Zoe shook her head with some difficulty in the face of the camp leader's questioning, "I'm really sorry, my ID should be with my companions in the caravan, not on me..."

Zoe's Mandarin was very fluent, with no foreign accent at all. Her pronunciation was clear, her syllables and tones were correct, and she sounded like a native Chinese speaker. Perhaps even native Chinese speakers couldn't speak as well as Zoe.

The leader was taken aback by Zoe's fluent Mandarin and was somewhat convinced that Zoe had grown up in China. And Fatty's Beijing accent must have been subtly acquired in a certain growing environment, unlike something learned later.

The camp leader took off his gloves and patted them repeatedly on his hand while considering how to handle the situation.

Fatty noticed obvious calluses on the index and middle fingers of the leader's right hand, and had a general understanding of the person's identity. In China, people with this characteristic are usually soldiers.

The leader said to Fatty and Zoe, "This is a military control zone of Lop Nur. Strictly speaking, it is not allowed to enter and exit at will. Although I don't know how you got here, we can't refuse you since you've asked us for help. But you must obey our management. The vehicles transporting supplies here usually come once every three days. If you want to leave, it will have to be in three days. However, before you leave, just in case, I have to check your identities first. We can only let you go after confirming that there are no problems with your identities."

Fatty came from the army, so he naturally understood the army's procedures.

The camp leader sent someone to house Fatty and Zoe in a tent away from their main area. According to the confidentiality regulations, there was no problem with this arrangement. Fatty and Zoe both accepted, after all, they had been saved.

People in the camp collected Fatty and Zoe's names and other identity information for verification. Fatty frankly reported his name, Shi Chuan, his ID number, his job, and even the unit and number of the army he had served in before.

After learning that Fatty was a retired soldier, the people in the camp became more friendly to him and relaxed their vigilance towards Zoe. At that time, domestic registration of foreigners' identity information was not strict, and the same person might have registered different names, so it was very troublesome to verify. With Fatty's "guarantee," others no longer suspected Zoe.

The camp could guarantee daily meals, with a special chef cooking. Although the staple food was still dry naan, the side dishes were good, with meat almost every day.

In the past two days, after Fatty became familiar with the people in the camp, he learned that there were soldiers, militiamen, and local Uyghurs (mainly to guide them). The leader who interrogated them was their instructor, Lei Zhiming. Only Lei Zhiming knew the mission that the people in the camp were carrying out here.

After Fatty and Zoe entered the camp, they were restricted to their tent. Lei Zhiming didn't allow them to move around, and they could only look out from outside their tent at most.

Lei Zhiming was stern and didn't like to deal with strangers, so Fatty and Zoe had never seen Lei Zhiming again since entering the camp.

Zoe felt that the people and things in the camp were a bit strange, so she asked Fatty, "Since most of the people here are soldiers, why don't they wear military uniforms?"

Fatty said that he didn't know, but gave his own guess: "Maybe they are carrying out some secret mission."

Lei Zhiming said that the vehicles transporting supplies would return in three days to deliver supplies, and Fatty and Zoe would be able to leave the desert with the supply vehicles, but the situation did not go so smoothly.

On the afternoon of the third day, Lei Zhiming suddenly broke into Fatty and Zoe's tent, his expression gloomy, as if something bad had happened.

"The transport vehicle encountered a landslide on the way, so you can't go back for the time being," Lei Zhiming said.

According to common sense, ordinary people would ask when they could go back, but Fatty had been a soldier and had deep feelings for the army. He asked a question that Lei Zhiming did not expect: "Were the soldiers injured?"

Lei Zhiming was surprised to hear Fatty's concern for the soldiers in the transport convoy, then shook his head, his expression dim: "Alas... they all sacrificed."

Lei Zhiming and Fatty were plunged into grief.

Lei Zhiming said, "Our camp has enough water and food to last for four to five days, which can last until the next supply is delivered. If the next supply is not delivered, then we can only retreat and transfer."

With that, Lei Zhiming left Fatty and Zoe's tent.

Fatty said to Zoe, "Alas, I have to spend a few more days with this desert full of yellow sand."

Zoe said worriedly, "Don't you think that since we entered the desert, strange things have happened one after another. I always have a bad feeling."

"Alas..." Zoe sighed, "I wonder how young master is, whether he escaped from the ancient city."

Fatty smacked his lips and joked, "Think about it, young master can see through the past and predict the future through the iron mask. What can escape his eyes? Besides, we took the elixir, and young master must have taken it too. Put your heart back in your stomach, young master is definitely fine."

"I do have a question." Fatty touched the stubble that had grown on his chin and said, "In the underground ancient city, in the words that young master said to Fu Xiumo, young master claimed to be a 'god'. And in the subsequent battles, young master slaughtered everyone in the entire underground ancient city. I couldn't see a trace of emotion in his eyes, as if the people in the underground ancient city were animals to be slaughtered."

After Fatty said this, Zoe also faintly felt strange.

Fatty said, "Do you remember when we first rescued young master and escaped to the forest ranger Lao Zhangtou's place?"

Zoe nodded.

Fatty continued, "At that time, I had just met young master, and he was the kind of person who didn't even dare to kill a chicken. But later, he killed everyone in the palace. Okay, even if what he killed were some living dead, we don't count it as killing people. But what about in the underground ancient city? Although those people were resurrected corpses, they were living people who could talk and bleed. Young master killed all of these people without hesitation in a very short period of time. Don't you think it's a bit bloodthirsty and cruel?"

Zoe's expression became more and more ugly. At first, in the underground ancient city, she was immersed in the joy of reunion and ignored what had happened before.

Even Fatty, who had been a soldier, would hesitate before killing someone and couldn't bring himself to do it.

How did young master become a butcher?