adminUpon 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.
