Вrоthеr Lоng саllеd to inquire аnd, uроn hеаring that the guests hаd gоne missing onlу after аrriving in Ваоtоu, lеt out a slight sigh. "Тhis serves as a lesson fоr us. Frоm now оn, when wе sеnd guеsts оff, we must аsk сlеаrlу abоut their destinatiоn—whеther thеy're going hоme or сontinuing their trаvеls еlsеwhеrе."
"Undеrstood," Ваyunуе rеpliеd gloоmilу.
"What, not соnvincеd?" Brother Lоng asked.
"Hоw соuld I darе not be... Sorrу, Вrоther Lоng. I wоndеr if this will аffесt our сlub's businеss."
Thеre wаs a brief silеncе оn thе othеr еnd. "It's nоt еntirely yоur fault. After all, yоu safely brоught them to thе agrееd endрoint in Urumqi."
That night, Bayunye's messages nearly exploded. Fellow travelers who had ridden with her recognized the "Driver Ba" mentioned in the self-driving carpool group and guessed it was her.
Typing...: Was that you being interviewed in today's news about the missing college student?
Spicy Strip Princess Little Fish: Master Ba, you're famous now.
Slowpoke: It must be you, Driver Ba. No doubt about it.
Noon Ah: Master Ba, saw the news and thought of you! I'll make time to travel to Ali with you next year.
Why Not Rejoice: Quick, Liu Ming, it's the Driver Ba we all knew back in the day.
Lonely Isle: I just got my marriage certificate and was thinking of booking a car for our honeymoon this month or next. But now that you're so famous, I'm afraid I won't be able to reserve you?
Reading the messages—some asking for details, others teasing her—Bayunye didn't know whether to laugh or cry. At the same time, she marveled at the popularity she had built up over years of driving, never realizing so many people paid attention to her.
Just as Bayunye accepted a deposit from Lonely Isle, a call came in—it was Diao Zhuo.
"Driver Ba, long time no see. How have you been?"
Bayunye, torn between amusement and exasperation, rolled over onto her stomach on the bed. "As a Rescue Team captain, shouldn't you be concerned about the missing college students instead of mocking me? How heartless is that? Want me to post your nude photos online and make you famous too?"
"You have my nude photos?" he asked calmly.
"Of course."
"I doubt you have the strength for that."
Bayunye clicked her tongue dismissively.
Diao Zhuo got back to the point. "I have some news that might comfort you. Their disappearance has nothing to do with your convoy."
Before he could finish, Bayunye interjected, "I know they flew to Baotou..."
Diao Zhuo then dropped an even more shocking piece of news: "They plan to trek across the Badanjilin Desert."
"What?" She bolted upright, asking excitedly, "Just the three of them? Trekking across Badanjilin? No way! Call them back! Especially the woman! She's not cut out for it at all!"
"They've been trekking for at least three days."
"Three days... There's still time to call them back!"
"Regardless of whether they're in danger, we have to find them because their families reported them missing. Besides, two of them have no trekking experience," Diao Zhuo explained. "The headquarters issued an emergency rescue mission, urgently recruiting volunteers from Inner Mongolia and others familiar with the desert to assist the local police in the search. Now that the National Day holiday is over, there are fewer volunteers who meet the requirements. I'm on vacation right now. Whether I go or not is up to you."
Diao Zhuo's last few words were straightforward and sudden.
Bayunye was taken aback.
The Badanjilin Desert was nothing like what Xiao Ai had imagined.Three days ago, they began their desert crossing journey from Gurinai Town in Ejin Banner. On both sides of the road stretched vast expanses of the Gobi Desert. Hearing that agates could be found in the Gobi, Xiao Ai was extremely excited, but Zhang Tianen was solely focused on the crossing itself and had little interest in things like agates.
They didn’t linger in Gurinai, almost immediately plunging into the desert.
“You know what? Even though we went to Xinjiang this time, we didn’t actually cross the Taklamakan Desert. If you follow the desert highway, you’ll see a line of text…” Zhang Tianen seemed more excited than in the previous days, likely because he had arrived at the place where his dream was about to come true, and his words gradually grew more plentiful. “There are no desolate deserts, only desolate lives!”
Zheming seemed deeply affected by these words. Holding Xiao Ai’s hand with one hand and Zhang Tianen’s with the other, he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, “Danba Jilin, here we come!!”
“It’s Badanjilin,” Zhang Tianen coldly corrected. After their previous experience hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge, he had already positioned himself as the leader among the three, his tone carrying a hint of authority.
Their lofty ambitions were quickly dampened by a few words from the taxi driver who had brought them there. The burly man said, “Kids, I’ll wait right here for you. Go take a look and come back, okay? Is two hours enough? The fare back is the same price, fair and square.”
Zheming waved his hand dismissively. “Uncle, you can head back. We’re going to hike across, not return with you.”
The man shrugged indifferently. “Don’t boast about hiking across… You better think it through. It’s hard to get a ride around here, and the prices are higher than…”
“Let’s go,” Zhang Tianen said, unwilling to waste any more words, and motioned for everyone to move on.
It was this driver who later recognized the three university students from the news and informed the police of their whereabouts.
The Badanjilin Desert covers an area of 47,000 square kilometers, with the Uninhabited Area spanning approximately 10,000 square kilometers. Located in western Inner Mongolia, it forms the main part of the Alxa Desert and is China’s third-largest desert. Gurinai lies to the northwest of the Badanjilin Desert and serves as the starting point for many desert crossers.
While listening to Zhang Tianen’s planned route, Xiao Ai learned that their destination was Bilutu Peak, known as the “Mount Everest of the Sand Sea.”
On the first day, everyone walked happily, playing “Desert Camel” on their phones while admiring the curves of the sand sea. Amidst the endless yellow sand, humming a song that perfectly matched the scenery and their mood felt incredibly satisfying. Each person’s spirits soared as wide as the sky and earth, their steps firm and resolute, and their wild, roaring voices seemed to echo through the heavens—
“What ghostly legends! What demons and monsters!”
“Only the eagle sings its lonely song!”
“Yellow sand sweeps across the sky! Roaming every corner!”
“Walking through the endless, boundless starry river!”
Originally, they should have rested during the day and traveled at night, but they hadn’t adjusted to the schedule yet. Zhang Tianen decided to give everyone a day or two to adapt. Xiao Ai and Zheming had never seen a real desert before, and now that they were treading across the sand sea, they were especially thrilled. Xiao Ai had previously thought the desert would be as soft as a beach, with each step sinking deep or shallow unpredictably, but she was surprised to find the desert’s surface actually quite firm.
The initial part of the journey was relatively easy, with no massive sand dunes to climb. As far as the eye could see, everything was a sandy yellow. In the distance, the sand dunes appeared pale blue, layered one upon another like a scene from a painting—a feast for the eyes just to behold.While their classmates were buried in civil service exam practice questions or wandering through large job fairs, they would never imagine that the three of us were heroically trekking across the vast desert! Zheming thought smugly, a sense of superiority he hadn’t felt in four years suddenly rising in his heart.
Filled with excitement and curiosity, he and Xiao Ai followed behind Zhang Tianen, occasionally asking him to take photos for them. But it was clear Zhang Tianen wasn’t too keen on being their photographer. Knowing it wasn’t exactly considerate to flaunt their affection in front of a single guy, they later switched to a selfie stick. However, taking photos wasted a lot of time, and Zhang Tianen kept urging them to hurry.
Xiao Ai felt that Zhang Tianen seemed like a different person once the trek began.
Before, he had been quite easygoing, truly a bit like a calm and unassuming person, but now he acted more like an elder, especially like her father. Perhaps because of his extensive outdoor experience, he liked to sternly warn them with a serious face—for example, they must control their water intake and not waste time on selfies.
But how easy was it to control water intake?
The desert climate was dry, and with the high daytime temperatures, by noon the surface sand was scorching hot, the heat palpable through their shoe soles. Carrying heavy loads, they quickly grew thirsty after walking for a while. Xiao Ai and Zheming had tried to resist drinking, but the consequence was an itchy throat, as if they were about to develop a cough from internal heat. Only by drinking more water could they suppress it.
Zhang Tianen had plenty of trekking experience and stronger self-control than them. But seeing the two of them finish seven bottles of water in two days, he grew uneasy. He restrained himself well, strictly sticking to one bottle of water per day.
When they set up camp in a sheltered spot that morning, he saw Xiao Ai and Zheming squeezed into one tent, occasionally giggling and playing, which made him quite uncomfortable. In his view, a desert crossing should be serious and solemn. Moreover, he hadn’t told them that the route he had planned this time was one no other trekkers had ever attempted. If they succeeded, the three of them would stand like a peak in the history of crossing the Badanjilin Desert.
Since there was no signal deep in the desert, none of them had brought power banks, and all three phones had run out of battery. Nights in the desert began to feel extremely dull. The young couple was inseparable, while the single guy could only gaze up at the starry sky.
It was during their desert camp that Xiao Ai gave her first time to Zheming. Both felt it was deeply meaningful and worth remembering for a lifetime.
"Xiao Ai, even if later—just in case—we don’t end up together, you’ll remember me for the rest of your life," Zheming sighed, holding her afterward.
Girls are always more sensitive. Xiao Ai felt a bit disheartened hearing this. She thought that after taking their relationship further, he would make grand promises—like loving and protecting her forever—but she never expected him to say something like that.
Soon, the exhausted Zheming fell asleep, emitting soft snores. Xiao Ai put on her clothes and stepped outside.
Zhang Tianen was still awake, having lit a small campfire with the dry branches he’d gathered along the way that afternoon. He held a trekking pole, as if writing something in the sand.
She walked over and looked up at the sky. She hadn’t expected the desert night to be so desolate and beautiful—she even spotted two shooting stars. She quickly knelt down to make a wish, hoping they could all make it out safely. At that thought, she felt like crying again.Zhang Tianen was at a loss for words, unsure whether to speak to her. After hemming and hawing for a while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Are you tired?"
Xiao Ai flushed bright red, wishing she could bury her head in the sand like an ostrich.
"I saw you rubbing your shoulders all afternoon. Is your backpack too heavy?"
So that's what he meant... Xiao Ai breathed a sigh of relief and stretched her limbs. "To be honest, my shoulders are really sore, and my back hurts a bit too. Carrying such a heavy load, I have to keep my back straight all day. By evening, I'm truly aching all over."
"Hiking is different from our usual walking. You need to maintain a steady pace, and even when resting, it's best not to take off your backpack. When walking, you should do it like this..." Zhang Tianen stood up and demonstrated for her. "Tomorrow, walk just like I do. Don't deliberately straighten your back; lean forward slightly..."
He hadn't realized that when facing Xiao Ai alone, he could be so gentle and sincere.
"I'll remember that," Xiao Ai nodded. "Tianen, you're really reliable. I give you a thumbs-up."
The corners of Zhang Tianen's lips lifted slightly. He turned his head away to hide the irrepressible joy blooming in his heart.
"By the way, were you practicing calligraphy in the sand just now?" Xiao Ai asked with a smile.
"Just scribbling something to encourage myself."
Xiao Ai walked over and saw written in the sand: "I have already heard the call from afar in my heart, and no longer need to look back and concern myself with the various rights and wrongs and gossip behind me. I have no time to dwell on the past; I must move forward."
"Is this how you've been feeling these past few days?" Xiao Ai asked.
"It's a line from The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I really like it," Zhang Tianen said.
"Wow, you're quite the literary youth."
Zhang Tianen considered himself much more mature in mindset than Zheming. After a moment's thought, he replied, "Not really. It's just that I have a lot of passion inside, and on this journey, I can release it and gain even more energy."
Suddenly, a rumbling sound came from the distance, like someone beating a drum.
"Thunder?" Xiao Ai exclaimed in surprise. "Is it going to rain?"
"Singing sand," Zhang Tianen said calmly, having researched extensively. "Simply put, it's the sound made by the sand. Its cause is still a mystery. One theory is that when the wind blows over the dunes and the sand collapses, the friction between the grains creates this sound."
"That's amazing," Xiao Ai marveled. "This trip has been truly worthwhile."
Zhang Tianen smiled faintly.
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