Seeing Zhou Qin slowly awaking, Meiduo cheered in surprise. The surrounding Tibetans also gathered around curiously and couldn’t help exclaiming, “She is really blessed by God. She has actually come back to life!”
Changbagela turned around and waved his hand, saying loudly, “Hurry up, bring the highland barley wine and let her drink a little to get warmed up.”
Before long, a young Tibetan brought a warm cowhide bag over for Zhou Qin to drink. However, everyone was momentarily stunned when they saw that Zhou Qin was extremely beautiful. Although she was wearing only a single layer of clothing in this cold and snowy land, her face was bright with a cold and glamorous rosy color.
The Tibetans were extremely shocked. The young ones holding the highland barley wine were even more shocked by Zhou Qin’s beauty. Not daring to offend her, they handed the wine to Meiduo.
Meiduo took it with a smile and enthusiastically put the cowhide bag to Zhou Qin’s lips. “It’s cold, right? Come on, drink some wine to warm your body!” she said encouragingly.
At this time, Zhou Qin had not yet fully awoken from her meditation. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw the group of Tibetans crowded around her. In front of her was a beautiful Tibetan girl holding a cowhide bag and looking at her in surprise.
Zhou Qin was stunned for a moment. She had walked all this way to build the Zhuji phase. She was a beautiful, young woman traveling alone, so she couldn’t even count how many boorish men she had encountered on the road. As such, she was extremely vigilant. She looked at the cowhide bag with alarm, then leaned back slightly and shouted in a low voice, “Who are you?”
Meiduo wanted to get closer to Zhou Qin in order to get more information on Li Yundong. When she saw Zhou Qin looking at her with hostility and vigilance, she couldn’t help but feel anxious. She said in Tibetan, “You fainted on the side of the road. When we saw you, we thought you were dead. We were all pretty shocked to find out that you’re alive. Now you’ve woken up and we want you to have a sip of highland barley wine to warm yourself up. We’re not doing anything nefarious. Please rest assured. We’re all kind people.”
As she spoke, Meiduo turned around and pointed to her clansmen around her. “This is the highland barley wine brewed by Lamu. It’s mellow and the taste is good. If you drink it, your body will be warmed!”
Zhou Qin saw that Meiduo was saying a lot to her with an anxious expression, and she did not understand why this girl was being so enthusiastic about her, so she became even more vigilant.
Zhou Qin moved, and the ice armor on her body shattered into fragments that fell to the floor. Some of the pieces of ice were stuck to her clothes, so she reached out her hand and brushed them off with a calm expression.
The Tibetans could not help but feel even more reverent when they saw this woman with a delicate figure dressed in a single layer of clothing in the cold wind and snow looking like she was completely comfortable.
When Meiduo saw that Zhou Qin was ignoring her, she was stunned and thought to herself, “Why is this girl ignoring me? Ah, I know, she must not understand my words!”
She immediately repeated what she had just said in Chinese. After hearing it in a tongue she understood, Zhou Qin smiled. “Thank you for your kindness. I’m not cold and I don’t need to drink this, but I appreciate your concern. I’m fine.”
After that, Zhou Qin patted off the last shards of ice on her body, ready to turn around and continue on to Mountain Kari Holy.
Zhou Qin’s indifference made all the Tibetans stunned. They looked at each other and were speechless. They had never met such an unreasonable woman before.
However, many of the Tibetans were extremely aware of the fact that Zhou Qin was wearing only a single layer of clothing, and that her clothing was fluttering in the cold wind. Still, her face was as ruddy as usual, her beauty was extraordinary, and her posture and temperament emitted a sense of coldness on the cliff shore. Not only did they not feel that she was rude, but they felt that a person like her actually ought to have an attitude like this.
Meiduo watched Zhou Qin walk away step by step. She gripped the highland barley wine and stood there for a while until her figure slowly disappeared into the snow flurry. She couldn’t help shouting after her in Chinese, “Han Sister, do you know Li Yundong?”
This shout immediately stopped Zhou Qin.
She suddenly turned around, looked at Meiduo in surprise, and shouted back, “How do you know him?”
Meiduo quickly ran over and said in surprise, “Han Sister, you really do know him? What’s your name?”
Zhou Qin didn’t answer, just frowned slightly and asked, “What’s your name?”
Meiduo took no notice of Zhou Qin’s attitude. She smiled and said, “My name is Meiduo. What about you?”
When Zhou Qin heard this name, she was immediately startled. She remembered that Li Yundong had mentioned Meiduo, the Tibetan girl, when she had been chatting with him once before. However, she also knew that Tibetans shared many similar names. She dared not be careless and asked with a smile, “How do you know Li Yundong?”
When Meiduo heard Li Yundong’s name, she couldn’t help but show a trace of tenderness in the corners of her eyes. She said softly, “When I first saw him, I thought that he was dirty and sloppy! But then he saved Changbagela’s life!”
Hearing this, Zhou Qin no longer felt any doubt. The vigilance on her face disappeared, and a smile appeared in its place. “It’s you. I’ve heard of you.”
Meiduo couldn’t help clapping her hands and laughing. “Do you really know Li Yundong? Ah, what a coincidence!” As she spoke, Meiduo turned around and waved her hand at Changbagela. “Changbagela, she really knows Li Yundong. Come quickly!”
Changbagela also walked quickly over to Zhou Qin. He was overjoyed and said, “Han Sister, what’s your relationship with Li Yundong? Are you his girlfriend?”
A hint of sadness flashed quickly through Zhou Qin’s eyes. She formed a palm with one hand and made a Taoist salute, then correct him by saying, “Amitayus, I’m his disciple.”
Changbagela stared blankly for a moment, but soon after, he laughed and said, “No wonder, no wonder! Last time, when I saw his astonishing skills, I felt that he was definitely not an ordinary person. I guessed right. Only today when I saw you did I realize that that Han saying is correct: A great teacher produces a great disciple. This sentence really makes sense! Only someone as capable as he could produce a disciple as powerful as you!”
“Han Sister, are you here for cultivation?” asked Changbagela.
Zhou Qin nodded slightly. “Yes, but unfortunately, I encountered some trouble along the way and it almost put an end to my cultivation.”
Changbagela raised his thumb. “I’ve lived for several decades, but this is the first time I’ve seen a young, pretty girl like you dare to go out alone wearing clothes like this in this season to cultivate in Kari Holy Mountain! Impressive, truly formidable! The people of the Central Plains really are outstanding stock!”
Hearing the Tibetan man in front of her praise her, Zhou Qin smiled slightly and said in a reserved way, “Actually, it’s not worth mentioning. If it weren’t for you, I’m afraid I would have been in deep trouble.”
Meiduo smiled. “How will you thank us, Han Sister?”
Zhou Qin looked searchingly at Meiduo. “Just tell me what you want and I’ll do whatever I can.”
Meiduo and Changbagela didn’t know her identity and background, let alone that her words could change someone’s life, or even that of numerous people.
Changbagela glared at Meiduo, then shouted, “Meiduo, how could you ask our distinguished guest for repayment!? Hurry up and apologize!”
Meiduo pouted and pulled a face at Changbagela. “I’m not asking for anything too much!” As she said that, she turned to Zhou Qin and smiled. “I just have a few questions for you. Answer me, and it will be regarded as you have repaid us!”
When Changbagela heard this, he relaxed and only pretended to be angry. He glared at Meiduo and cursed with a smile, “When will you be able to represent all of us, hm?”
Meiduo didn’t seem to hear Changbagela’s words. She just looked at Zhou Qin, her eyes full of expectation, and asked, “Can I?”
Zhou Qin looked at this Tibetan girl. She could see that her eyes were so pure that there were no flaws in them, and she could practically see to their depths at a glance.
Zhou Qin took this in and thought to herself, “She’s really a lovely girl. No wonder Master mentioned her to me several times when he came back.”
Zhou Qin replied with a smile, “Of course, you can ask.”
Meiduo was delighted and said, “Then I’ll ask my first question. What’s your name? Su Chan?”
“No, my name is Zhou Qin, but I know the girl called Su Chan,” Zhou Qin said, shaking her head.
Meiduo immediately asked, “You know Su Chan? Is she Li Yundong’s lover?”
“Yes!” Zhou Qin said with a melancholic sigh.
Meiduo let out a whimper, and her expression was a little complicated. “Can I ask you another question?”
“Okay, but I have something to ask you later,” Zhou Qin said.
Meiduo chuckled. “Okay. Sister Zhou Qin, you can go first.”
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Qin directly asked, “Where are you from? How did my master meet you when he came here? And why have I met you now after coming here?”
When Meiduo heard this, she looked at Changbagela. They knew that there was still a trace of doubt in Zhou Qin’s heart, and they all laughed.
“Han Sister, we all go to Kari Holy Mountain to pay our respects every four years. Last time we went there, we ran into him. You should know that we all use ox-drawn carriages. Whenever we encounter temples, we worship at them, which wastes a lot of time along the way. So, after more than a month, we are coming back from Kari Holy Mountain, on the way to our hometown,” Changbagela smiled and explained.
Zhou Qin suddenly understood everything clearly. She smiled apologetically and said, “I’m sorry. I’m just a little suspicious.”
“It’s okay, if a young and beautiful girl like you isn’t careful, she can easily encounter bad people!” Changbagela said, waving his hand with a hearty smile.
Meiduo broke in, saying, “Han Sister, can you answer my question now?”
“Sure, shoot,” Zhou Qin said.
“What would you think of me going to the university Li Yundong goes to? Would I be able to attend it?”
Hearing this, Zhou Qin’s heart was filled with mixed feelings. “Li Yundong, you are really popular with girls! You make others fall in love with you wherever you go. It doesn’t matter that you hurt my feelings, but you’ve actually made such an innocent and lovely Tibetan girl falls in love with you!” she thought bitterly.
The corners of Zhou Qin’s mouth twitched into a pained smile. For a moment, she didn’t know how to answer the innocent girl in front of her.
Just as she was hesitating over her response, a tinkling sound came from the wind and snow around them. It sounded like a camel’s bell, or like the sound of Tibetans turning scriptures.
When Changbagela and Meiduo heard this voice, they were both stunned, and then they turned their heads in unison to look into the wind and snow.
A squad slowly walked out of the flurry. This squad roughly consisted of ten people, each riding a yak or two-humped camel.
“A two-humped camel? Aren’t they only found near Lhasa? Why would anyone ride one of those here?” Meiduo asked.
After having a careful look at this squad, Changbagela could that all the people were wearing red-bottomed, yellow Buddhist clothing, and the man sitting on the camel was wearing a long, yellow-feathered monk’s hat on his head.
“Ah,” he exclaimed, “is this a Buddhist squad? Why are they out here?”
At this time, Meiduo also recognized that the young head monk of the squad was Dorjee Tenzin, a man she knew. She couldn’t help waving her arm and calling loudly, “It’s me, Meiduo!”
When Dorjee Tenzin saw Meiduo, he was very surprised. He turned back and spoke with the elder monk behind him for a while, then pushed the yak‘s head and slowly headed over to Meiduo.
After Dorjee Tenzin had gotten closer, Meiduo asked with a smile, “Dorjee Tenzin, why have you come out in such heavy wind and snow?”
“Banchan Buddha said that Lakşmī has come to the world and asked us to come out to look for her!” Dorjee Tenzin said, looking at Zhou Qin curiously.
