Chapter 1: Journey Through the Desert

10TH JUL 2021~ VERALUCTL

The sun seemed twice as large as it should be, the ground beneath it burning like the bottom of a saucepan, scorching feet even through the thick soles of their shoes. It was as if the sun wanted to boil even blood away, heating the world until mirages formed far away scenes. The few green plants, only seen if one focused, made the desert seem even more desolate, their ragged bodies screaming of the difficulty it took to have grown; that it might have been better if they had never grown at all.

The desert was beautiful; a wide expanse of strange lights and shapes; a never-ending, untamed terrain; but when he was leading a bony, supply-laden camel by the bridle, Mo Yannan finally realized the weight of the tedious road ahead, and silently wondered whether or not his old body could return safely to Beijing.

He rubbed his face, his shirt laden with so much sweat it could have been dried for salt. 

Their group had hurried here from miles away for an ancient city that, according to legend, was buried in the depths of the desert.

It had fallen in the march of time thousands of years ago for an unknown reason, with not even a hint of its existence left throughout all known, recorded history. When it had appeared, it had been as if a ghost city had shown up in front of the world after a sandstorm. The entire literary and archaeology worlds had been in shock, not a single soul able to explain why or how it could exist. 

But right now, Mo Yannan was in no condition to think about such things. His throat was filled with the taste of rust, his lungs and trachea with fine dust particles that ground against his delicate first-world country lungs. He couldn’t help but reach for the water bottle on his waist, but after a little hesitation, bit down and resisted the temptation- he had heard of how precious water was in the desert. They were walking along a road that no one was sure of; whether or not they would be able to find water sources; how long they would need to keep walking; they knew none of it. The old professor started to use the power of imagination, gulping down imagined ice water like his life depended on it.

In this archeological team of five people, Mo Yannan was the only stereotypical scholar; the type always glued to their chair in a research institute. Apart from the occasional lecture, he spent most of his time arguing with piles of rotting documents in his house, never leaving home for long, let alone crossing deserts. It was almost as if the entire point of his existence was to reduce modern society’s traffic problems.

If it weren’t for the ancient city challenging this old historian’s entire life’s knowledge, Mo Yannan and the desert would have been on two parallel lines for all of eternity, never crossing even once.

As expected, after not even two days of setting foot on the land, the old professor already deeply regretted his decision. It wasn’t that he was scared of hardships- he lived down in the rural states during his youth- but rather that as his body was weak. He required special attention from everyone else, and he knew that he had caused quite some trouble already.

In the team, there were three other professional archaeologists. There was a lady called Meng Xiaoming, the only gentle thing about her. The many years of living outside had made her skin roughen and her entire person dry off; her body looked as if it had been flattened by a door and on first glance, she seemed like more of a man than a woman.

There was a young man barely thirty years of age called Li Zhixiao, though someone gave him the nickname Li San’er. His voice was extremely loud and he had refused to stop talking the entire trip, jumping up and down as if he were on steroids. Rumors said that he came from a family of grave robbers and that his uncle was in prison even now, and that Li San’er had been determined to change his course in life and had somehow managed to get into university, earning an archaeology degree. The skills passed down through his family were indeed quite good; he was still so young, yet already an expert at archaeology.

The last person was a senior archaeologist. The name ‘Shen Jiancheng’ was rarely absent from their circle for long; the old man had almost reached retirement age but he had gathered this mission himself, ignoring his body’s state.

Their guide was a local; a man that you couldn’t call youthful with a face tanned dark, filled with wrinkles, and a body so skinny it was like it had been parched dry. Everyone called him Lao Ma. He had supposedly been a traveling desert merchant when he was younger and was so familiar with the terrain and so shrewd with his wits that three men combined could not throw him off his tracks. Now that he had grown old, he had stopped that life-threatening career and settled in town. They had to use a large amount of their connections to get him on the road again.

“Professor Mo, are you alright? If not, make some kind of noise.” Hearing Mo Yannan’s breathing come as heavy as it did, Lao Ma was probably afraid that he would collapse halfway and increase everyone else’s burdens.

Mo Yannan shook his head and smiled at him weakly. His parched lips tore at the movement and his face convulsed.

Meng Xiaoming turned around, saw his twisted face, and almost laughed out loud. She took out the map and pretended to scrutinize it for a while. “There are only a few more days left of the trip, and we won’t need to worry about getting lost with Lao Ma here- Professor Mo, if you’re really thirsty, drink something. The locals might not be very welcoming, but we have enough supplies.”

Her words were half-ridicule, half-irony. Mo Yannan understood its undertones but still looked at her in gratitude and lowered his head in embarrassment to wipe off the dust on his glasses. “It’s fine, I can bear it.”

Shen Jiancheng had been acquainted with him for longer than the others and knew that he had been upset by the statement. He patted Mo Yannan on the shoulder. “It’s alright, you’ve never done this before. We understand…”

He had yet to finish his sentence when Lao Ma suddenly cut in, “Everyone, wait! don’t keep going!”

The old merchant waved his hand and Li San’er and Meng Xiaoming hurriedly reined the camels in for him, looking at each other in confusion. Li San’er rubbed his head. “What’s up? Enemies ahead?”

Lao Ma ignored him and narrowed his eyes, staring sharply in one direction like a hawk. After a long pause, he turned to Meng Xiaoming. “Ms Meng, you have a pair of binoculars, can you see what’s in front of us? Why does it look like a person to me?”

Meng Xiaoming first glanced at the direction he was looking at and with a cry, took out the binoculars and changed its angle slightly. “It is a person! They’re alive, standing there… Wait no, moving forwards slowly! What a man, entering the desert by themself! Are they just too brave, or do they not care about living?”

Shen Jiancheng took her binoculars, looked closely, then put them down. Seeing that everyone was waiting for him to make a decision, he hesitated and asked for Lao Ma’s advice. “How about… we go and take a look? He doesn’t seem very far away, and he’s at most a tourist judging from his clothing. He doesn’t seem like a bad person; perhaps he’s just lost.”

Lao Ma took the binoculars and squinted, speechless. “A tourist. This is the first time I’ve met such a stubborn one in my life!” 

He thought a little. 

“This person is barely able to keep walking. Let’s take him in for now, it’s a human life after all.”

The man was indeed walking extremely slowly, although it was unclear whether it was from sheer exhaustion, or a conscious decision to save stamina after realizing they were lost. Before long, the archeology team caught up to him. Li San’er took a deep breath and shouted at them, “Hey, friend up front, stop! Hey, are you trying to die? Stop walking! There aren’t any gold or beauties ahead of you, what are you so hurried for? Stop!”

The person froze and turned around violently, rubbing his eyes as if unable to believe his luck.

They weren’t far away from each other. Even Mo Yannan could see the person’s appearance with his ailing eyes- it was a man, very thin, looking even weaker than Mo Yannan. His lips were parched, his face sunken in, only his eyes, perhaps from surprise or hope, shining. A camel followed him, also sickly looking, some food and a few water bottles hanging off it. The man had already walked for who knew how long, and perhaps finally having met another person, let out their breath and fell kneeling onto the sand, a cold sweat breaking out near their temple and their face terrifyingly pale.

The team hurriedly surrounded him. Lao Ma crouched down and checked his heart rate before carefully scanning his face and shouting, “He’s slightly dehydrated.”

Mo Yannan knew that his water bottle had hydrolyte water. He didn’t dare waste time and hurriedly passed it to the man. The man accepted it with shaking hands but kept himself from taking huge gulps; he moistened his lips slightly and took a small mouthful, swallowing slowly.

Lao Ma couldn’t help but pat the man’s bony shoulders. “To drink like this even when you’re so thirsty, it’s not easy. I see that you’re quite something- but no matter who you are, you can’t just stick yourself into the desert without a guide. Did you come here to die?”

There was still water in the man’s mouth so he didn’t respond immediately. It was only when he slowly swallowed all of the water in his mouth that he shakily stood up with Lao Ma’s help. He carefully tightened the cap of the bottle and returned it to Mo Yanan, smiling a little. “Thank you.”

When he smiled, wrinkles formed at the edge of his eyes. He looked like he was at least in his mid-thirties, but under his dusty appearance was an extremely clean and timelessly beautiful face, his smile comforting. “I’m just a tourist that got lost, and you are… traveling merchants? You don’t look like it, are you tourists as well?” 

Shen Jiancheng scrutinised the man and said politely, “We’re an archeology team,” introducing everyone briefly in a few sentences before asking, “and how should we address you?”

“I’m An Jie. An for ‘safety’, Jie for ‘speed’.”

Shen Jiancheng nodded, thought about it, and said slowly, “We’re heading towards an ancient city. It came out of nowhere and there are no documents of its history, so there’s quite a lot of danger; I’m sure you’ll understand without me elaborating. We don’t know what we’ll run into ahead- I’m quite a bit older than you so how about I call you kid- so how about this, kid, we’ll give you some supplies and a map so you can find a way to walk back yourself?”

No matter who he spoke to, the old man was able to start a friendly conversation. An Jie paused. “Oh, that would be great, thank you very much. Will you have enough supplies?”

Shen Jiancheng smiled. “We have enough, don’t….”

“Lao Shen, he’s all by himself and unfamiliar with the land, how could you let him go alone?” Mo Yannan said, fighting against his parched throat. He frowned in disagreement at Shen Jiancheng.

Shen Jiangcheng didn’t think that he would come out and disagree. “But… the city has yet to be excavated, and there might be many things in there that are dangerous for normal people…”

“Mr An, what are your thoughts?” Kai Ma suddenly asked.

“My thoughts?” An Jie’s brows furrowed before easing quickly. “If it’s alright with you… I’m often traveling, so my physique is pretty good. You can give some of your labor to me.”

When that man who called himself An Jie spoke, his eyes always laid on the bridge of the other person’s nose, his eyes undemanding and filled with respect and focus. He looked like someone who had received an excellent education for sure.

He agreed without thinking and promised that he would never bring trouble to the team. Anyone who dared to travel with just a bag had a wild heart filled with curiosity and a need for adventure; an unknown city in the depth of the vast desert, the attraction it gave off to a traveler was even greater than the safety of leaving the desert.

Mo Yannan took his thin camel and helped lead it; it was rare to see one that looked even less healthy than his. The old professor had spent too much time with young students and now, looking at this man, his benevolence overflowed and he kept thinking that saving a life would be worth more than building a tower for Buddha; that it would be easier to look after each other with more people in the team.

Shen Jiancheng opened his mouth and closed it, not objecting in the end.

And so, under the burning sun, the stranger called An Jie was able to join the archeology team, as if it were destiny itself… 

After some time, it would turn out that they weren’t talkative either. If you said three sentences, he would reply with just one. Perhaps due to a lack of strength, or perhaps just out of habit, he would always walk at the end of the team, his complexion terrible but somehow, his gait seeming much more at ease than everyone else’s. Lao Ma and Shen Jiancheng looked to have reached a tacit agreement and stole glances at him the entire time.

During a break, Lao Ma approached him and asked, “Of all places, why did you come to a desert by yourself?”

An Jie paused and shook his head. “It’s an absurd story, there’s no point in mentioning it.”

With that one sentence, he managed to pique everyone’s curiosity. Li San’er and Meng Xiaoming were both young and used to interacting with others. They immediately began bombarding him with questions. Even Mo Yannan couldn’t help but carefully scrutinize the man in front of him.

“Why didn’t you find a guide if you came to travel? Aren’t there professional tour guides in the town?”

“You entered the desert yourself- have you been here before?”

“C’mon, say it; it must be fate that we met each other, what’s so bad about answering us?”

At first, An Jie only shook his head, but after being pressured by everyone, he began slowly. “I heard that there was a famed Tianjing City1 in this desert, and I had thought about it for many years. None of the guides in the town were willing to take me, so I ended up here.”

Lao Ma widened his eyes, looking at him like he was Ultraman2. “What did you want to see? Goodness, Tianjing City! Did you come here to die?”

Li San’er asked dumbly from the side, “What’s ‘Tianjing City’?”

“A mirage.” Lao Ma didn’t even have the time to speak before An Jie lightly narrowed his eyes and said, “In the legends it was described as the first of the world’s wonders, luring many seasoned traveling merchants to their deaths… Beautiful, it was truly beautiful… I can’t describe its beauty, but it really looked like a citadel from the heavens. Just one look and I had felt like my life had been fulfilled.”

His expression was one of obsession, but Lao Ma’s eyes sharpened as he shouted, “You saw it? You really saw it? Tianjing City?”

An Jie sighed and nodded. “I saw it, but my digital camera ran out of battery right at that moment and I couldn’t take it down. My original plan was just to take a look from a distance but I couldn’t help but follow it for a small while. It was just a small while but when I came to, I longer knew where I was.”

The outsiders most likely knew nothing about it, but there was a nightmare that no traveling merchant in this desert dared to mention. Legends said that the mirage was the city of demons sucking away the souls of the living, and the unfortunate ones who saw it would unconsciously chase after the illusion- to their deaths. But the stories passed down were only myths, and no one had truly seen it themselves.

Lao Ma couldn’t say a word and stared at An Jie in shock, his mouth babbling words of admiration.

The others didn’t understand but looking at Lao Ma’s expression, they knew that what the man had said was something incredible. Li San’er couldn’t help but act speechless. “What’s Mr An’s job? A professional traveler, or Superman?”

An Jie paused and chuckled. “I’m just a translator that enjoys thrills, I’m not a professional at all. And it doesn’t look like I’m wearing my underwear outside, right?”

There was a sense of nonchalance in his light language. Without knowing why, Mo Yannan felt a little uncomfortable listening to him, and after having educated people his entire life, though his throat was parched, he couldn’t help but cut in, “Traveling is fine, and they do say traveling a thousand miles is the same as reading a thousand books, but you shouldn’t come to such a dangerous place, especially by yourself. Your family would be terribly worried if they knew.”

“Family?” An Jia blinked and smiled, a little abashed. “I’m not married. If I were, how could I dare to come to such a place?” He then stopped talking, refusing to continue.

Under the bombardment of questions from everyone, the sense of wanderlust and mystery around the man somehow became even thicker.

Sometime, fate was the most thrilling legend in the world.

Author’s Notes: A new pit in the ground needs popularity, popularity~~~

Vera’s Notes:

Hey guys! This book will be uploaded with semi-regular but unscheduled updates, though we’ll aim to get one out at least every fortnight. This’ll be so I can go through more edits for hopefully better quality, and so we can still support our main work, The Easter Egg Game Project, along with the rest of our real lives! Have fun reading this. Priest, the author, is very good at writing, and hopefully our translation won’t disappoint either!

Luci: I’m a simp for Priest hehehe

1The direct translation would be ‘Sky Mirror City’, which most likely is used to state that it’s such a beautiful city it reflects the heavens.

2A superhero from a children’s show.