Тhе Вadanjilin Dеsеrt hаs аn аverage еlеvation оf 1,500 meters, with signifiсаnt tеmреrаture differеnces between daу аnd night. During the dаy, it саn bе hоt enоugh tо саusе heаtstroke, while аt night, snоwflakеs sometimes drift dоwn. It bears рatterns likе осеаn wаvеs—at first glanсе shimmering with riррlеs and lаyеrs, уet in reаlitу, it is a рarched sеa of sand.
With рооr visibility аt night, everyоnе drоve slоwlу, kеерing аn eуе out fоr litter оn the ground tо detеrminе whеther it might hаvе bееn left by the thrеe students. In the first half of thе night, they toоk turns driving. To еnsure sеаrch еfficiency the following day, they had no choice but to make do with sleeping in the vehicles until dawn.
Along the way, there were plastic wrappers, mineral water bottles, instant noodle containers, biscuit packages, and tissues—all sorts of things, but none could be definitively linked to the students. Old Wang mentioned that when he first took clients on a conventional route through the desert, he borrowed a GPS for navigation and still got lost once. He worried that even if the kids had brought a GPS, they might still take a wrong turn.
Bayunye woke up in the middle of the night, chilled to the bone, and found Diao Zhuo’s jacket draped over her blanket. Turning her head, she saw him reclining his seat, also resting. Having given her his jacket, he covered his upper body with a military blanket—she wondered if he was cold.
Her resilience did not stem from never having experienced warmth; she could clearly distinguish kindness from malice. It was just that others’ warmth had always been fleeting. Only one’s own strength could keep one invincible and free from constraints.
She lit up her phone screen to check the time—it was 3:30 a.m., utterly silent, with only the vast galaxy of stars outside the window, shared solely with him.
When traveling, Diao Zhuo was always a light sleeper. The faint glow from her phone woke him instantly.
“So sensitive…” Bayunye turned off her phone and chuckled softly.
“Not sleeping in the middle of the night—what’s on your mind?”
“Contemplating the universe and life.”
Diao Zhuo knew her penchant for talking nonsense. “Any conclusions?”
“There are so many stars tonight. Tomorrow will be a clear day.”
“I thought after pondering for so long, you’d compose a long poem. If not, at least recite one.”
“I can recite one. Listen—‘Before my bed…’”
“Don’t start with ‘bed.’”
Bayunye paused. “Then another one… um… ‘I raise my head to gaze at the bright moon, lower it to think of home.’”
Still the same poem!
He reached out, fumbling in the dark to find her hand and grasp it—her fingers were icy cold.
Feeling the warmth of his palm, Bayunye was slightly surprised. “You’re not wearing your jacket, yet you don’t seem cold at all.”
“Seems like giving you the jacket was pointless. Might as well return it.” Diao Zhuo’s voice carried a hint of hoarseness.
“No.” She pressed her advantage. “Knowing one jacket isn’t enough, you should’ve taken off all your clothes for me.”
Diao Zhuo let out an insincere chuckle. “Might as well ask me to pluck a star—I might actually agree to that.”
“Then go pluck a star for me.”
“Alright.”
“And then?” Bayunye waited for what came next.
“Didn’t I just agree?”
“That’s it?”
He gave another insincere chuckle.
Bayunye closed her eyes, intending to go back to sleep, when he asked softly, “If you weren’t driving, would you really want to take over an inn and become the proprietress?”
“Huh?” Caught off guard by the question, she was momentarily confused. After thinking for a while, she affirmed with a sound.
“An inn where?”"By the side of Erhai Lake," she said casually, then waved her hand. "But that's just wishful thinking. Do you know how expensive it is there? Plus, there's the cost of renovation and hiring staff... How many years would I have to drive to afford that? But driving is a young person's game. For me, ten years? Twenty? I probably won't be able to keep it up that long. I can't do anything else, so I'm learning a bit about running an inn from Brother Long. Once I save enough money, I'll start looking around. What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Are you going to stick with your job until retirement?"
Diao Zhuo rubbed his eyes, looking troubled by the question. "Not necessarily."
"Why not join our team?" Bayunye perked up, her eyes widening as she spoke, then laughed. "No, no, that would be a waste. Someone as talented as Captain Diao should stay in an important position and contribute to the country."
"Being sarcastic?"
"Genuine," she said. "If my eldest sister were still here, she'd probably be on the front lines too."
"What was your eldest sister like?"
"Hardworking, serious, not very good with words but kind-hearted, and slow to react. Grandma Ba—our headmistress—said it would take her hours to think of a comeback if someone insulted her. Unlike me, she was a good student from a young age. She used to tell us that studying was our only way out." Bayunye let out a light laugh and repeated, "Hah, our only way out..."
Diao Zhuo fell silent, lost in thought.
Drowsiness washed over Bayunye. Clutching Diao Zhuo's hand tightly, she turned onto her side, her eyelids growing heavier. With her head tilted, she fell asleep again.
The next morning, the sky was overcast. By noon, it had grown even darker, with a layer of yellow haze rising in the distance. Just then, Bayunye's sharp eyes spotted an empty plastic water bottle stuck upside down in the sand, with some colorful wrappers inside.
"Brother Long, the sandstorm is about to hit! Why is Master Ba getting out of the car?" Hippo pointed ahead.
"She seems to have found something," Brother Long said, opening the car door. "Let's go take a look."
Pulling out the water bottle, they found not only biscuit wrappers but also a black hair tie inside. Upon closer inspection, a few long strands of hair were wrapped around it. Bayunye dug deeper and uncovered a Huoxiang Zhengqi Water packaging box. Judging by the wear on the surface, it was relatively new, likely discarded only a few days ago.
She pulled out the hair tie, pinched one end of the long hair, and carefully extracted the entire strand. It was quite long, suggesting its owner had flowing locks.
Everyone had recent photos of the missing students saved on their phones. A quick comparison revealed that Xiao Ai also had long hair of a similar length, which had been dyed.
"This must have been left behind by the students as a trail marker for rescuers, in case something happened during their trek and we couldn't trace their route," Diao Zhuo said, holding the water bottle with mixed feelings—relief that the three students had been safe and conscious when they reached this point, and concern that the Huoxiang Zhengqi Water packaging left with the bottle suggested Xiao Ai might have suffered from heatstroke.
Fortunately, they had arrived just in time. If the sandstorm had hit, the empty water bottle might have been buried under the sand.
Brother Long gazed into the hazy distance. "They chose to leave items as clues, which means they didn't feel the situation was urgent yet, and they were still determined to complete the trek on foot—just leaving a backup plan."Diao Zhuo turned and asked Brother Long, "At a speed of 4 kilometers per hour, how many days would it take for them to walk from Gurinai to the finish line smoothly?"
Brother Long calculated silently, "If it were me, at least 7 or 8 days, and that’s assuming there’s sufficient water, no injuries, and no heatstroke. For them to get here would probably take 3 or 4 days. But it looks like the woman has heatstroke, so their pace will be even slower in the second half."
The sky grew darker, and the clouds hung lower and murkier than before a heavy rainstorm. Bayunye could already feel the strong wind carrying fine sand slapping against her face. "It’s been almost six days since they entered the desert..."
Xiao Ai got sand in her eyes, and tears kept welling up. She rubbed them a few times before it felt better. Strangely enough, she was even reluctant to let those few tears go.
The more she tried to control her water intake, the harder it became, especially under such scorching sun. Zhang Tianen, in an effort to leave the desert sooner, reduced their rest time—only three hours during the day and five hours at night.
There were endless sand dunes to climb, each over 100 meters high, some even reaching 200 meters. Everyone’s hiking boots kept filling with sand, and when they took them off, they saw that the treads on the soles had been completely worn flat by the sand.
Xiao Ai suffered heatstroke again, and her thirst for water grew even stronger. She had already finished all her own water. Zheming gritted his teeth and gave her his water to drink, leaving himself so parched that his throat felt like it was on fire, and speaking felt like being cut by a knife.
Zhang Tianen wasn’t faring much better. He only urinated once a day, and his urine was dark yellow. He couldn’t believe that, with his daily water intake insufficient, his body could still spare any moisture for excretion.
During their midday break, the two young men stripped naked and desperately dug holes, burying themselves in the cool sand beneath the surface to feel a bit better. Zheming had a dream where he was swimming in the sea. There were no bikini-clad beauties around him, but instead, rows of ice cream parlors stretched as far as the eye could see.
Xiao Ai, being a girl, couldn’t lie naked like them. She felt weak all over, her face flushed red, but her lips were pale. She drifted in and out of sleep, as if seeing Zhang Tianen and Zheming walking away from her. Their figures grew farther and farther, and no matter how much she called out to them, they didn’t turn back. She couldn’t tell whether this was a dream or reality.
"Xiao Ai... wake up, we need to go." It sounded like Zheming’s voice. "The sky has turned strangely dark. Tianen says it doesn’t look normal..."
"Don’t go... wait for me... don’t leave..."
"What should we do? She seems... to have a fever. Her body is burning up!" Zheming said anxiously.
Zhang Tianen reached out and touched Xiao Ai’s forehead—it was indeed very hot. He went back and dug up some cool but dry sand, wrapped it in a magic headscarf, and placed it on Xiao Ai’s head.
"How far are we from the freshwater lake?" Zheming asked.
"Probably still over 30 kilometers."
"Give me some water." Zheming reached out his hand.
Zhang Tianen froze. "You... didn’t you still have two or three bottles of water?"
"They’re gone."
Zhang Tianen felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded above his head, shattering his soul into pieces.
"What did you say?!"
Zheming lowered his head. "We’ve finished all our water."Zhang Tianen fell into silence. After a long while, the veins on his forehead bulged violently as he screamed hoarsely, "Are you insane! When did you drink it! How dare you finish all the water! Do you know that at our current pace, it will take at least two more days to reach the freshwater lake marked on the map! And that's only if we don't take any wrong turns! Two whole days! And you're already out of water now! What were you thinking! What were you doing! Are you trying to die?!"
Xiao Ai was awakened by his shouting. She stared at them with her mouth agape, her lips cracked and bleeding from dryness. "Zheming... I'm so thirsty. I want water..."
Zhang Tianen abruptly stood up and stormed outside. Each step felt as if he were stepping on a landmine. It took every ounce of his strength to control his emotions and keep himself from raising his fist and beating Zheming senseless.
"Tianen!" Zheming called out from behind him. "Just lend us some water. Give Xiao Ai a little to drink. She..."
"What were you doing earlier?!" Zhang Tianen roared.
"You said we were almost at the freshwater lake."
"We're not there yet! Why did you drink all the water?! Are you in a hurry to be reborn?! Did you book a spot with the King of Hell?! Is it almost your turn?! Didn't you say you'd be a grandson if you drank even one extra sip?! Damn it! You're such a grandson! Screw your ancestors!" Zhang Tianen now looked like a shrew cursing in the streets, but he couldn't care less.
No wonder the two of them hadn't complained about thirst for a long time—they had secretly finished all the water in a single day, water that was supposed to last at least three days. He should never have told them about the freshwater lake!
"Just lend us a little," Zheming pleaded, staring at him pitifully. Zhang Tianen was the only one with water now, and only a fool wouldn't humble themselves in such a situation. "There's a long road ahead. I'll pay you back with a whole case, even ten cases, once we're out."
Zhang Tianen was furious. He glared at Zheming, his fists clenched so tightly that his untrimmed nails dug deep into his palms, yet he felt no pain. In the Uninhabited Area, even the smallest mistake could snowball into something deadly. And Zhang Tianen's mistake was agreeing to let these two tag along! Their foolish actions had forced him to pay a price—the loss of freshwater, which was almost as precious as life itself in the desert.
Just as things couldn't get any worse, a murky yellow haze rose on the distant horizon. Zhang Tianen's heart sank again. Could it be...?
"A sandstorm..."
"A sandstorm?! What do we do?!" At the mention of a possible sandstorm, Zheming was shocked, almost forgetting about borrowing water.
Zhang Tianen looked at him with utter disdain. A sudden thought surfaced in his mind—don't tell him what to do. Let him die in the sandstorm. Then the water will be yours, and Xiao Ai will be yours too.
The thought startled even himself.
During the summer break, when he had researched all the guides and travelogues about deserts, he had come across a passage someone had written:
The desert may seem empty, but it is actually a jungle of the senses. It strips away artificial distractions, leaving only endless sand dunes and ever-changing skies. In its vastness, it is filled with light, shadows, and naturally formed curves, evoking through intense synesthesia everything boundless—like the passage of time, or the murky depths of human nature. [9]
More terrifying than starvation is thirst. And more terrifying than thirst is... human nature.
Among the three of them, only one bottle of water remained.“We... should run...” Xiao Ai forced herself to stand up, her body burning hot, eyes bloodshot, but as soon as she steadied herself, she collapsed to the ground again.
“Xiao Ai...” Zhang Tianen stepped forward to support her, his eyes filled with deep concern.
“Tianen, what about the sandstorm...”
“We’ll just take shelter in the tent, but we need to watch out for sand piling up around it. Who knows how long the sandstorm will last? If too much sand accumulates on the windward side, it might collapse the tent.” Zhang Tianen gritted his teeth and said, “It’s best not to leave the tent. If you absolutely must go out, wrap your head with clothing. No matter how much the sand hurts when it hits your head, don’t uncover it!”
This was something he had learned from Bear Grylls’ Man vs. Wild. He had never tried it before, but he had no choice but to give it a shot. He trusted Bear Grylls—Bear was far more reliable than this couple in front of him!
“Water...” Zheming still refused to give up.
“We’ll figure it out after the sandstorm passes,” Zhang Tianen said with a stern face.
Zheming’s expression shifted, but with the sandstorm imminent, he couldn’t argue further. However, as he searched for clothing, he glanced at Tianen, then at Xiao Ai, his lips curling downward as if something was bothering him.
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