That evening there was a training session to attend. After dinner, Pu Lan reminded everyone to rest in their rooms first. For the next few days, they shouldn’t think about washing their hair or bathing — and they shouldn’t go to sleep too early.

Diao Zhuo caught Ba Yunye’s eye and gestured for her not to go back to her room. He had something to say.

The hippopotamus saw Ba Yunye heading toward Diao Zhuo and walked off on his own, following the others back to the rooms.

“You two really are from Lhasa, huh — not a trace of altitude sickness.” Jiang Ao’hang said to the hippopotamus enviously.

“Just making a living — I’d love to go to one of the big cities myself, but I haven’t got what it takes.”

“Is there any secret to preventing altitude sickness? You have to share it with us.”

“No secret — just used to it.” The hippopotamus laughed.

Fu Yingtao slowly shuffled out of his room and handed Jiang Ao’hang a brown paper package. “These are altitude-sickness remedies I had prepared before we came — traditional Chinese medicine. Have them brew it for everyone. You should all drink some.”

Fu Xingyue shook her head. “I have Gaoyuan’an tablets and oxygen-enriched capsules — you can just take them directly…”

“Those are all nonsense — scams. It’s the old remedies passed down from our ancestors that are reliable.” Fu Yingtao cut her off with certainty. “Listen to me — everyone should have some.”

Jiang Ao’hang thought for a moment. “Dad, we’re at high altitude here — the boiling point of water is lower. It probably only gets to about seventy or eighty degrees. The herbs might not decoct properly.”

“Better than nothing,” he said stubbornly.

“Alright then.” Jiang Ao’hang nodded and made to head downstairs.

“Dad — I don’t really believe in Chinese medicine. In the end, even Mom turned to it, didn’t she? That doctor swore up and down it couldn’t cure her, but it could extend her life. And then…” Fu Xingyue pressed her lips together.

“I know you don’t believe in Chinese medicine.” Fu Yingtao suddenly gave a small smile — a glint of mockery in his eyes. “You’ve always preferred Western medicine, ever since before…”

“Dad!” The usually gentle Fu Xingyue suddenly flared up like a cat that had been stepped on — every hair bristling — then, after a long moment, her shoulders drooped. “There’s nothing worth bringing up about the past.”

“Right. You’re married now. Live your life well.” Fu Yingtao said quietly.

Fu Xingyue gave a perfunctory nod, her gaze carrying a trace of melancholy, as if she’d been reminded of something long buried.

The hippopotamus went back to his room and, as usual, began uploading the short videos he’d taken along the road to social media, one by one. Perhaps it was the cold water and heavy, greasy food from earlier in the day — his stomach let out a long gurgling rumble. He fished out some tissue, made for the one toilet on the floor, found it occupied, and went straight downstairs to the public restroom.

Back in the dining room, guests were gradually leaving. The servers busied themselves clearing tables. In the kitchen, the pressure cooker still hissed steadily — inside was the bowl of plain noodle broth Fu Yingtao had asked for. Jiang Ao’hang walked into the kitchen carrying the packet of Chinese herbal medicine, gave the cook some instructions, tucked a bill into the man’s hand, and the atmosphere between them warmed up.

“Feeling unwell? A lot of people are like this the first time they come. The base has some medication — why don’t…”

“Ah, the old man really believes in Chinese medicine. This was prescribed by a traditional doctor. Sorry for the trouble — could you help brew it?”

“No problem. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

Ba Yunye rested her chin on her hand and watched them with vague, unfocused attention for a moment, growing thoroughly bored, then turned her eyes to Diao Zhuo. She saw his brow slightly furrowed, the flyer and his phone laid side by side on the table. From this angle, his profile was all sharp planes and angles — the line of his jaw carried that distinctive masculine edge, and the faint curve of veins along the side of his neck had the hard elegance of Renaissance sculpture.

“You’ve been staring at that lost-and-found notice since just now — don’t tell me you’re actually short on cash.” Ba Yunye grabbed Diao Zhuo’s chin and forcibly turned his head to face her. The next second, he caught her hand and pulled — drawing her nearly headlong into his arms.

“Not short on cash. Short on a woman.” He looked at her deeply, his eyes like a still pool that pulled you under.

“Short on how many?” Ba Yunye steadied herself against his shoulder and looked up at him. “I’ll help you find them.”

“However many you bring me, I’ll take them all.”

She extended her thumb and pointed it at the tip of her own nose. “One of me is worth ten.”

“In that case, would the all-powerful Master Ba please take a look at these few photos for me.” Diao Zhuo pushed the flyer and his phone toward her.

“You can read fingerprints — why do you need me to…” Ba Yunye’s eyes finally fell on the screen. “Zhang Chenguang??”

Outside the window, the hippopotamus — who had just finished in the restroom and happened to have something urgent to “report” to Ba Yunye — was walking past at that very moment. He heard that name from inside, froze, and quietly positioned himself at the side of the window, craning his neck to listen.

Diao Zhuo tapped a finger on the flyer. “In the photo, the thermos in his hand is blurry, but I have a strong gut feeling that the thermos in this lost-and-found notice is Zhang Chenguang’s.”

“Let me ask the driver who took him to base camp — Old Han — whether he has any more photos.” Ba Yunye was suddenly energized, fully engaged. She dialed Han Dasheng immediately. “Dasheng… spare me the pleasantries — do you still have any photos of Zhang Chenguang? … You do?! Perfect — send me everything you’ve got. From the moment he got in your car all the way to when he set off to climb — I want all of it!”

Han Dasheng moved quickly. In a short while, he sent over all the tourist photos he’d taken at the time — more than ten in total, some clear, some blurry, but Zhang Chenguang appeared in all of them.

With so many comparison photos now available, Diao Zhuo looked through them carefully and said with quiet certainty: “I can’t say with absolute certainty that the thermos in the notice is Zhang Chenguang’s — but it’s identical to the one in his hand.”

Outside, the hippopotamus rubbed his chin, staring vacantly into the distance, his thoughts unreadable.

“The lost-and-found notices started being distributed in May — which means the thermos went missing sometime before May. Zhang Chenguang disappeared in April. The flyers are only being handed out here at the base, to tourists heading up the mountain — which is practically asking people to keep an eye out for it on Yuzhu Peak. A thermos from such a niche streetwear brand is nearly impossible to find elsewhere. It has to be his.” Ba Yunye said.

Compared to Ba Yunye’s freewheeling conclusions, Diao Zhuo — who had participated in multiple rescue operations — was far more measured. “The reward on the notice is 3,000 yuan. Hiring someone to hand out flyers is 1,000 yuan a month. It’s been about six months through to this month — so roughly 6,000. To find a thermos originally worth 300 yuan, someone has already spent nearly 10,000 yuan. That means the thermos is worth far more than 10,000 to this person — perhaps far more still. I think the thermos’s value doesn’t lie on the surface — and certainly not in the thermos itself. That’s why they used the story of ‘a late mother’s gift’ as cover — to avoid raising suspicion.”

“Could there be something inside the thermos? What could you possibly hide in a water bottle? Gold? Diamonds? I genuinely can’t figure it out.” Ba Yunye’s brow creased. “Who exactly is looking for this thermos — why don’t we just call and ask?”

Diao Zhuo was against it. “We’d tip them off.”

“If it’s for a mountain climb, you shouldn’t be bringing anything valuable or unnecessary. And of all things — a thermos from some obscure foreign brand instead of something from Taobao… Wait. Foreign—” She stopped short, slapping her forehead. “Old Han told me before that Zhang Chenguang received a call from a foreigner — babbling away in some foreign language. And when we were at base camp, we saw a few foreigners preparing to climb too. Do you think… he knew those foreigners?”

“Pu Lan told me as well — on the way up the mountain, Zhang Chenguang got into an argument with the foreigners and they parted on bad terms. Later, one of the foreigners was found by the Blue Sky Rescue Team after the blizzard. But identifying the body took considerable effort — no documents were found on him.”

“You need to show your documents to enter the road to base camp.”

“Showing documents on the road is one thing. Carrying documents while climbing is another matter.”

“The way I see it, Zhang Chenguang’s disappearance is a cover story — he killed the foreigner and fled to avoid being held responsible.” Ba Yunye tossed out another reckless theory.

The hippopotamus quietly turned and slipped away — barely daring to exhale.

“Whatever the case — since what’s in the lost-and-found notice appears to be the same as Zhang Chenguang’s thermos…” Diao Zhuo was still speaking when he suddenly noticed a blurred silhouette outside the window. He grew alert and reached out to open it — but the shadow shifted and let out a sound of its own:

“Master Ba! Are you still in there!”

It was the hippopotamus.

“I’m here!” Ba Yunye called back.

A moment later, the hippopotamus came bustling through the door, glanced at Diao Zhuo, and with a complete lack of social awareness, planted himself squarely between the two of them. “When I was in the squat toilet just now…”

Ba Yunye clapped a hand over her nose. “Get out, get out, get out!”

“Just hear me out!” The hippopotamus pulled her hand down and lowered his voice. “I overheard that Jiang fellow coming in to relieve himself — didn’t know he was on the phone with someone. He was talking about wanting to do away with his father-in-law…”

“Forget the son-in-law — I’d want to do away with him myself.” Ba Yunye was utterly unbothered.

Diao Zhuo asked: “What exactly did he say?”

“He said — ‘Do it the way you said, and that old man should be just about done for.’ And ‘He doesn’t understand any of this, of course he doesn’t suspect anything.’ And ‘My wife is just a coward — when the time comes, everything will be mine.’ And ‘The thought of it makes me impatient, but I still need to restrain myself.’ And ‘There’s just one left now — keep at it.'” The hippopotamus shook his head when he finished. “Chilling when you think about it carefully.”

“Keep at it? I remember Fu Xingyue mentioned her mother already passed. Don’t tell me it was this husband who…” Ba Yunye drew a finger across her own throat.

The hippopotamus — never one to resist stirring the pot — followed her train of thought eagerly. “And now he takes out Old Fu — then he has sole control over everything the only daughter inherits. A few years later, take out the wife too…”

Ba Yunye seemed to shiver slightly, pulling her neck in. “You men are genuinely terrifying…”

“You women are the terrifying ones!”

“Oh — when you were eavesdropping on his call, did he notice you?”

“Of course not. I didn’t dare make a sound.”

Ba Yunye cut him off. “Please — you weren’t breathing because of the smell, not because you were scared.”

“He really didn’t notice me. I was in the squat stall. He came in, did his business, and left. On his way out he even called out to his wife — something about brewing her father’s medicine right now…”

His wife was right nearby, and he was still casually having that kind of conversation with someone? Diao Zhuo found that puzzling. He looked at the two of them, expressionless, waiting for them to finish their imagining — then raised what struck him as the most inexplicable point of all: “If someone’s planning to harm another person, the fewer people who know the better. So why would he tell someone?”

“An accomplice. Probably the other woman on the outside.” The hippopotamus said with conviction. “We should call the police!”

With that, the hippopotamus dialed 110 and vividly relayed everything he’d overheard to the officer. After a while, he hung up looking somewhat deflated. “They said that based on a few harsh words alone, they can’t determine that Jiang Ao’hang is actually planning to kill anyone. They told me to keep watching him. And they’re not wrong either — if every time someone said ‘I’ll kill you’ they had to dispatch officers, it would be chaos.”

Ba Yunye suddenly went quiet. She pressed her lips together and thought for a long while, then let out a soft sigh.

The hippopotamus asked: “What’s the matter?”

“That old man is genuinely insufferable, but it’s not our place to interfere in someone else’s family affairs. From what I can see, that woman of his is simple and oblivious — if her husband really does have evil intentions, if he’s already gotten rid of her mother and is now after her father, she’ll be left completely alone. That would be a miserable fate.” She sighed again. “And you — big mouth. Don’t go spreading things around before we’ve sorted out what’s actually happening.”

“When have I ever had a big mouth?” the hippopotamus grumbled indignantly.

Though there was nothing they could do about someone else’s domestic matters, Ba Yunye thought back to Jiang Ao’hang bringing in that packet of Chinese herbs to have brewed in the kitchen — and found she still couldn’t shake the unease. She stood up and headed toward the kitchen.

“Hey — where are you going?” the hippopotamus called after her.

“To see what’s in the herbs he’s having brewed.”

“You can read medicinal residue?”

“Spend enough time with Long Ge and there’s nothing crooked you can’t pick up a thing or two about.”

The hippopotamus stared after her. “You’re using that expression wrong again…”

She lifted the lid of the clay pot, which was already billowing steam, scooped up some of the herbs to examine them: inside were rhodiola rosea, ophiopogon root, notoginseng, and sea buckthorn — all commonly used remedies for preventing and treating altitude sickness.

She leaned in and inhaled — nothing else out of the ordinary.

Whatever evil intentions Jiang Ao’hang may or may not harbor, his openly defiant behavior toward Fu Yingtao was plain to see.

As she turned to leave, Ba Yunye saw Jiang Ao’hang come in to collect the plain noodle broth that had finished cooking. She gave a nod as a greeting. “Altitude sickness isn’t an illness — it’s just a process of adjustment. Our group has experience with snow mountain climbing, so our adjustment period is shorter. Yours may take longer — don’t rush it. From what I can see, you two seem to be managing fine, but your father-in-law is struggling. If it really comes to it, don’t take the risk.”

“Don’t worry about us — after all, we all had to submit health check reports before coming. My father-in-law is getting on in years, but he’s climbed Taishan and Huashan on his own. This time my wife was the one who wanted to bring him along — and he was genuinely interested. See, he even prepared the herbal medicine for us.” He gestured toward the clay pot.

Ba Yunye casually probed: “Is this your honeymoon? Why come to a place like this — Sanya, Xiamen, Phuket would all be warmer options.”

“Ha — we’ve been married more than three years. Not exactly a honeymoon.” He laughed lightly.

“Any children?”

“No plans yet. Mainly because we’re both very busy with work — basically working overtime every day. Though I suppose after this trip we should start thinking about it. We’re both past thirty, so sooner is better. Before we came, her father was already saying she should quit her job and have a child.”

Ba Yunye put on the manner of a gossipy auntie, covering her mouth with a laugh. “Your father-in-law is a company executive — why doesn’t he arrange an easier position for the two of you…”

“The higher the position, the less you can play favorites. Besides, wouldn’t people talk? We’re both young — no need to take some cushy sinecure and coast before our time. My mother-in-law is gone, and both my parents are back in our hometown. If we have a child, who would look after it? I need to earn more — enough to afford hiring a nanny. You have to take responsibility for a child, after all…” Jiang Ao’hang answered with meticulous care, giving not the slightest hint of any dissatisfaction toward Fu Yingtao. If anything, he came across as driven and earnest.

Ba Yunye didn’t know what memory it stirred in her, but she let out a dry laugh, checked her watch, and didn’t press further. “The training session is about to start — I’ll head over first.”

“See you in a bit.” He gave a polite wave.

Ba Yunye had seen plenty of people whose words and hearts told different stories. The moment she turned away, the smile vanished from her face without a trace.

The hippopotamus, watching from a distance as she walked back with Diao Zhuo, turned and picked up a lost-and-found notice someone had discarded on the ground. He let out a quiet sigh and thought to himself: This kind of trick won’t fool someone who’s paying attention…