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.”