ther, maybe it's not the rat...."He immediately glared at me: "Don't say unlucky Yunfeng! It's either a rat or it isn't! Let's not scare ourselves!"When I got yelled at, I panicked and blurted out, "T...Half the people present were antique collectors. Azza's description of the blood agate was so awe-inspiring that it piqued everyone's curiosity.

Guide Lao Zhang checked Douzi's injuries, luckily, it should only be a skin injury.

The sand was soft, and with the camel padding it, the bean sprout escaped unharmed.

I asked Aza what her plans were. Was she just going to stay hidden in this remote mine shaft forever Even if she couldn't stay in Yinchuan, she could totally move to another city and find work.

"Just now I hurt you, brother," he apologized to me first.

I waved my hand and said it's okay.

He continued, "There's a misunderstanding about this. I dare not go back because the message was spread wrongly. The Jin brothers now believe that the blood agate is in my possession, so they are relentlessly pursuing me. Their network of contacts is intricate and widespread—they have informants in the town, at the market, in the gaming halls, in nightclubs, everywhere."

As long as I dare to walk down the street openly, I will surely be arrested.

"""

"So that's how it is... Then the blood agate isn't in your hands" I asked, doubtful.

“Look, what would I gain by deceiving you,” he gritted out, “Everyone on the street knows that two Russians saw a picture of the blood jade and immediately offered 4.8 million. If that thing was in my hands, I would have sold it already. With 4.8 million, would the Jin brothers even dare to mess with me”

“I just can’t keep going like this,” she wiped the dust from her face and said, “I only dare to go back to the city once a month, and I have to do it at night. To avoid attention, I only dare to buy a small amount of bottled water and canned food each time. Aren’t you going deep into the desert to find some tribe Take me with you, I believe I can be of some help.”

">

“This...this I can't decide,” I looked to him, wanting to hear his opinion.

After considering for two minutes, he said: "I can take you with me, but when we find the Hutter tribe, it's time to go our separate ways."

At that time, we still had other things to deal with.

"No problem, I've introduced myself, you can just call me Aza," Ting turned to us and said we could temporarily house him, his expression was a little excited."

After a brief introduction, Azha told us to wait for half an hour as he still had some belongings to pick up from home.

That camel was very large and heavy, we couldn't pull it. We were helpless, so we could only take the bean sprout things and abandon the camel.

> Lao Zhang said the camel died, and after we go back, we definitely have to compensate the merchant boss some money.

After waiting for over twenty minutes, Azaz got his things together. It wasn't much, just a backpack.

We hung the sprouts' equipment onto the spare camel. Lao Zhang squatted on the ground, raking a handful of sand and feeling the wind direction.

"The north wind, today should be safe. We continue on our way. At our pace, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we'll reach the lee slope in about two hours."

">

I nodded and said, "Then let's go. Zhang Lao Di is experienced, we'll follow your lead."

Xiaoxuan, you're so gentle. On the way, you're responsible for taking care of Yazi and watching over him. Don't let him fall off the camel.

">

Zhao Xuanxuan nodded and said yes.

After we started walking, Azaz and I walked side by side. He kept trying to get something out of me.

I'm tight-lipped, I won't divulge anything other than the fact that we are from the Geography Institute.

As the saying goes, you can know a person's face but not their heart. One should always be wary of others. The reason I agreed to take him with us was purely out of pity, not wanting to see him die of thirst or hunger. In fact, even our guide doesn't know the true purpose of this journey, let alone him.

I seemed a little dismissive, and Aza ran off to Zhao Xiaoni's side. I gave Zhao Xuanyuan a look, signaling her not to say anything more, which was fortunate because she was too busy tending to the bean sprouts on her humpback to pay him much attention anyway.

The deeper we went, the thicker the sand became. The northwesterly wind was blowing much stronger than before. We wrapped our heads in scarves and continued on our journey, walking through the sand with our camels.

Lao Zhang estimated that it would take us two hours to get to the next stop, but in reality, we walked for more than an hour longer.

Here we are, look, that's the back slope.

"Lao Zhang stopped and pointed to a large slope ahead. 'It's getting late, we'll set up camp on the leeward slope.'"

">

The back slope is actually a big sand wall at a 60-degree angle, no wonder it's called the back slope. We camped behind it and it completely blocked the northwest wind.

Everyone hurried and scrambled, finally setting up camp before nightfall. There wasn't much to burn in the desert, but Lao Zhang, relying on his rich experience, found plenty of wind-blown grass and dried cacti. After lighting the bonfire, everyone gathered in a circle, staring at the iron pot over the fire. went to a rural village and saw a field of crops, all the crops were growing well except for one patch in the middle which was stunted and wilted. A tomb robber could immediately tell that this spot...