Chapter Thirty-Seven: Thicket

  Because I came here when I was a kid.”

  After hearing this answer, we walked for almost half a day like wound-up springs, without resting at all in between. My few bottles of water had already been used up by more than half, and when I looked up to see the increasingly large sun, my heart suddenly felt hopeless. The temperature was at least 46 degrees Celsius; it's already fortunate that we hadn't fainted from heatstroke.

  "Chen Cu, you've been sitting on top for so long, it's time for Ju Er to take a turn." The guy in the back, Yu Gang, was yelling at me with his loud, hoarse voice. I turned my head and saw that they were some distance behind me, so I patted Ma Ge's neck and waited for them to catch up before moving on.

  I originally wanted to sit alone in Ma Ge's car, but thinking about it, this is also too selfish, besides there is a girl.

  The three of us took turns sitting on Ma Ge's horse, switching every half hour.

  On such a hot day, no one wants to walk on the sand, and I also can't ride alone with Horse Brother.

  I rested on the sand for a few minutes before they finally caught up, panting.

  "Damn it, I warned you not to call me Chen Cu, your whole family is Chen Cu." I kicked one foot at Yu Gang, he anticipated my move and easily dodged.

  Chen Cu, this nickname sounds so unpleasant, why would you call yourself something that sounds so awful? It makes me want to 'take care' of him every minute I hear it.

  Yu Gang smiled with a silly face: "Who made you a Chen, not called Chen vinegar, would it be called Chen Guanxi?"

  Edison Chen, who wouldn't want to be Edison Chen? But I'm a loser and have nothing in common with those rich handsome guys.

  "Whatever." I've corrected him several times, but it had no effect. He just can't help calling me Chen Cu this nickname.

  "Stop arguing!" Huier suddenly shouted at us in a loud and sharp voice.

  I turned around, only to see that the girl's face had turned pale, as if she had seen something terrifying. She scolded us with a stern expression, saying "You guys be careful, don't be so carefree."

  Only to see the girl standing on the sandy ground gesturing to us, indicating that we shouldn't speak, I was a bit curious, so I followed her line of sight and looked over, and suddenly my whole body was chilled.

  "What is it?" Yu Gang asked cautiously.

  "That's a special reptile in the desert, when we're about to reach the shrub area, this animal will come more and more, but you guys shouldn't be too loud, it's not good to wake them up." Xiao Er warned us softly, she looked at that small thing jumping on the sand with some vigilance.

  It wasn't until that little thing turned its head and looked at us that I realized it was a mouse.

  In the desert, most of the animals in the desert, including some small desert animals, simply hide underground. They dig 'holes' or 'caves' under the soil or sand layer. The clever rodents will even seal the entrance to their burrows, isolating themselves from the hot and dry air.

  And what we see is just small in size and not easily noticeable animals.

  "That's a desert mouse." I muttered, most mice are social animals and there are many species.

  The one in front of me has a round head, with eyes as big as frog's eyes, disproportionately large, short ears, and the "hair" on its body is sandy yellow in color. If you don't look closely, you won't notice them at all.

  In the desert, many animals' colors are due to environmental changes. Most of the time, many animals' colors are similar to the color of sand.

  The old mouse raised its body, with its paws grasping towards the sky, and its tail was almost invisible. It seemed to be a sand rat after all.

  "My goodness, it was just a mouse after all. You scared me to death." Yu Gang let out a sigh of relief, he thought it was something like the Death Worm or something.

  "Hurry up and go." Xiu Er's face sank, she climbed onto the camel and shouted at us: "There is a lake ahead."

  Hearing Yu'er's words, we followed her up and also looked around in front of us, but didn't see the lake she mentioned.

  I was very puzzled and didn't understand, just as I was about to speak, Yu Gang pulled me with his hand and whispered: "Don't you think that Hui'er has been acting strange since yesterday?"

  I really haven't thought about this issue before.

  When he said that, I remembered that last night when she heard about the 'yin' soldiers passing by, her speech became hesitant and unclear, as if there was something inconvenient to say, anyway, it gave people a very mysterious feeling.

  Now, she is urging us to leave quickly, but it's just a harmless sand mouse. She looks tense, and from her body language, she seems even more nervous than when we encountered the death worm last time.

  What is she hiding?

  Is there really a lake in front?

  Is it because of the big sun that the "lip" building of Mirage appeared?

  In the desert, people will definitely see some strange scenes under certain circumstances.

  Just now when she mentioned the lake, I noticed her expression, that was said without thinking, had she really been here before?

  "She seems to have become a different person, and I don't recognize her at all. I always feel that something is off." Yu Gang said with a serious face, but the expression on his face didn't show that he liked Xiang Rong at all. Isn't it what many people say, that when you like someone, your eyes are blinded to everything? So why does Yu Gang still think Xiang Rong is not right? I couldn't figure out why.

  "You'd better talk to her about this later, it can't go on like this." I suggested, without paying much attention to these things.

  "Bullshit." Yu Gang cursed and then quickly walked away.

  All along the way, we didn't say a word. After walking for nearly half an hour and climbing up that sand dune, the scene in front of us was simply dazzling.

  "You hit me, is that true?" Yu Gang shouted in disbelief, staring blankly at the lake in front of him. To be vague, it wasn't a lake, but a large area of shrubs, similar to those scenes in the mountains. From afar, there were tall and straight trees, as well as short ones, and a river that didn't seem very wide.

  Such a place can be considered an oasis in the desert.

  I rubbed my eyes and then kicked him with one foot, kicking his foot. He was in pain and shouted a sentence of discontent, scolding: "Damn it... you..."

  "It was you who asked me to hit you." I quickly responded, how could I let such a good opportunity pass?

  The next second, we cheered and rushed down the hill like a madman under the trees full of vitality.

  Standing on the sand of the desert and standing in this lush place are completely different, and the whole person becomes full of energy.

  Most of the plants in the deserts around the world are Populus euphratica, also known as "Hu Tong", "Tears Tree" and "Heterophylla Poplar". The Populus euphratica is one of the oldest species of poplars that began to survive on earth over 130 million years ago.

  It is a deciduous arbor, 15-30 meters tall. It differs from the general poplar and can tolerate the harsh climate of drought and variability in the desert, with extremely strong tolerance to salt and alkali.

  In the Taklamakan Desert with high salt content in groundwater, it is still lush. People praise Populus euphratica as "the backbone of the desert".

  The color of the poplar leaves in front of me has a few shades of new green, I think it's because of this river water. If it were somewhere farther away, the color of the leaves would definitely be different.

  Hahaha...

  Yu Gang burst out laughing: "I didn't expect that we would benefit from the disaster, and after circling around the 'Ghost Gate' we could still come out alive."

  Although Xiao Cong didn't say anything, at this time her face was also full of joy, it could be seen that she seemed to recognize this place.

  "Can we find that old professor and Lin Wu Xuan?" I said in a low voice, my heart not only didn't have that kind of excitement, but instead became even more solemn. No matter who walks through the gate of hell, anyone will feel excited.

  "Why think so much, if I see that old man, I'll make him feel worse than dead." Yu Gang excitedly jumped into the water and started swimming like a frog on the river surface, then floated on his back.

  What he said is right, now that we've finally seen water, we must indulge ourselves well. Since entering the desert, I haven't taken a bath, and I don't know how much mud is on my body. It's probably stuck to my skin and will need to be soaked for a long time to wash it off.

  Then I took off my shoes and jumped directly into the river.

  A cool sensation spread throughout the body, every cell in the body was like dried meat at this moment, suddenly absorbing water vigorously, that feeling is indescribably wonderful.

  The kid stood on the shore, scrubbed his face randomly, patted his cheeks, and said in a low voice: "You guys hurry up, or you'll swim too far and die for sure."

  I didn't care about what she said, I found that Yu Gang had already gone to the other side, and then directly swam across to the other side. This river is about 15 meters wide, my swimming speed is not very fast, I was enjoying the feeling of the water when suddenly Yu Gang shouted loudly, scaring me into sinking a bit underwater.

  "What the...?!" I followed Yu Gang's line of sight and looked over, my entire face turning very "colorful".

  About fifty meters away from us, there is a deep and massive stone passageway with uneven terrain. The height of the stones is about two meters high, and there are piles upon piles of stone statues densely arranged there.

  As I looked around, I felt my breath tighten, and there were too many things buried under the desert. The things in front of me were absolutely not formed naturally, they seemed to be some kind of ruins.

  Is this an undiscovered site?

  "Let's go, we'll hurry over."

  Thinking of this, I almost couldn't hold back the excitement in my heart. If I wasn't still in the water, I would have run over there long ago.

  "Don't go over there, it's dangerous!" Huier shouted loudly, her expression extremely anxious.