Li Zu finished speaking and frowned as he stared at the other person. Although he knew that staring might not have any deterrent effect, it at least indicated that he would not easily trust anyone. The old man across from him looked at him with a dazed expression at first, but when he saw that Li Zu remained silent and did not change his expression, he suddenly laughed: “A Beijing slicker is indeed a Beijing slicker, much harder to fool than that southerner.”

“Who the hell are you?” Li Zu said angrily. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to mess with me in a place like this?”

The old man began to tug at his beard and hair, which turned out to be fake. Then he took off his clothes and dug out a backpack from the sand, pulling out a black jacket to put on. Once he zipped it up and adjusted it, Li Zu realized that this person’s actual age was quite young, even relatively youthful. The fitted jacket accentuated his tall, slender figure, making him look very capable and upright. Finally, he took a pair of sunglasses from the bag and put them on.

Li Zu was momentarily taken aback, thinking to himself: Why wear sunglasses in the middle of the night? Is he trying to look cool in front of me? Ever since Wu Xie had set his sights on him, it seemed that everyone he encountered had some issues.

The man in sunglasses turned to him and said, “I didn’t want to reveal my identity, but clearly, I’m not very good at lying. Let me reintroduce myself; everyone calls me Black Bear. What I just told you was all inferred from the environment here and the clues left on the bodies.”

“I knew it! Your tone sounds like you’re reciting a script. So you must not be a soldier, right?” Black Bear pointed to his own eyes. “Have you ever seen a half-blind person become a soldier?”

“Then how did you end up here?” Li Zu asked. This was the question he wanted to know most. No matter who this person was, if he had arrived here through other means, it would mean there were other ways to get out of this place.

Black Bear rummaged through his backpack, pulled out a flat aluminum flask, twisted it open, took a few swigs, and said, “You probably won’t believe this, but I came here following you guys. I was monitoring you from the shore, and when the water started moving, I jumped in out of desperation. Damn it, I almost drowned.”

“Monitoring us?” Li Zu frowned. Could he be from the archaeological team? The archaeological team had already noticed that Wu Xie’s group was acting suspiciously and realized that he had been kidnapped, so they had sent someone to monitor him? But he didn’t recall seeing this person in the archaeological team.

“Stop overthinking it. I was commissioned to protect that Boss Wu who kidnapped you. It was going smoothly until you guys decided to row out at midnight.” Black Bear laughed, handing the flask to Li Zu and patting him on the back. “Now look, everything’s gone. All that’s left is a dead weight.”

Li Zu said, “You’ve been following us the whole way?”

“Not just the whole way.” Black Bear pulled out several packages from his backpack, opened one, and handed it to Li Zu. To his surprise, it was stir-fried rice with shredded pork and green peppers. “Are you some kind of disabled version of Doraemon? How do you have everything in this bag?”

“This is the boxed meal I found from a manufacturer in Sichuan. Look, it has a shelf life of ten years; even if you die here, the food won’t spoil. It’s just a bit dry. Let’s make do with it.” The man in black glasses said, “I need to discuss something with you. After you finish eating, I’ll explain in detail.”

In the past, if Li Cu had heard about food with a ten-year shelf life, he would have preferred to starve rather than eat it. But now, he was truly hungry. Even if it was a slow poison, as long as it could fill his stomach, he wouldn’t hesitate to eat it.

The smell of green peppers from the cold rice, even mixed with a strange taste of sand, nearly brought tears to Li Cu’s eyes. At the same time, he found it strange: the rice clearly looked like it had been sitting for over ten days, yet it still had the aroma of green peppers. Was this really the fragrance of the peppers? Wasn’t it mixed with some plastic additives?

He didn’t bother to be picky; he quickly finished eating. His mouth watered, and he surprisingly didn’t taste anything unusual, not even the “a bit dry” that the man in black glasses had mentioned. After eating compressed biscuits for so many days, everything else felt “wet” to him.

After he finished, the man in black glasses came over, hooked his arm around Li Cu’s neck, and said, “Do you know what situation you’re in?”

Li Cu looked around and replied, “It’s hard to say, but clearly, our situations are the same.”

The man shook his head and said, “Not at all! I’m completely different from you. I was supposed to protect that person named Wu, but I soaked in the water for a whole night, and when I got ashore, I was exhausted and didn’t pay close attention. As a result, ‘whoosh whoosh,’ those two idiots disappeared. Now, my situation is particularly awkward, and that awkwardness is mainly due to your presence.”

“Please elaborate.”

“I owe someone a huge favor that I must repay. That person entrusted me to protect Wu, so Wu Xie is very important to me. Now that Wu Xie has disappeared in the sand, there is clearly something underneath this sand. My principle in doing things is to see people alive and see corpses if they’re dead. So, I must find out what is really under the sand. Even if I’m dead, at least there will be an explanation.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Li Cu looked at his backpack, still pondering how delicious the fried rice was. If they were outside the desert, he would definitely ask for three more plates.

“Don’t you understand? My original plan was that if I confirmed Wu Xie had no hope of survival, I would definitely go back. I have food and gear in my backpack, and I could take you with me. However, I must be sure that Wu Xie has no chance of survival, and this process will definitely be dangerous. If I die, you can take my backpack and food and leave on your own.”

“That sounds good.” Li Cu replied.

“Yes, it’s good for you, but it makes me feel unbalanced. If I die, it will affect many things. Moreover, I went to find Wu Xie; if you steal my backpack and leave, what will I do?”

“What are you trying to say? If you think I would steal your backpack, then just hide it. Besides, why would I want to run away? Wouldn’t two people have a better chance of survival?” Li Cu felt something was off; the man’s words didn’t sound very reassuring.

The man in the black glasses patted his shoulder and said, “If I had successfully deceived you just now, my identity wouldn’t have been exposed, and your survival wouldn’t have mattered much to me. But since you’ve seen through me, I can’t let you leave the desert alive.” Li Cu looked at him, and he looked back at Li Cu, who then smiled and said, “Are you joking?”

The man in the black glasses chuckled, shook his head, and raised his eyebrows. “I don’t want to kill you, but you missed your chance. The only reason I’m not killing you now is that I think two people have a much better chance of surviving together out of the desert. However, once we find a way out, I will definitely kill you at the first opportunity.”

Li Cu shrank his neck, thought for a moment, and replied, “You must be joking.”

The man in the black glasses shook his head and patted his shoulder. “I’ve always been fair; I need to be clear with you. Also, tomorrow I will have a very dangerous task for you to help with. If you manage to survive, you will believe me. By the way, have you eaten enough?”

Li Cu wanted to say, “Of course I haven’t eaten enough,” but this guy was acting so strange that he didn’t dare to answer truthfully. He just nodded and said, “I’m full.”

“Get to bed early.” Suddenly, the man in the black glasses reached out and squeezed his neck. Li Cu felt a tightness in the back of his neck as a tremendous pressure pressed on his arteries. Then, everything went black, and he immediately fainted.

When he woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. The sun in the desert rose earlier than in the city where he lived. Based on the temperature he felt, he judged it must still be early morning, just after sunrise.

His neck was extremely painful; God knows how heavy that blind man’s hands were. Wait, wasn’t he blind? How did he seem to see perfectly? He shook his head and then realized something was off. His body felt a bit strange; it didn’t feel like he was sleeping on the sand. He moved his hands and feet and found that while his feet could move, his hands were tied. Moreover, the condition of his feet and the sensation of his muscles in many places felt very unusual. He took a few deep breaths, and as his consciousness gradually returned, he looked around and immediately understood what was going on.

He was indeed not sleeping on the sand; instead, he was hanging in mid-air.