Chapter 3 Traveling Notes

I sighed, ultimately deciding to just ignore him. But I couldn’t help but feel a little curious—was this surprise going to be something nice or something terrifying?

When going on a real trip, it was actually kind of nice to have something to look forward to.

We set off for Motuo, but we didn’t realize how far it was until we actually hit the road.

The original plan was to take our time. After all, we had seen enough mountains and rivers. In the past, when I saw such magnificent landscapes and the wonders of the abyss, I thought that the beauty of the world was endless and I would never be able to see it all.

But I knew now that the world did actually have an end. In fact, everything had an end. Compared to beautiful scenery, there was actually one thing that could be considered a much more enriching experience—eating delicious food.

Fatty realized this half a lifetime earlier than I did. He had a food guide that Xilaimian’s top hardcore fan prepared for him, so we ate as we traveled along, taking it one day at a time.

Over the past few days, I was still full of the same happiness I felt when we first set out, but on the third day, I suddenly began to miss Xilaimian. I scrolled through Xilaimian’s Weibo page and told Fatty what was new. It became our regular morning routine every day of the trip.

Finally, on the fourth day, we passed through the Gao’ersi Temple tunnel and entered Yerengou, which was the sign that we were approaching Motuo.⁽¹⁾

We stopped at a rest stop to eat some instant noodles. There were two ham-and-sausage-flavored brands: Sanhui and Yingong. At first glance, they looked like the brands you would see everywhere, but after careful consideration, I felt that there was something wrong with them.

While we were there, Fatty’s friend, Lao Guang, showed up. He was a handsome young Tibetan guy who looked about eighteen or nineteen years old. He was dark-skinned, very thin, and his eyes were as bright as stars. I couldn’t figure out why he was called Lao Guang.⁽²⁾

His Tibetan name was Jiang Bai Qijia, which left me feeling even more confused when I heard it. After all, qijia in Chinese meant “dog shit”. To Tibetans, such a humble name meant that their family was dying out and the parents were afraid that their children would die. This was a custom that Han-Chinese people also had when picking out names. But the name Jiang Bai was relatively rare.

He took us to Bajiaolou Town. We planned to stay there for the night and then head directly to Motuo early the next morning.

Poker-Face and I didn’t ask any questions the whole way and just left it up to Fatty, who kept whispering to Lao Guang the whole time. I didn’t know what I, the Houhai Murder King, was supposed to do here, but the atmosphere was very good.

We arrived early and headed straight to Jiang Bai Qijia’s house, which was very stylish. It seemed this young man’s family was quite wealthy.

We walked to the backyard, where we were met with a beautiful view. There was a valley directly behind the yard that had a stream flowing down from its upper reaches. It actually looked more like a small river than a stream.

There was a stable next to the backyard that had about seven or eight horses inside, four of which were already saddled.

Jiang Bai Qijia led us over to the horses and said, “Uncle’s already told you everything, right?”

“No,” I immediately said while looking at Fatty suspiciously.

“Don’t tell them anything,” Fatty said. “Of the three of us, I’m the one making the decisions here. If I agree to anything, they’ll definitely agree as well. Right, Mr. Naïve?”

I looked at Fatty and Fatty looked at me. “And if they don’t agree,” Fatty continued, “it’s not like I can force them, right? It’s better to agree first. That way, there’s still a fifty percent chance of success.”

“What kind of activity are we doing?” I asked Jiang Bai.

“In ten days, there’s going to be a competition here, called the Mounted Shooting Competition. It’s our local competition where you get to ride horses and shoot guns. It was originally supposed to be held during the Chinese New Year, but it was delayed until now because of various reasons. The town is going to give away two hundred sheep as a prize. This year, a meat company in Tibet is sponsoring the event and there will even be a live broadcast to promote the region’s culture. That’s why a team from another place outside the region needs to participate.”

I glanced at Fatty, “Mounted shooting? What is that? We’ve never done anything like that before.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll definitely get the hang of it in no time,” Fatty said. “The gun is a matchlock so you’ll put the gunpowder into the barrel and then ignite it using a burning piece of rope.⁽³⁾ The more times you fire within the specified time-frame, the better chance you have of winning.”

“Wouldn’t it be hard to shoot while riding a horse?” I asked him. After all, it was hard to drink water from a canteen when riding.

“The three of us can do it,” Fatty said confidently. “We’re not trying to win, we’re just participating. Their competition is called the Grand National Mounted Shooting Competition, so it would look ridiculous if only locals participated. That’s why teams from all over the nation have been invited to join. Now, let’s look alive. We’re the Fujian team.”

I sighed and gave Fatty a look, “Does Fujian even know we’re here?”

“I don’t know, but the Beijing team will come anyway. Wanna take a guess at who’s coming?” Fatty asked with a smirk.

I looked at him, a vague premonition in my heart.

“How many people did you fool into coming here?”

“More than you think.” Fatty picked one of the horses and climbed onto its back. “Come on, I’ll take you to a flat piece of land. Once you try it out, you’ll realize how fun it is.”

I glanced at Poker-Face and saw that he also seemed to be asking for my opinion.

“You never get up early unless there’s some kind of profit, yet you say the goal is just to participate?” I pressed Fatty. “Why don’t I believe that?”

Fatty turned around and looked at me with the eyes of a prairie prince, “My foolish, naïve friend, when you have dinner tonight, you’ll realize what my purpose is. We’ll go to Motuo tomorrow like we originally planned. This won’t affect your trip.”

Poker-Face and I exchanged another look before we both turned towards the horses. After we mounted, I saw that Jiang Bai Qijia looked very happy, “Welcome, Fujian team.”

I couldn’t help but smile, “I thought we’d be the Zhejiang team.”⁽⁴⁾

The four of us rode straight out of Jiang Bai’s backyard and headed towards the river, steering the horses deeper into the valley.

The blue sky was full of white clouds and the green water was crystal clear. Our destination wasn’t a dangerous place that would leave us in dire straits with no possibility of return. Instead, it was a place where the rural folk were living their normal lives. It definitely felt very different.

<Chapter 2><Table of Contents><Chapter 4>

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TN Notes:

(1) I don’t know about you, but I need visuals lol (Motuo is another name for Medog). Also, there were like 4 Yerengou places around that mountain so I picked the one that looked like it was closer to Motuo to fit with the author’s wording.  

Zoomed out view

Zoomed in view

(2) The characters for Lao Guang are “老广”. Lao (老) can mean old/experienced or be used to indicate the order of birth in a family. Guang (广) can mean wide.

(3) Info on matchlock guns here. Like Fatty explained, a matchlock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Basically a very cumbersome process just to fire off a shot.

(4) Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province in east China.

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Most of you all seemed like you wanted Notes in Rain Village so here’s a taste. The author is up to chapter 27 and still going so I can keep working on these or I can shift to the “What are They Doing” chapters (since he seems to be done writing those). If we keep going, I will have to do those “What are They Doing” chapters eventually so just keep that in mind.

Pic added 12/3/2022 (fan translation courtesy of me).