Tan Muxing brought the burly man to the ground, triggering a wave of cheers from the entire crowd. Even the native villagers applauded and joined in the uproar, enthusiastically cheering for the victor.
After knocking down his opponent, Tan Muxing quickly reached out to help him up. He had thought the burly man might be upset, but instead, the man clasped his hand firmly, using it for leverage to get back on his feet. With a hearty laugh, he brushed the dirt off his clothes in an easygoing manner.
The next moment, the burly man threw an arm around Tan Muxing’s shoulders, speaking in an unfamiliar language with a broad smile. He occasionally patted Tan Muxing’s arm in admiration, showing even more warmth than before the match.
Tan Muxing, caught in the man’s enthusiastic embrace, was utterly at a loss. His face showed his bewilderment, and he didn’t know how to react.
A colleague standing nearby explained, “He’s saying you’re really impressive.”
Tan Muxing met the man’s sincere gaze, hesitated for a moment, and then softly replied, “I just have some strength. It’s not that impressive, and it’s not really useful…”
“But he says you’re a great warrior.”
The burly man continued to chatter excitedly, and the colleague translated again, “He says having strength to protect others is very impressive.”
Tan Muxing froze in surprise.
By this time, Chu Qianli had already rushed over, excitedly celebrating Tan Muxing’s first bökh victory. She danced around him in circles, radiating joy.
Pan Yicheng, overhearing the conversation, chuckled and remarked, “It’s part of their culture. Winning in bökh is an honor—it’s similar to the Olympic spirit.”
Tan Muxing murmured, “I was worried winning might cause conflict…”
Chu Qianli responded, “Why would it? Everyone seems really happy to me.”
The bökh matches between the workstation team and the villagers seemed to instantly bring them closer together. Any prior tensions or dissatisfaction between the two groups vanished during the heated competition. Even the elderly women watching on the sidelines were smiling.
After the event, the villagers became more familiar with the outsiders. Occasionally, they would come over to take a closer look, their expressions filled with curiosity and warmth.
Pan Yicheng commented, “This really is a traditional form of entertainment—it’s like an icebreaker game. Now everyone’s not so tense.”
Batu added, “So all we needed to get along with the locals was a round of bökh.”
The elderly woman in the small hat led everyone back indoors. She removed the animal bones inside the room and ordered others to light a charcoal fire, officially beginning the process of selecting an auspicious day. The crimson flames consumed the bones, and as the heat caused them to crack, the patterns would reveal good or bad omens.
Chu Qianli observed thoughtfully. This was a traditional divination method, similar to how some used turtle shells for fortune-telling. The only difference here was the material—beast bones instead of shells.
Watching the elderly woman perform the divination, Pan Yicheng whispered, “Aren’t you the expert on these things? Can you tell if it’ll be good or bad?”
Chu Qianli was startled. “How would I know?”
Pan Yicheng looked surprised. “Didn’t your master often pick auspicious days?”
“We do select auspicious days, but the techniques and methods differ. Our standards might not match theirs. What we say is auspicious might be considered inauspicious by them. Who knows?”
She was unsure what criteria the locals would use to pick a day for the altar visit. There might be specific local standards, so she couldn’t make a rash judgment.
Chu Qianli stared intently at the beast bones as patterns gradually emerged from the flames. Her fingers moved unconsciously, and she took out her phone. “I can’t tell if it’s good or bad, but I might figure something else out.”
It took time for the beast bones to crack fully, and no one could tell when it would be complete. All they could do was wait patiently.
The locals remained silent and reverent, which made the workstation team too nervous to speak loudly. They watched the ritual quietly.
Using a drawing app on her phone, Chu Qianli sketched the strange patterns she observed. Showing the rough drawing to Pan Yicheng, she said, “It looks like this. I can’t tell if it’s good or bad in their culture.”
Tan Muxing, looking at the crude, wavy lines on the screen, asked doubtfully, “Is this abstract art?”
Pan Yicheng stared at the sketch in confusion and ventured, “Is this like turtle shell divination? The shell represents imagery, and divination is about numbers. Does it correspond to an auspicious number?”
Chu Qianli replied, “I don’t know what Shamanism emphasizes. Professor Pan, aren’t you the expert?”
“…There are too many branches of Shamanic culture to determine which one this is.”
The expert advisory group began a serious academic discussion. Although they all understood divination techniques, it was like trying to compare plum blossom numerology with Zi Wei astrology—different systems that couldn’t be mixed. They couldn’t determine which system the locals’ beast-bone divination belonged to.
The three of them huddled to the side, speaking in low tones so as not to disturb the elderly woman.
However, a nearby villager glanced over, spotted the sketch on Chu Qianli’s phone, and froze. Then, without warning, he called out to the elderly woman in the front row.
The elderly woman stopped, startled. She had been standing by the charcoal fire but now slowly walked over to the expert advisory group. Though stooped and short in stature, she was followed by others, giving her an imposing presence.
Batu was puzzled. “What’s going on? Everything was fine just now.”
After the bökh match, the atmosphere had been friendly, but now it suddenly felt serious.
Chu Qianli was bewildered. Surrounded by the villagers, she sought help. “Wait a minute. Is this pattern inauspicious? Professor, do you have any ideas?”
Pan Yicheng replied, “No, no, no, I can’t tell if it’s inauspicious. Maybe it just seemed disrespectful for us to discuss this privately…”
The three had intentionally kept their voices low to avoid offending anyone. Who would have thought their conversation would still be overheard? They were all a bit anxious, fearing they had inadvertently caused offense.
The elderly woman examined the pattern on Chu Qianli’s phone and then slowly returned to the charcoal fire.
A sharp crackling sound rang out. The beast bones in the flames finally finished cracking, revealing patterns identical to Chu Qianli’s sketch!
The elderly woman gasped in amazement. She bowed devoutly to the fire, then struck the nearby drum and brought out a brightly colored robe woven with countless ribbons. With a friendly gesture, she presented it to Chu Qianli.
Chu Qianli stared at the robe, which looked familiar in style. She speculated on the woman’s intentions and quietly asked, “Is this…”
A colleague explained, “She’s acknowledging you as a Shaman. She says you truly are someone who knows everything. Earlier, they thought we were lying and felt deeply unhappy, thinking we were untrustworthy.”
Batu said awkwardly, “…So when they let us in earlier, they thought we were lying?”
The elderly woman’s expression remained solemn as she looked at Chu Qianli and spoke a stream of words, occasionally glancing at the others from the workstation.
“She says you’re free to enter the altar, but the rest of us must follow their rules—bathing, changing clothes, and divination before each visit,” the colleague translated. “According to their customs, the pattern means today isn’t a suitable day to go to the altar. But if you insist on going, she won’t stop you, though she can’t accompany you.”
Chu Qianli hadn’t expected the elderly woman to be so accommodating. She hastily declined, “No, no, no. I’ll wait for another day when she can accompany me. What if I get lost halfway there?”
“Grandma wouldn’t possibly think that someone who knows everything wouldn’t get lost, right?” Chu Qianli couldn’t help feeling that the locals had an inexplicable respect for the shaman. However, just because she could perform divination didn’t mean she was skilled at survival. In these remote mountains, one clearly couldn’t wander around aimlessly.
Pan Yicheng definitely wouldn’t let Chu Qianli go to the altar alone. After some discussion, both sides agreed to consult the oracle tomorrow. If the timing was appropriate, the old lady would then take the group there.
Chu Qianli and her group had traveled by car in the morning and hurried to the village in the afternoon. Their day had been full and productive. Now it was already evening, and it was indeed not suitable to linger any longer. They decided to wave goodbye to the villagers.
When the team from the workstation arrived, they had been stopped at the entrance of the village. But as they left, they were escorted to the village gate. The old lady even went out of her way to wobble along with them to the entrance, insisting on seeing Chu Qianli off, leaving her feeling quite embarrassed.
Chu Qianli carefully packed away the shaman’s robe, bowed repeatedly out of politeness, and awkwardly urged, “Grandma, you should go back now.”
She often acted casually and unreservedly with people she was familiar with, but receiving such formal gestures from strangers left her feeling overwhelmed.
Every time Chu Qianli bowed, the old lady would bow as well. The two ended up bowing back and forth to each other, hindered further by the language barrier.
Pan Yicheng reassured her, “It’s okay. Let’s just go. They have their customs, and you can’t stop them just by persuading them. That’s why they say faith is sincere.”
“Shamanism inherently reveres heaven, earth, and nature. They constantly discipline themselves and are not in a state of acting on whims or recklessness,” Pan Yicheng explained. “Sometimes we feel it’s exaggerated, but it’s a belief they hold firmly.”
Chu Qianli had no choice but to leave with the workstation team. She glanced back from a distance and felt that the old lady was still standing at the village entrance, not returning to the village immediately, resembling an ancient and weathered stone.
Batu commented, “Today went more smoothly than I expected. They were much easier to communicate with compared to previous times. Last time, we almost got into a fight during the workstation’s construction.”
“That’s thanks to the little students having some skill,” Pan Yicheng said with emotion. “Didn’t you hear how close they were to concluding we were scammers? Mocking someone’s faith really does make it easy to get beaten up.”
It’s like pointing at someone and calling them a living Buddha; it would absolutely provoke the anger of Buddhists.
Batu laughed awkwardly and said, brushing it off, “I wasn’t lying. I really heard someone say they thought she was a shaman.”
Tan Muxing curiously asked, “They almost got into a fight before? But they seem pretty reasonable to me.”
Pan Yicheng explained, “This is the duality of things. They emphasize kindness and believe in the spirituality of all things, so they can’t casually harm anything in the world. That includes mountains, rivers, plants, and trees. Isn’t it natural for them to clash with construction workers?”
Chu Qianli suddenly understood and concluded, “So we’re basically negotiating with local environmentalists.”
“From a modern perspective, their culture indeed contains a simple environmental awareness and spirit of conservation.”
In the workstation, Zhou Qu didn’t expect the expert advisory group to proceed so smoothly. He thought today would just be a simple site inspection, but to his surprise, they had already arranged to visit the altar with the villagers. Shocked, he asked, “That efficient?”
“Batu, didn’t you say they wouldn’t casually take people to the altar?”
Batu’s gaze wavered. He didn’t want to bring up the shaman issue, so he vaguely replied, “I just used a little bit of personal connections.”
Zhou Qu felt skeptical.
Pan Yicheng reassured him warmly, “Don’t worry, Lao Zhou. We have a firm grasp on the initiative in religious work!”
Chu Qianli chimed in, “Not only did we engage in friendly sports competitions with the villagers, but we also had in-depth exchanges with the village grandmas on advanced techniques and knowledge.”
Pan Yicheng nodded. “Exactly, exactly. We didn’t waste any time and established a solid grassroots foundation.”
Zhou Qu was surprised. “You all are pretty impressive. You managed to pack so much into just half a day?”
Tan Muxing, standing off to the side, refrained from commenting. He thought to himself that the so-called friendly sports competition was a casual wrestling match, and the advanced techniques and knowledge were divination methods from outside. It sounded a bit off, yet there was nothing explicitly wrong with it.
He felt that his companions had mastered the essence of writing work reports, always able to elevate and refine the trivial details of daily affairs into something inexplicably profound.
