Chapter 18 Traveling Notes

There was nothing to do today. In fact, the old gold that was used as the foundation here wasn’t dug up in the end, so I didn’t know if it was still there or not. We stayed by the edge of the hot spring for a while until the women came to soak, at which point we had to leave. The three of us then started wandering around the temple in our Tibetan robes.

According to Poker-Face’s memory, this whole affair regarding the gold should be news from a very long time ago. These things weren’t actually precious metals but more antiques, and their value was incalculable.

Many old brokers who followed Uncle Three back in the day—including Jin Wantang—liked old gold because it was much more expensive than gold itself. They liked to keep it as it was when it was first unearthed by cleaning one side until it was bright and leaving the other side black because they felt that it gave it a special flavor.

But the temple was renovated so long ago that it was hard to say whether the gold was still down there or not. Since that Zhang family member recommended that we dig, did that mean that he had already confirmed that it was still there?

I had so many questions.

Poker-Face said that it couldn’t be confirmed because there were very few people who knew that there was something down there. But there was also another possibility—when the Zhang family fell apart, all the support from the overseas family members was actually handled by the west. This was around 1920, so if the old gold was no longer below, then it must have been used up at that time.

It was an era of famine and war after all.

But no matter how much was used, there would definitely still be some below. If we wanted to know how much was left, we’d have to dig it up and see.

The snow stopped falling around ten in the morning, and then the sun came out. While we sat in the sun, more and more people came by to salute us. Many of them gave us Gesang Meiduos, and we were soon covered in flowers.

“Mr. Naïve,” Fatty said, “don’t you think this feels a bit like they’re paying their respects to the dead?”

I sighed. Although I did feel very respected, it really was a bit like the spirits of three ancestors sitting on a tombstone and celebrating the Qingming Festival.⁽¹⁾

The three of us ate some barley baba⁽²⁾ and began to wander around the temple again. Fatty rubbed his ears and scratched his cheeks, clearly very restless.

I asked Poker-Face, “So, who is that Deren? Since very few people know about the situation under the temple, why does this Deren know about it? And why did he pretend to be Zhang Haike just to tell us?”

Poker-Face looked at Jila Temple’s prayer wheels sitting there in the sun and said, “He can only appear as Zhang Haike. He’s not sure if you know what he did to you.”

I was silent for a moment, immediately understanding what he meant.

“He’s not disguised. His face was also made to look like mine,” I murmured. “These people who look similar to me have done some things that have more or less hurt me. He’s not sure how much I know or whether I bear a strong grudge against him. So, if he wants to see me with that face, it’s only safe for him to use Zhang Haike’s identity.”

“How did he hurt you? Do you know? Although he gave you gold, you have to take revenge,” Fatty said.

I shook my head, “So many things have happened that I can’t find out everything they did. The worst thing I can think of is that some of them might have used this face to try and kill my Uncle Three.”

“But he can come to you after changing his face.”

“It would be very difficult for a Zhang family member whom no one knew much about to act as Deren,” I said.

“Does Little Brother know who this person is?” Fatty asked. “If they really are such a character, then they should be beaten to death with a stick.”

Poker-Face nodded, “I know who it is. It’s fine.”

With our minds at ease now, we took out the small notebook, “Then it’s true.” Fatty and I looked at each other.

We didn’t draw any conclusions about the gold in the end, but to be honest, this was something only Poker-Face could handle.

I didn’t plan on thinking about this matter anymore. Deep in my heart, I felt that these things wouldn’t run away so it was better to just leave them alone, but in truth, old gold was hard to sell.

After a while, Fatty and I wouldn’t need this kind of stuff anyways.

In the afternoon, the three of us separated to do our own things. There wasn’t a single angle here that wasn’t beautiful, magnificent, or divine, so I took some photos and sent them to some friends I had made back in my Guan Gen period.

Fatty went to a bar while Poker-Face went somewhere.

I sat in front of the temple and lit a cigarette until Fatty sent me a text.

I glanced at the message and saw that Fatty was telling me to go to him immediately, saying that something was wrong. First, the gold was definitely gone. Second, something had happened to our stone pot chicken.

<Chapter 17><Table of Contents><Chapter 19>

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TN Notes:

(1) Qingming Festival, or “Tomb-Sweeping Day” is a traditional Chinese festival where Chinese families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray to their ancestors, and make ritual offerings. Offerings would typically include traditional food dishes and the burning of joss sticks and joss paper. Info here.

(2) Baba is a type of thick, round, heavy bread that is prepared either plain or with various fillings. It can be sweet or savory.

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