Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! It’s time to wake up! Or do you want to sleep here forever like that skeleton?”
Zhang Zian was sleeping soundly, wrapped up in his warm blanket, when he was woken up by the sound of a loudspeaker.
Who was he? Where was he? What was he doing?
He sat up in a daze, taking a look at the interior of the tent, not quite awake yet. He only gradually found his bearings after a few seconds.
He hadn’t slept well last night. The sand may be soft when one stepped on it, but it was a hard surface when one lay down on it. It was not a flat surface either. After sleeping in a bed for the past few days in the hotels, his poor old back had definitely suffered. He’d woken up stiff, in pain, and miserable. It was easy to adapt from a poor man’s life to a rich man’s life, but it was hard to go from a rich man’s life to a poor one!
The worst thing was that they had sweated the entire day and couldn’t shower. The temperature dipped drastically in the second half of the day, as though they were entering autumn, and they hugged their blankets close in order to retain body heat. The dirt on their skin now stuck to the blanket. Right then, he really envied the animals that didn’t sweat.
He pulled down the zipper of his tent. The sky was still mostly dark. Only a sliver of orange had broken through in the east, and the cool morning breeze flooded the tent.
The camp started waking up like a newborn beast, the tents being pulled open one by one, people stumbling out still half-asleep. Only Nabari was completely awake.
Peter Lee had already dressed. He was walking around the campground with the loudspeaker, waking everyone so that they could go wash up for the day. If any tent didn’t respond to his initial calls, he would point the loudspeaker towards the tent and scream unceremoniously.
Those that were already awake started heading to their designated areas to take care of their biological needs—brushing their teeth, wiping their faces with wet towels, making breakfast. They filled up with any food that they could find before taking down the tents, flattening the moisture-proof pads, folding everything back up neatly, and strapping it into the metal luggage holds on top of their cars.
It took a fair bit of time to set up and take down their tents every day, but it was a lot better to sleep in the tent than in a car. They had all of their fuel, materials, and equipment in their cars, after all. They barely had any space to stretch in them.
The speed of everyone’s actions varied a lot—for example, taking a sh*t. Some of them squatted down and were done within three minutes, but some of their sessions lasted more than 10 minutes, and they almost couldn’t stand up from how numb their legs were.
Peter Lee kept rushing everyone as he watched the time. Anyone who was taking too long would get an earful from him. Even He He was on the receiving end of it, forced to the brink of tears.
In an expedition team that lacked quality and experience, someone had to be the bad guy, usually the person that had the most power.
Zhang Zian could not imagine at all what would have happened if the research team had gone into the desert by themselves. They might take one entire hour to get ready and would have to rest after just a few moments of walking.
Not too many minutes later, there was nothing else left in their campground other than trash and a mess of footprints.
Each person entered their own jeep, following Peter Lee’s instructions and checking the condition of their cars.
The sun finally peeked out on the horizon in the east, shooting out millions of sharp orange swords through the sky, the shadows formed by the sand dunes shifting as the sun did.
The sunrise in the desert was a breathtaking sight—a full, red sun that seemed to be alight with a blazing flame, like the ball was burning with all its might. The ripples that formed on the sand with the breeze showed themselves with startling clarity when they were illuminated, as though they were made out of gold.
Everyone raised their phones, recording the rare sight.
But they didn’t have much time to admire the view. Just as the sun rose, Peter Lee also ordered them to set off, trying to make as much progress as they could before it started getting hot.
In reality, the moment the sun hit everyone’s skin, even if it was from the sunrise, everyone could clearly feel the heat of its rays. The sun in the desert had never been gentle.
The 13 jeeps roared as they set off one by one, heading east or west under Nabari’s lead. What was different from yesterday was that today, the cars were all arranged in rows of three or four instead of moving in one straight line, and they formed a square.
The eastern sun gradually rose behind them, the sunlight seeming to chase after them. Remembering the horror of yesterday’s intense midday heat, everyone could feel the rush and pressure, hoping for time to go a little slower so they could move farther.
The temperature surely and gradually increased. Not too long later, whether they liked it or not, the heat wave came again.
According to what they had discussed yesterday, every time they met a higher sand dune today, the team would stop and all the drivers would get out of their cars. They would climb the sand dunes before splitting into two groups to walk across the sand dune’s spine in search of a less steep way down the sand dune.
Yesterday, it had just been hot. But having to climb the sand dunes today, they were both hot and tired.
Zhang Zian had already experienced yesterday that climbing sand dunes was a lot more tiring than one would think. Not only did they slide back with every step they took moving forward, the sand would also flood into their shoes, making the two shoes heavier and heavier.
Considering that they might have to walk in the sand, the team had prepared two to three sets of snow boots for everyone, and they had come into play this time.
Snow boots were meant for use in the snow, but they were equally useful in the desert. They both tied all the way up to their knees with velcro, and the shoelaces were covered. So unless the sand was higher than their knees, they could pretty much eliminate the issue of sand getting into their shoes. But even though they did so, it was still extremely tiring to climb a sand dune in this heat.
Faced with the first sand dune, everyone eventually made it to the top and found a less steep area to come down from. One person was left behind, while the rest went back to their cars at the base of the sand dune and drove safely over the sand dune from the spot they had identified. The procedure was safe, but it was a huge waste of time and energy.
By the time they were met with the second sand dune, everyone was complaining. They said that they would die of exhaustion before they even reached their destination, and that they would rather try their luck by rushing up the sand dune like they had yesterday.
Even though it was mainly the research team that was complaining, and Peter Lee’s team didn’t agree with their words, it was evident from their faces that they were also unsatisfied with this arrangement, wiping their faces clean of sweat.
It definitely wasn’t good to just rely on luck. They didn’t have much room for error. Every single car carried valuable equipment and materials. Any single car that ended up breaking down in the middle of the desert would cause the whole mission to fail.
Wei Kang tried convincing everyone to try a bit more, while Peter Lee’s face was set, preparing to force his way through and fight against every sentence of disagreement.
Zhang Zian logically agreed with what Peter Lee wanted to do, but emotionally he felt that that wasn’t the way to solve this issue either. They weren’t army troops. Not every conflict could be solved through orders.
