In a Chinese restaurant in the corner of the desert city of Attar neighborhood, the afternoon sun shines on the dusty street, which can be seen clearly through the window pane, and a table by the window is simply separated by an unfolded screen, and several people are sitting around the table, holding beer bottles and fighting for wine with great interest.

At the dinner table, in addition to Isabel and Song Xiaoshuang, who returned to Attar, there were also Uncle Issam, a Berber guide, Isabel's work assistant, Arab girls Udai and Emina, and Isabel wore beige expedition uniforms as usual, because the arm sleeves had the words of the English abbreviation for the expedition team of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and this uniform was conspicuous everywhere she went.

Song Xiaoshuang, like Uncle Issam, wears an off-white stand-up collar robe, which is the standard dress for men in the Sahara Desert.

Although the two of them looked very ordinary, the Arab waitress wearing a cheongsam standing in a corner of the Chinese restaurant was deeply impressed by the two, and felt that Song Xiaoshuang and Uncle Issam had a certain strange temperament, which was particularly eye-catching, causing her to secretly look here from time to time.

At this time, there were not many diners in the Chinese restaurant, and there were a few tables of guests in the hall, and Uncle Issam, who had already pulled his veil around the back of his neck, noticed that the waitress in her twenties frequently looked at her table, and stretched out her hand to stop Emina, who had drunk beer and her face turned crimson, wanted to say something, snapped her fingers, beckoned the waitress to come over, and looked obscenely A pair of old eyes quickly looked up and down the waitress.

Just when the three women at the table, Isabel, Udai, and Emina, felt that Uncle Issam was disrespectful to the old and not a little elder.

Uncle Issam, who looked to be in his fifties, was black and thin and drunk, took out a flannel sewn cloth belt from the pocket of his robe and tied a small cloth bag with a few dirt, motioned to the waitress to spread out her palm and put the cloth bag in her palm, and said quickly in Arabic: "These uncles don't need it, take it and sell it for a little money, well, that, go to the kitchen and take a look, why is the Chinese-style boiled fish not served, and there are not many diners, if we can't do it, we can make it ourselves."

The waitress was a little ignorant, although this black and thin uncle looked a little obscene, but as soon as he spoke, he was immediately arrogant, and there was a sense of intimacy, he couldn't help but open the belt of the cloth pocket in his palm, and took out a few small pebbles the size of bright fingers from the small cloth pocket, and looked at it with a full face, she recognized that it was a jade of various colors, although it was not carved, it was already able to see that it could be worth some price, and quickly turned around with a smile and went to the back hall.

The waitress thought to herself, I said why does this uncle have a strange temperament, it turns out that this is the case, and today's luck is too good.

Originally, the Sahara Desert was most famous for gold, salt and diamonds made from the desert salt pans, and no one wanted jadeite at all, but since the number of Asians who came to West Africa to travel and work increased, jadeite suddenly became a good thing that could be worth a lot of money, and Uncle Issam gave the waitress a big surprise.

"Uncle, it's not good for you to be like this, when did you get the jade in the desert? Don't call a few of us to get some back, subsidize the investigation team funds, the last expedition team several people were injured and admitted to the hospital, the minor injuries were discharged, but there is not a seriously injured person, the bill was sent to the expedition team base camp yesterday, the exclusive office let the office for two days recently office funds are a little tight, I can only reply to the hospital in this way, fortunately, our leather signboard is still quite bright, the hospital did not say anything. ”

Wu Dai poured a few sips of beer, pinched the beer bottle in her hand and shook it, signaling that Song Xiaoshuang, who was sitting next to her, should go, it was Song Xiaoshuang's turn to fight for wine, seeing Uncle Issam staring at the back of the waitress leaving thoughtfully, how to look at how obscene it looked, Wu Dai already knew the uncle's temperament, although he was an old fritter, but he was actually a warm-hearted and good person in his bones. Wu Dai looked a little strange and spoke Chinese, speaking very slowly.

Isabel has explained that she can speak Chinese as much as possible, and recently Uncle Issam began to learn spoken Chinese, and while there was still some time left in the temporary contract signed with the expedition team, she stayed in the expedition base camp and had nothing to do all day, so that Wu Dai and Emina taught Uncle Chinese.

When Song Xiaoshuang was talking in Wu Dai, he put down the empty wine bottle and took out several bottles of beer from the beer box on the small wooden table on the side, and dropped the beer cap on the ground with a touch of his palm, and put a few bottles of beer on the table with the cap open, looking at Isabel with a mouth full of crimson (spicy with chili peppers added to Hunan cuisine) who was eating the food on the plate with chopsticks, Song Xiaoshuang motioned for the two to go one.

Isabel picked up a bottle of beer and touched the beer bottle in Song Xiao's hands, and the two of them sat at the table without standing up and drank a bottle of beer.

Isabel burped and put down the empty wine bottle, looked at Ude and Emina, and then looked at Song Xiaoshuang's playful expression and Uncle Issam's weird expression waiting to see a good show, Isabel shook her head slightly, groped her palms in the pockets on her chest, and then spread out her palms, and a few golden beans the size of soybeans were particularly eye-catching!

As soon as Udai and Emina saw Isabel withdraw her palm and put the golden bean back in her pocket.

Seeing that Wu Dai and Emina's faces were full of confusion, Song Xiaoshuang used chopsticks to clip a little fried haggis and put it in his mouth to chew, and after swallowing it in three or two times, he secretly sighed that the chef here is really an old cousin in Xiangxi, and the chili pepper is so spicy that it is not worth money, no wonder he is not afraid of Isabel's taste and lips are bright red when he eats!

"The bill for the hospital Isabel has been paid in full, and it was exchanged on the black market with Uncle Issam's relationship, do you remember the two inconspicuous metal boxes on the off-road vehicle used to hold ore specimens? It's not ore specimens at all, it's all this! ”

Song Xiaoshuang's voice was very low and said things that Wu Dai and Emina didn't know, he had the ability to explore with mental power, he knew everything about the movements around the entire Chinese restaurant, and after the waitress went to urge the chef to hurry up and serve the food, the cat was holding the jade in the secluded corner of the back hall and repeatedly looked at the strange look of surprise, Song Xiaoshuang probed clearly, and only after finding that there was nothing suspicious did he tell the secret.

"Oh, so the expedition team hasn't been short of funds lately?"

Wu Dai and Emina looked at each other, a little strange that Isabelle, Song Xiaoshuang and Uncle Issam had such an important action, and only told the two afterwards that Wu Dai spoke quickly in Chinese and asked.

"No, most of the income has been put into the bank accounts of the two tribal leaders, Farhad and Elliham, to provide some necessary support funds for the refugees who are still in the border camps, and second, to keep some of the funds for use by the oasis tribes, and Farhad intends to use these funds to drill a well, pump desert groundwater to improve the oasis environment, and build water pipes for each household, etc., which will be useful for many purposes, and for other purposes."

Isabel denied the expedition's speculation, whispered in Chinese with a low voice, and finally did not say anything at all, but just made a gesture of aiming and shooting with a pistol, so obviously showing how Wu Dai and Emina did not understand, this is to say that the Oasis tribe is likely to buy a batch of small arms on the black market to arm the tribal warriors again in order to protect themselves.

At dusk last night, Isabel and Song Xiaoshuang drove the off-road vehicle that was about to be scrapped and returned to the base camp of the expedition team in Attar, just briefly mentioning that the two were involved in the recovery of border checkpoints and refugee camps, and Isabel and Song Xiaoshuang naturally would not say anything about such confidential matters as energy crystals.

In Isabel's account, Udai and Emina only knew that before returning to the oasis, Major Bashar, in the style of the supreme military commander of the Major's station, "ruthlessly" confiscated all kinds of small arms brought by the tribal warriors, only symbolically leaving a few pistols for Farhad and others to take away, and of course, the tribal warriors brought their own swords for self-defense Major allowed to take them away.

There is Isabel's narration, in the imagination of Udai and Emina, the desert sand of the checkpoint in the early morning.

Accompanied by Rassad, the Major, including thousands of refugees from the camp and more than 100 soldiers from the checkpoint, saw Farhad, Eliham, Song Xiaoshuang, Isabel and several tribal fighters from the oasis, driving two four-wheeled off-road military vehicles in the hands of captured rebel forces, carrying the necessary supplies and some gifts for the villagers of the oasis tribe (that is, canned military supplies), leaving the checkpoint and refugee camp to cross the desert and return to the oasis tribe.

Wu Dai and Emina knew these contents, but they didn't know that Farhad and the others had secretly taken away a lot of gold from the gold mines, and when they heard Isabel and Song Xiaoshuang tell the hidden stories when they were eating in a Chinese restaurant, they both felt that the sweat of their vests was coming out!

Quietly taking away a large amount of gold, no, it should be said to be extremely high-grade gold ore from under the noses of the army and intelligence agents, is a wonderful story that makes people's hearts beat faster, and since Isabel has so far, Udai and Emina don't delve into it.

Udai learned from Isabel to use chopsticks to pick up some fried haggis and put it into her mouth to chew, the complex spicy taste made Udai wrinkle her forehead, and she couldn't understand why Isabel was so not afraid of spicy.

After Emina and Song Xiaoshuang next to them put together a bottle of beer, they put the gold thing behind, looked at the waitress who put the ceramic bowl containing boiled fish on the table and turned to leave, turned to look at Uncle Issam who was about to move chopsticks with a happy face, and said in Chinese with some doubts: "Uncle, you don't have no purpose at all, does this make no sense at all?" ”

"Emina, uncle is a wizard, you forgot? The waitress has a baby in her belly, and she is about to become a mother, once she leaves a Chinese restaurant like this, there is almost no chance of coming back to continue to be a waitress, and the uncle has made it clear that he will take the jade to exchange money, which is helping her! ”

After Song Xiaoshuang picked up the chopsticks and motioned for everyone to eat the boiled fish while it was hot, he held up a bottle of beer and shook it, seeing Wu Dai quickly pick up the beer bottle, Song Xiaoshuang showed a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, and looked at Emina, who said quickly.

Hearing Song Xiaoshuang say this, Wu Dai, Emina, and Isabel all felt that there was a good reason, Uncle Issam and Song Xiaoshuang were both wizards and people with strange abilities, and it was not surprising that the waitress was pregnant from some details.

"Oh, I forgot that Song Xiaoshuang is a wizard, you have abilities that we don't know about"

Isabel blinked a little strangely in her eyes, and once again mentioned the topic of whether Song Xiaoshuang was a wizard or not.

She wanted to see Song Xiaoshuang's annoyed look, the wizard stalk Isabel used every time, most of the time Song Xiaoshuang would immediately refute, that look made her feel very interesting, how could she understand spells if she wasn't a wizard? They will also perform prayer ceremonies for the tribal warriors who died in battle, and no one will believe them when they say it.

However, this time Song Xiaoshuang did not refute, his face became serious, he stretched out his chopsticks and picked up a piece of boiled fish and stuffed it into his mouth to chew, tilting his head to signal everyone to look at the street outside the window.

On the street outside the Chinese restaurant, in the dust flying, a seven-seater business wagon with ordinary civilian license plates had just stopped, and several Asian men with capable bodies, wearing athleisure suits and casual shoes, opened the door of the business van and jumped down quickly, and walked straight towards the Chinese restaurant.

Isabelle's eyes were a little stunned, and she hurriedly said in disbelief: "The third secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Mauritania? This guy I met once at the embassy! ”

The door of the Chinese restaurant was gently pushed open, several Chinese walked in, the leading middle-aged man was about one meter seven five, the face of the Chinese character was thick eyebrows, big eyes and cheeks with a beard, seemingly rough but with a restrained temperament, did not wait for the waitress of the restaurant to step forward, after a little look at the situation in the hall, straight to the table by the window.

The middle-aged man's eyes swept over Isabel, and while stretching out his hand, he spoke in skillful Arabic unhurriedly: "Isabel, long time no see, the wine supplied by Ling Zun is the top and a good supplier, we can strengthen the cooperation!" ”

Isabel had already guessed that the third secretary of the embassy standing in front of her would not come to her deliberately because her own wine became a supplier, quickly stood up and wiped the oil stains left by gnawing ribs on her hands on her sleeve, stretched out her hand and shook the third secretary, the light in her yellow-brown eyes flashed, and she said in Chinese calmly: "Secretary Chen, you are here to find Song Xiaoshuang, your work efficiency is very high!" ”

Secretary Chen, who has a restrained temperament, nodded slightly, looking at Song Xiaoshuang still eating boiled fish with a nonchalant look, knowing that Isabel was still waiting to listen to his explanation, Secretary Chen was stunned and then changed to Chinese: "Well, the consulate reported Song Xiaoshuang's situation, the embassy felt that his situation was a little special, it just so happened that I was passing by Attar and wanted to talk to him!" ”

Song Xiaoshuang sighed secretly, stood up and poured the remaining half bottle of beer into his mouth, looked around, gave Isabelle, Wu Dai, Emina, and Uncle Issam a few calm looks, walked past Secretary Chen, and said in a somewhat erratic tone: "Let's go, let's talk about it when we get there!" ”

In an instant, several people left the Chinese restaurant and got into a business car, and the exhaust pipe of the car pulled out white smoke and drove away.

Isabel looked at the puzzled eyes of Udai and Emina, Isabel sat on the chair with a fart, and said angrily in Chinese: "Don't look at me, I don't know anything, we just went to the consulate in the morning and asked if it was possible to reissue Song Xiaoshuang's passport, where did I know that even the embassy sent someone so soon, no one can say anything about this matter!" ”