Out of a desire to suck up to her wealthy backer, Hei Xiazi originally wanted to share a vehicle with Xie Yuchen, but under A-Ning's cold glare, the blind man had no choice but to abandon his financial benefactor and ride with A-Ning instead.
Operating on the principle that if he was having a miserable time, nobody else was going to have a good time either, Hei Xiazi reached out and yanked Zhang Qiling back just as he was about to head toward Wu Xie.
"Since Mute Zhang took the money, he needs to act like he took the money. We've got to properly protect the boss, don't you agree?" Hei Xiazi said, draping an arm over Zhang Qiling's shoulder with a beaming smile.
Zhang Qiling, having been ambushed by Hei Xiazi, said nothing, but the chill radiating from his entire body was enough to freeze someone to death. Behind his expressionless face, only Hei Xiazi knew how profanely he was being cursed, but would Master Hei ever be scared? Absolutely not.
Acting as if he hadn't noticed a thing, Hei Xiazi maintained his usual swaggering demeanor.
Watching the blind man appear entirely unfazed, the members of the camp mentally gave Master Hei a silent thumbs-up. He truly lived up to his reputation as the Southern Blind, a peer of Zhang Qiling in the underworld.
Wu Xie had originally been waiting for Xiaoge to get in the car with him, but after seeing the blind man drag Zhang Qiling away, he ran off to join his childhood friend instead.
"Why'd you come over? Didn't you want to ride with Zhang Qiling?" Xie Yuchen asked with a puzzled look. He had seen Wu Xie waiting eagerly for Zhang Qiling over there earlier, and putting that together with Hei Xiazi's remarks, the look Xie Yuchen gave Wu Xie changed instantly.
"Xiaoge got dragged off by the blind man to ride with A-Ning, so I came to keep you company," Wu Xie chuckled.
Xie Yuchen rolled his eyes. He knew this childhood friend of his inside and out, and he didn't believe a single word of what he was saying.
Once they were ready, the convoy drove off into the depths of the desert.
Because the driver loved the thrill, he kept steering toward bumpy stretches of terrain, causing the passengers inside the vehicle to bounce around constantly.
Xie Yuchen sat with his eyes closed, looking as though he was handling it well, but Wu Xie was a different story—he looked ready to toss his cookies at any moment.
"Hey, can you drive a bit smoother?" Wu Xie finally reached the limit of his patience; if things kept going this way, he was going to throw up before they even reached their destination.
The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror and said with a smile, "Oh, Superman Wu, look, your friends are all fine."
That remark left Wu Xie with no idea how to reply. He looked at Xie Yuchen sitting beside him as steady as a rock, desperately wishing he could say he couldn't compare, but a man's pride made Wu Xie swallow his words.
So he simply let the guy keep driving in that bone-shaking manner.
"Where's that cute girl from yesterday?" the driver asked, opening the conversational floodgates.
Xie Yuchen opened the eyes he had been keeping tightly shut and drawled, "She forgot to turn off the gas at home, so she got worried and went back."
"Oh-ho, well, that's a real shame, missing out on such gorgeous desert scenery," the driver said with genuine regret.
Sitting off to the side, Wu Xie looked out the car window at the sea of yellow sand filling the sky, utterly failing to appreciate the gorgeous scenery the driver was talking about. All he saw was sand everywhere.
"Hey Xiahuan, you look pretty close with Hei Xiazi. When did you two meet?" Wu Xie asked with a trace of curiosity, recalling the harmonious atmosphere between Xiahuan and Hei Xiazi yesterday.
"He needed money, and I had money, so we met naturally enough," Xie Yuchen replied indifferently.
"Fair enough." Thinking of Hei Xiazi's personality, Wu Xie nodded in strong agreement.
With yellow sand filling the sky all the way, the two of them chatted back and forth, making the journey feel somewhat less tedious.
After the convoy had driven for a few hours, the desert conditions began to change unpredictably.
The sky gradually darkened, and fierce winds started to whip up around them, churning the sand on the ground. The blowing sand blanketed the sky, transforming a desert that already had low visibility into a golden world where no human figure could be seen.
"Stop."
Zhang Qiling and Hei Xiazi spoke in unison from inside the vehicle.
With their wealth of experience, the two of them could tell at a glance that a sandstorm was arriving.
A-Ning, who had hired the Southern Blind and Northern Mute, naturally knew their capabilities and raised a hand to signal the driver to stop the car.
She pulled out her walkie-talkie and tried to contact the other vehicles, but because they had penetrated deep into the desert interior, compounded by the sandstorm, the signal was predictably poor, and only static came through the speaker.
"What do we do now?" A-Ning asked, frowning.
"Get out, or we'll get buried."
Knowing Zhang Qiling's temperament, the blind man took it upon himself to speak first. He then reached into his pack, pulled out two pairs of wind goggles, handed one to Zhang Qiling and the other to A-Ning—since, after all, A-Ning was still his boss.
He then fished a silk scarf from inside his jacket and tied it around Zhang Qiling's mouth. Once properly equipped, he opened the car door and stepped out.
Watching Hei Xiazi's sequence of actions, A-Ning was momentarily torn between thanking him for remembering to give her a pair of goggles, or feeling resentful that she had spent good money yet received worse treatment than Zhang Qiling.
Pulling herself together, A-Ning immediately tossed aside the useless walkie-talkie, copied Hei Xiazi's method of wrapping her mouth and nose with a cloth mask, put on her goggles, and got out of the car.
The driver followed suit, imitating them by putting on his mask and goggles. After stepping out, he scurried behind the two men like an eager puppy, completely forgetting who his boss was. His bulky frame hid behind Hei Xiazi and Zhang Qiling, a jarring sight to anyone who looked.
A-Ning drew a flare gun and fired a shot into the sky, standing her ground as she waited for the others to rendezvous.
Hei Xiazi stood beside A-Ning with a frown, feeling rather worried about Xie Yuchen, though he also knew this wasn't the right time to go looking for people.
Zhang Qiling drew the Black Gold Ancient Saber from his back and thrust it into the sand before him.
"When the sand reaches the hilt, we have to get out of here and find a windbreak," Hei Xiazi explained briefly in response to A-Ning's questioning gaze.
Soon, the signal flare fired into the sky burned out, and the sand was about to submerge the hilt of the Black Gold Ancient Saber. A-Ning made the decisive call to find a leeward slope first and worry about locating the others afterward.
Zhang Qiling kept his lips pressed into a tight line, stubbornly holding his ground. With no other choice, Hei Xiazi snatched the Black Gold Ancient Saber right out of his hand, grabbed the man by the arm, and said as he dragged him along, "Mute, let's go find a spot first, and then I'll help you go find them."
Guided by Hei Xiazi, they found a prime leeward slope in just a matter of minutes.
"Mute Zhang and I are going to go look for people. You just wait here," Hei Xiazi said, and the two of them departed.
Left behind in the dust, A-Ning watched their retreating figures and wondered if hiring these two had been the wrong choice after all.