After resting for the night, early the next morning, as soon as the fat man and I packed our things, Li Shi came to inform us to go directly to the train station to meet first, and Gu Ling went to pick up the old professor first.

The departure time is 9:30 am, considering that it is an international train, so it is about an hour early according to the requirements. As soon as I arrived outside the train station, I saw the figures of Gu Ling and You Hanshan, and standing in front of them was a middle-aged and elderly intellectual in his fifties, a green military coat as the last cold fortress, wrapped the whole person tightly, wearing a pair of reading glasses.

As soon as a few of us stepped forward, the old professor walked over, presumably Gu Ling and the others had already explained the situation of the team to him, looked at us carefully, and said with a smile on his face: "It's not simple, you are the two that Miss Gu said, I heard that you know the stars and feng shui, what you need most in this team is these skills, and your joining, it will be better to determine where the place we are looking for is buried." ”

I smiled and nodded and replied, "Yes, old professor, participating in this operation is also a help to my studies, I studied archaeology." In order not to delay the drive, and not to appear unapproachable, I simply introduced myself to the old professor, and the old professor seemed to be very easy to get along with, not like some old professors I met in school before, the one in front of me is obviously more approachable, and there is a mentality of "the old man is in the bush, and he is determined to be thousands of miles".

This conversation lasted more than ten minutes, and it wasn't until Li Shi and others began to remind them that it was time to enter the station, and the professor surnamed Zhou and I stopped.

Originally, I thought I could go straight to the waiting room of the international train, but I didn't expect that when I walked into the hall of Beijing Railway Station, I only saw a poor train number card standing there, and everyone was waiting in line in the hall.

We weren't the first to arrive, and as time went on, there were long queues behind us, mostly Mongols, everyone with big bags and small bags, and our backpacks were light and slim in comparison, except for the two lads named Li Shi.

About less than nine o'clock, began to check the ticket release, the international train each person luggage weight limit of about 30 kilograms, the excess part needs to be checked in Beijing Station one day in advance, because there are a large number of businessmen who travel back and forth with Ulaanbaatar and Beijing, their luggage is almost all required to be weighed, but I don't know what Gu Ling came forward to show them, all of us directly released, neither more than the pound nor the inspection.

After the people in front of us checked our luggage, we walked straight over, and then we really arrived at the international train waiting room to wait for the train. The old-fashioned dark red leather sofa in the waiting room, with large floor-to-ceiling windows with old white gauze curtains, looks through the cracks in the curtains, several platforms are already full, and it seems that they will enter the station soon.

Not long after I sat down, I began to remind passengers to start getting on the bus, and as soon as I entered the car door, there was a strong smell of mutton. One carriage has seven or eight passenger compartments and one attendant compartment. Each compartment has two sets of bunk beds, the lower bunk of the box has a box for luggage, the bunks are covered with Mongolian carpets, and the window frames are wooden to the touch, with a layer of varnish that is said to be thin.

The train passed through Zhangjiakou and Datong, and then crossed over to Zamyn-Uud, Sainshanda, and Joyle and arrived in Ulaanbaatar at 6 p.m. the next day. The whole journey is about 1,500 kilometers, and it takes about 35 hours to sit.

After the train started, the conductor began to boil water to make tea, and then took some firewood from the red cabinet above the tea stove, put it in the hearth, and after the water was boiled, the conductor carried the tea on a tray and delivered it to the box.

After the fat man and I put our luggage away, we walked around on our own initiative, and saw that there was a toilet on each side of each carriage, and I heard the conductor say that only one of them was usually opened, and the pipe fittings in the bathroom were all cast iron, which looked like an old antique.

I walked with the fat man for a while, and felt that it was too cold in the carriage, and then we went back to the box, and since there were only four beds in a box, all four of us young people naturally slept in a box.

At night, I don't know if it was because I was nervous or afraid, I couldn't sleep no matter how I tossed and turned, so I simply sat up, and the fat man slept soundly in the lower bunk.

As soon as I saw that the two young men hadn't slept yet, I wanted to inquire about the ancient spirits, so I pretended to cough a few times: "Li Shi, why haven't you slept yet?" ”

Li Shi saw that I didn't sleep, so he turned over and put down the book in his hand and sat up, looked at me and said, "I haven't slept yet, it's still early, what's wrong?" ”

I scratched my head: "It's nothing, it's just for the sake of future actions, to understand more deeply, and it's more convenient when the time comes." ”

Unexpectedly, Li Shi saw my thoughts and smiled: "That's what I said, but you want to inquire about Miss Gu, right?" ”

As soon as I saw that the other party had already said it so clearly, I stopped beating around the bush and said, "Out of pure curiosity, I think you all seem to respect her quite a lot, and that You Hanshan doesn't seem to be simple." ”

Li Shi said: "The two of us were also instructed by our superiors not long ago, so we followed Miss Gu to participate in this operation, and we only knew that we had to ensure Miss Gu's safety, as for the rest, we really don't know very well." ”

I nodded thoughtfully and said, "It's okay, I'm just curious, I'm in the same situation as you." ”

I thought to myself that Gu Ling must have a deeper identity background, especially the resolute and downbeat eyes of life and death, this is not something that a girl about twenty years old can show, she must have experienced a lot of things, maybe the things behind this are far beyond my imagination.

I saw that if I continued to ask, I would not get any more useful news, so I had to smile politely, and then lay down on the bed, in order to save myself and Xiao Cao's brother, I had no reason to retreat this way.

Maybe it was because my sleep was too light, I woke up from a clangling sound of metal, and when I looked at the time, it was only past eleven o'clock in the evening, and Li Shi from the sleeper on the opposite side told me that it was now the second company.

Erenhot is located in the north of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and is also an important hub of China's access to Eurasia, where there are relatively many wild animals, such as yellow sheep, foxes, hares, etc.

As early as in the primitive society, there were ancient hunting tribes, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were Linhu Land, also known as Donghu Land, the Xiongnu migrated here during the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Eastern Han Dynasty was Wuheng and Xianbei settled in, the Sui and Tang dynasties were herded by the Turks, Liao was the land of Moge Loss, and Jin was the land of the Wanggu tribe.

After arriving at the border city of Erenhot, the train needs to be hooked and separated while changing the train wheels, and there are three dead and ten-ton cranes at both ends of each carriage to jack it up and slowly rise.

I turned sideways and looked out the window, expecting to ask the passengers to get off, but the body had already been lifted. After the body was slowly lifted, the Chinese standard train wheels were removed, and the slightly wider Mongolian standard train wheels were replaced, and after the broad-gauge wheels were in place, the carriages were slowly put down, and after determining that a series were installed in place, each carriage was pulled out one by one, and the hooks were connected, and the whole process took about half an hour.

After such a toss of the train, the fat man couldn't sleep, so he turned over and sat up, and said angrily: "Don't let people sleep well!" What's the matter, is it a traffic jam or an accident? ”

The fat man's shout made me happy, and I leaned on my stomach and bowed my head to the fat man in the lower bunk and said, "If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense, this is the train and then change the wheel, and you can leave immediately." ”

The fat man looked up and said in surprise: "You didn't sleep, the train wheels are broken?" This train is long and heavy, can this be exchanged? ”

I smiled and explained: "It's not that the wheels of the train are broken, it's because the tracks of the two countries are different, the steel rails of Mongolia and Russia are 1520 mm broad gauge, while China's is 1435 mm standard gauge, the difference is 85 mm, and the gauge is different, so the train must be replaced here with different gauge and train chassis before it can enter and exit." ”

The fat man cast a look of great admiration, looked at me and said, "Aren't you studying archaeology, how can you know this so well?" ”

I looked at Li Shi on the other side, motioned to the fat man to look over there, and said, "I didn't know before, this is what Li Shi told me just now, if you still don't understand anything, you can ask him." ”

When Li Shi heard me say this, he just smiled awkwardly and didn't say anything, and the fat man pouted at me: "I thought you didn't know anything." ”

At the same time, the horn at the station finally announced in Chinese, Mongolian, and English that the train to Ulaanbaatar was about to start, and after getting on the train, the train was not moving, and the fat man and I had nothing to do, and the carriage aisle was full of traffic, and it was impossible to sleep at this time.

The fat man patted my bed rail and said, "Anyway, idle is idle, come down, how about we play poker." Then he pouted to Li Shi and Li Li: "You two, do you know how to play poker, why don't you come down and have a few handfuls?" ”

The lower bunk seemed to be very immersed in his own affairs, and he didn't know what he was painting there, so he said no without looking back, only Li Shi from the upper bunk happily jumped down directly: "Anyway, the things that should be studied have been studied enough, and it is good to relax and relax." ”

I don't know how long we played, until everyone yawned, and I thought I could finally get a good night's sleep.

When I woke up, it was already ten o'clock in the morning, and there were still more than ten hours before the arrival time.

At more than eight o'clock in the evening, the train stopped at an unknown small station, although there was no snow for the time being, but the temperature outside was extremely low, we just got off the train, we felt the biting cold straight into the neck, Professor Zhou on the side was also a little overwhelmed.

The platform seems to be the office of the station, the windows are small and large, horizontal and vertical, it seems particularly messy, and later I learned that the winter in Mongolia is very cold, the buildings are double-glazed windows, and the weather is cold and ventilated, so open a small window that can be opened separately on the large glass window.

We crossed the fence of the station, rows of wooden houses were neatly arranged, between the houses were dirt roads, occasionally a Daewoo car drove by, Gu Ling told us that she had arranged a place to live, we waited here for someone to pick up, soon a few cars came, got off the car to confirm the identity to Gu Ling, and everyone got on the bus and went straight to the destination.

I heard Li Shi say that we are going to a home named Kentmoir, and it is also the guide who led us this time, usually at this time, no one will brave the danger of the wind and snow to go up the mountain, and due to the change of the wind and snow, the place where there was a road will also become no road, but I don't know for what reason, only the middle-aged man named Kentmur is willing to lead us up the mountain, which is really a lot of risk reduction.