He spoke to me in standard Mandarin.

I glanced at my watch and told him that it was about to be fully bright. His face instantly turned extremely pale. He groped the ground trying to stand up and said, “It’s over, it’s over, we’re doomed.”

I was just about to ask him a question when the lama said, “Don’t talk! Quickly, you two, close all the doors and windows. Hurry… hurry… hurry!”

Perhaps it was the sincerity in his tone and expression, the kind of fear that came from the heart without any pretense, that made the fat man and I immediately follow his instructions and close all the doors and windows.

At that moment, we didn’t think much of it, because after experiencing so many things, we all knew that often a person’s expression cannot be faked; it’s almost instinctual. I could almost immediately judge from a person’s expression whether something was real or if there was a conspiracy at play. Of course, this did not apply to the young man; his expressions were too simplistic, and he had too little material to work with.

Once all the windows were closed, the room became very dim, illuminated only by a few lamps, giving it a particularly mysterious atmosphere. After closing everything, the chubby guy walked over and said, “Don’t mess with us. We didn’t mean any harm, but if you try to fool us, you definitely won’t get away with it.”

The lama replied, “In the current situation, everything you see is fake. In at most half an hour, you will realize that things are much more serious than what I have said. If you listen to me now, there might still be a way out.”

The chubby guy glanced at me and curiously asked, “Is there some kind of evil spirit haunting this place? On certain days of the year, they come out at dawn. What could be so powerful that you need to be this afraid?”

The lama said, “What are evil spirits compared to this?”

The chubby guy and I exchanged glances, both not quite understanding. The lama then began to take off his robe, and I noticed that his body was very well-trained, with clearly defined muscles; all the muscle fibers looked like steel bars, indicating that he was a well-trained individual. As he was undressing, he told us, “First, take off your own jackets.”

1767 Chapter 36 – The Sealing of the Lama Temple

I thought that after the fat guy moved aside, I would see some horrifying scene, but unexpectedly, there was nothing—only the steep steps I often took to climb the mountain. These steps had been described as extremely dangerous, but later I found that with advanced climbing boots and using all four limbs, there wasn’t anything particularly difficult to climb.

There was nothing at the entrance; I only saw that a large area of snow had been cleared. I asked the fat guy, “What are you looking at? What did I do in my past life for you to treat me like this?”

“Look, although the snow at the entrance has been cleared, it only goes up to about six or seven steps. Below that, the snow on the steps is still there. We just messed around for a while, and the footprints from when we came up are still there. If the others in the temple had gone down, this snow would definitely have been trampled, but clearly, not many people have walked this path in a short time.”

“Are you saying these people are still in the temple and haven’t gone out?”

The fat guy said, “Are there any other exits in the temple?”

I shook my head; as far as I knew, there shouldn’t be any. Otherwise, when the muffled oil bottle appeared back then, it wouldn’t have caused such a level of surprise. If we were to say there were other exits, it might only be towards the snow-capped mountain.

Sure enough, the fat guy continued, “Then, either these people are still inside the temple, or they went to where the little brother came from?”

I shook my head; it was impossible. It didn’t make sense at all. We hadn’t left Zhang Haixing and Zhang Haike for long; how could they reach a consensus in such a short time and set off immediately? Unless they all grew up on Viagra and were particularly impatient.

Moreover, it wasn’t just them who were missing; those lamas were also gone. Lamas surely wouldn’t take Viagra, right?

The fat guy clicked his tongue a few times, suddenly realizing that he still had someone on his back. He said, “Almost forgot about him. There’s no use just thinking; we should wake this guy up first. He might know something. I have a gloomy feeling in my heart, as if these people are really ghosts, putting on a show for me here.”

It was too cold outside, so we returned to the temple. The fat guy said, “Since the people are gone, there’s no point in going back to your room; it’s too dangerous. We can’t go to the firewood room we were in earlier; it’s too messy and terrible there. Let’s go to the big lama’s place. The conditions there are particularly good; let’s check out his back room. Maybe there are many treasures in his bedroom.”

I said, “Here you go again. You can go down to the pit, but you can’t steal from the living; that’s too low.”

The fat guy replied, “Come on, I’m just taking a look. Plus, in this situation, we can consider ourselves rescue personnel. It’s not unheard of for rescue personnel to use the property of those being rescued to fundraise.”

I knew there was no point in arguing with him; he would definitely have a bunch of twisted reasoning. So, I went straight in.

Once again, we returned to the big lama’s courtyard, entered the place where we had chatted before, and set the lama on my back down on the ground. I went to light all the charcoal stoves and oil lamps.

The person we knocked out seems to be in worse condition. Although the blood from his nose and ears has coagulated, his eyes have started to bleed continuously. I felt a bit dizzy, wondering if we had really killed someone this time. But why did I feel like I hadn’t hit him that hard when I smashed the lamp over his head? I actually held back a bit, right? Even though the sound was terrifying, it shouldn’t have been enough to kill someone. When the guy was hitting people earlier, his hands were really vicious, and he didn’t kill anyone. Is there a trick to using a weapon to knock someone out?

I went to the yard to get some snow and melted it on the stove. I found a piece of cloth, dampened it, and wiped the blood from the lama’s nostrils and ears, then placed it over his eyes, hoping the bleeding would stop. During this process, I could still hear him breathing and his heartbeat, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.

The fat guy was rummaging through the room, searching for valuables, but unfortunately, all he found was a few bankbooks. He kept cursing, saying that the current lamas have no style at all and that if they weren’t hoarding gold at home, they were keeping it all in the bank. Didn’t they know that the RMB was depreciating domestically? He kept grumbling but didn’t give up, continuing to search, even not sparing the jars in the corners.

I said, “What are you doing? Do you think the lama is a miser who hides all his money in these places?” He replied that I misunderstood him; he was just hungry and couldn’t find any money, so at least he wanted to see if there was something to eat. After a few days of eating local food, he was about to get sick of it. After a while, he actually found a bag of something. When he opened it, it looked like some kind of dried plant, and it smelled really good. The fat guy chewed on a piece and sat down next to me, saying, “You should eat some too. If we’re full, we can think of a way. Haven’t you heard? Three fat guys are as good as Zhuge Liang.”

I also took a few bites; it really tasted quite good. At that moment, it started to warm up around us, with the doors and windows closed, making the room feel pretty safe. I said to the fat guy, “Let’s start from the beginning and figure out what’s going on. You mentioned you had something to tell me earlier; can you say it now?”

The fat guy took a sip of tea and said, “Do you remember when I pretended to be a Menba person and spoke a few sentences of Tibetan to Zhang Haixing? Actually, I was speaking a very obscure local language called Galai, which sounds a lot like Menba, but it’s not. There are fewer than three thousand people who can speak Galai. I didn’t actually know how to speak it; I just memorized it. Any local person would know I was just reciting it from memory when they heard my accent, but outsiders, even if they know Menba, wouldn’t be able to tell from my accent. I put a lot of brain cells into memorizing those useless words. At the time, Zhang Haixing asked me in Menba, so I planned to pretend to be a local who couldn’t speak Menba to fool her. Galai people are even more of a minority than the local ethnic groups, so they definitely wouldn’t understand.

“It’s just that I thought she would tell others that she didn’t understand, but she not only didn’t show any sign of not understanding, she also rambled on with an explanation,” the fat guy said, burping. “This is a bit suspicious.”

I frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”

The fat guy said, “Assuming she really fell for it and thought I was a local, she would definitely have told that Zhang Haike that she didn’t understand what I was saying. But she didn’t; instead, she pretended to understand and relayed the meaning of the Menba language. This indicates that there’s something wrong with this Zhang Haixing. There are a few possibilities: the first is that Zhang Haixing doesn’t want others to know she doesn’t understand Menba language.”

“Why is that? Is she a particularly vain person?” I asked, thinking that such a lower-level character flaw would have been overcome by the Zhang family during childhood. So, it must be another situation: that others know she can speak Menba, but in reality, she cannot.

This suggests that Zhang Haixing might be a fake, or that she knows the fat guy is a fake and is trying to help us.

I frowned and said, “But her angry reaction earlier didn’t seem fake.”

The fat guy replied, “Have you thought about Xiao Ge? What he’s usually like, but how he acts when he’s pretending? These people are all damn movie stars.”

Suddenly, an image of the Oscars flashed in my mind, with Xiao Ge and Zhang Haixing simultaneously taking the stage to accept awards for Best Actor and Best Actress. I immediately shook my head to dismiss this strange thought and said to the fat guy, “So, it seems there are actually problems within the Zhang family.”

The fat guy nodded, “I think there might be some mutual infiltration, but this matter is significant, and I can’t make any definitive statements about it right now. Even if we find them, we can’t fully trust them.”

I nodded, thinking it was too chaotic. The various struggles and undercover investigations from earlier must have involved countless entangled forces. If even the Zhang family has issues, it indicates that the level of entanglement exceeds our imagination, and it certainly cannot be resolved just by reporting something.

Given the current situation, I found myself questioning: what is the purpose of all this? Everything I’ve experienced is a tangled mess, but the various twists don’t follow any logic. If this is a play, then the director seems to have some issues, or the artistic approach is too advanced for me to comprehend.

The fat guy thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, “Actually, I have some clues, but you might not like what I’m about to say.” I asked why, and the fat guy replied, “Just wait a moment, I’ll go get a piece of paper and draw it for you.”

1766 Chapter 35 – Everyone Has Disappeared

I ran into the courtyard of the Lama and immediately realized something was wrong; it was pitch dark inside. I pushed the door open and fumbled around to turn on the desk lamp, looking around the room.

There was no one there; the Lamas had also vanished.

Suddenly, I began to shiver, bombarded by countless memories from the past. It felt like I had experienced this kind of scene several times before. Each time such a thing happened, it was always a sign that something significant was about to occur. I slapped my own head and prayed as I made my way to the Fatty. I hoped he was still there; he had to be there.

When I saw Fatty waiting in the wood shed, I was almost in tears.

Heaven has eyes; after so many misfortunes over the years, I finally had a moment where I wasn’t completely foolish. The heavens had finally given me a break.

If even Fatty had disappeared, I would be left alone again. While I wouldn’t necessarily go insane, the feeling of collapse would surely lead me to commit many irrational acts.

Fatty looked a bit surprised when he saw me gasping for breath as I entered. “Did you get into trouble again? Your face doesn’t look like someone who has just successfully completed a mission.”

I thought to myself, what should my face look like when I succeed? Should I burst in singing “The Internationale”? So I replied, “It’s not that I got into trouble, but it’s not good news either. You need to let me calm down for a moment and then let me touch you to see if you’re really here.”

Fatty looked perplexed and said, “What are you rambling on about?”

I closed the door behind me and finally managed to collect myself. I saw that the Lama was still lying on the ground, thinking how Fatty seemed to be safe and sound. Could it be that these criminals only targeted certain people? Or was it that I naturally had the appearance of someone who could “escape from his hands”?

I didn’t know where to start and stammered for a long time before saying, “They all left, even the Lama is gone. Could it be that they went out for a late-night snack?” I intended to adopt his previous style and make a joke.

Fatty frowned and hissed, “You say you’ve improved; where’s the improvement? You used to be able to scream a few times, and now you can’t even speak. Let me tell you, this kind of humor in dangerous situations is particularly advanced. There are human skin masks everywhere; we can’t be making jokes carelessly, especially since you didn’t use to be like this. If it weren’t for all these years of life and death experiences together, I would think you’ve been swapped out.”

Seeing the seriousness on Fatty’s face, I thought he had a point, so I nodded. Fatty then said, “What do you mean by late-night snack? What exactly happened? Don’t beat around the bush; tell me clearly.”

I took a deep breath and recounted everything I had just seen to Fatty. He scratched his head and said, “I don’t find anything strange about it because this kind of thing isn’t the first time it’s happened while following you. But the premise is, are you sure you didn’t see it wrong? It’s pitch black in here, or maybe you just looked outside and saw darkness and didn’t dare to go out, then came back after having a smoke? Come on, tell the truth, and I’ll forgive you.”

Sure, here’s the translation of the provided text:

“I don’t have time to deal with him. I told him if he doesn’t believe me, he can go take a look himself. Right now, I’m not afraid; I just feel that it’s too abnormal for things to never develop in the direction I think. It gives me a lot of frustration.

The fat guy said, ‘Alright, I believe you, but hearing you say this is also quite overwhelming for me. Here’s the plan: you keep an eye on this lama while I go take another look to see if I can find what you missed.’

I said, ‘Please don’t! If you go take another look, he might not come back, and then where will you have me find you? It’s just the two of us relying on each other here; it’s really miserable. I’m not going to mess around with this idiot.’ After thinking for a moment, I added, ‘Let’s head outside the temple now and take a look around. We’ll bring this guy along and make plans based on what we see. If there really is no one in the temple, we’ll go down the mountain for a late-night snack and wait until tomorrow morning to call more people up.’

The fat guy nodded. I put the lama back on his back again, and after walking around for a bit, the fat guy’s expression slowly began to change. He muttered, ‘Damn, this is really happening.’ Finally, we arrived at the temple door. The fat guy pushed the door open, looked at the snow piled at the entrance, then turned around and shook his head at me, saying, ‘Tian Zhen, did you do a lot of bad things in your past life?’

I wondered what was going on. The fat guy said, ‘Just take a look for yourself.’ With that, he stepped aside to let me see the entrance.”

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