"Damn, what's that wind blowing so hard? Could it have blown something away? Could it be those flagpoles?"
Inside the tent, the fat man was feeling rather listless. But outside, the wind howled, sand and dust swirled, and as the wind picked up, it felt like the tent was about to be torn apart; it shook violently. The fat man nervously closed his eyes, only to be immediately awakened by the deafening roar of the sandstorm. The torment of over ten hours had left him yawning frequently. But this loud noise, however, instantly invigorated him.
Not only him, but everyone who was staying in a tent outside was uneasy and couldn't fall asleep at all.
Just then, there seemed to be a clattering sound outside, and the noise became even more...
Those flagpoles planted on the sand dunes, I suppose they're doomed now? I wonder where they'll fly off to, or where they'll be buried.
“No!” Zhang Guodong remained energetic, sitting cross-legged, and said calmly.
"What's that?" the fat man asked curiously. He had always trusted Zhang Guodong's judgment. He couldn't sleep either, so they chatted idly. "Zhang Guodong said.
"What? This is troublesome! That's water! No, we have to go out and check right away. We can manage without food, but how can we survive without water?" The fat man panicked immediately upon hearing this and got up to go out.
Zhang Guodong laughed carelessly, "It's just a bucket, it probably won't fly very far, what's there to worry about? Besides, are you even going out right now?"
"We can't just wait for the wind to stop, can we? What if it flies away or gets buried under the deep sand?" The fat man, hearing the commotion outside, was genuinely a little scared. He rolled his eyes and said, "Hehe, I can't go out. What about you?"
Such weather would be terrible for ordinary people, but Zhang Guodong shouldn't be considered an ordinary person, right?
"Don't even think about it, it's late at night. It's so comfortable in this tent. Ah, I'm getting sleepy, I'll lie down for a bit!" Zhang Guodong hummed and stretched. He simply lay down, seemingly really going to sleep.
"No! What will we do if we run out of water and food?"
No matter how much the fat man tried to persuade him, Zhang Guodong ignored him and seemed to be sleeping very comfortably.
"Instead of wasting time talking, I should get some sleep. It'll be dawn in a few hours, and we can look for it then!" Zhang Guodong said confidently, closing his eyes.
However, the tent was really stuffy, so Zhang Guodong had no choice but to put on his dust-repelling magic artifact again. Only then did he feel a little better.
The fat man was helpless.
As soon as it was light, the sandstorm passed.
Although the sun had not yet risen, the sky was a beautiful blue, pleasing to the eye and dispelling any gloom in my heart.
"Secretary Wang, Young Master Zhang, something terrible has happened! Our water buckets are gone, and some food and luggage have been stolen too!" Zhang Guodong and Fatty had woken up earlier and were about to leave the tent when they heard Section Chief Liu Xi's anxious voice outside.
"Oh, really? All the water buckets in the car are gone?"
The others realized the same thing. Food and water are the most precious things in the desert. The vehicle contained most of the food and water; what would they do if they ran out? It would take more than a day to get out of the desert. And yes, there was gasoline!
Two desert off-road vehicles are gas guzzlers. They consume a lot of fuel. But the fuel cans have disappeared.
When Zhang Guodong and Fatty came out of the tent, they saw Liu Xizhen pacing anxiously.
"What happened? It's all shaved off?" the fat man asked hurriedly.
Looking around, there were no buckets or similar items on the flat sand. Looking at the vehicle, it was empty—no, there were only one or two buckets left, tied to the vehicle.
"Yes, Secretary Wang, we just searched over the sand dunes, but we only found one bucket, and the water inside was almost all gone!" Section Chief Liu said with a wry smile.
The fat man was also dumbfounded, frowning as he glanced at Zhang Guodong. Zhang Guodong also touched his nose in surprise, his face slightly flushed. He wasn't worried about finding the bucket, but he had overlooked one thing: the lid of the bucket had actually blown off during the collision, and all the water had been wasted.
What a surprise! It was purely an accident!
"Let's keep looking, we'll find as much as we can!" the fat man sighed.
"Sigh!" Section Chief Liu said with a distressed expression. He quickly joined the others in the search.
"Section Chief Liu, we found it! We found it!" Not far away, little Xu Ning waved her hand excitedly and shouted.
"Found the bucket?" Liu Xi was overjoyed and hurried over.
"No, it's an oil drum!"
"An oil drum? Good thing we found it!" Liu Xi's enthusiasm waned upon hearing this. But then he thought, as long as there was fuel, the truck could run. That was a good thing, after all.
The oil drum was mostly buried in the sand. Only some oil had seeped out from the top, and it had a pungent smell. The young girl, Xu Ning, was quite observant and managed to spot it.
The two men pulled the oil drum out, only to find it was much lighter. Needless to say, a lot of oil had leaked out.
"This amount of fuel should be enough to drive three kilometers!"
The group found two more oil drums. Without exception, each drum was more than half empty. Even if it wasn't enough to get them out of the desert, they wouldn't be too far from the edge.
The others, however, returned empty-handed.
Even when the oil drums were buried under the sand, the smell of oil was never detected along the way. But the water had no smell, and even if sand was sprinkled on it quickly, not a trace could be found in the end.
Seeing that everyone looked rather unenthusiastic, Zhang Guodong had no choice but to say, "I'll help look too!"
Pretending to search, Zhang Guodong didn't linger on the flat sand, but instead searched at the base of the dunes. Soon, he found a bucket.
The bucket lid was a little loose. Only half the water was left, and half of it had leaked out.
For about half an hour, Zhang Guodong searched at a leisurely pace and found five buckets, all of which contained water, though some were less than a third full.
"So powerful!" Xu Ning couldn't help but exclaim.
"That's about all we have. We can't find those empty buckets anymore; they've probably been blown far away!" Zhang Guodong said with a slight smile and a sigh.
"Young Master Zhang, that's quite a lot. If we use this water sparingly, we can still make it out of the desert!" Liu Xi complimented from the side.
"How much is left to do today?" Zhang Guodong changed the subject and got back to business.
Although we recovered some water, the food was no longer edible. We needed to finish properly marking the territory, and then everyone quickly evacuated.
"The flagpole was blown down, but the positioning device was buried yesterday. We just need to check the device again, and we can complete the land demarcation. We should be able to finish before noon," Liu Xi said.
Locating instruments are the primary markers for demarcating territory. They are far more reliable than buried boundary markers or flags. However, flags can visually indicate that the area is already someone else's territory.
"Then hurry up!"
Time passed slowly, and before noon, Liu Xi approached Zhang Guodong and the fat man again, carrying a half-full bucket of water. He looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Secretary Wang, Young Master Zhang, here's your water, I've brought it!"
"Deliver water?"
“Yes, Secretary Wang, there should have been enough water originally, but the wind has blown it away, and now the temperature in the desert is high, so everyone is using too much water, and it looks like we’re about to run out,” Liu Xi said.
The helplessness in their eyes was very real.
We're short of water!
Judging from Liu Xi's dry lips and the white stains all over his head, it was clear that walking in the desert under the sun was quite a challenge, as sweating was very easy. His body was severely dehydrated.
The fat man was also at a loss. He was an official, that's true, but he wasn't a god.
I hadn't noticed this until now. Because Zhang Guodong always had something to drink on him—alcohol, tea, you name it.
But seeing Liu Xi's disheveled appearance, he couldn't help but look at Zhang Guodong.
"Let everyone drink this water. Let's finish our work as soon as possible and head back to Ningyun immediately. I still have some water here, enough for the two of us!" Zhang Guodong said helplessly to Liu Xi.
"Oh, I can't possibly accept this!"
"Section Chief Liu, hurry up and go. Drink water in small sips, hang in there a little longer. When we get back to Ningyun, I'll treat everyone to a good meal and drinks!" The fat man waved his hand and quickly slapped Liu Xi.
This guy, with a look of delight in his eyes, betrayed himself, yet he still pretended to be embarrassed.
As soon as Liu Xi left, Zhang Guodong and the fat man both laughed.
It's only human nature to act this way when faced with a life-threatening situation; if you don't look out for yourself, you'll be doomed.
"But Guodong, where are you hiding a drink? Do you have anything to eat? Come to think of it, I'm really hungry right now!" The fat man sized up Zhang Guodong. In his pockets?
Without Zhang Guodong's notice, a golden pear appeared in his hand, which he handed over.
“Cultivators have many methods, and storage is just one of them!”
"Damn!" The fat man's eyes widened in disbelief.
"A spatial ring? I've seen some people talking about spatial rings, they're huge, like cars, they can fit a mountain inside! Do you have one? Let me see!"
Zhang Guodong has three black lines on his forehead.
Another one who's been poisoned!
"I've never seen what you're talking about. Mine can only hold a little bit; I reckon a bucket would be about the maximum!" Zhang Guodong joked, suppressing a laugh. "Besides, unless you're a cultivator, you can't open the storage bag. You'd be wasting your time looking!"
"Only this much?" the fat man said disappointedly.
Zhang Guodong only said that one bucket was the maximum capacity, but he didn't mention that it could actually hold several buckets. This purple storage bag certainly could.
The fat guy is just an ordinary person. Although we have a very close relationship, knowing too much won't do him any good.
"A real cultivator's magical artifacts and other items are not as extravagant as those in the novel. My storage bag is already of intermediate grade. Even the advanced grade would only have ten times the space of mine, which is not very large!"
Of course, the Peach Blossom Spring in the nine-story pagoda is an exception. That space is far too large, and most obviously different from a storage bag, it can hold living beings!
Storage bags can only hold inanimate objects!
Zhang Guodong slapped his forehead, realizing he'd forgotten to ask Huang Jisanren if the cultivators there could create spatial storage bags that could hold living beings.
"What's wrong?"
"Huh, someone's coming?" Zhang Guodong was about to answer when his eyes looked several hundred meters away. Four cars were approaching from the bend in the sand dune, heading straight for the spot where Zhang Guodong had shouted.
Note: I have something to do today, so this is the only chapter. I'll write more tomorrow.
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