Pet King

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Modern technology had given people unparalleled convenience, and the world had become a “global village.” However, some areas were still relatively unconnected, such as the deep seas, snowy mountains, and depths of the desert.

Many people had entered the desert and even crossed the desert, but they often followed a proven, safe route. There were cities, oases, recharge points, and even roads in the desert. The entire journey had been captured by the media, making it somewhat of an entertaining show.

However, Zhang Zian’s team had entered the desert along an ancient smuggling road that had probably not been used for hundreds of years. This might perhaps be the true forbidden fruit.

The area where they were was highly remote. Although they had brought a satellite phone, they could not expect the inefficient Egyptian officials to rescue them in times of danger. It was, in fact, no different from waiting to die. There was also another big question mark—they would not know whether they were still in Egypt or had already crossed into Libya. The border between the two countries was blurry.

If something went wrong, they could only count on themselves.

A few members of the team, including Zhang Zian, heard a vehicle breaking down, and they got nervous. They came to a stop before jumping out and running to the rear of the team.

Who was driving Car No. 10?

Since the two teams had just met and the order of the team was mixed, most of them did not know who the driver was. Yet no matter who the person was, they needed to check out the situation.

Zhang Zian made Fina and Famous wait in the car while he followed the crowd and ran to the back. Without getting too close, they saw an off-road vehicle anchored on the sand ridge. The engine was still running. The front and rear wheels raised a lot of dust, but the vehicle could not move forward. It was like an overturned turtle.

Nabari, with his wealth of experience, frowned. He said, “The throttle is small. The front wheel has moved, but the rear wheel has not. The sand ridge just happened to cover and press on the base frame, lifting it upward. The front and back wheels cannot gain enough power to move… Luckily, this is not a big problem.”

They could then make out who the driver was as they got increasingly closer. The driver of Car No. 10 was Du Xuetao. After he got trapped, he started screaming and sweating. He twisted his steering wheel and stepped on the gas to get out of trouble, but to no avail.

“Turn it off! Turn off the engine first!”

The rest yelled and waved their arms to catch his attention. They didn’t dare to get too close, because everyone saw that the situation was very dangerous. The tires were not engaging the ground, and if the vehicle moved suddenly and reengaged with the terrain, it may suddenly run into them. The car was running close to full throttle, and any sudden movement could possibly be devastating if it hit somebody.

The roar of the engine muffled everyone’s shouts, and everyone was on high alert. Du Xuetao was probably too embarrassed to ask anyone for help.

“Little Du! What are you doing? Hurry and turn off the engine! Immediately! Immediately!”

Fortunately, Professor Wei Kang arrived in time and used the intercom to shock Du Xuetao into action. It was only after this that he released the throttle and turned off the engine.

Du Xuetao opened the door in frustration and jumped out of the car. However, he had forgotten that he was on sharp sand ridges, and the sand on the ridges was the lightest, thinnest form of sand. It was the easiest to slide off. His feet slipped when they landed, and everyone exclaimed. His whole body rapidly rolled down the sand dunes.

The person closest to him quickly rushed to the foot of the sand dune to stop his fall.

“Cough! Cough!”

When he emerged from the sand, Du Xuetao had become a sandman. He had been sweating a lot, and the sand clung to his skin. His face was covered with sand.

He opened his mouth, only for his tongue to be covered with sand.

“Eyes… My eyes…” he cried, his voice very muffled.

Everyone was shocked, thinking that his eyes had been injured or even blinded during the fall. The situation was troublesome. He might interrupt the trip and be sent back to the Siwa Oasis. From there, he would be sent back to the big city for treatment.

Zhang Zian bent over and picked up a pair of glasses. He blew off the sand and handed them to Du Xuetao. “Don’t worry. Your glasses are here!”

Du Xuetao was highly myopic, and losing his glasses was no different from losing his eyes. It made his heart panic.

After putting his glasses back on, he was much better. He looked at the crowd and said, “I’m sorry…”

“This is not the time for an apology. How is your body? Are you injured?” The female Detective ran to him with a first-aid kit.

Fortunately, the sand was soft, and Du Xuetao’s body was thin and light. Despite falling from such high sand dunes along the slopes, there were no obvious injuries. He was just scared and flustered by the saga.

“Prepare the rope and drag the car up,” Peter Lee commanded, rushing to the scene.

To drag a car, the traction rope must first be hung on the towed vehicle.

The sand dune was relatively tall. In addition, Du Xuetao was still unsettled and unable to stand up straight. He had only stepped on the throttle at regular pressure, and therefore, the car had gotten stuck in the sand ridge.

Because Du Xuetao was considered part of the team, Zhang Zian and Gao Ke volunteered to take the leash and climb to the sand dunes to rescue him.

The sand was very soft, and when one stepped on it, one sank right in. Shoes immediately filled with hot sand and became heavy like a piece of lead.

To make matters worse, the sand was still flowing. With any slight vibration, it would move. Moving forward by three steps pushed you backwards by two. Climbing a sand dune was quickly becoming similar to climbing a hill.

Zhang Zian and Gao Ke were very tired when they finally finished climbing the sand ridge. The people underneath the ridges reminded them to approach from the side and not the front or back of the car. If too much sand got dislodged, the car would slide down with it.

They carefully walked to the side of the car and closed the door that Du Xuetao had opened before. They explored the exterior before they hung the leash on the trailer hook. They then took a few steps back and gave an “OK” gesture.

The others were far away.

Another off-road vehicle slowly pulled on the traction rope, and when the rope was stretched taut, the trapped car finally moved.

At this time, the trailer could not loosen the tension on the rope. Instead, the throttle should be increased so that Car No. 10 could accelerate on its descent. Otherwise, if Car No. 10 was free to roll down by itself, it was likely to become unbalanced and flip over.

Only when Car No. 10 was finally down from the ridges, and the car and everyone was safe, did everyone heave a great sigh of relief.

They had been scheduled to cover a great amount of distance for the rest of the day. However, the unexpected accident had taken up some time. Peter Lee saw that the sky was slowly turning back and the sun was setting. It would not be suitable to continue moving forward. He ordered everyone to set up camp.