pilgrimage

"What's your way, man?—the way of the good boy, the way of the madman, the way of the colorful, the way of the libertine, any way . . . where, for whom, and how?"— Jack Kerouac Ye Jing didn't sleep well last night.

It wasn't the first time he spent the night in the wild, but the wind on the plateau outside was like a spell, as faint as a devil's cry.I don't know if it was an illusion, but he even heard an extremely strange voice, hoarse and sharp, like a group of lost explorers crying loudly in a desperate situation.

When he woke up, he found that he was the only one left in the cave. If it weren't for the extinguished coal fire on the ground, he would have thought that everything yesterday was a dream.Just as they were wondering whether Gesang and the others had abandoned themselves and left, they suddenly saw Gesang's head poking in from the hole: "Oh, are you awake? Grandma has already left, if you don't follow, I will leave you kid. "

Ye Jing crawled out of the hole, the morning light made him squint his eyes and raise his hand to block it.Under the vast sky, the white snow field stretches into the distance, with sparse forests on both sides. Not far from the front, a thin figure is walking slowly. Ye Jing doesn't know how to describe the scene in front of him.The old man walked on the white snow, his steps were heavy and pious, and he moved forward slowly in three steps.The road traveled is covered by long dragged marks, like a machete that is gradually opened, cutting off the so-called coldness and pointing directly at the faith in my heart.

The old man's back was a little blurry in the daylight, which made people want to cry.

Ye Jing was in a daze for a moment, but Gesang patted him before he realized it.The two packed their luggage and silently followed the old man slowly.Gesang was carrying a large package made of animal skin and a rod-shaped object wrapped in cloth. Ye Jing looked at it several times along the way, but didn't bother to ask. The only sound around was the rough grinding of snowshoes on the snow.

Ye Jing dragged her backpack and walked forward in silence.On this unknown road, he didn't know whether to trust Gesang, after all, this kind of experience had a legendary color.But after thinking about it, he felt that if Gesang really wanted to attack him, he would not have to rescue him, or just take away his belongings while he was asleep, so he calmed down a little.

But the line between the two still hasn't been erased.Although the old man was old, he was still in good health. Ye Jing and Gesang walked slowly behind her all morning without slowing down.He walked like this for several hours, and it was almost noon before Gesang signaled for a break, and shouted a few words to the old man in Tibetan, but the old man stopped, but did not look back.

The old man didn't know Chinese, Ye Jing didn't say much when he walked up, he just saw the old man still kneeling in the snow, facing the snow peak under the distant sky, murmuring a few Tibetan words language.Ye Jing couldn't understand what she was talking about, but felt that this thin body and straight back were like a pole pointing directly at the sky, straight and dazzling.

During the lunch break, she only ate a few compressed biscuits and drank some water. Ye Jing couldn't take it anymore, but she still gritted her teeth and didn't show it.He was sitting on a protruding rock, looking at the road that several people walked by, and the shocking long trails dragged by the old man all the way. When he glanced at the distant woods from the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a few vague dark shadows It flashed by like a ghost, and disappeared into the bushes like a ghost. His hands froze, he noticed Gesang's sight, swallowed, and asked vaguely: "Uncle Gesang... where are you?" ...are there wolves in winter?"

"There should be fewer winters." Gesang pressed the brim of his hat, and answered somewhat vaguely.Ye Jing didn't ask any more questions, and lowered her eyes slightly, not knowing what she was thinking.After a brief rest, several people continued on the road.

They had already passed the snow line, and the higher they went, the thicker the snow, the fewer trees, and more and more stones.Gesang said that it would be easier to walk over this mountain road, but Ye Jing still seemed preoccupied.It's not because the old man who followed the pilgrimage slowed down, but because he always felt that something was following them, but every time he turned back, there was nothing, and there was a horrifying blankness behind him.

After walking another distance like this, the snow gradually thickened to the point where it became difficult to walk, and when one stepped on it, the soles of the shoes were covered with icy scum.Ye Jing raised her head in a daze, and suddenly felt that the sky seemed to be getting darker. Gesang also stared at the cumulus clouds around the snow peak not far away, and his expression sank.

Sure enough, after a while, the wind blew up on the snow field, and there was still some snow foam, which scattered in front of the eyes hazily, with a hint of coldness, but this is very common in plateau areas, and several people continued to move forward without stopping.It went on like this until it was dark, and the wind was getting stronger and stronger, bringing with it large flakes of white snowflakes, whether they fell from the sky or blown from the snow-capped mountains, whirling and dancing around them.His hands and feet gradually became stiff, and Ye Jing had to put all the equipment in the bag on his body, but the knife-like wind still smashed hard on his goggles with snowflakes in it, blurring his vision.

Gesang had already rushed to the front to clear the way for the old man, but his condition was not good either. There was snow on his eyelashes, and his brows were almost wrinkled into his nostrils.He waved his hand to signal Ye Jing to take an early rest today, Ye Jing nodded fiercely in a big arc, but didn't dare to speak, because the cold wind poured straight down his throat as soon as he opened his mouth, in Gesang's later words, all the curse words were frozen in his throat inside.

I didn't find a cave tonight, and my luck was not as good as yesterday. I only went around to the other side of the mountain, found a leeward side, and camped hastily behind a few huge protruding rocks.The wind here is much lower, Ye Jing took a few deep breaths, and felt that it was not so cold, but the old man's condition became a little worse, his eyes were half closed, and he fell into a semi-comatose state.

Gesang looked around, but found no firewood. If he wanted to start a fire, he had to go back to the woods below, and the firewood he picked up might be damp and not ignite-this method was obviously very dangerous and unworkable.Ye Jing originally didn't want to spend the night on the mountain, and didn't bring heating equipment such as a sleeping bag and a smokeless stove, so he rubbed his hands together vigorously, trying to warm himself up again.

The surroundings were dark, and the whistling wind was circling around like a nightmare that could not be escaped. At this moment, there was no need to worry about trusting face, and several people cuddled tightly together to ensure that the body temperature would not lose a lot.Ye Jing tried to keep his eyes open, looking straight ahead, he didn't know when the wind would be less, but he knew that under such circumstances, he couldn't fall asleep.

No one spoke, no one complained, and he just waited with his eyes open amidst the shrieking wind.He gradually became sleepy, and his head became a little confused.He didn't know if he had an auditory hallucination, because he heard a hoarse and sharp voice again, mixed with the wind, like the lament of the undead.

He raised his head vaguely, and saw a patch of green eyes in the snowstorm ahead.