The breath of death shrouded this vast white desert, and all of us dared not breathe.
I subconsciously looked at Banban!
Since that eagle has a premonition of danger, surely Banban, a thousand-year-old rice dumpling like this, must be more sensitive than it?
But the strange thing is that Banban is just riding on a camel, following me like a human fossil. Not to mention scared, there is not even a little bit of mood swings.
If anyone didn't know, they would have thought that he was a young boy from the Republic of China who came to the desert to make a movie.
Lao Jiang stared closely at the thick fog ahead and said, "Li Jinglan, turn on the flashlight you are carrying! Load the pistol."
Although Lao Jiang said this to me, others did not dare to take it lightly. They jumped off the camel one by one and were on full alert!
Lao Jiang and I took the lead, with Banban, Crow Crow, and Lin Qiu Sheng in the middle, and He Lanxue and Yin Ling'er behind.
When everyone's flashlights were turned on, several elongated shadows actually appeared in the fog ahead.
Are there really monsters?
I took a closer look, no, no matter what, those shadows looked like a group of people moving forward.
"Is that a human?"
I pointed my hand and got everyone's attention.
Lao Jiang hesitated for a moment and suggested that everyone go over and have a look, but don't get separated.
After getting closer, we clearly saw seven strange-looking people walking hard on the sand step by step. They were all wearing yellow adventure suits, round hats, and leather boots.
These men looked extremely well-equipped and were clearly an experienced expedition team!
But the strange thing is that I found that they were covered with a lot of dust, as if they had not been cleaned for many years. The style of their clothes was also relatively old, and they were all styles that had been eliminated a few years ago.
We found no traces of other expeditions along the way. Where did these people come from, and what was their purpose in coming to the Desert of the Dead?
There were more and more question marks in my heart, which made me even more energetic.
What's more worth mentioning is that in addition to Chinese faces, half of this team is made up of foreign white people. Everyone's face is extremely cold, their eyes are dull, and they move mechanically and make "kick" sounds. The very regular sound of tapping is like a puppet being controlled to walk.
"Everyone, be careful, there is something wrong with these people." Lao Jianggang warned.
Lin Qiusheng had already raised his gun and shouted loudly: "They must be Warner's people, I can see the faces of foreigners!"
Lao Jiang immediately scolded Lin Qiu Sheng and told him not to act rashly, but the movement on our side had already attracted the attention of the expedition team.
Everyone stopped and slowly turned their heads to look at us.
When aiming at the gun in Lin Qiusheng's hand, the leading foreigner said: "Hello!"
Another Chinese who seemed to be a translator asked kindly: "Are you also lost here? We have been walking for a long, long time."
As soon as I heard that they could talk and were not hostile, my wariness suddenly returned to my stomach, and I immediately accompanied Lao Jiang to go forward to communicate with them.
It turned out that they were a Sino-US joint expedition team that got lost here. They heard about various strange phenomena occurring in the Desert of the Dead, so they came here for scientific investigation.
While Lao Jiang was chatting with them, I looked for an angle to observe the group of people.
Two people in the team rolled up their sleeves, exposing just half of their arms. Neither of them had cross tattoos on their arms.
In other words, they are not from Warner!
After these people introduced their identities, it was my turn and Lao Jiang's turn. Originally, we were scratching our heads and wondering, what kind of reason could we make up to hide Qilin’s identity?
As a result, a strange scene happened. They only answered the questions we asked, but did not ask about our origins.
They are not curious about where we come from, nor do they care about our purpose here, nor are they afraid that we are bad guys with ulterior motives.
After all, in a place like the desert, supplies are in short supply. After finding out the details of the other party, how many people start to kill and snatch supplies!
But not only did they answer all our questions, they also showed no defensiveness towards us at all. They didn’t know whether to call them simple or stupid.
This is all so abnormal...
During the short break, I only heard their own discussions sometimes in Chinese and sometimes English, but they no longer said a word to us.
The translator who greeted us before said: "It's getting late. We need to find an exit as soon as possible. You guys should go together!"
Then we continued walking in the white fog.
I was confused at that moment. This expedition team seemed to have no problems on the surface, but it always made me feel a little fuzzy in my heart.
While the group was talking, a newspaper was left on the ground and forgotten to be taken away.
I walked over and secretly picked it up!
The first thing I saw was the bold black headline on the front page of the newspaper: A picture of Fuxi and Nuwa was unearthed from the ancient tomb in Gaochang! For the first time, Chinese and American explorers joined forces to enter the Gansu desert.
The text below is somewhat weathered, but it is vaguely distinguishable. It mostly introduces the history of Gaochang State and how American explorers discovered them.
Because this tomb complex was too large, the two regions finally decided to join forces to conduct rescue excavations here and jointly find the lost secrets!
There was finally a deadline: 1919.
Lao Jiang and the others also came over at this time. After seeing this newspaper, Lin Qiusheng sneered and said: "This joint expedition is nothing more than these foreigners stealing the national treasures of the Chinese people in the name of an archaeological team..."
But what I am struggling with at the moment is not this, but a more serious problem. It is already 1934, why do these people bring an old newspaper with them when they go out?
Could it be that this newspaper has any special commemorative significance for them?
I handed the newspaper to Lao Jiang. Lao Jiang glanced at it, but his face became more and more gloomy. Finally, he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Follow them, but always keep a safe distance!"
Originally, Lao Jiang planned to keep a distance of five meters, but due to the influence of the fog, it would be easy for us to lose track of them if we were too far away.
So the safe distance was set at three meters.
As we walked, something happened ahead!
A member of the expedition team somehow got stuck in the quicksand. Several hands nearby stretched out at the same time, trying to save him, but they couldn't pull him away.
The unfortunate guy shouted hysterically: "Save me, save me!"
Lin Qiu Sheng was quite courageous. He was about to rush over, but Lao Jiang stopped him: "Don't move, I'll go!"
Lao Jiang's figure flashed like a thunder, he passed sideways across the quicksand, and grabbed the unlucky guy's arm with his hand.
The unlucky guy's body was suddenly pulled up a little!
Seeing that he was out of danger from the waist up, Lao Jiang suddenly let go and fell to the sand next to him as if exhausted.
Old Jiang has no strength?
The unlucky guy fell into the quicksand again, getting faster and faster, like a rapidly rotating whirlpool, swallowing him up with great force.
Gradually, his chest and shoulders were submerged by quicksand.
The calls for help are getting smaller and smaller...
Sand filled his mouth, nose, ears...
In the end, his head was no longer visible, and only one hand was left struggling helplessly outside. I suddenly thought of a sentence: There is no way to heaven, and there is no way to enter the earth!
Seeing the tragic death of their teammates, the archaeological team suddenly fell into a fierce quarrel.
The whole team was divided into two groups. One group accused the other party of not being able to lead the way, and the other group accused the other party of why they had to come here. What treasure were they looking for?
The two forces were so fierce that only a guide-looking man from the northwest was left. He wanted to persuade the one to get rid of him, but he wanted to pull the other but didn't dare. In the end, he could only stand there and scratch his hair.
Looking at that northwest man, I felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if I had seen him somewhere before.
But I couldn’t tell for a while. After all, except this time, I have never been to the northwest.
Maybe they from the northwest all look similar, and they all like to hang gold earrings on their ears, right?
These are all small things. At this time, a bigger question emerged in my mind, and I had to wait for Lao Jiang to come back to answer it.
The team did not blame Lao Jiang for his sudden resignation.
At that moment, I felt that they acted as if Lao Jiang did not exist at all, were indifferent, and had no IQ to start an internal fight in front of us outsiders...
After Lao Jiang came back, Lin Qiu Sheng and the others said with regret, "What a pity!"
And comforted Lao Jiang not to feel guilty, it was not his fault.
However, there was no sad expression on Lao Jiang's face. I immediately asked the first question: "Can you really not save him?"
Everyone looked at me in shock, thinking that I had been kicked in the brain by a camel. How could I say such a thing to Master? Wasn't this a blatant question of Lao Jiang's refusal to save me?
However, what surprised them even more was Lao Jiang's answer: "It can be saved, but I deliberately released the water."
Everyone looked at Lao Jiang with their mouths agape, but Lin Qiusheng's eyes were turned upside down, and he stammered and asked Lao Jiang why?
I can feel that the noble image of Black Saber Qilin suddenly collapsed in Lin Qiusheng's heart.
But what Lao Jiang said next made us feel like we were in an ice cellar: "His hand was ice. I pulled it hard and deliberately grabbed his wrist. I found that it was also cold and there was no pulse..."
The wrist is the place where traditional Chinese medicine cuts the pulse and cuts off diseases. Cunkou is the main control of the five internal organs. An experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctor can know what is wrong with the patient just by taking a pulse.
And Lao Jiang couldn't feel his pulse, which meant that the other party had no heartbeat at all!
My eyes widened: "You mean, he died before he drowned in the sand?"
But he could still call for help and struggle at that time. What was going on?
My mind was filled with questions, but Lao Jiang made me even more frightened. He told us with a stern face: "No, I doubt that anyone in the front team is alive."
As soon as these words came out, everyone took a breath.
The people in that expedition team were obviously able to walk and talk, and they were still noisy and noisy. How could they look like dead people?
Are they all ghosts, or are they possessed by ghosts?
On the way down, I stared at the expedition team with vigilance, because in folklore, ghosts walk differently from people. Ghosts need to walk on tiptoes, and ghosts have no shadow in the sun.
But I found that apart from the somewhat rigid walking posture of the group in front, no one walked on their toes.
And in the gap between fog and fog, when a ray of sunlight shines in, their shadows are also very obvious.
This clearly has nothing to do with ghosts, but Lao Jiang would never joke about such a thing.
I told Lao Jiang what I had discovered, and Lao Jiang said thoughtfully: "Let's see what we can do..."
It was getting close to dark now, and the group in front started to set up camp. The translator who spoke to us before was very kind and lent us a tent.
I thanked him repeatedly, but he ran away without saying anything.
However, when we opened the tent, we almost spit out the dry food we had just eaten. The tent smelled musty, and I also smelled a sour smell like rotten apples.
This made Lao Jiang and I a little unbearable, so we could only let He Lanxue and Yin Ling'er go in first and scrub themselves off.
I sat on the sand and sighed helplessly. It was already night and the fog had no intention of dissipating. I didn’t know what would happen tomorrow?
At this time, I noticed that Banban was looking at the group of expedition members in front of him like a piece of wood, his eyes were like lightning.
I asked Banban what happened.
Banban wrote a word on the sand with her hand.
When I saw it, my heart twitched violently. That word was the word "death"!
