The road ahead was rough and jolting; the riverbed was still dry outside the wet season, and the vehicle rocked in all directions at once, organs feeling as though they had been tossed into a tumble dryer, shaken into spasms.

He Ma pointed outside. “Why are those tyre tracks heading south?”

To the south, by rough visual estimate, the terrain climbed steadily the whole way. The landscape was peculiar — marshland left by the melted snow appeared one after another in puddles and potholes, and at the far end, an unbroken mountain range looked completely impassable.

Ba Yunye turned her head, glanced, and paid no attention for the time being.

“Slow down, I’m about to vomit from the shaking!” He Ma wailed.

They drove on a little further, and Ba Yunye suddenly hit the brakes.

He Ma asked with concern: “What’s wrong?”

Ba Yunye turned her head to look out the window. Ye Xun’s Land Cruiser had driven far off in another direction. “That Diao character is shrewd — he deliberately sent Ye Xun away. Most likely he doesn’t want to be disturbed while he investigates something.”

He Ma couldn’t help but say the honest truth: “Master Ba, actually you’re his main source of disturbance.”

“Say that again?”

He Ma played dumb.

“Come on, let’s go back.” Ba Yunye turned the steering wheel one-handed, her movements smooth.

“Go back? Stop searching?”

“His intention.”

“Ah, so he was just using you to fool Ye Xun.” He Ma had an epiphany. “Only by sending you out would Ye Xun actually believe that Zou Kaigui was mauled by a wild animal somewhere in the vicinity.”

Ba Yunye nodded. “Say you were setting up camp by the lake and ran into a wolf pack, or a bear just waking from hibernation, and you fled in blind panic — how far do you think you could run before being knocked down or trampled?”

He Ma held up two fingers. “At most 200 metres.”

Ba Yunye snapped her fingers. “Within 200 metres they’d knock down a human — otherwise what would be the point of being a predator?! Zou Kaigui was over a hundred kilos — they couldn’t drag him away, so they’d deal with him on the spot. Within 200 metres and no skeleton found? That proves Zou Kaigui wasn’t taken down by a wild animal and wasn’t buried alive in a sandstorm.”

He Ma looked around. “If he survived but didn’t go back to retrieve his pack and vehicle, and didn’t use the satellite phone to call for rescue, it means something else happened.”

As they spoke, Ba Yunye was nearly back at Zou Kaigui’s last campsite. “His crossing route was planned — he left all his worldly possessions at the lake, and no body has been found nearby. The only conclusion is that human factors can’t be ruled out. There’s no shortage of humans in a so-called no-man’s land, as you can see from the tyre tracks we’ve been following. Could Zou Kaigui have encountered someone? Someone in a vehicle?”

“Quite possible.”

Diao Zhuo led the others to look at the ground, and they all half-crouched down.

“The marks left by dragging heavy objects are very obvious. And the angle at which the woman’s high heels sank into the ground suggests she was helping to drag something heavy. The footprints are most densely clustered and show the most drag-residue where the ground is mixed with Tibetan antelope fur — but not in other areas. Taking into account the shattered, broken state of the antelope bones, my assessment is —” Diao Zhuo paused. “The several SUVs making an illegal crossing encountered Tibetan antelopes in this area and chased them for sport, inadvertently killing three. Based on the tyre tracks they left behind, at least three vehicles took part in the chase. Zou Kaigui may well have been a witness — and may even have filmed the entire event on his phone or camera. For reasons unknown, he helped these two illegal crossers deal with the antelope carcasses.”

Da Qin’s face went pale with horror. “So could Zou Kaigui have been… by them…?” He made a throat-slitting gesture.

Diao Zhuo inclined his head. “Zou Kaigui has been missing for nearly three months; coverage in online and print media has been overwhelming. These people’s silence and concealment indicates a guilty conscience — firstly, they feared exposure for running down a Class One protected animal; secondly… perhaps they did something even more despicable than killing the antelopes. But all of this is conjecture on my part.”

Having said this, he took out the handheld GPS and marked the location. After sending a text message requesting a police investigation, he said: “Da Qin, you and Qi Zi — keep the people from your two vehicles here for now. Once the police have gathered their evidence, go back with them. The rest of us will stay behind to keep searching.”

Zha Ba Duo Jie said: “If it was an animal attack, the person would definitely be in the vicinity. Just wait for the others to come back and ask if they found anything. If they didn’t find anything, that means it wasn’t an animal.”

A look of relief passed through Diao Zhuo’s eyes. “If Zou Kaigui’s disappearance was caused by people, the search becomes far more difficult.”

Da Qin scratched the back of his head. “Right — if you had doubts from the beginning, why did you agree to let those vehicles go and search the area?”

Diao Zhuo gazed into the distance. The vehicles sent to search were now only faint black dots far away. “Ye Xun couldn’t possibly have never been to high-altitude regions before, but he put on the act from the very beginning of someone who had never been on the plateau and feared altitude sickness. Combined with part of what’s in Zou Kaigui’s diary, I suspect he’s also hiding something.”

Da Qin was startled. “I also felt he was being evasive, always seeming to have secrets — but I never thought he was even faking his altitude sickness.”

“At first I assumed he was just overly anxious, producing psychosomatic symptoms. But think about it — since entering Qiang Tang, we’ve been sleeping at elevations of 4,900 or even 5,200 metres and above every single day. Has he shown any discomfort at all? That’s not typical of someone who has never been tested at high altitude. By contrast — Xiao Zi showed no altitude sickness initially, but as the elevation increased, her body and mind both gave way, and in the end her temperament changed completely and she had a psychological breakdown. That is the normal reaction of an ordinary person. I don’t want to be hindered by Ye Xun.”

Da Qin smiled. “So you also sent Master Ba away?”

Diao Zhuo gave neither confirmation nor denial, paused in silence.

Da Qin’s smile deepened.

Diao Zhuo said nothing more but simply shook his head to himself. Hearing an engine, he looked back — Ba Yunye’s vehicle had pulled up smoothly, the wheels kicking up a faint cloud of ochre dust.

Seeing that the rescue team’s search had now gained a foothold, and that nothing further of use could be extracted from Old Jin and Baldy, Zha Ba Duo Jie led the conservation team and departed first.

Ba Yunye listened to the end of Diao Zhuo’s analysis and could not help but offer a few sincere claps. “With so many pairs of eyes among us, none of us see as clearly as your two.”

“It’s merely conjecture.” Diao Zhuo found the situation rather tricky. “No eyewitnesses, no surveillance footage — and since they were making an illegal crossing, they certainly took pains to avoid attention. A few footprints alone will likely not be enough to trace the vehicles.”

Ba Yunye shook her head. “The tyre tracks on the ground mostly head east, but earlier when we were driving forward I noticed a few tracks that branched off and curved south — fairly shallow, with no overlapping marks. Head south and the terrain gets higher and higher; the whole way it’s a string of small saltwater lakes with a mountain range running across it. For people or vehicles who’ve come this far yet turn south — that’s practically a death wish.”

Diao Zhuo furrowed his brow. “You mean…?”

“I want to try searching to the south.”

“Just the one vehicle?”

“You’re welcome to come along.” Ba Yunye pushed He Ma aside with zero hesitation. “I’d be more than happy.”

“The south is too difficult to drive.” He Ma cautioned. “Especially now that the snow has melted — the dirt road is very soft. The vehicle won’t make it; you’d bog down within steps. You can’t exactly walk there, either. And on top of that, it’ll be dark soon.”

“You can’t catch a wolf without bait!” Ba Yunye was brimming with energy.

Everyone stared blankly. After a long pause, Da Qin blinked. “Shouldn’t that be… ‘you can’t catch a rogue without bait’?”

“Uh…” Even she was confused.

Diao Zhuo regarded her garbled idiom with contempt. “She’s trying to say: ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.'”

“Yes, yes, exactly!” Ba Yunye gave her vehicle a few affectionate pats on the roof like stroking a small dog. Her Wrangler had been modified — it wouldn’t bog down so easily. “I trust it.”

Da Qin was helpless. “Is this vehicle paying you advertising fees or what…”

“It’s collecting my car loan repayments…” she said, then continued: “But I trust it — and at the same time —” Ba Yunye held up her thumb and pointed it at her own nose. “I trust myself.”

“I’m coming with you.” Diao Zhuo pulled open the passenger door. “Da Qin, He Ma — you two take the pickup truck and follow. Qi Zi stays behind to watch over the antelopes. We go no further than 20 kilometres south. If we find nothing, come straight back. We discuss further tomorrow.”

Ba Yunye leaned back against the headrest and smiled, relaxed. “I’ll follow your lead.”

And if we never come back, at least taking Diao Zhuo down with me wouldn’t be a bad deal — heh heh.

Long after they left, the sky was growing dark. Perhaps the weather had been too fine during the day, for the distant snow mountains were unexpectedly gilded by the lingering light with a faint violet hue; the sky behind the mountains was a gentle peach-pink, the two reflecting and complementing each other. Yet the softness of the sky and earth could not conceal the bleakness of the land — the lake water turned deep blue, and the brown wasteland appeared completely devoid of life.

The other three vehicles returned — empty-handed, as expected. Ba Yunye’s group had still not come back. Qi Zi, with no appetite for dinner, craned his neck anxiously in the direction they had gone.

Ye Xun’s mood was foul. He cradled a self-heating box of rice, his face a dark, bruised shade; he had been so confident, and now all he could do was sigh repeatedly. The wind had grown stronger; he stared blankly at Zou Kaigui’s abandoned belongings — the pack stood black and looming on the ground, like two great boulders.

After May, virtually no one would attempt a crossing of Qiang Tang on foot or by vehicle — firstly because daytime temperatures rise, the ice and snow melt, and the ground softens and becomes marshland, making travel unsuitable; and secondly because rising temperatures also awaken animals from hibernation, bringing unexpected dangers. Even so, anyone who chose to enter during the most suitable months for crossing still had a chance of dying without a trace. It was already mid-May; consequently, the 20 kilometres south proved far more difficult than imagined.

The ground was too soft; the SUV’s tyres pressed into the mud like rolling into a rich butter cake, thick and clinging. At every small tributary they dared not simply ford it — getting stuck in the middle of a river would be disastrous. One could believe that in a little while, as daytime temperatures rose further and the meltwater sped up, this terrain would become even more impassable, perhaps even beyond the reach of SUVs entirely.

Braking and accelerating at high altitude are both far harder than on flat ground — the engines laboured painfully to keep going. Visibility was poor; countless bogs appeared like phantoms without warning, and getting stuck became both more frequent and more stubborn than in the previous days. One vehicle bogged, the other towed it; the rear wheels spun and skidded endlessly in the mix of ice and mud, sliding like a skateboard — the moment one vehicle got free, the other would go under. They hauled each other back and forth, and although the temperature had plummeted, everyone was dripping with sweat from sheer exertion.

Ba Yunye, hands caked in mud, used the bricks she kept in the vehicle to wedge under the rear wheels, helping the car through another bogging crisis. After struggling through 10 kilometres, she accidentally stepped deep into the mud; even though she shifted her foot quickly, the mud had already welled over the top of her shoe. She let out a weary “ugh,” lifted her foot and shook it around, trying to fling off the remaining muck. In doing so, the other foot slipped, and she landed flat on her backside. There was a thick, squelching sound beneath her — she didn’t even need to look to know her backside and thighs were an absolute disaster.

He Ma saw what happened and stepped forward to help her. She braced both hands against the ground and stood up, deflated in every sense; the wind blew her hair flat against her face and made it itch. She reflexively swiped at her face — and now half her face was smeared with mud.

“You’re like the goddess Nuwa moulding humans…” He Ma suppressed a laugh.

Ba Yunye erupted: “Damn it! Next time I’ll be dead before I come back here! You call this a no-man’s land? A no-man’s land means humans aren’t welcome! Come in and it’ll kill you!”

In the driver’s seat of the vehicle ahead, Diao Zhuo heard the commotion, leaned out to look, and got out of the car. There was the formidable Ba Yunye, her lower half caked in grey mud, half her face blackened and dirty.

He waved a hand. “Don’t waste energy. Do you have a towel? Wipe it off.”

Never mind a towel — at that moment Ba Yunye didn’t even have a sheet of toilet paper on her. Both hands were covered in mud; her face still itched; she didn’t dare scratch, and snapped back in irritation: “Easy for you to say.”

Diao Zhuo pointed at the ground. “Want to lie down and say it instead?”

Ba Yunye lunged at him with both hands raised, going straight for his face to smear it: “Lie down?! Lie down your big head!”