Chapter 91 Chapter 3 Desert Wolf

After a week of preparations, I, Mu Qingxiang, Zhao Shuai and my little cousin set off on the train to Alashan Right Banner in Inner Mongolia to join the oil exploration team.A large part of the Tengger Desert is in Inner Mongolia, and a small part is in Gansu, but it is the most convenient way to enter the Tengger Desert by turning from Wuwei City (called Liangzhou in ancient times) to Alxa Right Banner. When the train entered the territory of Gansu Province, Zhao Shuai and his little cousin fell asleep, and only Mu Qingxiang and I were still awake.A few days ago, as soon as it was mentioned that we were going to the Tengger Desert, Liao Er Er wanted to sign up.But the environment in the Tengger Desert is dangerous, so I advised Liao's second son to recuperate in Qingdao first, otherwise his body, which had recovered so hard, would collapse again.I originally wanted my little cousin to stay, after all, she wasn't going on vacation in the Tengger Desert, but she insisted on following Zhao Shuai.

Zhao Shuai always felt that the little cousin was young, so he couldn't bear to do it, but he didn't know that the little cousin didn't know how to play, so he insisted on delivering the goods to the door.The little cousin talked boastfully, saying that when she was studying in the United States, she once crossed the Sahara Desert with her classmates, and what a little Tengger is.Zhao Shuai had a terrible headache, he couldn't say anything about the little cousin, and Liao's second son was afraid that he wouldn't be able to serve this unruly princess, so he just asked us to take the little cousin away.

Mu Qingxiang and I sat side by side, looking at the two sleeping people opposite, we chatted again.When in Xiamen Island, Mu Qingxiang left a note saying that she would re-enter Mingling.I asked her why she went there again, but she said that she just wanted to look at the slate paintings again, and there was no special reason.In Mu Qingxiang's eyes, no matter what she does, she doesn't need a special reason, she always does what she wants.Therefore, I made an agreement with Mu Qingxiang, no matter what happens in the future, I have to leave without saying goodbye, at least make it clear in person before leaving.

Mu Qingxiang didn't agree, and didn't say no, she just nodded, and then turned her gaze to the loess ravine outside the window.I knew that Mu Qingxiang wanted to go back to the past, so I stopped talking and let her ears be clean.Except for Mu Qingxiang, we have never been to the Northwest, so we wanted to visit Lanzhou when we got off the train. That night, we stayed in Lanzhou and went to see the scenery the next morning.Lanzhou is the only city where the Yellow River passes through the city. The Yellow River passes through the city at the foot of Kyushu Mountain.On this day, the four of us took a picture in front of the Yellow River waterwheel, sat on a sheepskin raft, ate a bowl of Lanzhou noodles, and then went to Wuwei City to visit the famous ancient ruins unearthed from Matafeiyan.Mu Qingxiang's interest is not high, she always stands on the side boringly, sometimes I almost forget that there is such a person.

The further we go, the less green there is, and the yellow brutally occupies our field of vision.The Tengger Desert covers an area of ​​about 42,700 square kilometers. "Tenggri" is Mongolian, meaning "sky".Local Mongolian herdsmen believe that the Badain Jaran Desert, the third largest desert in my country on the Alashan Plateau in western Inner Mongolia, is the mother, and the Tengger Desert is the son.According to folklore, the Badain Jaran Desert flew from the sky to the southeast, thus forming the Tengger Desert. Experts in the desert told me that the above statement is incorrect.Because the Tengger Desert is dominated by flowing sand dunes, it is the fastest-moving desert in China.Fortunately, when we entered, it was in beautiful autumn, so everything we saw was golden—golden sand, golden desert vegetation, and even the sun shining on people's faces was golden.

Alxa Right Banner is the last city we passed by. It is on the edge of the Tengger Desert. You can feel the heat of the scorching sun just on the edge, as if you can roast people in the next second.This autonomous flag is actually similar to a small town in the south of the Yangtze River, except that most of the plants are golden yellow, and the animals are mainly tall and strong, and chickens and ducks are rarely seen. When we arrived at Alxa Right Banner in Inner Mongolia, we were unexpectedly told that the newly formed oil exploration team had set off one day earlier.It turned out that the exploration team thought we were newbies. Although they were new teams, they had all done exploration in the Taklamakan Desert. They were proud and did not want to be held back.

I understand this feeling very well. After all, it is not a joke to do oil exploration in the desert. Who wants to take a rookie for a walk, or the whole army will be wiped out.Due to the relationship between Zhao Shuai's father, the exploration team did not complete the matter, so they left a person to take us into the desert. This man is a veteran, middle-aged man from Beijing, his name is Juan, and people call him Uncle An.Uncle An was originally the guide of the exploration team, but most of the expedition team are passionate young people with rich experience, so they all thought that Uncle An was out of place, so they found an excuse to kill two birds with one stone and throw him to us.Uncle An felt insulted, so he took his anger out on us, scolding us for being unprofessional when we met, and even forbidding us to laugh and laugh.

We stood in front of a concrete bungalow, under the scorching sun, on the scorching sand, and listened innocently.Uncle An's words were correct, and the passing local herdsmen watched curiously from a distance, all watching the play.The hot wind blows from time to time, although it is not strong, but when we pass by, we feel that we have been slapped, and the tender little face is painful and hot. I complained to Mu Qingxiang unhappily, but she turned to outsiders and said, "Juan is right, why don't you admit it?" I rolled my eyes and didn't bother to say anything, and I wouldn't reply to whatever Uncle An said.Zhao Shuai and his little cousin were not so easy to talk to. Uncle An said something, and they answered ten words back. Uncle An was so angry that he almost didn't want to take us into the desert.Uncle An only praised Mu Qingxiang, saying that she wears long clothes and trousers all over her body, and wears waterproof and sand-proof desert boots, which is much more professional than us wearing sports shoes.Uncle An finally released the anger in his heart, he was not so strict with us, and taught us the basics.

It is best to enter the Tengger Desert in summer and autumn. There are many sandstorms in winter and spring. It is easy to get lost and life-threatening, so we came at the right time.Uncle An also said that if we are unlucky and encounter a sandstorm in the desert, we must not hide on the leeward slope of the dunes, otherwise we may be in danger of being suffocated or buried by the sandstorm.The correct way is to lead the camel to the windward slope, and then hide behind the camel. The temperature difference between day and night in the desert is very large. The sun during the day will burn people's skin red and swollen, while the cold night is like winter.So prepare both summer and winter clothing.In addition, after sunscreen is applied on the body, sand will stick to the skin, which will make the skin uncomfortable. It is better to wear light-colored long clothes to resist ultraviolet rays, and use sunscreen on the face appropriately.

Regarding how to enter the desert, Uncle An got angry when he talked about it. He said that he could take a car, but the car was called by another old exploration team.In autumn, all the camels in Alxa Right Banner were raised in the wild. Uncle An worked so hard to get five camels, but they were snatched by the newly formed exploration team.When we were waiting for us today, Uncle An finally borrowed two camels from the local herdsmen to carry our luggage, so we couldn’t ride camels. The two camels were tied to the side of the concrete bungalow, and they were standing lazily, with a naive look.I walked over excitedly, but Uncle An was still rambling on, and didn't even notice that I was walking away.These two camels are Bactrian camels, and the two humps stand up like mountain peaks, looking very strong.I looked at the camels and thought that you will be tired tomorrow, so eat more grass and drink more water today.

"Pfft——" I just glanced at the camel in front of me. It turned its head, stood high above me unceremoniously, and sprayed white foam on my face.Uncle An found out the situation and hurriedly told me to go away and not to approach the camel's head and tail, which is a very dangerous behavior.Seeing Uncle An's posture, I am not frightened by the camel, but also by him. This night, we lived with Uncle An in order to form a tacit understanding and let everyone integrate into the team.Electric lights are on in the concrete bungalows, and herdsmen are burning bonfires on the sandy ground outside.At night, it was so fucking cold that we didn't go out.But there is no toilet in the bungalow, so I can only run outside for convenience, and my teeth chatter every time I go out.The stars on the edge of the desert are big and bright. This is a beautiful scenery that you can never see in the city. Sometimes you can see the stars trembling. In fact, Uncle An is a very down-to-earth person. At night, he even apologized to us, saying that he was too excited during the day because he was mad by the exploration team that went first.I have to forgive others and forgive others, I didn't care about it, and followed Uncle An to organize tomorrow's equipment.However, when I looked at the equipment piled up into a hill, I was taken aback by these things. There are three earthen shotguns in the equipment, with a knife stab at the end of the guns, just like going to war.After hearing my question, Uncle An explained that he borrowed it from a hunter, and that hunter would go with him tomorrow.The desert is not safe, there are often sand wolves in and out, you are lucky to meet one or two, but if it is a pack of sand wolves, if you don’t have a gun in your hand, just wait to be the sand wolf’s meal. I heard that there were wolves in the desert before, and I thought it was just a legend, but I didn't expect to encounter it this time.Now there is another hunter to join, which makes all four of us a little uneasy.At first, we were all happy to hear that the exploration team had gone first.Because if you want to find the ancient city of Yuequan, it is not an option to always follow the exploration team. What if they want to go east and we want to go west?In fact, we have already thought of an excuse, because we are not an exploration team, but came in the name of investigating the desert environment, and we can fool the past by making up a random number. It is said that those who engage in learning are easy to be fooled, but the hunter is different. He walks here all the year round, so how can he not understand our little tricks.I was worried, and Uncle An told us to be more polite tomorrow, because the hunter has a bad temper, he likes to shoot and scare people at every turn, and he has accidentally injured other herdsmen.After hearing this, Zhao Shuai shook his head at me, implying that he encountered a troublesome character. The little cousin was not afraid, but instead said, "What are you afraid of? There are three guns here. Can he hold three at the same time? If he shoots, we won't fire?" I worried: "Uncle An, can the hunter speak up? What if we want to go in another direction and he won't let us? We are investigating the environment, and the route may be different from that of the exploration team. We walk more casually." Uncle An laughed and said, "You should be content. There are a lot of wolves in the desert, and many herdsmen have had accidents. That man followed us, and he was our bodyguard. In the past, the herdsmen called the sand wolf the desert wolf. , and the status of the Mongol Emperor, they are not easy to mess with." Ever since I won the Shandong Tea Competition and was going to participate in the North-South Tea Competition in winter, Zhao Shuai thought that I was omnipotent.Hearing Uncle An's words, Zhao Shuai's bullshit became louder: "What are you afraid of, there is our path here, and the desert wolves are nothing. When the time comes, they will all be chopped up and eaten as food." Seeing this, I quickly told Zhao Shuai to stop, Uncle An shook his head and sighed, and said that tomorrow he must not joke about the sand wolf with the hunter.Because, many years ago, the hunter's son was taken away by the desert wolf, so he became a hunter, specializing in hunting sand wolves.It's a pity that a policy was adopted later, and the sand wolf became a protected animal, and hunters could no longer kill them at will.Because of this, the hunter and the herdsman had a dispute, and he took a gun to scare people. While we were discussing the horror of the desert wolf, there was a sound of bullets outside the concrete bungalow, and a colorful light flew from the Tengger Desert to the bright starry sky.We all went outside the house in amazement, and even Mu Qingxiang who had been silent all this time followed.Other herdsmen also looked up in surprise, looking at the sky above, trying to figure out what happened.