WOOY Chapter 22

Ye Liuxi boiled pork rib soup with mineral water for the first time.

Chang Dong gathered some dry, broken poplar wood from nearby to use as firewood. Borrowing Ye Liuxi’s knife, he chopped the wood into short, thin pieces. While it was easy to bring the soup to a boil, getting the meat tender was a challenge. With no signal and nothing else to do in such a place, they sat on either side of the pot, adding firewood to the fire pit.

To prevent the wind from interfering, Chang Dong set up windbreaks around the fire pit. If they needed more heat, they added more wood; if they needed less, they removed some. The water quickly boiled, releasing the aroma of the meat. The small pot lid clattered as steam pushed against it.

Chang Dong especially enjoyed this sound, feeling a sense of eager anticipation mingled with helplessness.

Ye Liuxi focused on adding firewood, occasionally chatting with Chang Dong.

“Do you think the shadow puppets will appear again tonight?” she asked.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if they did,” Chang Dong replied.

His girlfriend was embedded in an unknown mound, and she had woken up from a hanging noose. Encountering more strange occurrences seemed only natural.

“What if we can’t find Kong Yang this time?”

“It’s been two years, so I’m prepared. But as long as she’s not properly buried, it feels like the task isn’t complete,” Chang Dong said, lifting the pot lid to skim off the scum. “What about you? If this trip yields nothing, you’ll be back at square one.”

Ye Liuxi scoffed, “I’m not in a hurry; the ones who hurt me are.”

“Why do you think someone hurt you?”

Ye Liuxi snapped the wood in her hand, tossing pieces into the fire like she was playing a game. “Do you think I’d hang myself? Someone like me would commit suicide? Of course, someone hung me up there.”

“I was unconscious at the time. It would have been easy to kill me with one stab. Not killing me means they wanted me alive.”

“They could have left me in ignorance, but they left a bag with suspicious items, clearly wanting me to investigate—didn’t you ask why I waited over a year to start investigating? I did it on purpose, taking my time, to see if they’d get impatient.”

She sighed.

The other party showed no signs, like a thousand-year-old tortoise with endless patience.

“Through Kong Yang’s photos, I learned about the Camellia incident, found you, and now we’re here. Isn’t it step by step into someone’s trap?” She shrugged. “So, if we find nothing, it won’t be me who’s anxious—it’ll be the person behind it. They think I’m a fool, so they’ll keep baiting me. I’ll just keep eating the bait.”

“What if, in the end, you find the conclusion dangerous?”

Ye Liuxi uncovered the pot and quickly peeled some yams, chopping them into pieces and adding them to the pot. “Dangerous is fine. I’ve already died once. Now I’m using a borrowed life to see the world… Aren’t you the same?”

Chang Dong fell silent, realizing he hadn’t reached her level of enlightenment and detachment. But there was something curious about her attitude: what kind of environment had shaped such a personality?

The wind had picked up. The locals called this phenomenon “feng tou”—a sudden gust appearing out of nowhere, wreaking havoc for a while, then retreating.

Ye Liuxi quickly ladled some soup. “Eat up, before the wind takes the pot. Yam can be eaten raw; it won’t kill you…”

Chang Dong took the plastic bowl of soup, blew on it, but just as he was about to drink, he set it down again.

He got down on all fours, pressing his ear to the ground for a moment. Then he stood up, dusted his hands, and walked a few steps back the way they had come.

A car was approaching.

——

The sound indicated more than one car approaching.

First came the headlights, blinding from a distance. Chang Dong stepped aside, and as the light drew nearer, so did the blaring music, with the singer yelling, “Do you love me or not?” with such force that Chang Dong felt exhausted just listening.

When the lead car approached, the driver lowered the window and said with a hint of provocation, “Well, well, Chang Dong, fancy meeting you here.”

It was Meng Jingu.

The two cars following were likely the photography team. Chang Dong silently stepped back.

He had chosen a good spot, sheltered by the mounds to minimize the wind. Meng Jingu’s group clearly agreed and parked nearby, loudly preparing to set up camp.

The director, models, and photographer were not up for physical labor, leaving Meng Jingu to handle most of it. He carried a foldable tent and, upon spotting Ye Liuxi, brightened up, “Oh, a beauty!”

He shifted everything to his left arm, wiped his right hand on his pants, and extended it, “Walking on this route makes us friends. I’m Meng Jingu, but you can call me Metal.”

Ye Liuxi, typically unimpressed by overly friendly people, held her plastic bowl of soup and replied coolly, “I have no hands.”

In a low voice, Meng Jingu said, “No hands is quite a unique name.”

Ye Liuxi took a sip of soup, stared at Meng Jingu, then cheekily spat out a bone.

Realizing he’d overstayed his welcome, Meng Jingu awkwardly said, “You’re certainly… quite the character.”

He walked away with his tent.

Ye Liuxi turned to Chang Dong, “What’s going on?”

Chang Dong sat beside her, sipping his soup. “Tire tracks and the flags I placed… they followed us.”

“So, what now?”

“They’re already here. We can’t chase them away. Bailongdui isn’t mine…”

Mid-sentence, he paused and looked back.

Another car was coming.

——

This car was easy to recognize, with its little pirate flag fluttering in the weak marker light.

Chang Dong wasn’t surprised. Where there was Meng Jingu, Fei Tang was sure to follow, especially since he had paired up with them during the day. It would be strange if they split up so quickly.

Fei Tang, feeling a bit awkward, didn’t greet Chang Dong. His car drove straight past him and Ye Liuxi but parked a bit further away from Meng Jingu’s group.

Ye Liuxi, seeing Fei Tang alone, remarked, “Maybe we should bring him back. If he’s going to be disliked by Meng Jingu and by us, we might as well keep him with us. One guest is no bother to two hosts…”

She suddenly paused.

Amidst the increasing wind, the sound of another car approached.

What was this, a market day in Bailongdui?

Ye Liuxi wanted to get up and see, but Chang Dong said, “Don’t bother. We’ll have pancakes in the morning.”

——

The third group arrived, led by a Landwind X9, followed by three more cars, including a supply-laden pickup truck. The convoy included the two cars from the previous night’s ambush and one additional vehicle.

There was Hui Ba again.

Suddenly, the vast empty space was crowded with three groups, over twenty people in total. Lop Nor’s population density was 0.13, but the deserted Bailongdui had just set a new density record.

Hui Ba immediately approached Ye Liuxi and began explaining before she could ask anything. “Our previous activity wasn’t very profitable, so we decided to pull out early this year. Conveniently, we met your little brother on the way and decided to team up…”

Clearly, he had prepared his story in advance.

Seeing that the ground was unsuitable for camping, Meng Jingu decided to sleep in the car. Hui Ba’s group, however, adapted ingeniously: they circled their cars, set up a large tent in the center, and tied the tent poles to the vehicles for stability.

Once everything was set up and the lights were on, the sounds of card games and laughter quickly filled the air.

Around ten o’clock, the wind grew wilder, forcing everyone into the tent or car. Bailongdui’s reputation as a ghost city was well-earned—the howling wind penetrated everywhere, making the car windows vibrate.

Chang Dong kept an eye on Hui Ba’s tent, eventually spotting Fei Tang, clutching his waistband, rushing behind a nearby mound.

He immediately followed him.

——

Fei Tang struggled to relieve himself in the fierce wind, which made it hard to stand steady and whipped sand into his face.

He finished quickly and ran back to the tent. As he turned the corner, someone grabbed his head and pushed him back.

Fei Tang protested, “Stop…stop…hey…Dong Ge…”

Unable to keep his footing, he fell painfully to the hard ground. Annoyed, he sat up, growing angrier. “What the heck, man? You don’t even say two words before getting physical. What’s your problem?”

Chang Dong squatted down. “Do you know what Hui Ba is involved in?”

Fei Tang stubbornly remained silent.

Chang Dong sneered, “If it weren’t for our acquaintance, I wouldn’t care if you got mixed up with him. Fei Tang, you chose this path. Hui Ba has a record, and he’ll go down eventually. If you want to drown with him, that’s your call.”

He stood up and started to walk away, but Fei Tang suddenly exploded.

“What did I do, huh? What did I do?”

Hearing the hint of tears to his voice, Chang Dong hesitated, unable to walk away.

“You and Sister Yexi are so clever. You knew I coveted those items but didn’t say anything, watching me act out. Did I actually steal? No, I just thought about it. Is thinking a crime? Have you ever looked at sexy photos and thought about sleeping with the model? Does that make you a rapist?”

Chang Dong said, “Speak plainly, don’t drag me into it…”

Fei Tang grew increasingly agitated. “What do you mean, ‘mixed up with Hui Ba’? Didn’t you eat his pancakes, sleep in his tent? Why does my association with him mean I’m doomed? As Lu Xun said, ‘I always use the greatest malice to guess Chinese people’—that’s you, with your dark thoughts and arrogance!”

Chang Dong: “…”

“What did I do”, Fei Tang wiped his nose, “I just exchanged numbers with Hui Ba, told him I deal in antiques, and if he had any good stuff, he could contact me. Then I heard you were coming to Bailongdui…”

Bailongdui was known as the most dangerous and mysterious section of the ancient Silk Road, rumored to be an ancient battlefield with countless dead, but also the easiest place to find ancient relics like Kaiyuan Tongbao coins [mfn][/mfn], cloth fragments, helmets, and ancient swords—practically lying around.

“Since Hui Ba was leaving camp and heading in our direction, I thought, with someone leading, why not call more people to gather stuff? If we picked up enough, it would be better than robbing. Who knew you’d be worse than a human trafficker…”

His anger grew, and he lay down on the ground as if giving up. “You handed me over in public, ever think about my dignity? The look on your face was like I was snot you couldn’t wait to get rid of… Now you come to lecture me, thinking you’re so smart, so righteous…”

He pounded the ground, distressed, regretting there were no onlookers to expose Chang Dong’s true nature.

Chang Dong sighed, “Fine, get up.”

Fei Tang remained on the ground. “I’m telling you, if you don’t give me an explanation today, I’ll…”

Before he could finish, he suddenly slid across the ground like a low-flying rocket, stopping several meters away, motionless.