"Тhе wind wаs too strоng, I rеаllу didn't hеar you," Хiаo Zi eхplainеd.
Yе Хun lооkеd her up аnd down with displeasure, his faсе dark аs he wаtсhеd hеr adjust thе саmеrа and lights. Imрatiently, hе sаid, "I brought уou along with thе camеra to dосumеnt оur hаrdshiрs in sеarching fоr Zоu Kаigui, nоt tо cаpturе thеse romаntiс scеnes. That's еnough."
"I'm filming for my brоthеr. Нe'll nеver have thе сhаncе tо соmе hеre in his lifеtimе." Eаrlier, shе had askеd Bауunуe if shе соuld сapture thе Milky Way. Bаyunye sаid that during this month, thе Milkу Wаy wоuldn't rise until dawn.
Ye Xun laughed. "He's half-paralyzed. Whether he'll ever stand up again is a question."
Xiao Zi's expression darkened, but she could only force herself to endure.
"Our chances of finding Zou Kaigui this time are quite high," Ye Xun said confidently. "Even if we don't find him, you must film the moment when the Rescue Team insists on turning back, and I beg them to keep searching, only to be coldly refused."
"Mm," Xiao Zi replied woodenly.
"Zou Kaigui died as he deserved. Over the past few years, he lied about travel expenses and swindled tens of thousands from me, but I won't hold it against him." Ye Xun stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked up at the starry sky. "If we manage to find his body smoothly this time, after we return, sort out the remaining donations in his account. Donate them in his name to impoverished children or websites that help find missing children. Say it was his will."
"Mm." Xiao Zi could see it now—people like Ye Xun were greedy for big gains but not stingy with small gestures. She asked another question, "What about Zou Xiaowen? Are we not looking for her anymore?"
Ye Xun raised an eyebrow, looking as if he knew something profound and mysterious. He repeated Zou Xiaowen's name and chuckled twice.
At that moment, Xiao Zi suspected that Zou Xiaowen might not even exist in this world. Looking at Ye Xun again, his ugliness now carried an added layer of a conspirator's terror.
Ye Xun rubbed the tip of his nose. "It's too cold. Let's go back."
"Just a little longer."
Suddenly, there was a crisp cracking sound under someone's feet. Xiao Zi shone her light and saw that the ice beneath Ye Xun's feet had actually split. She took a step back, and Ye Xun shouted, "Don't move recklessly!" She glanced up at him, then suddenly grabbed the tripod and camera and ran back toward the shore.
"Hey!" Ye Xun grabbed her arm. The ice beneath his feet had already broken, and the cracks were spreading rapidly around him, making snapping sounds. Xiao Zi was his last point of balance. If she pulled him, he could use the force to step onto the ice that hadn't fully cracked yet.
Unexpectedly, Xiao Zi violently shook him off and sprinted toward the shore.
With a splash, Ye Xun sank into the icy water.
Bayunye was just about to tell Hippo to fetch hot water when she heard someone outside shouting about someone falling into the water. Alert, she asked, "What happened?" Hippo ran out to look and turned back to say, "Ye Xun fell into the lake!"
"What about Xiao Zi?"
"Don't know!"
"Damn it! I forgot to warn them not to walk on the lake if the ice isn't solid!"
"Master Ba, now..."
"Quick, rescue him!" Bayunye jumped up and ran outside.
The Rescue Team had already rushed over with ropes slung over their shoulders. Fortunately, Ye Xun knew how to swim. He thrashed around a few times without sinking. As soon as the rope was thrown, he grabbed it tightly and was pulled onto relatively solid ice. Shivering from the cold, he was otherwise unharmed.Everyone worked together to carry him ashore, and all the hot water that had just been boiled was likely to be used to warm him up. Bayunye swiftly prepared a packet of cold medicine and brought it over. As she passed by Diao Zhuo, he glanced at her leg and snorted heavily through his nose.
“Your foot healed that fast?”
It hadn’t been sprained in the first place, so Bayunye pretended not to hear.
“You bitch!!” Ye Xun’s lips had already turned blue, but he suddenly sprang up like a corpse, lunging straight for Xiao Zi, who was standing behind the crowd. He grabbed her neck with both hands, as if determined to strangle her to death on the spot.
Diao Zhuo stepped forward, one hand steadying Xiao Zi while the other pushed Ye Xun back more than five meters.
“She pushed me!! She’s a murderer!!” Ye Xun roared.
“You’re the murderer!” Xiao Zi shouted in desperation.
“I’ll kill you right now!”
“Come on! I’m not afraid of you!”
“What did you say?! You slut!!”
“Enough!” Diao Zhuo bellowed, his voice fierce and commanding. “Help him change his clothes!”
Tan Lin, Da Qin, and a few others dragged Ye Xun into the house, while Xiao Zi crouched on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. Bayunye held a cup of cold medicine as if it were coffee, standing side by side with Hippo, one tall and one short, watching the commotion. Every time they drove along various routes, they encountered different passengers, heard and got involved in different incidents. Each journey was sometimes full of surprises, sometimes full of shocks. However, every sudden event had a long buildup, and Bayunye was long accustomed to it.
After more than an hour of chaos, Ye Xun finally recovered completely. Wrapped in a military coat, he hurled insult after insult at Xiao Zi, cursing her by her full name. In the high-altitude darkness, shouting insults wasted more air than dancing. After less than ten minutes of ranting, he went from a puffed-up blowfish to a dried-up salted fish, collapsing onto the bed, panting heavily with blue-purple lips, complaining of a headache—this time, it was likely genuine.
From his torrent of abuse, Da Qin, Tan Lin, and the others belatedly realized that there might have been a romantic relationship between him and Xiao Zi. After a while, Qi Zi stayed behind to “take care” of Ye Xun, while the others gathered in another room to warm themselves by the fire and listen to Xiao Zi’s “defense.”
The dried cow dung cakes in the corner came in handy. The gentle flames warmed the surroundings, and a few potatoes were buried in the ashes of the burnt dung. As a documentary might say, this was a gift from nature.
Xiao Zi’s eyes were red-rimmed, and her cheeks bore cracked red marks. Her skin, weathered by intense ultraviolet rays and dry, fierce winds, couldn’t withstand the salty sting of tears.
Xiao Zi rambled on, picking at the hem of her clothes. “Charity? Is there such a thing as a free lunch?… Accept a few cotton coats from him, and you have to write dozens of promotional posts for his website. Take two thousand yuan from him, and you have to work for a month in the charity canteen under his company. And then there are people like me, who received his so-called motivational scholarship and joined the company as a reserve cadre. What’s a reserve cadre?—An unpaid intern. I worked as an intern for three months before entering the probationary period. Those who didn’t make it to probation worked for three months for nothing.”
Everyone recalled Ye Xun’s earlier claim that Xiao Zi had climbed into his bed to stay in the company. Meanwhile, Xiao Zi was thinking about how Ye Xun had used threats and inducements to force her into reluctant submission.
That day, Bayunye’s words had awakened her. Why fear that smiling tiger? At worst, she could lose everything here and start over elsewhere. Was she supposed to be his outlet for the rest of her life?"Zou Kaigui is just like us; accepting his 'help' always comes with conditions. His personal accident insurance... the payout is at least twenty million. The beneficiary is entirely Ye Xun... Otherwise, why would Ye Xun sponsor him? He's a businessman; everything he does is about exchange. How could he possibly take a loss?" Xiao Zi mimicked Ye Xun's tone, "You want sponsorship? Fine. First, sign the insurance policy. I'll cover your travel expenses and even pay for your insurance, but the beneficiary of your policy has to be me—he practically wishes Zou Kaigui dead!"
"Twenty million, wow." Bayunye's eyes widened. "If I earned that much money, I'd quit driving and buy an inn in Dali to be the boss lady. I'd hire someone to manage the accounts for me, and then I'd go..."
Diao Zhuo cleared his throat loudly, and Hippo stepped on her foot, snapping her out of her nouveau riche daydream.
"If Zou Kaigui is merely missing, the insurance payout won't come quickly. According to regulations, it might take two or three years. Only by finding the body can death be confirmed." Xiao Zi said, "He doesn't care whether Zou Kaigui is crossing an Uninhabited Area or a war zone. For him, life and death are just a matter of whether he can get over twenty million..."
"Bullshit!" Ye Xun burst through the door, pointing at Xiao Zi with a fierce glare. Qi Zi followed closely behind, making an apologetic expression that said, "Sorry, I couldn't stop him." Diao Zhuo stood up, raising an arm and blocking Ye Xun's path.
"That old gambler Zou Kaigui! You have no idea how much money I've paid off for him over the years!! I've kept a record of every single debt! If he's not out cycling, he's gambling!" Knowing he was no match for Diao Zhuo, Ye Xun shouted from behind his raised arm, "If I didn't list myself as the beneficiary of the insurance policy I sold him, who else would I list?!"
Well, that did it. The two personas of the compassionate entrepreneur and the father searching for his daughter were torn apart by their back-and-forth shouting, shattered into pieces.
Bayunye and Hippo exchanged a glance, and she whispered, "Keep tearing each other apart. The more you tear, the uglier it gets. It just proves that saying—no gold is pure, and no person is perfect."
Seeing the murderous look on Ye Xun's face, Xiao Zi gritted her teeth and lowered her head.
"Mr. Ye, calm down. Have something to eat and warm up." Bayunye poked around in the cow dung ashes with a stick, picked out two small potatoes with tongs, blew on them with puffed cheeks, and tossed them to Ye Xun.
Ye Xun had no choice but to catch them, hissing from the heat and temporarily forgetting to curse at Xiao Zi. Xiang An was amused again, glancing at Bayunye and secretly giving her a thumbs-up.
Once the potatoes had cooled a bit, he turned fierce again, pointing at Xiao Zi. "Old Zou did it voluntarily; I didn't force him. And you—I didn't force you either. Coming to Tibet with me, entering the Uninhabited Area to search for someone—didn't you have conditions too? Fifty thousand yuan, you filthy bitch, why don't you mention that?"
"Was it for myself?! It was for my brother!" Xiao Zi's tears burst forth again.
"I don't give a damn who it was for. If you ask me for money, I'm supposed to hand it over without getting anything in return?" Ye Xun's face twisted with rage.
"You're so rich and such a philanthropist. Shouldn't you be generous?" Xiao Zi retorted indignantly.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch!"
Their argument grew louder and louder. Bayunye couldn't help but burst into laughter, shaking her head and joking, "Mr. Ye, I'm pretty short on money too. How about sponsoring me a little?"Ye Xun was still fuming. He turned to snap at her, but upon seeing her exotic beauty, even more enchanting in the soft firelight, he swallowed all the curses he had in mind. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath and insinuated with thinly veiled sarcasm, "Master Ba, don’t joke around. If you’re really willing to be with me, I’ll give you 100,000 a month."
Xiao Zi’s face fell, and she snorted heavily. Hearing this, Bayunye’s lips curled upward. Diao Zhuo glanced at her and, seeing her mocking smile, knew she was about to shoot off her mouth again. Just then, she sighed and said, "I don’t offer 100,000-yuan services, but I do have something worth 100,000 yuan."
Everyone grew curious, looking at what she was wearing—no watch, no jewelry—and asked her what it was.
She took out her phone and showed them several photos of star trails and the Milky Way. "One of my clients took these in the Uninhabited Area with a camera worth over 300,000 yuan. Do you think they’re worth 100,000?"
"Worth it! Absolutely worth it!" Everyone laughed, and she joined in. Diao Zhuo knew she was deliberately changing the subject to spare Xiao Zi embarrassment and cooperated with a slight smile. Looking at her again, her eyes reflected the firelight, shimmering like the starry river in the photos.
Ye Xun, perhaps still holding a grudge, refused to play along. "So, Master Ba, are you worth 200,000 now?"
Bayunye realized the matter wasn’t over yet and retorted, "Mr. Ye, you really are a businessman, putting a price tag on everything. This is the first time I’ve learned I’m so valuable."
Everyone sensed the deep sarcasm in her words and exchanged glances, shifting the topic once again.
After finishing two potatoes, Ye Xun learned from Hippo that the chunks in the stove weren’t wood or charcoal but dried cow dung cakes. He immediately felt nauseous. Bayunye said, "Only dung from grass-fed cows can be used as fuel. You can’t even get this elsewhere." Still unable to accept it, Ye Xun rushed to a corner and vomited repeatedly, suffering for a long time.
Everyone returned to their rooms. Xiao Zi crawled into her sleeping bag, seemingly wanting to say something more. Bayunye felt that neither Xiao Zi nor Ye Xun were her kind of people, so she pretended to be fast asleep. Xiao Zi had no choice but to give up.
As the night deepened, the temperature dropped further. Strong winds mixed with light snow, coating the world in a layer of silver-white. The next morning, the weather remained gloomy. Without the blue sky as a backdrop, the vast wilderness appeared desolate and barren, as if devoid of life for miles around. By noon, the sky cleared, with patches of blue gradually emerging from the clouds. The distant mountains and surrounding land suddenly took on a gentle appearance.
Bayunye led the Rescue Team southeast for a while and finally found Lake Puer. "Zou Kaigui deviated from the route and likely came here—the water here is quite clean and drinkable once melted. When he crossed Qiangtang, the lake was frozen, but it wouldn’t have been too hard to collect ice from the shore. Further down, there’s a basin with a downhill slope all the way, which saves a lot of energy."Everyone drove along the shore, where large, fluffy white clouds met the distant ice surface, creating a vast expanse of white that blurred the line between sky and lake. Ahead lay the fresh carcass of an animal. Bayunye initially thought it was a wild donkey, but as they drew closer, she realized it was a Tibetan brown bear. Its skeleton was scattered, its fur stained with dried black blood, as if it had been violently torn apart. She picked up the bear’s skull and saw several holes in the bone, surrounded by fragments. Clearly, this bear, like the young one before, had fallen victim to the greed and ruthlessness of poachers, and after death, had been picked clean by predators like wolves.
Each of them couldn’t help but wonder—and had been wondering all along—what Zou Kaigui might have encountered in Qiangtang. Was it the massive, aggressive wild yaks, the cunning and vicious wolf packs, or perhaps the unpredictable blizzards and sandstorms? Ye Xun no longer feigned compassion, nor did he care to know the circumstances leading to Zou Kaigui’s disappearance. All he wanted was to see the body.