The off-road vehicle tore through the wind, racing toward the sunlight. To the left of the highway, the Khotan River surged onward, its waters rolling...
Shen Le leaned against the car window, curiously taking in the scenery. On either side of the highway lay what seemed like two entirely different worlds:
On the left stretched a boundless desert, its dunes rising and falling as far as the eye could see. Only the fierce wind skimming close to the ground swept up grains of sand, making them dance over the dunes like clouds, like mist, like ribbons in a fairy maiden's hand;
On the right was lush greenery as far as the eye could see, plants of every height extending all the way to the roadside embankment. Low-lying feather grass, clusters of saxaul trees, towering poplar forests...
Through the gaps between the poplar trunks, he occasionally caught a flash of clear water—it was the surface of the Khotan River reflecting the sunlight.
"Say... why is this highway so far from the Khotan River?"
Shen Le craned his neck and strained to look, only catching sight of the water now and then. Occasionally, vehicles stopped by the roadside, and people walked toward the riverbank. Who knew whether they were fetching water or taking pictures.
Watching those tourists stumble along carefully, with some even taking a hard fall, Shen Le felt as though he were looking at himself a few days from now:
"That has to be a kilometer, right? If you go down to look at the scenery, or if a big truck runs out of water and needs some coolant, it'll take half an hour to walk there and back!"
He could understand if the road were straight, but the problem was that it twisted and turned too... What was the