Under my earnest explanation, Fatty and the others finally stopped suspecting that I had stripped the dried corpse of its clothes and covered it with the coffin lid.

However, new problems arose.

The first problem was, where did this stone coffin come from?

The second problem was, why were there (what I considered very important) words printed on the inside of the coffin lid?

The first problem, at the moment, seemed like an unsolved mystery to us.

And if the first problem couldn't be solved, there was no way to even begin to address the second.

We looked at each other, not knowing where to start.

These two problems would have to be put aside for the time being.

At this moment, those lines of poetry appeared in my mind again—

The Yellow River flows from the sky, rushing into the sea.

A jade belt runs through the mountains, twin peaks hidden in the wilderness.

…

I explained my understanding of the line "The Yellow River flows from the sky, rushing into the sea" to the others.

They deeply agreed with my idea that the "Yellow River" corresponded to "yellow sand" and the "sea" corresponded to the "sand sea."

Especially Rou Yi, who had studied Chinese characters and been exposed to ancient Chinese culture, strongly agreed with my interpretation.

With my "throwing a brick to attract jade," the interpretation of the following verses had a direction.

However, the main force of the interpretation was not me, nor Fatty, Dodge, and Jennifer, but Rou Yi.

"A jade belt runs through the mountains, twin peaks hidden in the wilderness"—Rou Yi's interpretation of this sentence followed my line of thought.

"Mountains?" Fatty had an idea. He said directly, "If we look for mountains from this location, our first choice would be to head northwest, advancing west and then north to reach the Tianshan Mountains. However, our current supply reserves simply can't support us going to the Tianshan Mountains. Another option is to head southwest, first west and then south. At the junction of Xinjiang and Qinghai, there is a Kunlun Mountain, and our supplies can support us to get there. These are the mountains whose names we know. As for small hills, there are too many..."

Fatty's memory was really good. I guessed that Fatty must have been on a mission near here when he was in the army, so he knew the mountains here very well.

Since Fatty mentioned Kunlun, I wouldn't guide them to think about the Kunlun direction anymore, nor would I pretend to be confused. The time had come.

I took Fatty's words and said, "I think it should be the Kunlun direction."

Fatty and Dodge were quite surprised by my conclusion, so they asked why.

I explained, "If Han Yu also came along this clue, if she chose to go north to the Tianshan Mountains, then entering China from Central Asia would be the best choice, and she wouldn't need An Wenshan to lead the way at all, because the Tianshan Mountains are still far from the desert."

I continued, "And look at the last few lines of the poem—Riding the clouds and following the wind, clear ripples wash the living spring—and see the green reflecting the tiger rock in the white wilderness—there are mountains, water, wind, clouds, and plants, which means that the environment there must be far away from the desert, so... In summary, this jade belt should be the ancient Cherchen River connecting the Kunlun Mountains."

My statement was well-founded, and it was difficult for Rou Yi and Fatty not to agree with me.

"In that case, let's take this stone coffin as the starting point and move forward along the ancient Cherchen River."

Everyone had no objection, so we made travel arrangements according to my conclusion.

Fatty and Dodge re-planned the route according to the desert map. It was expected that in five days, we would be able to find the mountain peaks passed by the ancient Cherchen River and find the twin peaks.

…

In the following days, we continued to travel in the desert.

Fortunately, there was no abnormal weather in the desert these days, but the temperature difference between day and night was large. The scorching sun during the day wanted to melt us, and the cold wind at night blew us to the bone.

We could only hurry on, thinking about getting out of the desert as soon as possible.

About two days later, we found a tributary of the Cherchen River, and we immediately replenished our water reserves.

Walking here, there was less and less sand. With the nourishment of water, green vegetation gradually increased. After replenishing food, the camels were more energetic and walked faster than before.