There was indeed a man in the sand, a dead man, to be exact, buried in the sand from the waist down, with only the upper half of his limbs still exposed to the wind. At this moment, his body had been air-dried, and he looked like a dried corpse in the poignant moonlight, terrifying and weird.

Li Qifa only glanced at it, and almost threw it up. This ignorant young man had never seen such a bloody scene. He has almost nothing but eating, drinking, prostituting, gambling and playing with women all his life. He didn't even know if the watermelon was growing in the ground or on the tree. He was lying on the ground at the moment, his chest churning and retching.

A hint of fear suddenly appeared in Akaza's eyes, and he muttered, "It's Xiao Zhou, how could he die here?"

The deputy captain, that is, the Han youth named Lin Feng, looked at it silently for a while, and suddenly his face was happy, and said: "Since his body is here, we should not be far from the camel caravan in front, maybe they have found the hidden lake in the desert."

I frowned and said, "Not necessarily, maybe it's far away." ”

Lin Feng glanced at me and asked softly, "How do you know?"

I pointed to the body and said, "He told me."

"He" Lin Feng glanced at the corpse, and asked with a puzzled face, "Can a dead man speak?" ”

"This man's water and luggage have been taken away, apparently killed by someone, and the body is thrown here, and the rest of the people should have moved on." I said.

When I said this, the others were also lost, so we pitched our tents to rest in the scorching heat during the day, and hurried out at night.

Avoid the scorching sun during the day and reduce water use so that there is a chance of life. Walking at night is difficult, but tonight the moonlight is bright, and the starlight can be used to guide the way.

Navigating with the stars was a common technique used by ancient caravanserais. Ancient people used these methods to walk in the desert for thousands of years, and this age-old method still works today.

The group hurried along the way, and at three o'clock in the morning, they saw another corpse, which had been almost buried by the wind and sand, and only a small part of the ground was exposed. Akaza didn't even know the deceased, the man looked like he had been dead for many days, his face was bloody and fleshy, and his eyes were only two hollow holes, which seemed to radiate a resentful glow. There was blood all over his body, and there were traces of being eaten everywhere, and there was not a single intact piece of skin. At this moment, the blood stains have dried and the skin of the corpse has been completely sunburned, these gnawing marks should be the work of sand wolves and vultures.

Such a cruel scene has rarely been seen, and Li Qifa only glanced at it and did not dare to look at it again.

I was very interested in the corpse, and I picked up the sand around the corpse with my hands, and the corpse was finally completely exposed, and I examined it very carefully, not sparing any part.

I pointed to the dried corpse and said, "This man was shot before he died. "When they looked closely at the place I was pointing, they saw that there was a bullet on the left rib of the corpse, which was so deeply embedded in his bones that it was almost impossible to find because of the blur of flesh and blood, but I found it anyway.

The corpse also wore a diamond watch on its left hand, the dial had been shattered, and the time on the watch was fixed at three o'clock. Whether he died at three o'clock, whether it was three o'clock in the afternoon or three o'clock in the middle of the night, no one can answer the question.

Akaza looked at the watch on the corpse's hand, and suddenly his eyes rolled and he laughed, he seemed to think of something.

Li Qifa looked at his smile and couldn't help asking, "What are you laughing at?" ”

Akaza ignored him, but took off his watch and threw it to the ground, picked it up again, and then smiled: "He has a problem with this watch." ”

"You see, no ordinary watch can be broken on the sand, let alone a diamond watch, which is of good quality, how can it be broken if it falls on the sand, and if he is killed here, how can the person who killed him be so bored as to break his watch," Akaza explained. He took off the watch so that everyone could see it. This kind of watch is expensive, and the person who killed him did not take it, apparently he broke it when he fell, and if he fell here, he would never break the watch, which means that the place where he was shot was not here. ”

"Could it be that someone deliberately moved him here?" Li Qifa thought for a long time and said smartly.

"No one would be stupid enough to move a corpse in the desert, and if you want to destroy the corpse, you must bury it directly, and it is impossible to throw it here." I pondered for a moment and frowned, "I think he should have escaped here after being shot." ”

"Why do you have such a guess?" Li Qifa couldn't help but ask curiously.

I looked around and said slowly: "This corpse doesn't even have a kettle around it, it should be that something happened in a hurry, otherwise who would have entered the desert empty-handed." ”

"Yes. You have a point. Scratching his head, Akaza continued, "And this man must have been shot at three o'clock in the middle of the night." ”

"How can you be so sure?" Xue Meiniang asked puzzledly, her beautiful eyes flashing with a hint of doubt.

I went on to explain, "If you look at the scale on your watch, it's either three o'clock in the afternoon or three o'clock in the middle of the night. On such a hot day, the watch is even hot during the day, and only people wear it at night, and three o'clock in the middle of the night is the time when people sleep the deepest. ”

I smiled and said, "But seeing this corpse is at least good news"

"Why is it good news?" Akaza asked, puzzled, and he said that in the eyes of the Mongols, the encounter with a dead man in the desert was an ominous sign, but at the moment I said it was good news.

Ren Bing said: "This place is remote and inaccessible, and there will definitely be no tourists coming, but this person has recently died here." If I'm not mistaken, this man must be one of the people in the caravan ahead, which means that we are now going in the right direction. ”

I continued: "Since there are coyotes in the vicinity, there should be water, and some of the gnawing marks on the corpse just now should have been left by birds of prey such as vultures and vultures, although the vultures have a wide range of prey, but they live in the grassland, so it seems that we are about to leave this sand dune." ”

Everyone nodded their heads, especially Akaza, and gave me a thumbs up.

We continue on our way. The moon shadow is moving westward, the cold wind is grinning, and tonight is still a biting cold.

In the pre-dawn darkness, the tent was set up under the light of the portable lamp. We stopped and rested on the spot. Although it was the middle of the night and there was no scorching sun, we still faced one of the biggest problems.

Water, the little water in the belly of the camel we killed earlier, definitely won't last long. The top priority is to find water as soon as possible, otherwise these people will really die in the wilderness, and now because it has dragged on for too long, the humps of the remaining seven camels have also been flattened, which means that these camels have no water, and now they are killed, and even one person will not be able to drink.

The wind was howling outside, and the tent was silent, Xue Meiniang said: "Now I also feel that there is moisture in the distance, why don't we go first?" ”

"Let's take them with you, after all, these people are ordinary people, and they may not be able to find water after we leave." I said.

After the words, Xue Meiniang's warm and soft body snuggled into my arms, her face pressed against mine, but this time we didn't go on impulse, just very simple, snuggled up to each other and fell asleep.

After surviving the hottest part of the day in the tent, we set off again in the afternoon.

While walking, Akaza suddenly saw some small traces on the sand, which were the footprints of coyotes, and the reason why these animals were able to survive in such a desolate desert was that they naturally had a way to find a water source, and everyone followed the footprints.

Gradually, a few stub grasses appeared on the sand dunes in the distance. Climbing over this dune, the sight is astounding. It's a desert lake.

The lake is not very large, but there are many desert plants growing around it. It makes this place green, it is like a turquoise jade in a sea of golden sand.

The lake is blue under the blue sky, and the yellow sand, green grass, and blue lake are intertwined into a gorgeous and colorful picture, with a bleak sunset and a full red glow, which is already the most beautiful scenery in the world for those who have been thirsty in the desert for a few days.

It is the mountains and rivers that are full of doubts, and the willows and flowers are bright and another village. Heaven seems to be on the mercy of these poor people. Water, cool fresh water, the source of life. There is nothing more precious than this water at this moment.

After a burst of exclamations, everyone rushed down eagerly. Li Qifa was already about to jump into the water, but was stopped by Akaza.