Chapter 1: Am I Not Human?

I shouldn't have had that thought - to go to Lop Nur.

I didn't know that I would go through such a long journey of horror, such a terrifying vision, such a mysterious cycle of life and death......

I don't know anything. That lifeless land of salt crusts, like a day for a hundred years, does not move at all, waiting for me definitely.

So, why should I go to Lop Nur?

It all started with a physical examination a month ago.

I'm pretty honest, and I haven't had a physical examination since I was a child.

That day, the assistant Ji Fengfei dragged me to the physical examination center, and I was forced to go in desperation.

I went from room to room, and I didn't know what they were.

In the cardiology department, the doctor gave me an electrocardiogram, and he looked a little abnormal, and I asked him, "What's wrong?" ”

"It seems that something is wrong with the machine......," he said, and then, while complaining about the quality of the domestic machine, he restarted.

He redid my EKG and he was stunned.

I said, "Is there something wrong?" ”

He turned around and looked at my face, "Do you feel normal?" ”

I said, "That's normal." What's going on? ”

He said: "A normal person's heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute, do you know how much you are? ”

I was a little apprehensive: "How ...... Few? ”

He said, "600 times a minute! ”

I said, "Too fast? ”

He said, "The heart rate of a rat is 600 beats!" ”

I said, "No one is like me?" ”

He said: "When it reaches 600 times, the heart does not supply blood, which means that the heart stops beating, and it will not last for 15 minutes!" ”

I actually laughed: "So I have 15 minutes to live?" ”

He continued to look at me and said, "It's been 15 minutes since I restarted the machine. ”

I said, "It looks like I'm not going to die." ”

He put his ear to my heart and listened, frowning: "Strange ......"

I said, "What's wrong?" ”

He said, "It's normal to listen to your heartbeat." ”

I said, "There must be something wrong with your machine!" ”

"The machine is absolutely fine," he says. ”

I said, "Okay, I'm a rat, I'll change the medical center." ”

With that, I walked out.

Walking out the door, I looked back and the doctor had been watching me through the door.

There were still a few items left, and I didn't want to do any more, so I left the physical examination center in a hurry, called Monsoon, and said that I had something urgent and left first.

When I got home, I wasn't at peace.

Why does my heartbeat sound normal when detected by the instrument?

600 times this number became a shadow, hanging over me, more and more depressed.

I touched my heart: "Pounding pounding...... "To be honest, I don't know what other people's hearts feel like, so I can't tell if I have a problem.

Am I really not a normal person?

I'm going to check.

I searched the Internet on my phone, and sure enough, humans don't have a heartbeat of 600 beats per minute. But I accidentally found a case -

On the edge of Lop Nur in Xinjiang, a man who had fainted was found and taken to a nearby hospital. After resuscitation, the man woke up. He was wearing blue pants and a white shirt, he was very dirty, and he didn't have any papers on him. No matter what he asked, he didn't say a word.

Everyone suspected that he trespassed into the no-man's land of Lop Nur, escaped death, was strongly stimulated, and became demented.

Doctors examined him and found that the man was very abnormal — his heart rate sounded normal, but when tested by a machine, it was as high as 600 beats per minute.

That night, the man quietly disappeared from the hospital......

Could it be that I am the same kind as this mysterious man?

I suddenly had an idea - to go to Lop Nur and have a look.

I have a vague feeling that my life has some kind of delicate relationship with Lop Nur.

A casual thought can often kill you. And the more ominous thoughts became, the more unstoppable they became, and I found that I could no longer persuade myself.

I had the same dream for three days in a row: a large body of water, surrounded by golden sand, and a woman, draped in golden flowers, stood in the middle of the water, smiling and hooking her hands at me......

Three times I woke up from my dream.

Thinking back to the scene in the dream, I felt that the vague woman was a little familiar, who was she?

Oh, when I was a child, I watched a movie called "Mirage", it seems to be played by Yu Rongguang, and there is a scene that scared me for half my life-

There was a man, he saw a mirage in the desert, half the sky was a huge picture, swaying, and a woman of an alien race appeared on the picture, riding a horse. So, this man worked hard to find the woman in the picture, and finally found her one day......

Perhaps because the mirage was ingrained in my mind, the woman I dreamed of three times was very similar to the woman in the picture.

She's calling me?

What does she have to do with me?

I live in Wolf City (sorry for the mistake, it's Lan City) and work as freelance writers, nothing drags me on. On this day, I started to pack my bags.

Before leaving, I went to the Baiyun Temple in Kongtong Mountain to ask for a signature. It is said that the lottery there is very effective.

I arrived early in the morning, walked into the Sanqing Palace, faced the Yuqing Yuan Shi Tianzun, Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun, and Taiqing Daode Tianzun, burned incense and knelt down, and asked silently in my heart: Three great immortals, I want to go through Lop Nur, please tell me - is it feasible?

The three immortal trees stared blankly ahead.

I gently picked up the holder, closed my eyes, and started shaking. After a long time, no sign fell out.

I shook it hard.

Still no sign has fallen out.

I tilted the holder and continued to shake it vigorously, until I finally heard a "click" and a stick fell to the ground.

I picked it up, looked at it, and was a little stunned.

I know that what is written on the signature is quite esoteric, what: the eight pure hexagrams ask the official, the rich ghost is uneasy when he rushes, don't ask about the good of the camp, only the old can be happy......

Then you need to go to the sign, and the Taoist priest will tell you what this sign means according to the specific matter you ask, and whether it is signed up or down.

There were only three words on the sign I drew - sign down.

I didn't figure out what this was going on for a long time.

Then, I got up and went to find the Taoist priest. A Taoist priest in his 40s sat on a chair at the door and took a nap, he was wearing a blue Taoist robe, a star crown, a Tang scarf, and cloud boots.

I said, "Daoist, can you help me untie the sign?" ”

He shook his head, opened his eyes, sat up straight, then took the slip from my hand, looked at it, and gave it back to me: "It's not ours." With that, he closed his eyes.

I can't cry or laugh, could it be that I brought this lottery and deliberately made trouble?

It immediately occurred to me that maybe some pilgrim had made this stick, and when the incense was served, it was secretly stuffed into the stick.

I casually threw the stick into the trash can next to the door and turned to leave. There is no point in pumping again.

When I got home, it was already afternoon, and I took a break and called a friend.

"Shall I go, or shall I not?"

"What do you mean? Where to? ”

"You don't care, I'll ask you, do I go, or don't I go?"

"Rub, headless and brainless, how do you tell me to answer!"

"You just answer intuitively, go, or don't go?"

"No, no."

"It's okay."

Then I hung up the phone.

I think of this kind of inquiry as a kind of inquiry. This friend didn't understand my situation, so I only asked him to answer intuitively, and sometimes I was quite annoyed by reason, and intuition may represent providence.

I called Monsoon again, and she was playing badminton with her friend and was out of breath when she answered the phone.

I said, "Monsoon, I'm going to Lop Nur." ”

After listening to my words, she couldn't react a little, and it took a long time to say, "What! ”

I said, "I'll be there soon." ”

Monsoon has always spoken cleanly, and she asked me: "Xinjiang ** invited you to go?" ”

Me: "No. ”

Monsoon: "Which publisher organized you to go?" ”

Me: "Not really. ”

Monsoon: "So what are you going to do?" Experience life? ”

Me: "Sort of. ”

Monsoon: "I...... Go? ”

Me: "You're not going. ”

Monsoon: "You're alone?" ”

Me: "I'll find some people to stay with." ”

Monsoon: "Look, it's still ...... Through? ”

Me: "Crossing." ”

Monsoon: "Boss Zhou, can I persuade you?" ”

Me: "You try. ”

Monsoon: "I just want to say that it's not a ghost town in Xudu, it's not a closed village, it's not the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, it's the man-eating Devil's Triangle!" ”

Me: "Finished?" ”

Monsoon: "...... That's it. ”

Me: "You can go back to playing." ”

After saying that, I hung up the phone.

I'm not afraid of those legendary haunted places, it feels naïve, but I'm afraid of Lop Nur, it's a real no-man's land, cannibalism doesn't spit out bones.

I don't know why, but the more I was afraid of it, the more I wanted to get closer to it.

A minute later, the phone rang again, it was Bye-bye, and I didn't answer. I know their style—Monsoon is soft-spoken, she only rationally discourages, and Bye-Bye is a loud voice, and she will grind with me for an hour.+

Thinking about it calmly, there is a certain force in the dark that won't let me go, and the people around me won't let me go...... Everyone seems to be holding me back.

I'd like to give it a try.