Diао Zhuо recountеd thе matters сoncеrning Diао Jun аnd Rао Qinghui, along with whаt he had learned. Bауunyе was sоmеwhаt tаken аbасk. Аftеr a lоng moment of аstоnishment, shе shook her hеad with a smilе. "You’re оnlу tеlling mе nоw… thаt уou’re Diао Jun’s son… I mеаn, уou’rе not likе thоse TV drаmаs, arе you? Hеaring that my оldеr sistеr cаused trouble fоr еvеryоnе in thе саr, уou dеlibеratеly gоt closе to mе, sеduсed mе, аnd аrе plotting somе ‘son’s revenge’?"
"What if I аm?"
"Then nothing. Gоodbyе." Bауunyе pretended to be angry and turned to leave.
Diao Zhuo was quick, grabbing her. "I haven’t done anything to you yet. Why are you running?"
"Obviously! Should I wait until you’ve torn off an arm or a leg before running?"
"So when it comes to fighting, you actually know you can’t beat me."
Bayunye thought for a moment and muttered to herself, "Why the hell am I running? Even if we fought, I might not end up with my limbs torn off by this guy…"
"Even if I were seeking revenge on you, it would be…" Diao Zhuo leaned close to her ear and whispered something. Even with her thick skin, she flushed bright red, elbowing him hard in the chest and scolding, "If you’ve got the guts, say it out loud!"
Diao Zhuo glanced around, took a deep breath, and said, "I’ll—"
"Shut up!" Bayunye stepped forward and covered his mouth. "You really dare say it, you bastard!"
Diao Zhuo grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away. "If you call me a bastard again, I’ll say it right now."
"Right, you’re—a grandson." Bayunye laughed.
"Are you done?" He shot her a sidelong glance. "You’re not even blood sisters. What revenge?"
Bayunye blurted out without thinking, "Thank goodness we’re not blood sisters. Otherwise, if your dad really had something with my older sister, you’d have to call me ‘auntie’."
Diao Zhuo gritted his teeth and squeezed out a question—"Auntie?"
"Yes!" she answered without hesitation.
"Bayunye, I won’t let you off!"
Hearing this, Bayunye waved her hand dismissively, signaling that the matter was over. "So what if that Song Fan died? Lying through his teeth—he deserved it long ago."
"Don’t you think it’s strange? Song Fan and Zhang Chenguang—one died in Badanjilin, the other went missing on Pearl Peak, fate unknown?"
Bayunye fell silent, repeating his words. "One died in the desert, the other went missing on Pearl Peak… What a coincidence…" She looked at Diao Zhuo, hesitating for a long while. "By the way, among my sister’s belongings, there was a man’s wallet. Could that wallet… be your dad’s?" Bayunye showed him a family photo of three people stored on her phone.
He didn’t need to answer; his expression said it all.
"So that’s what you looked like as a kid. Boys really do change a lot as they grow up." Bayunye said with curiosity. "Your dad’s wallet was with my older sister… This… sigh! Besides the family photo, there were three landscape photos tucked inside."
"Landscape photos… Xi’an?"
She shook her head. "One might be Gama Mountain in Qiangtang."
Diao Zhuo felt relieved. No wonder she kept taking photos of Gama Mountain when they found Zou Kaigui’s body. "The other two?"
"One is exactly Pearl Peak! And the other… I don’t know where it is, but it looks like a Hai Zi in the desert, quite beautiful. But I’ve read many desert travelogues and asked herders at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert and workers doing desert protection. No one has seen such a Hai Zi. I don’t know if it’s in a foreign desert, or maybe it’s not in a desert at all…"This description bore some resemblance to the Girl's Sea that Old Wang had mentioned. So Diao Zhuo tentatively asked, "A pink, heart-shaped Hai Zi?"
Bayunye's eyes widened. "How did you know!"
After hearing Diao Zhuo's account of what he had seen and heard at the police station, Bayunye was utterly deflated, like frostbitten eggplants, hanging her head in dejection, her tone tinged with a sense of helplessness. She hadn't thought there was any special meaning behind the three photos her elder sister had left behind. A few years ago, when Brother Long went to Yunnan to discuss the inn business, she had hosted him and Hippo in the courtyard of the orphanage's old site for a mushroom hotpot. In the excitement of the conversation, she had taken them out to show them. Apart from that, she couldn't remember anyone else having handled the photos.
Now, if the photos had been leaked, it could only have been done by one of them. So, was it Brother Long, who was like a father and brother to her, or her good friend Hippo? If the photos were indeed her elder sister's final words, proving she hadn't interfered in Diao Jun's marriage, what then? And if they contained some enormous secret, what then?
A chill ran from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head. She didn't want to believe that either Brother Long or Hippo—or both—had approached her with hidden motives, nor could she figure out how either of them could be connected to the geological survey team's car accident. By the timeline, Brother Long would have been just over twenty at the time, and Hippo only fifteen or sixteen. It was impossible for them to have known Ba Xiye.
Or perhaps they weren't targeting Ba Xiye?
She remembered that Brother Long had met her in Yunnan while driving trucks, coincidentally because of the incident where he saved a child from a reservoir. Now he had money and respect in the industry; aside from being single at an older age, she couldn't think of anything he lacked. Hippo had joined from a team called "Blazing Sun" three years ago. It was said he had a falling out with his former partner over some financial disputes. He always claimed he had been cheated out of money by a brother, which not only caused his wife to divorce him but also prevented him from seeing his daughter. Because of this, he would seize every opportunity to sneak off and see his daughter. To Bayunye, these two seemed flawless, utterly incapable of lurking around her for some ulterior motive.
"Girl's Sea... sigh!" Bayunye slumped down by the roadside, her gaze unfocused as she stared ahead, her eyelids drooping. She sighed and shook her head from time to time. Diao Zhuo had never seen her look so disheartened.
"It might not be them. Since the wallet was your sister's keepsake, after the accident, it could have been treated as evidence or some other important item, thoroughly searched by those handling the accident," Diao Zhuo bent down and patted her shoulder. "So, we can't be sure exactly how many people have seen the photos."
These words were like a ray of sunlight after a gloomy rain, instantly clearing the layers of gloom from Bayunye's heart. When people are swayed by subjective emotions, they only listen to what suits their feelings—how true that was. She recalled that Brother Long had once said he would ask around among his acquaintances in the industry to see if anyone recognized the locations in the photos. It wasn't impossible that, in the back-and-forth, someone with ulterior motives had taken photos of them. As long as others had seen the photos, even just one person, she would feel much better."But why did Zhang Chenguang go to Pearl Peak? Why did Song Fan want to find the girl in the photo by the lake? If we knew who the person calling him was and why the police took it so seriously, we could probably figure out what Song Fan was up to behind the scenes. Unfortunately, the police are tight-lipped—they won’t say anything before a conviction is made. Sigh!" She snapped her fingers, reverting to the carefree Master Ba. "Could it be that those few photos hint at some kind of treasure map?"
Treasure map?
Diao Zhuo suddenly recalled rumors that the geological survey team possessed information about gold mines. But as someone with professional knowledge, he knew very well that the locations of gold mines were no secret in the industry. As early as 50 years ago, geological survey experts had discovered gold mines at Sanshan Island in Shandong. Later, gold mining areas were successively found in every province except Shanghai. By 2007, China’s gold production had already surpassed South Africa’s, making it the world’s largest gold producer[12]. Gold mining typically spans several decades; it’s not something a few people can dig up in a few days to become overnight millionaires. In other words, even if you knew gold was everywhere in China, it didn’t mean you had the capability to mine it.
He wrote the letters "Y, N, N, M" in her palm. "These are the four letters my grandfather left behind before he passed. Also, he kept muttering something that sounded like ‘8.’ Before I knew you had three photos, I couldn’t make sense of it. Now I’m certain that ‘8’ isn’t a number but the surname ‘Ba.’ The wallet didn’t just appear on your eldest sister for no reason. Could there be some connection between the letters and the photos?"
Bayunye pondered deeply for a moment before shrugging. "Even if there is a connection, it’s probably something only you professionals would understand. How would I know?"
"At the time, no one could guarantee who would end up with the photos or letters. If they were too obscure or technical, leaving people clueless and unable to guess, it would’ve been pointless to leave them."
"Maybe it’s something that immediately comes to mind at first glance, then has a slight connection to geology or exploration—like positioning, surveying, rock layers, or something like that."
This seemed to give Diao Zhuo a huge hint. He thought quickly for a few seconds and asked, "Do you remember the order of the photos?"
"Pearl Peak, Gama Mountain, Girl Lake."
"What does the letter Y make you think of?"
Bayunye looked completely blank.
"N?"
"North latitude." This one Bayunye was familiar with, as GPS positioning was often needed during off-road exploration.
"If the two N’s refer to north latitude in coordinate positioning, then Y and M…" Diao Zhuo fell into deep thought.
"If it’s latitude and longitude, it should be something like N, S, W, E, or the like." Bayunye didn’t take it seriously. "Even a slacker like me knows Y has nothing to do with latitude and longitude… Could it be altitude?"
"Altitude is abbreviated as ASL."
Her eyes darted around as she recalled a few terms her eldest sister had muttered. "...Average borehole diameter or quantitative rapid chromatographic analysis?"
"You know those terms?"
She preened, raising an eyebrow. "Did I guess right?"
Diao Zhuo shook his head. "If such specialized terms were used, only someone in the industry could decipher them. At the time, none of them could guarantee their descendants would work in geology."
She spread her hands, indicating she was out of ideas."Besides the photos, did Teacher Ba leave anything else?"
Bayunye was taken aback, suddenly feeling a bit moved. He actually referred to her elder sister as "Teacher Ba"—perhaps he also agreed with her view that her elder sister was not the one who had interfered in his parents' marriage. She leaped up and pounced on him like a tiger, exclaiming, "I really fucking love you!"
Diao Zhuo was knocked back two steps by the force before steadying himself. Holding her waist, he looked at her speechlessly.
She cupped his face. "Can I kiss you?"
Diao Zhuo kept his gaze fixed straight ahead. "You're actually asking for my opinion now?"
"I'm finally showing you some respect for once..."
Diao Zhuo snorted coldly. "I don't need your respect."
Bayunye smirked mischievously. "At my mercy?"
Diao Zhuo reached out and hooked her chin. "Bring it on, then."
Seeing him like this, Bayunye could hardly remember how stern and serious he had seemed when they first met. It seemed she really was a bad influence—not only corrupting herself but also leading good people astray. She buried her face in his chest and laughed for a long time before finally remembering the question he had asked before she changed the subject.
"Elder sister didn't leave any other information. I'm not sure if that pile of research papers and her old computer count... But after the accident, the police came to investigate, and I guess they didn't find anything either. Oh, right! On the back of the black-and-white photo of Pearl Peak, there's a note about when it was taken."
"How was it written?"
"'Taken at Pearl Peak in July of a certain year.' The year is unclear."
"The abbreviation for the year is Y, and the month is M."
Bayunye's eyes widened. "Could it really be such a coincidence? The year and the latitude?"
"Y likely refers to the year number, and M refers to the number 7."
"But the year is smudged!"
"Do you know who the person in the photo is?"
"You can't see their face."
"I'll go back and look through the expedition diary... Or maybe I'll go to Pearl Peak again to confirm the exact shooting location."
"The latitude of Gama Mountain?"
"It's not difficult for me to get coordinate data for some of the mountains in Qiangtang. What's tricky now is figuring out which year the Pearl Peak photo was taken." Diao Zhuo seemed to see a glimmer of hope. "Tomorrow, let's have Old Wang take us to Guniang Lake."
Bayunye hesitated slightly. "What about Brother Long and Hippo..."
"You decide." Being wary of conspiracies but not fearing them—that was Diao Zhuo's demeanor. Besides, with only three photos, nothing much could be done anyway.
She pursed her lips, as if making up her mind. "They're comrades from the same trench. I trust them."
The two walked aimlessly for a while longer before Bayunye suddenly asked, "Is there still hope of finding Zhang Chenguang?"
"At that time, in such low temperatures, his chances of survival were extremely slim. Our Rescue Team couldn't find him within 48 hours, so we all withdrew. I heard another group went up the mountain in June to search but also returned empty-handed. We can only hope that someday, some climbers will accidentally discover his body." Diao Zhuo furrowed his brow slightly.
Bayunye laughed, joking around. "So we actually passed by each other at the Pearl Peak base camp back in April. After half a year of delay, fate finally let me scramble and struggle my way into getting you."
"Scramble and struggle?" What kind of description was that?
"Mostly scrambling."
Diao Zhuo pointed upward. "Even He up there couldn't stop you for half a year.""This is what they call..." She leaned in with ill intent, resting her head on his shoulder while her hand stealthily reached behind him, "Man! Can! Conquer! Fate!"
With a sharp "smack," she darted away in a flash. Diao Zhuo, standing still with a faint ache on his side, suppressed the curse about to escape his lips and gritted his teeth, muttering under his breath—fuck.
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