"I feel that the footsteps of death are getting closer and closer, and that is the most horrific form of death in the world brought about by the curse. The curse, the curse from the Pharaoh, I must be the last in the chain of death, end the curse, end the curse......"

The messy handwriting is enough to indicate that the writer is extremely emotionally unstable, and in addition to the above passage of obscure Chinese, the blank space of the paper is covered with various Egyptian hieroglyphs, layered and staggered. I could recognize the words "curse, snake, gold" and so on, but I couldn't systematically connect them.

Egyptian writing, like the mysterious desert, has a certain magical power, and even more fascinating is the legend of the pharaoh's treasure that has been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, and has firmly attracted explorers from all over the world.

Leng Hannan and Leng Xin's father and daughter are undoubtedly the best of the Chinese explorers, and they have always been quite famous in this industry, known as the "Indiana Jones of the East". This time, though, they also missed. In the world of exploration, "missing" is synonymous with "death", and all the news I got included only two sentences - "Leng Xin is missing, and the rest are dead".

The sun had already set in the western sky, and the late autumn dusk carried a chilling chill that soon enveloped the golden desert. In the distance, the melodious camel bell of "Ding Zero Ding Zero" came from somewhere, accompanied by a faint mist.

"It's auditory hallucinations, the movement of the devils in the desert. The lost people chase after them, and it ends up being the devil's supper......"

The police officer who was driving the car was talking to himself, and as soon as he stepped on the accelerator, the off-road jeep engine roared, leaving a trail of sand behind us.

I didn't want to pay attention to him, my head was heavy, and my mind kept flashing a cold face. Her long eyelashes flapped suddenly, her big black grape-like eyes seemed to ripple with a charming smile at any moment, and her silver bell-like laughter kept ringing in her ears - "Eagle, come to Egypt, and I will take you to the 'Sea of Gold'." Think about it, what a magnificent sight is the sea made of gold, with its golden light, which makes people dare not look at it?"

The "Sea of Gold" is one of the most fascinating pages of all Egyptian treasure legends, attracting tens of thousands of explorers from all over the world from ancient times to the present, but the sea of gold has not appeared in the world, but has caused those treasure hunters who come with dreams to die in the desert, with the wind and sand.

Leng Xin is not the kind of girl who is greedy, she and her father Leng Hannan came to the desert to find a missing person at the request of a tycoon on Hong Kong Island. With Leng Hannan's net worth, it doesn't matter how much he needs for material things, and any expedition work he is currently carrying out is just for the word "hobby".

Their father and daughter seem to be pilgrims who never stop, born for "adventure" all their lives.

"Hey, Mr. Chen, would you like a cigarette?" the officer laughed, holding the steering wheel in one hand and pulling out a pack of camel cigarettes from his pocket with the other.

I shook my head: "No, thank you." ”

"Don't worry, the robbery has already happened anyway, and it's useless to think about it. Before, I had seen Miss Leng in Cairo, and she was a standard oriental beauty, which made all men swoon, even our director—" Holding a cigarette, he still couldn't stop his mouth, and it seemed that the police in Cairo were very talkative, even in front of strangers.

I gave a cold "snort" to stop him from continuing.

Ahead, the shadow of the Great Pyramid had risen in the twilight, and as the light gradually dimmed, the world-famous building became more and more arrogant and secretive, piercing the sky with a fearless posture.

He glanced at the crumpled piece of paper in my hand and smiled disdainfully: "Mr. Chen, it's just a piece of waste paper from the garbage can, every foreigner who comes to Egypt will have more or less visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, fantasies, sleepwalking and other psychological strange diseases...... Hehe, those nonsense ideas are enough to compile a hundred new copies of "Arabian Nights", but, as a good Egyptian police officer, I only believe what I see with my own eyes, and I only believe in all the hard evidence. ”

The crumpled piece of paper did come from the trash can in Leng Xin's room, and when I found it like a treasure, several of the Egyptian policemen present were secretly smiling, as if they had mistaken the team's encounter as a simple and ordinary robbery.

"Well, right up front, the heist happened right next to the Sphinx, do you want me to go into more detail—" Mitz's chatter intensified.

My ears were overwhelmed, and I reached out and tapped on the bridge: "Officer Miz, if you can remain silent from now until you return to Cairo City, I can give you ten camel cigarettes, plus ten Marlboros." ”

As I've always been in the habit of acting, I hate myself when I think about someone muttering about a plane all the way from Hong Kong Island, and my mind has been very confused, and I was trying to clear my mind before going to the scene of the robbery, but I made a mess of this guy called "Miz".

"Really?" said Mitz, overjoyed, and with a quick release of the steering wheel, he almost rushed down the narrow ditch of the desert road.

I took the steering wheel for him in time: "Of course, the Chinese have always been a gentleman——"

He was able to pick it up with a funny Chinese: "Horse...... It's hard to chase, ha, Mr. Chen, it's decided, I'll shut up immediately, shut up immediately. ”

Next, he really shut up and used the action of smoking hard to suppress his urge to speak.

The roads are deserted, it's the off-season in Egypt, and all the tour groups go into the desert in the morning and return by 3 p.m. At this moment, in the vast sea, only our police jeep is roaring and galloping.

The report faxed to me by the Egyptian police contained a brief description of the case, which was less than 1,000 words: a five-member scientific expedition led by Leng Hannan, a Chinese archaeologist, was robbed in the desert, Leng Hannan and three of his assistants were shot dead, and his daughter Leng Xin was missing. I hope that Mr. Chen Ying will fly to Cairo as soon as possible to deal with the aftermath.

Leng Hannan is my most respected father, Leng Xin is my girlfriend, their father and daughter's social life is very simple, only I can be trusted. Therefore, even the people of the International Archaeological Union have this tacit understanding - "I can't find two professors Leng, and it's the same to find Chen Ying."

I'm not an archaeologist, but a freelancer, and when I have time, I make low-key business investments, mostly locking myself up in a hilltop villa on Hong Kong Island West to read and write. Before that, I had a history of serving in the military, but I rarely talked about it anymore, because it was a thing of the past.

The pyramids and sphinxes are the pride of Egyptians and the most indispensable part of the country's tourism resources. Miz is an authentic Egyptian, and when he sees the Sphinx appear in the distance, he can't help but slap the steering wheel and hum an Egyptian folk song indistinctly.

The tall statue, still as small as a kitten compared to the pyramid behind it, obediently lies prone at the foot of the minaret. This stark contrast also illustrates the noble position of the pharaoh in the hearts of the Egyptians, and nothing else in the world can compare with it, because each generation of pharaohs has carved the words "I have witnessed yesterday, I have insight into tomorrow" on their tombs. Generations of people who have been buried in the pyramids are the true rulers of this vast desert, and they are forever worshipped by the Egyptians, both in life and death, in ancient and modern times.

The jeep drove until a hundred meters in front of the Sphinx, and Miz pointed to the two cars in front of the right that burned only their frames: "Mr. Chen, Professor His assistant was shot in the process of escaping, about twenty meters away from the car. The killers used weapons that were the most common American goods on the black market, and there were no obvious clues to them, after which they took everything in the car and set it on fire. We were unable to find out where Miss Leng Xin was, and we can roughly tell that she was taken away by the robbers. Therefore, at present, the police are offering a reward of 100,000 US dollars and scattering a lot of informants on the underworld, and I believe that there will be results soon. ”

He is a police officer, and all he does is a routine police briefing, and I am the only one who is really anxious.

The burned car could not provide any clues, and the body of the deceased had been transported back to the police cold storage, and the reason why I insisted on going to the scene was to see the retreat route that the robbers might have taken.

According to police records, the robbers fled in three Humvee jeeps. Modified American jeeps are impossible to find, many of them were abandoned during the Middle East wars, refurbished and refurbished by black car dealers and brought into Egypt from illegal channels.

I jumped out of the jeep and strode towards the wreckage.

In the process of communicating with the police, I always had reservations - Leng Xin has a very advanced foundation in Chinese kung fu, and even if she faces three or five big men alone, she definitely has a chance of winning. Therefore, when she saw her father and colleagues being killed, she would never be taken away without resistance, at least there would be traces of fierce fighting at the scene. Another thing is that during her exploration career, she always carries a pistol by her side and has beautiful marksmanship.

Based on the above two points, Leng Xin's disappearance has become the biggest suspicion in this robbery.

Now, I'm standing by the wreckage, watching the car in front of me with half of its tires melted down. According to Leng Xin's habits, at all times, she sits in the passenger seat of the lead car, and always holds a delicate telescope from Germany in her hand, and sometimes an atlas, sometimes a metal detector in the other hand.

I tried to imagine what the robbery should have been: "The archaeological team's car passed by and was surrounded by robbers who suddenly flashed out, and then the professor and his assistant fled, and the robbers opened fire. What was Leng Xin doing during the whole process? What about her martial arts and pistol? Could it be that she was restrained by the other party before she could use it? This is almost impossible, according to my estimation of her, from the time the robber appeared to the other party shooting, she had at least a chance to knock down or kill more than five opponents. ”

Leng Xin's character inherits the characteristics of his father's toughness, courage, indifference, and calmness, and the more he encounters major events, the more he can respond quickly and deal with emergencies very appropriately.

"Where has she gone?" I looked up at the great stone lion, so deep and solemn, as if I looked down on the desert, and my eyes were always full of sarcasm, and I was reminded once again of the famous words of the pharaohs: I have witnessed yesterday, I have insight into tomorrow.

"Pharaoh knows everything, what about this lion, why does it have to carve a human face on the body of a beast, is it a challenge to the human world?"

I stared at the face, and in the haze, it seemed to be slowly standing up, kicking off the stone platform beneath its feet, and striding forward. It is a lion, full of fierce and uninhibited wildness, but possessing the super-intelligence of man, and such a wonderful combination of creatures on Earth would be a nightmare for other races, including humans, of course.

The spotlights in the small square in front of the statue suddenly lit up, and the snow-white pillar of light illuminated its front in an instant, and at the same time dispelled all my absurd illusions.

I know that travelers are most prone to hallucinations in the desert, and if they are in a state of extreme lack of water and oxygen, the hallucinations will be so strong that they will fall into a state of madness.

Miz honked his horn twice in boredom, making a dry "beep, beep" sound, and seemed to be a little impatient. In his opinion, the Cairo police have already investigated the scene with detailed and complete information, and it is simply unnecessary to come here again.

I sighed, and was about to turn around and walk back, when a camel bell came with the wind, and the sound of "Ding Ling", which seemed to be intentional and unintentional, seemed to have some indescribable magic, attracting every nerve in me. The camel bell rang from behind the statue, and on that side was the vast expanse of the sea, and an improvised road stretched infinitely into the desert until it was swallowed up in the endless twilight.

"Mr. Chen, shall we go back?" Miz couldn't help but cried out.

At that moment, the phone in his pocket rang, and the sound of melodious electronic music sounded.

I waved to Meez, motioning for him to wait, then pulled out the phone, eyes still wandering over where the camel bell came from.

"Mr. Chen?" was a girl's deep and melodious voice.

I frowned, I didn't have any memory of this voice in my head, it was very unfamiliar, and I could only respond briefly: "It's me, who is it?"

The other party's voice became lighter, as if smiling on the other end of the phone: "I'm Xi Wei, a first-level researcher at the Cairo Society for the Study of Microbiology, Professor Leng must have mentioned my name to you?"

I immediately replied, "Yes, Miss Syvi, he did mention it before, what advice do you have?"

The name "Xiwei" is often on the covers and phone records of many of Leng Hannan's correspondence, and Leng Xin also mentioned to me that Xiwei belongs to the International Association for Biological Research and is currently the leader of the Cairo branch in Egypt. According to my imagination, she may be like Leng Hannan and Leng Xin, a workaholic who is only obsessed with scientific research work, and will always be a master who does not eat fireworks in the world.

Xiwei's voice lowered again: "I deeply regret what happened to the archaeological team, I remember that the professor said before that if you have any questions, you can contact you, and you can be roughly regarded as his plenipotentiary, right?"

Her voice, though beautiful, was disturbed by the sound of camel bells approaching again and again, which made me a little uneasy.

"Yes. I replied to her, my right hand hanging down and inserting it into my trouser pocket, gripping the high-strength injection-molded handle of a fighting knife. I only react this way when I feel danger is approaching.

"Well, the professor sent three samples of paleontological fossils to me for testing a week ago, and now there are preliminary results, I hope Mr. Chen-"

As soon as I said that, my attention shifted to a camel that suddenly appeared. With its head held high, it strode through the pillar of light of the spotlight until it reached the center of the small square. At this moment, its yellow-brown camel hair was rendered white by the light, and it looked even more strange. "Ding Zero, Ding Zero, Ding Zero", two huge silver bells hung under the camel's neck, shining while emitting a pleasant ringtone.

On the top of the hunchback sat a short, thin man, covered by a gray robe, and his face was covered by a gray turban and a face scarf, revealing only a pair of shining eyes and half of the bridge of his tall nose.

Fortunately, I saw him in the bright light, otherwise it would have been a real suspicion that he and the camel were monsters that suddenly emerged from the ground. His hand rested lightly on the towering hump, and with an undeniable haughty, he looked at me.

"Mr. Chen, are you still listening?" said Xiwei.

I replied apologetically, "Yes, yes, I'm listening." ”

"Come to-morrow afternoon, then, to the Sunshine Boulevard in Cairo New Town, where the address of the Research Society is easy to find, and I will bring you those reports?"

I agreed, but my eyes were fixed on a man and a camel that suddenly appeared out of the desert.

Xiwei hung up the phone after saying "see you tomorrow", and behaved politely throughout.

The man kicked the camel in the belly and walked all the way to me, and only when we were twenty paces apart did he snap on the hump. The camel immediately stopped, and then obediently lay down.

He slowly got out of his camel, stared at the wreckage of the car, clasped his hands together and prayed for a few seconds before walking over to me.

My hand was always on the hilt of the knife, after all, there had just been a murder and robbery here, and I couldn't take it lightly at any time.

"Don't be upset, sir. When a person dies here, his soul will be favored by the heavens, and such a death is sublimation, not sinking, right?" It turned out to be a girl with a crisp and tactful voice, speaking English, but with an indelible Egyptian accent.

"His wise gaze and theirs are able to shine on the dead until the spirits ascend to heaven. Of course, if you want, I can lead you and see them again. She druffled her voice, her deep, dark eyes staring straight at me.

"Who are you?" I asked calmly, my eyes swept over her gray robe to make sure there was no powerful firearm hidden in her, and my fingers slowly lifted off the hilt, and my body relaxed.

"I, a servant of the Pharaoh, the guardian of the dead that the Egyptian texts have tirelessly described. Sir, I can remind you that it is precisely when they have touched the taboo of the Pharaoh that they are cursed with bad luck. You should know that in this desert, from east to west, from south to north, from heaven to earth, from birds to snakes, insects, rats and ants, they are all under the overlook of Pharaoh. Whoever disturbs the peace of the sleeper, bad luck will turn into the wings of death and fall on his head......"

Before she could finish speaking, Miz had already stepped on the gas, and the jeep roared and rushed over, "crunching" and stopping beside me, rolling up a puff of flying sand.

"Mingyue, what are you talking nonsense again?" Miz yelled angrily, and before he could get out of the car, he had already pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the girl.

Seeing Miz's posture as if facing a great enemy, she suddenly raised her face and let out a low sneer in her throat: "Am I talking nonsense? Officer Miz, as an Egyptian, don't you believe in the curse of the pharaoh? Or, as a staff member of the Egyptian government, you have been misleading foreign tourists and explorers by pocketing the dollars in their pockets, and then opening the entrance to the desert and turning a good person into a pile of white bones......

With a "click", Miz's pistol bullet was loaded, the empty hand slapped the steering wheel angrily, and the horn made a series of "toot toot" sounds: "Mingyue, if it weren't for the joint letter of the twelve elders of the Cairo underworld, the police would have arrested you and imprisoned you a long time ago." You'd better be clear, with your bad deeds, you would have been shot on the spot, and you have stolen at least one hundred and forty artifacts from the pyramid in three years, and each one of them has been recorded. Now, you have ten seconds to disappear from my eyes, or I'll blow you up with one shot...... Your camel's head!"

Although he has a gun in his hand and is taller and stronger than the other party, he is much worse in momentum, and when he is encouraged, he only dares to say that he will kill the camel, not kill him directly.

"You dare?" she raised her head, and her sneer suddenly rose.

"Why don't I dare—" Miz only replied halfway, and with a flash of bright moon, a faint fragrant wind swept into my nose, it was an extremely precious ancient Egyptian spice, the name should be "Rose Devil".

With a scream from Miz, the pistol was already in Mingyue's hand, and then it turned into a pile of parts and fell in front of the jeep.

"The place where the pharaoh's undead dwell, no one is allowed to make a loud noise, aren't you afraid of the power of the 'Wings of Death'?" Mingyue's voice was low and majestic, and the little finger of her right hand slowly swept across Miz's forehead.

To my surprise, when she first grabbed the gun, she actually used three kinds of clever oriental kung fu at the same time, namely the light skill of "Instant Thousand Miles", the grappling technique of "Little Golden Silk Wrist Hand", and the soul dementorship of "Zen Vajra Roar". In my memory, these three types of kung fu belong to the "Putian Gu family" school of southern Shaolin in China, and the disciples are very rare, and they are rare in Asian countries, let alone in Africa.

A small blood-red cross appeared on Mitz's forehead, his face had turned sallow, and the corners of his mouth trembled, and he couldn't say a word.

"You, Mitz, your soul, your body, your past, and your future have been enveloped by the deep gaze of the Pharaoh, and from now on, even the slightest hint of disrespect for him in the depths of your soul will die at the 'Cross of the Dead', whenever, wherever. Mingyue's voice seemed to be squeezed out of her throat, hoarse and obscure.

It was in the vast and empty desert twilight, and I didn't want to offend anyone, especially Mingyue, who had never met before.

From the moment Miz called out her name, everything about her came to my mind. She is a rather strange person, both a grave robber hated by the Egyptian government and a current generation of rulers of the Golan family, who have been handpicked by the pharaohs for generations as "guardians of the dead". To put it simply, she's a wonderful self-thief.

The "Twelve Elders" mentioned by Miz just now are the top figures in the Egyptian underworld, and with their joint guarantees, I am afraid that the Egyptian president will not dare to touch a single hair of Mingyue.

Words such as pyramids, pharaohs, treasures, etc., are usually closely associated with "curses", and I have been wondering: "Could the 'curse' mentioned by Mingyue be related to the passage written by Leng Xin?"

As archaeologists, Leng Hannan's father and daughter are absolute materialists, so they have the courage to break through the forbidden talismans of any mysterious zone and reveal the truth of all mysteries. This time, could it be that Leng Xin also had doubts about her "atheism" before she wrote those words?

Mingyue withdrew her fingers, and Miz collapsed limply in the driver's seat, presumably unconscious.

"Okay, no one else is bothering, we can get down to business?" she walked up to me and held out her right hand. On that hand, he wore thin gray gloves, and the back of his hand was embroidered with a strange spider pattern with red silk thread.

Actually, I could refuse to shake hands in order to protect my life, but under her faint mocking gaze, I did not hesitate to reach out and hold her slender hand steadily. Although the "Little Golden Silk Wrist Hand" is exquisite, her martial arts have not been practiced to the highest level, so I don't need to worry about it at all.

"I'm Mingyue. She stared at me, two small flames jumping under her eyes. At this moment, her background is the statue illuminated by the spotlight, and the whole person gives me the feeling of being strange and strange.

"I have admired the name for a long time, like thunder, I am Chen Ying from Hong Kong. I smiled faintly.

Because she has oriental martial arts, I guess she herself must be related to the characters in the rivers and lakes in China, so she uses the polite words commonly used in the rivers and lakes.

"Mr. Chen, I would love to invite you to a place, can you enjoy it?" Her fingers were flexible and powerful, and I felt as if I was holding five agile little snakes, ready to break free and swim away at any time.

"Where?" I replied calmly.

"How about going to a very interesting place and solving the mystery in your heart?" she smiled slyly.

I shook my head: "Thank you for your kindness, I don't think you can solve the mystery." Besides, I'm not interested in tomb robbing and drilling in the desert, so please choose someone else. ”

"Haha, Mr. Chen, do you think you have any other choice?" she jumped and burst out laughing.