When I woke up, I sensed something was off. It took me a long time to slowly regain my memories: the incident with the bug, how I gradually left the lama temple, how I returned to the bar, and how I fainted. My eyelids felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and I couldn’t open them at all. I could only rely on my sense of smell and touch, and I detected a particularly familiar scent.

So, I was taken to the hospital; that’s great. I drifted back to sleep quickly, but this time it was just a brief nap. A few seconds later, I suddenly woke up, and this time I could finally open my eyes.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn’t in the hospital I had imagined. I didn’t see a white ceiling, even though I was quite familiar with that kind of ceiling. Instead, I saw the top of a very ancient building, and upon closer inspection, I recognized it as the structure of the lama temple. At that moment, I turned my eyes around and saw Zhang Haike, Zhang Haixing, and the fat lama sitting not far from me.

I was lying on a wooden floor, surrounded by felt hangings and a lit stove, and the fat man was lying right next to me. I slowly sat up. At that moment, they noticed I was awake and approached me while whispering to each other. My hearing wasn’t quite right yet, so I looked around and asked, “What’s going on? Didn’t I come down from the mountain? Isn’t this place full of bugs?”

Zhang Haixing walked over to me, shaking a bell in her hand. I glanced at it and found it very familiar; after careful examination, I realized it was the hexagonal bell I had seen before. The bell emitted a very crisp sound.

Zhang Haixing leaned down and asked me, “Do you know what this is?” I wanted to shake my head and nod at the same time. Although I knew that hearing this bell too much could induce hallucinations, I really couldn’t recall its name.

Zhang Haixing kept shaking the bell near my ear, and the more I listened, the more awake I became. I gradually felt the heavy, oppressive energy in my mind dissipate. Then I saw a strange stand placed between the fat man and me, with six or seven of those peculiar hexagonal bells hanging on it.

“What is this?” I asked Zhang Haixing as my thoughts began to clear.

Zhang Haixing replied, “I can’t tell you just yet. This is a technique we discovered a long time ago. By combining different types of bells, we can induce various kinds of hallucinations. These hallucinations feel incredibly real, and if I don’t tell you how those experiences are created, you’ll think everything really happened.”

As I carefully looked at those bells, Zhang Long walked over, holding a spoon. He approached me and cautiously poured the contents of the spoon onto one of the bells, and I smelled a special fragrance.

Zhang Haixing continued, “We also don’t dare to use them casually because we don’t know what consequences different combinations will produce, so we seal them with melted rosin.”

I knew that the mechanism behind this kind of thing might not even be clear to them, so I stopped asking. However, Zhang Haixing still continued to explain somewhat smugly, “Our family has conducted extensive research on this, and we’ve mastered twelve different uses.”

“Just now, the one you used is the mildest effect,” she said with a smile. For some reason, I felt that there was a hint of schadenfreude in her expression.

I recalled the various experiences I had in the ancient tomb and knew that if this thing was misused, it could lead to catastrophic consequences. However, I didn’t feel that what they used on me was mild at all, as the coldness and the pain from the insect bites were all too vivid.

I vaguely realized that this seemed to be another test, so I asked Zhang Haixing, “What is the purpose of doing this? What about those Germans?”

Zhang Haixing replied, “Well, my brother will explain it to you later. But I can congratulate you; you’ve passed a stage that is very difficult for an ordinary person.”

I glanced at the fat guy and asked, “What about him?”

Zhang Haixing said, “He’s slightly worse off than you, but with him around, you’ll feel more at ease, so he passes too.”

I asked, “Why is this happening?”

“This kind of bell can leave some people unable to wake up after being affected. For example, him,” Zhang Haixing pointed at the fat guy, “But you’re different; you managed to wake up on your own, which means you’ve experienced something at a higher level than this. Think about it, have you gone through a situation that was very, very illogical?”

I frowned. Zhang Haixing said, “It’s real, but absolutely impossible to happen.”

I didn’t want to think about this any longer; on one hand, my head was pounding, and on the other, I wanted to hear Zhang Haixing continue.

Zhang Haixing said, “Entering the snowy mountains, immunity to this kind of bell is very important. We need to know if you have the ability to withstand all changes. Although we don’t know what kind of scene appeared in your hallucination, we know it must be the thing you fear the most. You were extremely, extremely desperate, and this kind of despair can lead to extreme pain and rejection. But in such a situation, you managed to endure, which is quite impressive. From this, we know you are someone who can accept any difficulty and won’t give up on yourself because of it; you are someone who can solve any crisis. Most importantly, you woke up on your own after the hallucination disappeared, while many people never wake up from it.”

I wanted to tell her, “I’m definitely not someone who can solve any difficulty, and how do you know what the scene in the hallucination was like?” but I simply didn’t have the energy to argue.

Zhang Haixing said, “We can hear you speaking and use language to guide your hallucinations; we can hear everything you said in your hallucination. What comforts me the most is that everything you said was very positive, unlike that fat guy. The things he said in his hallucination were simply unbearable; I don’t even know what he was thinking in a critical moment.”

I looked at the fat guy, who still hadn’t woken up. Zhang Long was gently shaking the bell near the fat guy’s ear. The fat guy slowly began to respond, murmuring, “Don’t go, don’t go, I’d be willing to die for you. Dying under the peony flower, even as a ghost, is still romantic.”

Zhang Haixing glanced at me with a helpless expression. I sighed and thought to myself: for a fat person, if it truly is something they fear the most, it might not be that they can’t bear it, but rather that they are afraid to face it.

Although it was filthy language, perhaps in his hallucination, he was seeing the ghosts of clouds? I looked into Zhang Haixing’s eyes, then at my own palms and body, and realized that there were indeed no wounds on me. What I experienced earlier was indeed an illusion. I sighed inwardly and suddenly began to feel a sense of haze about everything in front of me.

Zhuang Zhou dreamed of being a butterfly; he didn’t know whether he was a butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou or Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly. Many things, is it really necessary to clarify so much?

Zhang Haixing noticed my doubts and said, “You don’t need to be anxious. I know what you’re worried about. In the beginning, we indeed found this thing very dangerous, but just think about it: during the process you just went through, is it reasonable for this to happen? You will understand whether you are in an illusion or in reality.”

Just now, the temple was filled with insects. I looked around the temple and thought about it; this thing was indeed absolutely impossible. All hallucinations come suddenly. If it weren’t so real, I would definitely realize I was in an illusion. The scariest part is that even the pain feels real.

Then Zhang Haixing said, “Think again: are these terrifying things you experienced truly what you fear in your heart?”

I fell silent, touched my body, and Zhang Long handed me a cigarette. I lit it and said, “Everyone is only half-understanding; just let me rest for a while.”

Zhang Haixing was quite spirited, which made me realize she couldn’t be very old. This kind of vitality is quite different from An Ning’s stability. When I made a retort, she became a bit unhappy, glared at me, turned, and left, tossing back a parting shot: “Just wait, my brother talks even more than I do. Let him come and serve you. You can look after yourselves.”

However, Zhang Haike did not appear. After the fat guy woke up, I rambled on and explained things to him. I felt that what happened occurred after we returned to my room. The bell might have been attached to the door; we were so excited when we pushed the door open that we didn’t notice anything unusual, and we didn’t know when the hallucination appeared.

It took the fat guy a long time to believe it. Our bodies felt very weak; it wasn’t fatigue, but rather a sense of exhaustion. By nightfall, Zhang Haike hadn’t come, and Zhang Haixing came again. This time, she brought some things to show us.