In Their Desperate Hour, They Spotted a White Camel

Hu Ming clamped his legs around the camel and held Ye Yixin in his arms.

The camel had two humps, and the two of them sat squeezed between them. Ye Yixin sat in front, leaning forward to hug the front hump as the camel jolted along.

Wooooo~~

The sandstorm grew stronger, creating enormous resistance and slowing the camels despite themselves. To keep a better eye on whether anyone had fallen behind, Hu Bayi deliberately rode a little farther back.

Two hours later, the sandstorm strangely began to ease a little, but it was only a brief lull before the worst of it hit.

Hu Bayi saw a camel carrying a person with no one on its back. Who had fallen behind?

"Fatty!"

Though a scarf covered his nose and mouth, every time he opened his mouth, it filled with sand. His voice couldn't carry, either. Hu Bayi could only whip the camel beneath him as hard as he could, and it charged madly toward the others with him on its back.

When he reached Fatty, he gestured to him.

What did Old Hu mean? Fatty thought for a moment, then understood: someone had fallen behind. Damn it, who fell behind in the middle of this desperate flight? Were they trying to get everyone killed?

The camels beneath them ran side by side. Fatty gestured to Hu Bayi that they should leave the person behind. He was sure it was one of those archaeologists. It was fine—better for one person to die than for everyone to die.

That fat bastard was treating human life like nothing. Hu Bayi clenched his fist in anger and gestured several times at Fatty. Then he yanked the reins, forcing his camel to turn around and head back. Fatty watched Hu Bayi's figure get swallowed by the dim sandstorm just a few meters away and felt utterly helpless.

He could leave anyone else to their fate, but he couldn't abandon his own brother.

But the one riding at the back of the group was actually Hu Ming.

The male camel was strong, but it was carrying two people, so it had naturally fallen behind.

Hu Bayi rode back and saw Hu Ming holding Ye Yixin with one arm and gripping a hemp rope with the other. He was puzzled. Though he couldn't see very far, he could still tell that the rope was taut.

That meant the rope was dragging something.

In that brief moment, Hu Ming's camel charged past. Hu Bayi remained where he was, still mounted on his camel. Soon, his pupils suddenly contracted as he saw a figure being dragged past him.

It was Professor Chen. Hu Bayi recognized him and was utterly speechless. At this rate, wouldn't the old man be killed?

But at least he had been brought back. Hu Bayi no longer had to brave the sandstorm and risk his life searching for him.

Fatty whipped his camel as hard as he could and charged ahead until he was running alongside An Liman. He signaled for An Liman to stop, but the old man completely ignored him. Was he kidding? Stopping now was suicide.

Fatty had no choice but to lunge over and grab An Liman. The two of them fell off.

The lead camel seemed to understand people and was fiercely protective of its master. When it felt the weight lift from its back, it knew its owner had fallen off and quickly stopped. The whole caravan came to a halt.

Everyone looked confused, wondering why they had stopped.

But they soon noticed that no one was on the camel Professor Chen had been riding. They realized he'd been jolted off, and panic seized them. They all looked back.

In the dim sandstorm, visibility was only four or five meters. At least the storm had eased a little by then.

Thud, thud, thud!

Hu Ming's camel charged toward them, appearing in their line of sight. They saw Hu Ming and Ye Yixin, and then they saw someone being dragged along the ground, leaving a long furrow in the sand. The wind soon erased the track.

Hu Bayi rode up and immediately dismounted, rushing to Professor Chen's side. He untied the rope and checked Professor Chen's condition.

Yang Xueli, Sa Dipeng, and the others crowded around.

Fortunately, Professor Chen was wearing a thick padded coat, and the sand was soft. Being dragged across it for a while hadn't hurt him.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but the old man had passed out. They all looked at Hu Ming questioningly, as though asking why he'd dragged Professor Chen along. Didn't he know Professor Chen was old? Wasn't he afraid he'd drag the old man to death?

Hu Ming glanced at them. It was already impressive that he'd managed to drag Professor Chen back. At least the old man hadn't been left to suffocate in the desert. In those circumstances, would Hu Bayi really have been able to find him if he'd gone back?

Give him a break! Hu Ming had dragged Professor Chen for nearly ten minutes, and his camel was already carrying him and Ye Yixin. There was no room for the old man.

Besides, how far could the camel have run in that amount of time?

After lying on the ground for ten minutes, Professor Chen would have been buried by the sand. They wouldn't have found him—or even his grave!

The camels huddled into a circle, lowering their heads to the sand with their eyes shut, as if waiting to die. This wasn't uncommon. Once a sandstorm passed, people could find the dried-up bodies of camels lying in circles.

An Liman leaned against the lead camel, eyes closed, seeming ready to wait for death alongside it.

The years of hardship were etched across his face, which was filled with despair.

He hadn't expected these people to wear him down until he died in the desert after all. He was furious, feeling they'd dragged him into a terrible mess. And the thought of Fatty glaring at him so viciously made him even more upset.

But when death was near, what was the point of worrying about all that? He buried his head against the camel's hump, ready to accept Hu Da's punishment.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The wind howled through the sand. No matter how hard Fatty beat the camels, none of them would get up. He panicked, hauled An Liman to his feet, and roared into his ear, "Old man, don't just sit here waiting to die! Get the camels up and moving!"

His throat hurt from shouting, but the wind swallowed his words. At least he was yelling right into An Liman's ear, so the old man heard him. With a vacant look in his eyes, An Liman shook his head at Fatty, then pointed up at the dim, sand-filled sky, as if to tell him:

No matter how they ran, they couldn't escape the area covered by the storm. Fatty despaired. Deep down, he knew it, too. It was like being caught in a violent rainstorm with nowhere to shelter—wherever you ran, you'd still end up drenched. But should they really just sit here and wait to die?

Yang Xueli and Ye Yixin crouched beside Professor Chen, anxiety written all over their faces.

They couldn't find shelter from the storm, and Professor Chen wouldn't last much longer.

"Mingzi, what do we do? Old An's going to sit here and wait to die."

Fatty walked over to Hu Ming and shouted into his ear. They'd come to Jingjue Ancient City and hadn't gotten a single thing out of it. Now they were about to die as soon as they entered the desert. Fatty was furious.

Hu Ming was looking around. He saw Hu Bayi trying to talk some sense into An Liman, his throat almost hoarse from shouting over the storm, but the old man stared blankly ahead and didn't even shake his head anymore.

"Old man, you're the desert expert. Think of something!"

Hu Bayi was so frantic his eyes nearly popped out. If they wasted any more time, the sandstorm would bury them all. He didn't want to die in the desert, and he especially didn't want to sit around waiting for death.

What good did panicking do, Old Hu? Hu Ming went off to the left, five meters away, and looked around. There was nothing. What was this? He frowned deeply. This shouldn't be happening! He remembered they'd found shelter from the storm in the original story. He couldn't accept dying here just like this.

Hu Ming kept moving quickly around the area, searching. Every so often, the others saw his figure swallowed by the storm, only for him to reappear as he struggled to find something.

"Uncle An Liman, we can't just wait here to die. We need to leave right now. If I'm not mistaken, there's somewhere to take shelter over that way." Hu Ming leaned close to An Liman's ear and shouted.

The sand blown in by the wind had piled up to knee height. In less than half an hour, it would reach their waists. It was loose sand, like quicksand, and they couldn't get any footing on it.

As he spoke, he pointed to the right. Hu Ming had estimated the direction himself. He didn't know if it was right, but it was still better than staying there and waiting to die.

An Liman looked where Hu Ming was pointing. Suddenly, his murky eyes lit up.

In the dim sandstorm, a white figure stood out clearly.

An Liman sprang up like a jack-in-the-box, then dropped to his knees and quickly bowed twice toward it. He climbed onto the lead camel and gestured to Hu Ming, telling everyone to mount up. Hu Ming tied the unconscious Professor Chen to his camel's back. The camel carried him and followed the group as they set off. The lead camel raced after the gleaming white figure.

After they'd run a short distance, the white figure turned around to look at Hu Ming and the others, then turned and ran off to one side. It disappeared after going down a dune.