Chapter 81: Scapegoat Again
The Tibetans were just forcing them to offer money, of course these college students were nervous. Su Bai didn’t feel anything… until one of the Tibetans threw the rag onto Lucky.
Well…
He gingerly stretched out his hand and tried to take away the rag, but Lucky meowed in an extremely low voice.
"Meow!"
That was low husky meow with no earthly scent; everyone s.h.i.+vered from deep down their hearts, including Su Bai.
They seemed to be in a trance for a moment, but soon, they were back to themselves and had no idea what had just happened. Those Tibetans paused for a second, but then they just continued to ask for money, pointing to Li Yu and Su Bai.
In fact, such blackmailing used to happen a lot all over the country, robbers would block the way and yell "You’re all in my territory, and you’ll have to pay for your way through!". But nowadays, most developed places were full of surveillance cameras, thus fewer and fewer people would rob anyone in such a simple way.
However, this was an extremely isolated place with little population and only one road. Besides, these Tibetans knew how to disguise; they were just asking to be paid for "cleaning" their cars. Also, the local government would rather leave them be since there were special policies protecting these ethnic groups[1].
Lucky was uncovered; it was still sitting there watching the celestial burial site in the distance, but Su Bai was sure that its eyes flashed with a red light as he took the rag away. He still remembered that when he saw Lucky for the first time, he saw enormous dead bodies and blood everywhere. Besides, Lucky was chosen by Litchi, it must be more than just a pet.
He remembered that feeling; it almost forced him to transform, but luckily, he managed to keep himself under control, otherwise he would have revealed himself as a zombie or a vampire.
Li Yu reached out for his wallet, took out three 100-yuan notes and handed them over. He was calm; he was familiar about paying for trouble to go away, and under such circ.u.mstances, it wasn’t a shame to compromise to these Tibetans. It was an isolated place with few pa.s.sers-by, even if there were any people around, they would all be Tibetans, thus making it a perfect spot for murders and all kinds of crimes. Such feeling was extremely strong when a modern person left the camera-covered cities for an isolated place like this. Anyone would feel uneasy here.
Luckily, these Tibetans were not real savages. They just wanted to get some money and then they would let the travelers leave. After all, they wanted to continue such kind of "business" for as long as possible. If they had gone too far, the government would be forced to deal with them, then they wouldn’t end up well.
When one of them walked to Su Bai, he offered five hundred instead of three.
The man was surprised. Some people would bargain when being blackmailed, and they wouldn’t mind reducing the price a little since they didn’t have any investment to recover, but it was rare to see one offering more than asked.
Li Yu and the others also saw what he did, and they were confused and disdainful. Apparently, they thought Su Bai had freaked out.
But Su Bai knew what he was doing. A few hundred yuan was nothing to him, and it was not even enough for these people to afford a celestial burial.
Having taken the money and said farewell, the Tibetans left without hesitation.
Li Yu and the others were not in the mood for more pictures. Besides, they were afraid that other Tibetans would come as well when they heard there were rich people around.
Su Bai got into the car with Lucky in his arms.
Nikki got in and rolled her eyes towards him: "Su Bai, you don’t have to be so scared. Li Yu had already given them three hundred, they wouldn’t have said anything even if you didn’t take out any money."
Su Bai smiled and didn’t bother to explain.
The BMW moved. Su Bai started his car and followed.
It was still a long way to go and they could not get any rest unless they arrived in Jiuzhaigou Valley as soon as possible. After such a long drive, Su Bai was indeed a little tired.
By the celestial burial site, there was parked a van. It was odd that such a van with a inland license could get here. The government of the Tibet Autonomous Region[2] had issued a Temporary Provisions on Celestial Burials in 2005 forbidding any activities including photography or video recording around any celestial burial sites. Therefore, even though many tourists were interested, none of them could get inside to have a closer look.
An old Lama[3] and a man in black monk robe were sitting on the ground face to face, with two caps of b.u.t.ter tea[4] in front of them. Clearly, the man in black was not interested in the tea while the old Lama was enjoying it.
"Seven, you are still not a fan of b.u.t.ter tea." The old Lama smiled kindly.
"Can’t fall in love with that tea since the first time I got here and saw how it was made. Tastes like cow dung." Seven said bluntly.
"Ha, that’s because you still have some worldliness in your heart. Otherwise, there would be nothing that you can’t let go."
"What’s the point if one have to go against his real heart just in order to ‘let go’? if I don’t like something, I will always hate it; to force my will to change, it would be against the Buddhist thoughts."
"Well, I can never beat you in that. Forget it. Let’s see what you’ve got."
The old Lama stood up. A young Lama nearby presented a gold drum to him, but he smiled and waved his head: "There’s no need for these stuff. Seven has brought it here, so he must have been prepared already."
At the old Lama’s order, a young, strong Lama opened the door of the van and immediately stepped back without even a quick peek into the van.
At that time, the three dead bodies were sitting in the van in a strange way.
The old Lama touched the man’s body and frowned; then he touched the boy’s body, looked at the wound behind the boy’s head and sighed:
"That must be hard, brother. You had to kill him."
"I had to... The parents were already ghosts, and the kid was already infected, there was no cure for them. The only thing I could do was to protect others from getting killed by them. Buddha will know, and I shall not be punished for such killing."
The old Lama nodded, looked at the three bodies for one more time and then turned his eyes to the celestial burial site behind him. Dozens of hawks were circling high up in the sky, waiting for the next feast.
These hawks near celestial burial sites were so used to eating human flesh that they became ferocious, and they could even attack living people in the neighborhood.
The old Lama was a little embarra.s.sed. "Seven, I really want to help, but these bodies are too evil for my celestial burial site to take. We can try, but I a.s.sure you that even if we put their bodies onto the platform and perform every necessary rite, those sacred hawks won’t dare to come down."
"But brother, these three people were infected after a tour to Tibet, and they are already in the division of ghosts[5]. Such a practice, and such a smell… It must be the Esoteric Buddhism. You are the cause, so you should put an end to it."
"There are numerous schools of Esoteric Buddhism, it doesn’t have to be me…"
While they were talking, suddenly, the old Lama’s look changed, and he roared in wrath:
"Who’s that? How dare you kill in my place!"
Seven turned to the north. There was an obvious scent of blood rising into the air.
They immediately left the celestial burial site and went to the location where the scent of blood had appeared. It was a col, less than two kilometers from the road. A dozen Tibetans were lying here; all had died a tragic death, with their skin split and flesh torn, as if they were scratched by sharp claws for countless times.
The old Lama held one fist, hit his stave against the ground, and groaned a mantra[7]. After the obscure mantra was cast, a twisted and panicked spirit appeared in front of the old Lama.
Seven put his palms together and chanted the name of Buddha because he knew that once a spirit was summoned in this way, it would never go back to a next life and would stay in h.e.l.l forever.
"Tell me who killed you." The old Lama ordered.
But the spirit was confused. Apparently, he had no clue why he died all of a sudden.
"Fool! You didn’t even know how you died?" The old Lama was angry. He stretched out his hand and put his palm onto the spirit’s forehead. Then, what had just happened flashed into the old Lama’s mind.
"There must be a very capable man among those tourists from inland! He’s got such a cruel heart! Even though these Tibetans were wrong, they didn’t deserve death! Since he deals with supernatural stuff, why not spare these common people’s lives!"
Just then, the old Lama saw something: Su Bai’s face with a merciful look when he offered them five hundred yuan, and he wasn’t scared or nervous at all.
"Him! Must be him! He did it!" The old Lama roared.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Special policies protecting ethnic groups: In China, there are 56 ethnic groups and 55 of them are considered as minorities, so China has issued a series of policies offering them support for developing. Tibetans are one of those minorities.
[2] Autonomous region: An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, ent.i.ty, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subdivision or dependent territory of a country that has a degree of self-governance, or autonomy, from an external authority. Typically, it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a minority. Autonomous areas can be divided into territorial autonomies, subregional territorial autonomies, and local autonomies. — Wikipedia
[3] Lama: Lama is a t.i.tle for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism, and it means a "high priest". — Wikipedia
[4] b.u.t.ter tea: b.u.t.ter tea, also known as Tibetan tea or churned tea, is a drink of the people in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, Bhutan, India (particularly in Ladakh, Sikkim) and, most famously, Tibet. Traditionally, it is made from tea leaves, yak b.u.t.ter, water, and salt, although b.u.t.ter made from cow"s milk is increasingly used, given its wider availability and lower cost. — Wikipedia
[5] division of ghosts: In the Indian Brahmanism, there is a world outlook of "Six Great Divisions", which was later taken in by Buddhism. In Buddhism, all life after death will enter wheels in the six divisions, namely: Heaven(deva), human(world), animals, Asura(devil), ghosts and h.e.l.l, judging by the good and evil stuff they have done.
[6] Esoteric Buddhism: A Buddhist tradition of Tantra and "Secret Mantra", which are systems of beliefs and practices that developed in medieval India and spread to Tibet and East Asia under varying names and forms. — Wikipedia
[7] Mantra: A "mantra" is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit believed by pract.i.tioners to have psychological and spiritual powers. — Wikipedia