The wind and sand are growing stronger. Chang Dong folds up the tent, everyone moves into the vehicle, and the chef curls up, shivering. Chang Dong pulls out the powerful headlamp, mask, night-vision goggles—all prepared in advance for three people—and two soft-shell windproof jackets, black. Ye Liuxi puts on the mask and goggles, then holds up one of the jackets and asks, "Which brand is better?" "The one with arm pockets on the sleeves—" She takes it and puts it on. Chang Dong glances at her, and is genuinely surprised: in the past, he'd found it frustrating when people prioritized themselves over others. But with her, he's come to appreciate that habit. Ye Liuxi gathers her hair with a cord and gestures toward the chef, "What about him? Should we bring him along?" "Better to leave him here—safer on the vehicle." Ye Liuxi pauses and adds, "Still, maybe we should bring him. If we're able to discover the shadow coffin and the remains of the Eighth Gray on this trip, he might be stimulated enough to share some new insights." Chang Dong hesitated, feeling it rather cruel. Ye Liuxi always had her own reasons: "He's already dazed—he might as well be dazed again. Who knows, maybe by accident, the negative turns positive, and he ends up feeling normal." —— Once off the bus, Chang Dong took the lead, while Ye Liuxi tied the hands of the head chef and trailed behind, guided by a rope. The head chef preferred Chang Dong—he spoke little and never spoke harshly, whereas Ye Liuxi had little patience; whenever things didn’t go her way, she’d glare, then scold, then kick. After being kicked twice, the head chef became as docile as a caged chicken. Chang Dong tried to recall the route he had followed the night before tracking Hui Ba, walking and stopping intermittently, his flashlight sweeping repeatedly over the soil platforms at mid-height. If he remembered correctly, Hui Ba and his group had followed the marks. Once again, as the flashlight beam passed, Chang Dong suddenly spotted a red paint arrow freshly brushed onto the platform. His heart leapt—he exclaimed, "It's appeared." When Huaya withdrew, they had clearly told him, "All the marks are gone." Ye Liuxi nodded, "Then let's follow. Let's see if the shadow coffin is still there." Chang Dong shared the same thought. The three continued walking in the same direction. The head chef remained silent throughout, only suddenly settling down on the ground midway, refusing to move—no matter how Ye Liuxi kicked him twice. Eventually, Ye Liuxi had to call on Chang Dong to help, and they dragged the head chef forward about ten meters—probably because he had been pressing so hard against the ground, he then rose up and walked steadily on his own. After walking a bit further, Chang Dong began to feel something was off: he hadn't seen any marks for a long time. Ye Liuxi shared the same concern: "That night, when we followed Gray Eight, didn't we walk for that long?" Chang Dong checked his watch—on that night, they had followed for over half an hour, but now, it had been nearly an hour. He carefully recalled the journey and then focused on the head chef, "How long ago was it when he first refused to move?" "Fifteen to twenty minutes, that should do." "Go back—the spot where he started acting stubborn should be there." Indeed, after walking back a little, the head chef once again threw a fit, this time even more intense, clinging tightly to Changdong's legs and refusing to let go. With Changdong's flashlight pointed forward, he could still see the long trail left behind where he had just pulled the head chef. Only after finally dislodging the head chef did Ye Liuxi have been waiting there for a while. The arrangement of the soil platform now looked almost entirely different from that night. Changdong found it strange: "Is this it?" Ye Liuxi gestured with the flashlight to the ground. "Yes." Changdong noticed a rectangular depression. Indeed, while salt-alkali soil might not easily preserve footprints, the heavy landing of the shadow coffin that night—its weight would have left impressions like wagon ruts, lasting for a long time and difficult to erase. Changdong closed his eyes, using the depression as a reference point, mentally reconstructing the position of the coffin that night, the standing positions of the people, and the placement of the eight bodies of the Gray Eight. He opened his eyes again. The雅dan mounds that had been excavated that night were no longer just restored—they had changed in shape: previously tower-like, they now resembled a squatting animal. Where the Gray Eight's bodies had once lay, the ground was now a small雅dan platform, joined seamlessly to the nearby雅dan mounds, bulky but ordinary. It was no wonder that when he and Ye Liuxi passed by, they hadn't recognized it—the shape and width of the platform had both changed. Yet the head chef was different; he knew that "Master Eight had been buried," had personally witnessed the transformation, and sensed that they had arrived at another terrifying spot, so he refused to move forward. Changdong paused thoughtfully, then walked to the edge of the newly formed small雅dan platform, and with the bottom of his flashlight, struck it hard against the platform's surface, while the head chef stepped back, unable to look away. Ye Liuxi was puzzled: "What are you knocking at?" "I remember there was a spade leaning against the wall at that time..." Before he finished speaking, a section of the earthen platform gave way, and clumps of gravel tumbled down, revealing the handle of the spade. Chang Dong grasped it and pulled it firmly to the side—cracking the platform surface open as the spade was yanked out. He raised the spade and began to dig toward the spot where he remembered the shadow coffin was supposed to be. The spade's blade was sharp and drove in halfway, its face resting horizontally in the air, swaying gently in the wind. Ye Liuxi was still puzzled: "What exactly do you want to achieve? With just us, we simply can't dig out the shadow coffin." Chang Dong replied: "No—it's as if I've overlooked something..." Suddenly, he looked up: "Do you still remember what FeiTang said about how the gray-eighth people discovered that shadow coffin?" "Remember this rather fortuitous incident—when the one with the loose teeth argued with a companion and ended up wielding a spade to strike each other. In the course of the struggle, one lost his balance and struck the grayish, terraced platform, causing a section to collapse and revealing a dark, coffin-like section. Chang Dong said, 'If I'm not mistaken, the primary composition of the Bai Long Dui Yadan is sandstone and mudstone interbedded with gypsum layers. Wind and water erosion can carry away loose sand and soil, but the remaining structure is quite hard. How then could a single spade strike cause such a noticeable section to break off?' After speaking, he removed his spade and walked over to a neighboring Yadan platform, splitting it with a powerful blow. The sharp, resonant sound of stone on stone sent a sharp pain through his palm. Chang Dong then turned to Ye Liuxi and said, 'This platform housing the shadow-play coffin is embedded among the Yadan terraces, yet it is not a Yadan—it is simply a mound of compacted soil.' — How could a mound of compacted soil have become integrated among the Yadan terraces? It's as if a piece of Taihu There was also a small, linked Yadan terraced mound. Chang Dong tested the soil and found it to be compact, solid earth—so he decided not to dig further. If the gray-eight team were really buried beneath, digging would be equivalent to excavating their graves, and he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it. He called out to Ye Liuxi, "Let's go back first. We won't see anything definite tonight, but there might be more clues during the day." Upon returning to the camp, it was already nearly midnight. Chang Dong seated himself at the front, with the head chef, and reserved the back seats for Ye Liuxi to sleep. This was quite considerate of him—she almost felt grateful—though she was so tired that she simply closed her eyes and fell asleep. She didn't know how long it had been before she vaguely sensed light. With difficulty, she opened her eyes and saw the head chef sprawled out, like a spider resting on the passenger seat. The cabin lights had already been turned off, yet Chang Dong was busy assembling something, with only a faint nightlight glowing weakly on the dashboard. Ye Liuxi murmured unconsciously and pulled the blanket up slightly. Chang Dong noticed, tilted his head slightly backward, then reached out to turn off the night lamp. Ye Liuxi closed her eyes, and in that instant when the light faded, she saw the outline of Chang Dong’s face slightly tilted. Chang Dong’s shadow puppets, though exquisite, were not quite to her liking—women uniformly had “slightly curved brows and fine eyes,” men had “flat eyes and brows, showing loyalty; round eyes open, with a more stern temperament.” They were all the same, lacking the subtle, touching expressions that momentarily emerged. In the future, when she herself began carving shadow puppets, she would use Chang Dong as her model. His facial outline was good—refined yet sturdy, well-suited for rendering. —— In the morning, the wind and sand had softened somewhat, and the daytime truly offered a sense of security, even though they still remained in an eerie situation. Ye Liuxi finally understood what Chang Dong had been doing all night before: he had rented a drone prior to departure and had spent the night assembling it and becoming familiar with its operation. She had only heard of it, never seen it firsthand. When she looked at it—its arms and legs outstretched, the propellers whirling with lively motion—she found it quite interesting. During the test flight, she would crane her neck upward, always eager to leap up and catch it. When Chang Dong asked her, "Never flown before, have you?" she replied, "I'm poor." Chang Dong: "...". Ye Liuxi was curious why he had brought the drone, Chang Dong didn't give a direct explanation, only saying, "You'll know when you get here." —— For the first time, during the day, he saw the platform where the shadow coffins were located, and it wasn't much different from what he had expected; Chang Dong gently exhaled. He pointed to Ye Liuxi and said, "You can't see the difference at night, but during the day there's a noticeable contrast—did you notice that the Yadan landforms of the Bai Long Dui are mostly salty and gypsum-rich, with a gray-white or even silvery-white hue, while this platform has a more yellowish tone?" Ye Liuxi suddenly remembered something: "The head chef mentioned that sand fell from the sky, burying the gray one—the platform here is made of compacted sandy soil, right?" Chang Dong replied, "That's possible. Actually, I'm trying to find out whether such a platform with shadow coffins exists only once in the Bai Long Dui, or if there are several of them. The color difference is hard to discern when you're close, but when you're farther away, it becomes clear. He lifted Ye Liuxi onto the nearest Yadan terraced mound and found a level spot, then operated the drone to take off. The drone gradually ascended, moving steadily, reaching about 200 to 300 meters in height. At this level, the terraced mounds of the Bai Long Dui Yadan were mostly below 20 meters, and now the drone provided a broad, panoramic view with a clear image on the video transmission screen. Suddenly, Ye Liuxi noticed something: "Here, here, there's another mound too." Chang Dong gently pressed the throttle and control stick, guiding the drone in a straight line forward. Both of them held their breath. Another one, then another... Each mound was spaced roughly one kilometer apart, extending in a straight line—like dots arranged in a line if there were a pen to draw it. And there were not just one, but two parallel lines, symmetrically positioned, with one mound located about a hundred meters from their side. The video transmission could only support up to about seven kilometers, so Chang Dong maneuvered the drone to return. Ye Liuxi was slightly stunned until the drone landed, when she asked Chang Dong, "Will there also be shadow-painted coffins in those earthen platforms?" Chang Dong replied, "Just go and see." —— The two walked to the earthen platform some hundred meters away. Chang Dong inserted the flat blade of his spade into the soil halfway up the platform and gave it a firm lever. As he pulled the spade out, the compacted sand and soil crumbled and fell in all directions, dust swirling and filling the air, making it hard to breathe. Retreating two steps, Chang Dong saw... a dark, solid section of coffin.