Everyone at the South Face base camp passed another quiet night, and the following morning the cloud cover overhead had thinned considerably, with a tendency toward clearing. At the very least, it would not snow again. After a night of re-acclimatization, everyone’s bodies had adapted further to the high altitude and reduced oxygen levels. The people who had stayed behind not only showed no further signs of altitude sickness — they were even eating more at breakfast. Being able to eat properly had always been, in the words of the climbing guides, one of the most important indicators of whether one had adjusted to the elevation.

The climbing guides had planned to reach Camp 1 by evening, but since Ba Yunye wasn’t a mountaineer attempting the summit, she had considerably more freedom of movement. After breakfast she took Tiger Cub for a wander, cultivating their bond and mutual rapport.

At that moment, Fu Xingyue and Fu Yingtao came over together and asked Ba Yunye whether she knew this section of the route well, and whether she could take them up to Camp 1 a few hours early to acclimatize. Two days earlier, she would have leapt at any opportunity to keep Fu Yingtao separated from Jiang Ao’hang — but now, seeing the two of them trying to get ahead to Camp 1 while avoiding Jiang Ao’hang, she felt a chill in her heart.

She adopted an entirely businesslike tone. “I don’t recommend someone without extensive mountaineering experience like yourself going to acclimatize at an altitude of 5,600 meters ahead of schedule. Almost no one would spend the better part of a day at that elevation. Besides, your movements should stay in line with the climbing guides — don’t be making decisions about your itinerary on your own.”

Faced with this blunt refusal, Fu Yingtao looked thoroughly displeased — one could guess that in his company he was a man accustomed to having the final word. He looked her up and down several times. “I heard that a group of men who came from somewhere else yesterday hired a local from the base camp area to take them up to Camp 1 to acclimatize for a while, and then came back down to the base camp to sleep last night…”

“Every group of mountaineers has different circumstances, and each climbing guide has their own approach to leading their team.”

“Is this whole day just going to be wasted?” Fu Yingtao still seemed reluctant. “I hear the scenery at Camp 1 is beautiful — you can look out over the Hoh Xil wilderness. By the time we get there it’ll be dark.”

Ba Yunye crouched down and wrapped her arms around Tiger Cub, then refused once more: “The base camp is quite close to Camp 1. Everyone sets off together at an easy pace, and we’ll be there in half a day. Why tire yourself out ahead of time? An elevation like that can’t really be called acclimatization anyway — even I wouldn’t want to go up there a few hours early to suffer.”

Fu Yingtao seemed to hear some other meaning in her words. “In that case, tell me — what would you charge to lead the way for one trip?”

Money again?

“Two thousand,” she said flatly.

From the base camp, you hike to Camp 1 on foot, but in the middle of the route you have to cross a river. Going around it means crossing the glacier, which not only drains your energy but carries a real risk of slipping and falling. These days, most people either find a commercial climbing team in Golmud or hire a guide at the base camp to escort them the whole way — the latter costing around 2,000 yuan. Ba Yunye deliberately set her price at two thousand just to lead the way to Camp 1. Fu Yingtao, who had clearly done his research on the going rates, was furious. He clicked his tongue. “This is highway robbery!”

Fu Xingyue swiftly moved to stop whatever else her father was about to say. Her voice remained gentle and deferential, as though humbly seeking advice: “Precisely because we have no experience, wouldn’t it be better for us to acclimatize ahead of time?”

On this topic, Ba Yunye — who spent most of the year ferrying clients through Tibet — was entirely in her element. “When a person travels from a low-altitude area to a high-altitude one, if they don’t go charging about leaping and running like someone with a death wish — if they simply walk calmly — some people won’t experience altitude sickness until at least 7 hours later, when the oxygen in their body is depleted and the supply can no longer keep up. Of course, some people acclimatize to the change in oxygen levels within those same few hours and feel no discomfort at all. If the two of you go up to Camp 1, where the oxygen content is even lower, too early, you’ll only disrupt the balance your bodies have already established. You’ll find the summit push far harder.”

“Why can other people go to Camp 1 to acclimatize?” Fu Yingtao continued to fixate on this point.

“Other people are other people — a group of men in their twenties and thirties.” Ba Yunye pointed upward at the sky. “If you want to reach the summit smoothly, follow the climbing guides’ arrangements. If you only want to look out over Hoh Xil from a height, I can take you to Camp 1 — two thousand, non-negotiable.”

Fu Xingyue stopped insisting and said placidly to Fu Yingtao: “Dad, in that case, let’s go to Camp 1 together with the main group.”

“Women are just so petty-minded…” Fu Yingtao, still stubborn, threw away the burned-down cigarette butt in his hand and turned to leave in high dudgeon, grumbling as he walked: “People without a proper job are always so calculating, squeezing every cent. Xingyue, did you see that? I told you to study hard, to get into a good university, to find a stable job — all so you wouldn’t end up like this, the kind of person who gets looked down on in society…” An instant later, someone gave him a heavy clap on the shoulder from behind. He lurched sideways and nearly toppled over. Startled, he spun around sharply — and found Ba Yunye standing there with a sharp look in her eyes, staring straight at him.

Truth be told, no one had ever dared to speak to Master Ba that way before.

“Fu Yingtao! I’m warning you —” Ba Yunye’s fierce streak came out, and in that old, straightforward style of hers — I don’t care if you’re the emperor himself or a local thug, we’re settling this right now — “Don’t think that just because you’re some manager you can throw your weight around in front of anyone you please. Every other word out of your mouth is money, money, money. Do I look like a beggar to you, desperate for a few lousy coins? A dog biting Lu Dongbin — you’d do well to do some good in the world! Stop itching for a fight every five minutes. What are you, some old man who should be sitting at home, coming to climb Yuzhu Peak? With all that money of yours, why not just go climb Everest? You’d die faster!”

Fu Yingtao apparently had never been berated this way in his life. He was so furious his eyebrows stood on end, and he raised his hand to slap Ba Yunye across the face.

If Master Ba was that easy to get a hand on, her years would have been wasted. She raised her hand lightly, not only blocking his strike but seizing hold of his arm in the same fluid motion. Her body dipped low — the movement was so quick that before anyone could react, Fu Yingtao had been thrown over her shoulder and pinned to the ground.

She quickly released the pressure and stepped back a pace. “Want to go again?”

“You…” Fu Xingyue was visibly shaken, her voice cracking. “How could you lay hands on my father?! That’s… that’s completely…”

Fu Yingtao, sprawled on the ground, looked as though he had fainted dead away, his face an alarming shade of purple. Fighting at high altitude — the loser always ended up in this state. Ba Yunye had seen it more times than she could count in her years on the road, and said with a dismissive air: “He’ll be fine after a few puffs of oxygen. If not, skip Camp 1 tonight and give up the summit — saves everyone trouble.”

“Daddy!!” Fu Xingyue burst into tears, and her cries finally drew the others.

People came pouring out of the climbing tent. The experienced Lu Jianyi shot Pu Lan a meaningful glance; the latter immediately fetched a portable oxygen canister and held it over Fu Yingtao’s face. Having spent several days together, they all knew what kind of person Fu Yingtao was — they just hadn’t expected him to get into a confrontation with Ba Yunye. She had said from the beginning, when she first arrived, that she hadn’t come on this trip to reach the summit.

“Master Ba, what happened?” River Horse was the first to run to Ba Yunye’s side.

“Talk ugly, hit the dirt.” For once she was admirably brief.

Diao Zhuo looked at Fu Yingtao lying on the ground, then turned a questioning gaze on Ba Yunye, as if asking: is this your method of stopping him from attempting the summit? Before she could respond, Jiang Ao’hang suddenly came bursting through the crowd like a rabid dog — whether to show his loyalty or for some other reason — and without any preamble, jabbed a finger at her and began shouting: “Shameless woman! How dare you treat an elder this way?! Were you raised with no manners?!”

He didn’t finish before he felt himself lifted as though weightless, the scene before his eyes tilting abruptly, as if someone had snatched him from one spot and dropped him in another. When he came back to his senses, Diao Zhuo was standing in front of him. He drew a deep breath, as though he had right on his side: “You too don’t—”

“I what?” Diao Zhuo furrowed his brow, a quiet menace in his expression.

A solidly built and powerful man like Diao Zhuo, when he was calm he was calm — but when he turned fierce, he was frightening. Especially since he was already the serious, non-smiling type at the best of times. When that cold, stern face dropped all pretense and locked eyes with you, it felt as though you’d get beaten for uttering one more syllable. Other than Ba Yunye, who picked fights with him from time to time for the fun of it, there seemed to be no one who genuinely believed they could win against a man like this in a physical confrontation.

A wise man knows when to yield. Jiang Ao’hang pressed his lips together and backed down, and could only go help his father-in-law up off the ground.

After a few puffs of oxygen, Fu Yingtao came to. He stared up at the ring of heads above him in a dazed stupor, and it took a long moment before he recalled what had just happened. He struggled to sit up, the oxygen mask still over his mouth and nose, unable to speak — but visibly unable to swallow his humiliation.

When Ba Yunye had thrown him, she had held back considerably, going for incapacitation, not injury. So apart from the momentary blackout caused by excessive agitation and oxygen deprivation at high altitude, he had no cuts, no abrasions, and no sprains. Yet he felt he had been subjected to the most terrible humiliation, and wanted nothing more than to charge back at her and fight again — but unfortunately, the local snake outpowers even the strongest dragon, and he was no powerful dragon to begin with.

The couple helped him back to their tent. Ba Yunye gave a brief account of the exchange that had just taken place. River Horse, whose line of work was the same as hers, was incensed. “What do you mean we don’t have proper jobs?! What the hell! Let me go give him another punch!”

“I meant to take the dog for a walk, but that’s all over now.” Ba Yunye stroked Tiger Cub’s head with a regretful air.

Diao Zhuo had a separate plan in mind. Having no cigarettes on him, he asked Da Qiang and the others for a pack and also made his way back to the tent. Ba Yunye sat outside feeding crackers to pikas to pass the time. Some indeterminate amount of time later, a call came from the large tent announcing lunch. Diao Zhuo walked out with a cigarette dangling from his lip, took her to a sheltered spot out of the wind, and said: “I went separately to offer Old Fu and Jiang Ao’hang something of an apology. Over a few cigarettes I managed to draw out quite a bit from both of them.”

“You just wanted an excuse to smoke,” Ba Yunye said with an expression of complete indifference.

Diao Zhuo stubbed out the cigarette butt and raised his hands in surrender. This steadfast, iron-spined man, in the presence of the woman he loved, was as docile as a rabbit.

She burst out laughing. “Go on then.”

“Old Fu’s wife was diagnosed with liver cancer many years ago. After surgery, her condition was brought under control — at the time, the younger Fu Xingyue was still in university. Not long after Fu Xingyue married Jiang, Old Fu’s wife began showing signs of recurrence, and the doctor made clear that she didn’t have much time left. But Jiang didn’t know that his mother-in-law’s illness was a recurrence of liver cancer — he thought it had been discovered at the terminal stage from the start, which was why she died so quickly.”

Ba Yunye asked in surprise: “So his mother-in-law’s cancer had absolutely nothing to do with him — it was simply a failure to keep the disease under control?”

“Old Fu said that when the cancer was first discovered years ago, the doctors had already not ruled out the possibility of recurrence — it was only a matter of when. Before Fu Xingyue married, she told Old Fu that she was afraid her husband might see her mother’s illness as a burden, and asked Old Fu to conceal the diagnosis.”

Ba Yunye snorted. “How is it that anyone would put a bucket of filth like that on their own head — thinking they’re some kind of Death Note holder, that they can give cancer to whoever they please?”

“Psychological warfare…” Diao Zhuo shook his head helplessly, gazing into the distance at the peaks of Yuzhu Mountain. “Remember the Vitamin E they all took together? My guess is that Fu Xingyue’s accomplice is someone with a medical or pharmaceutical background — that’s how they managed to convince Jiang that using drugs, or tricking someone into taking medication, could kill his father-in-law and mother-in-law one after another without detection. The adoptive mother’s death from illness was inevitable. Making that seem like it was deliberately engineered gave him what he believed was a successful first experience — which in turn gave him the confidence to boldly try a second time, while also making him more willing to trust the other accomplice.”

“That is deeply calculated scheming!”

“You actually used that idiom correctly for once.”

Ba Yunye felt genuinely perplexed. “I really don’t know what Old Fu did to make her hate him so deeply. And when exactly does she plan to make her move…”

Diao Zhuo thought for a moment. “It should be during this mountaineering attempt — especially in the dark hours between setting off for the summit push and actually reaching the top, before the sun has risen. She’s confident she can land a decisive blow, and she may even use Jiang Ao’hang’s hands to do it — whether or not he’s fully aware of what he’s doing, we don’t know. Otherwise, all the groundwork laid over the past few days amounts to nothing. If anything happens to Old Fu, she intends for all of us to be witnesses to Jiang’s malicious intent.”

“All I can say is — she chose the wrong people.” Ba Yunye curled her fists slightly. “When we make the summit push, we have our own business to attend to. There’s no way we can keep an eye on her every little move. The way I see it, we should find another opportunity to pick a fight with Old Fu, and at best keep him at the base camp — not let him attempt the summit.”

“The idea won’t die. There will be a second attempt, a third — there’s no guarantee something won’t go wrong in the future.” Diao Zhuo didn’t entirely agree with this rough-and-ready solution that merely treated the symptoms. “We have to find a way to make Fu Xingyue pull back from the edge.”