Volume 7 Chapter 16 The camp

I was stunned. I had just read about this place in Wenjin’s notes, but how did they know about it too? I was a little slow to react, and they hadn’t read Wenjin’s notes, so how did they know about this place?

“What’s wrong?” The Caucasian man looked at me with a strange expression and asked, “You suddenly turned pale.”

“Nothing, I was just scared.” I immediately covered up my expression, pretending to be very surprised, and asked him as I followed him, “What is Tamuduo? What are you going to do there?”

“Tamuduo? That’s a long story,” the Caucasian man looked at Aning, who was walking ahead, and whispered to me, “I’ll tell you later. Let’s first see what the two young men brought back from inside.”

I saw the look he gave me, as if Aning had told him not to say anything, so I understood and kept quiet.

People in the camp were running around telling each other, and everyone in the sleeping bags was woken up. We could only carefully move through the sleeping bags as we followed Aning and the others.

The entire camp was very large, and after passing the “Land Rover” concentration area, there was another area of tents behind it. The largest of these tents was about four or five meters in diameter, and it seemed to have been set up by the locals. There were Tibetan characters on it, and it seemed to be a fee for staying there. Aning led us inside, where it was very warm. I saw a charcoal stove with a small chimney burning on the side, and there were thick colorful blankets made of cow hair on the floor. Later I learned that this is called “coarse woolen cloth,” and it is now a very expensive thing. There were also many old-fashioned Tibetan wooden furniture, as well as some non-woven bags that had been packed and not unpacked.

The whole tent was very comfortable. Aning sat down on the carpet. A Tibetan man, who seemed to be the owner of the tent, poured butter tea for each of us. I also sat down and took a look at these people.

What annoyed me the most was the stuffy oil bottle. He sat across from me, didn’t even look at me, leaned against a pile of felt, and immediately began to close his eyes and relax. Not all the people in the car came, but some I didn’t know, which also made me quite uncomfortable. Among these people, I only knew Wu Laosi and the Caucasian, the rest were all unfamiliar faces.

As these people gradually sat down, Aning placed the thing that Black Glasses had just brought out of the haunted house on the low table in front of us.

It was a flat box made of mahogany. After opening it, there was a broken blue and white porcelain plate inside. On the left side of the porcelain plate, there was a piece missing that was the size of a palm.

There must be a space under that stone coffin, and it seems that the porcelain plate was originally placed in that space. What is this thing? Why did the Mian Youbing steal this? I couldn’t help but be a little curious.

I was about to adjust the direction of my neck to look at the plate when suddenly two more people entered the tent. The old lady was as skinny as Chen Pi A Si, and was also about seventy years old, but she was quite spirited, with piercing eyes. The middle-aged woman, on the other hand, looked like an ordinary Tibetan. As soon as they entered the tent, the atmosphere suddenly changed. Everyone, except for the two people with dark glasses and the oil bottle, sat up straight and turned their bodies towards them, especially the old lady. Two people even bowed to her, as if the Tibetan old lady had a higher status here.

The old lady also returned the bow and looked at us, especially me. Perhaps because of the unfamiliarity, she looked at me a few more times and then sat down straight. A-ning respectfully took the porcelain plate and handed it to her, asking, “Ma-ni, look, is this what you saw back then?”

After he finished speaking, someone immediately translated it into Tibetan. The old woman listened and took the porcelain plate, looked at it, and nodded repeatedly. She kept saying something in Tibetan. The translator began to translate her words back, and several people began to converse.

Their conversation was intermittent, and the translator not only was not very good at Tibetan, but also, more importantly, did not seem to be very good at Chinese. I tried to listen, but I couldn’t understand, so I asked the old man next to me, “Who is this old woman?”

The old man didn’t answer me, but the black-glasses man next to him spoke up. He whispered to me, “Her name is Dingzhu Zhuoma, and she was Wenjin’s guide back then.”

When I heard this name, I let out a “ah” and suddenly felt much clearer. I was also surprised at the great power of Aning’s company, which not only knew about Tamuduo, but also knew about this guide.

I had read in Wenjin’s notes about their journey from Dunhuang into the heart of the Qaidam Basin. She did mention that they had hired a Tibetan female guide. I couldn’t help but touch the notebook in my pocket and wonder what was going on. Had someone else read this notebook?

However, I remember Wenjin also said in the notes that the female guide did not lead them very far into the basin. In fact, there was no way to find it. In the end, they parted with the guide at the pass of a salt mountain and set off on their own toward the deeper part. The Qaidam Basin covers an area of more than 240,000 square kilometers. Their final journey took three weeks, and no one could say exactly where they ended up.

It seems that if they wanted to go to Tamuduo, the old woman alone could not have brought them any particularly useful help. At most, she could have taken them to the place where they had parted from Wenjin’s team.

I was just thinking that the conversation between Aning and Dingzhu Zhuoma had ended, and after the middle-aged woman had bowed, she helped the old woman out. A few people who didn’t understand asked how it was, and Aning could not hide her smile on her face. She said that this is the plate that Chen Wenjin showed her. She said that with this plate, she can lead us to the mountain pass.

Several people became agitated. Black-glasses asked, “When do we leave?”

Aning had already stood up and said to them, “Today, at noon, everyone leaves.” Then the others stood up and were about to go out.

At this time, Black-glasses said, “What about him?”

He pointed at me.

A-Ning and the others turned to look at me, as if they had just forgotten that I was here. They all looked at me in surprise, and I stared at A-Ning, wondering what she would say.

Unexpectedly, A-Ning didn’t seem to care too much. After thinking for a moment, she pointed to the oil bottle and said to the black-glasses man, “He brought it back, let him take care of it himself.” Then she led the others out. There were only two people left in the tent, the black-glasses man and the oil bottle.

Black glasses chuckled twice, leaned against the blanket, lit a cigarette, and then looked at the bottle of oil and said, “I said you were asking for trouble. Just don’t let him get on the bus, what do you think now?”

The bottle of oil raised his head, looked at me lightly, and seemed to sigh helplessly, saying to me, “You go back, there’s nothing for you here, don’t go into that sanatorium again, the things inside are too dangerous.”

I looked at him and was very unhappy.

To be honest, I didn’t want to go to that shitty place at all. I didn’t know why Ning and the others wanted to go there. I just wanted to know what Mian Youbing had done at the top of the mountain and what the horrible scene I had seen was all about.

So I replied, “I can go back if you want. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

Mian Youbing still looked at me indifferently and shook his head. “My business is not something you can understand. Besides, there are some things I’m also looking for answers to.” He stood up and walked out of the tent without looking back.

I was so angry that I almost vomited blood. I wanted to rush up and strangle him.

Black Glasses sighed and patted me on the shoulder, saying, “There’s a bus here. It’ll be in the city in three hours. Have a safe trip.”

After that, Black Glasses also walked out of the tent, leaving me alone in the tent. The scene suddenly became quiet.

This made me feel very embarrassed. I felt slighted and even abandoned. I was very uncomfortable. The attitude of Ning and the others, as well as that of the two guys, was that I was dispensable. This was even more hurtful than insults or hatred.

But the problem with Black Glasses was real.

It makes sense. The team is about to leave, and I was rescued from the haunted building by them. This was an emergency, so they didn’t prepare any measures for me, and they didn’t have any responsibility to explain anything to me. Of course, I should go back by myself.

However, I really can’t accept this. I watched people coming and going outside the tent, and the preparations were in full swing. I felt my blood rising. I thought about what I could do after I got back. Wenjin, who had sent the letter, had already left before me. This person had been able to hide for twenty years, and even with all the tricks my uncle had used, he had been unable to find her. Should I be like my uncle and spend the next thirty years looking for her? Impossible.

The events that had taken place in the sanatorium were confusing, and there was no clue at all. The notes left by Wenjin kept talking about this “Tamuduo.” Now, this group of people outside was about to set off, but I was preparing to buy a ticket and take the bus home.

The only clue to the whole thing is now in the notebook in my pocket, and the content of the notebook seems to be hinting at me that I have to go to Tamudo to find out something.

What should I do? What can I do when I get back to Golmud? I can’t do anything.

“You have to take the initiative.”

Suddenly, I heard my grandfather’s words in my ear, and then I reached into my pocket and felt the notebook. I thought about my experience in Golmud, and I realized that it was because of my quick and decisive actions that I had the upper hand.

Okay, I made up my mind right away. You arrogant bastard, don’t be so cocky. If you can go, I can go too. I stood up and walked over to Aning, who was outside packing her bags, and asked her, “Do you have any extra equipment?”

Aning was counting her compressed biscuits when she heard me suddenly ask her, and she looked very surprised. “Extra equipment? What do you want to do?”

I shrugged my shoulders and didn’t know how to say it: “I want to join you. I want to join you. I want to go to Tamudu too!”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Ning laughed and turned her head to ignore me. However, I continued to look at her and said to her, ‘I can help you. Think about it in the Genting Palace.’

Ning looked up, her face changed, she looked into my eyes and smiled at me, ‘Are you serious?’

I nodded, and she pointed to the equipment cart on the side: ”Take whatever you want. We’ll leave at 12 o’clock sharp.