adminI 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.
