Chapter 15 Mysterious Tribe in the Snowy Mountain

The following narrative is very amazing, as we can see that Little Brother remembered everything differently from us. We’re used to memorizing one thing whenever we encounter it, regardless of the sequence or whether we can remember it in a few days. But Little Brother’s process of narration made me fully realize that he organized his memory.

Perhaps it was because he knew that one day he would have to remember all of this, so he used a unique memory method.

He first described the whole terrain.

At that time, Poker-face was located on the ridge of a snowy mountain. They were already at a relatively high altitude, but at this height, it wasn’t the same as looking down a five- or six-thousand-kilometer cliff. In fact, looking around the top of the mountain, it was more like a black and white hilly area. But the mountains here weren’t as round as the ones in the south since they were all sharp and angular, like black stones carved by knives.

There were many valleys between these mountains that were covered in deep snow that was unimaginably thick. This was a glacier in the form of a mountain, with snow on top of the ice and stones on the bottom.

That strange group of people was walking in one of the valleys as Poker-face stood at the top of a hill and looked down at them.

There was no doubt that in order to keep up with them, the first thing to do was to descend from the top of the mountain. The light was dim as the setting sun shined down upon the snow, staining it a blurry purple and yellow. But even with such light, it was undoubtedly a very difficult task to walk through such thick snow and keep up with them.

At the same time, what was even more bizarre was that the Tibetans were walking on the snow at such a fast speed that it seemed as if they were gliding instead of walking on it.

Those who have walked through snow all understand that it’s impossible to walk so fast. Moreover, judging from the extent to which the Tibetans sunk into the snow, it didn’t seem to be too thick.

Poker-face had only taken a few steps to chase after them when he noticed that something was wrong. He immediately stopped and thought about what to do. By the time Laba caught up with him, the green light had already disappeared.

There was only one line of footprints left in the snow, but they would soon disappear in the strong wind.

Poker-face and Laba stumbled to the bottom of the valley, only to find that it was completely wrong. The snow reached their waists, which was a complete contrast to the state the Tibetans were in as they walked.

They trudged through the snow and finally came to the edge of the footprints, where Laba found something under the snow. After wiping the snow away, they found that a bridge built of wood and stone was buried underneath. This must have been what the Tibetans were walking on.

They climbed up and used their legs to clear a space in the snow underfoot, finding that the snow didn’t even reach their knees. The bridge was very strong and didn’t move when they stepped on it. It was made from black rock common to the Himalayas.

Who built this bridge here? Laba wondered. How long is it and where does it lead? If they knew there was such a path buried in the snow, they wouldn’t have to take such risks to walk the cliffs or spend so long climbing the snowy slopes.

Poker-face firmly stepped on the bridge a few times, then quickly ran in the direction where the little green light had disappeared. The footprints were quickly disappearing, and since he walked so fast, Laba had no choice but to follow him.

Almost all of the scenery here was the same, so if you didn’t have any basic knowledge, you would easily get lost. But Laba wouldn’t, because as long as your view at the top of the snowy mountain was wide enough, you would surely see several landmarks that could tell you whether you were going in circles or not. And at night, the starry sky here was especially bright. The Milky Way never traversed the sky so clearly, and all kinds of constellations and stars could help guide you, so Laba wasn’t worried.

In the first two hours or so, they walked aimlessly and found that there was no fork in the path.

It must have been a fast-track set up between two places. To build such a project in the snowy mountains must have been really awful, as you needed to first completely dig away the snow, which was a huge project in and of itself.

After nearly three hours, they caught up with the green light. They found that the light had become somewhat dim but the Tibetans were still walking forward.

After that, the length of time was unimaginable. I’ll directly skip over it here and only talk about the length of time. Almost three days later, they were still pursuing the green light and followed the snowy road all the way to the end of the bridge.

When they walked through a bay, they had to put on sunglasses because it was noon and the sun was very fierce. After they went through a mountain pass, the area in front suddenly became extremely broad and bright.

A huge amber lake that looked like a gem suddenly appeared in the snowfield.

The great lake was very strange and completely different from other high-altitude lakes as it had no beach and was surrounded by snow and ice. The ice extended to the center of the lake and only became lake water about two or three hundred meters in.

Under the sun, the lake was completely still without a trace of a ripple. Coupled with the light reflecting off of the water, the lake seemed to be covered in a layer of gold foil, which created a very beautiful scene.

How big was this lake? Laba couldn’t judge, because this was beyond the size of anything he could compare it to. If he were to describe it to others, it would probably be as big as the sky, but a visual inspection would show that it was probably the size of two snowy mountains.

In the snowy mountain area, such a lake was as big as the sea.

Carrying the green light, the Tibetans walked all the way to the frozen lake. From a distance, Laba saw a very shabby boat waiting there.

When they got into the boat, Laba said to Poker-face, “Boss, we can’t continue.”

Poker-face didn’t say anything, but he noticed that the Tibetans in the distance didn’t leave after boarding the boat. Moreover, one Tibetan in particular didn’t board and was waiting on the shore, looking in the direction they were hiding.

Laba stopped talking and the three men remained motionless. They saw the Tibetan staring at them for a long time before he beckoned them over.

Laba looked at Poker-face as if asking him what to do. Poker-face thought for a moment and didn’t move at first, but the Tibetan seemed a little anxious and continued to beckon. Poker-face moved a little, seemingly a little impatient.

If this was a novel, in order to speed up the transition at this point, there would often be an unexpected development because the plot must progress. Therefore, the most likely development would be for Poker-face to stand up and make contact with this Tibetan, thus triggering a conflict.

But in reality, the most sensible decision under such circumstances would be to never cause a conflict.

Poker-face didn’t go out in the end. The three of them stood patiently until the Tibetan finally shook his head and got on the boat. The scull (1) slid slowly through the water and slowly rowed toward the center of the lake.

There was an area where the sunlight reflected strongly and nothing could be seen clearly, making it seem like they were drawn into a ray of golden light.

But after that, Poker-face still didn’t move. Laba didn’t know what was going on and slowly moved over to ask him why he hadn’t gone over since the Tibetans were obviously waiting for them.

Poker-face shook his head and said easily, “He wasn’t waving at us.”

“Then what was he doing just now?”

“There was another thing following them. We didn’t notice it at all,” Poker-face said.

Laba became nervous. “How do you know?”

Poker-face’s eyes had been scanning the surrounding snowfield, and although his expression was extremely calm, Laba found that all of his attention wasn’t focused on him.

“Then have you seen that ‘other thing’?”

Poker-face shook his head, but he pointed in a certain direction, “Although I’m not sure, it’s probably there. There’s something hidden there.”

Laba looked in the direction indicated and saw that it was a huge black stone. The entire area around them was covered in snow, but on this stone, the snow seemed to have been wiped away by something.

“Behind the stone?” Laba trembled a little. He normally wouldn’t have been frightened by Poker-face, but Poker-face’s calmness made him involuntarily put himself in an obedient position.

“Under the snow,” Poker-face said.

Laba tried his best to look around the black stone, but it was completely white and he didn’t notice anything. After several minutes, he looked at the other porter and finally became a little impatient. “Boss, are you sure?” He asked. “I think that person was waving at us. We—”

Before the words were finished, Laba’s body suddenly became heavy like something had grabbed his feet, and he was immediately dragged into the snow.

The snow was very deep, and the thing’s speed was very fast. Laba was dragged into the snow in an instant. Before his head was completely submerged, Laba saw Poker-face swooping down in an attempt to catch him. But he was one step too late. Laba stretched out his hand for a moment, but only caught empty air before everything suddenly became dark. The ice-cold snow pressed against his face and all of his orifices—mouth, nose, and ears—and entered his body.

<Chapter 14><Table of Contents><Chapter 16>

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TN Notes:

(1) Boat with a single oar, usually mounted on the stern of the boat

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Anybody else think they ditched that poor other porter back at the cliff while they were chasing the Tibetans? lol. I notice the author does that with extra characters sometimes, like he forgets they exist and then just slaps them back in the story. I remember it happened with Wang Meng when he and Wu Xie went to the university archives a few books back. It took me like 5 pages to realize that Wu Xie wasn’t alone in the archives so I had to go back and work him into the story better. I’m also kind of on the fence with the author’s writing style on this book. Idk, it just seems a little different somehow compared to the previous books and I’m not sure if I like it yet (who knows, maybe I just miss Fatty). I do think it’s hilarious how salty Wu Xie is at the fact that Qiling basically told everybody everything in the old days and wouldn’t tell him anything.

Anyways…. I managed to squeeze out one more chapter for you guys in penance for bailing yesterday so at least you have that to look forward to

Updated 12/7/2021

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