The young man no longer knows where he is; all around him is a vast expanse of white snow. If in the past few days the towering snow-capped mountains and the mist had instilled a sense of awe in him, now he has become completely numb.
After receiving the golden ball, Laba and another porter were very happy. The young man told Laba that there might be many such golden balls at his destination. Laba thus felt he understood the young man—a seemingly privileged child from a wealthy family, who had come alone into the heart of the snow-capped mountains. If this was the reason, he could accept it.
“Did you come to this mountain for those golden balls?” Laba asked him while they were on the road. The journey had been on snowy slopes these past few days, and they were walking relatively leisurely, allowing for more opportunities to rest.
The young man seemed a bit hesitant to answer his question. After half a day of walking, he shook his head and said, “I suppose not.”
“This is related to a secret,” the young man continued, walking slowly and sharing some things that Laba couldn’t understand.
Long ago, their family had received a stone box engraved with dragon patterns from the hand of the Chinese emperor. This dragon-patterned box was excavated from the mountains by death row inmates, and it had a special feature: the box itself had no seams; it was a single piece, which is why the emperor could not open it. He had to seek help from several elders in their family.
The young man did not know how the box was opened; that process was very mysterious. Afterward, several family elders held a secret meeting overnight, and many things changed in the blink of an eye.
Laba listened, feeling bewildered, but found it quite magical. He realized the young man would not tell him everything; he was only reminded of a story the lama had told him about a dragon, which also involved a legendary box.
“Opening that box was a mistake. Some things are better left unknown; once you know, you will bear an irreversible fate,” the young man murmured. “Here in the snow-capped mountains, there may be a way to connect with that box. We received the first half of this news but lost the second half, so I had to come here personally to try.”
“What about the others in your family?” Laba asked him.
The young man looked faintly at the snow-capped mountains: “They are now in a place very similar to this one.”
Laba did not ask further. He felt that this young man was merely trying to dissuade him; the truth of this information was uncertain, and hearing it held little significance. The young man’s words did not resonate much with him; his heart was only focused on those golden balls.
With those, his life would undergo a complete transformation. He felt it was worth the gamble; after all, if he lost, he had nothing to lose.
On the twelfth day, nothing happened. As Laba looked towards the sun setting in the west, he suddenly realized he didn’t know where to go. The place with the golden balls could be anywhere in this snowy region.
The clue to the golden balls was the massive lake within those snow-capped mountains.
Laba comforted himself, thinking that although this region was vast and uninhabited, one of the most mysterious uninhabited areas on the roof of the world, such a large lake would surely be visible even from a distance.
He and another porter sat there dazed, contemplating the changes in their lives brought about by the golden ball. I didn’t know how long their stupor lasted. I had been to the snow-capped mountains and knew that there were many things one couldn’t do there; killing time often relied solely on daydreaming.
I also didn’t know how Laba discovered the glimmering light on the snowfield ahead, as it was actually a very difficult thing to notice.
In any case, before dusk had fully arrived, Laba saw a rhythmic flash of light in the snow-capped mountains ahead. It was a green light, flickering at a consistent frequency. At first, he thought it was a hallucination because the nearest inhabited place was at least a dozen days’ journey away, and he had never seen such green light before.
After glancing at it a few times, he turned to call the young man to look, only to find that the young man had already seen it. When he turned back to look again, he realized that the flashing point was actually moving, seemingly coming closer to them.
Laba felt a bit flustered; he didn’t know what it was—was it a wild beast? A large bird? Or some kind of monster? He stood up, wanting to find a place to hide. The young man pulled him and the other porter behind a snowbank, and the three of them buried themselves in the snow, watching the green light flicker in and out of sight behind the mountain. But soon, it passed over several snow hills in front of them, getting even closer.
The green light moved at an astonishing speed, and at the same time, they heard a faint ringing sound, which seemed particularly ethereal in the snowy landscape.
Before long, they saw what the green light was. It was a group of strange people dressed in Tibetan clothing, carrying an odd object that emitted a green glow at its head, while the rest of it was made entirely of wood, adorned with many bells.
Is there really someone moving around here? Laba found it simply unbelievable. He could see clearly that these people passed through the valley in front of them, walking deeper into the valley.
At this point, Laba and the others were quite far from those people, and he couldn’t see much detail. Laba couldn’t even be sure if they were living people; perhaps they were the spirits of the snow-capped mountains?
However, the young man had already climbed up and signaled to Laba and the others that they must follow.
“If there are people living here, they would definitely reside by the lake,” said the young man. “Let’s follow them. We might be able to find the place we are looking for.”
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