According to a general narrative, there would typically be a very intense chase or fight afterward, but the narrator is merely recounting an event, so he completely omits the process in between. “We don’t know the details,” and if he were to fabricate them, it would not align with the facts. Since he chose to view these accounts rationally from the beginning, I must also connect them in a rational manner here.

From the subsequent records, I can roughly infer how things unfolded, as I am very familiar with the actions of the narrator.

First, Laba was rescued alive, but after being brought out, he was somewhat disoriented, so I cannot narrate from Laba’s perspective anymore.

A few points can be confirmed: First, at that moment, they did not see what was under the snow; only Laba saw it. After being rescued, Laba was in a state of confusion, indicating that whatever was beneath the snow must have greatly traumatized him.

Second, the narrator should have rescued Laba within three minutes. Although drowning in snow is somewhat better than drowning in water, three minutes is still the limit. If he had not succeeded in such a short time, Laba would certainly not have survived.

Therefore, I can almost certainly conclude that the situation was as follows: After Laba was suddenly pulled into the snow by whatever was beneath it, the narrator, although he did not catch him the first time, must have thrust his hands into the snow several times in the following minutes.

I have seen his speed; he can use his fingers to catch fast-moving aquatic insects in the water, so the entire process must have been very quick. In an instant, his fingers must have grasped some part of Laba’s body, perhaps his belt or collar. Given the narrator’s immense strength, even if he only used two fingers to grip, he could still pull someone out of the snow.

At the same time, I can confirm that they must have been near a rock; otherwise, the narrator could have also been dragged into the snow. His other hand must have been gripping a nearby rock.

The question is, how did Laba see what was beneath the snow? I was not at the scene, and the narrator did not document it. I can speculate on a possibility: when Laba was pulled out, that thing was also pulled out, but for some reason, the narrator did not see it—only Laba did.

When I was excerpting and discussing this part with Chen Xuehan and Zaxi, we had an interesting discussion. After the narrator came out of the snowy mountain and met with the great lama Derin and Zaxi, he did not recount everything completely. The narrator told the great lama that aside from documenting these things, he had many questions during the process of recollection that he needed to ask him.

Upon hearing the narrator’s questions, the great lama realized that he could not answer them with his own wisdom, so he sent Zaji to other lama temples down the mountain to invite many masters, hoping that their wisdom could help answer these questions.

These questions included the strange stories mentioned by the narrator and other peculiar observations, all of which were documented. I can say that all these matters are related to information that, although I do not understand it, is connected to the teachings of the lama, which is why those masters went.

I will discuss this information in detail later, but for now, let’s talk about their discussions, which included what might be the creatures active in the snow. At that time, based on my experience, I asked Zaxi if there were any such creatures mentioned in the various folk tales of Tibet, which could be active beneath the snow. In the materials we could find online, such creatures are generally linked to the legends of the Himalayan yeti, or more professionally referred to as “apes,” which is a common narrative style in fantasy fiction. However, what you hear from locals often turns out to be quite unexpected.

Zaxi almost directly said that such a creature is actually a brown bear, as brown bears sometimes hunt in snow dens. I wanted to immediately object because that seemed impossible. Altitude wasn’t the issue; brown bears can live at elevations of five to six thousand meters. However, the area where the young man encountered danger was almost entirely covered in deep white snow, with no signs of life at all. How could brown bears survive in such a region?

It’s unlikely that the bear would have only had the opportunity to hunt the young man once in its lifetime. Besides, if it were truly a brown bear, who would be hunting whom? The biggest problem is that I am quite sure the young man wouldn’t make such a mistake; the Tibetan must have been signaling him for a reason. Why would he wave to a brown bear? Is it something like, “Hey, watch out for your bear paw”? Is this person foolish?

Chen Xuehan suggested that perhaps the Tibetan was trying to warn the young man not to stay in that area because it was dangerous. This was indeed a possibility. At that moment, Zaxi told me not to doubt it; it must be a large brown bear. He knew that in the past, people in Tibet had kept brown bears to guard temples. Brown bears are very intelligent animals; they can recognize their protectors from strangers. He also heard about a lama from a certain temple who fed a brown bear living near the temple with food scraps during years of food scarcity. Later, when the British invaded Tibet, several British soldiers were attacked by the brown bear while confiscating that temple.

The ferocity of brown bears is truly terrifying. Someone in Kekexili saw the largest brown bear, which was 2.5 meters long, standing taller than Yao Ming, a sumo wrestler. Those British soldiers reported that one of them was killed and dragged into the woods. Subsequent accounts also confirmed that Zaxi’s statement was very plausible; this particular brown bear might have been one that the Tibetans raised near the lake to protect the entrance to it.

Waving at the brown bear could be a habit of the caretaker, but when the bear noticed the intruder, it chose to attack instead of approaching the Tibetan. In this case, it was quite a feat for the young man to have saved Laba from a brown bear. These were just the initial speculations. It wasn’t until later in the story that we truly learned what it was. Throughout the narrative, we had always assumed it was a brown bear and had no doubts about it.