(a)

Before dawn, you and Wu Shun returned to the assembly place together.

You counted the casualties of your team. You have 683 people left, most of them wounded, but still capable.

You feel that the purpose of the operation in the Tibetan region has been achieved. You ordered the whole team to march north, into the Danba Desert.

The Danba Desert was the largest desert in the region at the time. It is in the shape of a half-moon and surrounds the north-west of the three ethnic groups of the steppe.

Once you've crossed the desert, you'll be able to completely bypass the enemy-controlled steppe and go from the Tibetan people's place to the Rong ancestors' place of residence, and from there, into the territory of the Southern Han Dynasty.

When you return to Huangsangyukou, you have already planned such an amazing long-distance detour in your heart.

The army you led was the first and only one of its time to successfully cross the Danba Desert. You miraculously escaped the pursuit of the Tibetans, and the day you led the army into the Danba Desert was your birthday. You completely and completely forgot about it.

(b)

Three hours after entering the desert, it was already completely bright. The sun has risen. Under the scorching sun, the temperature of the desert began to rise. The iron armor of each soldier was scorched hot. However, you are on high combat alert, and no one has taken off their iron armor.

There has always been a terrifying legend about this desert. Legend has it that deep in the desert is the dwelling place of the Nether God, who commands an ancient army that has died. He is eager to grow his team, so he is always in the depths of the desert, quietly waiting for everyone who enters the desert. Legend has it that the armies that entered the desert were wiped out by the Nether God's army, and their bones joined the Death Army.

Most of the Danba Desert is a barren and desolate gravel desert, and only in the vicinity of the residence of the Rong ancestors is a soft sandy desert with a small area. In gravel desert areas, the ground is harder. Your plan is to send you to the edge of the sandy desert with the help of your horses, then abandon all your horses and walk through the sandy desert until you reach the Rongxian steppe, and then plunder the horses again.

You face two severe tests: the horse's ability to walk at the limit of life in a rocky desert terrain lacking vegetation; Han soldiers hike through the limits of physical strength in the sandy desert. You are equally unsure about both of these things. When you set out, you were ready to die in the desert and never return. You're betting on your luck. You've been surprisingly lucky in this regard.

If God favors you in one way, it will treat you in another. All successes come at an equal price.

(c)

The headache, which gradually lessened after dawn, became more intense again at noon. Sharp pain burst down from the heights like an avalanche. They smash your head and head you. You're engulfed in an instant. You fall off your horse almost immediately.

You slammed into the gravel-strewn ground. You curl up on the ground with your boiling head in your hands. You feel like a powerful pressure is about to erupt in your brain, and it almost bursts your skull open from within. You're so pained that your face is blank, you're sweating profusely, and even lifting your eyelids feels like a sharp blade piercing your body.

The heavy, hot iron armor keeps you from breathing. The guards helped you remove your helmet, unfastened the nail lobes on your chest and back, made you lie flat on the ground, and poured cool water on your face to help you stay conscious.

You're in pain and your hands are scraping at the gravel floor. You gripped a handful of gravel tightly with each hand, and rested your head on Wu Shun's arms for a while. The muscles of the whole body become highly tense as they resist pain. The neck is as stiff as a stone, unable to bend and turn.

You endure with great difficulty, defeat yourself again and again, and hold back your voice.

You go on like this for almost 20 minutes before your body slowly relaxes.

After the pain subsided on its own, you lay there without moving or making a sound for a quarter of an hour.

Because you clench so hard that your fingers stiffen, you can't let go of your fists. Wu Shun gently broke your fists one finger at a time. Gravel and sand, little by little, scattered from your fingers.

When you are finally able to speak, you leave Wu Shun alone by your side.

You say to him, "I'm feeling bad right now. There will definitely be seizures afterwards. If I die, you will lead them out of the desert. Don't worry about the war, if you can go back to the water safely, you will have completed the task. Don't take my corpse with you, it will drag you down. Where I died, I was buried. You don't have to take anything back, so that your family won't be sad. ”

Wu Shun choked up and said, "You won't die." God saved you once in the morning, and I will definitely save you. ”

He said, "You have to persevere. We can't live without you. Without your guidance, we would not have been able to return safely. You have to hold on for all of us. ”

He wept and said, "You forgot, but I still remember." Today is your birthday. Why did you choose to torture you like this today? Why don't you let me replace you? ”

Say, "Because I have sinned a great sin in this life." I've killed too many people. ”

You say, "This is the punishment I deserve." No matter how painful it was, I knew that I deserved it, and I had nothing to complain about. ”

(iv)

As you might expect, headaches were frequent and intense throughout the day. It knocks you to the ground again and again. You're exhausted by it. You vomit violently to the point of almost dehydration. When dusk falls, you don't have the strength to get up again, and even with the support of the guards, you can't sit still. Your mind starts to become unconscious, you don't recognize people and you can't hear what they're saying to you. You pass out several times in a row.

Wu Shun knelt beside you with tears streaming down his face, powerlessly pierced through his heart by a thousand arrows of despair.

In between the pain, you said to Wu Shun: "Help me say I'm sorry, I promised her that she would go back, but I can't do it." Let her stop waiting for me. ”

Wu Shun said: "No! You can do it! If you have anything to say, you have to go back and say it to her. If you can't go back, life will be over for her. Your lives are interconnected. It's like being on a cliff that day. You must not let go of your hand, do not let yourself fall, and do not let her fall. He said, "No matter how hard it is, please don't let go of your hand." ”

The sun has set. Night rises. Once again, the sky overhead was dotted with stars. The temperature in the desert has cooled. As the temperature gradually decreases, so does your pain level slowly and gradually.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, you are conscious again. You say, "I'm sorry. dragged everyone to follow me and suffer. ”

At this sentence, the surrounding guards wept one after another.

(5)

The last pain of the day, which occurred at 11 p.m. Most of the soldiers have already rested according to your orders. Only Wu Shun takes care of you with two soldiers.

You said to them weakly in the pain that was strong and weak, "Go and sleep for a while." I can be on my own. ”

Wu Shun said: "Don't drive me away. Let me stay with you for this birthday. ”

Wu Shun carefully helped you sit up, and with his help, you barely drank a little hot soup, but you couldn't eat the dry food.

You lie in the darkness of the desert, and Wu Shun sits beside you.

In the last part of that birthday, you silently watched the stars in the sky, and you looked at the past glory of those stars.

Because, life is small. Therefore, each other's help and protection will be particularly precious.

(f)

After a while, Wu Shun saw a little light flickering and moving in the northwest corner of the sky. He saw a meteor cross the galaxy, draw a long arc in the sky, fall in the direction of the horizon, and disappear into the place where heaven and earth meet. He looked back to see if you saw it too. He finds that you have fallen asleep with even breathing. Heaven has finally decided to let you go.

In Linshui, I listened to Wu Shun tell the story of this day. I remembered that that night, I had seen the meteor too. I saw it flicker in the northwest, streak across the sky of my life, and finally fall.

We live under the same starry sky, but we have to experience our own deaths alone.