Вауunуe didn't hold bасk аt аll—shе grabbed his hand аnd bit dоwn, reallу sinking her teеth in.
А mаn's hаnd, tоugh аnd rough. Evеn when you gnaw on it with yоur tеeth, уou саn still fееl a thiсk, ruggеd tоughnеss grаting agаinst your sharр littlе incisоrs.
"Does it hurt? If not, I'll bitе again." Вayunуе lооkеd аt thе deeр сrimson bitе mаrks аround thе edgе оf his palm.
"It hurts." It hurt sо muсh it felt gоod all ovеr.
"Still dare to trу?"
"I dоn't dаre."
Вayunyе flung his hаnd аwaу.
Diао Zhuо hаndеd her а lightеr. "Light a smоke fоr me, boss."
"Dоn't yоu hаvе yоur оwn hаnds?"
"Yоu bit them off."
"Damn."
Diаo Zhuo tucked the сigarette intо her mouth, whisрering sоftlу as if сoaxing a child, "Light it for me, be good."
Bayunye held the cigarette between her lips, lit it, slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, and then passed it to his lips. Squinting her eyes, she said, "Diao Zhuo, you better not fucking fall in love with me."
He gently bit down on the cigarette. "What if I'm serious?"
Bayunye froze for a moment, then respectfully gestured with a "please" motion. "Well... go ahead then."
Just a few minutes later, the walkie-talkie crackled to life, and Brother Long's voice came through—"Hey, I think I see smoke coming from somewhere."
Several vehicles came to a stop. Brother Long was the first to get out, pointing directly west. "Over there! I saw a bit of smoke just now!"
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, but all they saw was clear blue sky and bright daylight—no trace of smoke anywhere.
"I don't see anything," Hippo said, shielding his eyes with his hand and craning his neck to look.
"Are you sure it's that way?" Diao Zhuo asked. "Due west isn't the direction of Hai Zi on the map, nor is it the shortest route out of the desert."
Old Wang speculated, "Could it be that a few people got lost?"
Bayunye stood beside Brother Long, looking through binoculars. "There really is a bit of smoke! Probably something burning to its last embers!"
Old Wang said excitedly, "It must be them! There are no residents here—no one else would be lighting a fire!"
"Let's go!" Diao Zhuo made the call without hesitation.
"Seeing a mountain doesn't mean it's close—even if we can see the smoke, it might not be nearby. Everyone, be patient," Old Wang cautioned. "The smoke is almost gone now. We absolutely have to remember the direction!"
Bayunye stuck out her thumb and pointed at Diao Zhuo beside her, saying loudly, "He'll remember! This guy's eyes are like microscopes—he's really sharp!"
"Sometimes he can't even tell men from women," Diao Zhuo retorted, mocking her earlier mischief of deliberately following him into the restroom. He stepped on the accelerator. "Hold on tight."
Several vehicles turned and headed west. At that very moment, Zhang Tianen was waiting desperately for a chance to survive less than two kilometers from where they had stopped. If Brother Long hadn't spotted the smoke and they had continued driving forward, they might have discovered Zhang Tianen's tracks in at most half an hour.
But once you choose to take risks, you must bear all the natural variables and unexpected obstacles that arise along the way.
The fire continued to burn for a while longer but soon died out. Zheming and Xiao Ai had nothing else to burn, so they tried igniting low-growing plants. These plants burned even faster than the backpack—not only did they produce little smoke, but their branches were thin and scattered. With a gust of wind, the flames went out instantly.
"No one is coming to save us," Zheming plopped down, burying his face in his arms in despair. "We're done for."
Xiao Ai thought of the camel's dried corpse and shrank into a trembling ball. Surrounded by towering sand dunes, she couldn't tell east from west for a moment. It felt as if all the sand was closing in on her, suffocating her.She was severely dehydrated, even her usually delicate fingertips had become dry and shriveled, like the dried cowpeas her grandmother from the countryside sent every year. Now the sun was blazing again, and she could feel her body gradually shriveling, her flesh clinging to her bones, every joint pulled taut.
Everyone dies, but she never imagined she would die in such a miserable way, in a place like this.
"Let's try heading southeast..." She still wanted to survive, but as soon as she stood up, she collapsed. Her stomach felt terrible, shriveled from lack of water, and she wanted to vomit something, but could only retch dryly, not even able to bring up saliva.
Zheming crawled forward a couple of steps before collapsing weakly.
Xiao Ai lay beside him, weeping without tears. Her eye sockets were deeply sunken, the cracked and broken parts of her lips had long since festered, and she didn't even have the strength to brush away the sand stuck to them. Her heart felt terrible, as if blocked by countless bubbles, sometimes racing, sometimes stopping.
The two lay there for a while, but the ground temperature was simply too high, forcing them to get up and support each other as they trudged upward, like two stray dogs crawling up the sandy slope on all fours. Passing the spot where they had dug for water the day before, Zheming felt a lingering fear and didn't dare approach, nor did he have the strength to investigate what had injured his ear.
Xiao Ai instinctively glanced at the sand pit and saw something round and blue inside. Looking more closely, it seemed like a plastic bottle cap on one side of the pit... no, it was a plastic water bottle buried inside. Last night, the light was too dim, and with Zheming suddenly injured, she hadn't noticed.
"Danger..." Zheming rasped as he saw Xiao Ai crawling toward the pit.
Xiao Ai dug a couple of times with her hand—it really was a flattened plastic water bottle. Without much hope, she continued to dig, pulling the bottle out. Inside, there was actually water!!
"Water!!! Zheming! Water!!" she screamed hoarsely.
Zheming's eyes lit up, and he quickly crawled over—there really was water in the bottle, though only a little, about 50 milliliters. In normal times, it would barely be enough for a single sip. Perhaps some tourist had littered, and a sandstorm had carried it here before later sand buried it underground.
Zheming grabbed the bottle. "Water..."
This was life-saving water! As long as it was liquid, even if it were pesticide, he would drink it without hesitation! He was so thirsty! So thirsty!! This feeling of thirst—unless you were in such a situation, you could never truly understand it!
"We..." Xiao Ai was about to suggest they each take a sip when she saw Zheming unscrew the cap and tilt his head back, draining every last drop in an instant.
That small sip of water was like a person with a million in debt winning ten dollars—utterly useless. Perhaps it was psychological, but Zheming felt his life had been extended a little, and he relaxed considerably. In contrast, Xiao Ai, after her initial shock, sank into deep despair and disappointment. Some things in her heart that were never very solid completely collapsed in an instant, triggering dangerous palpitations. She stared fixedly at Zheming, her gaze sorrowful yet carrying a serious scrutiny. For the first time, or perhaps once again, she experienced the darkness of human nature that erupts in extreme environments and situations.
Zheming quickly came to his senses, looking shocked and remorseful as he crawled over and half-knelt before her. "I'm sorry, Xiao Ai... I was so thirsty... I couldn't help it... We... let's keep looking! There must be more!"With that, he ignored the danger and climbed into the sand pit, digging frantically.
Xiao Ai remained kneeling motionless, her gaze fixed on Zheming’s back as he desperately shoveled sand, trying to find a second water bottle or some other container. Xiao Ai wondered, if he really found a second one, would he give it to her?
Probably not.
She smiled, seemingly having accepted the fact that she would soon die—there were always a few idiots in the world who had to pay a painful price for their own stupidity.
Zheming exerted too much force and was soon panting heavily. The pit contained nothing but sand, not even the thing that had inexplicably sprayed corrosive liquid yesterday. Occasionally, a sand hole as thick as a thumb would appear, only to collapse and vanish almost immediately.
He turned around dejectedly and glanced at Xiao Ai.
She had been holding on purely by the will to survive, but now, with dehydration and mental collapse, her expression had become abnormal.
“I’m sorry…” he said, but surprisingly, he felt no guilt in his heart—no one truly loved another person enough to give their life for them, right?
Xiao Ai squinted her eyes, and Zheming seemed to split into four figures, each holding a water bottle and gulping down water. She reached out her hand, “Water… give me…”
“I’ll keep looking… keep looking…” Zheming was torn between disbelief that such luck could strike twice and reluctance to waste his energy.
Xiao Ai saw more and more water bottles appearing in Zheming’s hands, almost filling the entire desert. She tried to grab one but couldn’t reach it. With a loud cry, she lunged forward, collapsing to the ground unconscious, her body twitching faintly.
“Xiao Ai?” Zheming crawled over and found that no matter how much he called her, she wouldn’t wake up. Her limbs kept convulsing, a terrifying sight.
Was she… going to die?
Zheming stared in shock. Since they had both run out of water, the amount they had gotten from Zhang Tianen was very limited. Coupled with their existing heatstroke symptoms, their condition was already dire. After completely running out of water, the journey and digging had drained even more of their strength. Xiao Ai was likely beyond saving.
“I’m really sorry, Xiao Ai…” Zheming knelt before her, momentarily at a loss.
Xiao Ai convulsed for a while before falling still, her breathing faint, as if on the verge of death.
There was absolutely no water here. Waiting any longer would be waiting for death. Perhaps it was better to keep heading southeast—maybe they could reach a water source? Zheming thought, wrapping the remaining items in his jacket and setting off again. But it wasn’t that simple. After just a few steps, he collapsed to his knees from heart palpitations, unable to even crawl.
He struggled onward, with Xiao Ai’s “corpse” serving as his motivation. He told himself that if he didn’t want to die, he had to crawl forward. Crawl one step, pant for three minutes, crawl another step, pant for three more minutes. He persevered, each step agonizingly difficult. Perhaps every so-called “suicidal idiot” had displayed unimaginable perseverance and courage to survive—and maybe even a bit of baseness.
The sound of engines echoed from afar. Zheming, who had finally crawled to the top of a sand ridge, looked up and saw three vehicles winding along the ridge’s curve in the distance, as unreal as a dream.
How was this possible? he wondered. Was this an illusion, or a mirage?
“Someone! Over there!” a woman’s voice called out.Zheming strained to see. Three vehicles flickered in and out of view with the undulations of the sandy hills, making it hard to distinguish reality from illusion.
"Hey—" a male voice called out. From both sides of the off-road vehicle, hands stretched out of the windows, waving frantically.
It didn’t seem like a hallucination.
"Help... help!!!" Zheming shouted with all his might. "Save me!! Save me!! Give me... give me... water..."
"He’s alive! He’s still alive!"
"Why is there only one? Where are the others?"
"Drive faster!"
"Hey!! Hang in there!!"
Zheming heard several voices growing closer—men and women. Behind the off-road vehicle, a cloud of yellow dust billowed, and the small flag raised high on the roof was glaringly bright and vivid.
He collapsed onto the sand. Though he swallowed a mouthful of grit, he knew it was all about to end...
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