Lu Binglin's mind was full of questions, and he couldn't figure out a clue for a while. He took a sapper shovel and simply dug out the sleeping bag on the side of the tent. At this moment, his hand touched a cold metal object in the mound of sand, and when he took it out, it was an old-fashioned metal alarm clock. The glass surface of the alarm clock shattered completely, the sand was brushed away, and the hands of the dial were already stationary, and the time was frozen at 12:09 in the middle of the night.

Lu Binglin subconsciously looked at the watch on his wrist, nine thirteen. He sat on the sand in a daze, as if he was holding a key to open the door of the secret room instead of an alarm clock. It's just that this gate is eerie and terrifying, and Lu Binglin doesn't even have the strength to raise his arm.

Unless the alarm clock was damaged before the accident, all these discoveries only prove that the mirages have entered a different time and space than their own. But if your current time and space are real, then the other team has not yet arrived here, if the time of the other team is the standard, why is it normal for your watch to go now?

Lu Binglin's head hurt again, and this discovery was completely illogical, and there was no hope at all. He didn't think much about it, and continued to dig inside and outside the tent, hoping that even if he found the body of a victim, although his heart was extremely bitter, he could at least have a rational answer. But he dug until several teams of people looking for the missing person returned, but still found nothing. Lu Binglin knew in his heart that the missing mirage chaser left the temporary camp without taking almost anything, which could not be explained by common sense at all.

The wind swept the yellow sand and approached the makeshift camp again, and the air echoed with a sometimes sharp and sometimes low roar, and the visibility quickly decreased, and the sand and gravel flying in the air became larger and larger, crashing into the vehicle and beginning to make a crisp sound.

Platoon Commander Zhao urged everyone to set off quickly, and the mirages did not seem to have recovered from the strange incident of the inexplicable disappearance of a dozen companions. The six groups of people walked about seven or eight hundred meters away, with no footprints, no left items, and no markings, which was by no means a mirage chaser's habit. Everyone gathered around Lu Binglin and whispered, and there was no intention of leaving.

Lu Binglin relived the joyful and sad events of this day in his mind, and slowly agreed with Platoon Commander Zhao's understanding that he lost his car to protect the commander, which has nothing to do with morality, only with the continuation of life. He gritted his teeth and, under the sad and angry gaze of the mirage, made the decision to evacuate. Platoon Commander Zhao's understanding and judgment of this sea of sand is far stronger than his own, and Lu Binglin realized rationally that he could not gamble the life of the entire team on a void possibility.

And Platoon Commander Zhao's performance after receiving the order still made Lu Binglin glad for his choice. Platoon Commander Zhao resolutely demanded that the Mirage unload all the supplies and equipment in the truck, and the lighter the weight, the less likely it was to fall into the quicksand. If they were able to break out, the empty cart would mean that when they returned after dawn the next day, they would be able to load in more supplies, and the makeshift camp that had been left outside would have enough gasoline and water to support the convoy's return to the test base.

Platoon Commander Zhao pulled Lu Binglin into the lead car, and asked everyone to follow the head car for anything they encounter on the road, and they are not allowed to stop, let alone change the route. This time, he drove the driver into the back seat and sat in the cockpit himself to drive it himself.

Ten minutes after the convoy left, it entered the desert storm again, and the wind seemed to be stronger than when it entered, and the visibility dropped to less than five meters. At this time, the convoy was like a lonely boat in the sea, and the wind roared more fiercely than the huge waves, pushing the off-road vehicles to sway from side to side.

Lu Binglin couldn't help but close his eyes, and kept praying in his heart, hoping that the convoy would be lucky to cross the storm this time. And at this time, the sharp screaming wind penetrated into the eardrum again, even if more cotton balls were blocked, it would not help, Lu Binglin felt that his brain was dizzy, his head was splitting, and his eyelids began to droop weakly.

In the chaotic state, Lu Binglin suddenly found that there seemed to be a little light outside the window in front of the left, orange, I don't know if it was because of the shaking of his vehicle, the light seemed to be beating up and down. The more Lu Binglin looked at it, he thought it was the headlight of the truck, and for some reason, he thought in his mind that it was the truck of the missing mirage chaser, and he reversed time and space again in the storm, and the convoy had returned to three hours ago, just like the three hours that the missing person experienced that did not exist in his own world.

They must be stopped, they must be stopped.

Lu Binglin didn't know where this consciousness came from, but he quickly took over his brain, controlled his consciousness, and he got up from the passenger seat suddenly, grabbed the steering wheel with both hands desperately, and hit the wheels hard to the left front.

In Lu Binglin's remaining memory, it seemed that Platoon Commander Zhao was angrily reprimanding him, he felt that the off-road vehicle seemed to slide down quickly along the ridgeline of the dune, and he also remembered that the last part of his consciousness was Platoon Commander Zhao's huge fist in front of him.

When Lu Binglin woke up again, he was already lying in the temporary board room of the experimental base, and through the glass window, Lu Binglin saw that the sun was shining outside, and the sunlight was lazily projecting in. It seemed to be noon, and on the straight flagpole nearby, three flags hung neatly and weakly.

A mirage chaser came in and told him that they had rushed back to the experimental base at dawn, only one off-road vehicle and three trucks had returned, and four companions had disappeared into the sea of sand on the way back, and Platoon Commander Zhao had replenished supplies after returning, and led people back to the temporary camp next to Devil's City, looking for the missing vehicle along the way.

A day later, Platoon Commander Zhao returned to the experimental base with a convoy carrying all the instruments and equipment, but none of the missing persons were found.

After that, things were lackluster, because the expedition team disappeared 21 people, and the scientific expedition activities were naturally forced to be suspended, and Lu Binglin was investigated by the public security organs, the construction corps, and the school research institute. The Corps later carried out two more search attempts, but all of them were to no avail.

After Lu Binglin returned to school, he made a detailed written report, and had to face accusations and abuse from the families of the missing mirages every day. Naturally, the school stopped all his research projects, reclaimed the laboratory, and the Mirage returned to their respective workplaces, and the vigorous desert experiment was forever fixed that summer.

Later, when Lu Binglin was disheartened and left school to go to his hometown to farm, two more groups of investigation teams from the National Security Bureau and the Chinese Academy of Sciences looked for him, in addition to re-examining the history of the disappearance like a prisoner, Lu Binglin unexpectedly found that they seemed to have a strong interest in the motive, principle, evidence collection and data of the experiment, so Lu Binglin simply handed over all the materials he left behind.

About a year ago, Lu Binglin unexpectedly received a phone call from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, telling him that the research project on mirage had been restarted, and that he wanted to rush back to Beijing to observe the program demonstration and seminar. During this period of time, Lu Binglin was almost exhausted, twenty-one fresh lives were left in the depths of the desert, and they once trusted themselves extremely much, which can only be attributed to their own negligence and incompetence, and this scar can hardly be healed. He refused the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences because he could not face it.

But after that, one after another, some mirages came to the remote countryside, constantly comforting him, encouraging him, and hoping that he could reorganize the team. It wasn't until everyone elevated continued research to the last wish of the missing that Lu Binglin knew that he could no longer stay out of the matter and be a bystander.

Lu Binglin returned to the mountain, but locked himself in an ivory tower, but the scope of his research greatly increased, from nuclear physics, quantum physics, geology, meteorology, folklore, and even philosophy and theology, which scholars generally regarded as forbidden places. Lu Binglin's brain is still just a conjecture, vague and ethereal, and there are huge risks and hidden dangers in experimental research, so he can only obtain new inspiration through a wider range of investigations.

Three months ago, the materials on the disappearance of the Eastern Star were handed to him, and at first he was puzzled that the content of the materials did not correspond to the direction of his research. Soon he had a report of the sighting of a mirage off the coast of Sanya, and the appearance of the Dongxing in the hallucination, and soon a detailed file of the fishing boat's encounter with the Dongxing and the disappearance of the Dongxing again was placed on his desk.

Lu Binglin understands that what he encountered in the desert two years ago is obviously repeated in the South China Sea, and the fatalistic reincarnation also makes him realize that there is no reason or excuse to escape, and there is no way to retreat only to know the difficulties, which is the only sentence Lu Binglin said before summoning the mirages to Sanya to board the ship.

After Lu Binglin finished telling his tortuous encounter, the people in the restaurant had already dispersed, and only our table was left. Captain Jiang was still lying on the table, already snoring. Director Wei played with the wine glass, as if thinking about something, his expression was grim, and he didn't say a word. And I suddenly noticed that there was suddenly an extra person at our table, burly, with a dark complexion, with the same beard as Lu Binglin, but the dress looked like a standard fisherman.

I suddenly realized that this person should be Wang Huzi, the sailor on the fishing boat, one of the three people who had boarded the Dongxing mentioned by Ding Jian earlier. Obviously, Wang Huzi's cultural level is limited, and what Lu Binglin said, he sounded very difficult, but he still frowned, lowered his head, and digested it hard, which made people look a little funny. But what makes me curious is that fishermen like Wang Huzi are so concerned about the scientific research behind the incident, except for the direct relationship with their own safety, I really can't think of any other reason.

(The god of ghosts can be resisted, the dragon's transformation can be served, the snake can not sting, and the spear can not be attacked.) Only the heartless cannot be burned by fire, water cannot be drowned, blades cannot be added, and destiny cannot die. Those who are determined to be happy still forget their hunger, those who are determined to be worried still forget their pain, and those who are determined to be empty can forget life and death. - "The Book of Transformation")