However, Gyatso couldn't take it anymore. The ground was covered with snow and thin ice that never melted. Walking was extremely difficult, and his strength was being depleted very quickly. Keeping up with Zhuang Rui's pace was already exhausting for Gyatso.
Furthermore, the temperature here has plummeted. Even though he was wearing a military overcoat, Gyatso's lips were still trembling from the cold. He couldn't understand why Zhuang Rui wasn't afraid of the cold at all, since he didn't have the thick fur of a white lion.
"Alright, let's rest for a bit, Brother Gyatso. We'll walk for another two hours, then we'll find a place to camp..."
Zhuang Rui looked at Jiacuo, who was panting heavily and had a flushed face, and stopped in his tracks. To be honest, if Jiacuo hadn't been with him, Zhuang Rui would have already climbed halfway up the mountain.
Looking up at the clear blue sky, the snow-capped mountain peaks, shrouded in pristine white snow, resembled a circle of magnificent white fox fur. Turning back to the foot of the mountain, the vast Tibetan settlement appeared much smaller.
Between the snow-capped mountains and grasslands, low-lying locust trees and wild willows grow in abundance, and further afield, there are alpine grasslands covered with wildflowers, as beautiful as a Tibetan carpet.
Beneath the barren, desolate landscape, lies a vibrant life force irrigated by glacial meltwater. Everything appears so pure and primal, a harmonious blend of desolation and vitality, a magical and grand fusion.
If it weren't for the household waste left behind by our predecessors and buried under the snow, this place would seem as if no one had ever set foot here since time immemorial.
Standing in this forbidden zone of life, Zhuang Rui felt that whether it was humans or other creatures, they all seemed so insignificant. Looking back, the ground was covered with a blinding white expanse of snow, as if the whole world consisted of only this one monotonous and cold color.
Even in the height of summer, this place, at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters, is not hot at all, but damp and bitterly cold. However, the air, free from industrial exhaust and chimney pollution, feels very comfortable when inhaled.
Zhuang Rui, who initially thought wearing sunglasses was unnecessary, had long since put glasses on the bridge of his nose, because without glasses, even with the protection of spiritual energy, his eyes would still feel sore and painful from the strong ultraviolet rays.
"Xiao Zhuang, I think we should just camp here. It's getting dark..."
Upon hearing that Zhuang Rui wanted to walk for another two hours, Jiacuo's face, which looked like that of someone in their thirties but in their fifties, suddenly turned ashen. Jiacuo could guarantee that even Zhuang Rui, the best guide on Mount Everest, was a complete novice when it came to physical strength.
"here?"
Zhuang Rui frowned and said, "Brother Jiacuo, let's walk a little further. At our speed, we should be able to catch up with those students in two hours..."
The mountaineering team from Tsinghua University set off at seven o'clock in the morning, a full seven hours earlier than Zhuang Rui and his group. However, Zhuang Rui was confident that with his speed, he could definitely catch up with them.
"Okay, I'll eat something first..."
Gyatso looked around and saw that the place where he and Zhuang Rui were located was in a windy spot, not suitable for setting up camp. After sitting down, he took out some chocolate and started eating. At this time, it was very necessary to replenish the body's energy.
Zhuang Rui also took out some dried meat and chewed a few bites. Then, he enthusiastically took out a DV camera with the white lion and started filming the mountain scenery. Jiacuo shook his head as he watched. If Zhuang Rui were to climb Mount Everest, he would definitely break the record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest.
"Huh? What's that sound?"
Suddenly, Zhuang Rui heard a clear chirping sound. Looking up, he saw a large eagle soaring in the sky above, its claws seemingly gripping something.
"Holy crap, that's a golden eagle..."
Zhuang Rui took out his binoculars and chased after the figure in the sky. On the golden eagle's talons, which had a wingspan of several meters, was actually a jackal.
Zhuang Rui could clearly see that the jackal's head had several bloody, deep holes, presumably made by the golden eagle's claws.
"I haven't seen a golden eagle for years, I never expected to see one here..."
Sitting next to him, Gyatso also looked up, gazing longingly at the giant eagle. In Tibet, there are skilled eagle trainers who can train golden eagles to be the best partners of hunters, whose role is even greater than that of Tibetan mastiffs.
Gyatso once raised a golden eagle while herding livestock on the grasslands. One winter, the golden eagle caught more than 30 grassland wolves, which made Gyatso very envious.
“Let’s go. A golden eagle has appeared here. Maybe its nest is up in the mountains. Hey, Brother Zhuang, if we could get our hands on a baby eagle, that would be wonderful…”
Upon seeing the suddenly appearing golden eagle, Gyatso became excited, which made Zhuang Rui both amused and exasperated. Even if there was a golden eagle's nest, there might not be any baby eagles. Furthermore, even if there were baby eagles, who would dare to steal them from under the golden eagle's nose?
However, Zhuang Rui was also very interested in the golden eagle. If he were to raise another golden eagle, wouldn't he be like the ancients, leading a yellow dog on the left and holding a falcon on the right, gazing northwest and shooting at the heavenly wolf? How heroic that would be!
Surprisingly, with this newfound motivation, Gyatso's speed increased considerably. As the sun painted the snow-capped mountains golden and the last rays of sunlight were about to disappear, Zhuang Rui and Gyatso heard a voice from ahead.
"Is this Zhu Wei? This is Zhuang Rui..."
When they were still twenty or thirty meters away from the figures ahead, Zhuang Rui shouted loudly and turned on his powerful flashlight, because the sun had already completely set behind one end of the snow-capped mountain.
"What happened? What's wrong with Zhao Jun?"
Upon approaching, Zhuang Rui discovered that the hot-blooded young man named Zhao Jun was lying on a thick tent, his pants stained with blood, while Zhu Wei and the others looked dazed and somewhat at a loss.
"Say something? Are you stupid?"
Zhuang Rui shouted loudly, startling the group of guys who had been staring blankly into consciousness.
"Brother Zhuang, Brother Zhuang, please save us, please save Zhao Jun..."
To Zhuang Rui's dismay, these guys were so fragile they were almost in tears. Even the most composed Zhu Wei had red eyes, looking at Zhuang Rui as if he were a family member.
"Have a drink first, Brother Jiacuo, and then take a look at Zhao Jun's injuries..."
Seeing that the group was quite agitated, Zhuang Rui took out a bag of barley wine, handed it to Zhu Wei, and said, "Don't rush, tell me slowly, what exactly happened to you?"
Chapter 742 Snow Mountain (3)
Zhu Wei had never realized that this sour and bitter barley wine could taste so delicious at this moment.
Zhuang Rui's bag of barley wine, which weighed a full two jin (approximately 1 kg), was gulped down by this guy, leaving only a small portion remaining.
"Hey, I said, give them some..."
Zhuang Rui snatched the wine bag and handed it to the other two men, who stared at Zhu Wei as he licked his lips, looking utterly miserable.
The British lad, who originally had a bit of a Beckham look, now looked pale and had purple lips, resembling one of Britain's oldest aristocrats (vampires). If he were cast as a vampire in a Hollywood blockbuster, he wouldn't need any more makeup.
Seeing that Zhu Wei had regained consciousness, Zhuang Rui asked, "Tell me, what exactly happened? What man-eating leopard...?"
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, a flicker of fear crossed Zhu Wei's eyes. He said, "What a huge leopard! It pounced out of the snow and instantly tackled Zhao Jun. If David hadn't reacted quickly, Zhao Jun's neck would probably have been bitten off..."
"Oh no, it wasn't my doing, it was it, Lord, it was it that drove away that white animal..."
David, the British foreigner standing nearby, quickly explained when Zhu Wei mentioned him, pointing at the white lion.
Perhaps due to his excessive excitement, David was unable to fully express himself in Chinese, and his speech was interspersed with English, leaving Zhuang Rui feeling dizzy and disoriented.
"As far as I'm concerned, the white lion has always been with me; it couldn't have been it that drove me away..."
Zhuang Rui quickly stopped the two of them. The white lion had never left his sight the whole way and could not possibly be the savior David had described.
"That was a lion, not a leopard..."
At this point, Wei Zheng also recovered and joined in the story. The three of them got more and more confused as they talked, and almost came up with three different versions. Some said it was a leopard, and some said it was a lion. It took Zhuang Rui more than ten minutes to figure out the reason for the incident.
It turned out that after these people started climbing, the journey was very uneventful. Zhu Wei, as the leader of this mountaineering team, had some experience and persevered to his current height. When he saw a small lake nearby and the terrain was flat, he decided to camp there.
Just as they were using small shovels to break up the ice and prepare to set up their tents, a leopard about 1.5 meters long, with grayish-white fur covered in black spots, suddenly leaped out of the snow and pounced on Zhao Jun.
When the leopard's sharp claws caught Zhao Jun, they tore open his mountaineering clothes. Panicked, Zhao Jun was powerless to resist the leopard's attack. Just as the leopard was about to bite his throat, a low growl reached everyone's ears.
With that ear-splitting growl, the white lion pounced down from the mountain. (Well, the only thing the three of them agreed on was that the animal that pounced was a white lion. Zhuang Rui didn't argue either; there's no point in arguing with someone who's not thinking clearly.) What followed was the story of the heroic white lion rescuing injured students and foreign friends. In the end, the white lion bravely drove away the leopard or perhaps the lion.
Zhu Wei and the others were stunned by Zhao Jun's bleeding thigh. They had long forgotten the first aid they had learned when they were in the mountaineering team.
"Hey buddy, do you know how to create clones?"
Zhuang Rui smiled and patted the white lion's head, then suddenly a thought struck him. Didn't the Tibetan villagers say they had seen a snow mastiff in the mountains? Could it be...?
The white lion seemed to have smelled something and appeared somewhat restless, its eyes fixed on the mountaintop and its throat constantly emitting low growls.
Animals are very sensitive to their own kind or creatures that pose a threat to them. The white lion's actions must be related to the two fighting beasts.
"Don't worry, as long as it's on the mountain, we'll find it..."
Zhuang Rui reassured the white lion, knowing he dared not let it go up the mountain alone. He knew that although the white lion was brave, the beasts on the snowy mountain were not to be trifled with, and Zhuang Rui was unwilling to let them fight to the death.
"Brother Jiacuo, how is Zhao Jun's injury?"
Holding the agitated white lion by the neck, Zhuang Rui squatted down.
"Thankfully, no bones were broken. By the way, why didn't you guys give him any medicine?"
Jiacuo had already given Zhao Jun's wound some basic treatment, cleaning it with Yunnan Baiyao spray and then bandaging it tightly with gauze.
"I...we lost our backpacks, and we were just about to go look for them when you arrived..."
Whether it was out of embarrassment or from drinking too much, Captain Zhu Wei's face was flushed. In fact, the rest of them were terrified and didn't immediately run down the mountain, which was already a sign of their friendship.
It was now completely dark, and the bright moonlight shone on the snow. The surrounding area was clearly visible for dozens of meters. Zhuang Rui looked around and saw that the mountaineering equipment that the group had abandoned was scattered all over the snow.
"Zhu Wei, find your things first, then make something to eat..."
Seeing that Zhu Wei and the others had recovered, Zhuang Rui began to give instructions.
Of the group, Wei Zheng was the most timid. While Zhu Wei and David were already making their move, he shrank back, looked at the dark night in the distance, and stammered, "Brother Zhuang... Brother Zhuang, what if that leopard... comes again?"
"Damn, with that kind of guts, you want to do adventure mountaineering?"
Zhuang Rui cursed inwardly, then said, "It's alright, with the white lion here, we don't need to be afraid even if a tiger comes..."
Wei Zheng looked at the white lion's enormous size, finally nodded, and began to tidy up the things he had just thrown away.
"Xiao Zhuang, we can't stay on the mountain anymore. If the wound gets infected at night, it could be fatal..."
Shocked and frightened, Zhao Jun had fallen into a deep sleep. However, Jiacuo's face was full of seriousness. His mountaineering experience was far beyond what Zhu Wei and the other young men could match. Being injured on the plateau was tantamount to losing half of one's life.
"What should we do? Brother Jiacuo, it's very dangerous to go down the mountain at night..."
Zhuang Rui was stunned for a moment. On the way up the mountain, there were several steep slopes that required the use of a climbing axe to climb.
Although it's snowy, beneath the thin layer of blood lies solid ice that has never melted. If you're not careful tonight, you could easily slip and fall, ending up with a bloody head.
Zhuang Rui originally planned to stay on the mountain overnight and let the others come down the next day. Of course, he himself would not leave, because the purpose of this trip had not yet been achieved.
"Let's eat something and rest first. Lives are at stake, we have to get down the mountain no matter how difficult it is..."
Gyatso glanced at Zhao Jun, whose breathing was rapid even in his sleep, and made up his mind. There were too many uncertainties on the mountain. If the boy's wound became infected and caused inflammation, he might die within a few hours.
"Okay, I'll go boil some water for them..."
Zhuang Rui nodded and walked to Zhu Wei and the others.
They used a specially made alcohol stove, and a small stainless steel pot could be hung on the stove. At this moment, the group remembered the wilderness survival skills they had learned before and knew how to use snow water to boil water.
The melting point of the fire on the mountain is very low, and the temperature is not high enough. A pot of water was boiled for more than half an hour without boiling. Zhuang Rui put the frozen and hard dried meat in. After nearly an hour, when everyone was starving, the meat was finally cooked and softened a little.
"Brother Zhuang... thank you for saving me..."
Zhao Jun, who was injured, also woke up, but the spirited look on his face when he first met Zhuang Rui was gone.
Zhao Jun knew that if Zhuang Rui and Jiacuo hadn't arrived in time, with only the half-baked first aid knowledge of Zhu Wei and his classmates, he might have lost his life on this beautiful plateau snow mountain.
"No need to say so much, just rest well. After you finish eating, Brother Gyatso will take you down the mountain..."
Zhuang Rui waved his hand, swallowed the half-cooked dried meat with great difficulty, then mixed it with lukewarm water and barley flour, kneaded it into a ball, and handed it to Zhao Jun, who was lying on the tent.
"This...this..."