Chapter 46 Set out

The convoy sped through the vast Gobi Desert. With the climate being so dry, the jeeps stayed far apart from each other so as to avoid the yellow dust kicked up by the ones in front.

I sat in one of the jeeps and looked out the window, thinking about my previous decision and wondering if it was the right one. I felt like I was being a little reckless, but now that I had joined the expedition, I wasn’t brave enough to back out.

Before we left, A Ning told me about the planned route we were going to take. As it turned out, it completely matched the route Chen Wen-Jin had taken at that time. We would start in Dunhuang, cross the northern part of the Qaidam Basin, and enter the Qarhan region. From there, we would leave the highway and enter the no-man’s land of the Qaidam Basin. Then, Dingzhu-Zhuoma would take the team to the place where she separated from Chen Wen-Jin’s expedition team at that time.

This route was almost exactly the same as the one Chen Wen-Jin had written about in her notebook, so I was very puzzled. Where did A Ning get this information? Based on how she knew about Tamu-Tuo, Dingzhu-Zhuoma, and the route, it seemed like she had read the notebook before, but it was currently in my pocket…

The convoy stopped a few times to replenish supplies but soon arrived in Dunhuang as planned. Someone told me that the route to the Qarhan region was basically the same as the routes used for self-driving tours, so it was relatively safe.

Looking at the yardangs⁽¹⁾ on both sides of the road as we drove along suddenly made me aware of how desolate the Gobi Desert really was. The way it stretched out as far as the eye could see gave off the feeling of being abandoned at the end of the world. At first, this feeling was alleviated by the many abandoned settlements we saw by the side of the road, but when we left Dunhuang, got on the highway leading to the Qarhan region, and drove directly into the desert, we couldn’t escape it at all. We drove for more than ten hours, the unchanging scenery outside exacerbating the feeling to the point that I felt like I was suffocating. Thankfully, A Ning’s team was huge, and the hustle and bustle of setting up camp made me feel more at ease.

I was in the jeep with the Caucasian man from before and a Tibetan driver, both of whom took turns driving. During the journey, I asked the Caucasian man a bunch of questions to see if he would be willing to answer them.

The Caucasian man answered them all easily, making me realize that my thoughts had been too complicated. I was almost certain that the only way to learn about Tamu-Tuo, Dingzhu-Zhuoma, and the route was by reading the notebook, but that wasn’t the case at all. The first step A Ning took after receiving the videotapes was to investigate the courier company that sent the package. Thanks to the memories of the employees there, they managed to find the sender, who turned out to be Dingzhu-Zhuoma.

After paying her a visit, they asked about the package, Tamu-Tuo, her work as a guide, and the route they took at that time. Then, using the information Dingzhu-Zhuoma provided, they came up with the current plan.

I was relieved after hearing this. The contents of the first half of the third part of Chen Wen-Jin’s notebook weren’t all that important; what really mattered was the part where they separated from Dingzhu-Zhuoma and then entered Tamu-Tuo. Unfortunately, I didn’t read that part carefully, so I had to find a chance to secretly read it again.

After that, the Caucasian man told me what he knew about Tamu-Tuo.

He said that they only learned about the concept of Tamu-Tuo when they found Dingzhu-Zhuoma. According to her memories of listening to conversations between Chen Wen-Jin and her companions at that time, it seemed that Tamu-Tuo was the last stop in Wang Zanghai’s travels. As for where it was, Chen Wen-Jin and the others didn’t know, but they decided to look for it.

Dingzhu-Zhuoma, using everything she saw and experienced during the trip, later drew her own conclusions. She believed that the Tamu-Tuo that Chen Wen-Jin and the others were looking for was the legendary Queen of the West’s country.⁽²⁾ According to the locals, it should be called Taer Musiduo, which means “Ghost City of the Rains”. She became scared when she realized this, so she pretended that she couldn’t find the way and separated from them.

“Queen of the West’s country?” I was surprised. “Isn’t that just a myth?”

“Actually, it’s not. The Queen of the West’s country really existed, and it was an ancient country with a long history. It was even known during the time of the Yellow Emperor.⁽³⁾ The Queen of the West was the ruler of this country. In the Qiang language, Qinghai Lake is called ‘Chixue Jiamu’.⁽⁴⁾ The word ‘jiamu’ means ‘Queen of the West’. We think Qinghai Lake is the Jade Lake⁽⁵⁾ mentioned in the Queen of the West legends, and Taer Musiduo is the capital of the Queen of the West’s country. In the legends of the Western Regions, the Queen of the West represents divine power. According to the stories Dingzhu-Zhuoma heard when she was a child, this city will only appear when it rains heavily. But if you see it, your eyes will be taken away and you’ll become blind. That’s why she was so scared at that time.”

“So what you’re saying is that we’re actually looking for the ancient capital of the Queen of the West’s country?”

“You can say that. According to modern archaeological data—especially data obtained in recent years—the existence of the Queen of the West’s country has been confirmed,” the Caucasian man said. “In fact, if Tamu-Tuo is in the Qaidam Basin, then it must be part of the Queen of the West’s country. So, when we say that we’re looking for Tamu-Tuo, we’re actually looking for traces of the Queen of the West’s country. You need to understand that this doesn’t mean we’ll find the Queen of the West’s country from the legends. Instead, what we find will automatically become the Queen of the West’s country. That’s what archaeological expeditions are all about.”

After hearing this, I couldn’t help but smile wryly. Queen of the West? I remembered that she wasn’t someone to be trifled with. Was Wang Zanghai’s last diplomatic mission to the Queen of the West’s country? But why?

I suddenly remembered the legend of Hou Yi, who was looking for an elixir of immortality.⁽⁶⁾ Could it be that Wang Zanghai was looking for the same thing? It sounded too ridiculous to believe, so I shook my head to get rid of the idea and tried not to think about it.

After that, I examined the equipment I got from A Ning. Their company had given them special clothes to help them survive in a desert environment. I knew that if I traveled through the Gobi in my own clothes, I would overheat during the day and freeze to death at night, so I quickly changed. After I was dressed, I was surprised to find a familiar number on my belt—02200059.

When I asked the Caucasian man what this number was, he said that it was their company’s symbolic code, and their boss was obsessed with it. It was said that it came from one of the deciphered silk books of the Warring States Period.

Feeling surprised, I suddenly thought of the secret code on the box from the Seven Star Lu Palace. Did this number have some kind of special meaning?

Over the next two days, we ventured deep into the Gobi Desert. The Land Rovers were very fast, so by the end of those two days, we had already entered the hinterland of the Qaidam Basin.

Fortunately, A Ning’s people didn’t treat me like an outsider. I already got along well with the few people I had hung out with in Jilin, and after setting up camp several times, I managed to become acquainted with the rest. With my personality, it was pretty easy to get along with others. At least one advantage of this was that I didn’t have to deal with the expressionless Poker-Face all day long. It didn’t seem like he cared about me anyways.

This was actually a bit unusual, because in our previous encounters, although Poker-Face was difficult to get along with, he didn’t feel as distant as he did now. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was avoiding something. That sunglasses guy, on the other hand, seemed to be very interested in me and kept coming to talk to me.

The convoy quickly left the road after entering the desert, and then Dingzhu-Zhuoma began to lead the way. She, along with her daughter-in-law and grandson, rode in A Ning’s vehicle at the front of the convoy. I didn’t know how they were deciding the route, but after the old woman began leading the way, the journey became much rougher—we drove over crushed rocks and dried-up riverbeds until soon the whole team was grumbling complaints.

Dingzhu-Zhuoma explained that in order to find the mountain pass she saw back then, she had to find a certain village first. Their trip at that time started from that village, and it was where Chen Wen-Jin bought horses and camels. The village may have been abandoned by now, but the site should still be there. It was only by finding it that we could proceed to the next step.

As it turned out, the old woman’s memory was still quite good, and we arrived at the small village later that evening. It was called “Lancuo”, and there were still people living there, although there were only four houses with a little more than thirty people left.

This discovery made us all ecstatic. First, it proved the old woman’s ability as a guide. Second, things were going smoothly. Moreover, after traveling in the Gobi for so long, we were always happy to see a human settlement. Since it was getting late, we decided to camp in the village that night.

Unfortunately, there was an accident as we were entering the village—one of the jeeps drove into a wind-eroded ditch and overturned. The people were fine, but the jeep was totaled. We were now too far away from the nearest highway to get any assistance, so that meant that another jeep had to stay behind and help them.

After this incident, A Ning seemed worried, but it was only when we were resting beside the totaled jeep that night that she told us her concerns. Although the team was equipped with first-class off-road vehicles, the surrounding terrain was too rough. If we couldn’t find the mountain pass quickly, the vehicles would definitely start to malfunction one by one. It might be a very small problem that could easily be fixed at a service station, but out here, it would render the vehicles absolutely useless.

The further we went into the basin, the more dangerous it would be for the abandoned jeeps and their passengers since they may not be rescued in time.

After all, vehicles were different from camels and horses. Animals could heal from wounds on their own, and minor injuries wouldn’t affect their progress. But high-tech vehicles were sadly fragile—as long as there was an accident, they would be out of commission. This was especially true for the civilian vehicles that we were driving, which weren’t as strong as military vehicles.

But this wasn’t a mistake on A Ning’s part. In this era, it was impossible for a team of nearly fifty people to ride camels into the Qaidam Basin. First, it was impossible to find so many camels at once. Not only would you need camels for each team member, but you would need camels to carry all the equipment and spare camels just in case, which may total close to a hundred camels. Such a large caravan would be too conspicuous, and would definitely draw the attention of the government.

The mechanic accompanying the team told her that there was no need to worry. With how fast the Land Rovers could go, the Qaidam Basin really wasn’t all that big. Twenty years ago, the Qaidam Basin may have been a frightening sea of death like the Taklamakan Desert,⁽⁷⁾ but now it only took a little over ten hours to cross half of the development area, which contained a large number of geological survey bases and industrial bases.

But Dingzhu-Zhuoma’s grandson—a young man named Tashi—immediately refuted this statement. He said that we trusted in the power of machines too much. Although the Qaidam Basin had already been conquered, the safe areas were limited to those places along the network of roads. This only accounted for about two percent of the whole basin, while the other ninety-eight percent was full of desert, swamps, and salt marshes. We, a group of fifty people in ten or so vehicles, were nothing compared to a land that had been devouring life for tens of millions of years.

He said that even along the least dangerous tourist routes, people still got lost and died in accidents every year, and that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that we were now preparing to go deep into no-man’s land.

He also said that all the people he met before were tourists whose only goal was to cross the basin. While they wouldn’t stay in the basin for more than two days, our goal was to search inside the basin. In other words, our journey had no set end point. We’d be going around in circles in the desert, which herders in the past considered the biggest taboo. Therefore, it wasn’t unreasonable for Miss Ning to worry. In fact, it was better to be cautious.

We were all silent after hearing Tashi’s words. A Ning thought for a long time before asking him, “What advice do you have for us?”

Tashi shook his head and said, “Since you guys want to enter the Qaidam Basin, then be prepared to lay down your lives. It’s been this way since ancient times.”

It sounded like Tashi was trying to scare us. I had heard from the others that he was very angry with his grandmother for agreeing to show us the way. He thought it was too dangerous. Plus, A Ning had used money to persuade his grandmother to go, which he believed was bad karma. We had not only brought danger to his grandmother, but also persuaded her to sin. Dingzhu-Zhuoma, however, was very determined. Since grandmothers in Tibetan families held a very high status, Tashi had no choice but to follow along and take care of her. That was why he basically glared at us and didn’t say anything nice the whole way.

Despite knowing what he was trying to do, I couldn’t help but shiver as I watched the flickering flames of the fire—this little village with its small number of adobe houses and the cold wind blowing through the night air made me remember just how far away from civilization we were.

After he finished speaking, we were no longer interested in keeping the conversation going. A few of us sat by the campfire in silence for a long time before climbing into our sleeping bags to rest. Since we were leaving early tomorrow morning, A Ning and the others chose to sleep out in the open in their sleeping bags instead of setting up tents. The temperature here sometimes reached below zero at night, so we all hid behind a raised ridge and stayed close to the fires to keep warm.

As I lay there, I could hear the sound of whispers brought by the wind—it seemed that many people couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t surprising given the fact that this may be the last place marked on the map before we entered the Qaidam Basin. The veterans in the group naturally didn’t care, but a large number of people had been hired locally, so they were obviously a little more excited.

I didn’t know whether I was considered a veteran or a novice, but I didn’t care too much. I just looked up at the sky, finding that the stars were much clearer and the sky was much closer to the ground here. Living in the south, I hadn’t seen a sky full of stars in a long time, and now that I could see the bright Milky Way so clearly, I couldn’t help but feel my sleepiness disappear.

But long-distance travel was always exhausting, and after a while, the voices around me gradually quieted down.

The only ones still awake were the people A Ning arranged to keep watch. There were so many people in the team that these tedious jobs mainly went to the hired locals, so we wouldn’t have to take a turn. But this was still a village, so there was no need to be too vigilant. Tashi also said that large animals really only appeared near Hoh Xil.⁽⁸⁾ There was so little grass here that not even rats could be found, let alone carnivorous beasts. That was why I didn’t panic when I didn’t hear the night watchmen chatting—they had probably fallen asleep. I heard the faint sound of a few animal calls in the wind, but I didn’t pay much attention to them—we were sleeping in the middle of the camp, so even if they wanted to eat us, they wouldn’t be able to get to us.

I didn’t know how much time passed as I looked at the night sky and thought about things. But just as I started to drift off, I suddenly felt someone approaching. Startled, I jerked awake and looked around, only to find that it was Tashi.

I was so shocked that I sat up quickly, but just as I was about to speak, he squatted down, put his hand over my mouth, and whispered, “Don’t talk. Come with me. Grandmother wants to see you.”

<Chapter 45><Table of Contents><Chapter 47>

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TN Notes:

(1) A yardang is a sharp irregular ridge of compact sand lying in the direction of the prevailing wind in exposed desert regions, formed by the wind erosion of adjacent material that is less resistant.

(2) Queen of the West (also known as The Queen Mother of the West or Xi Wangmu) is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology. She’s the keeper of the peaches of immortality. The first historical information on her can be traced back to oracle bone inscriptions of the 15th century BC (so 1500 BC to 1401 BC).

(3) Yellow Emperor (also known as Huangdi), is the third of ancient China’s mythological emperors, a culture hero, and patron saint of Daoism. He’s reputed to have been born in the 27^th century BC (about 2704 BC) and to have begun his rule as emperor in 2697.

(4) The Qiang is an ethnic group of northwestern Sichuan. They live mainly in a mountainous region in the northwestern part of Sichuan on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Qinghai Lake (or Ch’inghai Lake) is the largest lake in China. Located in an endorheic basin in Qinghai Province, it’s classified as an alkaline salt lake.

(5) Jade Lake (sometimes referred to as Jade Pond) is the residence of the Queen of the West.

(6) Hou Yi is a mythological Chinese archer. There are a few versions of him obtaining a pill/elixir of immortality (which his wife Chang’e ends up taking), but Wu Xie is thinking of the one where he obtained it from the Queen of the West.

(7) Taklamakan Desert is the world’s second largest shifting sand desert, with about 85% made up of shifting sand dunes. It covers an area of 337,000 km2 (130,000 sq mi), making it slightly smaller than Germany.

(8) Hoh Xil (or Kekexili) is a vast nature reserve on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. In 2017, it was listed among the World Heritage Sites as “the largest and highest plateau in the world”.

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Totally unrelated to DMBJ but I finally subjected myself to the Teen Wolf movie this weekend and they did Derek so dirty o(TヘTo). And Stiles was MIA ｡ﾟ(｡ﾉωヽ｡)ﾟ｡ Needless to say I’m drowning myself in Sterek fics to emotionally recover 😂