Pet King

Morale was one of the most important factors, whether it was for marching or fighting. It was impossible to win any battle with low morale.

Wei Kang also understood this logic and therefore did not plead for He He. He advised, “Xiao He, the conditions are really hard, but you should think about it. How many people can experience this? The situation is not so bad. You have just come to the wilderness and are currently not used to it. That is all. I have experienced difficult situations before, and I have endured them. With time, you will get used to it. After we get back, we will definitely have a great celebration.”

Gao Ke also chipped in. “Xiao He, you saw it too. The road conditions when entering the desert are very poor. Even if someone drives you out, you will be the only vehicle in the desert. What if the car breaks down? What if you roll the car? What will you do if you get lost? Who will save you? It is too dangerous! It’s safer to stay with everyone!”

They spoke with great reason and wisdom. He He was slightly convinced and managed to calm down a bit.

What had happened to car No. 10 was still vivid in her mind. A single car driving in the desert—it was highly dangerous. If nothing happened, that would be the best. If something indeed happened, she could only wait for death. That would be more problematic than following everyone and continuing on.

She tried to convince herself. “Just regard this experience like the military training when I first entered the university. I have to endure it, and after a while, it will be over. Although I did fake a stomachache trying to get out of it…”

“Okay, I understand. I will try to adapt and move forward with everyone.” She wiped her tears and gave in.

“Yeah, that’s right!”

Wei Kang heaved a sigh of relief as he turned his worries into joy. They had finally resolved the issue.

Many people also came around and expressed consolation and encouragement. They told her that there was nothing to worry about. As long as everyone was united, there was no difficulty that couldn’t be overcome.

Being surrounded and being the center of attention, He He felt a sense of security. She felt cared for. She could not help but feel a little happier.

Compared to He He, Zhang Zian and several other people were more interested in the skull buried in the sand. They circled around the sand tomb and pointed a flashlight at the skull.

The desert scorpion that had climbed out of the eye socket had already slipped back into the sand. However, no one was sure if there were any more cockroaches or other creatures left in it.

“How did this person die?” someone asked in English.

“I don’t know. There is no observable trauma on the skull, which means at least the person did not die from a blunt instrument,” the female Detective said as she left He He to come see the skull.

“Didn’t Nabari say that this is an ancient smuggling road? This is probably a poor smuggler who got sick in the desert, had no drinking water, got lost…the possibilities are endless,” someone said.

At that time, someone walked over and said, “Definitely not a smuggler.”

The crowd looked up, and it turned out to be Nabari.

Nabari took out his hookah, and his eyes stared at the skull through the lingering smoke from his pipe.

“If this is not a smuggler, who else could it be? Who would come to this godforsaken place?” someone asked.

“Maybe it’s a fool like us,” another person said while laughing at himself. It made everyone else laugh too.

Nabari didn’t smile. He said indifferently, “I have seen human remains more than once in the desert, but this skull looks different from our Bedouin skull.”

The laughter came to an abrupt halt.

No one doubted the observation and memory of the Bedouin guide. Otherwise they would be fools to follow the Bedouin into the desert.

This smuggling road had not necessarily been opened first by the Bedouins, but after the Bedouins came here, they had become the masters of this path and had been active on this path for at least a few hundred years. Many Bedouins had died on this path. If the remains were not of Bedouin origins, who might it be then? Perhaps it belonged to someone who’d come even earlier?

The man who called himself the Scholar on Peter Lee’s team, who drove car No. 5, also stood by and watched. He frowned upon hearing what Nabari said. It made him move closer to the skull. He asked to borrow the flashlight from the female Detective. He closely observed the outline of the skull. He gasped.

The Scholar said, “Mr. Nabari is right. This is the skull of a modern European male. If it was a skull called the Asian robust male, the arches where the eyebrows are would be thicker.”

Zhang Zian did not know what kind of occupation the Scholar had in real life, but going by the reactions of the others, who seemed convinced by his conclusions, he was not going to question further.

This was even more strange. What business did modern European men have in a remote place like this? Was it that a member of a scientific expedition team had been buried here?

According to common sense, even if a member of a scientific research team did die in the desert, his companion would not abandon his body like this. They would at least record the GPS coordinates, leave a conspicuous mark, and then return to pick up the body. It was the most basic and humane thing to do for a dead compatriot.

The other possibility may have been that his companion had come back to find it, but had not managed to do so as the sands shifted the position of the body. They had to return home empty-handed.

Wei Kang finished comforting He He and walked towards the group upon hearing them having a conversation. After listening for a while, he shook his head and said, “As far as I know, no scientific research team has come here. At least, no scientific research team that does biological research has been here… In my opinion, perhaps they were here for oil exploration?”

The Mediterranean man, known as the consul, had been smoking silently in the corner. At this time, he stepped on his cigarette butt, stood up, and said, “It’s better to dig up the body and see if you can find the other parts . Let’s look for clues! Come, everyone go to your car to get tools. We have nothing to do now anyway!”

Several people ran back to their cars, took out folding shovels, and began to dig up the sand around the body.

What had happened to He He was now in the past. The movements of these people had attracted the attention of the rest. Everyone had come around to speculate about the identity of the remains.

With so many people around, He He was no longer afraid. She squeezed through the crowd, but she was still unable to look straight-on at the skull.

Digging holes in the desert was not as easy as it seemed. Although the sand was very soft, each scoop simply got replaced with sand from the surrounding area.

Fortunately, there were many people, and the remains were not buried deeply. Within a few digs contributed by everyone, a relatively complete human skeleton appeared. The upper body was mostly exposed, while the lower body was still buried.

There were also a few khaki rags between the bones. These were obviously the clothes that the person had worn when they were still alive.

The Scholar jumped into the dug hole and carefully looked for clues between the bones. Suddenly, he noticed something shining.

He plunged his hand into the ribs of the skeleton and groped for a silvery metal ornament—black inked words with an image. It depicted something hanging in the middle of a palm tree growing on the lawn.

Someone immediately recognized it. This was the symbol of the Wehrmacht Afrika Korps.