Chapter Twenty-One A Woman

  At this moment, my sleepiness was all gone. I almost pounced on the sand and saw Yu Gang standing in front of me with a smug expression, his face full of sneers. He mocked: "Still pretending to be vigilant, but actually you're lazy and fell asleep."

  "If another monster like that comes again, see if you can still sleep."

  "It's already midnight, that thing is dead, I'm sleepy." I shouted in dissatisfaction, not having the mood to argue with him at all, and closed my eyes again to sleep for a while.

  Yu Gang was also playing a trick, he ran to pour water with a shake, not long after, I don't know how long it was, until I was woken up by a sharp cry, my whole body shook, and woke up, it was Yu Gang's voice.

  I hastily woke up the people in the car and shouted: "Something's happened."

  I touched my bronze sword and followed them towards the source of the shouting.

  We all rushed over with our weapons, it's just that things didn't quite happen as planned.

  "You damn rabbit, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Yu Gang was fine, I breathed a sigh of relief and started scolding him.

  Wait, everyone's attention is focused elsewhere, who are they looking at?

  Damn it.

  When did you come alone, and it's still a 'woman'.

  The woman's clothes were covered in dust and looked like they hadn't been washed for a long time. Her hair was extremely messy, with her bangs covering her eyes so that you couldn't see what she really looked like.

  In the dead of night, a 'female' figure appeared in the campsite, no wonder they were frightened and screamed loudly.

  Not to mention how she came, just by looking at her appearance, Yu Gang thought he had seen a 'female' ghost.

  It was only then that I noticed the clothes this 'woman' wore were different from ours, she was wearing a minority ethnic costume, from the attire it looked like Uyghur clothing, except for the missing hat, everything else matched.

  How did she get here?

  I thought that the Uyghur gathering place was at least over 200 kilometers away from here, and she was alone with no equipment, which made me feel a bit suspicious.

  Yu Gang handed over the water bottle to the woman, and from her drinking speed, it was clear that she was very thirsty. After finishing the water, she told us the reason why she appeared here.

  Her name is Nuer, a Uyghur girl who was only 21 years old. She encountered a rare sandstorm while herding sheep and woke up in the middle of the desert. After walking for about a day, she met us.

  I re-examined the woman, apart from some characteristics of Uyghur people, she was indeed very good-looking, with a captivating aura. She had brushed her scattered hair to the top of her forehead and secured it with something, although there were still some traces of sand and dust on her face, but they didn't affect her ethnic minority beauty.

  She looked at me, found that I was staring at her, she didn't lower her head shyly like other girls, but instead boldly sized me up. The way she looked at me made my face flush red, and I couldn't help but look away in embarrassment.

  Yu Gang was like he had never seen a woman before, surrounding the young girl and asking her questions, his eyes stuck on her.

  "Hey, your name 'Ting' sounds nice, I'll call you Ting then. You look really pretty." Yu Gang was about to throw up, and hearing that made my whole body get goosebumps.

  Can't it be more disgusting? When I see a pretty girl, I don't know where my moral integrity has gone.

  "Yu Ge, you're also very handsome." Xiang'er revealed a sweet smile, boldly praising Yu Gang.

  I sat next to him, furious, and heard these words of praise, my eyes almost fell out, what kind of gaze is this, damn it makes me want to hit the wall, the handsome one is sitting right here, being ignored for 'nothing'.

  The girls in this world just don't understand how handsome I am.

  Just looking at him makes me feel like I've eaten a "spring" medicine and it's making me want to vomit.

  Tang Guangze walked over, glanced at Hui'er and said, "I'll give you some water later. It's not far from Hetian either, it should take about a day or two to get there."

  At this point, the thought that rose in my mind was that a woman walking alone in such a dangerous desert is simply suicidal.

  Of course, I didn't say my thoughts out loud, but Yu Gang loudly opposed: "How can we leave her alone as a little girl in this vast desert? What if she gets lost?"

  "She won't get 'lost'..."

  "What if she encounters some animal, how can she survive on her own..." Yu Gang shouted loudly, his whole body reacting slowly, he asked in doubt: "What did you just say, how are you sure she won't get lost..."

  Right, I heard Tang Guangze say very firmly that she wouldn't get 'lost'.

  Why? What made him think like this.

  However, Xiao Cong narrowed her eyes and smiled as she replied, "I certainly won't get 'lost', don't forget that I've grown up in this kind of environment since I was a child."

  Speaking of myself, I'm so capable, how could I possibly get 'lost'?

  Indeed, I saw that confidence in Xiao Er's eyes, which was a affirmation of herself and also an affirmation of the desert nature.

  "But..." Yu Gang wanted to say something more.

  "Unless you want to scare her?" Tang Guangze said coldly, without any fear.

  Yu Gang lowered his head and didn't dare say anything else. He took Hui Er, who had a confused expression, and left.

  Thinking deeper, I also feel that Tang Guangze's decision was made with good intentions at first. He isn't as cold-blooded as imagined. After all, if Rourou had followed us the whole way, she would have faced dangers that a 'girl' like her couldn't have handled.

  If I were in his shoes, I would have done the same thing too, although it's cruel, but not to the point of death.

  Tang Guangze looked at their silhouettes and didn't say anything, then went back to the car to sleep.

  It's still the middle of the night at this time.

  This man and woman ran to that cold desert, that despicable Yu Gang wouldn't think of doing something like that to someone's little girl, would he?

  Upon careful consideration, Yu Gang seems to be taking this matter quite seriously. His courage just now is commendable and truly worth my learning from.

  I live in a second-tier city, and because I've devoted myself to antiques, I never thought about finding a girlfriend. It's not that I don't like women, it's just that I couldn't spare the time. However, the girl next door was secretly in love with me, but I rejected her for her own good.

  Thinking that I don't have to make such a tangled decision like Yu Gang, my heart suddenly became much more balanced.

  I didn't care about them either, I went into the tent and fell asleep. Who cares about keeping watch? I'd rather freeze to death than stay out there with them anyway.

  I was woken up by a loud trumpet sound in the morning, I stuck my head out of the tent and found that it was the old professor who was holding the trumpet. I sighed and thought to myself that people who used to hold trumpets seemed to have all passed away.

  I looked at the old professor, his body was still quite robust, I just couldn't understand why such a gentle and refined old man would like to run around in these desolate places?

  "Little brother, get up, there are only a few hours left." The old professor held the megaphone in one hand and pushed his glasses with the other, urging me.

  I was stunned and asked in surprise: "So soon? I thought we still had two more days of walking ahead of us."

  It's been three days since we entered the desert from the hotel, except for resting at night and subtracting the time spent stopping along the way, we've probably walked over 800 kilometers.

  I thought I was lost in the desert, but now I don't have to worry about that.

  The Taklamakan Desert is located in the center of the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang, China's largest desert and the world's tenth-largest desert. It is also the second-largest shifting sand desert in the world. The entire desert stretches for approximately 1,000 kilometers from east to west and 400 kilometers from north to south, covering an area of 330,000 square kilometers. If you get lost inside, it would be very difficult to find your way back as mirages often appear in the desert, making you see things that are not really there.

  We all got on the bus, I sat in the co-pilot seat. Yu Gang somehow managed to persuade Xiao Cong to come along with us, or maybe it was Xiao Cong's own insistence.

  I only said one sentence at that time: don't regret it later.

  Yu Gang didn't say anything, but his face showed some hesitation, and he was probably still thinking about it.

  I don't want to say much either, after all, it's their business, I've reminded him, whatever happens, it doesn't have much to do with me.

  Xu Er sat behind, with a curious face, asked: "Yu Ge, where are you guys going? I've seen many people go on archaeological expeditions over the years, but they don't have such a big entourage like yours. They prefer to use camels and never drive cars."

  Yu Gang smiled: "What's the big deal about camels, just a few cars, although it's safest to use camels as transportation in the desert, but we have many people and things, not very convenient. We have experts here who can handle some small problems in the desert. The place we're going is quite far away, if we use camels, I estimate it will waste a lot of time."

  I couldn't help but despise him in my heart, pretending to be so arrogant, I'm also fed up.

  "Where is it?" asked Xiang Er.

  Yu Gang Shen's face showed some hesitation, he coughed and then immediately reached out to pat his chest, saying "be careful".

  Damn it.

  Damn it, showing off affection, I protest, trying hard to suppress the urge to get off*, if there were other options, I wouldn't be on this bus.

  That guy didn't even know how to write the word "shy", I saw through the rearview mirror that his eyes were about to drip with water, he said softly:

  "It's mysterious to say that we've been studying for a year and are very sure that there is a huge ancient city buried under the desert."

  Her eyes shone with adoration as she exclaimed in surprise: "Is that the ancient city of Loulan?"

  "No."

  It seems that Hulunbuir is not very familiar with these things. The ancient city of Loulan was discovered by Sven Hedin in 1901 and excavated.

  What Yu Gang said was under the desert, so which country is it among the 36 countries in the Western Regions.

  Because I'm a road idiot, now in which position of the desert, I don't know either, only knowing how long I've walked, if I knew where I am in the desert now, I guess I can 'feel' out which city of which country.

  "Where is that place?" Lian'er's interest was piqued.

  "It's...," he paused for a moment, looked around cautiously, and then carefully began to speak: "a very famous one in history, which has never been discovered by anyone..."