Chapter 169

Main Text Chapter 171 Emergency Reinforcement

Shirley Yang let out a soft sigh and said: "If one says there is music on the qin, why does the qin not sound when it is in its case? If one says the sound is in the fingers, why not listen at your fingers? Not knowing the technique, even if you have a qin and fingers, you cannot unlock its mysteries."

Pangzi also sighed: "It seems Su Dongpo was also a code-breaking expert, but we now have the qin and fingers, yet these fingers lack coordination, so we still can't play a tune; these jade rings are ultimately useless, and their value will inevitably be greatly discounted."

It seems highly likely that this secretly matches the lost ancient 'Sixteen-Character Heavenly Trigram'. If my family's transmitted fragmentary book *The Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique* were complete, I should be able to know the arrangement of these sixteen jade rings, but now I only know the name of the sixteen characters; unless my grandfather's master, Mr. Sun with the Yin-Yang Eye, comes back to life, I could ask him how to lay out these sixteen trigrams; otherwise, where else could I learn it?

I fear that the 'Chaos Dust Pearl' may be significantly related to the information in the Heavenly Book; if not deciphered, we cannot dispel the curse of the Bottomless Ghost Cave. However, we won't know exactly how until we return to Beijing and extract the 'Chaos Dust Pearl' from a skull. In our helplessness, we also have no heart to fiddle with those 'spirit objects'.

Pangzi went to the dining car and bought some food and beer. Shirley Yang, while eating, said to me: "Lao Hu, I've been wondering where the Xian King obtained the Chaos Dust Pearl. There are two possibilities: one, during the turmoil at the end of the Qin dynasty, he obtained it from the Central Plains; two, he might have gotten it from Tibet. According to unofficial histories, that set of sorcery techniques also originated in Tibet."

I drank some beer, my mind became clearer than usual. Hearing Shirley Yang talk about this, I felt the Chaos Dust Pearl was most likely some divine object from the Tibetan border. The Xian King hoped that after becoming an immortal he could go to the place he saw in the lakeside scenery, and he also made bronze statues of the strangely dressed figures from there, placing them in the front hall of the Heavenly Palace, the purpose being to first satisfy his craving; the murals in the most hidden part of the sarcophagus detailed the location seen while viewing the lakeside scenery, and in that city a giant eyeball is enshrined. But what connection does this have with the ghost cave in the Xinjiang desert? It's truly puzzling.

I think the final key may perhaps lie in the place depicted in the mural; exactly where that place is, we have no clue, and we don't even know whether such a place truly exists in the world—perhaps it once existed but we cannot find it now.

But I have indeed seen those strangely dressed figures, so I told Shirley Yang some of my experiences serving as a soldier in Kunlun Mountain; these are things I have always been unwilling to recall, too tragic and gruesome—just thinking of them feels like a knife twisting my heart, yet those scenes are as vivid as if they happened yesterday, clear yet distant.

In the winter of 1970, I and my comrade 'Dagezi', together with female geological surveyor Luo Ning, escaped from the depths of death, thanks to being rescued by the patrol team of the supply depot; the underground and surface environments, one hot and one cold, caused us all to run fevers and fall unconscious, and we were sent to the military district hospital.

Luo Ning's condition worsened, and on the third day she had to be transferred to another hospital; afterwards I never learned how she was doing, and I never received any news from her again. I and Dagezi merely ran fevers for two days, received intravenous fluids for several days, ate a few meals of hospital food, and then recovered.

On the sixth day of hospitalization, Clerk Xu from our division's propaganda team came to find us. Clerk Xu said that my comrade Dagezi and I were the first in our division to earn a third-class merit upon entering Kunlun Mountain, and he wanted to take a few photos of us for propaganda throughout the division to arouse the soldiers' revolutionary zeal.

I was in low spirits then, wanting to leave the hospital as soon as possible; our platoon had only us two survivors left, and it would be best to return to the company early, lest lying in bed I would constantly see the fallen comrades hovering before my eyes. Hearing Clerk Xu say that our division's main force would soon advance into Kunlun Mountain, after he finished taking my picture he would first go to the Unfrozen Spring supply depot to find the vanguard unit.

When I heard we were going to the Unfrozen Spring supply depot, I immediately perked up, since our company is the division's vanguard unit. I then discussed with Clerk Xu, asking him to consult the doctor and have me and Dagezi sent back as well, so we could rejoin the revolutionary struggle sooner.

Thanks to Clerk Xu's mediation, that day the three of us boarded a truck transporting supplies to the supply depot, drove along the highway into the Kunlun Mountain pass; halfway snow began to fall, the sky was overcast with thick clouds, snow swirled everywhere, and the vast land looked like a white wall.

There is no more perilous occupation in the world than driving on the Qinghai-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet highways; the sound of the anti-skid chains makes one's heart race, the canvas on the truck and the wind-horse flag on the cab flap loudly, the biting cold wind seeps into the cabin, forcing us to huddle together for warmth, the water in the canteen turns to ice, our teeth chatter, and after great effort we reach the Unfrozen Spring, where we immediately run to the brazier to warm ourselves.

Clerk Xu is a southerner; although his physique is decent, compared to our rank-and-file company soldiers he is still somewhat slight, but like most young people of that era, his blood flows with an inexplicable drive; once he warms up a little, he immediately starts arranging to take photos of me and Dagezi.

We complied with his request, so we followed his directions; I held up a copy of Selected Works of Mao and struck a pose of earnest reading by the brazier; Clerk Xu pressed the shutter, the flash blazed, nearly making me drop the book into the stove.

Clerk Xu said to me: "Little Hutong Aspirant, you don't need to wait for the film to be developed; based on my experience, this photo will surely turn out well, because your expression while studying Chairman Mao's works is very focused."

I hurriedly replied modestly: "As soon as I start studying, I easily forget my own existence, completely forgetting that I'm being photographed; if the photo turns out well, it's still thanks to your photography skills."

The big guy said beside me: "Lao Hu, this styling is really done well; I also want to strike the same pose as him. When the time comes for the report, can you give me the comment 'diligent and untiring'?"

Xu Gan shi laughed and said: "That's not appropriate; those four words have already been used by Lin Zong, and 'working forgetful of sleep and food' has been used to describe Comrade Lei Feng. I think you two should use 'focused and attentive'; how about that?"

Just as we were speaking, the company commander of our platoon returned. The commander was a veteran who had enlisted from Sichuan. Upon hearing that the two surviving soldiers of our squad had returned, he braved the wind and snow and rushed into the hut. I and the big guy hurriedly stood up, stood at attention, and saluted.

The company commander punched each of us twice in the chest: "It's good that you're back. Too bad about the instructor and the rest of your comrades—let's not talk about it. You two hurry up and go eat. Damn it, there's an urgent task later." Having said that, he turned and hurried out.

I, the big guy, and Xu Gan shi heard about an urgent task, and seeing the company commander's hurried manner, we guessed something might have happened. It wasn't convenient to inquire further, so we hurried to eat. Only while eating did we discover that most of the vanguard detachment were absent; after us, the vanguard had sent out several small teams into the Kunlun Mountains, and now the unfreezing spring barracks is an empty shell, with few personnel left.

I sensed the tense atmosphere in the air and asked the signalman Chen Xing what was going on. It turned out that three days earlier, another aftershock struck the nearby mountains. Two herders were taking shelter from the snow in the abandoned Great Phoenix Temple in the mountain pass. The earthquake frightened their yak, which ran into the rear of the temple. Behind the temple there was a foul-smelling pond, which, like the unfreezing spring, does not freeze even in winter. The herders watched helplessly as a huge hand covered in green hair reached out from the pond behind the temple and dragged the yak into the water. They rushed over, trying to pull the yak back, but when they hauled it up, the yak had already turned into jerky. In just a few minutes, the yak was reduced to skin and dried meat. The herders were instantly frightened, thinking it was a ghost, and came to report to the army.

Regarding the herders' incident, the People's Liberation Army could not ignore it. At that time, they mobilized some personnel, formed a squad, led by those two herders, and went to the Great Phoenix Temple to see what was actually undermining socialism. At that time, the anti-wolf campaign was being carried out vigorously, and any animal harmful to herders was being targeted.

But those soldiers have been gone for two days and nights, including the two herders, and are all missing, with communications cut off. The unfreezing spring barracks reported this to the superiors, drawing attention. Just now, the following directive was issued: 'Imperialist ambitions to destroy us never die; the situation of class struggle is very complex.' Perhaps the herders' report is a deception; they might actually be spies. Especially since our vanguard's mission in the Kunlun Mountains is highly sensitive, we must immediately dispatch troops to rendezvous.

But there were hardly any people left at the barracks, and we still needed to leave some to guard supplies. Other barracks were too far away to provide quick reinforcement, yet orders are like mountains—superior commands must be obeyed. The company commander had no choice but to let one person stand watch for two, including himself, making only three people total. Adding me, the big guy, Xu Gan shi, and a volunteer military doctor who wanted to go capture spies, plus a geodetician suffering strongly from altitude sickness, we had eight people. We still felt the force was too thin, but there was no alternative; we couldn't wait for reinforcements from sister companies, so we set out just like that.

Outside, the snow was falling steadily. As soon as we left the barracks, we encountered an old lama. This lama, from the middle and lower sections, usually stays in the mountain temple and often comes to the barracks to trade butter for fine salt with the cooks. The company commander thought the lama had good relations with the main force and was familiar with the area, so it would be better to let him guide us.

Upon hearing we were going to the Great Phoenix Temple, the old lama was startled. The locals don't know; they've forgotten, but the lama remembers: the Great Phoenix Temple, built during the Qianlong period, houses the image of the Great Virtue Vajra, but it was abandoned fifty years later. Because that mountain pass was the fief of the ancient state of 'Lingguo', whose ruler was the 'World-Subduing Treasure Pearl Great King' (i. e., King Gesar), who sealed a mysterious ancient tomb of the demon kingdom there, making it a forbidden area.