At night, they set up camp in the desert, in a place surrounded by sand dunes, and waited for the darkness to pass. But the desert sky at night was beautiful—so beautiful it seemed dreamlike. They could not help sitting before the campfire and looking up at the vast expanse of stars.
"I heard that in the universe, this little wreck of a planet is nothing at all. It really is just a little wreck of a planet, isn't it, Professor Xie Jiatu?"
Their desert guide, Aliyah, came over at that moment.
Professor Xie Jiatu was sitting before the flap of his tent, brewing a cup of coffee and enjoying the tranquility. Beside it stood another tent—the tent belonging to Mr. Golden Pupil.
At least this Professor Xie Jiatu fellow was easy on the eyes... Of course, the fellow called Golden Pupil beside him was an exception. Aliyah had already worked with him several times before, after all, Aliyah thought.
The reason Professor Xie Jiatu seemed so agreeable was naturally because he was friendlier than the others and had given Aliyah quite a few little trinkets. Among them was a bottle of excellent liquor from Britain.
Aliyah loved drinking. He had never intended to take the bottle out of the desert, so he planned to finish it that night.
"The world our eyes can see really is tiny." Professor Xie Jiatu smiled faintly. "But this kind of smallness is something a person cannot truly experience in a lifetime... Most of the time, we can only imagine it."
Aliyah seemed extremely interested in the outside world and chatted with Professor Xie Jiatu on and off. He actually felt that most of the people in this desert expedition were strange characters. Even Golden Pupil, with whom he had worked several times, could