“Ah — Diao Zhuo found the location where the photographs were taken. Here are the coordinates…” A’Shui showed them both the location images. “Those photographs were taken from exactly this spot.”

Li Haozhang compared them carefully. “It really is identical!”

He Zhengren gave a dry laugh. “Diao Zhuo’s eyes are truly sharp… Old Zhang passed by that area three or four times, and somehow never spotted it.”

Mention of Zhang Chenguang prompted Li Haozhang to ask, “Old Zhang’s thermos flask…”

“Don’t even bring it up — someone on the mountain suddenly developed pulmonary edema, everyone was rushing to help get them down. Who had time to think about a thermos flask? What rotten luck.” A’Shui looked thoroughly gloomy. “Once things settle down, I’ll slip up there again and see if I can stumble into some good fortune.”

“Not finding it is better than finding it.” Li Haozhang sighed as well.

He Zhengren said in irritation, “Can those foreign visitors not make any less of a fuss! They spent money to buy it, they were careless enough to lose it themselves, and now they’re putting out a lost-and-found notice! Lucky that no police took notice of it…”

“Director He, as things stand for me now…” A’Shui ventured carefully. “I’ve lost my job and made enemies. Going back is out of the question. What if… I stayed and worked for you?”

“You…” He Zhengren looked at him with an expression of difficulty. “You can’t do driving routes anymore. Stay here for now, and I’ll go back and think about what kind of work you could take on.”

“Perfect, perfect.” A’Shui cheerfully saw them both out. The moment the door closed, he deliberately cranked the television volume to maximum. Then he opened his suitcase, looked inside, exhaled, and fell into thought.

The elevator doors slowly closed. Li Haozhang pressed the button for the ground floor. “A’Shui did a decent enough job staying close to Little Ba — he got his hands on all three photographs and the coordinates. What role should we arrange for him next? Hand him Old Zhang’s former operations?”

He Zhengren cast a mildly displeased glance at him. “Are you making decisions on my behalf?”

Li Haozhang’s expression darkened slightly, a faint undercurrent of resentment there. “I was just… putting forward a suggestion.”

“Unlike Old Zhang, A’Shui has no experience in trading. Handing it all over to him at once — I worry he won’t be able to handle it, and then something goes wrong.” He Zhengren felt a touch of melancholy. The days were growing colder; the dull ache in his leg had started again. “In this line of work, get it right and you become rich overnight. Get it wrong, and you either lose your life or spend it being hunted. Getting arrested by the police the way Old Boat was — that’s actually the most dignified outcome.”

“You feel A’Shui isn’t reliable enough?”

“Who is reliable?” He Zhengren fixed his gaze on him.

Li Haozhang looked away.

He Zhengren reflected for a moment, then said, “A’Shui… keep him on as my personal driver. Better that than having him expose himself out in the open.”

Li Haozhang hesitated. “In that case, I…”

The elevator reached the ground floor. He Zhengren walked slowly out, deliberately dropping his voice. “The manganese mining project will prevent Diao Zhuo from going wherever he pleases, the way Little Ba can. He’ll have to go to Xinjiang before long. Little Ba can’t go unmonitored. Starting tomorrow, go to Yunnan and Tibet. Keep a close eye on Little Ba for me.”

Li Haozhang was puzzled. “Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to go?”

“I went through all of Rao Qinghui’s work computers — and those of his people — and found only scattered materials pointing toward the Keketuohai area of Xinjiang. Following the trail those materials laid out, I did locate an aquamarine deposit, but I’ve always felt it couldn’t be that straightforward. I also went to find his close friend, Professor Lu Yang, but the two of them worked in somewhat different research areas, and Lu Yang provided nothing useful — or deliberately withheld it. Rao Qinghui had an encrypted folder that still hasn’t been opened. I suspect that’s where the truly valuable material is. In the past, when Rao Qinghui was joking around with his assistants and students, he liked to use photographs to quiz them — have them determine coordinates, rock formation composition, and vegetation from the image alone. It was no accident that Ba Xiye had three unrelated photographs hidden in her wallet — she must have received some signal from Rao Qinghui and, thinking quickly under pressure, came up with that approach. Although A’Shui has obtained the coordinates of the locations in the photographs, we still haven’t confirmed whether those numbers are actually the password to Rao Qinghui’s encrypted folder on his computer.”

Li Haozhang asked, “Could Little Ba be the breakthrough?”

“Unlike the others, Ba Xiye left behind very little in the way of personal effects — everything is kept by that old orphanage. At some point, Little Ba casually mentioned to A’Shui that the only computer in the orphanage was Ba Xiye’s personal one. But as the orphanage was taken over and unified under government administration, things were moved here, discarded there, and A’Shui was never able to find out what became of Ba Xiye’s computer. Now that Little Ba has also obtained the coordinates from the three photographs, she will certainly be making some kind of move.”

“Understood.”

Before getting into the car, He Zhengren made a point of warning Li Haozhang: “Don’t treat Little Ba as an ordinary woman. Take several people with you and follow her discreetly. Under no circumstances must you be discovered by her.”

“I’ll be careful.” He said solemnly.

Li Haozhang had worked at He Zhengren’s side for a long time but knew nothing of Ba Yunye and had no concept of what she was capable of. Even so, He Zhengren harbored not the slightest concern — he didn’t seem to care at all whether Li Haozhang would be exposed. Because from the moment he dispatched Li Haozhang, that man was already a pawn to be sacrificed. He Zhengren knew perfectly well that in terms of depth and guile, Li Haozhang was no match for the newly arrived A’Shui — yet Li Haozhang harbored ambitions, which was precisely why he had been playing the role of a surveillance instrument in He Zhengren’s inner circle.

He Zhengren had been feeling unsettled lately. If the day ever came when he had to leave in a hurry, he’d need to shake Li Haozhang off first.

“Eagle Club — Sichuan-Tibet Highway, departing the 20th. Groups of 4 available as independent tours, mixed tours, formed groups, rideshares, and chartered vehicles. Experience something different.”

“Life isn’t just about the good-looking people right in front of you — there are unknown encounters and chance meetings waiting in distant places. Self-drive Yunnan-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet Highway recruitment now open.”

“Eagle Club Tibet trips running through the off-season — winter travel, second group. Departing from Lijiang on December 8th to experience the breathtaking Yunnan-Tibet Highway. 8-9 days. Whether you come or not, I’ll be waiting for you in Lijiang.”

Life carried on all the same. Ba Yunye was escorting a newlywed couple on their honeymoon along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, her social media feed updated faithfully each evening as always.

“When you post these advertisements, could you possibly exclude me from seeing them?” Diao Zhuo asked her.

She replied quickly. “No. I need you to witness the hardships of those who labor at the bottom of society.”

“You drive, I go down into mines. Which of us is at the bottom?”

“You have a mine, good for you, hmph.” The female driver burdened with a 200,000-yuan car loan said with resigned exasperation.

The content of Rao Qinghui’s last words — he had already been in contact with Ran Jinxian, a police officer who had been part of the original accident investigation team, and passed the leads along. Whether this last testament would prove to be the critical evidence needed to reopen the accident investigation remained to be seen.

The Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture West Kunlun manganese mining project was progressing smoothly; three more ore target zones had been delineated. At the end of November, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck beneath a township in Akto County, with the epicenter in a high-altitude uninhabited zone. There were no casualties, but some buildings collapsed and certain roads were damaged. Their geological survey team dispatched three large engineering machines to the disaster area to assist with road repairs. Among the volunteers who arrived to deliver relief supplies, two had come from Golmud.

They told Diao Zhuo that Fu Yingtao had pulled through, but the damage to his bodily functions had been severe — he would need to take early retirement when he returned home. News of him and Fu Xingyue having been targeted in succession on the mountain had spread through the mouths of the other climbers, and many people were aware of it and following the case closely.

A few days earlier, the investigation results had come in. Fu Xingyue’s former boyfriend Han Mu was the mastermind. He and Fu Xingyue had harbored deep resentment toward Fu Yingtao and had plotted for a long time. Fu Xingyue feigned acceptance of Jiang Ao’hang’s courtship. Han Mu assumed a false name — “Han Rui” — disguised himself as a gay man to get close to Jiang Ao’hang, and used his professional knowledge to continuously encourage and manipulate Jiang Ao’hang into murdering his parents-in-law in order to seize the family assets.

At first, Jiang Ao’hang trusted “Han Rui” completely, and in order to obtain the inheritance and the properties, he decided to go all in.

Fu Xingyue’s adoptive mother was already gravely ill. Jiang Ao’hang believed it was his own actions — using medicine provided by “Han Rui” — that caused her death without anyone suspecting a thing. Emboldened, he began openly planning the murder of Fu Yingtao. By chance, Jiang Ao’hang discovered that Fu Xingyue’s former boyfriend was none other than “Han Rui.” Having also learned of the two of them and their history, he saw through their scheme of using others to do their killing for them. Believing he already had one life on his hands and having nothing left to lose, he decided to turn on them instead.

Jiang Ao’hang had found out from Fu Xingyue’s biological mother that Fu Xingyue had a mild cardiopulmonary deficiency, and devised the Yuzhu Peak expedition accordingly. He deliberately played along with Fu Xingyue’s scheme, projecting an air of malicious intent toward Fu Yingtao. When leaving from the West Great Beach base, he discarded a bottle of glipizide tablets, redirecting others’ suspicions away from himself and onto Fu Xingyue. She obliged him perfectly, ultimately suffering an episode of high-altitude pulmonary edema at nearly six thousand meters above sea level. In the ensuing chaos, he also used Fu Yingtao’s known allergen to push him into a critical condition, making everything appear to be an accident.

His actions enraged Han Mu, who was waiting in Golmud, and Han Mu resolved to go down fighting. Using his professional knowledge and familiarity with hospital procedures, Han Mu infiltrated the ward and injected a harmful substance into the IV drip bottle — and Fu Yingtao very nearly reported in to the king of the underworld.

What awaited Han Mu, Jiang Ao’hang, and Fu Xingyue was the judgment of the law. Fu Yingtao’s small family was shattered completely by this ordeal, and he became fodder for gossip and ridicule among the other people in his company. To this day he still cannot fathom how he — who had after all been Fu Xingyue’s benefactor — could have been treated in such a way.

When Ba Yunye learned the outcome of the investigation, she was overcome with a long, wistful sigh.

“If it were me, even if heaven itself opposed it, I’d be with whoever I wanted to be with, and I’d fight anyone who got in my way. They were prepared to commit murder, yet they couldn’t bring themselves to simply be with the person they cared about? Going around in such enormous circles, all to end up circling their way right into prison. And as far as I know, the men’s block and the women’s block are in entirely separate places — so they still can’t be together. So much for flying side by side.”

“Flying side by side…” Diao Zhuo was simultaneously moved and thoroughly at a loss for words at her choice of phrase. “Any word from A’Shui?”

She said glumly, “Vanished from the face of the earth.”

A’Shui was still nowhere to be found. Her club’s co-pilot arrangement had become haphazard. For some reason she kept thinking of the sight of A’Shui trotting over eagerly with his sweet tea thermos in hand — ridiculous and genuine at once. Working with anyone else just never felt as lively or as grounded as it had with A’Shui.

Because A’Shui had fled with what appeared to be Zhang Chenguang’s thermos flask, Long Ge was furious. Over the course of more than a month, he went through the background checks of every single person in the club. Drivers who had resigned or transferred to other convoys were nothing new, but aside from Ba Yunye, none of the others could understand why A’Shui’s sudden resignation had made Long Ge so angry.

Ba Yunye completed another run along the Sichuan-Tibet Highway and returned to Lhasa, joining Long Ge to take items clients had purchased to be blessed at the Jokhang Temple area. Along the way, Long Ge — in an unusually grave tone — gave her his word: “I never imagined A’Shui had been operating with such deep-seated ulterior motives for so long. This is partly my responsibility. I will find out who is behind him.” He was gripping the prayer beads so tightly that rows of deep red marks were pressed into his wrist.

“The human heart is something you can’t always guard against.” The beryllium-bearing mineral belt was confidential — Ba Yunye kept it from Long Ge as well. From the Eagle Club’s perspective, A’Shui’s departure was not entirely unwelcome. Having confirmed that her eldest sister was not a woman who had destroyed another family’s marriage, Ba Yunye was in reasonably good spirits. As for the search for the beryllium-bearing mineral belt — that was Diao Zhuo’s area of expertise, and she could do little to help. All she could do was help him keep the secret.

Long Ge crossed his arms, looked straight ahead. “You wouldn’t betray me, would you?”

“As long as you never one day propose that I become your wife and marry you, I won’t be running anywhere.”

He scoffed. “As if. I’m more afraid that you’ll be so enamored of my guesthouses that you’ll pester me shamelessly to marry you.”

Ba Yunye pointed at herself. “Hmph — even I can’t get your attention? You truly deserve to die a bachelor.”

“Hah, you’re still young — there are some things you still don’t understand…” Long Ge’s smile was warm and guileless. “As long as I’m unmarried for one single day, every woman in the world is a potential wife.”

She rolled her eyes and walked off ahead of him.

Barkhor Street was alive with the comings and goings of people. Shops selling butter lamps, ceremonial scarves, and Buddhist statues stood row upon row. Below the famous yellow building of Makye Ame — the popular spot everyone had to visit and photograph — tourists jostled together. They may not have believed in Buddha, but they could recite the classic verses of Tsangyang Gyatso without hesitation. A few Tibetan pilgrims were making their way forward in full prostration, the wooden boards on their hands striking the ground in a steady, rhythmic sound, the whole road resonant with faith and devotion.

Long Ge knew Barkhor Street inside and out — from the rents of the storefronts down to which shop had a mirror on its wall that let you see the reflection of what was behind you. Before long, he shifted his rotund frame and caught up with her in a few strides, raising his hand and draping it over Ba Yunye’s shoulder. He had never done this before.

Ba Yunye wasn’t rattled. She raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “What — did my jibe actually hit home? You’ve genuinely decided to chase after me?”

“Someone is following us.” Long Ge said with a smile, in the same tone one might use to discuss the evening meal. Now, looking at him, one saw only a portly, good-natured man — but you would be gravely mistaken to think he was a soft, harmless fat man with no edge at all. Having come from the military as a scout, his sensitivity to being tailed surpassed even Ba Yunye’s.

“What would anyone want with the two of us?” She neither turned around nor looked about, asking with calm indifference.

“Could it be that Diao Zhuo doesn’t trust you and asked a few of his brothers to catch you in the act?”

“So you deliberately put your arm around me, hoping to get beaten up by them?”

Long Ge let out a soft laugh. “From the looks of it, they have no intention of beating me.”

Ba Yunye gave a slight nod. “Since it’s not Diao Zhuo’s people… heh heh. A’Shui may be gone, but his so-called ‘operation’ probably hasn’t wrapped up. Someone has decided the two of us still have some value to be extracted.”

Long Ge turned his prayer beads, eyes closed. “Whoever is coming, they’re not here with good intentions, dear friend.”

She said, putting on a pinched, affected voice: “Our recommendation on this end is: who gives a damn — we’re just here to get some blessings, after all. If you’re interested, come along and let it cleanse your soul a little.”