Chapter 16 Traveling Notes

This was a beautiful story for the Zhang family and showed how a journey’s significance could sometimes be found in the midst of change.

Now that I thought about it carefully, I always wondered what it would be like for the three of us to meet Zhang Haike together, but I never thought that it would be like this.

At this time, I tried my best to keep my thoughts from spiraling and just lay there lazily, as if nothing had happened just now.

I tried to tell myself that Zhang Haike coming and going was all just a fantasy. Although his visit was very sudden, he had a peaceful home here. It was a little strange, but it was fine as long as I didn’t think about it. We still hadn’t gone to Kangbaluo yet and the trip had just begun. It was better not to think too much about it.

“Is something wrong?” Fatty didn’t cooperate with me and just asked me directly.

I closed my eyes and pretended not to hear him.

Fatty looked at me and then splashed water in my face, “Mr. Naïve, at this time, you normally start talking. Hurry up and start the show.”

A lot of information started flashing through my mind, but I immediately stopped thinking and told myself, peace. The whole world is at peace.

After remaining quiet for a while, Fatty couldn’t stand it anymore and asked, “Mr. Naïve, can you stop trying to escape?”

“What am I running from?”

“Although we’re here to travel, it’s not like you can force your brain to stop working,” Fatty said to me.

I looked at him and knew that he wouldn’t accept my efforts to escape. “If I use my brain, can we wrap this up in three days?” I asked him.

Fatty fell silent, pondering over it for a while, before saying, “It’s normal to be worried when traveling. How about this? You do the analyzing and I’ll handle whatever comes after that.”

I’ll admit that I wanted to escape. After all, life in Rain Village was so comfortable that I really didn’t want to go back to my old way of thinking.

I just wanted to be a simple person, but after thinking about it a little, I realized that Fatty was right. This was actually quite serious.

“Making this place a relay station for the Zhang family so that they can find Little Brother is actually a good idea,” I said to him. “The sunset here is also very beautiful. If this is all true, then I hope that the person just now really was Zhang Haike. If he is, then we can travel as planned. But to be honest, I don’t think he’s Zhang Haike. If he’s not, then I don’t know what happened to Jila Temple or how long we’ll have to stay here.”

“If he’s not Zhang Haike, then that would be a big deal.”

“I know, so can’t you let me escape for an hour or two before I have to face reality?” I asked Fatty. “Just look at this scenery—we’ve got the Milky Way, the snow-capped mountains, and the lights from Jila Temple.”

“The three of us—master and disciples—are on a journey to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures and came across this Guanyin Monastery,” Fatty said. “The Jinchi Elder here must have some plans for us. In fact, there may be a black bear spirit at the back of the mountain, just waiting for his chance to take the master’s Buddhist cassock. You can’t run away.”⁽¹⁾

I sighed, lay down on one of the rocks by the pool, and looked up at the stars shining brightly in the distant sky.

This Deren Lama, who had been wanting to see us, had been laying the groundwork for a long time now. In fact, from the moment we first got here, everything seemed to be leading to some kind of event. It was all obviously intentional. Then, when we were building the hot spring in the temple, a lama came to tell us that we could dig up the bluestone slabs. After digging, we all realized that there was a space under the temple.

We pretended not to find it so that we wouldn’t be interested in seeing what was under the temple.

This incident was actually a bad coincidence for me. If it was in the past, I would have immediately started thinking about whether there was any danger behind it. But I didn’t this time because I hadn’t encountered any danger for a long time now. I would rather come across an event that had a high probability of happening, such as digging up something from such an old temple. After all, that kind of thing was totally normal.

But if it wasn’t a coincidence, then there were people out here who were hoping that we would stumble across the secrets beneath Jila Temple and explore further.

Someone was trying to lure us into exploring the area beneath Jila Temple.

At the same time, when we got here, we were told right away that Deren Lama had reappeared. I thought it was strange at the time, but ever since then, the word Deren kept coming up, as if someone was constantly trying to remind us.

Deren Lama was basically the manager here, and this position was of great importance to Zhang Qiling. So, logically speaking, it made total sense for us to pay him a visit when we got here.

But the other party didn’t expect that we wouldn’t want to visit Deren at all.

Just now, in order to get us to meet Deren, the young lama raised the stakes by telling us that Deren’s name was Zhang Haike.

After that, Zhang Haike immediately appeared and quickly gave us this book.

I asked him a bunch of practical questions throughout the whole encounter, but he avoided answering them directly.

If I were to analyze it, then this was a very special move. His ability to disguise himself wasn’t good enough, so I instantly discovered that something was wrong with the details of his face, but his quick response helped him avoid further inquiry. Then, he did something that was very strange—he immediately went into the water and soaked in the hot spring with us.

It was dusk here, and there was only a lantern on the side so the lighting was actually very dim. He appeared quickly, entered the hot spring quickly, gave us something quickly, and then left quickly.

When these two events were put together, it basically showed that there was a problem.

This was a very bold plan, because if it took a little longer, then all three of us would immediately know that this person wasn’t Zhang Haike.

So, was he Zhang Haike or not? He did everything so quickly just now that although I was very confused, he left before I had time to think about it deeply. Then, Fatty began to question me. He had clearly finished thinking quickly, but I hadn’t even started. Maybe my brain had slowed down and become lazy these days.

But I really wasn’t expecting to encounter this kind of thing when coming here. I came to see the beautiful scenery and relax.

Fatty actually saw it, and so did Poker-Face, but I was hoping that nobody had noticed.

At this point, we both looked at Poker-Face. He got up, draped a felt robe over his shoulders, and said to us, “It’s not him.”

I sighed. There was a fake Deren in Jila Temple who was trying to lure us into exploring the area beneath the Temple and even gave us a book filled with various places.

What was the motive behind it? Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t a trivial matter.

I couldn’t go back to Rain Village with such a conspiracy at work. My life there would be ruined.

This was exactly why I was reluctant to think deeply about this matter and face it head-on. Of course, I wouldn’t run away for long, but Fatty didn’t even give me fifteen minutes.

Fatty stood up, “One thing is for certain, this man must know Zhang Haike if he’s able to imitate him.”

“But he’s not a professional.”

“How do you know?”

“If he really farted, then that means that he wasn’t in a good state of mind and was very nervous,” I said.

This incident made me very upset, but Poker-Face handed me a Tibetan robe and said, “I know who he is, don’t worry.”

<Chapter 15><Table of Contents><Chapter 17>

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TN Notes:

(1) This is referencing their “Journey to the West” joke back in Chapter 11.

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Pic added 8/26/2023 (fan translation courtesy of me).