The north wind fiercely swept across Lop Nur and the Gobi Desert to its west.

Sand and small stones were carried by the wind, flying all over the sky, making a rustling sound. The air was filled with a choking smell of dust.

The sky was dyed orange. This was the strongest desert storm after the black storm. It wasn't terrifyingly inaccessible. There were still expeditions that would risk going deep into Lop Nur to explore the unknown mysteries.

A five-member domestic expedition team was struggling to walk through the yellow sand. The sand was hitting their goggles. They were fully armed with hats, masks, goggles, scarves, gloves, and storm suits. Even though they were wrapped tightly, wind and sand kept pouring into their clothes.

"Captain... how long until we get back to the camp?"

The person walking at the front of the team didn't seem to hear.

That person walked quickly against the wind, catching up with the person at the head of the team whom he called the captain. He raised his voice and shouted, "Captain!"

The captain heard his call and turned back to ask, "What? What did you say?"

The sound was quickly drowned out by the rolling sand.

"Captain, when can we get back to the camp? How much longer do we have to walk?"

The captain, afraid he wouldn't hear, answered with all his strength, "A dozen minutes more. Everyone, hang in there! We'll be at the camp soon."

Encouraged by the captain, everyone regrouped and trudged forward through the yellow sand.

After walking for a while, the captain suddenly made a gesture to stop.

"What's wrong, Captain?"

The captain pointed to a sand dune not far away and said, "Look, is that a person?"

The team members wiped their goggles and looked in the direction the captain indicated. There was indeed something there, but they couldn't be sure if it was a person.

"In this sandstorm, someone wouldn't be lost in the desert, would they?" one of the team members said.

The captain said, "We can't be sure. Let's go take a look."

Reaching the suspicious object, everyone found that it was indeed a person.

This person was kneeling on the yellow sand, with their head lowered. Their clothes were tattered, their hair was messy, and they had been blown by the wind and sand until they were unrecognizable. They had only one shoe on their foot; the other shoe was nowhere to be found.

"This person isn't dead, is he?" a team member said in a low voice.

The captain took off his glove and reached out to feel the person's neck pulse. He said, "The pulse is very weak, but they're still alive."

"Hey! Can you hear me?"

The captain shook the kneeling person and shouted loudly.

The kneeling person gave him no response.

The captain shouted again, but the person still didn't react.

The captain judged that this person might be unconscious, so he shouted to a team member behind him, "Xiao Ma, bring the folding stretcher. We'll drag him back."

"Okay!"

Xiao Ma responded and took a folding stretcher from his backpack. With a pull and a lift of the canvas surface, a simple drag-type stretcher was restored.

Everyone moved the person onto the stretcher, secured it with straps, and prepared to pull it towards the camp.

At this moment, a team member noticed something. He grabbed the captain's arm and said, "Captain, there seems to be something else under the sand!"

The captain swiped his hand over the sand, and it seemed like something was buried under the sand. He immediately took out a folding engineer shovel from his bag and shoveled the sand a few times where the person had been kneeling.

A human hand was revealed.

The captain accelerated his shoveling speed. The outline of a person under the sand appeared. It was a long-haired woman, who looked only twenty years old. Purple ecchymosis of livor mortis had already appeared on her body. The captain still reluctantly felt the woman's neck pulse—there was no heartbeat. Considering all the circumstances, this woman had been dead for a long time.

The person on the stretcher was still unconscious. They currently had no idea what had happened or why this woman was buried under the yellow sand.

The wind and sand were getting stronger, and they couldn't stay here any longer. So, the captain made a decisive decision, made a marker at the place where the female corpse was found, and then led the team members, dragging the unconscious person, left the scene, and walked towards the camp.

The group finally returned to the camp smoothly. Fortunately, the camp was not affected by the wind and sand, and the tents and other facilities were still intact. They crawled into the tents to avoid the oncoming wind and sand.

The satellite phone had no signal, and the expedition team had no way to contact the outside world.

Night quickly fell on the camp. The wind and sand outside the tent rustled against the tents of the camp. The five members of the expedition team huddled together, not daring to fall asleep easily. They gave the rescued person some water and fed them some pasty food, but he still didn't wake up.

The wind and sand stopped in the second half of the night, and everyone spent a tense and long night.

The next day, as soon as the sun came out, the captain began to check the communication equipment. After a morning of repairs, the communication equipment finally returned to normal, and the captain immediately set about contacting the outside world.

"Hello! Police station? Can you hear me?"

The communication equipment seemed to have a bad signal and always made a crackling sound, and the voice could not be heard clearly.

The captain then moved outside the tent and re-initiated the call: "Help, help, I am an expedition team, we have encountered a problem and need help."

"This is the command post, please speak."

Thank goodness, the call finally went through.

The captain told the command post about their discovery in the desert and their coordinates. The command post told them to wait patiently and that they would immediately send a search and rescue team to find them.

About an hour later, the police and search and rescue personnel arrived at their camp. The expedition team leader told the police and search and rescue personnel the whole story of what happened yesterday.

The unconscious person who was found was first sent out of the desert and taken to the hospital for treatment.

The police and the search and rescue team followed the several members of the expedition team to find the place where the corpse was found yesterday. They crossed several kilometers of desert area and searched for the markers they had set in hundreds of square kilometers of desert, but to no avail.

The expedition team leader wondered, "I clearly remember it was near here."

Other expedition team members also corroborated, proving the truthfulness of the captain's words.

The search and rescue team questioned, "Could it be that the marker was blown away by the wind and sand?"

Although the expedition team leader didn't want to admit this result, there was no other explanation at the moment.

A member of the search and rescue team patted the expedition team leader on the shoulder and said, "Every year, explorers go missing in the desert. No matter how hard we search, we can't find them. Perhaps they have been buried under the yellow sand of the desert. Maybe future explorers will find them. It all depends on fate."

All the clues were tied to the unconscious person. Once that unconscious person woke up, all the questions would be answered.