Since then， wherever he went， the wooden case and bowl went with him.
Tinley and his colleagues had to take turns to keep guard and stand sentry at that time， as no matter whether you were in villages or places even further along the border it was a rule. The colleagues were considerate in that they let Tinley stand the first sentry just after nightfall. The others stood the other two shifts from midnight to the small hours. Tinley had three grenades tied to his belt and a Tommy gun across his back， the long barrel of which stuck over his head. In the pitch-dark night， the howling cold wind made him feel as if someone was standing right behind him. However， there was nothing but darkness every time he turned back， trembling. When the two-hour shift came to an end， he had turned so many times that he was like a lame lamb.
The job required frequent sentry-standing in the countryside. As he stood more， his courage grew and in the end he was in high spirits even during the small hours.
Killing livestock is a taboo for Tibetans. As a result， sometimes they had to hunt game to improve their diet. Every government functionary had a gun， but Tinley's had no front sight. He borrowed a gun from a fellow villager， took aim at a kiang， and shot at it. The kiang continued running after being shot but Tinley soon lassoed and choked it to death， chasing it on a horse. He fished out his Tibetan knife， skinned the kiang， put the lean meat into a sheepskin bag， and rode back triumphantly singing a pastoral song.
Though there was occasional game meat， they still went hungry at times. Once when they were in the countryside， Tinley was so hungry that he and another colleague snuck into a big tent， ate some mutton and butter tea， left some money and promised not to tell anyone else. In pasturing areas， rich men had spacious tents made of yak hair or wool while poor people had low and dark ones which were sewn together using the hide of kiang， Mongolian gazelle， Tibetan long horned antelopes， etc. The rule was that officers could only enter the latter when working in the countryside. Tinley and his colleague were severely criticized by their leader， whose Mandarin Tinley didn't understand at all. He could tell from his colleague's expressions that they had made a big mistake.
Government work was demanding. For example， an officer was suspended from work because he farted loudly at a meeting， which was considered a violation of ethnic and religious policy. For Tibetan people， farting in public is taboo. Chinese officers were not used to eating zanba and dried meat here， and their stomach easily became flatulent when they could finally eat some bean flour and fried qingke. In mountain altitudes， you tend to fart in this circumstance.
Tinley became a primary school teacher when he was a robust young man. At first he was the school's only teacher and had only one student. Half a year later， he had six or seven students. After some time though， he found spending all his time with children boring. He went to a film and thought that being a film projector must be fun. It happened that Coqên County had just been divided out of Gêrzê County and was in need of a batch of officers. A leader called Zhaba Tsring transferred Tinley from Rutog to Coqên County， saying that they were "borrowing" him for six months to a year.
Finally Tinley became a film projector as he had wished. He borrowed a diesel generator from Gêrzê County， a projector and a loudspeaker from Shiquanhe Town so that he could do both film and broadcast. Broadcasting was a necessity twice a day while film was scheduled irregularly. In order to improve the sound effects， Tinley always put the radio just in front of the loudspeaker before broadcasting.
Coqên County then had a population of four to five thousand， with only 200 to 300 people living in town. The county government had four rows of single-story adobe houses， with ten rooms in each row. When a new film came， it was first shown in town before Tinley carried all the equipment on horseback to the pasturing area. People would come out of their tents with qingke wine and butter tea in hand when they saw Tinley approaching. They fed his horse and helped to tie up the screen and operate the generator. At first， the herdsmen stared at the generator before realizing that they should watch screen instead. Sometimes， when the film was halfway through， a wind blew the screen away and they had to chase after it and wait for the wind to calm down before resuming the film. The tents of the herdsmen were sparse， with twenty to thirty kilometers between each other. Tinley projected several films in front of each tent， even when there were only two or three spectators present. The herdsmen loved watching documentaries because they could see Chairman Mao in them. Every time Mao appeared on the screen， they would applaud and shout his name in Mandarin. They applauded so excitedly that they dropped their zanba and wooden bowls. After hundreds of years， people from the northern Tibetan pasturing area were finally starting to speak Chinese proactively. The first Chinese sentences they learned were "Long live Chairman Mao！ Long live the Communist Party！" Wherever Tinley went， the films and applause went with him. The herdsmen shouted in joy when they saw Tinley approaching， "Luonian Tinley is coming！ Luonian Tinley is coming！"
Luonian means film in Tibetan， and that's how Tinley got his nickname.
When Tinley was in the countryside， the broadcasts downtown were not so loud or clear， nor were they on time. After a while， when the articulation of the broadcasts were clear， accurate， loud and on time again， people knew that Tinley was back in town.
