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Before we prepared, Brother Long and I prepared some things. Medicine was a must because we knew what would happen. We were prepared and treated this as a field trip.
The first part of the journey was to start from Bosten Lake and head southwest. They would walk west along the Peacock River until they found the ancient river channel that headed south. Bosten could be translated as standing. The origin of this name was because there were three mountains standing in the middle of the lake. In ancient times, this lake was also known as the Fish Sea. It was the largest inland freshwater lake in China. The Peacock River originated from here and flowed into the depths of the Taklamakan. When we passed by the lake, we looked out and saw the vast and deep blue lake water that dazzled people. Inadvertently, we had the illusion that we had reached the end of the world.
The first two days after they left, Professor Chen's three students were in high spirits. They were all very young and it was their first time entering the desert. They felt that it was fresh and fun. One moment, they were imitating Old Man An's whistle as he directed the camels. The next moment, they chased each other around, played, and sang.
I was also eager to give it a try. I wanted to mess around with them, but considering that Brother Long and I were just bystanders, it was better to keep a low profile.
According to Old Man An, the initial part of the journey was not a desert at all. The ancient river course of the Peacock River had existed before the river changed its course. In some areas, the riverbed had not completely dried up, and the surrounding sand was very shallow. There were small lakes and seas everywhere, and occasionally a small group of red-mouthed gulls and red-mouthed diving ducks swam on the water surface. Along the bend of the Peacock River, there were small oases with jujube trees, poplar trees, and some shrubs.
Once we cross this river bend, we will truly enter the desert. The Peacock River will change its course to the southeast. That way will be Loulan, Lop Nur, and Danya. We will head southwest and enter the "Black Desert".
Old Man An said that the Black Desert was created by Hu Da to punish the greedy heretics. Countless cities and treasures were buried in the desert, but no one could bring them out of the Black Desert. Even if you only took a gold coin, you would lose your way in the Black Desert and be buried by the wind and sand forever.
What Old Man An said had a certain basis because this was a flowing desert. The wind blew the sand dunes, and the terrain changed every day. There were no special features, and the ancient river had long disappeared.
It was all thanks to Old Man An that the ancient castles, houses, and towers that were half-buried by the yellow sand with only half of their roofs exposed; Populus euphraticus, which had been blown into a 30-degree angle with the ground by the strong wind; A few small Haloxylon ammoresense in the desert could not escape Old Man An's eyes.
These things were strung together to form a line. It told us that the ancient course of the Peacock River had once passed through here. At the end of this ancient course that had disappeared was the legendary Jingjue Ancient City that had been abandoned by Hu Da.
The thing that left the deepest impression on us in the desert was the thousand-year-old poplar trees. If we hadn't seen them with our own eyes, who would believe that there were trees in the desert? Every tree was like a vigorous dragon, and all the branches were slanted to the east, as if the dragon was running in the desert. In such a harsh environment, after thousands of years, it had long withered. The trunk was blown flat to the ground by the wind and sand, but it still did not fall.
Not far away from here was the place where Brother Long worked some time ago. However, the other half was not very visible. He exchanged glances with Brother Long and continued to move forward with the main group in a low-key manner.
The first ray of sunlight rose from the eastern horizon, reflecting the clouds in the sky. The rising and falling sand dunes in the desert were covered in a layer of sunlight. The dried poplar trees and the rippling yellow sand were reflected in a golden red color. The dense colors formed a magnificent picture in the world.
In order to avoid the scorching sun at noon, everyone had to travel through the night. They were tired from walking. When they saw this scene, they could not help but feel refreshed. Shirley Yang praised,"The desert is so beautiful. God, look at that poplar tree. It's simply a golden divine dragon in the desert.”He took out his camera and pressed the shutter, hoping to preserve this beautiful scenery.
It was like this. Previously, he only knew how to work and did not notice that the scenery was quite good. At least, it was much better than the alleys in the capital in winter.
While everyone was intoxicated by the beautiful scenery, I noticed that Old Man An was staring at the morning sun in the east. A hint of uneasiness appeared on his face. I walked over and asked him,
"Old Master, what's wrong? Is the world going to change?"
In the mainland, I heard that the morning glow doesn't leave the house. If the evening glow travels ten thousand miles, the red clouds in the morning are not a good sign.
This is already the fifth day since we set off and the third day since we entered the Black Desert. The ruins of the West Night Ancient City are in front of us. We were supposed to arrive tomorrow, but Old Man An said,
" The storm this time will be very strong. Even if we build a sand wall, we won't be able to stop it. If we don't rush to the ruins of West Night City, we'll all be buried alive in the desert.”
From what he said, I knew that this wasn't a joke. We were still half a day away from the ruins of the West Night Ancient City. If anything happened on the way, it would be troublesome. Moreover, we had walked for an entire night. Everyone was exhausted. It was hard to say if those old, weak, women, and children could hold on.
"Brother Long, pay attention to Old Man An! There's something wrong with this scenery."
"I know."
Old Man An slowly got down from the camel and took out a blanket. He spread it on the yellow sand unhurriedly and knelt on it. His eyes were slightly closed and his expression was devout. He opened his hands and stretched them to the sky. Then, he covered his face and chanted loudly.
Unexpectedly, after Old Man An finished praying, he seemed to have changed into a different person. His body seemed to have been wound up by a spring. He rolled up the blanket quickly and jumped onto the camel like a spring. He let out a long whistle.
"Oh, oh, oh…Run quickly. If you're late, you'll be buried in the purgatory of black sand.”
He urged the big camel under him and took the lead to run.
I cursed in my heart,
"I knew that this old man was evil. Brother Long, tell everyone to leave quickly."
He immediately called everyone to move.
The camels also felt the danger signal coming from the sky. Like crazy, they spread out their four big hooves and ran wildly in the desert. Usually, it was quite interesting to sit on a camel and walk, but once it ran, it would be very bumpy. We tightly leaned on the back of the camel, afraid that we would fall off if we lost our grip.
The camels galloped in the desert, and the yellow sand that was stirred up rolled up a huge yellow dragon. Everyone wore goggles and covered their noses and mouths with headscarves.
I looked around and felt that something was wrong. The camels had already lost control. They were panting heavily as they followed Old Man An's big camel. They ran like a whirlwind. It seemed that the situation was more urgent and dangerous than I had expected.
I could only keep looking left and right, counting the number of people on the hump until noon. Even though the camels were strong and good at walking, they were so tired that they were drenched in sweat and had to slow down. Fortunately, no one fell behind.
Old Man An told everyone to quickly take advantage of this time to eat a few mouthfuls of dry food and drink more water. They did not have to worry about running out of water. They could find underground water veins under the ruins of West Night City, and fresh water would be replenished there. After eating and drinking their fill, they let the camels rest their legs. Fortunately, they were not far away, but they still continued to run immediately, otherwise it would be too late.
Everyone took out some naang and dried meat and ate a few mouthfuls randomly. Hu Bayi and Fatty were worried about these scholars and asked them one by one if they were okay.
Professor Chen was not young, and he was breathless from the camel's jolt. He could not say a word. Ye Yixin, the youngest female student, vomited a few times. They only drank some water and couldn't eat anything.
Brother Long and I ate some food and drank some water alone. Fortunately, Brother Long and I carried bags on our backs, so the basic things wouldn't fall anywhere.
The worst was Hao Aiguo. He had lost his glasses and couldn't see anything clearly. He was so anxious that he turned around. Fortunately, the graduate student Sa Dipeng was also short-sighted. He had a spare pair of glasses. Their degrees were similar, which solved Hao Aiguo's urgent need.
Shirley Yang and the other tall student, Chu Jian, were fine, especially Shirley Yang. Perhaps it was inherited from her adventurous father, or it might have something to do with her growing up in America. She had a strong adventurous spirit and good physical fitness. She did not sleep for a night and ran in the desert for half a day. She did not seem tired, but she was still in high spirits. She was busy helping Old Man An reinforce the materials on the camel's back.
A gentle breeze blew across the sand dunes, stirring up fine sand. The distant horizon gradually turned dark yellow. Old Man An shouted,"
"The trade winds are here, don't rest anymore! God bless us, we have so many people, let's run for our lives!”
The members of the archeological team dragged their tired bodies and climbed onto the camels again. At this time, they could no longer care about the camel's physical strength. They shouted and urged the camels to run.
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