Chen Professor continued introducing the history of Loulan to Fatty and Rou Yi:

"Loulan gradually declined after the Former Liang Dynasty of the Western Jin."

"In the twelfth year of Jianyuan in the Former Qin Dynasty, 376 AD, after the Former Qin destroyed the Former Liang, the Western Regions Chief History Office withdrew from Loulan City, and the soldiers stationed in Loulan to cultivate farmland successively withdrew. Around the end of the fourth century, Loulan City was finally abandoned."

"Later, in the early 20th century, during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, foreign explorers discovered the ruins of an ancient city in the western Lop Nur. After excavation, it was determined to be the ancient city of Loulan. In the following thirty years, Western scholars conducted archaeological excavations in the Lop Nur wilderness and Loulan, causing huge disasters to the relevant remains, and a large number of cultural relics were lost overseas."

"It wasn't until 1979 to 1988 that domestic organizations began to investigate the Loulan ruins. I was fortunate enough to participate in one of the archaeological missions."

Speaking of the loss of cultural relics, Professor Chen sighed with emotion and was very regretful.

Professor Chen also told Fatty some of his previous archaeological experiences in the Loulan ruins. Fatty listened with great interest, as if he were listening to a story.

Professor Chen's students were also listening to Professor Chen's past archaeological experiences for the first time. They each wrapped their blankets tightly and listened carefully to Professor Chen's story of scientific investigation back then.

The campfire flickered, the cold wind was biting, and everyone gradually fell asleep in exhaustion. No one arranged for a night watch, and no one realized that the danger in the desert was quietly approaching.

In the middle of the night.

Rou Yi was awakened by a burst of noise. When she woke up, she found that almost everyone else was awake. Fatty had already loaded his gun and stood in front of everyone in a defensive posture.

Rou Yi quietly asked Liu Xiaojuan beside her, "What's going on?"

Liu Xiaojuan shook her head, saying she didn't know and that she was also awakened by the others.

Rou Yi walked behind Fatty and looked in the direction he was guarding. It was pitch black and she couldn't see anything.

The place where Fatty and the others were located was the outer edge of the ancient city. The yin wind whistled from the depths of the desert.

Professor Chen, Duan Pengfei, and Fatty were the first three to wake up. They knew what was happening, while Rou Yi and Professor Chen's students, who woke up later, didn't know what was happening. They could only hide behind Fatty and wait for his instructions.

Rou Yi couldn't help but ask Fatty, "What's going on?"

Fatty stared straight ahead into the darkness and said, "There's a situation, but we don't know what it is yet."

Fatty didn't specify what was happening in front of them, but judging from his nervous reaction, they might have really encountered a very tricky problem.

Fatty made a gesture to the crowd to retreat: "Retreat into the ancient city ruins, find cover, and preserve the fire."

Duan Pengfei quickly picked up two burning dead branches from the fire, and the other students also packed up their belongings, preparing to go into the ancient city. The camels had disappeared.

At this moment, a whistling gale suddenly blew in from the desert, stirring up sand and dust, causing several people to stagger and unable to open their eyes.

Accompanying the gale, there was also a mournful and eerie scream from the distant desert, sounding like the cries of demons in mythology.

Although Fatty had already prepared himself mentally, he was still frightened by the shrill sound and broke out in a cold sweat. Several students were so frightened by the terrifying sound that their thighs trembled and they couldn't stand steadily. Liu Xiaojuan was so frightened that she burst into tears. Fatty quickly covered Liu Xiaojuan's mouth and made a gesture of silence, reminding her not to make a sound. Under Fatty's reminder, Liu Xiaojuan gradually restrained her crying and slowly calmed down.

The wind grew stronger and stronger, and the sound became more and more mournful. It seemed to be mixed with human voices of various tones, such as low roars, high cries, and sighs, as if it were the cries of survivors struggling and screaming under rolling wheels. To say that this wind was the voice of a demon would be a bit of an embellishment.

The crowd ran to the back of a collapsed stone wall in the ancient city. Duan Pengfei threw everything he could burn into the almost extinguished flames, and the flames leaped up again.

The mournful sound behind the stone wall continued. The strong wind rolled up fine sand and hit the stone wall, making a crackling sound as if ghosts were knocking on the wall. Because the camels were missing, most of the food, water, and tools were lost with the camels.

Fatty thought that Professor Chen was knowledgeable, so he asked Professor Chen, "Professor Chen, what's going on with the strange noises in this desert?"

Professor Chen was also a little flustered at this time. He tremblingly took out a handkerchief and wiped the cold sweat that had just appeared on his forehead, and said, "I know that there is a unique wind erosion landform three kilometers southeast of Wu'erhe Township in Karamay City. Due to wind and rain erosion, the ground has formed deep and shallow gullies, and the exposed rock layers have been carved into strange shapes by the strong wind. On the undulating hills, the inner city is located at the mouth of the wind, and there are strong winds in all seasons. Whenever a strong wind strikes, the yellow sand covers the sky, and the strong wind stirs and whirls in the wind city, whistling mournfully, like a ghost crying, so people call it the Ghost City."

"But—" Professor Chen continued, "the sound in the Ghost City is different from the sound here. The sound in the Ghost City is made by the wind echoing in the city, but the sound here comes from the vast desert."

Duan Pengfei put forward his own opinion: "Could it be the 'singing sand' phenomenon, which is the sound produced when the upper moving sand particles rub against the lower fixed sand layer as the sand flows?"

Professor Chen nodded: "It may also be this phenomenon."

The shrill howling outside the stone wall made everyone panic. Even if they already knew in their hearts that this might be some kind of physical phenomenon, they still felt that the sound was terrifying and eerie. Everyone huddled together, comforting and accompanying each other.

"It's bad!"

Liu Kailin, who hadn't said much, suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "It's over! It's over! It's over! My camera is left outside."

Fatty rolled his eyes at the kid, thinking that it was just a camera, was it worth making such a fuss over!

Wang Tienan comforted him from the side: "It's just a camera... What's the big deal..."

Liu Kailin didn't hear a word of what Wang Tienan said. He was一心 (yixin - wholeheartedly) thinking about getting the camera back, but he didn't dare to. He looked at Fatty pitifully.

Of course, Fatty knew what this kid was up to, but he wouldn't fall for it. Fatty thought to himself, you want me to get it for you, you must be dreaming.

Seeing that Fatty was unmoved, Liu Kailin turned his attention to Duan Pengfei. He looked at Duan Pengfei and said anxiously, "This camera has taken a lot of video data on this archaeological journey. We will need this camera to record image data when we enter Lop Nur later. If it is lost, the record of the work will be incomplete."

Fatty rolled his eyes at the kid, thinking that his life was almost gone and he was still thinking about scientific research. He must have been kicked in the head by a donkey.