?

  Jin Suo said: "There is, but there are even more bizarre things."

  Bizarre?

  Fatso perked up at this and said, "It's a long way on a cold night, it's really boring. What kind of strange things do you have to tell?"

  "Alright, I'll tell you one thing, this is true, absolutely not bragging," said Jin Suanzi. Then, he told us a strange event that happened to him when he first arrived at Tianhe Village, to pass the dullness of traveling through the desert at night.

  Jin Suanzi said that he was an orphan from a young age, and at the age of 7 or 8, he was taken in as an apprentice by Beijing's master craftsman Ci Wang Li, where he learned the skills of identifying porcelain and making Western-style ceramics. After Ci Wang Li passed away without leaving behind a successor, Jin Suanzi took over the shop. In his youth, Jin Suanzi relied on his exceptional skill at creating fake antiques to make a name for himself in Beijing, getting to know people like Pangzi and his gang, and even got involved in some shady dealings. Later, he met his current wife from Xinjiang.

  Jin Suo had no relatives since he was a child. After setting up a family with a Xinjiang girl, they were very loving and treated his wife's parents as his own parents. He abandoned the prosperous Beijing and moved to Urumqi, starting a tourism business in Tianhe Naha.

  His wife is called Guli, and his family is engaged in cattle and sheep breeding. When Jin Suanzi first arrived in Urumqi, he was not used to the climate here, but for the sake of having a home, he made an effort to adapt to life here. After living for half a month, he followed his father to learn how to herd cattle and sheep.

  Urumqi was in the midst of new construction, with buildings being repaired everywhere. The pastures for livestock breeding were very far away, and the men at home would take turns going there, switching every half month. Since Jinchazi had no experience, his father took him along for a month to a location 20 kilometers outside Urumqi on the grasslands. That piece of grassland was the largest pasture in the area, with its borders stretching into the desert. Modern scientists estimate that although this pasture is very large, if the speed of desertification cannot be slowed down, then in another hundred years, this pasture will be swallowed up by the desert.

  In the days of herding, they lived in simple tents, similar to Mongolian yurts. In the morning, they would drive the cattle and sheep out, and by around 4 pm, they would drive them back. To familiarize Jin Suanzi with the terrain, his father yelled at the cattle and sheep to walk further than usual that day. Jin Suanzi's father was a taciturn and honest man who felt it was awkward for the family to walk on the road without saying a word, so he found a topic to chat with his father about.

  He first talked about his own experiences in Beijing, but Father had been to few places and was very confused about Beijing, having no way of continuing the conversation with Jin Suanzi. In the end, Jin Suanzi simply started talking about the grasslands, and as soon as he mentioned the grasslands, Father became enthusiastic, talking from spring to winter, the four seasons, the changes in the grasslands, speaking with great fluency. Jin Suanzi saw an opening and vigorously pursued topics related to the grasslands, but unexpectedly, they ended up discussing the problem of desertification on the grasslands.

  Dad didn't have much culture and couldn't understand how the grassland could become a desert. Jin Suanzi explained it with scientific terms, but Dad still didn't agree. He had his own theory, so he told Jin Suanzi a legend about the grassland becoming a desert.

  Most people in Xinjiang believe in Islam, they think that all things return to the true lord, the Uyghurs call it Huda, and Huda is the master of all truth.

  Long ago, Hu Dajin appointed Gasha to manage the pasture. Gasha, being loyal, took good care of the pasture, and the cattle and sheep grew fat and strong, with lush grass and abundant water. After a long time, Gasha thought to himself: "Even without Hu Dajin, I can still take good care of this pasture." Hu Dajin sensed this and became very angry, saying to Gasha: "From now on, this pasture will gradually be covered by yellow sand, the cattle and sheep will die from hunger, and the streams will dry up due to the scorching sun. I want you to transform into a thorny shrub, being bitten by snakes and scorpions, and worn down by wind and sand, until the desert is full of them before you can regain your human form."

  From then on, the grassland turned into a desert overnight, and Hu Daren left a pasture at the edge of the desert for human habitation.

  Jin Suanzi is a typical materialist, he just listened to the story, but his father's words were hung up, usually not many words, now the words are opened, like a flood, Jin Suanzi in order to please the old man, also followed the sky and earth to talk, as a result, accidentally delayed the time.

  The autumn of the grassland, it's dark at six o'clock, and the cows and sheep have entered the night. They are divided into several piles and sleep together. Jīn Suàn Zǐ and ā Bà spent a lot of effort to drive them to one place. At a glance, ā Bà found that something was wrong and said: "The sheep are missing."

  His father was very familiar with the sheep and could tell at a glance, but Jin Suanzi didn't notice anything wrong. There were more than 30 sheep, all black and densely packed together, how could you tell them apart? To confirm the number, the two of them lit torches and counted one by one in the dark. As a result, they found that three sheep were missing.

  Twenty years ago, three sheep were sold to support a family's living expenses for four months. When one of them was lost, Father was anxious and asked Jin Suanzi to drive the cattle and sheep back to the account first. He had to find the lost sheep back; otherwise, by dawn, the sheep would have gone wild outside for a day and could not be distinguished even if they entered other people's sheepfolds, and then they would be completely lost.

  Jin Suozi had just learned to ride a horse, let alone drive more than 30 sheep back home on the dark grassland. Although he didn't want to lose face in front of his father-in-law, this task was really too difficult for him. He couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't even lose all these sheep, so he had to swallow his pride and explain the situation.

  His father thought about it and felt that was indeed the case, so he didn't force Jin Suanzi to hurry back home with the sheep. He said to Jin Suanzi: "By the time you find the sheep and get back, it will be late anyway, so just spend the night here."

  Dad is an old hand, he only needs to whistle when driving sheep. The sheep are familiar with the whistle and will follow wherever it goes. Dad says: "The scattered lone sheep, hearing the calls of the flock, will run over on their own." Jin Suan holds up a torch to light the way, along the way, the calls of cattle and sheep rise and fall, the two of them walked for a whole hour, but still didn't see any sign of a lone sheep.

  "This is something that has never happened before. Father looked into the distance with a worried expression and said, 'I'm afraid it's been caught by the grass cutter.'"

  Jin Suanzi found it strange and said, "This... grass can still eat sheep?" He originally wanted to say that it was nonsense, but when speaking to his father-in-law, he had to be more polite, so he chose his words carefully and asked this question.

  "Dad said: 'Look, if you go further forward, the grass will grow into the sand and it's the edge of the desert. After Gaxi becomes a blade of grass, the resentment is very strong. Under the blade of grass in the sand, there are many blade ghosts. When the blade ghosts are hungry, they eat whatever they encounter.'"

  Jin Su thought it was a bit funny, but seeing Ah Dad's worried expression, he said: "You've also had a long day, why not set up camp here first, I'll go ahead and search for a while longer. If we really can't find anything, then there's nothing we can do."

  Ah, Father sighed heavily as he too had grown old and was getting tired, so he stopped to rest with the sheep. Jin Suanzi drove five sheep forward, but they were also tired and wanted to lie down after walking a short distance. Jin Suanzi whipped them with his whip, and the sheep bleated pitifully, their "baa" sounds trembling in the wind, which was somewhat heartbreaking.

  He held the torch and searched around for a big half circle, his feet had already stepped into the desert. There were many grasses here, but if he went further forward, even the grasses couldn't be seen. Jin Suanzi thought: That sheep wouldn't be so stupid either, it wouldn't walk into the desert by itself, and there was no grass in the desert.

  The grass was bitter and dry, and the sheep wouldn't eat it. Even a novice like Jin Suanzi knew that cows and sheep wouldn't run into the desert on their own. He sighed, rubbed his nose, and prepared to give up, thinking: This time he would be scolded by Gu Li again. The first time he herded sheep, he lost three of them. Thinking of his father-in-law's furrowed brow, Jin Suanzi felt anxious and flustered. Just as the torches were burning out, Jin Suanzi was about to drive the five sheep to meet up with his dad, when suddenly, at what seemed like the end of the flames, he thought he saw a sheep.

  Jin Suo was overjoyed, raised the torch high and squinted to look, it was indeed a sheep, but it was quite far away, and unexpectedly ran into the desert.

  "Stupid beast, go to the desert and gnaw on sand, it's not like you'll get any fatter!" He cursed, then hastily held up his torch and headed deep into the desert. The boundary between the desert and the grassland was quite different due to geographical reasons. Some areas had hard earth with a thin layer of sand on top, while others were deep sand as soon as one left the grassland. According to scientists, this difference was caused by varying underground heat.

  Dad thinks that the hard earth and thin sand are because the grassland is gradually defeating the desert. Of course, Jin Suanzi has no way to persuade Dad, and he doesn't even plan to try. Rushing to the location where the sheep are with one foot deep and one foot shallow, Jin Suanzi feels that something is off, this seems not to be his own sheep.

  This sheep is too thin, it can almost be said to be skin and bones.

  The snow-white wool looked beautiful in the firelight, but its body was too thin. Jin Su had already walked to within a meter of the sheep, which didn't seem to notice at all. People say that sheep are sensitive, but this one seemed stupid.

  Jin Suo kicked with his foot, ready to wake up the sheep, but as a result of kicking, he kicked something hard, like a bone.

  Strange, how is there no flesh at all?

  Jin Suanzi hastily took a step forward, bent down to take a look, and suddenly felt that the goosebumps on his body had all stood up. He saw that this sheep, its four hooves were all stuck in the sand, but the flesh under its skin seemed to have been gnawed away, leaving only a layer of sheepskin clinging to its bones. As Jin Suanzi looked down, he was face to face with the sheep's face, which was hanging downwards, and it looked particularly terrifying in the firelight.

  Jin Suo was startled, how did this sheep become like this?

  At this time, he found that there was an iron ring on the sheep's ear, wasn't this the mark of his own sheep? Hadn't he lost a sheep before?

  Jin Suanzi felt a chill run down his spine, and was just about to turn back when he suddenly heard a rustling sound in his ears. At the same time, he noticed that the grass on the ground seemed to be moving, as if it were going to come out of the earth. Jin Suanzi took a step back in fright, remembering what his father-in-law had said earlier. With only himself left in the dark desert, he felt a little timid and turned around to run away. The five sheep on the edge of the grassland also seemed to have been startled, bleating and running wildly in all directions.

  Jin Suanzi was afraid that the sheep would run away and lose them, so he shouted: "You beasts, be quiet!" The sheep, of course, wouldn't listen to him, and soon they ran out of sight. Jin Suanzi stomped his foot in anxiety. He had earned a lot of money in Beijing and didn't care about the sheep, but it was different for his father-in-law. These sheep were his father-in-law's lifeblood, and now he had lost five more. His father-in-law would be furious!

  Just as Jin was regretting not having fallen, he suddenly heard a mournful and piercing cry, the sound of a sheep being slaughtered alive, a very heart-piercing voice.

  When did the sheep run behind itself?

  Jin Suozi quickly turned around, only to see a sheep that had somehow run into the sand, its four hooves seemingly fixed in place, stuck firmly in the sand and unable to move, while its body was shaking violently.

  At the same time, the sand suddenly formed a line, as if something was crawling underneath. At the same time, the sheep let out a miserable cry and fell to the ground, its skin also suddenly becoming soft, just like the one they had discovered earlier.

  What is under the sand?

  Just as Jin Suanzi was sweating, the fine lines in the sand suddenly began to move towards him, getting closer and closer. It wasn't until then that Jin Suanzi realized his feet were still stuck in the sand. He hastily ran onto the grass, and those fine lines immediately softened upon reaching the edge of the grass, the sand returning to its original flatness, as if nothing had happened at all.

  Jin Suozi said up to here, looking at us two, said: "At that time I thought, could it be that the legend of Hu Dade is true?"

  "Fatty cursed in a hurry: 'In the middle of the night, I thought you could tell a story about the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden, but instead you're talking about all sorts of ghosts and monsters. Are you intentionally trying to scare Comrade Xiao Wu? What's on your mind.'"

  Jin Suozi led the way ahead, saying: "I see that Little Wu is listening with relish, but you're the one who's been scared, aren't you, Fatty? After all these years, you're still timid." I found this remark interesting and asked, "What do you mean, was Fatty really timid in the past?"

  Chubby became anxious as soon as he heard, saying: "Tianzhen, why are you following this golden retriever and barking loudly? Chubby me can catch phoenix in the sky, capture dragons in the sea, even zongzi would call out 'grandfather' when they see me..."

  Fatso didn't even finish speaking, and was directly ignored by Jin Suanzi. Jin Suanzi laughed and said: "Little Wu, you're too young. When this fat guy was as young as you, he had just come down from the arena. You haven't seen how timid he was back then. His mother... I'm telling you, at that time, we..."

  Fatso heard that the old bottom was about to be shaken out, and he hurriedly shouted at the camel to move forward. Sitting on the camel, he kicked Jin Suanzi with one foot and scolded: "Jin Maohou, what kind of heart do you have? Who hasn't had a cowardly period in their youth? You dare to shoot your mouth off again, I'll shake out all the broken things from your past. It's just bragging about stories, Fatso can brag more than you."

  I saw that fatty was really furious, and I was both curious and amused. So I said to Jin Suanzi: "Let's stop here for now. As for this fatty's cowardly behavior, we can discuss it privately when we have time."

  Jin Suanzi smiled, showing a row of white teeth, and said: "Alright, when the time comes, I'll invite you to eat authentic roasted whole lamb, and we can chat while eating."

  The fat man was furious and kicked our camels, causing them to suddenly sprint across the desert. Jin Suanzi quickly regained control of his camel, but I had only just learned how to ride a camel and this sudden burst of speed nearly shook my intestines out. Jin Suanzi chased after me, shouting instructions on how to tame the camel, and it took me half a day to finally calm down.

  The two of us took turns launching a psychological attack on fatty, and fatty couldn't take it anymore, so he apologized to get out of the situation.

  As I listened to Jin's words, I suddenly felt that this desert trip might not be too smooth. Subconsciously, I glanced at the sand under my feet, a vast expanse of blackness, which seemed vague and obscure in the weak light of the flashlight, and farther away, it was completely dark.

  Next we chatted and gossiped all the way, riding camels on the road. At night, there was always wind, and at first, I would pat the sand grains on my body, but later I got lazy and didn't care. When we had been traveling in the dark for nearly four hours, after crossing a sand dune, a patch of orange-yellow flames appeared not far away.