Chapter 20 Chapter 20 Lost

The wind here is not as domineering as it was just now. The wind is swirling around in curls. There must be something to block the wind in front, but where did the two guys who followed me just now go? I didn’t walk fast. He can also fall behind, did his mother get hit by a flying stone and fell behind? I held up the miner's lamp to look around, but I didn't see any shadows. I couldn't help but feel a little regretful. I was too focused just now, and I didn't pay much attention to the surrounding situation.However, walking in such a strong wind, in fact, there is nothing to pay attention to around. No one can hear the sound of the wind, and all energy must be focused on the destination in front of you and the balance of your body.

All of a sudden, I still felt a kind of fear for a moment, but I quickly dispelled the fear. I took a break and took a few breaths, and then started to move forward. At this time, I could not go back to find them , I have lost the sense of direction. If I go back and don't know where I will go, the best way is to go forward. I got rid of a pack of equipment, this thing is too heavy, the expedition equipment of foreigners is very personalized, once I saw someone with a picture frame as big as his wife’s shield and a data book like a phone book, I I was too lazy to recite them, so I ran to the place where the light was light.

However, no matter how I ran, the light was still out of reach, as if it was not close at all. I was panting badly and wanted to give up, but I was not reconciled.As he ran, the lights in front of him became blurred. Just when I was about to lose consciousness and fell to the ground, someone suddenly held me up.I had no more energy, and I knelt down on the ground as soon as I was pulled by them.Looking up, through the goggles, I recognized the eyes of these two people, one is Poker Bottle, the other is black glasses, and his goggles are also black.These two people desperately pulled me up and dragged me in another direction.

I broke free from them and pointed ahead, trying to tell them there was shelter from the wind. However, when I looked again, I was stunned. I didn't see anything. The light in front of me disappeared, and there was a piece of darkness, even the huge silhouette disappeared. Poker bottle and black glasses ignored me and dragged me all the way. At this time, I saw a flare gun in the hands of the black eyes.The strength of the two people was enormous, and my weight of nearly one hundred and eighty catties was lifted by them very quickly.Soon I also came to my senses and started kicking the ground to show that I could run by myself.

They let me go, and I immediately regretted it. These two people ran so fast that it took all my strength to follow them. I gritted my teeth and ran all the way. After running for twenty minutes, only Two shadows running ahead.In a trance, I knew that we had rushed up the river bank, rounded a mound, and then the two shadows in front of us disappeared. I cursed and waited for me, then I tripped suddenly, fell several somersaults, and rolled down some slope.I struggled to get up and spit out the mud in my mouth. I looked around and saw that there was a deep ditch at the bottom of the slope, and it was full of people, all huddled in the ditch to avoid the strong wind.Seeing me fall, they looked up at me.

We huddled at the bottom of the ditch, dust rolling over our heads. The Gobi Desert is not always flat, especially where rivers used to flow. The scars on the ground will not be very deep, but there are two or three meters, which is enough for us to shelter from the wind. I was exhausted and a few guys came and pulled me to the bottom of the ditch.It turned out that there was a large depression on one side of the bottom of the ditch. It seemed that after a huge Populus euphratica tree was scraped down, the pit formed by the broken root was washed by water. The trunk of Populus euphratica had been buried at the bottom of the ditch. , only a small part can be seen, they are all huddled in this depression, and the smokeless stove is lit inside for warmth, and there is no wind at all.

I was dragged in. The depression was very shallow and not high, and it was already very cramped. They made room for me, and a person handed me water.This is the blind spot of the wind, and I can already speak, but my ears haven't adapted yet, and I can't hear what they are saying for a while. After taking a few sips of water, I felt much better, took off my goggles, and thought, damn, there are so many good places in China, why should I come here? However, such winds should not be uncommon in Qaidam. This is not the most terrifying wind. I watched a documentary about the geological exploration of the Qaidam Basin in the early years. People were blown up like a kite, and all the supplies were blown out more than ten miles away in an instant.It's just that I feel strange why Ding Zhu Zhuoma didn't warn us?The trade wind on the Gobi is very obvious, not to mention the elderly, as long as they live here for a period of time, they can feel the pattern.

Similarly, I don’t know when the wind will end. I often hear from people in the Gobi that the wind blows only twice a year in this kind of place, and each time it blows for half a year. Once it blows, it will be endless.If it doesn't stop for too long, we're screwed. Poker Bottle and the black glasses went out again soon, and they must be looking for other people again. The people here were obviously frightened, few people spoke, and they all huddled together.I felt funny in my heart, thinking that these people were like Indiana Jones, and they were so bad, but then I found that my feet kept shaking and I couldn't stand up at all.

The person who handed me the water asked me if I was okay?Any bruises anywhere?I shook my head and said I'm fine. To be honest, I still remember the experience of braving the snowstorm in Changbai Mountain. Compared with that time, it is more comfortable now. At least we can hide without worrying about freezing to death. I poured a little water to wash my face, my eyes hurt from the goggles, and it gradually eased at this time. After relaxing, I was able to observe the people in the pit, but I didn't see Aning.Dingzhu Zhuoma, her daughter-in-law, and Tashi were in the innermost part of the depression, and Wu Laosi was also there. There were not many people. It seemed that most of them were still outside, and no Caucasians were seen.

There are too many people in this team. I thought to myself, Aning and the others must still be looking for them outside. With so many people, even if they are overwhelmed, they can't take care of them. Fortunately, they are not in the desert. Otherwise, I'm afraid we These people are dead. Three hours later, the wind slowed down a bit, and Pokerfing and the others were able to occasionally bring a few people back at first, but later their physical strength couldn't take it anymore, so they stopped going out.We all huddled inside, drowsy, and waited until the sky really got dark, and it was really dark.The sound of the wind outside was like the screaming of an evil spirit. It was annoying at first, but then I felt sleepy.

I was already getting ready for the night, so it was no surprise that many people actually fell asleep early.Someone went out in the wind and dug out a lot of food in the luggage piled outside. We shared a little and ate a little, and I fell asleep leaning on the yellow sand. I didn't sleep for a long time. When I woke up, the wind had dropped a lot. This was a good sign. I saw that most of the people were asleep. Tashi was sitting on the hollow, as if he was keeping vigil.It's not stable here, the top of our heads is either rocks, or dry and cracked soil and sand, so sand falls from it from time to time. When I fell asleep, I ate a mouthful of sand, feeling very uncomfortable, and poohed it out. , while walking to Tashi. I don't want to talk to Tashi, Tashi is not a very easy person to get along with, or he is wary of us, and I am not the kind of person who can put a hot face on a cold butt, so I don't care about his attitude. not give a damn about.I walked up to him, just to get some fresh air and sleep somewhere else. But when I walked over, I heard voices outside, and then saw the light of a miner's lamp outside, as if someone was outside. I was wondering what happened to Tashi?Tashi handed me an earthen cigarette and said that Aning had returned and the wind had subsided, so they called someone out to find other people, and took a look at how the car was doing. When I think of the cars stuck in the sand, I also feel a little worried. I don’t know if these cars can still be driven when they are dug out in such a big wind and sand. And I am more worried about the Caucasian man. I don’t know if he has returned, so I put on goggles. He put on the cloak and went out, wanting to ask about the situation. As soon as I walked outside, I was relieved. The wind outside was even weaker than I expected. It seemed that the limelight had passed and there was basically no sand in the air. I tore off my cloak and took a few gulps of gobi breath The cool air above, and then walked in the direction of the miner's lamp. That was the direction of the river bed, and I went down and came to them. They were inspecting a car, which had sunk obliquely in the sand, leaving only one front. Aning was holding a radio, anxiously adjusting the frequency. I asked them, "How is it?" One person shook his head and said only one sentence: "Wife and child are separated." I was baffled and didn't quite understand what he meant, so I looked at Aning. When she saw me, she forced a smile and came over to explain: "Ding Zhuo Ma said just now that there might be wind blowing again, and we must find a better shelter from the wind as soon as possible. But our car is trapped , a few of them must be scrapped, and the others may not be able to start and need to be repaired." She paused, "The most troublesome thing is that four people are missing, and they may have lost their way when the wind just picked up. I searched around and couldn't find it." I asked who they were, and Aning said it was the Caucasian man, and there were three others I didn't know well. The Caucasians were with me when they disappeared, so I pointed them in the direction and asked them if they had been in that area.Aning nodded and said that she had found all nearby, and these people must have gone further than she thought. I sighed and comforted her a few words, telling her not to worry.These people have GPS, and the wind is so strong, they must not be able to go far. Now that there is still wind, the field of vision is not very clear. It will be easier to find it when it is dawn. She bit her lower lip and nodded, but her expression didn't change, which made me feel that something was wrong.I'm not familiar with the Gobi, so I didn't know what was going to happen at this time, so I had to shut up. We forced open the doors of both cars, took out the gear inside, and then they had to find the next one, so I had to follow. At this time, I found that the thing that sank the car into the river bed was not the quicksand that is often mentioned in the novel, but the bottom of the river bed.Someone told me that the salt crust was crushed. There are a lot of salt crusts in many places under the Gobi here. This is the river bed. When there was water before, the situation at the bottom of the river was very complicated, with a lot of sediment and drought. Later, when the salt crust crystallized, it left a lot of voids, so some places in this riverbed are actually like cheese, unpressed, and we parked in the wrong place. I wondered: "But we walked on the river bed all the way here, and nothing happened." The man said: "That's because the river we walked has been dry for a long time, but now the river under our feet has been dry for at most half a year. Didn't you notice that there are almost no grass and shrubs here?" I looked around in surprise, and sure enough, the surroundings were bare, not even Haloxylon. The man said to me: "We must be heading towards the upper reaches of this river now. There must be a high mountain at the end of this river. If the river does not change its course, there must be ancient cities or ruins near this kind of river." , This shows that the Tibetan old woman is not leading the way blindly. I thought the old woman was a liar a long time ago." I looked at the upper reaches of the river he was pointing at, on the flat Gobi, and there seemed to be something there.Thinking of the huge black shadow I saw in the wind, I always felt that it was not my illusion. That night, we found out all the cars and collected all the luggage.At dawn, other people woke up one after another, and Aning began to organize their busy work, those who repaired the car repaired the car, and those who were looking for someone looked for someone. I and a few other people who were looking for a car at night ate something and went to sleep in the sleeping bag. We were very tired and slept until the sunset. After waking up, the wind has been completely heard, the dust is gone, the efficiency of that group of people is very high, several cars have been repaired and ready to go, all kinds of materials have been redistributed, and the cars are being reloaded. Ah Ning stayed up all day and night, listening to the radio non-stop, Poker Bottle and the black glasses were not there, when I asked, the two were still looking for the four missing people outside. I heard that it was not good. It has been a day, and the four people have not been found yet. Don't they have GPS?Is it true that as Tashi said, this thing doesn't work in the Gobi? I took the dry food out of the bag, went to Aning's side while eating, and asked about the specific situation. Aning's brows were tightly frowned, dark circles appeared under her eyes, and she felt haggard. When I asked her, she didn't have the heart to answer me. The walkie-talkie kept talking to someone outside, in English. I asked her if she wanted me to go out and look for it too, but she shook her head and said no, she had already divided into three groups and went out to look for the third time, and it might not be useful if I went, let me clean up, Tashi and the others are here We found a ghost city 20 kilometers ahead. We will go there to rest later, and it will still be windy at night. I saw that she was exhausted, and I didn't want to bother her, so I went to see another group of people repairing cars and helping hand out tools. After watching for about half an hour, Tashi came back from the riverbed in the distance, and told us that the wind was going to blow up again, and the horizon in front of him was already covered with sand. We had to go fast, or the car would be in vain. We got ready right away, and got things ready very quickly, because there were few cars, and the unrepaired cars were towed behind. A few Tibetans and I shared a car and set off for the place where the sun had set. After driving on the vast Gobi for about 20 minutes, the shadow of the Yadan landform appeared in front of the sunset, and stone mountains rose from the ground. Tashi’s voice came from the intercom, guiding us to adjust the direction, and soon we saw A huge "castle" appeared in the field of vision. That was the place Tashi chose to shelter from the wind. We drove straight there, and when we got closer, we found that it was a big rocky mountain like a steamed bun. Behind it was a large area of ​​Yardang landform that gradually became denser, like the fortifications behind a castle. Devil City, also known as Wind City, is a strange terrain carved out by large rocks by strong winds. In a large area, there are a large number of strangely shaped rock mountains, which can be imagined as various weird things, and when the wind blows over these rocks, Because of the distribution, there will be the sound of howling ghosts and wolves, so it is called Devil City.In the Gobi, such landforms are very common.I have visited Xinjiang before, and I am not curious this time. Outside the "castle", a rocky mountain with a flat bottom stopped. Zhaxi jumped down first and shouted. We all got down and started camping. Two hours later, the wind really started to blow, and it was full of wind and sand that blocked the sky and the sun. It was scraped until midnight, and then it slowly became smaller like yesterday. The wind was too strong, and ghosts were crying and howling in the devil city, and no one could fall asleep. When the wind became weaker, they gradually fell asleep one by one.Those two vigils who slept during the day, both of them were very interested in Devil City, saw that Tashi and I were not asleep, and both went outside to take pictures.Tashi told them to be careful not to go in, it is easy to get lost inside. I slept during the day and was very energetic, while Aning was thinking about the search method for tomorrow, holding the walkie-talkie all the time, it seems that Aning will not rest until he finds those people. I went over to persuade her to sleep for a while, but before I could say a few words, someone suddenly shouted on the Gobi in the distance: "Team doctor! Team doctor!" Ah Ning's team doctor is a fat man, and he didn't sleep reading a book. He woke up when he heard it. We also looked over there, and we heard shouts from there: "Come here quickly! We found Ah K!" Ah K is one of the four missing people, we all jumped up when we heard it, and ran over in three steps in two steps, and saw the two people who took pictures of Devil City, waving to us on a mound , I rushed over to look, and saw a big pit on the mound, and there was a person lying at the bottom of the pit, it was that Ah K. The team doctor ran out of breath, jumped down, touched it, and shouted: "It's still alive." Several people rushed down to lift him in a hurry, but the team doctor yelled for them to carry him into the tent. The scene was chaotic, Tashi carried the man on his back and ran back, I was squeezed aside, looked at the pit, then looked at the direction we came from, and said to my God, how could this man fall here, This is more than 20 kilometers away from the place where we parked yesterday, and the direction was still headwind at that time.Did he come against the wind? Back in the team doctor's tent, watching the team doctor's rescue, Ah K was rescued soon, the team doctor was relieved and said that he fainted because of exhaustion.The team doctor gave him an injection, and soon he woke up. After he woke up, we asked him what was going on, and he said that he didn't know what was going on. He walked all the way, and when he saw a shadow in front of him, he thought there was a rocky mountain, so he leaned over it. , As a result, he walked and walked, and he didn't know how long he walked, so he fell into the pit.As he spoke, he asked, "Hey, have that Lao Gao and the other two come back?" Lao Gao is a Caucasian. When I heard him talk about the shadow, my heart was agitated and I wanted to ask him for details.But as soon as Ah Ning heard him ask Lao Gao, he immediately asked him why he asked such a question and whether he had seen them. He said: "They were right in front of me at the time. No matter how I called them, they didn't turn their heads. Thinking about walking against the wind, they couldn't hear them. Then I fell and fainted. Why, they didn't come back?" Aning was surprised: "You mean you saw them before you fell unconscious?" Ah K nodded, Ah Ning turned his head, and said to me: "Did you hear that? The place where Ah K was found was outside the Devil City, and the Devil City was in front of him. So, they went into the city! No wonder we couldn't find it no matter what not." Her eyes lit up immediately, and she immediately clapped her hands to let us go out. We walked out of the team doctor's tent. After discussing, Aning insisted on going to Devil City to search immediately. These people didn't know what was going on. After walking against the wind for more than 20 kilometers, Ah K fell outside and passed out. The people inside may also be exhausted. They must be found immediately, so that we can also feel at ease. I was in good spirits, so I nodded in agreement.We immediately assigned the team, and many people fell asleep without waking them up. It was the team doctor and me. The three of us planned to go in and have a look first, and the others waited for two hours before waking up to follow. After we finished speaking, we immediately started to prepare. As soon as we picked up the bag, Tashi on the side came over and stopped us, saying, "Wait a minute, my grandma said, you can't go in."