Chapter 35
The gold leaf immediately and firmly adhered to the surface, like a solidified fragment of sunlight.
Without hesitation, Li Chian chose a spot slightly below, an area that seemed to have been smoothed out by countless hands.
With her usual strength, her fingertips steadily pressed the thin layer of gold into the warm, millennia-old accumulation, her movements swift and decisive.
Xu Zhuwen held her small, almost weightless piece of gold foil, feeling only the coldness and fragility of the metal through her fingertips.
She raised her head and looked at the life-size statue of the twelve-year-old Shakyamuni Buddha in front of her.
The magnificent Buddha statues radiated a soft and solemn glow amidst the flickering light of countless butter lamps.
For a moment, her mind went blank.
She made no wishes, nor did she pray for divine mercy or guidance regarding her future fate.
She simply extended her hand, with a devotion she herself was unaware of.
Her fingertips touched the smooth, jade-like patina on the wall, a touch that carried a strange, soul-soothing power.
She gently placed her tiny piece of gold near the gold foil left by her two friends, forming a delicate, slightly irregular golden triangle.
An extremely ordinary position, an extremely slight movement.
The golden spots melted into the endless warmth and human kindness.
Under the silent, downcast gaze of the Buddha statue, amidst the warm atmosphere of incense burning in the main hall and the breaths of millions, an unprecedented tranquility, gentle yet resolute, filled her soul like a rising tide.
She turned her head slightly and looked at the profiles of her two friends beside her, who were bending down together and focused on completing this small ceremony. Gao Yinxi's eyes were full of firm joy, and Li Chian's jawline appeared calm in the soft halo.
Xu Zhuwen's heart was filled with an incomparably reassuring warmth.
The heavy shackles of the past vanished without a trace at this moment, swept away by the wind, melted by the light, and completely dissolved by this ordinary, warm comfort.
The butter lamps inside the temple burned continuously, and Li Chi'an felt that this was the taste of XZ.
Gao Yinxi carefully observed the structure of the temple's earthen and wooden structure. She saw that the surrounding pillars and the floor were incredibly smooth, all bearing the marks of the believers' devotion.
"These pillars are covered up to prevent believers from stuffing money into the gaps."
A few people sidled up behind a large tour group to listen to the tour guide's explanation.
The three people offered their sincere prayers to the Yellow Jambhala enshrined in the central hall.
After worshipping the Yellow God of Wealth, Xu Zhuwen pointed to the corner of the wall and said, "There is a golden goat relief there."
Xu Zhuwen and Gao Yinxi looked in the direction she was pointing and found that the golden goat relief, like the surrounding Buddha statues, was being constantly gilded.
The Jokhang Temple is a popular place of worship, and the devout prostrations of believers have left deep imprints of their prostrations on the bluestone slabs in front of the temple.
The three of them carefully examined the many Thangkas, murals, Buddhist scriptures, and cultural relics inside.
“Let’s walk around the Jokhang Temple,” Li Chi’an suggested.
Xu Zhuwen and Gao Yinxi were puzzled. "Why?"
Li Chi'an laughed and said, "It is said that walking around the Jokhang Temple once can cleanse one's sins for a lifetime."
Xu Zhuwen shrugged. "Okay, although I can't understand this kind of piety, since we're already here..."
Since they were already there, the three of them quietly followed the people circling the temple and walked around it once.
After leaving Jokhang Temple, the three of them went to Barkhor Street. Along the way, they saw many believers walking with their heads down, spinning prayer wheels and looking peaceful and serene.
Many people had weathered the hardships of life and walked with faltering steps, yet they showed no sign of sorrow. Xu Zhuwen watched them silently and calmly for a long time.
Li Chi'an held his phone and quietly photographed the figures of these practitioners.
She heard tourists pointing and making slanderous remarks about the monks, while others seriously and sternly rebuked them, saying, "Don't joke about other people's beliefs. Whether you have a belief or not, at least respect other people's beliefs."
She wholeheartedly agreed with this.
...
The towering, silent Potala Palace, the Jokhang Temple filled with the unique aroma of butter lamps, the breathtakingly blue Yamdrok Lake... each scene is like a silent punch, stunning the eyes and silently washing away the gloom accumulated deep in the soul.
Xu Zhuwen, Gao Yinxi, and Li Chian followed the devout believers as they turned the golden prayer wheels, passing under the fluttering, colorful prayer flags.
All three of them were particularly enthusiastic about taking photos, and their phone cameras greedily captured their images.
Each person's photograph contains a reflection of themselves.
The three then went to visit the Yarlung Tsangpo River. They set off from Nyingchi in the early morning and sped eastward along National Highway 318.
In late autumn, a thin mist rises from the confluence of the Nyang River and the Yarlung Tsangpo River, and the golden poplar forests and distant snow-capped mountains create a layered effect reminiscent of an oil painting.
As Xu Zhuwen drove, Gao Yinxi, who was sitting in the back and feeling drowsy from the bumpy ride, heard Li Chi'an, who was sitting in the passenger seat, pointing and laughing at the surging sea of clouds.
“Namcha Barwa is the ‘spear piercing the sky’ in the hearts of Tibetans, but the clouds and mist often cover her face. Now is the perfect time to unveil her beauty.”
Soon, they came to a huge array of prayer flags. The brightly colored prayer flags fluttered violently in the fierce, dry winds of the plateau, making a loud, continuous, and deafening rustling sound.
The sound seemed to tear through the air, possessing a primal and sacred power.
At this time of year, the autumn air is crisp and clear, and the mountains are ablaze with color, creating rich layers of color with the colorful prayer flags. The expansive view makes it especially suitable for taking photos.
Therefore, photography enthusiasts had already set up their long lenses and tripods under the prayer flags.
The three of them got out of the car, picked up their photography equipment, and joined the ranks of photography enthusiasts. They did indeed take very good photos; every shot looked great.
Suddenly someone pointed to a silvery-white peak that flashed by through the clouds. "Look! That's the spearhead of the sacred mountain!"
Everyone picked up their devices and looked in the direction he was pointing, but soon the churning sea of clouds swallowed up that fleeting glimpse.
"Did you get a picture?" Gao Yinxi asked Xu Zhuwen and Li Chian.
Both of them shook their heads.
All three of them are good-looking and stand out even in a crowd. Someone immediately responded, "I got a picture."
Gao Yinxi scanned the crowd and added a bright-eyed old man with a full head of white hair on WeChat. The old man said he would send her the photos once he exported them.
Several young men in the crowd expressed their regret at not being able to add the beautiful women on WeChat.
Xu Zhuwen stood at the edge of the prayer flag forest, watching the countless colorful flags symbolizing blessings and prayers surge and roar in the wind like a tide.
The wind tousled her hair and slapped against her face, causing a subtle yet distinct sting.
She took a deep breath of the thin, cool air, feeling as if her internal organs were being cleansed.
She carefully pulled a thin, transparent document bag from her inner pocket. Inside was a certificate printed from a USB drive, marking the transfer of several huge debts of Qian Song Company.
The paper folded silently, like a cold, sheathed dagger.
She stood there for a short while, holding the thin piece of paper, her gaze fixed on the wildly waving prayer flags.
"Is it worth it?" Li Chi'an appeared beside her at some point, his voice calm, his gaze also fixed on the surging, colorful waves.
Xu Zhuwen did not answer.
She reached out her arm and tucked the folded photocopy into a crease in the corner of a blue prayer flag that was being fluttered violently nearby.
The instant the fingertips loosened, the wind, with its seemingly omnipresent and inexhaustible power, immediately seized that thin piece of paper that carried all the heavy darkness of the past.
It didn't even float and spin as Xu Zhuwen had expected. It struggled for a moment before being swept away by an even stronger current of air, rising high and instantly merging into the boundless, surging, and roaring torrent of five colors.
Almost in the blink of an eye, it disappeared like a grain of sand swept into the ocean, vanishing into the depths of countless swirling colors, heading towards the higher and more distant mountain peaks, never to be found again.
at the same time.
Amidst the vast roar of millions of prayer flags, Xu Zhuwen's phone screen, which had been on silent in his coat pocket, stubbornly and frantically lit up, turned off, and lit up again.
A name silently flashed on the screen: Qian Song.
The red "30+" number following the phone icon is alarming.
The frantic flashing and vibrations traveled through her clothes to her legs, faint yet persistent, like an echo from hell.
But in the face of the overwhelming clamor of the wind and the colorful torrent that seemed to wash everything away, the vibrations caused by that tiny electronic disturbance were like a pebble thrown into the ocean, unable to even stir up a ripple.
Xu Zhuwen calmly watched the screen flicker silently in her pocket for a while, until it finally exhausted itself and returned to a deathly black.
The screen reflected a small patch of shadow from her own fabric.
"You haven't blocked him yet?" Gao Yinxi noticed Xu Zhuwen's phone screen.
Xu Zhuwen expressionlessly reached into her pocket and pressed the power button with her fingertips. It was simple, decisive, and without any hesitation. "Breakups should always be said face to face."
Gao Yinxi raised her eyebrows. "It's your decision."
Xu Zhuwen said stiffly, "After all, we are all adults, and I want to make things clearer about our relationship."
If we're together, it's perfectly aboveboard; if we're not, we cut ties cleanly.
Although their time together had been neither honorable nor pleasant, filled with trivialities and drama, she ultimately disliked the ambiguous separation, as if she were running away.
The phone screen went completely dark, without a single ray of light.
“It’s good to make things clear.” Li Chi’an stood to the side. “There is a time for us to meet, and a time for us to part.”
After a moment of silence, she added, "When we get back, Chen Li and I also need to say goodbye."
The trip used up all of Xu Zhuwen's annual leave.
After their trip, the three returned to Xianghai City.
Gao Yinxi's driver picked up the three of them from the airport and took each of them home.
When the car arrived at the entrance of Li Chi'an's residential compound, she asked Xu Zhuwen, "Are you really not coming home with me?"
"No, I want to go back to my own house and take a look." This trip has changed Xu Zhuwen's state of mind to some extent.
“Okay, feel free to come again if you need anything.” Li Chi’an closed the car door behind him.
...
Back home, Xu Zhuwen looked at her spotless apartment and realized that she was absolutely right to insist on cleaning up the apartment before the trip.
She spread her suitcase out on the floor, opened it, quickly took out the items inside, and then immediately took her pajamas and a bath towel to the bathroom to take a hot shower.
The air was filled with the fresh scent of laundry detergent and a faint aroma of lemon. Sunlight streamed through the windows, which were covered only by a single layer of white gauze, generously filling most of the living room.
She slumped on the sofa, feeling the chill she had brought from XZ vanish in the sunshine of Xianghai City.
After lying quietly for a while, she picked up her phone and checked her shopping app, discovering that many packages had arrived at the courier station and she needed to pick them up in person.
The aftermath of moving is that you have to pack a lot of things every time you move, and you also need to buy a lot of things online.
Fortunately, the house was clean, and she took a shower, washing away all her fatigue.
She habitually opened WeChat, intending to message Qian Song and ask him to pick up the package from the Cainiao Post Station downstairs when he got home that evening. After typing most of the message, she suddenly remembered that she had resumed her single life.
Living alone means there's no one to help you pick up packages.
Xu Zhuwen put down her phone and stared quietly at the ceiling above her head. Her mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts, like a technology screen broadcasting announcements one after another. Before she could even process some of the information, her brain had already announced the next one.
The price of breaking up with Qian Song was that she had to start eating alone, sleeping alone, cleaning alone, and dealing with all kinds of unexpected events at home all by herself. The advantage was that she would no longer have to worry about losing a man or bear heavy debts.
"Beep—beep—"
The access control intercom suddenly went off.
Xu Zhuwen walked over, and the screen lit up.
A man in work clothes stands next to a huge, square object that is almost as tall as a person and wrapped in cardboard.
"1702, express delivery, please sign for it." The deliveryman's voice carried a hint of weariness from delivering goods.
Xu Zhuwen opened the door and saw a tall box standing outside. "Bring it in."
The deliveryman sighed heavily, bent down, and carried the box into the designated location.
"Thank you for your hard work."
Xu Zhuwen thanked the deliveryman as he left.
She wouldn't normally say such polite things to a deliveryman, because she could see that he was so exhausted that he was on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
The deliveryman paused for a moment, then raised his hand and waved goodbye to her.
It seems the other person is in a better mood.
Xu Zhuwen smiled and waited for him to take a few more steps before closing the door.
It's not easy for anyone.
It was her turn to sigh.
Xu Zhuwen took out a pair of scissors from the cabinet, walked to the huge cardboard box, and deftly cut open the sealing tape. Then, she carefully peeled off the package, revealing the contents inside: a meticulously framed triptych.
She sent this photo to a Taobao store a few days ago and asked them to print it out for her.
I didn't expect it to arrive so quickly.
Beside the mirror-like blue surface of Yamdrok Lake, the three of them stood side by side on a protruding rock. The high-altitude wind lifted the tips of their hair and the hems of their clothes. In the distance, the blue of the sacred lake stretched towards the horizon, merging with the boundless blue sky.
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