Chapter 13 Second Dark Echo (5)

She said, I like the legends of those wandering ascetics in the Himalayas.They trekked on a mountain of more than 6,000 meters, and it is said that they only ate one meal a day.He only carries a blanket, a cane, a tiger skin and a water bottle with him, and walks barefoot. It was getting dark quickly, and it was already night in a blink of an eye.They go to a restaurant for dinner.There was a table of young Japanese men and a beautiful girl sitting in a corner, eating simple food and talking in Japanese in a low voice.The lighting in the room was dim.A European man with a suitcase on his back came over to greet her and told her warmly in English that he had seen her in the square outside the Jokhang Temple.She smiled and answered him coldly and relaxed.He saw that she barely spoke to any strangers.

Late at night she heard him tossing and turning on the bed, making noises.She sat up and asked him if he was not feeling well? He said that he felt a little fever, his body was dry and hot, he had a headache, he had trouble breathing, and he couldn't fall asleep.She got out of bed, walked to him, stroked his forehead, it was really hot.She said that maybe she was tired, so she had some reactions.She handed him pills and water, and said that some medicine would help.Don't hold your breath here. He swallowed the pill and said, I want to go downstairs and wash my face. They went downstairs.The washstand in the patio needed a pump to draw water, so she helped him press out the water and watched him wash his face and wet his hair with the cool well water.There are sleepy residents in the corridor, getting up to go to the public bathroom.The door of the room was squeaked by the wind.She said we could sit in the hallway for a while.You'll feel worse if the room is stuffy and dry.

This is the last night in Lhasa before departure.It's past one o'clock in the morning.The strong wind in the mountains was blowing violently.In the dark blue sky, large groups of clouds have been blown away, showing a thousand and clean luster.A yellow moon is round and silent.The night was too good to be real.Large clusters of bright red dahlias bloomed in the moonlit courtyard.The message paper on the poster wall made a noisy sound in the wind, and it was still a pile of complicated invitations, emails and mobile phone numbers.No reply. They sat on wooden chairs in the hallway.She took out a cigarette and lit one for herself.Lean against the wall and watch the dahlias in the yard blown by the wind.She was wearing a white shirt and a pair of clogs with bare feet.

She said, is this your first time traveling? I see that your travel bag and windbreaker are new. He said that when he was working, he had been to most places on the earth.Being a trapeze is a professional requirement.Sometimes in the western hemisphere in the morning, I will go to the eastern hemisphere in the evening.There are also vacations.Blue beaches in the Maldives, high-end hotels in Koh Samui, or sitting in a cafe in Paris for half a day...you know, that's all.I don't know the specific concept of travel.There are things I've only been doing until now: Quit my job, pack my bags, grab a self-help travel book and hit the road.Travel to a desolate highland city that knows nothing.

Do you travel a lot? he said. Only about two or three months a year to go out.I live in the city most of the time.People who have lived in the city for many years will become dependent urban animals, who need the rich functions provided by the city to construct their life, so that life can go smoothly under the familiar appearance and go along with the flow.But I'm used to keeping my distance from it. Reclusive? yes.Almost shut out.Shop online, chat with people, download books, music and movies.Rarely meet others on a date.In the dead of night, if you go out for a walk, you will smell the smell of winter leaves and the river.And the smell of aging and loneliness that emanates from human skin and hair...

In Beijing, there was a period when she couldn't sleep all night even though she was taking medicine.She has always hoped that there will be a 24-hour bookstore, coffee shop or billiard shop in the city.In this way, at one or two o'clock in the morning, you can also go out of the house, look for a place with bright lights, buy coffee, read a book, or find someone to chat with.At dawn, they went their separate ways.In a room without any sound, a life of insomnia without contrast, as if in a grave.While walking, she used a digital camera to take pictures of tall buildings standing like jungles in the dark night of the city.

I have no friends, no lovers, no matter where I live.I like rough cities with a sense of desolation.Lhasa's sense of desolation comes from its unique landform.The sense of desolation in Beijing comes from the strangers gathered in it.I'm used to living in the city, enjoying it without being immersed in its life.It is also safe to be able to hide in a city where there is no one to talk to. You have to get used to your body moving with physical space while traveling.The consciousness and scenes flowing in my heart, and I feel its introverted thinking... I often get up before dawn and rush on my way.Between the vast sky and the earth, the starlight is dim, the fog is humid, people still feel shivering, but they have to go to the next road.

That winter.Arrive in Dali, Yunnan at 5 am.Walking in the ancient alleyway, carrying luggage, the cold wind howling, no one around, only the tall gray outline of the Cangshan Mountains can be seen faintly.Finally, I found a small restaurant that was open, with red lanterns hanging from the door curtain.A middle-aged man is kneading dough in the house, and there is steaming mung bean porridge and soy milk in a big pot.Sat down and asked for hot food.Numb all over from the cold, he put his fingers on the large porcelain bowl that quickly cooled after being scalded.The vast morning fog that has not yet cleared outside the door.The sky is getting brighter little by little.Slowly, big dogs began to come in.At the beginning, young children who got up early and went to school ran past the door.The streets began to regain their sounds, figures, and colors... at that time.Sitting alone in a small restaurant, taking notes while smoking a cigarette, I saw the loneliness of this world.This is a moment of true peace of mind.Not part of the hustle and bustle of the crowd and the day.It's something that can only happen while traveling.

I'm not always traveling, she said.The journey breaks the pattern of one's life.A person who travels frequently, without order and principles, likes the new and dislikes the old, full of insecurity, and changes directions at any time.It seems both persistent and too ruthless.I just think that breaking out of a city may break the inertia.Man acquires too many taboos in habit.this is not good. She pulled a cigarette out of the pack again.Turning his face sideways, he took out the lighter and lit it.A head of long black hair covered her face, and the firelight illuminated her drooping eyebrows and slender single-lidded eyes.Her face was like a clean and flat moon.She is a combination of a patient and a practitioner. She focuses on the two extremes of the deep heart and the open world of all things, completely filtering out the complicated parts of the world in the middle.Just like in mythology, Tibetans think that they are the offspring of the combination of forest macaques and Rock Raksha women.

She does not belong to any ordinary woman.He knew he could go on the road with her.A woman who has been wandering on the plateau for many years waiting to die silently.A weary man ending his old life and ready to go.The world between them is completely closed, but this is the basis of their alliance with each other.