"Who is this?" Bауunуе jumрed out of thе vеhicle аnd ran ovеr, turning thе реrsоn оnto their bаck. The withered, brown-уеllow bоy bеfоrе hеr had fеаturеs sо indistinguishаble hе seemed shrunkеn likе a sun-driеd radish.
Diao Zhuо opеned a bоttlе оf wаtеr аnd рoured оut аbout hаlf а сup's wоrth.
Bауunye fоrсefullу lifted Zheming's upрer body, сrаdling him with оne аrm while using her othеr hаnd tо roughlу wiре thе sаnd frоm his lips. Тhеn she brоught the disрosablе cuр tо his mоuth. Zheming grееdilу suсked at it, finishing it in onе go and repeаtedly begging fоr more.
Diаo Zhuо sаid, "Feеd him slowly. Don’t rush."
"I know. Drinking too much at once would be even worse." Bayunye waved her hand dismissively, as if reminding him not to assume she lacked first-aid knowledge.
Brother Long looked around and pointed downward. "There's another one down there!"
"Hurry!" Hippo was the first to charge down, with Old Wang and Brother Long following closely behind, sliding down like two rolling balls.
"It's a girl!" Hippo shouted. "It's Meng Xiao Ai!"
Bayunye looked at Diao Zhuo, her gaze clear and resolute. "You go down. I’ve got this here."
Diao Zhuo nodded. Hah, this woman never held anyone back at critical moments—sharp and reliable through and through.
When Diao Zhuo rushed down with the medical kit, Old Wang frowned and said, "She won’t wake up... her mouth is clenched tight, can’t get any water in."
Brother Long pressed two fingers against Xiao Ai’s neck. "She’s still alive."
Seeing their condition, Diao Zhuo concluded that the water they had brought had long run out and they were already in a state of hypertonic dehydration. He handed the medical kit to Brother Long, crouched down, and gestured to his back. "It’s too hot here. Let’s carry her up first."
The group quickly scrambled to lift Xiao Ai onto Diao Zhuo’s back.
"One after another, they’re barely recognizable anymore..." Old Wang sighed, climbing up while supporting Xiao Ai’s back to ease Diao Zhuo’s burden. In the photos provided by the command center, the kids looked young and full of vitality, especially this girl with her bright, sparkling eyes. But now, she was emaciated, her eyes sunken deep into their sockets, her face a dull reddish-brown, her lips and ears peeling in layers.
"There’s still one more..." Diao Zhuo turned to Brother Long. "Search the area again."
"Hippo, come with me." Brother Long called out.
Zheming’s consciousness gradually returned, and he finally recognized Bayunye. "You... aren’t you..."
"Yes, it’s me—Master Ba." Bayunye said self-deprecatingly. "Thanks to you three, I’ve practically become an internet celebrity in the western off-road circle. I’ve been feeding you water for so long, and you only recognize me now, damn it."
"You... how..." Zheming struggled to form a complete sentence, suddenly wondering if he was dreaming.
"Don’t talk. Just rest." Bayunye refrained from provoking him further—his breath was unbearably foul, making her uncomfortable. Still, both students were alive, making her days of searching tirelessly under the stars worthwhile.
"Are you tired? We can switch."
"No need. Your hand is injured, it’s not convenient."
Hearing Diao Zhuo and Old Wang’s voices, Bayunye turned to see Diao Zhuo carrying the lifeless Xiao Ai, struggling step by step up the slope. For every three steps he took, he slipped back two. Balancing while carrying someone on his back was no easy feat.Diao Zhuo climbed a bit further up, took a deep breath, leaned forward, and half-kneeled on the ground. Old Wang cooperatively helped push Xiao Ai upward, and Diao Zhuo tightened his arms around her legs, continuing to climb.
Bayunye watched him, suddenly feeling a sense of hardness and warmth, and then thought, If only this man belonged to me for a lifetime.
Once they reached the ridge, the path became much easier to walk. Diao Zhuo and Old Wang placed Xiao Ai on the back seat together, letting her lie flat. They called out to her a few times, but she remained unconscious—her condition was critical. Diao Zhuo found a bottle of glucose solution, skillfully assembled the needle, disinfected her skin, and inserted it into the back of her hand. After adjusting the flow rate to replenish her fluids, he also prepared a bottle of saline solution.
“What about the other one? Have you found him?” Old Wang called Brother Long over the walkie-talkie.
“No. Can’t find him nearby.”
Old Wang walked outside and crouched in front of Zheming. “Young man, what’s your name?”
Bayunye clearly recognized who this person was but deliberately didn’t answer, wanting to test whether his mind was still clear.
After drinking some water, Zheming felt a bit better but remained weak. He spoke intermittently, “I… Su… Zheming.”
“Su Zheming,” Old Wang repeated. “Where is that Zhang Tianen?”
Zheming pursed his lips, seemingly unwilling to speak. He hated Zhang Tianen to the core, wishing he would die as soon as possible. In the end, he closed his eyes, indicating he didn’t know.
Old Wang grew anxious. “How could you not know? You came together!”
“It’s normal for him not to know where Zhang Tianen is. There are no road signs here,” Bayunye said. After a pause, she patted Zheming’s face. “But—you should at least tell us which direction Zhang Tianen went, or where you were when you got separated?”
Zheming shook his head, appearing either genuinely confused or deliberately withholding information.
“If that’s the case…” Bayunye moved the cup away from his lips. “We don’t have much water left. We’ll save some for Zhang Tianen to drink after we find him.” As she spoke, she pretended to take the water bottle back to the vehicle.
“No… don’t…” Zheming widened his eyes. Bayunye had undoubtedly hit his weak spot. Water was more important to him than anything else now—how could he endure thirst again after drinking only half? “Southwest… southwest…”
“Southwest direction?” Bayunye was quite pleased with her success, but there was no smile in her eyes. “Are you talking about the two Hai Zi on the southwest side of the GPS map?”
Zheming grunted in affirmation.
“Diao Zhuo!” Bayunye called out. “Zhang Tianen still went in the direction of the Hai Zi to the southwest!”
Diao Zhuo immediately notified the rescue command center, reporting the search progress. “Found one male and one female: Meng Xiaoai and Su Zheming. Meng Xiaoai is in critical condition, suffering from hypertonic dehydration and unconscious. We are currently attempting fluid replenishment and request additional medical personnel to meet us as soon as possible. Zhang Tianen’s whereabouts are unknown, and his condition is likely not optimistic. We recommend that other rescue teams conduct a grid search toward the southwest direction while preparing for emergency treatment!”
Officer Liu put down the phone and turned around joyfully. “Meng Xiaoai and Su Zheming have been found! Alive! The Beidou Rescue Team is providing preliminary first aid! Here! The coordinates are here! Medical personnel, head here first—”"Ah—ah—!" Liu Chengru screamed out, then broke into another fit of sobbing, stumbling toward Officer Liu. "Where is my daughter!! Where is my daughter!! I want to talk to her!! Wuwuwu!! How is she?!"
Zheming's parents were also overwhelmed with mixed emotions, holding each other and crying incessantly. In contrast, Zhang Tianen's parents were torn between disappointment and terror, a torment that nearly consumed them. After just two or three days of waiting, their hair had already turned half gray. Zhang Tianen's mother, originally slightly plump, had noticeably thinned, her eyes deeply sunken like a long-term patient confined to a sickbed.
"Tianen... where is our Tianen..." she murmured as she approached Officer Liu. "How is he... how..."
The Zhang couple were utterly bewildered. In terms of physical strength and experience, their son was clearly the strongest, so why were the other two found first? They had a deeply ominous premonition, one that chilled them to the bone and made them tremble. Neither wanted to accept the arrival of the worst possible outcome.
"Don’t worry, don’t worry... they’re still searching. They’ll definitely find him," Officer Liu reassured them.
"Beidou Rescue... that’s the Beidou Rescue Team that brought Zou Kaigui back from Qiangtang a few months ago!" someone remarked.
"Yes, yes! I remember in the team led by Old Wang... there was Diao Zhuo."
"Diao Zhuo—he was the one who went into Qiangtang last time to search for people."
"I also heard that the woman who went with them, the tall one, was a tour guide who took three college students to Xinjiang. She volunteered to help."
"She’s no ordinary tour guide. She’s the top member of the Eagle Club, a former special forces soldier. I heard she’s very beautiful. Once, she was cornered by a few men on a remote road with ill intentions... and those idiots all ended up in the hospital, too scared to report it to the police. The matter was just dropped."
"What kind of thug would report themselves to the police first, hahaha!"
Hearing the chatter, Officer Liu noticed the Zhang parents’ ashen faces and offered further comfort: "The volunteer rescue teams this time all have extensive search and rescue experience. Besides, they already know Xiao Zhang’s approximate location. I believe he’ll return safely soon."
The Zhang parents nodded repeatedly, desperately hoping everything Officer Liu said would come true.
After the news broke about the two missing students being found, online discussions continued. Some keyboard warriors jumped in to criticize the rescue system as overly lenient, arguing that China’s rescue resources should be reserved for emergency disaster response. They believed that self-righteous hikers who ignored warnings shouldn’t be indulged, as it wasted manpower and funds. Other more reasonable netizens argued that saving lives was essential, but this rescue operation should charge fees afterward to serve as a deterrent.
Deep in the desert, Zhang Tianen couldn’t hear his parents’ sobs, nor could he see the heated discussions online. He was like a stranded whale, most of his body buried in the sand, his mouth slightly agape, breathing weakly yet desperately, clinging to the hope of survival.
The midday sun remained fierce, scorching every grain of sand on the surface and baking his gaunt, parched face.Somehow, the sound of engines rose several times in the distance, but it seemed that upon seeing the tire tracks, they all assumed the area had already been searched and never came closer. Zhang Tianen felt utterly helpless, on the verge of tears. Each time an engine roared, he strained to make a sound, only to watch helplessly as another chance of rescue slipped away.
Some sand blew into his mouth with the wind, but he lacked even the strength to spit it out. He opened his eyes from time to time, gazing at the azure sky, then closed them again, his mind filled with fragments of the past. Once, when he opened his eyes, he saw a white camel standing on the ridge of a dune, looking down at him. A surge of wild joy welled up inside him—they said that seeing a white camel in the desert was like seeing a god.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, the white camel vanished.
His fist clenched tightly around a handful of sand, not only out of unwillingness but also out of attachment to this world. He thought that even if he were to descend into hell, he would bring the sand of Badanjilin with him. In his next life, he would either never set foot in a desert again or conquer every desert in the world.
I might be dying… he thought dizzily.
About a dozen kilometers away from him, in a shaded spot, Xiao Ai’s condition had improved significantly thanks to timely fluid replenishment, though she had yet to regain consciousness. Diao Zhuo received a message from the command center: most of the rescue vehicles had gathered in the southwest, but they had found neither the two Hai Zi marked on the GPS map nor Zhang Tianen.
“The Hai Zi… they really did disappear,” Old Wang shook his head regretfully.
In another vehicle, Brother Long shook out the clothes and pants stripped from Zheming, which were filled with sand. Earlier, Hippo had used a wet cloth to wipe Zheming down, and half the bucket of water was filled with fine sand.
After changing into clean clothes, Zheming lay on the back seat in a deep sleep. Brother Long woke him up, asked a few questions, nodded, and walked toward Diao Zhuo’s vehicle.
“Tell the other Rescue Teams—” Brother Long leaned against the car window, sticking his head inside, “Since Zhang Tianen has hiking experience, it’s unlikely he’d collapse on a ridge in broad daylight. I noticed that even the crevices of Zheming’s buttocks were filled with sand, so I reckon they stripped and buried themselves in the sand to cool down. Keep an eye out for round heads or digging marks in shaded sand hollows.”
Diao Zhuo nodded and picked up the satellite phone.
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