“Damn it! We’re going to get struck by lightning!!” Pu Lan also shouted.
Ba Yunye understood at once. She looked around and realized she was the only one who had taken off her hat — which was why Diao Zhuo had been the first to notice the warning sign.
The moment everyone heard this, never mind the ice axes — they wanted to fling everything they had as far away as possible. The Tang Shan sisters were ripping off their crampons and yelling at the same time: “What conducts electricity?! What else conducts electricity?!”
“Anything with metal — throw it away! Turn off your phones!” Diao Zhuo called out again loudly.
The more panicked they were, the harder the crampons were to remove. Some, in their desperate yanking, tore several gashes across the backs of their hands; others accidentally snagged their trousers. The whole scene descended into chaotic disorder. Ba Yunye turned off her phone and immediately went to check on Fu Yingtao. She saw that Jiang Ao’hang was busy removing his own crampons and watch, while Fu Xingyue was trying to unclasp the chain around her neck — no one had a moment to spare for him. Fu Yingtao had been half-attentive during the earlier safety briefing, and the crampon fastenings were unfamiliar to him. Now he was yanking at them with brute force, face flushed bright red with urgency, his fingers turning crimson from the pressure of the straps.
“What else conducts electricity?!” The Tang Shan sisters were still in a panic, flinging off items from their bodies until they’d stripped nearly everything they had, tossing out even the dried beef jerky and chocolate from their pockets.
Out on the open tundra, there was not a single thing to shelter behind. Fortunately, the group had already come down from the glacier, because if they’d still been standing at the highest point with a dozen or more people, they would have been nothing short of a row of lightning rods.
Once it was clear that most of the conductive items had been discarded, Lu Jianyi collected himself and called out calmly: “Cover your heads! Get down!” Everyone did as they were told.
“Someone help me!!” Fu Yingtao shouted in desperation.
Jiang Ao’hang and Fu Xingyue, who were closer to him, finally had a moment to crouch down and help, but the couple were flustered, their coordination a complete mess. The two of them made a frantic, flailing attempt together, and not only failed to get the crampons off — they hurt Fu Yingtao in the process, nearly driving him to an outright string of curses.
Ba Yunye could no longer stand watching. She strode over in a few steps and removed the crampons quickly. Fu Yingtao was so desperate to throw them away that the moment his feet were free, he grabbed the crampons and made to hurl them as far as he could. Ba Yunye didn’t have time to pull her hand back in time — the crampons struck her right hand hard at the knuckle joint of her index finger. She felt a sharp numbness there in the moment, but paid it no mind, and urged Jiang Ao’hang and Fu Xingyue to hurry and find everything on his person — watches, keys, whatever — and throw it all away.
“Is there anything else?!” Fu Xingyue demanded.
“The phone! The phone!” Fu Yingtao had never in his fifty-odd years of life encountered a situation like this. He felt as if he were racing against death itself, and couldn’t stop bouncing even though he was sitting on the ground. “In my pocket!”
The couple scrambled frantically to dig out his phone, both of them trembling so hard they could barely function. Fu Yingtao’s assault jacket had an especially large number of pockets, and the two of them searched for a long time before finally locating it. In their haste, the phone slipped and fell to the ground, immediately drawing Fu Yingtao’s complaints: “Useless — making a bad situation worse! Turn it off, quickly!”
“Alright, alright…” Fu Xingyue answered in a frantic rush and hastily stuffed the phone away.
Seeing that all three of them had dealt with everything on their persons that might conduct electricity, Ba Yunye let out a quiet breath of relief — only to notice a faint black mark on the outer side of the knuckle of her right index finger. She reckoned that the blow from the crampons earlier had been harder than she’d thought, and that the bruising had already started from internal bleeding. She flexed her index finger, and a needle-like pain radiated from the joint where it moved. Determining that nothing was broken, she dismissed the minor injury without a second thought.
Things turned out worse than they had imagined. Lightning and rolling thunder arrived in rapid succession — and from the looks of it, very close.
“Which honored immortal is crossing their tribulation up there… Could they wait until after we get back…” He Ma somehow still had it in him to joke, muttering away with his head buried in his arms.
Before Ba Yunye could respond with a retort, a bolt of lightning struck — seemingly close enough to explode right in front of them. Every person’s vision went completely white. A sharp crackling sound rang out, followed by a burst of sparks that flared with blinding brightness. Whether it was real or an illusion, no one could be sure. Everyone instinctively huddled together, clutching their heads. Thunder crashed immediately after — like a bomb suspended directly overhead suddenly detonating, the sound shattering outward. The entire glacier seemed to tremble and shudder beneath it.
Diao Zhuo moved over and wrapped his arms around Ba Yunye, his jaw pressed firmly down on the top of her head, like a mother hen shielding her chick. Ba Yunye was reminded again of how in Qiang Tang, he had instinctively used his body to shield her from the scatter of buckshot. A current of warmth moved through her — the warmth of camaraderie, of loyalty, of the kind of life-and-death fellowship she hadn’t felt in years, not since leaving the military.
Yet what came out of her mouth was still anything but tender — “What crime did I commit exactly, for you to be so certain I’d be the one struck by lightning?”
“You think I can actually shield you from a lightning strike?”
“Fair point. Men love to swear oaths to the heavens — the lightning would strike you.”
“Lightning can tell right from wrong. It strikes the person who talks nonsense.”
“Let it strike me then, so what. Why are you holding me so tight?” Ba Yunye’s expression was pure mischief, her eyes darting sideways. “Don’t tell me you — a big grown man — are actually afraid of thunder?!”
Diao Zhuo squeezed the words out from between his teeth: “If I die, I’m taking you with me.”
“That’s not how a good friend is supposed to act…”
“Good friends don’t need to share the same birth year, but they ought to share the same…”
“I never swore brotherhood with you. I am absolutely not dying on the same day as you!” The words had barely left Ba Yunye’s lips when another bolt of lightning struck — fortunately farther away this time, visible only as a sudden crack of brightness flaring at the edge of the sky.
“Like something out of a science fiction blockbuster… Looking at it is actually making me hungry.” Ba Yunye narrowed her eyes.
He Ma, arms still wrapped over his head, couldn’t help staring at her. “You heartless creature!”
“I have a good brother who’ll share life and death with me…” She raised her thumb and pointed it at Diao Zhuo, who was wrapped tightly around her from behind. “Between us, heaven can’t scare us, earth can’t stop us — we’d dare throw a punch at Death himself if he came calling.”
“This is really not the time for cleverness!” He Ma closed his eyes in resignation.
Another bolt of lightning split the sky. The Tang Shan sisters and Fu Xingyue all let out short, frightened shrieks, visibly on edge. They seemed to have developed a psychological dependence on the mountain guides. It was hard to tell who moved first, but one by one they crawled over toward Lu Jianyi and Pu Lan, huddling in close beside them. Lu Jianyi called out loudly to reassure everyone: “The wind is strong here — the clouds are moving fast, and lightning can’t keep striking the same spot! Don’t panic! Don’t stand up and run around!”
Ba Yunye sighed. “When is this rotten weather going to stop…”
A low, calm male voice came from behind her: “I’d say you’re exactly the type who deserves a good jolt of electricity.”
She dug her elbow into him. “Did you buy shares in Master Yang’s internet addiction correction facility?”
After a few more thunderclaps overhead, heavy snow came suddenly, and the lightning, carried off by the rolling, retreating clouds, grew more and more distant. The likelihood of a strike in this spot diminished — the danger had passed. Unlike the large, drifting snowflakes common around the Jiangnan region, the snow here was dense and fast. In no time at all, the surroundings had turned completely white.
At Lu Jianyi’s command, Hu Zi began searching the nearby area for the personal items everyone had flung away in the chaos, while everyone stood up one by one and began reclaiming their belongings.
Ba Yunye noticed the outer side of the knuckle of her right index finger was aching a little. She had just pulled off her glove when Fu Xingyue walked over. “Ba Yunye, my dad asked me to come and say — thank you for earlier.”
Ba Yunye, by now accustomed to Fu Yingtao’s pride-driven way of doing things, waved it off as nothing worth mentioning. Fu Xingyue suddenly grabbed hold of her right hand and let out a small cry of alarm. “What happened to your hand? It’s swollen!”
Ba Yunye looked down. The painful spot wasn’t just bruised — it had swollen up, the outer ring dark purple-black, the inner ring a deep, vivid red. “It’s fine, I just knocked it.”
“It’s this bad and you call it fine?!” Fu Xingyue scolded her. “It looks serious!”
Ba Yunye laughed. “What’s a little thing like this? As long as a knife hasn’t been driven into my gut, it doesn’t count as an injury.”
“You’re so…” Fu Xingyue struggled for a long moment and couldn’t get the word out.
“Rough?”
“Er…” She nodded, embarrassed.
“It’ll be better in a few days.” Ba Yunye remained completely unbothered.
“I think you’re…” Fu Xingyue looked at her with a flicker of some other emotion in her eyes, and stopped herself before finishing.
Ba Yunye brushed the snowflakes from her head with cheerful indifference. “Going to compliment me? Go ahead — whatever the praise, I can take it, no matter how lofty.”
“You really are a very strong person.” Being naturally inarticulate, and having been encouraged by Ba Yunye’s prompting, Fu Xingyue still couldn’t manage to produce much more than that.
“A little thing like this, and you can already tell I’m strong?” Ba Yunye raised the corner of her mouth, thinking to herself that although this woman was older than her in years, her inner resilience seemed quite fragile. If she ever truly faced a severe ordeal, she might very well crumble without recovering. So, with layered meaning behind her words, Ba Yunye said: “Whether something matters or not depends on whether the person has been through it before. When I was in the military, after training sessions my body would be covered in bruises — knees, ankles, wrists, countless spots. Minor injuries didn’t even count. Trying to use them as an excuse to take sick leave? Not a chance. The next day you were expected to take every fall and every hit that was asked of you. People can’t go through an entire life without running into trouble. Guard against it when things are calm, and don’t hide from it when trouble comes.”
“You look like someone who’s genuinely not afraid of anything…” Fu Xingyue smiled shyly. “I actually wonder whether you have things that bother you, whether anyone’s ever managed to bully you.”
“Of course they have.”
“So what do you do?”
“Thrash them.”
“Easier said than done…” A trace of sadness passed through Fu Xingyue’s eyes. “Sometimes it’s a matter of keeping face, or other considerations — you feel humiliated inside, but you can’t just lash out on the spot.”
“If someone has already made me feel humiliated and miserable, what — I still need to consider their feelings and their face? What a luxury for them.” Ba Yunye gave a dismissive snort. “When I hold myself back and don’t strike, it’s never because I don’t dare. It’s because the moment isn’t right.”
“So it’s more about playing the long game…”
“If you don’t give the person bullying you a lesson on the spot, are you expecting them to slowly come around through the power of love?” Ba Yunye raised her index finger and wagged it.
Fu Xingyue seemed to feel there wasn’t much point continuing the conversation, and pressed her lips together in silence.
Ba Yunye stepped forward. “Actually, I was going to ask — the other day I saw—”
“You two, what are you talking about over there? Sounds lively.” Jiang Ao’hang wandered over.
“Oh, her hand got injured.” Fu Xingyue dug through her bag, pulled out a small bottle of medicine, and pressed it into Ba Yunye’s hands, telling her to apply it herself when she got back.
Ba Yunye swallowed the rest of what she’d been about to say and offered a dry word of thanks.
“Ah! My phone wasn’t turned off!” Before that matter had settled, a new one flared up. Fu Yingtao was gripping his phone tightly, eyes going wide, raising his voice: “When the lightning was striking, my phone was still on! You didn’t turn it off for me!”
“It wasn’t turned off? How is that possible?!” Jiang Ao’hang looked baffled and hurried over.
Fu Xingyue stood there, stunned, then walked over to look. “But…”
“Which of you turned off my phone for me just now?” Fu Yingtao’s face darkened instantly, and he pressed the accusation hard. “It wasn’t turned off at all! Who — who didn’t turn it off?!”
“I…” Fu Xingyue stumbled over the words, clearly rattled by his aggressive tone. “I also… I think Ao’hang and I both… turned it off?”
“Didn’t you turn off Dad’s phone?” Jiang Ao’hang asked her.
“It wasn’t me!” Fu Xingyue was getting anxious. “Wasn’t it you who turned it off?”
“It was you!”
Jiang Ao’hang opened his mouth, then seemed to swallow back whatever he’d been about to say. Facing Fu Yingtao’s fury, it was clear that either he or Fu Xingyue was going to have to take the blame regardless.
“I… I don’t remember whether I helped Dad turn it off…” Fu Xingyue said quickly.
“I also…”
“The two of you! Is this deliberate?! I told you to turn off the phone, and you didn’t do it! What if that lightning had struck me because my phone was still on?! How can you be so irresponsible?! Go ask everyone else — who else here had their phone still on like mine?! That was so dangerous!”
Seeing the atmosphere between them turning unpleasant, the Tang Shan sisters rushed over to smooth things over. “Everything was so rushed back there — everyone was in a complete flurry. How could anyone have been thorough about it? These things happen when you’re flustered! Look — the lightning has passed, everyone’s perfectly fine. Don’t let a little thing like this create bad blood between family. Who would do it on purpose?”
Diao Zhuo watched the scene with a cold eye for a while, then finally settled his gaze on Jiang Ao’hang and Fu Xingyue. After a moment, he said: “Now isn’t the time to be blaming each other. Everyone retrieve your personal belongings and we’ll discuss the rest back at camp.”
Ba Yunye shot a glance at Jiang Ao’hang, then thought back carefully. With her hand having just taken that hard knock and the pain still searing, it hadn’t crossed her mind that anyone might have been acting deliberately in those moments — but now that she thought about it, she had a vague recollection that the last person to handle Fu Yingtao’s phone had not been Jiang Ao’hang. Recalling Fu Xingyue’s complaints from the previous night and her several halting, unfinished sentences just now, Ba Yunye suddenly felt that the dynamics within this family were considerably more complicated than she had assumed.