Although Dayan and I stepped back cautiously, they still attracted the attention of the red "meatworm" and issued a warning "squeak" at us.
Zhang Ling saw the strangeness and walked towards us quickly. When she saw the "meatworm", her face changed and she said, "Don't move!"
But it was too late for her to speak, and Dayan and I had already turned around and fled.
In an instant, I felt a burning sensation in my calves, but I didn't dare to stop at all. Instead, I ran out twenty or thirty meters in one breath. When I looked back, Zhang Ling was still standing on the spot, the red "flesh" Close to her.
At the same time, I found that the bottom of my right trouser leg had turned black, and the part next to my skin was hot and painful.
At this time, Big Eye picked up the shovel for dredging sand and rushed back to rescue Zhang Ling. I also hurriedly rolled up my trouser legs, then grabbed a shovel and rushed to support.
Just when we were about to rush over, Zhang Ling immediately raised his hand to stop, Dayan and I hurriedly stopped.
I saw the meat worm shook its head as if it was looking for something. A few minutes later, it began to swallow the shrimps and crabs jumping or crawling in front of it, eating and raising its head to be alert.
It wasn't until it finished eating the "food" in front of it that it twisted its body and crawled back to where it came out, and then got into the sand.
Zhang Ling breathed a sigh of relief immediately and said, "Go. Let's leave here."
"What is the meat bug?" Big Eye asked.
"It's a skink, also called a death insect. It mainly lives under the deserted sand dunes or in the hot Gobi valleys. It can spray from the eyes a highly corrosive and poisonous ** like sulfuric acid. **It can even corrode metals, which is very dangerous. But the eyesight is very poor, and the senses are mainly used to identify the outside world."
I looked down at my calf, the calf was red, and the hair was all shrunk into black spots as if it was scorched by fire, and it exuded a pungent smell.
Zhang Ling looked down at my injury and said, "Fortunately, there is not much venom on your leg, otherwise your leg will be useless."
I asked with lingering fears: "How should I treat it?"
Zhang Ling helped me back to the car and let Big Eyes tidy up the tent, then first cut off the venom-soaked trouser legs with scissors, rinsed with water, and finally applied some safflower oil to me.
During the whole process, I sucked in pain, but yelled out embarrassedly, so I could only clenched my teeth and persisted.
Because I'm afraid of my leg infection
, Zhang Ling temporarily decided to go to the nearest iron gate to repair a few days. Loaded the tent and luggage on the car, and with the help of the satellite locator, we drove to the southwest until we reached Tiemenguan at around two o'clock in the morning.
At this time, there were a few shiny blisters on my calf. I found a simple hotel to live in. Zhang Ling did some simple treatments for me. I didn’t sleep all night in pain, and I went to the Tibetans to open it the next day. See a doctor in the clinic, sterilize and bandage, and instill a drip.
It took seven days to stay in Tiemenguan, but during these seven days, Big Eye and Zhang Ling were not idle. They both went out early and returned late every day, continuing to search for clues related to Ju Mi.
This afternoon I went to the clinic alone to deal with my legs. The owner of the clinic is a Tibetan woman named Yang La. Because she often comes to the clinic, she can also speak some simple Chinese, which is considered relatively familiar.
Yang La coated my legs with a green herb called "Uterpene", and said: "From now on, if you apply some of it every day, you don't need to come every day, but pay attention to hygiene."
"Thank you."
"What are you doing here? You don't look like tourists."
"Explore."
"I really don't understand you Han people. You don't have a good life, but you like adventure."
I smiled and said, "Do you know Babur Oasis?"
"never heard of that."
"Where is Ku Mi?"
"The ruins of the country of Kumi? You should go to the east of the Keliya River in Yutian County if you are looking for the ruins of the country of Kumi."
"It's not Ku Mi, but an abandoned village at the foot of a snowy peak."
"do not know."
"Where is the Han Village?"
"There are many Han villages in the south, but there are often collective conflicts between them and Uighur villages, so I don't know them very well."
"Are Han people often coming here?"
"Not often, there will be more than a dozen every year, most of them are lost or explorers like yours. By the way, a Chinese man came here some time ago. It's stupid and funny."
"How funny is it?"
"He can do magic, he can make a lot of things from his pants, eat, drink, use, a lot."
I was vainly startled, and hurriedly asked: "Do you know his name?"
"The last name is Zhao. I don't know his full name, but he has a Tibetan name called Aberbula."
Can you conjure something out of your pants, and your surname is Zhao? Could it be
Zhao Mingli
"Is he still here?"
"No, he's gone. Going in the direction of the rising sun."
"Then what did he do here?"
"Every day, I just wandered around and did nothing. When someone asked him what he did, he said he came here to look for the servant of Allah."
I pondered for a moment, and said, "He still believes in religion?"
"Well, he said that he is a believer of the Yellow Sect and a friend of Allah. But looking at his stupid appearance, he should be lying to us. You Han people like to lie the most."
Ninety-nine percent of Tibetans have faith. They all believe that people have the sixth reincarnation. Gods are everywhere in their hearts, every mountain, every river, every lake, every tree, and even every person. On his body, there are gods to worship, sacred mountains, holy lakes, temples and monuments, are all objects of pilgrimage.
How powerful is faith? So big that they are not afraid of death or life.
Can you imagine that during the pilgrimage, a family would "knob their heads" to complete the entire pilgrimage process in months or even a year? At least it is difficult for me to understand, but Zhang Ling said that "kowtow" is the best interpretation of the power of faith by the Tibetan people.
Yang La's evaluation of Han people made me a little embarrassed, smiled and then got up to leave, and immediately called Zhang Ling on the satellite phone after returning to the small hotel.
But after a long time, no one answered the call. The signal in Lop Nur was very poor. Even the satellite phone could not guarantee the smooth flow anytime and anywhere. It is normal to not get through.
So I didn't care too much, and sometimes waited at the hotel for them to come back at night.
After ten o'clock in the evening, Zhang Ling and Dayan still didn't come back, and my heart was a little uncomfortable, and my mind was full of bad guesses.
I waited until dawn, and the two of them still didn't come back. I finally lost my breath, so I decided to go out and look for them.
I talked to the owner of the hotel, and then drove alone into the vast desert, driving an off-road vehicle alone in the uninhabited desert. There is no concept of time at all, and I don’t know how long it has passed. The black smoke caught my attention.
Just when I was guessing whether it was a fire somewhere, the black smoke gradually formed from a strand, spreading slowly like a fan, and then spreading over the sky at a speed visible to the naked eye...
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)