West Night Lament

West Night Lament

I. The Adventures in Niya

A crimson sun hung in the western sky, its deep golden rays illuminating the undulating sand dunes in the distance. A scorching wind whipped up yellow sand, sweeping over the lonely ancient city walls standing atop the desert, leaving a hazy yellow mist in the air. Scattered nearby were a few brown poplars; their leaves rustled softly in the wind, their whispers carrying messages from a thousand years ago.

A caravan of camels moved slowly and orderly by, their backs laden with heavy loads, their faces bearing an unchanging serenity. The people on the camels, their faces weathered by time, seemed to be moved by the scenery, and began to sing aloud a song. It was a language they couldn't understand, and the desolate melody echoed for a long time.

Two thousand years have passed, and the sea has turned into mulberry fields, but the life and romance of the past remain ingrained in people's bones. Passed down from generation to generation, it is surprising how little has changed.

Yin Li gazed at the scenery before her, speechless for a long time. The yellow sand stung her face. Just then, a hand suddenly slapped her shoulder, startling her so much she almost fell into the sand.

"Xiao Li, look—I told you the best time to visit the ruins is in the evening, but you didn't believe me. There are so few people now, we can have some fun." The girl beside her was dressed in a practical T-shirt and jeans, with long black hair and a white travel hat. She was so vain that even in the scorching desert, she refused to tie her hair up. "Come on, let's go see the city wall ruins." Before she finished speaking, she had already pulled Yin Li towards the ancient city wall not far away. Yin Li was somewhat amused and exasperated, running alongside her through the yellow sand, her shoes filled with sand.

The once tall and long ancient city wall is now reduced to a broken section standing on the yellow sand. Years of weathering have left it riddled with holes, and when the wind blows, it makes a wailing sound, like the wailing of ghosts.

"I'll climb up and take a look," the girl said, starting to climb up.

A middle-aged man rushed over, stumbling along, and shouted, "Get down! Get down! It's too dangerous!"

"Okay, Director Cheng." The girl reluctantly pulled her foot back from the stone wall. Yin Li looked helplessly at her friend and rubbed her aching temples.

This girl was her best friend, named Qin Wen, a name that sounded like the somewhat arrogant and beautiful girl in "Dream of the Red Chamber." She was just as beautiful and charming as Qin Wen, but unlike her, she was excessively kind and naive, which was one of the reasons Yin Li liked her. The two were university classmates, becoming inseparable best friends from the very first day of school. During their four years of university, they dreamed of traveling together, promising to travel west along the southern route of the Silk Road after graduation, all the way to Kashgar, and then back to Xi'an along the northern route. They worked many part-time jobs during university to pursue this dream. Now that they had graduated, they packed their backpacks and set off westward.

Director Cheng pointed at Qin Wen and scolded her sternly before returning to explain the legends of the ancient city to the other tourists. This is the lower reaches of the Niya River, 150 kilometers north of Minfeng County, where the ruins of the famous capital of the Jingjue Kingdom, Niya, are located. When Stein discovered this ancient city a hundred years ago, it had already slumbered in the desert for over a thousand years, and its artifacts were remarkably well-preserved.

Yin Li and Qin Wen had always longed to visit this place and vowed to see it no matter what. However, the Niya Ruins were located in the desert, and traveling independently was too dangerous. When they were in Minfeng City, a large tour group happened to be renting cars to enter the desert, so they begged the tour guide to take them along. After much pleading and paying a considerable sum, the guide finally agreed.

At this time, Director Cheng was leading everyone to find dwellings within the ruins and then set up tents near them. No one seemed inclined to ask for their help; everyone was happily busy with their tasks. The two women, not knowing how to set up tents, simply wandered aimlessly around the ruins.

The ancient ruins, centered around a Buddhist stupa, stretch over an area 25 kilometers long from north to south and 5 to 7 kilometers wide from east to west. Within the ruins, remains of houses, courtyards, cemeteries, stupas, temples, fields, orchards, livestock pens, canals, pottery kilns, and smelting sites have been discovered. The two visitors, referring to their professional books, thoroughly enjoyed the tour, seemingly curious about everything.

They walked for an unknown amount of time, until the tour group setting up their tents disappeared from sight, and the sky gradually darkened. When the two realized something was wrong, a thick curtain had already been cast over the sky, adorned with countless glittering stars.

"So beautiful!" Qin Wen exclaimed, looking up at the sky. "You can't see so many stars in the city. That must be the Big Dipper, right? And that's Andromeda..."

"Xiao Wen!" Yin Li snapped, unable to contain herself any longer. "You actually have the nerve to look at the stars! Don't you know we're lost!"

Qin Wen paused for two seconds, then said, "I know."

"Knowing this, you're still so relaxed?" Yin Li felt like she was going crazy. This Qin Wen, she's always so slow to react to anything.

"If we can't find our way back, we're doomed!"

"So what?" Qin Wen sat down next to a house that looked like a residential building and said indifferently, "At worst, we'll just sleep here for one night, and they'll come looking for us tomorrow."

Yin Li rolled her eyes helplessly. This must be what they mean by "talking past each other like chickens and ducks." She ignored Qin Wen, who was drawing randomly in the sand with a stick, took out her flashlight, and carefully searched back in the direction she had come from, hoping that her footprints had not been buried by the sand.

But her efforts were in vain. She hadn't even walked a hundred meters before her footprints disappeared, replaced by endless yellow sand. She sighed and had no choice but to turn back. Just as she returned to the house she had just been walking in, she froze. A chill ran down her spine, and she felt a sudden coldness rise from her feet.

She's gone! Qin Wen has disappeared!

She thought she had remembered the wrong place, but there were still irregular patterns left by Qin Wen when she scribbled on the sand at the corner of the wall.

That's right! This is it! But where did Qin Wen go?

"Xiao Wen!" Yin Li looked around with a flashlight, the pale yellow light sweeping across the surrounding houses and decaying wooden stakes, but she couldn't see Qin Wen anywhere.

"Xiaowen! Where are you? Don't scare me!"

No one answered, not even an echo; her voice seemed to be swallowed up by the ancient, ruined city. The deathly silence chilled her heart, and her voice trembled as she cried out, "Xiaowen! Come out, this game isn't fun!"

Still no one answered. In her anxiety, she tripped over something and stumbled, almost falling on the sand.

Her expression froze for a moment as she noticed a series of footprints in the sand.

Those footprints couldn't possibly be Xiaowen's. Xiaowen was wearing sneakers, so her footprints should have some pattern. But those footprints were flat, somewhat like the footprints of a homemade cloth shoe, and they were very small, at most size 24.

Besides them, who else was in this city of death? The thought sent chills down Yin Li's spine.

The footprint was too small to be from Director Cheng or his group, and besides, Director Cheng wouldn't have taken Xiaowen back to camp alone. So, who owned the footprint?

She crouched down and examined the strange footprints closely. Such small footprints—could they be from a child? But a child's footprints wouldn't be this deep. Even adult footprints wouldn't be this deep; the owner of the footprints must have been carrying something heavy.

Heavy object?

Yin Li thought of her good friend Qin Wen. Could this strange man... be carrying... Qin Wen?! Qin Wen's Taekwondo is a family tradition; ordinary people can't even get close to her. Since she's being carried...

Yin Li's heart skipped a beat; Xiao Wen was in danger!

She gritted her teeth, stood up, and followed the footprints. No matter who it was, she wouldn't let him hurt Xiaowen!

The footprints extended deep into the residential buildings. Yin Li hesitated for a moment in front of the many houses. This residential area seemed to be very well preserved, and one could even see streets covered with yellow sand.

Countless images flashed through Yin Li's mind, one by one from the horror movies she had seen before. This terrifying ancient city ruin, nestled deep in the desert, had slumbered for millennia—what lay within?

S

……