Volume 7 Chapter 17: Departure

The jeep convoy sped across the endless, desolate Gobi Desert. The climate was dry, and the vehicles were far apart, to avoid the yellow dust kicked up by the previous vehicle.

I sat in the car, looking out the window, thinking about my previous decision, and wondering if it was correct. At this point, I felt like I had been a bit too rash. However, now that I was on the bandwagon, I had no face to regret it.

Aning told me about her plan before we left. I found that it was exactly the same as Wenjin’s route, starting from Dunhuang, passing through Daxiadan and entering the area of the Charkhan Lake, then leaving the highway and entering the uninhabited area of the Qaidam Basin. Dingzhu Zhuoma would then lead the team to the place where she and the expedition team had parted ways.

This route was almost exactly the same as the one Wenjin had written in his notes, so I was very curious about where she had gotten this information. Obviously, she knew about Tamudu, Dingzhu Zhuoma, and the route. It seemed as if she had read the notes, but the notes were in my pocket.

The caravan replenished supplies along the way and soon arrived in Dunhuang as planned. I was told that the route before reaching the Tsarhan area was still equivalent to a self-driving route and was relatively safe.

The Yadan landforms on both sides of the road along the way allowed me to appreciate the desolation of the Gobi. The feeling of endless sky and earth at the end of the road gave people a strong sense of abandonment. At first, this feeling was somewhat alleviated by the many ruins of settlements along the way, but once we left Dunhuang and drove onto the Tsarhan Highway, directly into the Gobi Desert, it was impossible to dispel. After driving for more than ten hours, with the scenery around us almost identical, this feeling was suffocating. Fortunately, Aning had a large team, and the noise of setting up camp made us feel a little better.

I was in the car with a Caucasian man, and he and the other Tibetan driver took turns driving. On the road, I asked him these questions to see if he could answer them.

The Caucasian man answered them very easily, and I realized that I had thought too complicatedly. I always thought that I should have read the notes and then know about Tamuduo, Dingzhu Zhuoma, and the route, but in fact it was completely different. The first thing Aning did after receiving the video was to investigate the courier company that had sent the package. Through the recollections of the courier company’s employees, they were able to find the sender of the package, and that person was Dingzhu Zhuoma.

After a visit, they asked the courier about the Tamudu, the guide, and the route, and all of this information was obtained. The current plan is based on the information from Dingzhu Zhuoma.

After hearing this, I felt relieved. In that case, the first half of the third part of Wenjin’s notes is not important. What is important is the part about their breakup with Dingzhu Zhuoma and their entry into Tamudo. Unfortunately, I didn’t read that part carefully. I must find an opportunity to read it again in secret.

Then, the Caucasian told me more about Tamudo.

The Caucasian told me that the concept of Tamudu was only discovered after they found Dingzhu Zhuoma. According to Dingzhu Zhuoma’s memory of the conversation between Wenjin and the others at the time, it seemed to be the last stop of Wang Zanghai. As for what place it was, Wenjin and the others didn’t know either, they were just looking for it.

However, Dingzhu Zhuoma later had her own judgment based on her experiences and observations during the journey. She discovered that the Tamudu that Wenjin and the others were looking for was the Xiwangmu Kingdom in the legends of their area. According to the locals, it should be called Talmusdo, which means the ghost city in the rain. When she discovered this, she was very scared and pretended to be lost, so she broke up with them.

“Xiwangmu Kingdom?” I was very surprised to hear this. “Isn’t that something from mythology?”

“Actually, no. The Xiwangmu Kingdom is real and has a long history. It was mentioned in the legends of the Yellow Emperor. Xiwangmu is the queen of the country. Qinghai Lake is called ‘Chixuejiamu’ in the Qiang language. Jiamu means queen. We think it is the Yao Lake of the queen. Talmusdo is the capital of the queen’s country. In the legends of the Western Regions, Xiwangmu represents divine power. In the legends that Dingzhu Zhuoma heard as a child, this city only appears during heavy rain. Once you see it, you will be blinded and lose your eyesight. So she was very afraid.

“So what you’re saying is that what we’re looking for is actually the ancient capital of the Xiwangmu Kingdom?”

“You could say that. According to current archaeological data analysis, especially in recent years, the existence of Xiwangmu has been confirmed. The Caucasian said, “In fact, if Tamudu is in the Qaidam Basin, it must be part of the Xiwangmu Kingdom. This time, we are going to find Tamudu, but we are actually going to find the remains of the Xiwangmu Kingdom. What you need to know is that we are not going to find the Xiwangmu Kingdom, but what we find will automatically become the Xiwangmu Kingdom. This is what an archaeological expedition is about.”

I smiled wryly when I heard this. Xiwangmu? I remember that thing is not something to mess with. Wang Zanghai’s last mission was to the Queen Mother of the West? Does that make sense?

After thinking about it, I thought of the legend of Houyi seeking the elixir of immortality, and I thought to myself, could it be that Wang Zanghai was also seeking medicine on that trip? I felt that it was very absurd, so I shook my head and dismissed the idea, not thinking about it.

After that, I counted the equipment I had brought from Aning in the car. Their company had special clothes, but my clothes would be sun-dried to death during the day and frozen to death at night while traveling in the Gobi Desert, so I changed into desert clothes in the car. When I was wearing it, I was very surprised to find that the belt of this clothes also had the number 02200059.

I asked the Caucasian what the number was, and he said it was the barcode number of their company. Their boss was obsessed with this number, and it was said to have been translated from a Warring States silk book.

I was very surprised, and I thought of the code on the Seven Star Lu Wang box, wondering if this number had any special significance.

In the next two days, we penetrated deep into the Gobi Desert. The Land Rover was very fast, and in two days, we entered the hinterland of the Qaidam Basin.

Aning’s people were very easygoing. We camped several times, and the few people who had been with me in Jilin got along well with me, and the others got to know me as well. With my personality, it was quite easy to get along with others. In this way, at least one good thing was that I didn’t have to face the expressionless Mian Youping all day long. And he also didn’t seem to want to pay any attention to me at all.

This was actually a bit unusual, because in previous encounters, although the same person was also difficult to get along with, there was not this feeling of being so distant. Instead, the black-glasses man seemed to be very interested in me and always came to talk to me.

After the car entered the Gobi Desert, it soon left the road. Dingzhu Zhuoma began to lead the way. She was accompanied by her daughter-in-law and a grandson. She was in the same car as Aning, at the front of the convoy. I didn’t know anything about them, but I knew that after the old woman started leading the way, the road became difficult to travel, with gravel and dry riverbeds in the river valleys.

Dingzhu Zhuoma explained that to find the mountain pass she had seen, they had to find a village first. The horses and camels Wenjin had bought were all from that village. The village might have been abandoned by now, but the ruins should still be there.

The old woman’s memory was quite good. Sure enough, in the evening, we arrived at the small village called “Lan Cuo,” where there were still people living, with four families and more than 30 people.

This discovery made us ecstatic. First, it proved the old woman’s ability, and second, things were going well. We had been traveling in the Gobi for a long time, and it was always especially happy to see a place where humans gathered. It was already late at night, so we decided to set up camp in the village.

Unfortunately, there was an accident when entering the village. One of the cars rolled into a wind-eroded ditch. The people were fine, but the car was scrapped. At this time, we were already quite far from the nearest road and it was impossible to get any assistance. This meant that another car had to stay behind to take care of it.

After this incident, Aning began to look worried. That night, we rested by the scrapped car, and Aning told us her worries. She was a little worried. Although the vehicles were equipped with first-class off-road vehicles, the conditions were really too harsh. If they couldn’t find a mountain pass in the short term, the vehicles would definitely be scrapped one by one here. Sometimes it might be a very small problem in a repair shop, but here it would paralyze the vehicle.

The further they entered the depths of the basin, the abandoned vehicles and the people accompanying them might not be able to get help in time and be in danger in the Gobi.

Cars and camels are not the same. Camels can heal themselves if they are injured, and minor injuries do not affect their movement. However, cars are fragile and sad when they have an accident. These are civilian cars, not as sturdy as military ones.

But this is not a mistake on Aning’s part, because in this era, it is impossible to allow this team of nearly 50 people to enter the Qaidam Basin on camels. First, it is impossible to find so many camels at once. Fifty people, plus the camels carrying luggage and spare camels, may require nearly 100 camels. Such a huge camel team is too conspicuous and will definitely be noticed by the government.

The mechanic accompanying the team told her that she didn’t need to worry so much. The Qaidam Basin was not that big at the speed of a Land Rover. Twenty years ago, the Qaidam might have been as feared as the Taklimakan Desert, but now it could be traversed in a dozen hours or so, and there were a large number of exploration and industrial bases there, so there was no need to worry.

However, this was immediately refuted by the grandson of the owner of the land, a young man named Tashi. He said that we were placing too much trust in the power of machines. Although the Qaidam Basin has been conquered, the safe places are limited to those that are within the reach of the road network, which only accounts for about 2% of the entire basin. The other 98% of the area is all desert, swamp, and salt cap. Our dozen vehicles and less than 50 people are insignificant in this land that has been devouring life for tens of millions of years.

He said that even along the most dangerous tourist routes, people get lost and die in accidents every year, not to mention that we are now preparing to go deep into the uninhabited area.

He also said that the people he had seen before were travelers who were crossing the basin for the purpose of traveling. These people would not stay in the basin for more than two days, while our purpose was to search in the basin. That means our journey is endless. Circling in the Gobi Desert was the biggest taboo for the local herdsmen. Therefore, Miss Ning’s worries were not unfounded. It is better to be careful in everything.

Tashi’s words made us fall silent. After thinking for a long time, A Ning asked Tashi: What suggestions do you have for us?

Tashi shook his head and said: Since you are going to enter the Qaidam Basin, you must keep your heads on your belts. This has been the case since ancient times.

Zaxi’s words always sounded a bit alarmist. I had heard others say that Zaxi was very angry with his grandmother for agreeing to lead us. He thought it was too dangerous, and that A-ning and the others had used money to persuade his grandmother, which was a kind of karma, and that we were bringing danger and sin to his grandmother. But the old lady, Dingzhuoma, was very determined. The status of the grandmother in a Tibetan family is very high, and Zaxi had no choice but to come along to take care of her. So he basically didn’t give us a good face or say anything nice along the way.

Even so, in this village of a few adobe huts in the Gobi Desert, blowing in the cold night wind of the Gobi Desert, watching the flickering campfire, and thinking about how far we are from the civilized world, I still felt a chill.

After he finished talking, we lost our interest in talking. We sat in silence by the campfire for a long time, and then each went to his own sleeping bag to rest. We were going to set off early the next morning, but Aning had not set up a tent. We were all sleeping in sleeping bags in the open air. The temperature at night sometimes reached below zero, so we all hid behind the raised ridges, close to the campfire to keep warm.

Lying there, I felt that many people could not sleep, and there was a whispering sound brought by the wind. No wonder, this is probably the last place marked on the map before entering the Qaidam Basin. Veteran adventurers don’t care, but a large part of the team is hired locally, so of course they are a little more excited at this time.

I don’t know if I’m a veteran or a novice, but I looked up and saw that the sky here is much closer to the ground and the stars are much clearer. I’ve never seen a sky full of stars since I was an adult. Now that I see the Milky Way so clearly in the sky, I can’t help but lose my sleepiness.

However, the long journey always takes its toll, and after a while of noise, the sounds around us gradually quieted down.

A-ning and the others had arranged for someone to keep watch at night. Because there were so many people, these tiring tasks were mainly performed by the local hired hands, so we were not required to take turns. However, because this is still a village, there is no need for too much vigilance. Tashi also said that only in places near Kekexili might there be large wild animals. The grass here is so scarce that even mice don’t come, let alone carnivorous beasts, so I didn’t hear the voices of the night watchmen chatting, and I guess they might have fallen asleep. I faintly heard a few animal calls in the wind, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. We slept in the middle of the entire camp, so if we were to be eaten, it wouldn’t be our turn.

I was thinking about something while looking at the night sky. I didn’t know how long it had been, and just when I was about to fall asleep, I suddenly felt someone walking up to me in the dim light. I shivered and looked up, and it was Zha Xi.

I was startled by him and sat up quickly, wanting to speak. He squatted down and pressed my mouth, whispering, “Don’t speak. Come with me. My grandmother wants to see you.”