“I am a high school student,” Li Cu said angrily. “I am not like you illiterates.” They found a metal plate, and Wu Xie carved the words “Li Ren Bei” onto it, then firmly hammered it into the sand dune. Li Cu noticed that Wu Xie’s handwriting was quite beautiful, realizing that this tomb raider shouldn’t be called illiterate.

The group paid their respects, and Wu Xie murmured, “Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, I know your souls are still wandering around. They say that those who die trapped in the desert can never escape it. But don’t worry, as long as you bless us and follow us, we will surely make it out. Those who need to reincarnate can do so, those who want to scare others can do that too, and those who want to film ghost movies can do that as well. Nobody is holding anyone back. O.K.?”

Li Cu asked, “Where did you learn all this heavenly talk?”

Wu Xie replied, “It’s a specialty of a friend of mine. I’ve realized that saying this kind of thing at this moment can suggest to myself that even if I die, I should die happily.”

“Why does your friend think so negatively?” Li Cu remarked.

Wu Xie chuckled, “My friends can’t just be described as negative. I’ll have the chance to introduce you to them, if I don’t end up boiling you first?”

After dealing with the dead, they began sorting through the belongings left behind. As Wu Xie had said, these people had a lot of items on them. In the end, the items they organized filled at least three or four burlap sacks.

As they sorted through the items, Li Cu noticed that most of the things Wang Meng had found were gold and silver jewelry. Soldiers aren’t allowed to carry jewelry, so these items must have been kept on them. There were many ration tickets from that time, coins, and a lot of rings and watches wrapped in oilcloth.

Li Cu exclaimed, “What the hell, are you stealing money from the dead?”

Wang Meng wasn’t angry and calmly replied, “You don’t understand. If we bury them in this godforsaken desert, they will eventually turn into minerals after billions of years, with no chance of being mined again, right? So burying them here is a waste.

Give them to me; I’ll take them to the civilized world. This can earn me money or turn into souvenirs—it’s all good. This is about making good use of their residual value, allowing these people’s lives to continue through material wealth in my hands.”

Before he could finish, Wang Meng got a slap on the back of his head from Wu Xie. “You’re not this clever when hosting guests, but you start being clever when it comes to making money.”

Wang Meng replied, “This is a result of learning from the boss.”

Just then, Li Cu pulled out a small ring from Wang Meng’s pile of items. It was clearly a woman’s ring. Li Cu said, “Hey, was there a woman among the corpses?” Wang Meng nodded, “There should have been, but in that state, it’s impossible to tell if it’s a man or a woman.”

Li Cu remarked, “Isn’t it a bit inappropriate to bury these men and women together?”

Wu Xie said, “We can’t worry about that too much.”

As he spoke, they all involuntarily looked towards the grave mound and shared a knowing smile, thinking that the process of identifying whether these corpses were male or female might further desecrate them. They had already done more than enough.

After their laughter, just as they were about to continue sorting through the belongings, Wu Xie suddenly frowned and said, “Wait a minute!”

Li Cu said, “I knew something was off. We should just go dig up the female corpse and find another place to bury it.”

Wu Xie replied, “That’s not what I’m talking about. What happened to the tombstone we just put up?”

The group stood up again and looked towards the sand dune, only to discover that the tombstone they had just erected was indeed missing. Li Cu asked Wang Meng, “Could it have been poorly placed and fallen over?”

Wang Meng retorted angrily, “I buried it at least eight or nine inches deep in the sand. It wouldn’t just fall over that easily, and there’s no wind here.”

Wu Xie pondered for a moment, stroked his chin, and said, “Let’s grab some tools and go take a look.”

The group walked over, and Wang Meng made sure to gather all his junk and put it into his tattered sack. When they reached the sand dune, they found that the tombstone had completely vanished without a trace. Wu Xie exclaimed, “Strange things happen every year, but this year seems especially full of them.” He then looked at Li Cu and Wang Meng, making a particularly mournful expression.

“What kind of expression is that?” They increasingly felt that Wu Xie’s mind might really be a bit off.

“I’m feeling sorry for you all, and for myself as well. I have a bad feeling about this,” Wu Xie said, pointing to the spot on the dune where the tombstone had been. “Whenever I encounter a situation like this, strange things are bound to happen, and everything will eventually connect. It seems that this place isn’t just going to affect the three of us; you should take a close look at the sand.”

Li Cu followed Wu Xie’s direction and noticed a faint, winding trace on the other side of the dune. Because the sand was white, the trace was not very obvious. He walked over, crouched down, and felt it, suspecting it might be the trail of a snake.