Chapter 26: The Last Stop

Sand Sea Devil’s Nest 16

I know the posture of the viper to prepare for the attack, that is, the snake on the body up, and then the snake’s head flicked forward, with poisonous fangs biting the prey, my neck and face are exposed to its attack range, avoiding, want to block also too late.

I was about to close my eyes and wait for death, suddenly “click” a white light, the dark valley was illuminated, the snake had already pounced on my neck, halfway by the dazzling white light flash, startled, even slipped from my shoulder.

All this happened in a second, I do not wait for the snake to land, waved up the hand of the engineering shovel smashed, the snake head shot a flat, broken snake head out of a lot of inky black juice, I hastily back a few steps, secretly screamed a fluke, the snake’s toxicity is good, if it was bitten by it, the snake venom will be spread throughout the body in a moment of blood, will have no life.

Raise your eyes to see, the original white light that saved his life, from Shirley Yang that camera flash, she has always been with the camera is inseparable, walk with the camera, I can’t imagine that my life, is actually with her hands of the camera’s flash to save, thanks to her quick reaction, otherwise my old Hu has now gone to see Hu Da.

But now is not the time to say thank you, who knows that there are still in the valley of the two strange snakes of the same kind, there is something or out of the mountain pass to say, so waved his hand, greeted the crowd quickly forward.

At this time, the camels may feel that there is no poisonous snake in front of them, they all calm down from the agitation and restlessness, Chu Jian Sa Dipeng and others put the fainted Ye Yixin, Prof. Chen, as well as Hao Aiguo’s body on the back of the camel.

An Liman whistled to guide the camel caravan forward, and the group hurried out of Zagrama’s pitch-black valley by the bright light of cold fireworks and flashlights.

Have been walking to the open space outside the mountain pass, which stopped, put Hao Aiguo’s body on the ground, the sky is not yet bright, the stars and moon are not light, the moment before dawn is so dark, Hao Aiguo still maintains the expression of horror at the time of death, the pair of godless eyes behind the glasses have not yet closed, the whole body is green, in the flashlight light column irradiation, adding a few more miserable and bizarre.

Professor Chen was blown out of the mountain pass in the cold wind a stimulus, awake, struggling to Hao Aiguo’s body sobbing, I helped the professor up, people can not be resurrected after death, want to persuade him to be sad, but the words to the mouth but could not say.

I and Hao Aiguo get along with almost a month, usually like to joke that he called “old fashioned”, like him that straightforward, fast-talking personality, today but ……, think of it can not help but sour heart, which also persuade the others.

The rest of the people also each gloomy tears, this time, the distant sky cracked a dark red slit, the sun is finally coming out, we can not help but all look to the east.

The light slowly turned rose, blood red, and finally turned into a golden light, the top of the arc of the sun revealed, at this moment, the boundless sea of sand like into God’s furnace melted gold.

In this desert like gold molten lava, a huge city in front of the crowd, countless broken walls, brick and wood, earth and stone of all kinds of housing buildings, countless towers and archery towers in the city, the most prominent, is a already tilted black stone tower, quietly towering in the city.

With Shirley Yang hands of the black and white photo scene, exactly the same, after two thousand years, the remains of the Jingjie ancient city, really still exists in the deepest part of the desert.

The size of this Jingjie city, enough to live 50,000 to 60,000 people, when such as Loulan and other famous cities, the heyday, but also only one or two million residents, more than 3,000 people in the army.

The city has been largely destroyed, buried in the desert for no less than a thousand years, some parts are difficult to distinguish between sand dunes or fortresses, most of the towers have been collapsed weathering, spare a thought, but also be able to imagine that year’s spectacular majesty.

Here there is a huge magnetic field, airplanes and other tools are difficult to fly over the sky, and is located in the desert hinterland, it is estimated that very few people can find this place, I do not know how many explorers and lost people before us, once came to this legendary city, the only thing that can be confirmed is that ninety-nine percent of them, are never likely to return to their hometown again.

Professor Chen put Hao Aiguo lying on the ground, helped up, trembling pointing to the Jingjie Ancient City, said in a hoarse voice: “You see ah …… you have not always wanted to see this mysterious ancient city …… you quickly open your eyes to see! , we finally found it.”

I thought bad, the old man is overly sad, is not delirious? Busy over to pull Professor Chen away from Hao Aiguo: “Professor, Mr. Hao is gone, let him rest in peace. It’s a pity that he didn’t even see this miraculously preserved ancient city in the end, his wish still relies on you to fulfill it, you must cheer up a bit.”

Shirley Yang and a few students also came over to comfort me, so I handed the professor over to them, feeling overly sorry for Hao Aiguo’s death and grateful to Shirley Yang, so I said to Shirley Yang, “I won’t say thank you for saving my life just now, so I’ll count it as I owed you a life… …But a yard is a yard, we have arrived at the Jingjie, according to the agreement on the previous contract, twenty thousand US dollars.”

As soon as Fatty heard that we’ve reached the money, he hurriedly came over and added, “Twenty thousand per person, a total of forty thousand U.S. dollars, cash settlement.”

Shirley Yang blankly looked at the two of us, bit her lip and said, “Don’t worry, the money won’t be missing a single penny, I’ll give it to you right after I go back.”

I thought that just mentioning the money thing is really not very appropriate, at that time the heart as if overturned the bottle of five flavors, the mouth did not choose to say the wrong words, or hurry to turn the words away for the better, but I do not know what to say, open-mouthed and tongue-tied Gu Gu right and left: “That …… city… … is not small ……”

Shirley Yang stared at my face and said, “After these days of contact, I see that both of you are non-commonly skilled, and your experience is also extraordinary, I can’t imagine that you will know the money, it seems that my first impression of you is not wrong. I advise you guys, there are many valuable things in life besides money.”

I was speechless, and the fat man interjected, “Miss Yang, you are living under the stars and stripes of the United States of America, and your father is a giant of Wall Street, I think you must not have used food stamps to eat, and you must not have experienced food conservation and famine when you were a child, so you don’t understand the environment in which we live, and you are not qualified to comment on our values. And you don’t want to educate us about life and living, the poor don’t have a life, the poor live just to survive. Anyway, you can’t understand these truths even if I tell you rich people. Today I really can’t help it, if you don’t like to hear it, even if I didn’t say it, we’ve found Jingjie City now, what to do next, you can just command.”

Fatty just started to talk straight, said to the back of the thought up Shirley Yang is the boss of the work, worried about talking her into a hurry not to pay, the words turn, and then turned into a drudgery of the work.

I said to her, “Hao teacher thing …… I have tried my best, I am sorry.”

Shirley Yang nodded at me, no longer pay attention to the fat man, took out the kettle to feed Professor Chen and Ye Yixin to drink water, Professor Chen was Hao Aiguo’s death stimulus is not clear, drank some water before gradually improved, the people discussed a few words, decided to bury Hao Aiguo in the desert of the mountain pass, his lifelong pursuit is to study the culture of the Western Region, buried here, always accompanied by the mysterious ancient city, I think he must also want us to Do this.

We dug a deep pit in the yellow sand, rolled up his body with a blanket and buried it on the spot, and finally I put an engineer’s shovel upside down in front of his grave, which is considered to be a tombstone for Hao Aiguo.

The remaining eight people, standing in front of Hao’s grave in silence for a long time, before leaving.

The dead have gone, we also want to save the living, must immediately enter the city to find water, otherwise the second person buried in the desert, is suffering from severe dehydration Ye Yixin.

At that moment, all the people pack up the equipment, they are ready to set off into the city, finally arrived at the destination, I hope not to have any more mistakes, if someone has an accident, even if this money I earned, how can I spend it.

Seeing that everyone is almost ready, I asked Shirley Yang if we can move?

The departure was imminent, Shirley Yang was a bit agitated, her body shook slightly, but I couldn’t tell if she was scared, nervous, or excited, I only saw her take out a cross and pray in a low voice:

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want, He makes me lie down above the green grass and leads me beside the still river, He awakens my soul. In his name guide me in the paths of righteousness, though I wander in the shadow of the valley of death, I will fear no devil, for you are with me, your rod, your staff, are comforting me, in the presence of my enemies you have set a feast for me, you have anointed my head with oil, so that my cup of blessing will be filled to overflowing, and all the days of my life mercy and favor will follow me, and I will dwell in the temple of the LORD forever and ever! Amen.

Then calmly he said to us, “Let’s go.”