Chapter 45 Exclusive Release Chapter 45 "...Wynn..."
Li Hang's jeep eventually turned into a cluster of low-rise buildings.
The Dunhuang Academy's guesthouse is usually just called the guesthouse or the experts' building.
This is a three-story brick-concrete building with a beige exterior painted with a mottled and darkened finish due to years of wind and sand erosion, revealing the red bricks underneath.
“We’re here, Professor Meng. This is the expert’s guesthouse.” Li Hang turned off the engine and pointed to the building. “It’s the easternmost room on the second floor. The key is in the lock. Professor Gao told me to. Please settle in first. I need to return the car right away. I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning to go to the studio to see Professor Gao.”
Yuan Ning got out of the car with her handbag, and Li Hang helped her drag the huge Rimowa suitcase off the back seat, not caring that the wheels bumped against the ground.
"Thank you," Yuan Ning said again.
You're too kind.
Li Hang rubbed his hands, which were red from the cold, and pointed to a small path on the side of the building: "Teacher Meng, let me tell you. The canteen is over there, in that row of bungalows with blue roofs. Breakfast is from 7 to 8 a.m., lunch is from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., and dinner is from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. After that time, there will be no food left, and you'll have to find your own way."
He then pointed to the guesthouse: "The hot water room is next to the small boiler room at the back of the building. It's open from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. You'll have to bring your own thermos to get some. The water room for washing your face and brushing your teeth is at the end of each floor, and the toilets are there too. The building doors are locked around 11 p.m. If you're going to be late, remember to let the guard in. The guard room is in that small room next to the lobby on the first floor, but the guard is often not there."
He finished reciting these essential life tips in one breath, jumped into the jeep, and was about to leave again.
The jeep spewed out a plume of black smoke and drove off, bumping along.
An elderly man popped out of the duty room: "Young lady, are you new here? From the research institute?"
"Yes, I'm here to work."
"It's so cold today, will the stove be lit tonight?" the old man asked kindly.
Yuan Ning looked up blankly: "Huh?"
The old man clicked his tongue and pointed upstairs: "If you don't know how, ask Xiao Zhang for help. He lives next door to you."
"Thank you, I'll try it myself first."
Yuan Ning carried her suitcase and struggled up to the second floor to open the door to her room.
She instinctively reached to take off her coat, but then realized the room wasn't warm enough, so she put it back on.
The phone still showed "No Service". She placed it by the window, hoping it might give her some signal.
The phone screen was still showing Elias's last text message:
Have you arrived? Is everything alright? Please reply. E.
Yuan Ning sighed and replied to him, but her reply was already sent.
“The signal comes and goes, just like my relationship with E,” she suddenly sighed, then shook her head.
She opened her suitcase and first took out the protective case for her dress, which was wrapped in layers of sealed bags and soft cloth, and carefully placed it under the bed in a cool, shady spot. Then she began packing her own clothes. The silk shirts, cashmere sweaters, and even the suit she had brought as a backup all seemed out of place in the room. In the end, she only took out her thickest thermal underwear and a turtleneck sweater and placed them by her pillow.
Hunger belatedly crept in. She glanced at her watch; it was already past dinner time. Li Hang had said there would be no food after that.
She walked to the table, picked up the kettle—it was light and empty. She needed hot water, and she needed food.
Carrying an empty kettle and holding the room key, Yuan Ning walked out of the room again.
The boiler room was a low, brick building with its door open, steaming inside. An old worker was shoveling coal. Yuan Ning explained her purpose, and the old worker pointed to a row of rusty iron water tanks: "Over there, fill it yourself. Be careful, it'll burn you."
She filled the kettle with hot water; it was heavy.
"Sir, do you know where there's a supermarket?"
The experienced worker stopped shoveling coal and smiled, "We don't have a supermarket here, only a small shop, right outside the research institute gate."
Yuan Ning thanked him, placed the kettle at the bottom of the stairs, and turned to walk towards the research institute.
The research institute is a five-minute walk from the guesthouse. It's located in the vast Gobi Desert, so you don't need anyone to give you directions; you can see it at a glance.
It was a single-story house with the lights on. The shelves weren't stocked much, piled high with instant noodles, sausages, biscuits, pickled vegetables, and a local type of steamed bun. The owner, an older woman wrapped in a thick cotton-padded coat, looked at her curiously.
"Young lady, where did you buy this dress? It's so stylish."
Yuan Ning held two packets of braised beef noodles, a sausage, and a packet of pickled vegetables. After thinking for a moment, she also grabbed a packet of biscuits.
She paused for a moment, looked at what she was wearing, and casually said, "Bought abroad."
"These are foreign goods, they must cost a lot of money. Do you want a hundred yuan?" the woman asked while packing the items into a plastic bag.
"Um...yes." Yuan Ning mumbled in response, taking out some change from her elegant wallet.
It was all US dollars and credit cards, the smallest denomination being twenty dollars. She rummaged through them before realizing she hadn't had time to exchange them for RMB.
The older woman looked at the colorful banknotes in her hand with even more curiosity: "Young lady, we can't accept these here."
Yuan Ning paused, somewhat embarrassed. She hadn't considered that at all.
"Then... can I pay by card?"
The woman smiled, her smile simple and straightforward: "Just take it. You can exchange it for money tomorrow and bring it back. Judging from your appearance, you don't seem like the kind of person who would cheat me out of a few dollars."
Yuan Ning was very embarrassed. She took the plastic bag and thanked her repeatedly, saying, "Thank you, I will definitely bring it tomorrow."
"Go back quickly, it's getting dark and the wind is very strong."
Yuan Ning was freezing at night.
She squatted in front of the tin stove, studied it for a long time, but still didn't know how to start.
There was some ashes in the furnace, with scraps of paper and a few small pieces of firewood nearby to start a fire, followed by coal briquettes.
After several attempts, the waste paper caught fire, but the firewood went out almost immediately before it was fully lit, and the coal briquettes did not react at all.
Thick smoke billowed out, choking her and causing her to cough repeatedly, bringing tears to her eyes.
When the knocking sounded, Yuan Ning was choking on the smoke and her eyes were filled with tears. She opened the door in a disheveled state to clear the smoke out.
A thin young man stood outside the door, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a bulky blue down jacket, holding an enamel mug that was steaming inside.
"Hello, I live next door. I saw smoke coming from your place..." His voice was refined, with a touch of scholarly air.
"Sorry, I... I'm not very good at lighting a stove." Yuan Ning awkwardly stepped aside, clearing the doorway.
"It's alright, this stove is the old-fashioned kind. When I first came here, I often choked on it and my eyes would fill with tears."
The man came in, put down the enamel mug, and squatted down in front of the stove. With practiced ease, he first used the fire tongs to clean up the mess of ashes and half-burnt waste paper and firewood that Yuan Ning had made, and then rearranged them.
“The paper needs to be crumpled up a bit, and it needs to be supported. The firewood should be arranged like this, leaving room for airflow… Look, like this.” As he spoke, a new flame had already been steadily lit. He suddenly paused, turned to her and smiled, “Hey, why am I telling you all this? You don’t need to learn it.”
Yuan Ning asked him curiously, "Who said I don't need to learn?"
The firelight illuminated his profile, revealing him to be an exceptionally handsome young man.
He stood up and pointed to the stove: "We have to wait until this piece is fully heated before adding the next one, so it won't get cold all night."
"Thank you so much, you've been a great help." Yuan Ning breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're welcome. My name is Zhang Qingrang, and I work at the Institute of Literature." He stood up, dusted off his hands, and asked politely, "Are you the one Professor Gao mentioned, the one who came to repair that foreign dress?"
“Yes. My name is Meng Yuanning. Just call me Yuanning.” She paused, then added, “I’m not a teacher, I’m still a student.”
Zhang Qingrang waved his hand and picked up his enamel mug: "That's how we address each other here. You should get some rest. If you need anything, just let me know."
"OK, thanks."
Night fell. Yuan Ning added coal once more and, following Zhang Qingrang's instructions, left the ventilation damper on. Lying on the hard bed, the mattress beneath her ached from the pressure on her back, the hissing wind of the Gobi Desert in her ears, and the warm, crackling heat of the stove beside her.
Just before Shen fell asleep, she thought that tomorrow, besides seeing Gao Ran and returning the money to the convenience store, she would also ask Zhang Qingrang, or someone else, where she could buy the kind of cotton-padded jacket he was wearing.
10:00 AM New York time.
Elias van der Berger has just concluded his morning meeting with the London branch. The meeting revolved around a thorny cross-border merger deal with an old but rigid German family business, where negotiations had stalled.
He returned to his office alone and unbuttoned one button on his suit.
Richard served him Boston black tea and a prepared meeting summary as usual, without saying a word.
I picked up my phone; the screen was clean, no new messages.
More than 24 hours have passed since the message was sent, and Wynne is never one to ignore messages.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and decided to send the message again.
[Wynne, I hope to receive a reply from you.]
He hopes...
What does he hope for?
He couldn't pinpoint the exact components of this "hope." This uncertainty itself made him feel slightly uneasy.
Ultimately, he deleted the entire line.
It wasn't because of his dissatisfaction with her, but because of a more rational consideration: repeatedly sending similar messages was meaningless and would only expose his unease.
He placed his phone screen-down on the table.
“Richard.” He pressed the call button, his voice regaining its usual calm, devoid of emotion.
"boss."
"Help me find information about Dunhuang in China."
“Yes, boss.” Richard’s response was as swift as ever, without any further questions.
Elias leaned back in his high-backed chair, his gaze fixed on the cold Manhattan skyline outside the window.
He no longer "hoped".
He began to take action.
The sharp sound of the reveille startled Yuan Ning; it must have been a broadcast system set by the research institute.
Many organizations like to use the military's reveille as a broadcast to demonstrate internal discipline.
Yuan Ning woke up on the hard bed. She wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, and after a lot of hard persuasion, she got up.
After washing up with the little warm water left in the thermos, she put on her last sweater and coat.
Li Hang was already downstairs calling to her.
"I made you two steamed buns, I don't know if you like them."
Yuan Ning looked down and saw Li Hang holding up a plastic bag to show her.
She felt quite embarrassed. The people here were very simple and honest, unlike the "capitalist" habits she had developed over the years, but she couldn't very well refuse their kindness.
"Thank you, I'll be right down."
"How much? I'll pay you." Yuan Ning took the still warm plastic bag, inside which were two plump, white steamed buns.
"It's not much money, no need to pay, Teacher Meng."
Along the way, Yuan Ning took small bites of the steamed buns, which were filled with pure meat, oily, salty and fragrant, and very satisfying.
The mornings at the research institute are busy yet simple. Researchers and staff, dressed in various down jackets and cotton coats, walk in twos and threes toward different buildings, some carrying steamed buns or flatbreads, eating as they go.
The main buildings of the research institute are not grand. Most of them are brick-concrete or rammed earth structures built in the 1970s or 1980s or even earlier. They are low, scattered, and have a simple and harmonious integration with the Mingsha Mountain and Gobi Desert behind them.
Some buildings still have faded slogans painted on their exterior walls.
The path is a compacted dirt road, occasionally traversed by bicycles or motorcycles.
Although the conditions looked harsh at first glance, there was a calm and focused atmosphere in the air.
Li Hang led her to an inconspicuous row of single-story houses. The plaque above the door read "Dunhuang Academy Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Center" in black lettering on a white background, though the paint was peeling.
Yuan Ning straightened her clothes and took a deep breath.
Gao Ran came out from the inner room. He looked to be in his forties, with rough, dark skin from years of fieldwork. He was wearing faded blue work clothes and arm sleeves. His eyes were bright and focused, and he had the calm temperament unique to scholars.
"Meng Yuanning? Come in, you must be tired from your journey." Gao Ran's voice was calm, with a slight southern accent, and he stepped aside to let her in.
There were several other young people in the room, all wearing glasses and similar work clothes.
Among these people, Yuan Ning spotted a familiar face.
"The conditions are basic, please don't mind." Gao Ran pointed to an empty chair. "Sit down. Was the journey smooth? Are you comfortable with the guesthouse?"
"Everything is fine, thank you, Teacher Gao." Yuan Ning sat down, placed the folder on her lap, and couldn't help but be drawn to the silk painting that was being restored.
The bodhisattva's robes in the painting are badly torn. Two restorers are using extremely fine brushes to carefully put the almost invisible threads back in place and reinforce them, their movements as gentle as if they were treating a living creature.
Gao Ran followed her gaze. "The Northern Song Dynasty's 'Guiding Bodhisattva' painting has a whole host of problems: it's frosted, peeling, and broken. It's been under repair for almost a year."
There was no complaint in his tone, only a calm statement, as if a year was but a fleeting moment in the face of these thousand-year-old artifacts.
He turned his gaze back to Yuan Ning: "Did you bring the dress?"
“I brought it.” Yuan Ning took out the dust bag she had brought from New York City exactly as it was, and inside was the dress.
When she carefully laid out the 1947 silk crepe dress on the rather simple workbench of the Dunhuang Restoration Center, the air in the room seemed to freeze for a moment. Several young people who were engrossed in their work couldn't help but look up, their eyes drawn to her.
She said somewhat embarrassedly, "Compared to the cultural relics here, this dress is probably not going to take up any more of your time."
Gao Ran put on white gloves, picked up a magnifying glass with a light, bent down and began to examine it carefully inch by inch.
"If it can really bring us a million in donations, its contribution will be enormous. The research institute is short of money. Nearly a thousand caves have been excavated in Dunhuang. Without money, many projects simply cannot proceed."
Gao Ran's voice was calm, but the weight of his words sent a shiver down Yuan Ning's spine.
"Look at all these PhDs in my department, how much do they even earn in a month?"
Gao Ran added, his gaze returning to the dress, his eyes focused, "Xiao Meng, the problem with your dress is typical and difficult to solve. The stains are deeply embedded in the fibers. Conventional methods are too risky."
He gestured to a young female healer beside him: "Xiaohui, come and take a look."
Li Xiaohui walked over and also put on gloves.
After a moment, she pondered and said, “The idea you gave us before was correct. But we are not dealing with relatively stable mineral pigments and ground layer, but with more fragile and uneven organic silk fibers, and hand-painted with plant pigments that have already degenerated. The formula, concentration, pressure and method of application of the penetrant must be redesigned, and a lot of preliminary tests are needed.”
Her judgment was consistent with Gao Ran's.
Yuan Ning immediately perked up and looked at Gao Ran: "Teacher Gao, do you think there's still a chance to repair it?"
Gao Ran pushed up his glasses: "There is an opportunity, but it involves risks, and it may take a long time. Are you prepared for that?"
"Yes." Yuan Ning answered without the slightest hesitation.
She paused, lowering her voice slightly, "Now that things have come to this, I'm determined to try. If it succeeds, the subsequent donations can arrive and truly help the research institute."
Only she can truly take control of the Casanova project.
“Let’s begin today.” Gao Ran turned to his students. “Xiao Hui will lead, and Xiao Zhang will assist. As usual, all ideas will be put into simulation experiments first. Let the data speak for itself, and no one should make decisions on a whim.”
In the evening, when Yuan Ning came out of here, Li Hang told her to hurry up and get food from the cafeteria, otherwise there wouldn't be any left.
She rubbed her rumbling stomach. Although she really wanted to eat, she still walked slowly forward until Li Xiaohui pulled her up and said, "Hurry up, or there won't be any left."
So Li Xiaohui pulled her along and they ran on the sand.
"Wait, wait, wait..."
Zhang Qingrang followed with a smile: "Xiaohui, don't make her fall."
"It won't fall!" Li Xiaohui said without turning her head. "If you dawdle any longer, the braised pork will only be soup!"
Yuan Ning was pulled along by her, running along the sandy road with uneven steps.
If her classmates at Parsons knew that she was now running across the sand for a bite to eat, they would probably laugh at her for the rest of their lives.
Her lifelong reputation was ruined in an instant, and she could no longer stay in high society.
She shook her head, and the aroma of the cafeteria food wafted towards her.
There are already quite a few people sitting here.
There was a short queue in front of the window.
She glanced at it; the dishes were simple: a large pot of braised pork with potatoes, glistening with oil; a pot of scrambled eggs with tomatoes; a pot of stir-fried cabbage; and a small mountain of steamed buns and rice.
Yuan Ning couldn't help but swallow.
"Luckily we arrived early, so we all got to eat." Xiaohui pulled Yuanning to the end of the line and craned her neck to look ahead.
Yuan Ning later learned that people like Li Xiaohui, Zhang Qingrang, and Li Hang were all PhDs from the Capital University who voluntarily came to the west to conduct scientific research and academic work.
When it was their turn, the braised pork was indeed reduced to a thin layer.
Li Xiaohui and Zhang Qingrang both stepped aside: "Yuan Ning, this is your first time here, you go first."
Yuan Ning felt embarrassed as the two of them pushed her to the front.
The cook recognized Xiaohui and carefully scraped the bottom of the bowl with his spoon, adding extra pieces of fatty meat with skin and thick broth to each of their bowls. He also gave each of them a large spoonful of tomato and egg and cabbage.
The three of them found an empty seat in a corner and sat down. The bowls were heavy, coarse porcelain bowls, and the chopsticks were simple bamboo chopsticks.
Looking at the glistening braised pork, the soft and tender potatoes, and the rice soaked in broth in the bowl, Yuan Ning felt an unprecedented hunger.
She swallowed hard; this looked much better than the food that cost tens of dollars at Balthazar Restaurant.
She picked up a piece of meat and put it in her mouth. The taste was very home-style, with a strong soy sauce flavor, but the meat was very fragrant and not greasy at all.
With a bite of steaming hot rice, your stomach is instantly filled with a comforting and warm feeling of fullness.
"Isn't it delicious? Chef Wang's braised pork is the best in the area. It's just that the portion is too small," Li Xiaohui said.
Zhang Qingrang slowly picked the tomato skins out of the eggs and said with a smile, "Be content, we usually eat only cabbage and potatoes."
It was very noisy around.
There was a discussion about the daytime work progress: "The hand measurements of that Bodhisattva in Cave 3 need to be taken again..."
Some complained that the instruments were not working well: "That old microscope can't be focused again."
Yuan Ning ate quietly, but her ears absorbed all the sounds. There were no elegant ladies and gentlemen, no whispered social niceties, only the simplest sharing and the most direct communication.
This is a real, warm, and grounded life and work.
Li Hang came over carrying an empty bowl, passing by their table: "Hey, not bad, the newcomer managed to snatch some meat. I'll teach you to listen to me then."
Yuan Ning puffed out her cheeks and smiled at him.
Li Hang said, "You guys take your time eating, I'll be leaving now."
Stepping out of the canteen, it was already pitch black. The night sky over the Gobi Desert was clear, and the stars seemed to be dancing in the night.
Without urban light pollution, the Milky Way was as clear as a band of light.
The three walked side by side on the way back to the guesthouse, their footsteps rustling in the quiet night.
“Yuan Ning,” Xiao Hui asked, “did you contact your family to let them know you’re safe when you came here?”
Yuan Ning shook her head: "Not yet. My phone has been out of service ever since I got here."
Zhang Qingrang suddenly asked her, "Did you bring your laptop?"
“I brought it,” Yuan Ning nodded. “But I guess it’s probably useless?” She remembered that there wasn’t even a telephone in the guesthouse room.
Zhang Qingrang paused for a moment: "If you want to make a call, there is a makeshift way. About a kilometer east of the research institute's main gate, there's a small hill with an abandoned weather station frame on top. For some reason, you can sometimes get a faint cell phone signal there, but it's very weak and intermittent, so it's all about luck. When people in the institute urgently need to contact their families, they go there in the middle of the night with their phones, like on a pilgrimage. However, it's only for domestic calls; if you want to make a call abroad, that's absolutely impossible."
Yuan Ning was a little stunned, but realizing that he hadn't finished speaking, she asked, "What if I want to go online?"
Zhang Qingrang pushed up his glasses: "I've wanted to try this for a long time, but they won't let me. If it were you, maybe the teacher would agree."
Yuan Ning became increasingly curious: "How exactly can I get online?"
“We have an old satellite data terminal in our institute, left over from an international cooperation project a few years ago. Theoretically, it supports low-speed data connections, but it has been in disrepair for years, and no one can guarantee that it will still work. Most importantly, it needs a clear, unobstructed satellite signal and a stable power supply.”
He looked at Yuan Ning, his tone becoming serious: "This means we'll have to move the terminal outdoors, find the correct satellite orientation, and connect it to a generator or a sufficiently long power cord. And even if we do connect, the internet speed will be incredibly slow."
Li Xiaohui firmly objected: "Zhang Qingrang, don't think about using Yuan Ning's connections to carry out your far-fetched experiments. There's nothing that can't be solved by phone; you must go online."
Yuan Ning hesitated before speaking, "Um... I really want to give it a try."
From initial surprise at not being able to make phone calls or access the internet here, to current astonishment at being able to access the internet in the Gobi Desert, Yuan Ning became excited.
“Look, Yuan Ning also thinks it’s worth a try.” Zhang Qingrang’s tone became more excited after finding an ally. “This isn’t wishful thinking, Xiao Hui. I’ve envisioned this many times.”
Two days later, after going through layers of approval, the application was finally approved.
It was a clear, windless night with an exceptionally clear starry sky.
The location was chosen in a relatively open gravel area behind the research institute, away from light pollution.
The so-called "satellite data terminal" was a heavy, military-green iron box with various knobs and interfaces, connected to a large, folded parabolic antenna, commonly known as a "dish," and a bunch of tangled cables.
A roaring gasoline generator provides power a few meters away.
Zhang Qingrang and a taciturn old technician in the institute worked for nearly two hours, repeatedly adjusting the angle and elevation of the antenna, muttering satellite orbit parameters while looking at the signal strength indicator jumping on the laptop screen.
Wrapped in a thick cotton-padded coat and clutching her laptop, Yuan Ning waited in the cold night wind, feeling both expectant and apprehensive.
"It seems... there's a little bit!" Zhang Qingrang's voice was filled with suppressed excitement. On the screen, an extremely weak signal bar struggled between "none" and "very weak".
"Try it quickly!" Yuan Ning handed over the computer and connected it to the terminal via a series of adapter cables.
The old machine made noise intermittently.
Time ticked by, and just when everyone thought they were going to fail again, the network icon in the lower right corner of the laptop suddenly flashed.
"It's connected! I told you my method was flawless." Zhang Qingrang pushed up his glasses, feeling proud that his idea had been proven successful.
Li Xiaohui was also a little surprised: "That really works! But Yuan Ning, what are you planning to do online?"
Yuan Ning hesitated for a moment. She didn't know what to do. She decided to check her email first to see if there were any new emails.
The internet cable that Zhang Qingrang connected for her actually had a signal, which amazed Yuan Ning.
As soon as I opened my email, a notification sound rang out.
A whole bunch of work emails, plus new product catalogs from brands.
Yuan Ning's fingers swiped quickly across the touchpad, skipping over the new product catalogs and routine work emails.
This hard-won signal on the Gobi Desert is like burning precious fuel with every word it displays.
Another "ding-dong" notification sound.
Yuan Ning was taken aback and looked down at the screen.
A new email appeared.
She clicked on it immediately.
The sender was a long and official email address she had never seen before, but the subject line was clear and concise: [Percival Capital - Emergency Project Communication Test Link]
The email body consisted of only two short lines of English:
Please click the link below to enter the secure video conference room. The link is valid until 24:00 Eastern Time today.
[A long, encrypted link]
Yuan Ning was stunned.
"What's wrong, Yuan Ning? What did you receive?" Li Xiaohui curiously leaned over and saw a screen full of English text and a complicated link.
Zhang Qingrang analyzed, "This appears to be a one-way video conferencing channel, indicating that the other party anticipated that you might open your email and join the meeting at some point."
Yuan Ning took a deep breath: "I know."
Elias.
He sent the contact information in advance; he was merely providing her with the possibility of contacting him. Whether she used it, and when, was up to her.
She didn't even know if he was still waiting on the other end of the computer.
If he really expects a reply from her, he needs to sit in front of the computer all the time.
"Yuan Ning?" Li Xiaohui called out in confusion when she saw Yuan Ning staring at the screen for a long time without moving.
Yuan Ning snapped out of her daze, looked up, and glanced at Zhang Qingrang, Li Xiaohui, and the silent technician: "I want to give it a try."
“Let’s give it a try. We’ll try our best to keep things stable here.” Zhang Qingrang turned to the veteran technician, and the two began to monitor the signal and generator status more intently.
Yuan Ning clicked the link.
The browser slowly loads an extremely minimalist page, consisting almost entirely of a dark background and a progress bar.
The progress bar crawls along like a snail.
Time ticked by, and the sound of the generator seemed particularly deafening in the quiet night.
It's 9 a.m. in New York, and 10 p.m. in Dunhuang.
The temperature was -12 degrees Celsius, the night wind in the Gobi Desert was like a knife, and the starry sky was so dazzling it seemed unreal.
Yuan Ning was wrapped in a borrowed military overcoat and wearing a Lei Feng hat.
The laptop suddenly flickered, and then Elias's face appeared.
The screen was extremely choppy, almost like a garbled image.
Yuan Ning held her breath and stared wide-eyed.
"Elijas, it really is you!"
A few seconds later, a male voice, heavily compressed and delayed but still recognizable by its unique intonation, crumbled in from a distant point in time and space:
"...Wynne,...I miss you so much..."
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Author's note: The scientific and technological content is all fictional.
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