I must interact with them in the image of Zhao Chenguang, or the "young master" in their memories.

It's quite tiring, actually.

But I have to conceal, have to pretend, have to hide the purpose of this trip beneath the facade of Zhao Chenguang.

I have to admit that my (or rather, Zhao Chenguang's) feelings for Rouyi, Fatty, and Han Yu have never changed.

I must continue to hide my other side until I find the ultimate answer pointed to by the poem in the rubbing.

It was pitch black all around. In the vast desert, only the flickering fire in front of us swayed. The wind and sand blew, and Jennifer and Rouyi fell asleep one after another. Fatty and Dodge were also too sleepy to keep their eyes open, so I let Fatty and Dodge go to sleep first.

Fatty told me to wake him up in the second half of the night to keep watch.

I knew that as long as the feeling of unease didn't appear, we would be safe, so I fell asleep without calling him.

...

A night passed.

"Damn it, Young Master! Young Master!"

Early in the morning, I was shaken awake by Fatty.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and asked Fatty, "Ugh... what's wrong?"

"Why didn't you wake me up to keep watch?"

Fatty's tone revealed a hint of complaint.

I stretched and replied lazily, "Hey, it's safe here, there's no problem, you can rest assured."

"But my young master, our camels are gone."

Fatty looked at me, dejected, like a deflated ball.

I immediately understood the source of Fatty's complaint. At the same time, I felt that Fatty was making a fuss. I laughed and said, "Don't worry, the camels won't go far. Didn't we tie them together last night? They probably went to forage."

"Forage?"

"Of course, the camels won't go far, and they haven't been gone for long. If we look carefully, we can definitely find their hoofprints."

After hearing my explanation, Fatty's eyes lit up, and he quickly lay on the sand to look for the camels' hoofprints.

After a while, Fatty made a discovery, "Young Master! I found them! Damn, with this wind, the hoofprints on the desert are almost wiped out."

Following the camels' faint hoofprints, we finally found the camels eating desert plants on the back slope of a dune not far away.

The supplies and equipment on the camels were all there, nothing was missing. Fatty breathed a sigh of relief.

I patted Fatty on the shoulder, "I told you, I know what I'm doing."

We filled our stomachs, Fatty and Dodge re-calibrated their direction, and we set off again.

The sand sea was boundless, and the sun was scorching.

The camel caravan traveled all morning under the fiery red sun, not knowing how far they had gone.

Fatty kept observing the surrounding environment and the sand dunes along the way, trying his best to recall the route he had taken.

Fatty looked into the distance and spotted a strange, abrupt object not far away on the right side of our direction of travel.

Fatty immediately perked up and shouted, "Everyone, look! What is that?!"

The others, who were drowsy from the scorching sun, were awakened by Fatty's sudden outburst and became agitated.

"That looks like a small white mountain..."

Dodge shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand, squinting, trying to confirm whether what Fatty was looking at was just a mirage.

"Hey, I feel like that thing looks so familiar." Fatty smacked his lips and turned to Rouyi behind him. "Foreign miss, do you recognize it?"

Rouyi craned her neck and looked for a long time, but couldn't make heads or tails of it. She shook her head. "I can't see clearly. Maybe we can see it clearly when we get closer. You have to know, not everyone has eyesight as good as yours."

Fatty stroked his chin, glanced at me, and asked, "What should we do, Young Master? Should we go take a look?"

I didn't hesitate and immediately said to Fatty, "Since you think it's familiar, it means that this thing has appeared in your memory. Then let's go take a look. It doesn't look far, and it won't delay our journey."

So, we turned the caravan's direction of travel and began to head towards the white hill.

After about twenty minutes, we arrived in front of the white hill.

The white hill was a bow-shaped structure with a certain curvature. The so-called white was just a circle of white lines along the outer edge of the top of the hill. The hill itself was still a sand dune.

"Hiss, the more I look at it, the more familiar it seems. It's like I've seen this thing somewhere before."

Fatty scratched his head, searching his memory for clues about the white hill.

The wind blew on our exposed skin, and the sand hit our windbreakers, the crackling sound accompanying Fatty's thoughts.

It was so quiet all around that you could only hear the sound of the wind and the friction of the sand. It seemed that everyone and everything was waiting for the moment when Fatty announced the answer.