After the rest of the rescue team came to their senses, a cloud of despondency settled over them. Finding themselves cut off from food at the midpoint of crossing the uninhabited zone — enduring the hunger itself was not the worst of it. The real question was: how long would they have to endure it? What had begun as an act of goodwill, rescuing another person, had been turned — by Ye Xun’s betrayal — into a survival game in which they had to rescue themselves. Without GPS or any other positioning equipment, getting lost would be catastrophic.

“What is Ye Xun actually trying to accomplish? Is he trying to take sole credit for finding Zou Kaigui?”

“That drug hit hard — my head is still pounding. I think he planned all along to run the moment Zou Kaigui was found.”

“Whoever reaches the media first controls the narrative. Overturning his version of events will take enormous effort on our part!”

“All that talk of being a charitable entrepreneur — and then this backstabbing!”

When the darkest aspects of human nature erupt on a large scale, suspicion and wariness spread between people — and that, more than the lack of food, is truly terrifying. As the leader of the rescue team, Diao Zhuo absolutely could not allow another Ye Xun to emerge among them.

“A single tree does not make a forest. Ye Xun setting off alone is itself a form of danger. We, on the other hand, may have lost our food supply, but we hold an absolute advantage in numbers and in outdoor survival experience.” Diao Zhuo stood before the remaining group, his expression grave as he looked each person in the eye. “We’re a bunch of grown adults — going hungry for two or three days is nothing—”

At that, he seemed to catch himself, and glanced over at Ba Yunye. She showed no sign of displeasure — if anything, she seemed in complete agreement.

Good. Master Ba is a true soldier.

“Now. We do three things. First, each person checks whether they have any remaining loose food on them. Second, look for any remnants of last night’s food and set them aside to be tested. Third, take turns reading through Zou Kaigui’s diary to find out the real purpose behind Ye Xun sending him to cross the uninhabited zone. The two who were originally going to stay here will now come with us. Master Ba leads the group — we give everything we have, support each other, and get out of the uninhabited zone as fast as possible. If we can catch up to Ye Xun, even better.”

He Ma, burning with indignation, said: “Find him, and I’ll beat him half to death.”

Diao Zhuo pressed his hand down slightly, signaling He Ma to rein in his fury. “If he were an ordinary civilian, I wouldn’t think twice about relieving him of an arm. But we are a rescue team — ideally, everyone makes it out alive. Him included.”

Ba Yunye and He Ma immediately began rummaging through the vehicles. They turned up a few lollipops and an opened bag of dried mango. She handed He Ma a lollipop; he popped it straight into his mouth. She held out the dried mango — He Ma waved it off. She smacked herself on the forehead. Right — he was allergic to mango.

What the others found amounted to even less: in total, two half-empty bags of compressed biscuits and three chocolate bars — likely things that had fallen out when Ye Xun was making off with the bulk of their food supplies.

“Ye Xun carted off the food supply for seven or eight people over several days — is he trying to eat himself to death?” Ba Yunye muttered under her breath to He Ma.

“When you’re going alone, more is always better.” He Ma sucked on his lollipop and sighed.

What she hadn’t anticipated was that the rescue team members, one after another, walked over to her with the meager scraps they’d managed to find and pressed it all into her hands — the meaning unmistakable: they could go without. Everything went to her.

Ba Yunye was not someone who cried easily, but in that moment something stirred in her chest and her eyes went hot — she nearly let the tears fall. Fortunately the wind was strong and the air dry, and the heat evaporated before it could spill over. She drew a long breath and pressed the feeling down.

From this moment on, every single one of these people was her sworn brother!

“What are you all doing — making it sound like some tearful farewell.” She waved her hand as though it were nothing, her tone deliberately breezy. “We don’t have to waste time wandering all over the place looking for anyone now. Heading straight out won’t take long. I’ll be honest with you — back before regulations got stricter, I drove this route. I know the way. Master Ba is a living map — GPS or no GPS, it makes no difference. From here to the junction of the east-west and north-south routes is 250 kilometers; to Amdo County in the Nagqu region, it’s just over 400. Don’t worry — the drivers at the Condor Club have never led a client into a dead end. Unless the client refuses to listen, or goes off on their own and takes risks. And besides, your team leader Diao Zhuo has spent years out in the wilderness — without even a compass, he could guide you out of here on his own. Nothing to worry about!”

Her words visibly lifted the spirits of the group, who had been quite downcast — suddenly it seemed that, apart from the hunger, nothing too terrible lay ahead.

“And if the worst somehow does come to pass—” Ba Yunye delivered the finishing stroke, “—in eighteen years, we’ll each be reborn as a hero all over again.”

The group promptly wilted back into gloom.

“Hey, brothers — think about our elders on the Long March, crossing snow mountains and marshlands, enemies blocking the road ahead and soldiers in pursuit from behind, nothing but straw sandals and their own two legs to rely on. We haven’t gotten to the point of eating leather boots and belts yet, so we can’t call this hardship.” Ba Yunye stood with both hands on her hips, adopting the manner of a military officer delivering a motivational speech — then pivoted sharply and pointed at Diao Zhuo. “Just to be safe, I’m putting in my claim on Team Leader Diao’s belt. Nobody else even think about it.”

Diao Zhuo rested a hand on his belt. “Don’t tempt me to take it off and use it on you right now.”

“So you’re into that kind of thing…” Ba Yunye’s eyes lit up. “I can reluctantly cooperate, if necessary.”

The group stared on in collective speechlessness — but just like that, every trace of anxiety had been swept away.

“How about we sing a song!” Ba Yunye clapped her hands twice, her mind drifting back to countless sing-off nights in the military. “Ready — go! Unity is strength! Unity is strength!”

The abruptness of those bellowing notes was such that even the marmots in the distance dove into their burrows in alarm, evidently convinced that some alien creature entirely beyond their understanding had descended upon the wilderness.

She belted out two lines and found herself singing alone. Embarrassed, she stomped her foot. “Why won’t any of you join in? This is exactly the moment to sing a couple of lines and fire up the spirit — how else are we going to charge out of the uninhabited zone in one breath?!”

“Master Ba, you remind me of my university military training instructor,” Da Qin sputtered, breaking into a laugh.

Xiang’an nodded, still wearing that devoted expression of his. “If Master Ba were our instructor, I definitely would not fake a nosebleed to get out of training.”

Ba Yunye ignored their wisecracks. When morale was what mattered most, it was the spirit of the group that counted above all else. She narrowed her eyes and summoned a truly commanding severity. “Again! From the chest and the gut — give it everything! Ready — go! Unity is strength!”

Xiang’an cupped both hands over his mouth, and a sudden percussive beat came out. The kid could beatbox.

With that accompaniment, the sparse, scattered voices suddenly snapped into alignment. Everyone thought: the dishonest one is already gone, the food is already gone — what face is left to save?

That morning, beneath a boundless blue sky, in the vast and quiet expanse of the uninhabited zone, a chorus of ragged, full-throated voices surged up one after another — absurd and yet, somehow, deeply sincere.

Unity is strength!

Unity is strength!

This strength is iron, this strength is steel!

Harder than iron, stronger than steel!

Open fire upon the fascists!

Let every undemocratic system perish!

Toward the sun, toward freedom,

Toward New China, let a ten-thousand-fold light shine forth!

Diao Zhuo watched her. It was her particular, unconventional way of rallying them that had eased the tension in the air — and with it, brought back a flicker of hope.

Better than her singing Qin opera, at least.

She glanced over and caught him looking, then let out a soft laugh. “Fallen for me?”

“Thinking about it.” Diao Zhuo said it without hesitation.

If only she weren’t quite so… brazen.

But before the thought had even settled, she swapped out the word:

“Thinking about getting me?”

Damn it all — this woman was incorrigible.

Meanwhile, Ge Mingliang had managed, through a contact, to track down another key figure. Long Ge was currently hauling a bag of fruit up a staircase, beset once again by the thought — one that surfaced countless times — that he really needed to go on a diet as soon as he got back. But then he’d press his hand against the layered rolls of flesh around his middle and the resolution would promptly retreat. Coastal cities were humid and sweltering; truth be told, his favorite climate was Yunnan’s — cool in winter, mild in summer, with mountains and rivers in abundance. When he was too old to move around, he’d find a small village in Yunnan to settle down in. Though — would he even live to see that day?

He reached the sixth floor, panting and breathless, and found himself genuinely at a loss to imagine it: a retired police officer who’d been off the force for ten years, and he still hadn’t moved somewhere with an elevator?

“So you’re the Renlong that young Hou mentioned to me…”

“Just call me A Long.”

He Xiang himself opened the door — a lean, spare man of seventy. They exchanged a few pleasantries. Long Ge learned he had been diagnosed with cancer at forty; fortunately it had been caught early, the affected tissue removed, and he had survived to this day — just perpetually thin, no matter what he ate.

Long Ge felt even less inclined to lose weight after hearing that. Being able to eat and put on weight was its own kind of fortune.

“I never imagined anyone would still come knocking after all these years, asking about Zou Xiaowen’s case.” He Xiang half-reclined in his armchair. His abilities had been middling, but he had served on the force for over thirty years and handled countless cases; with a brief effort of recollection, he could still give a reasonable account.

“This girl may have had cerebral palsy, but that didn’t make her stupid. She had difficulty walking, but she could call out and make a fuss — it would have been impossible to spirit her away from the courtyard without anyone noticing. Even taking a step back: a trafficker, thinking of profit, wouldn’t go to the trouble of taking a child like her — that was what struck us as wrong about the whole thing back then.” He fanned himself slowly, with the unhurried air of someone who had long since made peace with the world. A lifetime spent as a grassroots officer, and by retirement he was still just a section-level clerk — coasting along had left him with this detached, almost philosophical manner.

“And no more conclusive evidence was ever found,” Long Ge said with a calm acceptance.

He Xiang smiled without speaking. Without evidence, no matter how elaborate your theory, forget the People’s Court — you couldn’t even get past the procuratorate.

“No surveillance footage, no witnesses, and truthfully, cases of children being taken from that village had occurred before… There’s something I’m not sure I should say — but for Zou Xiaowen, it was a devastating misfortune; for Zou Kaigui, it was the perfect alignment of circumstance and opportunity.”

“I understand.” Long Ge’s gaze grew heavy.

“I investigated Zou Tongui. Apparently the two of them went out fishing together that day. The story goes that the wind and waves picked up, so they came back early.”

“Oh?” Long Ge, who had been on the verge of wrapping up the visit and taking his leave, sat back down.

“Zou Kaigui wired money to him every year — two thousand in the early years, then after a falling-out between them, it went up to three thousand.” He Xiang pointed to his lips. “They kept their mouths shut tight — couldn’t pry them open. By then I was nearly at retirement age, and the whole thing eventually fizzled out — truly because there was simply no evidence.”

Long Ge thought: probably, the only people left in the world who knew the full story were the Zou brothers. It all came down to whether Ba Yunye could find Zou Kaigui this time around. Come to think of it — she hadn’t sent him a safety check-in last night. Whether that was a good sign or a bad one, or perhaps the beginning of a turning point, he couldn’t say.

Ba Yunye had earlier filled up on fresh water at a small pool nearby — not the cleanest, but after heating and letting the sediment settle, it would do. With all communications cut off, she hadn’t been able to send Long Ge a check-in the night before, but he knew what she was capable of; he wouldn’t let himself spiral into worry.

She would never lead her clients into a dead end — not for the sake of her future business, and not for the sake of Long Ge, the man who had given her her start.

As the vehicles pressed on, the towering ridges of the snow mountains grew more distant, and finally vanished entirely from view. The gravel-strewn earth, dotted with clumps of low grass, kept the vehicles jolting and lurching. On either side of the tire-tracked dirt road, the ground had long since been cracked open by the sun — white crystalline salt lay embedded in the fissures, crunching and splintering under the wheels. Small streams fed by melting ice and snow ran brown and murky, with the rotting, broken remnants of animal carcasses drifting here and there across the surface.

Da Qin was at the wheel, giving Diao Zhuo a chance to read carefully through Zou Kaigui’s diary. Several passages in particular gave him pause —

No support, no resupply along the way. Is it really worth taking this kind of risk — all for a fabrication?

There’s no way I’ll ever find Xiao Wen. How is this going to end?

Only seven days in and I’ve already encountered Tibetan antelopes — just a few of them, though. If I can make it through, the “Heaven and Earth” task will be complete, and I’ll be able to collect two payments.

Ran into a wolf pack. They didn’t dare touch me. Wolves are afraid of wicked men too!

An encounter with Tibetan antelopes — that’s what Ye Xun’s scheme is built around. But how difficult it must have been to chart a route that avoided all the checkpoints and nature reserve stations — and with patrols on top of that. How was the route planned?

Last night I dreamed of Xiao Wen. Father has wronged you in this lifetime, but there is no other way!

I’ve lost control of my food intake — and I’ve only covered a third of the distance. I can’t complete Ye Xun’s task. As for the “Heaven Lake” task — forget it! No need for the money either. Starting tomorrow, I’ll turn back.

Diao Zhuo closed the diary, his brow deeply furrowed. Zou Kaigui had believed that by successfully completing the crossing, he would receive two separate payments — one from Ye Xun, and one from another unnamed party. Who was that other backer? What did his crossing have to do with the Tibetan antelopes? And between the two of them — Zou Kaigui and Ye Xun — which one was the one with designs on the antelopes?