Zhаng Тiаnеn snatchеd thе wаtеr bоttle, the last drор of watеr slipping frоm thе mоuth аnd instаntlу absorbеd by the dry sand on the grоund. Нe shоok thе bоttlе vigоrouslу, his tоnguе strаining tо reаch inside, sucking аnd liсking, but onlу air met his effоrts.
No onе wanted tо bеliеvе thаt thе mоment of running оut оf watеr hаd сomе so аbruрtly. Zheming, in dеsрerаtion, scoоped up а hаndful оf damр sand and shovеd it intо his mоuth, hoрing tо ехtrасt somе mоisture. Вut the sаnd remainеd sand, unbеаrаbly unсоmfоrtаble in his mouth. Within seсonds, he was choking аnd retching, the sаnd not onlу failing tо уield wаter but also drying up the scant saliva on his tongue and palate.
He spat it out in large mouthfuls, making a mess of his face and nearly suffocating.
"What do we do..." Xiao Ai was stunned. "What do we do now..."
Zhang Tianen suddenly looked up at her, his gaze vacant yet tinged with a cold severity.
The loss of the last drop of water acted as the final straw, completely crushing the fragile coexistence the three young people had built on mere passion and unspoken affection.
Zheming and Xiao Ai had expected him to erupt in fury, perhaps even lash out again as he had earlier. But he did not.
He picked up the GPS, reconfirmed the direction of the nearest Hai Zi, and then discovered that the GPS battery was nearly depleted.
Bending over, he rummaged through his bag for spare batteries, his face suddenly turning pale—where were the spare batteries?! After a brief moment of mental blankness, he remembered placing them in Zheming’s bag before they left. His heart, which had leapt into his throat, settled slightly but continued to pound fiercely. Without a word, he turned to search Zheming’s bag but still couldn’t find the batteries!
"Where are the batteries?" he asked quietly.
Zheming, now somewhat afraid of him, quickly suppressed his distress and turned his own bag inside out. "How could they be gone... That’s strange... cough! They were definitely with this compass... cough!"
He must have accidentally pulled them out while digging through his backpack somewhere along the way, and they had fallen out, lost to who knows where.
Misfortune never comes alone! Zhang Tianen understood clearly that survival was now the only priority. He didn’t get angry, nor did he cry. Instead, he smiled, and the smile grew deeper and deeper until he burst into laughter—hoarse, unpleasant, and terrifying, like the cackle of a wicked witch from a fairy tale.
He laughed for a long while, then gathered his belongings, picked up the empty bottle, shouldered his pack, and walked away.
"Hey!" Xiao Ai called out to him, but he acted as if deaf, ignoring her completely.
"Zhang Tianen!!" Zheming shouted, only to be choked by the sand still stuck in his mouth, coughing violently as if his lungs would burst. "Don’t... don’t go! I’m... sorry! Please don’t... cough!!"
"Don’t leave us behind!" Xiao Ai screamed.
At this moment, the GPS was the most crucial tool. The spare batteries had been lost by Zheming, the incompetent teammate. Before the GPS battery died, they had to find water and then use the compass to navigate their way out. Not a single second could be wasted.
Zhang Tianen saw things with crystal clarity: these two were nothing but dead weight. Only by shedding them could he survive. He had already exhausted his water on them, fulfilling his duty to the utmost. Whether they could make it out of the desert would depend on their own abilities.Watching his retreating figure, Zheming and Xiao Ai were momentarily at a loss. After snapping back to reality, they frantically packed up and scrambled after him, stumbling and crawling. However, their physical stamina and endurance were no match for his to begin with, and after suffering heatstroke one after another over the past few days, they couldn’t keep up at all. They could only struggle forward step by step, relying entirely on the survival instinct inherent in humans as animals.
Some of the sand dunes ahead already exceeded 500 meters in height. The sun-facing side was a stretch of sandy yellow, while the shaded side was pitch black, like half a black hole. Each sand ridge was a flowing curve, winding left and right with a casual elegance—a sea of yellow sand, and even more so, an art of sand.
The three off-road vehicles crossed each ridge with extreme caution. This was the great sand mountain area. Beyond these sand mountains lay Qinghai Zi. As a scenic area, Qinghai Zi had some people running food and lodging businesses, and mobile phones would have signal there. To the south of Qinghai Zi was precisely Bilutu Peak. As long as the three students reached Qinghai Zi, it would be equivalent to a successful crossing.
After crossing two sand mountains without seeing any human footprints, the group slowed down and expanded their search radius for a while, eventually having to stop.
"Turn back," Diao Zhuo decided decisively. "They haven’t made it this far yet."
Old Wang slapped his thigh. "The route I took you on is the shortest northwest-southeast crossing! With the limited water they have, would they really take a detour?"
Bayunye leaned halfway out of the driver’s seat. "We haven’t seen any empty bottles or food wrappers along the way, so they haven’t passed through here yet. They might have changed their route midway!"
Diao Zhuo got out of the car and contacted the command center via satellite phone, learning that there was still no sign of the three students near Bilutu Peak. Bayunye also got out, picked up binoculars, and scanned the area. The sand dunes were towering and smooth, showing no signs of anyone having passed. "Are there any Hai Zi nearby?"
Old Wang sat cross-legged on the ground, drinking water. The question seemed to stump him, leaving him momentarily uncertain.
Brother Long checked the GPS map, identified the direction based on the setting sun, and pointed northwest. "...Old Wang, does the Hai Zi shown here refer to a saltwater lake or a freshwater one?"
"Heh, that thing isn’t accurate," Old Wang said mysteriously. "Only the Hai Zi in the scenic area don’t move. If you follow the map, whether you encounter a Hai Zi depends on luck. Hai Zi need human energy. Without it, they run away. When traveling through the desert, you either rely on camels or on experience." With that, he pointed to his head.
Brother Long was very familiar with the tricks of the trade and immediately teased him with a smile. "So, you don’t know either?"
Indeed, all tour guides feared being called ignorant of the routes. Old Wang snorted. "There are nearly 150 known Hai Zi in this area, but the desert is vast, and many remain undiscovered. Some have been found but are practically unfindable again, depending on the season and the sand dunes. Some Hai Zi only have water from March to April and dry up after July or August, making it pointless to go there—you won’t find water. Others move along with the shifting sand dunes. When we take guests, we only go to places with Hai Zi. As for the ones that don’t have legs, I know exactly where they are. But the ones marked on the map—I don’t take guests there. It wastes fuel, and you might not even see them. The ones with legs run away. Trust me."
"Why are there so many waterholes with legs..." Bayunye sighed, rubbing her forehead.Diao Zhuo took it as a matter of course. "The reason is simple—no map navigation software company has ever actually conducted on-site surveying deep in the uninhabited areas, especially near the edges of military restricted zones. So, there are discrepancies between the landmarks on the navigation and the real ones."
Bayunye burst into laughter. "Any travel legend loses all its mystery the moment you explain it. You really are the terminator of our profession."
Diao Zhuo looked up. "Feeling the power of knowledge?"
She covered her chest, misusing an idiom: "It's like moving mountains with sheer strength."
"There are no mountains where you're covering."
Bayunye was instantly rendered speechless with anger.
Old Wang stood up, leaned over to glance at the map, and pointed at it. "If there are places along the way that might have water, it's those two Hai Zis—one close, one far. For the vehicles, it's just an extra hour or two, but for those kids, it's two or three days."
Not far away, Bayunye, trying to calm herself, attempted to climb a sand dune. She took three steps forward but slid back two, finding it even harder to traverse than a glacier. "So, if they realize they don't have enough water, it would still take them two days to reach the nearest Hai Zi?"
Old Wang shook his head. "They must change their route early. Otherwise, how could they last two days?"
Diao Zhuo pondered for a moment. "Let's head to the two Hai Zis marked on the map. If they changed their route midway, they must have gone there."
"That's a good idea." Old Wang stood up, patted the sand off his buttocks, and felt a sudden, sharp pain in his palm. He looked down and saw several large blisters had inexplicably formed on his palm. The blisters had burst from the patting motion, leaving the broken skin bright red. "Good heavens!"
"What happened?" Hippo asked, bewildered.
"I don't know... strange." Old Wang was utterly confused, shaking his hand vigorously. The pain didn't lessen; instead, it became more piercing, contorting his features.
Bayunye initially thought he had accidentally cut his hand, but now it didn't seem so. She hurried over and saw Old Wang's palm was bright red, faintly emitting the smell of burnt flesh. "What did you touch just now?"
"N-nothing." Old Wang gasped sharply.
Out of the corner of his eye, Diao Zhuo noticed a change in the color of Old Wang's dark pants. At first glance, it looked like sand, but upon closer inspection, the fabric from his buttocks to his thighs appeared as if it had been sprayed with a bleaching agent.
Seeing the wound on Old Wang's palm, Diao Zhuo's immediate reaction was a burn.
Connecting it to Old Wang's discolored pants, Diao Zhuo wondered—could this be a strong acid burn? Where would strong acid come from here?
"Bring a bottle of water!"
Hippo quickly pulled out several bottles of mineral water and rinsed Old Wang's palm. After using two bottles, Old Wang was still in pain, but the burning sensation subsided. He shook his hand, letting the water drip into the sand. After drying it with medical cotton, he applied erythromycin ointment with a cotton swab and skillfully bandaged it with gauze, gritting his teeth.
Diao Zhuo stood near where Old Wang had been sitting and dug downward with an entrenching tool. There was nothing but sand, though perhaps due to a light rain earlier, the deeper sand was very cold.
Just then, several small holes suddenly appeared in the damp sand under Old Wang's feet. Bayunye noticed them and curiously stepped on them with her foot, causing the holes to vanish instantly.
As Bayunye was about to walk away, something shot out from the ground. She instinctively leaned back and quickly retreated several steps.
"Diao Zhuo, give me the shovel!" She reached out her hand.Diao Zhuo brought over two shovels, and the two of them dug downward together. They didn’t find any objects, only a sand hole about two fingers wide. However, as soon as it was exposed, the surrounding sand poured in. When they dug again, it had already become solid.
“Keep digging, faster.” Bayunye patted Diao Zhuo’s shoulder, which was as hard as stone.
Digging deeper, they could vaguely see a few more sand holes, but the sand around them seemed particularly loose. Often, with just a slight vibration from the upper layer, the holes would quickly be buried again, so each sand hole appeared only briefly before vanishing.
Bayunye was frustrated and randomly jabbed the shovel into the sand, but still found nothing. One thing was certain: there must be something unusual in the sand, and that something was the source of the strong acid. Diao Zhuo believed now was not the right time to investigate this issue, so he simply took some sand samples stuck to Old Wang’s pants to bring back.
Old Wang’s hand was temporarily unable to drive, so his car had to be driven by Bayunye instead. Hippo joked, “You’ve been sticking to Diao Zhuo these past two days. Now that you have to switch cars, you must be reluctant, huh?”
Bayunye didn’t take it seriously, placing her hands on her hips and laughing boldly. “Since I’m the clingy one, tearing me off so violently, skin and all, would hurt him, not me! Hahaha!”
Diao Zhuo, accustomed to this, showed no change in expression. He only snorted coldly as he passed by her, saying, “Even if it’s skin and all, it’s your delicate skin that wouldn’t hold up first.”
Bayunye grabbed him and stared straight into his eyes. “Are you a yak? Why compare toughness with me? If you have the guts, let’s fight it out after we leave. We’ll see whose skin is harder.”
Diao Zhuo didn’t back down. “It’s not that your skin is hard—it’s thick.” With that, he opened the driver’s door for her, extending his right hand forward in a gentlemanly gesture to invite her inside.
Bayunye was momentarily at a loss for words and could only get in first. Once seated, she suddenly hooked Diao Zhuo’s neck, pulling him close and whispering in his ear, “If my skin weren’t thick, how could I handle you?”
Diao Zhuo’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and he silently cursed in his mind—fuck.
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