Room 509, 5th floor, standard business room.
Ningma took off his gray coat, revealing the brown simple clothing underneath. He had traveled tens of thousands of kilometers, flying from the other side of the earth back to the southwestern hinterland of the country. Only a short distance remained to his final destination, the Chiming Temple, and a sense of calm gradually settled in.
In his palm lay a shuttle-shaped bead the size of a pigeon’s egg, made of agate, dull and greasy with a mixed white glaze. It had nine-eyed patterns on it, but with an inconspicuous chip.
Legend says that the “Gzi Bead” is a personal accessory of the Buddha in the heavens. Whenever the bead is damaged, it indicates that disturbances have appeared in the lower realms. The Buddha will throw the Gzi Bead into the world, waiting for the person holding the bead to quell the strife and restore it before returning it.
This long-lost bead in his palm is called the “Heart Bead.” According to the auction house records, when the British army invaded the Western Regions at the end of the eighteenth century, they colluded with and controlled the upper ruling group, plundering a batch of treasures. The Heart Bead fell into the hands of a European noble family. After several generations, their descendants gradually squandered their family property and had to put it up for auction.
The auction price was as high as 23 million US dollars, equivalent to nearly 140 million RMT, funded behind the scenes by a domestic consortium, which commissioned the purchase and boarded a flight back to China overnight.
Ningma is both the client and the holder of the bead, tasked with escorting the Heart Bead to its final destination – the Chiming Temple. The latter only has a rough location, a string of numbers on the GPS, which on the map shows a deep dense forest.
The plan is to stay in the hotel tonight, enter the mountain tomorrow morning, wander around to find the ancient temple that has never appeared in the world, and hand over the Heart Bead to the Lamaist Temple within the Chiming Temple, completing the final wish of “Clear Heart Three Lifetimes”…
As for the equipment for entering the mountain – Ningma opened the suitcase. The top layer showed traces of water soaking, possibly from rain during transportation. Fortunately, it was not completely soaked. Besides two pieces of clothing, a few personal items, there was also the wooden box that previously held the Heart Bead.
[You see this text, please exit the reading mode, or go to the “source page” to read normally]
[Please go to the source page to read, the following content is automatically replaced to prevent collection] you — me, big — small, more — less, up — down, left — right….
Tired from the journey, Ningma gently put the Gzi Bead back into the wooden box, got up and went to the entrance of the room, pressed the “Do Not Disturb” button, locked the door, latched the safety lock, and then pulled the door handle to confirm it was secure before returning to the bed.
Before turning off the lights, he looked around the room again. It was a standard business suite, nothing out of the ordinary. His gaze finally fell on a double-leafed window. Uneasy, he checked it again, confirmed the lock was secure, and then turned off the wall lamp.
Despite the double glazing, the sound of rain hitting the roof still reached the room. Several hours ago, the plane barely landed at the mountaintop airport when it was still drizzling. He didn’t expect that in the scenic valley less than a hundred kilometers away, there would be a torrential downpour.
The white noise of the rain made it easier to fall asleep, plus the fatigue of the journey, and soon a soft breathing sound filled the darkness. The box containing the Heart Bead was placed beside the pillow, and Ningma kept one hand on it.
That night…
A black shadow flashed past the window. A piece of gray wire came in through the window frame, slowly moving up along the gap until it hooked onto the lock. With a slight force, the hinge was pulled out of alignment, and then the closed window was slowly pushed open.
A tall figure flipped in from the rainy night. After the whole person stepped onto the carpet in the room, he did not forget to turn around and open the glass window behind him. The window shadow reflected a figure dressed in white, barely able to see the simple furnishings in the room by the dim outdoor advertising lights of the hotel.
After adapting to the dark environment, the black shadow moved gently towards the bed. The chest slightly rose, and in the dim light, he noticed a square box near the pillow.
The person in the bed was breathing steadily. The only tricky thing was the obstacle of the box. The white shadow stood by the bed for a few seconds and decided to risk moving it.
At first, it went smoothly, until he pulled the box out halfway – the person suddenly opened his eyes!
The white shadow froze for half a second and then dashed towards the window. Not wanting his front foot to step out, his waist was suddenly subjected to a great force. He had to desperately pull open the window page with one hand, and then half of his body was about to lean out of the window.
The person behind him did not hesitate at all. Seeing that the thief was about to escape, he directly performed a back-leaning collision, his shoulder slamming hard into the black shadow’s back. Under the impact, the box in the opponent’s hand almost came loose, reflecting the dim light of the night, but more worrying was that once it fell out of the window, there would be almost no chance of getting it back.
“Puff!”
The black shadow was obviously staggered by the impact, but then borrowed the force to adjust his center of gravity. Ningma noticed out of the corner of his eye that a rope was hanging from the top of the window. As long as he grabbed it and crossed over to the terrace next door, he could escape!
Seeing the white shadow’s intention, Ningma, who was in front of him, saw a flash of silver light in a flash of lightning. The white shadow’s figure, which was about to stick out of the window, obviously stagnated. The hand that had already firmly grasped the rope suddenly tightened for no reason, and then the whole person smashed directly onto the roof of the five-story building!
The reversal of the situation happened in an instant. The person behind him not only hit the target with one blow, but also snatched the wooden box from the black shadow’s hand at the critical moment.
“Bang!”
Soon a muffled sound came from downstairs, which could easily be ignored in the heavy rain.
Ningma turned on the light. The window opposite him was wide open. Besides the hideous distant mountains, there were only raindrops drawn into black lines in the white window. The wooden box in his hand still had residual warmth. He leaned out and saw a white lump upstairs.
After considering for a few seconds, he decided to go down and take a look after all, as human life was at stake. However, he did not go out directly, but first dialed the hotel’s internal line, told them what had happened, and then took the elevator to the ground floor. The lobby manager immediately greeted him.
“Sir,” the lobby manager was wearing a neat uniform, slightly thin, and his expression was fairly calm. “Are you the guest from 509? I heard that someone broke in from the window to steal and fell down in a fight with you?”
“Yes,” Ningma shifted his position. “He should have fallen in the inner courtyard, directly below my room!”
Seeing that it was indeed the case, the lobby manager became serious. He took the lead and turned towards a corner of the lobby. The entire hotel was similar to an “L” shape, and the business standard room was on the back of the building.
The two passed through an inconspicuous side door in the lobby. The inner courtyard was decorated with a coffee area. With the help of the dim courtyard lights, there were many white parasols, uniformly shaped coffee tables and chairs, and a drainage ditch running along the wall.
He thought he would have to walk a distance. The 509 room, which was far away from the lobby, was the closest one to the outside. Unexpectedly, the same position was very close to entering from the opposite direction.
So when the lobby manager took a few steps and used his mobile phone flashlight to shine on a black shadow lying on the ground, Ningma almost bumped into the person in front who had stopped suddenly.
With the help of the dim light emitted by the mobile phone – the person on the ground was dressed in white and was half soaked in the rain. His face was facing up and it was almost impossible to see his face. Besides the blood seeping from his mouth and nose, mixed with rain, it stretched into a winding thick line and flowed into the ditch.
Ningma noticed that the black-clothed man’s back did not rise and fall. Although there were no obvious external injuries, the chest area was smashed on the protruding edge of the ditch.
The lobby manager scrutinized for a few seconds and looked back. “Sir, I am very sorry for what happened. The hotel is also responsible to a certain extent. Would you like to come back first? I will arrange for colleagues to handle it properly here.”
Ningma nodded. Taking the opportunity to turn around, his gaze lingered on the exposed nose and eyes of the deceased’s face, plus the tall figure, and he felt like he had seen him somewhere before…