Chapter 6 Past Events

  After hearing Li Wei's words, I fell silent all of a sudden. No wonder Li Wei knew he had to go back home after coming to the desert, it turned out there was something in between.

  Through Li Wei's narration, I learned about his father's affairs.

  More than ten years ago, there was a gold rush in Xinjiang.

  Li Wei originally lived in Turpan, his father followed a few people from the village to go there. At that time, Karamay City did not exist yet, because at that time Karamay was still an endless Gobi desert.

  Li Wei's father, Li Zhonghua was among the first batch of people who followed the gold rush.

  This trip lasted for a year, and after Li Zhonghua returned, their family immediately became the richest in the village.

  Later, Li Wei's father took a group of people to Karamay himself.

  When they came back again, it was already three years later, and this time Li Zhonghua got even more money.

  When Li Wei was eight years old, Li Zhonghua went to Karamay for the seventh time. According to him, this would be the last time, because after this time, the government would develop that place and it is said that an oil mine had been found.

  But Li Zhonghua never came back after he left.

  Li Wei and his mother waited day and night at home, but still there was no news from Li Zhonghua.

  When Li Wei was 16 years old, just after entering junior high school, a person returned from Karamay.

  Li Wei's mother rushed to the village where the man was after hearing the news, but what she got was that the man had dispersed with Li Zhonghua and others.

  Li Wei's mother had no choice but to return home, Li Wei looked at his mother's sad appearance and felt very distressed.

  On the second day, Li Wei secretly ran to that person's home by himself.

  This time, under Li Wei's soft and hard efforts, the person finally told the truth.

  It turned out that soon after Li Zhonghua and his party entered the desert, a violent sandstorm swept through the desert, which can be said to be a rare occurrence in a hundred years.

  They were forced to turn back and when they were about to leave the desert, they arrived at a village called Xi Handa.

  Helpless, Li Zhonghua brought people to this village, but the villagers saw them as if they had seen a plague god, and all closed their doors and refused to come out.

  At this time, the sky had slowly darkened, and Li Zhonghua and others could only find a place to take shelter from the wind. As the sky grew darker, the wind and sand blew stronger and stronger, showing no signs of stopping.

  By nightfall, the temperature dropped by 20 degrees. Li Zhonghua and his party of fifteen people had six people frozen to death that night.

  On the second day before sunrise, Li Zhonghua led the remaining people, carrying the dead, back into the desert.

  By the afternoon, the wind and sand had gradually subsided. Li Zhonghua raised his head, took a look, and said: "We can start work now." After saying this, Li Zhonghua's dry, cracked lips curled up into a smile.

  After burying those six frozen people, Li Zhonghua led the others to continue walking deeper into the desert.

  However, Li Zhonghua did not notice that someone quietly left the team, and this person is now talking to Li Wei.

  "Are you saying you abandoned my father and everyone else in the desert?" Li Wei asked with tears in his eyes.

  That man nodded with difficulty and said: "I don't want to either, but how can I persuade your father? Your father just won't come back, and there's nothing I can do."

  After returning from that person's house, Li Wei left a letter with his mother and then came alone to the place where that person said.

  Here, Li Wei finally saw the village called Xida, a village located on the edge of the desert.

  After asking some villagers for water and flatbread there, Li Wei started walking alone into the depths of the desert.

  In the desert, Li Wei searched for a whole month, covering all the surrounding areas, and didn't find anyone, not even a corpse.

  At this time, Li Wei's body had no food or water, and he had no choice but to return to that village.

  When Li Wei returned to the village again, the villagers told him that there would be a big sandstorm in one or two days and advised him to go home.

  Li Wei looked up at the sky and found that there was indeed a black mass in the west.

  Li Wei gave up his search plan and returned to Turpan.

  Afterwards, Li Wei went several more times, but each time he returned empty-handed...

  "I've been here many times before, I don't want to come back again, but you guys still brought me back." Li Wei said with a bitter smile.

  I glanced out of the car window and found a sign next to a poplar tree. Upon closer inspection, there was a line of Chinese characters that read "Xihan Da".

  "So it was this place all along."

  "Now you know why I didn't want to come?" Li Wei looked at me.

  "It's actually not a bad thing, maybe you'll even find your father." I comforted him by his side.

  Li Wei smiled helplessly and said, "Forget it, if I can find it, I've been looking for so many years and still can't find it."

  "Everything is possible, don't give up easily." I continued to encourage.

  "You two, why are you still in the car? Hurry up and get out." Just as we were talking, Cao Ming stood in the wind and sand and shouted at us. But after he finished shouting, he smacked his lips, obviously with sand blown into his mouth.

  "Let's go out, or that guy will get angry." After finishing speaking, I opened the car door and was the first to climb out.

  I looked at Cao Ming standing at the village entrance, he was still there spitting hard, it seemed that the sand blown into his mouth was not a small amount.

  I took out a bottle of mineral water from my backpack and handed it to Cao Ming, saying: "Use this to rinse your mouth."

  Cao Ming glanced at me and quickly grabbed the mineral water in his hand, saying to me: "What are you doing, kid? You can't waste water like this here, or the villagers will drive you out."

  "It's just a bottle of mineral water, isn't it? It can't be that serious." I said with some disbelief.

  Cao gave me a knowing look and said, "Do you know how precious water is here? It's more expensive than oil." After saying that, he took a sip of water, shook his head, looked back to make sure no one was watching, and quickly spat out the water in his mouth. Then he handed me the remaining mineral water and said, "Don't waste it too much."

  I directly threw the mineral water at Cao Ming and said: "You little boy has bad breath, I don't want anything you've used." Then burst out laughing.

  Cao Ming picked up the mineral water and was about to throw it at me, I quickly pointed at him with my hand and said: "Don't waste water resources, water is as precious as oil!" After that, I burst into loud laughter again.

  There was nothing in the afternoon, just took a simple look at the surrounding terrain. After returning, we discussed and thought that it is unlikely to have what we are looking for nearby.

  After some discussion, we decided to head deeper tomorrow and see if we can make any discoveries.

  However, after searching for half a day in the village, we couldn't find a place to rest.

  According to local customs, there is a festival these days and strangers are not allowed to stay at home, even if they are police officers.

  Helplessly, we four returned to the car. After nightfall, in this cramped space, I suffered from the torture of snoring sounds.