In the endless desert, Wen Zhiyu swallowed a mouthful of sand, her brows knitting tightly together.
She knew the conditions here were bad, but she had never imagined they could be this harsh.
The bus had dropped her off about five kilometers from the military base.
According to the driver, it should have taken about an hour to walk there.
But she had already been walking for five or six hours.
All she could see was yellow sand. There was no sign of any military camp.
In fact, there wasn’t a single soul in sight.
If she didn’t have her storage space filled with water and food, Wen Zhiyu felt she might have died right here in the desert.
After all, being intelligent was one thing—her physical stamina was another matter entirely.
She was exhausted.
Holding a canteen, Wen Zhiyu plopped down onto the sand.
She had always been somewhat obsessive about cleanliness, but by now her military-green work clothes were already full of sand. There was nothing she could do about it anymore.
Normally calm and composed, she felt like cursing.
Wasn’t someone supposedly dying? If so, why not go to a proper hospital in a city? Why stay in a military post with such terrible conditions?
Too tired to move, Wen Zhiyu decided to rest for a while before entering her space. She would spend a day recovering there and come back out tomorrow to look for the right route.
Maybe someone would pass by in the meantime.
Then she noticed that the patch of ground she was sitting on seemed to be sinking.
Quicksand!
Without hesitation, she entered her space.
The space was the medical laboratory she had possessed in her previous life. She could move around freely inside, but whenever she exited, she would return to the exact same location.
After struggling for a while, the quicksand had already risen to her chest.
Wen Zhiyu gave up resisting and retreated back into her space.
She would just wait for someone.
The military camp should be nearby. Sooner or later, someone ought to come by.
What she didn’t know was that she had gone the wrong way.
Not only that, she had walked in the exact opposite direction—and somehow managed to do so in a perfectly straight line.
At least she hadn’t wandered into a completely uninhabited area.
Just a semi-uninhabited one.
Before she knew it, a day had passed.
Although she remained inside her space, she kept paying attention to what was happening outside.
Five figures slowly emerged from the swirling yellow-gray dust.
All of them wore military uniforms.
One man was being carried on a tattered stretcher by two soldiers, while the remaining two cautiously scouted ahead and behind.
Their uniforms were so covered in sand and dust that they had turned dark gray. Their faces were equally filthy, leaving only their bright eyes visible.
“I can’t take it anymore. If anyone gives me a drink of water right now, I’ll call him my ancestor!”
The soldier at the front, nicknamed Big Mouth, got a mouthful of sand the moment he spoke.
The others knew it was a bad idea to talk in these conditions and kept their mouths tightly shut.
As they carefully skirted around an area of quicksand, they suddenly froze.
All five of them—including the wounded man on the stretcher—turned sharply toward the same spot.
A moment ago there had been nobody there.
Now, a figure dressed in green had suddenly appeared.
She tossed one end of a rope toward them with perfect accuracy.
“Hello there. Want some water?” she called. “I’ve got some. But before that, could you please pull me out first?”
Ten minutes later, Wen Zhiyu lay sprawled on the sand, repeatedly spitting out mouthfuls of grit.
Then she reached into her backpack.
To anyone watching, it looked like she was taking out supplies. In reality, the two bottles of water had appeared from her space the instant her hand entered the bag.
“Thank you.”
She offered the bottles to them, but none of the soldiers accepted.
Wen Zhiyu immediately understood.
Soldiers of this era were taught not to take so much as a needle or thread from civilians.
“My fiancé is a soldier too. I came all the way here to find him. Don’t be so formal. You can always pay me back later.”
She pushed the bottles closer.
Then her gaze fell on the wounded man.
His injuries were severe. He was hanging on by a thread and looked as though he might die at any moment.
She pointed toward him.
“Need help? I’m a doctor.”
The eyes of all five soldiers instantly lit up.
How could they not need help?
“You just saved my life,” Wen Zhiyu said. “It’s only right that I repay you. Take them.”
She practically shoved the water bottles into their hands.
“And if you don’t drink, I won’t treat your injured comrade.”
The four conscious soldiers exchanged glances.
Then they opened the bottles and quickly drank. Some sand still got into their mouths, but the water brought immediate relief.
They had been out on patrol when they encountered enemy spies. That’s how their comrade had been injured.
They knew his condition better than anyone.
Without treatment, he wouldn’t survive.
The soldiers quickly set up a tent, giving Wen Zhiyu a barely acceptable treatment environment.
When Big Mouth tried to give some water to the wounded man, Wen Zhiyu stopped him.
“He can’t drink water right now.”
She spoke through tightly pursed lips to avoid swallowing more sand.
Then she took out a compact medical kit from her “backpack.”
Big Mouth couldn’t help glancing at it.
How was it that her backpack seemed to contain an endless supply of things?
The wounded soldier had a massive stab wound in his abdomen.
The bandages applied earlier had prevented him from bleeding to death, but blood was still seeping out.
At this rate, he’d be dead within two hours.
Wen Zhiyu disinfected the wound, stitched it up, and carefully wrapped it in fresh bandages.
Worried that the sand would contaminate it, she even added a waterproof protective layer.
From start to finish, she used no anesthesia.
Yet aside from his pale face, the soldier never uttered a single cry of pain.
Silently, Wen Zhiyu gave him a thumbs-up in her heart.
No matter the era, soldiers were worthy of admiration.
After treating the wound, she gave him a specially formulated nutritional solution designed to help his body recover from the brink of collapse.
Once they saw their comrade’s condition visibly improve, the soldiers looked at Wen Zhiyu with gratitude shining in their eyes.
After learning that she was also headed to their military base to find her fiancé, they decided to escort her there.
Only then did Wen Zhiyu discover the truth.
She had gone the wrong way.
And not just a little wrong—the exact opposite direction.
She nearly wanted to cry.
After another half day of walking, they finally emerged from the worst of the desert and reached a proper road.
Wen Zhiyu let out a long sigh of relief.
Thankfully, the place where people actually lived wasn’t buried under endless sand. Otherwise, life here would be unbearable.
“Comrade Wen,” Big Mouth asked, “what’s your fiancé’s name? Maybe we know him.”
There was a reason everyone called him Big Mouth.
For example, he could never seem to keep it shut.
Wen Zhiyu didn’t bother hiding it.
There was no need.
“His name is Shen Lifeng.”
At least, if she remembered correctly.
“Shen…? What did you just say?”
Big Mouth suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at her in disbelief.
“Shen Lifeng. Is there a problem?”
Wen Zhiyu tilted her head and repeated the name.
Judging by the name alone, it actually sounded pretty nice.
Could there be something about this fiancé that she didn’t know?
Under Wen Zhiyu’s calm gaze, Big Mouth swallowed hard.
This wasn’t just a problem.
This was a huge problem.