The Lost Tomb : Tibetan Sea Flower

Chapter 37: The King of Enumeration

Then Fatty took a piece of paper from the table and picked up a pen to start writing. Judging from his appearance, he used his signature enumeration method [1].

Fatty said, "First of all, we have to know where these people went. This is a closed temple, halfway up the mountain, with snow-capped mountains in the back and the only road up the mountain in front. The whole temple is also very large."

Fatty drew the shape of the temple and asked me if it was accurate. I helped him fix several details.

Fatty added: "First things first, I'm sure they didn't go down the mountain, unless they all jumped or rolled directly, but I don't think they're that stupid. Second, they took all their equipment. Assuming that I wanted to give you a scare or cause my sudden disappearance, I wouldn't use this method. Instead, I would light all the lamps and candles and keep them on as if we were still talking. But all the equipment was taken away and now the lights are all off, which means they didn't want to confuse you. They don't mind people thinking they left spontaneously, do they?"

I nodded.

Fatty added: "Since this is the case, they can't go down the mountain from the front, and if you don't think they'd enter the snowy mountain, then they must have chosen a road we don't know about."

In reality, such reasoning was completely valid.

I continued to nod.

Fatty drew a big circle on the paper outside the design of the lama temple: "This lama temple must have an unknown mystery. It's at the border between the inner and outer world, an inherently strange position that's probably not as simple as we think. The lama temple may be a station designed by these inner people, so maybe there are some back channels or hidden rooms."

When I thought about it, I felt it made a little sense.

The structure of this temple was extremely complex, and there were so many rooms that even the people living in the temple only moved in this area and had never been to many other places. Moreover, this temple had a sense of design and wasn't built naturally on the mountain. That is to say, the feng shui here was more or less textually researched.

I studied architecture, and always had this feeling. But this was a lama temple, after all, and it wasn't covered in my studies so I didn't dare say as much.

Fatty added: "Next, we'll see if we can find the secret tunnel by tracing those people's actions just now."

Fatty ticked off the big lama's room on the map, and then ticked off the rooms of the Zhang Haike siblings and the Germans, as well as the places where several other people lived.

"Look, they're going back to get their equipment," Fatty drew a line and pointed to the route. "The other lamas live here and here. I don't know if their stuff is still there, but we can have a look. If their equipment is gone, it means that they returned to their rooms before. That is to say, if they discussed their problems with the Germans, went back to pack up their things and leave so quickly, they couldn't all be mobilized so soon. In other words, the tunnel through which they left here must be within this activity area, and everyone could catch up. We can do an experiment to see how long it takes to run back and forth from these places and then compare that against the time we were trapped. In this way, we can probably find out the route those people took."

I looked at Fatty and told myself that his thought process was very clear. I don't know how many times I've praised his method of thinking before, but after resting for such a long time, it seemed that his mind was even clearer.

But Fatty said the word trap, which made my heart thump.

I looked at the lama who lay on the ground and wondered if this was the case. I said to Fatty, "This lama was shooting at us with a pistol, and then what? He didn't kill us, but delayed us for a long time. Could it be because—"