There had been a fresh snowfall on the mountain the night before. The sky was somewhat overcast, and patches of lingering snow remained in places. Trucks carrying supplies to Tibet were lined up like matchboxes along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. It had initially seemed that the snowfall was causing a traffic jam all the way from Xi Da Tan to base camp, but as they slowly moved toward the front, they discovered a truck had tipped over on its side. The Sichuan-Tibet, Yunnan-Tibet, and Qinghai-Tibet routes are the main lines for transporting goods to Tibet. Of these, the Sichuan-Tibet route has the most accidents; the Qinghai-Tibet route is the most stable with the fewest — but fewer does not mean none.

The vehicles turned off the highway onto a side road, then onto a dirt track leading directly to the south slope base camp — and the only passage toward the vast wilderness of Hoh Xil. The advantage of off-road vehicles became apparent as they maneuvered left and right around a line of heavily loaded trucks. The Jeep Wrangler that Ba Yunye was driving charged out in front, like a bright red banner leading the convoy — dashing and assertive, very much like her own character.

The vehicles pulled to a stop one by one. Huzi leapt out in a single bound while everyone else climbed out slowly. Before them stood a pale blue sign on the desolate tundra: “Yuzhu Peak Mountaineering Base Camp — Elevation 5,050m,” along with the Mountaineering Guidelines for Qinghai Province. This was the heartland of the Sanjiangyuan region, the Kunlun Mountains, and Hoh Xil — also the core of a nature reserve. There was no shortage of small animals here, particularly pikas, which ran everywhere and had no fear of people whatsoever. Dangle a finger biscuit in front of one and it would jump right onto you, munching the biscuit and looking you over while bounding up and down. Looking back at the vast undulating brown tundra outside the camp, one could occasionally spot the tall, lumbering Tibetan wild donkeys and the perpetually bewildered-looking Tibetan foxes.

Supplies at the camp were scarce, and food had to be brought in sufficient quantities. Outside the peak climbing season of July and August, tents also had to be self-provided. There had once been a row of simple prefabricated cabins here, but they were washed away by a flood. Now, tents in bright, vivid colors served as the stopping point for climbers. Step out of a tent, look through the colorful prayer flags snapping in the wind, and Yuzhu Peak was right there in full view — whether it was snowing and what the weather was like could be seen at a glance.

The higher altitude and thinner air pushed some people back into altitude sickness. Those who had shown no symptoms at all at Xi Da Tan arrived at base camp and within just a few hours, their heads were throbbing so badly it felt like they would split open. They were vomiting heavily — people who had been laughing at others before were now barely clinging on themselves, forced to take altitude sickness medication and aspirin. Strangely, those who had already shown symptoms of altitude sickness at Xi Da Tan found it wasn’t quite as severe at base camp. Apart from a poor appetite, things were relatively manageable.

The cook at base camp was also a Sichuan-style chef — more skilled than the one at Xi Da Tan. Fruit after meals was still on offer, and there was even watermelon.

Da Qiang was vomiting violently, and his friends were teasing him while gnawing on watermelon.

“Such a delicious spread, and you went and ruined it.”

“Don’t say that — he ate it and then threw it back up, so it’s like he tasted it twice.”

“Are you kidding me, don’t make us sick too!”

“What, you want a second taste as well?”

“Dad, have some watermelon — it’s quite sweet.” At the next table over, Jiang Ao’hang was still bustling about attentively as ever. Ba Yunye sat with her back to them, and when she combined what she’d seen in his phone that morning with the sound of his warm, solicitous voice now, she felt her skin crawl.

If he genuinely intended to cause Fu Yingtao to have a mountaineering accident, it would be hard to avoid affecting others in the process.

“Watermelon shouldn’t be eaten after the start of autumn, and you’d all do best to eat less of this out-of-season fruit.” Fu Yingtao was still as lofty as ever. His appetite was also poor, but he was noticeably more spirited than he had been at Xi Da Tan. He waved off the few slices of watermelon Jiang Ao’hang offered him and went on at length: “In the old days, there was no such abundance of out-of-season vegetables and fruit. Whatever season it was, whatever the land yielded — those were the natural rhythms. Now look at things: we’ve managed to make every single ingredient available in every season, eat whatever you want year-round, and in the end it’s not as though young people’s health has improved — if anything it’s gotten worse. So many young people getting cancer these days.”

Ba Yunye froze mid-bite of her watermelon. She wasn’t managing to eat the regular food either, but she had already worked through five or six slices of watermelon.

“Then have an apple.” The low-profile Fu Xingyue said — it also seemed like she wanted him to stop talking, and on that point alone, her emotional intelligence was not too low.

Fu Yingtao gave a light wave of his hand. “Peel it — the skin is covered in pesticides.”

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” Jiang Ao’hang smiled obligingly, borrowed a fruit knife, gripped the handle firmly, and walked toward Fu Yingtao with the blade pointing forward in large strides — as if the next second he was going to stab someone. Ba Yunye shot him a sharp glance, then watched as he grabbed an apple and sat down on the other side, peeling it quite uneventfully.

“Diao Zhuo, let me check your phone,” Ba Yunye said, raising her voice.

Diao Zhuo looked up at her.

“What, does that seem sudden? If I warned you in advance, what’s the point of checking?” She laughed and held out her hand.

The stubbornly no-nonsense man didn’t understand her intention at all, and not only did he not hand over his phone, but he said “The signal’s bad, I turned it off ages ago,” making her look like she was being unreasonable for no reason.

Ba Yunye placed her hand on his waist and gave it a hard pinch. “Turned it off, can’t you turn it back on? Is there something in there you don’t want anyone to see?”

Diao Zhuo raised an eyebrow, stared at her for a good while, then understood her meaning and obediently produced his phone.

“Women…” Dong Bai murmured quietly to Da Qiang. “They all love checking their man’s phone — even Master Ba is no exception.”

Ba Yunye turned the phone on, feigning casual disregard, and said with a sharp edge: “Of course you have to check your man’s phone regularly, because you never know what ‘surprises’ it might bring you. Sometimes you’ll find yourself bumping into your man’s ex-girlfriend by sheer coincidence, hearing her share their intertwined past. Sometimes you’ll discover through his friends’ jokes that while you were away, he’d bought group-deal couple’s seats at a private cinema three times. And sometimes…”

The lock screen image that lit up when the phone turned on nearly made Ba Yunye choke on her own words, and her voice came out slightly off-pitch. “Why is my photo your lock screen?!”

Diao Zhuo’s friends erupted in laughter. “Master Ba, now that truly is a surprise.”

“That’s not you.” Diao Zhuo flatly denied it, his expression utterly serious, as though they were discussing an academic matter.

Ba Yunye shot him a suspicious look, then looked at the screen again. The car was hers. The jacket was hers. Even though the photo was taken from behind, showing her sitting on the car roof — and the figure was rather small, unlikely to be recognizable to anyone else — was she really supposed to fail to recognize herself?

She felt a little awkward, but once she noticed that Jiang Ao’hang and Fu Xingyue had both been drawn over by this little scene, she kept the performance going. “Oh, you’ve been in contact with this person quite a lot recently — just from the name, it’s obviously a woman!”

“Dong Xinjiao — the only female geologist among the first batch of geologists trained after the founding of the People’s Republic.”

After the founding… Ba Yunye’s fingers tapped frantically. She made another attempt: “This person called ‘Mengjiandié’ has sent you so many friend requests, and you’ve ignored every single one?”

“Meng Xiao’ai.” Diao Zhuo’s explanation was brief and to the point.

That girl still hadn’t given up on him… Ba Yunye ground her back teeth, then launched another charge. “Wait — last month, you had a hotel checkout record in Xi’an?!”

Diao Zhuo was perfectly calm. “Seems like you’ve forgotten where you were those few days.”

“Master Ba, your line of questioning demonstrates a kind of relentlessly dimwitted persistence.” He Ma quietly reminded her.

“What could I do — I genuinely had nothing to find fault with…” Ba Yunye rolled her eyes. She was a free-spirited person by nature and had never gone through a man’s phone in her life. Never!

“You should trust each other.” Fu Xingyue couldn’t stand watching and offered a quiet reminder.

Seeing that all her commotion had finally prompted Fu Xingyue to say something, Ba Yunye let out a breath and asked: “You don’t check your husband’s phone? What if he’s hiding something behind your back…”

Jiang Ao’hang looked toward Ba Yunye. His brow was deeply furrowed. His shoulders appeared very rigid as he waited for the second half of her sentence.

She pretended not to notice his gaze. “…like secret savings?”

“He wouldn’t do that.” Fu Xingyue didn’t elaborate, but her eyes conveyed an immense trust in her husband.

Jiang Ao’hang pressed his lips together, and his shoulders seemed to relax a little.

“Or keeping in touch with an ex-girlfriend?”

Jiang Ao’hang’s expression became unreadable. Fu Xingyue shook her head with a smile.

It seemed she had genuinely never looked through Jiang Ao’hang’s chat records — which was why he had been messaging that person called Rui Rui so brazenly in plain sight.

“If a couple is constantly suspicious of each other, always trying to catch each other out, how can you even live like that?” Jiang Ao’hang wrapped his arm around Fu Xingyue’s shoulder, smiling as he looked at her. “Xingyue and I say whatever’s on our minds. If she’s unhappy with something I’ve done, she just says so and I’ll change. If there’s something she’s done wrong, I tell her straight. If she gets upset about it, then I’ll just say it was my fault. Everything can be talked through — two people just need to be clear with each other, not play guessing games.”

The pair of sisters from Tangshan were deeply moved, and both started listing their husbands’ shortcomings — hiding money, listening too much to the mother-in-law, pressuring them to have a second child and produce a son — once they started, it kept going.

“He tells you everything?” Ba Yunye didn’t join the Tangshan sisters’ venting session, instead putting on a disbelieving look. “Including things like a first love, ex-girlfriends?”

“He’s told me all of it.” Fu Xingyue nodded earnestly. After a pause, she added: “No contact with any of them.”

“Let the past be the past. If you’re married and still dwelling on all that, it doesn’t just damage the relationship — it also shows a lack of maturity.” Jiang Ao’hang adopted a well-meaning, earnest look and addressed Ba Yunye: “You’re still young, and since you two aren’t married yet, getting to know each other better is a good thing. But you have to give men a bit more trust. Going through phones and checking messages at the drop of a hat — maybe at first it seems like no big deal, but over time, no man can put up with it. You’ll stir up trouble from nothing.”

Having said that, he lowered his voice and added one more reminder: “Extremes always reverse.”

“Ao’hang, you’re not entirely right either.” Fu Xingyue said in her soft, quiet voice. “Sometimes checking a phone isn’t a sign of distrust — it’s a sign of caring deeply.”

Diao Zhuo had been going along with Ba Yunye’s performance. At this point, he said nothing.

“So if you don’t check my phone, does that mean you don’t care about me?” He flicked the tip of his wife’s nose and picked up the phone from the table. “Go on and check it right now!”

“I don’t have that habit. And besides… I’m quite confident in myself.” She shook her head, looking rather shy. “Also, you picked up my phone…”

“Oh?” Jiang Ao’hang startled, looked down, and then laughed and shook his head.

Identical phones? Diao Zhuo was startled, and fell into thought.

Ba Yunye noticed the two of them were using the exact same couples’ phones, and felt she’d walked straight into a wall. She also felt a pang of anxiety on Fu Xingyue’s behalf. She pursed her lips, reached out to take more fruit, and out of the corner of her eye caught Fu Yingtao watching the young couple with an expression of utter coldness — tinged with a faint disdain.

It was supposed to be the deepest wish of most parents to see their children’s marriages and family lives be happy. Yet it was unclear whether Fu Yingtao simply couldn’t bear to see his daughter and son-in-law being affectionate after losing his spouse, or whether deep down he simply looked down on Jiang Ao’hang. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the father-in-law and son-in-law — what a tangled web.

After the meal, classic films were shown in the camp tent — first “The Message,” then “Brotherhood of Blades.” Outside, the wind was fierce and the temperature kept dropping. Inside the tent, coal was used for heating, and the surrounding air became even drier. Fu Yingtao suddenly had a nosebleed, which caused another small commotion. Ba Yunye took the opportunity to scare him a little — in this condition, it would be best to abandon any attempt at the summit. The climbing instructors, unsure what had caused it, simply said that discomfort in the nasal passages from dry, cold air was normal. Even if clotted blood formed in the nasal cavity, there was no need to worry.

“I see you brought some vitamins — have more vitamin C. Squeeze open a vitamin E capsule and apply it to the inside of the nostrils to moisturize them.” The sisters from Tangshan offered kindly.

“You shouldn’t just take vitamins indiscriminately.” Da Qiang, though physically suffering from altitude sickness, was seized by an occupational habit. He immediately spoke up: “For example, Director Fu — the vitamin E, you could apply it to the nostrils, but don’t take it internally.”

Fu Yingtao was sitting with his head tilted back, two wads of cotton stuffed in his nose. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but ask: “Vitamin E doesn’t help with altitude sickness?”

“I noticed that in the past few days, you’ve been taking aspirin to try to relieve the altitude sickness. Combined with your heavy smoking habit, it would be best not to supplement vitamin E excessively — it’s not good for you.”

Ba Yunye and Diao Zhuo exchanged a glance, and both turned simultaneously to look at Jiang Ao’hang.

Jiang Ao’hang stood there in a daze, clutching a bottle of vitamin E tightly in his hand. His backpack still had several more bottles of vitamin C, B-complex, grape seed capsules, and fish liver oil. “Uh… my dad can’t take vitamin E? Isn’t it widely said that vitamin E is an antioxidant, and older people can take an appropriate amount to supplement?”

“Aspirin reduces blood clotting ability, and combined with excessive vitamin E, it can easily cause severe internal bleeding. Also, I read a foreign study that said for people who smoke, taking 50 milligrams of vitamin E per day can increase the risk of cerebral hemorrhage by 50%.”

Da Qiang’s words gave Fu Yingtao a tremendous shock. He clutched his chest as though extremely uncomfortable, and after a moment, rushed outside and vomited his entire dinner.

Looking at Jiang Ao’hang and Fu Xingyue — both of their faces had gone completely white.