Chapter 7 Traveling Notes

After inhaling the oxygen, my condition really did seem to improve.

I didn’t know if it was really because of the lack of oxygen or because we were revisiting that old place, but since my condition was improving, I decided not to think about it.

Actually, I couldn’t think at all. I leaned my head against the window as a throbbing headache slowly made itself known.

Based on what I did here in the past, I definitely would’ve died if I felt even a little altitude sickness. But here I was, going with my friends on a relaxing trip, and I ended up getting altitude sickness.

God, you must really like drama.

Halfway through the drive, Fatty woke me up. In a daze, I sat up straight and saw that Fatty had slowed down and was heading towards a roadside station.

The mountain road around the small station was full of lamas, who were all quietly standing in orderly rows and looking at our car with attentive eyes. When our car stopped at the small station, Fatty and I got out first, followed by Poker-Face.

All the lamas began saluting and chanting sutras as Poker-Face looked at them. Then, a lama walked out of the crowd—it was the one who had sent the ashes before—and nodded to Poker-Face.

I was shocked by this scene. The lama offered him a cup of buttered tea and said, “Distinguished guest, you’re here again.”

“Yes,” Poker-Face said.

Fatty touched his chin and said to me, “Fuck, look at all this pomp. My God, this is so damn good. Mr. Naïve, quick, take a picture for me.”

But when he glanced back at me, he suddenly froze, “Don’t cry. You’ll get pulmonary edema.”

I touched my face and found that I was crying; I wasn’t even aware of it.

I’m sorry, I just can’t bear to hear those words.

Then, the lama led Poker-Face up the mountain.

There was still a long way to go before we reached Motuo, but the lama said, “We’ll take the original road. You should prefer it.”

Poker-Face nodded and followed after him. As Fatty and I moved to follow, we saw those rows of lamas on the mountain road split apart to let Poker-Face pass. After he passed, they all moved to follow him.

We walked among the crowd and re-entered the old mountain road leading to Motuo.

As we walked into the mountains, I found that my words escaped me. Nothing I could say would do justice to describe this meeting of heaven and earth or this group of people chanting sutras. But the most difficult things to control were my emotions whenever I heard them use the phrase “honored guest” to address him.

“Honored guest, you’re here again.”

God knew how far away Poker-Face was from us when I read that sentence at that time. It really seemed like a lifetime ago.

Honored guest, you’ve finally come back.

Between this meeting of heaven and earth, the chanting, and the snow-capped mountains all around us, there was nothing else to say about the rest of the journey. When we got to the top of the mountain, it snowed again. As the snow continued to fall heavily, everyone steadily walked on.

I was completely in a trance-like state, my perception of time and space so distorted that I felt as if I was watching him when he left here with his mother’s ashes, watching as he walked through the snow to find his destination… it seemed that I had entered a very intense state of hypoxia because I was seeing one hallucination after another.

“Fatty, am I going to die?” I asked him.

“No, there are hundreds of people here who can carry you. You won’t die,” Fatty said.

“Is Little Brother still there?”

“He’s at the front of the group. We’ve fallen more than three hundred meters behind.”

“Can you help me take a picture of him? When we set off, we agreed that I would put it on the photo wall in the restaurant,” I said. All the things I was currently seeing were phantoms, so I didn’t know which one was the real him.

“I’ll take it, I’ll take it,” Fatty promised.

“Why do I feel like we’re going to another world right now?” I started babbling nonsensically, not even knowing what I was talking about.

“Little Brother wants us to follow.”

“Three hundred meters? I can only run three meters.”

“Are you going to run?”

“Give me the oxygen,” I said to Fatty. “Let’s take a group photo. Use the selfie stick and make sure everyone’s in it.”

“You’ve got backbone, but wipe off the foam at the corner of your mouth first.” As Fatty lifted me up, I suddenly felt another strong pair of hands supporting me on the other side.

<Chapter 6><Table of Contents><Chapter 8>

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