Yu Hongdou felt really distressed when she saw the Cao family members with dust and frost on their faces.
They are already not young anymore. The eldest son of the Cao family is about to reach the age of 50. Other people of the Cao family who are of such old age are waiting to die in the village. Only he, who is worried about his brothers and nephews, follows them to travel outside.
"Uncle Cao, Second Uncle, and Uncle-in-law, you are finally back." Seeing that they were all safe, Yu Hongdou breathed a sigh of relief and happily went forward to greet them.
"Little Red Bean! Oh, it's all thanks to you." Although Boss Cao was tired, he laughed like a loud bell and was happy from the bottom of his heart. The Cao family's disaster had been averted, and he would have no regrets even if he died immediately.
"It was the concerted efforts of Cigou Village and the Cao family that helped them overcome the difficulties. Uncle Cao can have a good rest from now on." Yu Hongdou waved her hand. This was definitely not her own achievement. She was at most a transit carrier.
"I'm afraid we won't be able to rest for long." The eldest son of the Cao family was happy at first, but when he thought of the news he brought back from this trip, his face became more bitter.
"Uncle Cao, have you discovered something again?" Hearing this, Yu Hongdou couldn't help but feel worried.
The eldest son of the Cao family wanted to say something but stopped himself. Qian Sanmei came outside and reported that the wine and food were ready.
"Uncle Cao, let's eat first. After dinner, wash up and get rid of your fatigue. Then we can talk. Anyway, you are all back, so there is no rush at this moment." Yu Song, who had not said anything since the greetings, spoke at this time.
The eldest brother of the Cao family hesitated for a moment and then agreed. He also had to think carefully about how to word it so as to explain the complicated details along the way clearly.
After the Cao family had eaten their fill and returned to the front hall, their tense nerves finally relaxed, and Boss Cao began to talk about the thrills and gains of this trip.
The Zou family is quite famous in Jining. After Boss Cao and his men arrived, they found many of the Zou family's old servants and learned the news about Xuanfeng and the falling star in Medog.
Yu Hongdou had already heard all this from Cao Su when he came back, but Boss Cao and the others explained it in more detail. In order to avoid missing any details, she listened very carefully.
Regardless of Yu Hongdou's previous inference or the speculations and conjectures over the years, Boss Cao knew deeply that the falling star might have some huge connection with the personal experience of their Cao family.
After they confirmed the news, they headed straight for Medog, the northernmost part of Mexico. While crossing the no-man's land, they discovered that there were two other groups whose destination seemed to be the same as the Falling Star.
"Did you run into each other? Do you know who they are?" Yu Song frowned, wondering if it had anything to do with the two groups of people from foreign countries and the Western Regions who had been captured in the mountains.
"No, it is said by the locals that it is the monsoon season in Mexico. If we don't cross the desert and reach the Land of Falling Stars this month, we will have to wait another three months." Boss Cao shook his head. Time was urgent, so they evaluated the situation and decided to hurry on their way.
The other party seemed to think so too. The three parties probably knew of each other's existence, but they all reached Motuo in peace.
In recent years, Yu Hongdou has read a lot of local chronicles from books, learned a lot about local customs and practices, and has some understanding of the Moshi area.
According to records, there are three thousand miles of yellow sand in Mexico. There are about ten months of strong winds in a year. The strong winds drive the sand and dust and form a unique sky. In this season, even the most adept camel will die if it enters Mexico.
Every three months, there is a gentle wind season, when the wind and sand are relatively less, and only under the guidance of an old camel who knows the way can you enter the interior of the Mexican desert.
In this case, it is understandable that Boss Cao and his men tried their best to hurry on their journey.
"I thought the desert was just endless yellow sand, but after I went in, I found that it was not the case." While the eldest brother was drinking water, Uncle Cao took over the conversation.
After entering the heart of the desert, the Cao brothers discovered that there were so many magical creatures in the desert.
Uncle Cao talked about the tall, flaky cacti and golden sand dates in the desert, as well as the mysterious "quicksand river".
But the most magical thing is the mirage hanging in the sky at sunset every day.
"Mirage appears every day?" Yu Hongdou was surprised.
She once went hiking in the desert during a company team-building activity.
The guide at that time was a fellow villager of hers. He talked to her a lot about the desert, including, of course, the mysterious mirage.
The ignorant Yu Hongdou asked at the time whether a mirage would appear at the same time and place?
In this way, will anyone track the mirage to see whether it is a parallel space or just an illusion.
The fellow villager directly rejected Yu Hongdou's question, saying that there were many chances of mirages appearing in the desert, but he had not heard of any record of them appearing repeatedly at the same location and at almost the same time.
He also said that due to limited conditions, the situation described by Yu Hongdou is theoretically unlikely to occur.
"Yes, according to the locals who brought us into the desert, it's like this every monsoon season. The difference is that the mirages seen in each monsoon season are different." Uncle Cao also asked the locals out of curiosity.
"Uncle-in-law, what kind of mirage did you see?" Yu Song couldn't help himself. At this moment, he suddenly thought of that guy Tan Yanlin, and felt a belated envy.
"Hmm..." Uncle Cao was silent for a while, at a loss for words. He swallowed and then described the most shocking spectacle he had ever seen in his life.
"We saw the Heavenly Palace." Uncle Cao had also recovered from his fatigue by now. He looked at his younger brother who had been grunting and silent for a long time, and his second younger brother who had been keeping his head down, and reluctantly opened his mouth to announce the answer.
"It really is the Heavenly Palace. The round floating island is covered with golden tall buildings. The buildings must be hundreds of feet high, and the tallest one in the middle is pointed..."
"There is a big bird-like machine flying around in the middle of the building. The most surprising thing is that there is also a building under the round pancake-like floating island. It is completely different from the one above and is actually upside down..."
The eldest brother started the story, which helped Uncle Cao find the entry point and he excitedly described it with gestures.
Yu Hongdou's mind automatically constructed the pancake-shaped floating islands and high-rise buildings that her uncle-in-law had mentioned. The more she listened, the more familiar they became. She hesitated for a moment, found a pen and paper, drew a few times, and showed them to her uncle-in-law.
"Yes, yes! That's right! That's it! Hongdou, you are so smart!" The Cao brothers were once again impressed by the intelligence of their little niece.
But Yu Hongdou was not proud at all. Her heart was full of doubts and confusion. Why did she feel that the scene described by her uncle was becoming more and more familiar? It was because she had seen it before!
Or perhaps she had never seen the real thing, but had seen this scene, because this was exactly one of the concept drawings of the science fiction project of her previous company.
According to the award-winning artist, he painted the painting based on a mirage he saw in the desert.
Because the concept map was so shocking, science fiction fan Yu Hongdou really remembered it.
She remembered that during the video conference, the project producer specifically asked about the details of seeing the mirage and said that if the game was successfully launched, their group would be the first to go there for team building.
Later, the budget exploded, and the company directly cut the original 3A masterpiece and changed it into a science fiction mobile game. The concept map was too beautiful to be discarded, so it was used as the background map.
The first team building activity of the project team was the desert hiking that I just remembered. So, the world is really a huge circle.
After expressing her feelings, Yu Hongdou suddenly thought of the "parallel space" theory about mirages on the Internet. She wondered if this sci-fi world would be Nia's hometown.
If so, how miserable Nia, Huang Mingyu, her poor fellow villagers, and the innocent Cao family would be.