Zhаng Тiаnеn had onlу bееn gоnе for a short whilе whеn a light drizzle bеgan to fаll. Не ореned his mouth widе toward the sky, but barelу сaught а few drорs. Ву the timе thе drizzlе stорpеd, his tongue was оnlу slightly mоistened—nothing mоre. Hе greedilу wiреd thе wаtеr frоm his facе аnd heаd, hорing to squеezе оut a few mоrе droрs, but it was in vain.
Aftеr this drizzle that might as wеll hаvе not fаllen at all, thе skу grеw cоmрlеtеlу dаrk. Thе surrоundings werе so рitch-blaсk it felt аs if dееp blасk роols were lurking еverywhere. Hаd he not travеled by night fоr two оr thrеe dаys before, Zhang Tianen would never have adapted to the unease brought by the darkness. The adventure books and documentaries he had read and watched told him that to reduce water loss and conserve energy, traveling by night and resting by day was the best approach. So, he decided to hike during the nights for the next couple of days and remain as still as possible during the day.
But some things are easier said than done, especially when there’s no water.
The empty bottle he had picked up contained about 150 milliliters of urine. It was hard to imagine that from yesterday until today, his excretion had been so little. The liquid was a deep brown color—an extremely abnormal shade, indicating that his body was severely dehydrated, to the point where even basic metabolism had become difficult.
Drinking this stuff was akin to suicide, but it would at least prolong death a little. After all, there was still some moisture in it—it was just unbearably foul, salty and bitter. One sip could make you vomit three times.
It had been several hours since he had left Zheming and Xiao Ai behind and forged ahead alone. At first, they had struggled to keep up with him, maintaining a distance of a few hundred meters. When he glanced back secretly, he could still see their sorrowful figures. Later, as the distance grew, their figures shrank from the size of matchsticks to that of sesame seeds, until they disappeared completely.
He felt no regret. Instead, he thought his wise decision had come too late.
He would likely be the only one to walk out of the desert alive. And as long as he survived, he would hold the power of the narrative—his two companions had passed away one after another, leaving him with no choice but to struggle for survival alone. With survival at stake, there was no room for mutual aid or unwavering loyalty.
Compared to his desperate gamble, every step taken by the two behind him felt like walking on the edge of a knife.
Zheming and Xiao Ai had no GPS, only a compass. With no water and no guide, they were like three-year-old children abandoned in the middle of traffic, at risk of being killed by any unexpected event at any moment.
"That bastard Zhang Tianen…" Zheming’s face turned deathly pale the moment they lost sight of him. "He swore he could lead us out of the desert in eight days, letting us experience something no one else had. Cough, cough, cough!! And in the end, he betrayed us… he actually… actually ran off alone… He deserves to die. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have come to the desert with him, and I wouldn’t have trusted him so much…"
Xiao Ai clutched Zheming’s sleeve tightly. She was terrified—terrified that Zheming might also leave her alone, just like Zhang Tianen had. If that happened, she would be utterly doomed!
"I never thought he was that kind of person… If we had listened to him from the start, if we hadn’t finished the water so quickly, if we had endured a little, maybe we’d still have water now…"
"How can you say that!" Zheming retorted indignantly. "It was his poor planning. Why didn’t he let us bring more water? Was I incapable of carrying it?!"Xiao Ai extended her dry tongue, licking her lips. Her once soft and moist lips were now cracked like parched wood. Every movement tore at the old scabs, causing them to split open again and seep thin traces of blood. After several repetitions, they had already begun to fester.
"Zheming, what should we do now? Which direction should we go?"
"Southwest. Didn't that person say there's a lake over there?" Zheming didn’t even want to mention Zhang Tianen’s name.
"Is there really water there... How many more days do we have to walk? Could we get lost? I’m so thirsty. I’m afraid I’ll die of thirst before we reach the lake. Will anyone come to rescue us? Can the police really not find us? Don’t they have any advanced equipment? No helicopters?"
Faced with Xiao Ai’s barrage of questions, Zheming struggled to respond. He was too agitated to care about her feelings now, let alone comfort her with words when his own throat could barely manage much speech. A terrifying thought even crossed his mind—if Xiao Ai couldn’t walk anymore, he couldn’t wait with her to die. Since Zhang Tianen had left, for the sake of survival, he had to keep moving too.
Hah! What kind of love in this world truly endures life and death? It turns out all those tales of eternal devotion and day-and-night companionship were just fantasies dreamed up by well-fed scholars!
"...Let’s go," Zheming said, habitually swallowing, but his mouth was so dry that his throat tightened, feeling as if the muscles above and below had stuck together. Alarmed again, he emphasized, "We need to hurry."
Xiao Ai shook her head, her eyes bloodshot. "Can’t we just sit here and wait for the police to rescue us?"
Zheming frowned. "We have no water. If we’re going to sit and wait for rescue... cough! We still need to get to a place with water first."
Unaware of the shift in Zheming’s mindset, Xiao Ai thought his reasoning made perfect sense and nodded, forcing herself to keep walking.
As the flashlight beam swept across the ground, something suddenly scurried away with a rustling sound. Zheming stared for a long time but couldn’t make out what it was. Crawling over on hands and knees, he saw wavy marks on the sand—likely left by some tailed creature.
"Could it be a snake...?" Xiao Ai whispered.
"Whatever it is, if I catch it, I’ll drink its blood," Zheming said with a look of longing. The dry rations they’d brought had no moisture at all; by comparison, animals might contain more water.
To his surprise, Xiao Ai nodded eagerly too, desperately hoping to catch something to chew on, squeezing out whatever juices she could to swallow.
But after walking together for a very long time, they hadn’t caught a single animal. However, they did come across a patch of lush, low-growing gray-green plants. Though the tiny leaves looked parched, instinct told them that where there was vegetation, there must be water underground. Revived by this hope, they pulled out every tool they could use for digging from their bags and began frantically scooping sand.
Desert plants have resilient root systems, often with few unnecessary branches. The main taproot plunges straight downward, sometimes extending over 20 meters.
Water! Water! Water! Xiao Ai gritted her teeth as she shoveled sand, each thrust feeling as if she were digging straight toward the earth’s core. She watched the plant’s roots stubbornly stretching deeper, unsure how many meters they went. She thought, even if the roots reached the other side of the planet, she would dig until she found water.Zheming knelt on the ground, digging with a fierce expression as if heading into battle, kicking up clouds of dust behind him. He had no idea how long he had been digging when he felt something like sweat trickling from his head down to his ear. At first, he didn’t pay much attention, just wiping it away with his sleeve. But as he kept digging, his ear suddenly felt as if it were on fire, a sharp, piercing pain shooting through it.
“Ah—” he cried out in pain, clutching his ear. Only then did he realize his earlobe felt sticky, and something fell into his palm when he touched it. Looking down, he saw what appeared to be a piece of skin mixed with yellow and red fluid. Within seconds, that small piece of skin dissolved completely. He touched his ear again—half of it was gone.
“Xiao Ai! Xiao Ai!” he shouted, instinctively dropping his tools and stumbling backward.
Xiao Ai, not understanding what had happened, thought he had accidentally injured his hand and rushed over. She saw Zheming’s face covered in blood, with only a small piece of his ear remaining on one side.
“It hurts!! It hurts!!” Zheming thrashed his head, gasping for breath, until the pain became so unbearable that he rolled around on the ground. Suddenly, he tumbled down a sandy slope, plunging headfirst into the sand and lying completely still.
“Zheming—” Xiao Ai was terrified out of her wits, stumbling as she slid down after him, her heart pleading and praying—Zheming, please be okay!
As dawn broke, despite severe sleep deprivation, the group quickly washed up and resumed their search. Old Wang’s hand no longer felt like it was burning, but the pain persisted. He wouldn’t be able to drive anymore, so the others would have to take turns driving for him.
Hippo wasn’t very comfortable driving Old Wang’s vehicle, and combined with exhaustion, he had only been driving for a short while when the car plunged into a U-shaped sand pit, unable to move forward or backward. The pit was deep, and even using a tow rope proved useless, nearly dragging the other vehicles in as well.
“Drive around it, circle a few times and you’ll get out,” Old Wang said with a gesture, his experience speaking volumes as he wished he could take over.
Unfortunately, Hippo lacked experience driving in the desert. Despite sweating profusely, he remained stuck in the sand pit, unable to climb out.
Brother Long sighed and waved Hippo aside. “I’ll do it.”
“Let me try,” Bayunye said eagerly.
“Seems I’ve been too comfortable these past few years, making you doubt my skills,” Brother Long patted his chest, then pointed at Bayunye. “You, step aside!”
With that, he pulled Hippo out of the driver’s seat and settled into it himself. The vehicle shook heavily, dislodging a layer of sand from the roof.
“Beep—” he honked out of habit, then shifted into reverse and backed up.
Halfway up, the car slid back down the pit. Using the momentum of the descent, he tried climbing again, only to slide back down halfway.
“Hey! Can you do this or not…” Bayunye asked helplessly.
Brother Long didn’t respond. The car moved up and down the U-shaped slope like a skateboard, several times with half the front wheels clearing the edge before sliding back down. However, each time, the front of the car edged a little farther beyond the pit’s rim.
Bayunye caught on to the technique, wondering to herself—is this even possible?
Diao Zhuo watched with his arms crossed for a while, his expression gradually easing. It seemed just a few more accelerations would get them out. “What did Brother Long do before this?”
“He drove cross-country, covering most of China.”
“And before that?”Bayunye was taken aback. She rarely heard Brother Long mention his earlier years, only knowing he came from Ganzi, Sichuan. He had once boasted that by his teens, he was already a famous Khampa handsome guy known throughout the surrounding villages. But weight gain ruins everything—she couldn’t see any trace of that legendary handsome man in him now.
“He served in the military,” Diao Zhuo said. “He learned to drive in the army.”
Bayunye nodded. “So that’s what you mean… It’s true he was a soldier, probably a scout… but he never said which unit. Are you judging by his driving skills?”
“Some behavioral habits.”
“His posture when standing and walking doesn’t look like someone who’s marched in military drills. He used to sit with his back straight, but these past few years, as he’s gained weight, he’s become sloppy.” Bayunye was surprised. “Maybe it’s because he’s fat. Aside from you, no one can tell he was a soldier.”
“He habitually arranges all his things by size and color. When Old Wang wasn’t familiar with him yet, he once called him by his full name, and he answered ‘Here!’” Diao Zhuo watched the car moving up and down. “Also, he always honks when starting and uses turn signals. Not everyone has that habit, even if you know it’s a rule when getting a driver’s license. During an escape, he still remembered to honk and use turn signals—it could only be the result of long-term military training. And the blanket in the car, the way he folds it is completely different from how we casually fold ours. You’ve been with him all these years, you must have seen him fold his blanket…”
Bayunye looked innocent and spoke bluntly, “I’ve never slept with him, how would I have seen him fold his blanket?”
With one sentence, she could completely shut down a conversation. Diao Zhuo was left speechless. However, before this, Diao Zhuo had somewhat assumed, like others, that Bayunye and Brother Long had an unusual relationship. Today, her casual remark shattered the rumor of any romantic involvement between her and Brother Long.
After moving back and forth seven or eight times, most of the car body was out of the pit. With one final reverse and a forward surge, it finally cleared the pit completely. Hippo whistled happily. Brother Long got out of the car and slapped the back of his head with a meaty palm. “Whistle my ass! You better drive carefully, damn it!”
“Yes, sir!” Hippo stood at attention and saluted.
Brother Long scoffed disdainfully and commented, “…neither fish nor fowl.”
Just as everyone got back into the car to set off again, the satellite phone delivered news—a team had discovered a body.
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