“What’s missing?” Wu Xie asked.
“Ma Rila is missing, I can’t find him. The visibility is too poor; I can only feel the sand underwater stirring all around.”
Li Cu looked around and found that it was pitch black, with only the reflection of the moon on the water surface; the underwater lights had disappeared.
Wu Xie also leaned over the bow of the boat to look around, while Wang Meng kept talking, “I think there’s a monster underwater, and it’s definitely big; the whole bottom is churning.”
Wu Xie quietly stared at the surface of the water, and suddenly clicked his tongue, saying, “Oh no, it can’t be.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The water is moving,” Wu Xie said. After saying that, he grabbed Wang Meng’s diving mask and flipped into the water. It wasn’t long before he reached the bottom, then quickly surfaced, shouting at Li Cu, “Hurry! Head to shore!”
“Head to shore?”
“Stop dawdling, paddle! This lake is moving!”

2. The Moving Lake
Once Wu Xie completely flipped back onto the raft, Wang Meng asked, “What about Ma Rila?”
“That sly guy must have noticed something was off and gone ashore already.”
“Then why didn’t he come to warn us?” Wang Meng scolded.
“He’d be just as happy to see us dead,” Wu Xie replied, “so he could take our goods and sell them in his own shop.”
“He has his own shop?”
“He opened his own shop three months ago. He came to be my apprentice with bad intentions from the start,” Wu Xie said. “I guess he originally wanted to learn something from me, and when I wouldn’t teach him, he was hoping I’d die.”
“Boss, you knew and still brought him along,” Wang Meng shouted in frustration.

While Wang Meng and Wu Xie were talking, Li Cu had to paddle desperately on his own, but the raft kept spinning in circles. He was getting anxious and shouted to Wu Xie, “Can we stop chatting and focus on getting to shore? You guys don’t care about your lives, but why drag me into this? I’m completely innocent!”
Wang Meng grabbed the paddle and stabilized the raft with a few strokes, finally starting to move toward the shore. As they got closer, they shone a flashlight toward the bank and were met with a shocking sight.
They discovered that the shore was no longer the oasis they had seen before, but a rolling expanse of sand dunes. The speed and amplitude of the rolling sand were astonishing. Of course, it wasn’t the sand dunes rolling; rather, the lake they were in was moving across the dunes at an incredible speed. Although the water surface appeared calm, the entire body of water was moving rapidly.
“Get to shore, we have to get to shore! We don’t even know how far we are from the camp. We don’t know where this lake is flowing to, and we have nothing on the boat. If we end up deep in the desert, we’re done for,” Wu Xie shouted.
Wang Meng paddled desperately toward the shore, but every time the raft got close, the water rebounding from the bank pushed them back. So Li Cu and the others took turns trying to paddle ashore, but each time ended in failure. Eventually, all three were exhausted, helplessly watching the dunes continue to roll.
Li Cu said, “Why don’t we just abandon the raft and swim over?”
“Don’t be foolish. This body of water is moving as a whole. The area near the shore is definitely key to how this water is moving so strangely; jumping in could be even more dangerous,” Wu Xie said. “In situations like this, my experience tells me to wait. The lake will eventually stop.”

Li Cu said, “What if we end up in a place we completely don’t recognize when it stops?”

“It’s indeed very rare to find a moving lake in the desert, but judging from the oasis we just saw, this lake must move quite frequently, and its range of movement isn’t too large, which is why there are oases around. Moreover, the movement of this lake must have a pattern; it likely operates between these few points year-round, otherwise, the grass in the oasis wouldn’t be able to grow.”

“I think you’re too optimistic.”

“In this situation, we can only be optimistic.”

Li Cu thought to himself that this was indeed the case. What else could he think? However, he felt quite calm inside because his position was very delicate. Regardless of whether these guys could ultimately solve the problem, the current developments were always beneficial to him.

If they got lost in the desert, he would instantly transform from a useless hostage into a very useful one, as he could at least contribute as a laborer. If they eventually made it back alive, they would inevitably develop some sort of camaraderie during this time.

Thinking of this, Li Cu admired himself a bit. Maybe it was the audacity of youth that made him fearless, or perhaps he was just tired of the peaceful life in the city; now, the danger and unpredictability made him feel quite comfortable.

Dying here wouldn’t be so bad; after all, he often thought that it wouldn’t matter if he died, he thought.

The raft kept moving with the lake. They rested for a while and tried paddling to the shore for some time, but after several attempts, they completely gave up and decided to take turns sleeping. By the time Li Cu was pushed awake by Wang Meng, it was already bright outside.

“Have we arrived?” Li Cu mumbled, his eyelids drooping; he thought he was on a bus.

“It seems we have arrived.” The three of them got up, splashed some water from the lake on their faces, and looked around.

“What is this place?” Wu Xie murmured.