Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 400 He in the Snow Mountain
It was an oil painting of the young man, hanging behind the post office counter.

The young man in the painting is wearing a lama's robe on his upper body and a Tibetan robe on his lower body. He is standing in the mountains, looking to the side at the golden and silvery mountains under the setting sun in the distance. Behind him, you can see the peaks of Mount Karrenci.

The painting uses very bold colors, and the scenery and people blend together very naturally. The afterglow of the setting sun renders the overall tone of the painting desolate and lonely.

The snow-covered mountains seemed to be draped in a soft golden veil, and the boundary between snow and daytime turned from white to a tranquil gray-yellow.

However, compared to its remarkable coloring, its painting technique appears particularly clumsy, like a beginner copying a master's work. In what could have been an excellent oil painting, this becomes a glaring flaw.

Even so, this painting still gives people a unique strength. The young man's otherworldly temperament is rare in the world, especially his eyes. He dares to say that there is no one in the world who has the same eyes as the young man.

The fat man once said that it was a look that was detached from everything in the world, and few people in the world could live to the point of being detached from the world.

Judging from the degree of paint peeling and the color of the frame, this painting has been hanging here for a long time since it was completed.

The wall was painted a grassy green, like the paint on an old classroom. Around it were many eulogies and calligraphy, such as "A Bright Future" and "Honesty in Returning Lost Property." On one side of the wall hung a cross-stitch of "Eight Horses."

This made the young man's oil painting hang there without appearing out of place, yet it was immediately noticeable, which was clearly intentional on the part of the lama.

And coincidentally, just today, right before Zhang Wuxun was about to find this place, the painting was moved here.

Zhang Wuxun kept staring at the painting without looking away. The middle-aged Tibetan man at the door, seeing how engrossed he was in the painting, brought over two bowls of oily milk tea, gave him one, and said with some pride, "Isn't this painting beautiful? Last time, someone who knew its value offered 50,000 yuan to buy this painting, but I didn't sell it."

Zhang Wuxun smiled enigmatically, "This painting isn't yours."

"Huh?" The middle-aged Tibetan, who had only been joking, was somewhat surprised to hear this. "How did you figure that out?"

"Were you clearing the snow off that sign outside just now?" Zhang Wuxun suddenly changed the subject.

The middle-aged Tibetan man paused for a moment, then said, “Oh right, when the master came in this morning, he said that the snow and frost from last night had covered the sign, so I went out and swept it up.”

Zhang Wuxun seemed to be deep in thought as he swept the snow, seemingly trying to make him see the post office, meaning that Lama Deren knew he would be here today.

That's quite a coincidence.

He asked, "Where is the person who copied this painting now? I'd like to talk to him."

The middle-aged Tibetan man didn't quite understand what he meant by "copying," but he still lifted the curtain and shouted towards the boiler room across from the post office, "Chen Xuehan! Someone is looking for you."

The boiler room door was half-open, and hot water was supplied to nearby residents. It cost three cents a pot, so it was warm there and many people gathered there.

Zhang Wuxun glanced over but couldn't tell which one Chen Xuehan was. Most of the people were dressed similarly and had typical Tibetan faces. Hearing the shouts, they all looked up curiously in this direction.

The middle-aged Tibetan shouted again and waved in that direction. A dark-skinned man standing up from the crowd, wearing old work clothes covered in coal dust, picked up the gold-embroidered hat that was on his knees and put it on his head, then walked over.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that although the person's skin was somewhat roughened by the cold wind characteristic of the plateau, he was actually younger than Zhang Wuxun had imagined, but he was still dressed in a suit.

However, his eyes looked somewhat unusual; they were very calm, almost devoid of any sparkle, the kind of calm that comes from someone who is used to being content with the status quo, living a routine life without any waves or disturbances.

Chen Xuehan walked over, not paying much attention to Zhang Wuxun. He simply took the cigarette offered to him by the middle-aged Tibetan man, put it in his mouth, lit it, and then asked, "What is it?"

"This guest is looking for you." The middle-aged Tibetan also offered Zhang Wuxun a cigarette, which Zhang Wuxun took and tucked behind his ear.

"Master Deren was very polite to this guest," the middle-aged Tibetan remarked, for reasons unknown.

Upon hearing the name "Deren," Chen Xuehan turned her attention to Zhang Wuxun. She looked at his face, then, as if remembering something, suddenly spoke, asking him tentatively, "Are you going up the mountain again?"

again?
Zhang Wuxun raised an eyebrow. "Have you seen me before?"

Chen Xuehan stared at his face for a moment, then let out a soft "Eh," and this time changed her tone, "You're going up the mountain too?"

Zhang Wuxun pressed further, "Why did you say 'again'?"

“I met someone who looked a lot like you before, about ten years ago, but I could tell you weren’t him,” Chen Xuehan said.

Ten years ago, that was Zhang Haike.

Zhang Wuxun said directly, "I want this painting."

"No way." Chen Xuehan refused without even thinking. "The Grand Lama said there is another person who is destined to be with us."

Zhang Wuxun suddenly felt that this person spoke in a mysterious way, and had a talent for taking over Deren's team, or perhaps Deren told him this and he just copied it verbatim.

Is the other destined person Wu Xie?
"Alright, then take me up the mountain." Zhang Wuxun said this casually, taking out three bills from his pocket and handing them to him.

A slight smile finally appeared on Chen Xuehan's blank face. She took the money, said "Wait," and turned to walk towards the boiler room.

When he came out of the backyard, he had changed into a clean sheepskin Tibetan robe and then led a sturdy wolfhound on a chain out of a small shack hidden by a wall.

Zhang Wuxun was greatly surprised. That was, "a crescent moon?"

When he came back last time, he heard Aning call him that.

The wolf-like creature had a curved white fur area on its chest, similar to that on a bear, resembling a crescent moon.

This time it was Chen Xuehan's turn to be surprised. "You recognize this dog? Do you know where its owner went?"

"Don't you know where its owner went? Why is that dog here with you?"

Zhang Wuxun narrowed his eyes. He was certain that this wolfhound was the same one that had attacked him last time. Even without looking at the crescent-shaped white fur, he could recognize it just from the dog's usual arrogant and fierce demeanor, as if it would pounce on anyone it didn't like and hiss at them intimidatingly.

Chen Xuehan took good care of the dog; its fur was still glossy and smooth, its nose was wet, and it had grown quite a bit bigger. It was also wearing an old robe that had been cut and sewn back together to keep it warm.

Zhang Wuxun walked over, bent down, and stroked Langqing's back. After discovering that his hand was covered in black ash, he silently moved his hand to the dog's head.

At first, Crescent Moon bared its teeth, its nose nudging Zhang Wuxun's palm as if to push him away, but then, as if it had caught a whiff of something, it suddenly became docile.

Chen Xuehan was slightly surprised, then said, "The dog's owner came to see me once, saying she wanted to go to the Lama Temple. I took her there once, and then we went down the mountain together." "But about half a month ago, for some reason, this dog suddenly ran to the front of my boiler room and scratched at the door. That night, the wind and snow were quite strong, and the paw prints disappeared when the wind blew. I came out and didn't see anything. After that, I didn't see its owner come to pick it up, so I had to keep it in the house." Chen Xuehan said.

Seeing Zhang Wuxun still petting the dog's head, Chen Xuehan felt a little jealous. "This dog is usually very fierce and has a bad temper. I've been feeding it for so long, and it has never given me a kind look. I had to use a leg of lamb to trick it into putting on this chain. Otherwise, it would have been caught and turned into dog meat soup in no time."

He was about to take the opportunity to play a round, but Crescent Moon dodged him precisely.

Chen Xuehan felt a little embarrassed and handed the leash to Zhang Wuxun. "The dog seems to know you quite well. It looks like you're a friend of its owner. Take it with you."

Zhang Wuxun glanced at him and thought to himself, "This guy looks so aloof, why is he talking so much?"

It seems that he is not uninterested in the things around him, but rather that nothing has come that interests him, which is why he has gradually become more indifferent.

"The owner of Crescent Moon has been searching for a Lama temple in this area. Are you doing the same?" Chen Xuehan asked.

Zhang Wuxun nodded slightly, then turned around with the dog to look at the painting.

Standing before the painting, in Chen Xuehan's eyes, this somewhat strange man exuded an aura of indifference and tranquility.

Chen Xuehan sensed from their conversation that the other party seemed to be just going through the motions, as if nothing was worth taking seriously. Although they exchanged a few words, the other party's gaze was extremely cold.

It looks just like the layer of crystal-clear, cold frost covering the golden-scaled tiles on the eaves of the Jila Temple in winter. When the sun shines on it, it turns into a hazy mist, with tiny water droplets reflecting the sunlight, obscuring the tiles below and making it impossible to see through them.

The fog will only evaporate when the sunlight becomes stronger over time.

Chen Xuehan always felt that such a threatening gaze shouldn't appear on such a fair and relaxed face; it made him feel a little awkward, so he unconsciously offered more explanations.

But when the man turned to look at the painting on the wall, the aura in his eyes softened considerably.

"Do you know the person in this painting?" Chen Xuehan walked over and asked, "What's your relationship with him?"

“Both family and friends,” Zhang Wuxun said.

Chen Xuehan said "Oh," realizing it was a relative. No wonder this person's temperament was somewhat similar to the person in the painting, except for being exceptionally cold.

Unlike the one from ten years ago, who, though seemingly nonchalant, didn't create a strong sense of distance.

However, Chen Xuehan felt that the person in front of her seemed more real.

Chen Xuehan was a reconnaissance soldier in her early years, and she was particularly sensitive to the aura that a person inadvertently revealed. Although the face was almost the same, she always felt that the person from ten years ago was a bit fake.

“Are you here to find him? Then you probably won’t find much. I painted this picture twenty years ago. You’re going up the mountain to find the lamas there, right? They should know more details. I copied this painting at the lama temple,” Chen Xuehan said.

Zhang Wuxun then spared a glance for him, "Could you explain in detail?"

Chen Xuehan nodded. He had been very curious about the people in the painting, and he was also somewhat curious about the second of the three destined people who would come to find the painting ten years later, as the high lama had mentioned.

"The person in the painting should be a guest of honor at the Lama Temple. I have never met this person in person. That winter, the mountains were blocked by heavy snow. I stayed in the temple for a long time. He arrived later than me and also stayed for a long time, but we stayed in different places."

The young man in the painting suddenly appeared at the temple gate on a day when the mountains were blocked by heavy snow, as if he had appeared out of thin air from the white snow on Mount Karrenci.

The young man lived next to Lama Deren's meditation room. That area was where all the high lamas lived, and ordinary guests were not allowed to go there unless absolutely necessary.

Chen Xuehan saw the oil painting by chance in Lama Deren's house when she went to say goodbye to the Grand Lama after the snow had melted.

The special guest had already left long before the snow melted, just three days after the original oil painting was created.

Strangely enough, at that time, Lama Deren insisted that he make a copy of that painting.

"Why?" Zhang Wu asked.

Chen Xuehan shook her head. "I didn't ask. The lama can see cause and effect. He asked me to draw, so I drew. There's no reason why. He can see everything after this painting, but I can't."

“However, Lama Deren said something at the time, saying, ‘All causes arise from this, and all reasons arise from this.’ I couldn’t understand the meaning at the time, so I went to ask my guru. But my guru didn’t answer me. He only said that this painting would meet three people with affinity.”

"Ten years ago, that person came looking for a guide to go up the snow mountain. He saw this painting by chance, and his reaction was similar to yours. He also asked about the origin of the painting, so I took him there."

"Ten years later, when we meet today, I know it's you."

Zhang Wuxun thought to himself, "What nonsense is this guy spouting? He's acting so mysterious and profound. He was clearly ignoring me at first, and only started to look at me properly when he heard the words 'Master Deren'."

Is our guy's fate only worth 300 yuan?
“Take me up the mountain,” Zhang Wuxun said readily.

He was now certain that either Aning had sensed danger and gone into hiding, or she had been placed under house arrest. The second possibility was more likely, otherwise she wouldn't have released Crescent Moon to deliver the message.

"Okay." Chen Xuehan said no more.

The two people and the dog walked through the snowflakes to the bottom of the snow-covered mountain steps.

Looking up, the steps here are very steep, almost vertical, and covered with snow, with only a narrow path cleared in the middle for one person to walk on.

The stone steps weren't very smooth; they were just pieces of large and small stones that could be found anywhere on the mountain. You could feel a slight wobbling when you stepped on them, but not enough to make you fall.

Crescent Moon is a little afraid of heights. After walking a dozen meters, it started to resist. Its tail, which was originally swaying gently, drooped and became taut. Its head rubbed tightly against Zhang Wuxun's leg, and it would occasionally bite Zhang Wuxun's trouser leg, trying to stop him from going any further.

Zhang Wuxun had to climb the mountain while also avoiding accidentally kicking Crescent Moon's dog head, making the journey somewhat difficult.

He stopped helplessly, squatted down on the stone steps, and stroked Crescent Moon soothingly. He asked Chen Xuehan, "How did its owner take it away last time?"

Chen Xuehan was a little gloating, "Its owner never took it up the mountain."

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(End of this chapter)