Thе grоuр sреnt another реacеful night at the Sоuth Slоре Ваse Cаmp. The next morning, thе сlouds in thе sky hаd thinnеd соnsiderаblу, shоwing signs оf сleаring, and at leаst thеre wоuld be no morе snow. Aftеr anothеr night оf ассlimаtizаtion, evеrуonе’s bоdiеs had grоwn morе аccustоmеd to thе high altitude and оxygen lеvеls. Тhosе who remainеd nоt оnly shоwеd nо furthеr sуmрtoms оf Аltitude Rеaсtion but alsо atе mоrе at brеаkfаst—bеing able to еat had always bеen an impоrtant indicаtor оf аltitude аdaptation, according to the climbing coaches.
The climbing coaches planned to reach Camp 1 by evening, but Bayunye was not a climber aiming for the summit, so she had much more freedom of movement. After breakfast, she took Huzi around to bond and build rapport.
Just then, Fu Xingyue and Fu Yingtao approached and asked Bayunye if she was familiar with the route and if she could take them up to Camp 1 a few hours earlier to acclimatize. A couple of days ago, Bayunye would have jumped at the chance to separate Fu Yingtao and Jiang Aohang, but now, seeing the two of them trying to avoid Jiang Aohang and head to Camp 1 first, she felt uneasy.
She adopted a strictly professional tone. "It’s not advisable for inexperienced climbers like you to acclimatize at an altitude of 5,600 meters ahead of time. Almost no one spends half a day at that altitude. Besides, it’s best to keep your movements in sync with the climbing coaches and not make private decisions about your itinerary."
Faced with such a blunt refusal, Fu Yingtao appeared visibly displeased, likely because he was someone used to having his way in his company. He sized her up several times. "I heard that a few guys from elsewhere hired locals from the base camp yesterday to go to Camp 1 for some early acclimatization and returned to the base camp to sleep last night…"
"Every group of climbers is different. Mountain guides and coaches have their own ways of leading teams."
"So we’re just going to waste the entire day today?" Fu Yingtao remained reluctant. "I heard the scenery at Camp 1 is beautiful, overlooking the Hoh Xil wilderness. By the time we get there, it’ll be dark."
Bayunye crouched down, hugging Huzi, and refused again. "The base camp is very close to Camp 1. If we walk slowly as a group, we can get there in half a day. Why go through the trouble of going early? At that altitude, acclimatization isn’t really the issue. Even I wouldn’t want to go up hours earlier just to torture myself."
Fu Yingtao seemed to read something else into her words. "Then tell me, how much would it cost to lead us there?"
Money again?
"Two thousand," she said irritably.
The hike from the base camp to Camp 1 involved crossing a river, and taking a detour meant climbing the Glacier, which not only drained energy but also carried the risk of slipping. Nowadays, many people either hire commercial climbing teams in Golmud or employ guides at the base camp for the entire journey, with the latter costing around 2,000 yuan. Bayunye deliberately quoted 2,000 just for leading them to Camp 1, which infuriated Fu Yingtao, who had previously inquired about the rates. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You’re really jacking up the price!"
Fu Xingyue quickly stopped her father from saying anything more. Her voice remained soft and humble, as if she were sincerely seeking advice. "Since we lack experience, wouldn’t it be better to acclimatize a bit earlier?"Speaking of this, Bayunye, who spent most of the year taking clients to Tibet, was the most knowledgeable. "When people travel from low-altitude areas to high-altitude regions, if they don't recklessly run or jump but walk steadily, some may not experience Altitude Reaction until at least seven hours later, when the oxygen in their bodies is depleted and supply becomes insufficient, leading to hypoxia. Of course, others adapt to the change in oxygen levels within these hours and feel no discomfort at all. Going to the even lower-oxygen C1 too early will only disrupt your oxygen balance, making the summit push even more unbearable."
"Why can others go to C1 to acclimatize?" Fu Yingtao still clung to this point.
"Others are others—they're all young men in their twenties or thirties," Bayunye said, pointing at the sky. "If you want to summit smoothly, listen to the climbing coach. If you just want to see Hoh Xil from a high vantage point, I can take you to C1 for two thousand, no bargaining."
Fu Xingyue no longer insisted and gently said to Fu Yingtao, "Dad, since that's the case, we should just go to C1 with the main group."
"Women are so petty-minded..." Fu Yingtao remained stubborn. He tossed aside the burnt-out cigarette butt and turned away indignantly, grumbling as he walked, "People without proper jobs are always nitpicking, pinching every penny. Xingyue, did you see that? That's why I told you to study hard, get into a good university, and find a stable job—so you don't end up like these people, looked down upon in society..." The next moment, someone slapped his shoulder heavily, causing him to stagger and nearly fall. Startled, he whipped around to see Bayunye glaring at him with a fierce expression.
Honestly, no one had ever dared to speak to Master Ba like that before.
"Fu Yingtao! I'm warning you—" Bayunye's rough side flared up, ready to tear into anyone, whether emperor or ruffian. "Don't think being some lousy manager gives you the right to strut around in front of anyone, blabbering about money all the time. Do I look like a beggar desperate for your stinking cash? You're biting the hand that feeds you—show some decency! Stop looking for trouble and trying to get yourself killed. At your age, why aren't you staying home instead of climbing Pearl Peak? If you're so rich, why not just summit Everest? You'd die even faster that way!"
Fu Yingtao probably had never been scolded like this before. Furious, his eyebrows shot up, and he raised his hand to slap Bayunye.
If Master Ba were so easy to hit, she'd have wasted her years on the road. With a light lift of her hand, she not only blocked his strike but also firmly seized his arm. Bending low, she moved so fast no one could react, throwing Fu Yingtao over her shoulder and pinning him to the ground.
She quickly released the pressure, stepping back to ask, "Want another round?"
"You..." Fu Xingyue was shocked and frantic. "How could you hit my dad! That's... that's too much..."
Fu Yingtao lay sprawled on the ground as if unconscious, his face turning purple. In high-altitude fights, losers often ended up like this—Bayunye had seen it many times over her years driving. She remarked casually, "Give him some oxygen, and he'll be fine. If that doesn't work, skip C1 tonight and give up on summiting to avoid further trouble."
"Dad!!" Fu Xingyue cried out in panic, her voice finally drawing the attention of others.Everyone rushed out of the mountaineering tent. The experienced Lu Jianyì gave Pulan a meaningful look, and the latter immediately brought over a portable oxygen bottle and placed the mask over Fu Yingtao’s face. After spending a few days together, they all knew what kind of person Fu Yingtao was, but they hadn’t expected him to clash with Bayunye, who had made it clear from the start that this trip wasn’t about reaching the summit.
“Master Ba, what happened?” Hippo was the first to rush to Bayunye’s side.
“Ugly words lead to an ugly fall,” she said, unusually concise.
Diao Zhuo glanced at the fallen Fu Yingtao, then looked questioningly at Bayunye, as if asking, “Is this your way of stopping him from reaching the summit?” Before she could respond, Jiang Aohang suddenly pushed through the crowd like a mad dog, perhaps to show his loyalty, and without hesitation pointed at her and shouted, “You shrew! How could you treat an elder like this?! Do you have no upbringing?!”
Before he could finish, he felt his body go light, the scenery before him swaying as if he had been yanked from one side to the other. When he regained his senses, Diao Zhuo was standing right in front of him. Taking a deep breath, as if he had the moral high ground, he started, “You also—”
“What about me?” Diao Zhuo frowned, his expression fierce.
A man as solid and strong as Diao Zhuo was intimidating enough when he wasn’t angry, but when he was, it was downright terrifying. Especially when his usually stern, unsmiling face turned cold and he stared at you, it felt like saying one more word would earn you a beating. Aside from Bayunye, who occasionally challenged him to a fight, no one else seemed to think they could win against such a burly man in a brawl.
Better to swallow pride than suffer loss. Jiang Aohang pressed his lips together and accepted defeat, turning to help his father-in-law instead.
After a few breaths of oxygen, Fu Yingtao regained consciousness. He looked up at the crowd of faces above him, still dazed, and it took him a while to recall what had just happened. Struggling to sit up, with the oxygen mask covering his mouth and nose, he couldn’t speak, but it was clear he wasn’t willing to let this go.
Bayunye had held back when she threw him down, not using her full strength—just enough to knock him over without causing harm. Aside from fainting briefly from overexcitement and lack of oxygen, he had no scrapes or sprains. Yet he felt he had suffered a great humiliation and wished he could charge back for another round. Unfortunately, a strong dragon couldn’t overpower a local snake, and he wasn’t exactly a strong dragon either.
The couple helped him back into the tent. Bayunye briefly recounted the earlier argument, and Hippo, who drove trucks like her, was outraged. “How dare he say we don’t have proper jobs?! Damn it! I’ll go punch him again!”
“I wanted to take the dog for a walk, but forget it now,” Bayunye said regretfully, stroking Huzi’s head.
Diao Zhuo had other plans in mind. Since he didn’t have any cigarettes on him, he asked Da Qiang for a pack and headed back to the tent. Bayunye stayed outside, feeding biscuits to pikas for fun. After a while, lunch was called from the main tent. Diao Zhuo walked out with a cigarette in his mouth and led her to a sheltered spot. “I apologized separately to Old Fu and Jiang Aohang. A few cigarettes got them talking quite a bit.”
“You just wanted to smoke,” Bayunye said, acting as if it had nothing to do with her.
Diao Zhuo stubbed out the cigarette and raised his hands in surrender—a tough man turning as docile as a rabbit in front of the woman he loved.
She chuckled. “Go on, tell me.”"Old Fu's wife was diagnosed with liver cancer many years ago. After surgery, her condition was controlled, and at that time, Little Fu was still in college. Shortly after Little Fu married Jiang, his wife showed signs of a recurrence, and the doctor clearly stated she wouldn't last long. However, Jiang didn't know that his mother-in-law's illness at that time was a recurrence of liver cancer; he thought it was discovered at a late stage and thus passed away quickly."
Bayunye asked in surprise, "So, his mother-in-law's cancer actually had nothing to do with him at all—it was just a failure to control the illness?"
"Old Fu said that when the cancer was discovered years ago, the doctor didn't rule out the possibility of recurrence; it was only a matter of time. Before the wedding, Little Fu told him she was afraid her husband would see her adoptive mother's illness as a burden and asked Old Fu to hide the condition."
Bayunye snorted coldly, "How could anyone take such a shitty blame upon themselves, thinking they held a Death Note and could give cancer to anyone they wanted?"
"Psychological warfare..." Diao Zhuo shook his head helplessly, gazing into the distance at the Yuzhu mountain range. "Remember the vitamin E they took together? I suspect Little Fu's accomplice has a medical or pharmaceutical background, which is how they could trick Jiang into believing that using drugs or deceiving someone into taking medicine could gradually kill his in-laws without being discovered. The adoptive mother's death from illness was inevitable, but making it seem like a deliberate act gave him a false sense of success, making him bold enough to try a second time. At the same time, it allowed the other accomplice to gain his trust."
"Calculated and deliberate!"
"You finally used an idiom correctly."
Bayunye felt puzzled. "I wonder what Old Fu did to make her despise him so much, and when exactly does she plan to act..."
Diao Zhuo thought for a moment. "It should be during this climbing journey, especially in the dark hours between setting off for the summit and reaching the top, before the sun rises. She's confident she can 'strike with one blow,' and she might even use Jiang Aohang's hands—whether he knows about it or not, we can't say. Otherwise, all the groundwork laid over the past few days would be wasted. If something happens to Old Fu, she believes we can all testify that Jiang had malicious intentions."
"All I can say is, she chose the wrong people." Bayunye clenched his fists slightly. "We have our own tasks to complete when we summit, so we can't keep an eye on her every move. I think we should find another opportunity to pick a fight with Old Fu and, ideally, keep him at base camp instead of letting him summit."
"If the idea isn't eradicated, there will be a second and third time—it's hard to guarantee nothing will happen in the future." Diao Zhuo didn't quite agree with this superficial and temporary solution. "We must find a way to make Fu Xingyue pull back from the brink."
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