Chapter 155: The Path of Solitude, Shared by You and Me
Leaving the East Taijinar Lake, the scenery along the road became increasingly magical and magnificent.
The four vehicles drove in a convoy, pressing forward, and the scenery following the East Taijinar Lake grew even more bizarre.
With a gentle press on the accelerator, Lin Shenlu sped up.
The scenery along the way was truly breathtaking.
Throughout the journey, Lin Shenlu’s gaze was entirely captivated by the Water Yardangs.
What is a Yardang?
What is a Water Yardang?
What kind of landscape is this?
This is a classic wind-eroded landform.
It is the appearance carved by the wind howling over countless years.
The traces of weathering are profound.
This landform frequently appears as a specific geological formation predominantly found in the Lop Nur region.
It is stunning.
Viewed from many angles, it resembles a long fleet of warships drifting leisurely upon the water.
And there are countless such protruding Yardang formations rising from the water.
This route is the only place where one can witness the Water Yardang landscape.
Small hills crowned with steep cliffs seem to be the most fitting description for these Yardangs.
Strictly speaking, the Yardang landform generally refers to a wind-eroded landscape in arid regions, where the ground is composed of fluvial and lacustrine silty sediments. Through weathering, intermittent running water erosion, and wind erosion, it forms a combination of wind-eroded earthen mounds and wind-eroded depressions that run parallel to and alternate with the prevailing wind direction.
Anyway, it looks utterly magnificent.
Of course, much like Lin Shenlu’s earlier aerial photography of the East Taijinar Lake, this is a beauty that can only be truly appreciated from a God’s-eye perspective.
From a ground-level perspective, one sees only small mounds emerging from the water; but when the drone takes flight, those thousands upon thousands of waterborne warships appear as majestic as a million-strong army crossing a great river.
...
Lin Shenlu’s next stop was naturally the West Taijinar Lake, the counterpart to the East Taijinar Lake.
These are two entirely contrasting lakes.
After viewing the West Taijinar Lake, Lin Shenlu would arrive at the first destination along National Highway 315 where one must linger for a long time.
The Mars Camp.
Following the Mars Highway 1 to reach the Mars Base.
National Highway 315 is both very long and very short.
A mere six or seven-day journey, yet Lin Shenlu had already been driving for four days, and had not even covered two days' worth of distance.
Perhaps he was prolonging the journey, or perhaps he was simply slowing his pace.
Was it because he didn't want it to end too soon? Or was it because of the affection blooming in his heart?
Today’s journey had come to an end.
Lin Shenlu drove, leading the Rose Team members trailing behind him into the Water Yardang Scenic Area.
Within the entire scenic area, there was only one four-star hotel.
And of course, this time there was also the RV campground that Lin Shenlu had been longing for.
Within a radius of three hundred kilometers, this was the only place where one could stay.
Having painted by the East Taijinar Lake all morning and driven for such a long time, Lin Shenlu certainly could not continue any further.
A sound night’s sleep, perfectly timed for replenishment, before pressing on.
For tomorrow’s road would lead them to the West Taijinar Lake.
Everyone was exhausted from today's play.
Especially An Muxi and Zumureti, who had both gone out onto the water.
Baking in the sun on the transparent little boats for so long had left them both rather fatigued.
On the way to the scenic area, An Muxi slowly drifted to sleep in the passenger seat.
Zumureti, however, could not afford to sleep, as she still had to drive.
Soon, they arrived at the scenic area.
...
After settling everyone in, Lin Shenlu eagerly drove his vehicle alone to the RV campground.
While charging the vehicle, Lin Shenlu opened his laptop.
There was simply too much to write about today.
And far too many shocks to process.
His fingers gently tapped upon the keyboard of his laptop...
"When the salt lake encounters the Yardang"
"When gentleness and ruggedness merge at the horizon"
"Another stop on the Northwest self-driving tour, the Wusute Water Yardang"
"Crossing the boundless Gobi, as a expanse of azure enters the eyes"
"Deep within the basin, yet feeling as though the ocean has been sighted"
"The desolate and lonely millennium-old Yardangs, adorned by tens of thousands of acres of rippling waves"
"Granting this majestic land a touch of tenderness"
"And thus, this place becomes the world's only water Yardang landform"
"Yardangs scattered across the water like stars, bearing forms of infinite variety"
"Resembling whales with exposed spines swimming in the deep sea, endlessly surging forward"
"Also like a fleet setting sail, advancing slowly toward the vast ocean"
"Here, there are no traces of artificial carving, only the pristine beauty sculpted by nature"
"Here, there is everything you could ever imagine, and everything you could never imagine"
...
Having finished writing the travel log for this segment of National Highway 315, Lin Shenlu let out a long stretch.
Stepping outside, Lin Shenlu went to look for the others.
Tonight’s arrangement was quite interesting.
Lin Shenlu’s RV was parked at the RV base, and both An Muxi and He Ku'er would be staying right here.
Meanwhile, the Naihe Three Sisters and Zumureti chose to rent RVs for the night.
That’s right, within this scenic area, unless one brought a tent or an RV, staying in an RV was the only option.
The Haixi Water Yardang RV Base.
A circular base.
Over a hundred large RVs were parked here.
The RVs were divided into double-occupancy and quadruple-occupancy models.
The prices were a bit steep.
According to what the Naihe Three Sisters and Reti had just said, it averaged six hundred yuan per person per night.
Twenty-four hundred yuan for an RV for the night...
"Brother Lin, want to come play mahjong with us? Only Naihe and I know how to play in our room!" Reti said to Lin Shenlu with a beaming smile.
"Well... I do know how, but we're still short of a player!" Lin Shenlu’s gaze shifted toward An Muxi.
An Muxi gently shook her head to indicate she wasn't skilled at it.
He Ku'er immediately raised her hand to signal that she could play.
"Wait... Reti, you're of the Uyghur ethnic group, do you play Xinjiang mahjong? I play Chengdu mahjong. And Naihe, what about you? What style do you play?" Lin Shenlu asked with curiosity.
"I'm from Changchun. Do you guys know Changchun mahjong? Little chicken flying eggs? One-nine eggs? Double-up treasury?" Naihe explained excitedly.
Naihe truly hadn't expected to find mahjong inside an RV in this scenic area...
Wasn't she going to win back her RV rental fee tonight?
"Don't understand, I have no idea what you're talking about..." Reti tilted her head and replied.
He Ku'er looked at the group and said, "I don't know any of the ones you mentioned. I play Inner Mongolian mahjong... I learned it from a college classmate..."
Well, four people playing four different regional styles of mahjong—there was simply no way to play.
...
"Let's go eat first, I'm really starved!" Lin Shenlu sighed and said.
In this uninhabited place stretching for hundreds of miles, finding a place to eat was truly difficult.
Even though the dishes here were both expensive and unpalatable.
The cheapest meat dish, onions stir-fried with pork... sixty yuan. Scallion stalks stir-fried with pork, green peppers stir-fried with pork were all at that same price point.
Scallion-fried mutton and braised chicken chunks were both eighty.
The most expensive braised beef cost one hundred.
We can't afford this, really can't afford this...
...
The next morning, none of the people who had agreed to wake up together to watch the sunrise over the Water Yardangs managed to get out of bed.
Sleeping comfortably in an RV wasn't something just anyone could manage.
Around nine in the morning, everyone packed up and continued on their way.
Destination: West Taijinar Lake.
...
West Taijinar Lake.
This road is exceptionally well-suited for aerial photography.
It is a lake whose beauty can only be thoroughly appreciated when admired from the sky.
From Lin Shenlu’s perspective, right down the middle lay a straight white road.
A road covered entirely by salt crystals.
Parking the car on this empty, deserted road:
To the left was a light green lake.
Extremely shallow, extremely vast, stretching out to the horizon.
The water was so transparent that the bottom of the lake seemed directly visible.
Indeed, the lakebed was also covered in those pale white salt crystals.
The uneven lakebed seemed to render the layers of this light green hue all the more distinct.
Turning to look to the right:
On the right was a deep green lake.
Like a world from antiquity, like a paradise on earth.
This was a primordial, unchanging color for one to slowly savor.
The lake waters of different colors on the left and right felt like water from the heavenly kingdom—sacred, proud, and pure.
Lin Shenlu’s heart seemed to melt beneath the blue sky and white clouds, melting into the sacred waters of the lake.
"Lulu... why are these two lakes so close to each other, yet their colors are so different?"
"Actually, this is just a giant hot pot—a mandarin duck hot pot! The left side is green apple flavor, and the right side is... watermelon rind flavor. Get it?" Lin Shenlu explained.
"Can you... ever be serious for once?" An Muxi punched Lin Shenlu playfully.
...
On this self-driving trip along National Highway 315, it could be said there were four internet-famous lakes: East Taijinar Lake, West Taijinar Lake, Dachaidan Emerald Lake, and Mangya Emerald Lake. Each of the four lakes possessed unique characteristics, yet the most magical of all remained the West Taijinar Lake.
The peculiarity of West Taijinar Lake is that it is a dual-colored lake.
It isn't very obvious from the ground, but when a drone flies up into the air to look down, one is astonished to find that the calm surface of the lake is split into two distinct parts by the highway: one half is a refreshing mint blue, while the other half is a deep emerald green.
Such magical lake water is due to the fact that the lake is primarily subject to alluvial, diluvial, aeolian, lacustrine clastic sedimentation, along with certain saline chemical depositions.
It belongs to a magnesium sulfate sub-salt lake, where lithium ore resources are exceptionally abundant, and lithium is also the raw material used in making lithium batteries.
...
After finding a spot and parking the car, Lin Shenlu began once again to fill transparent glass bottles with water.
Only this time, it was a bit special.
Ever since setting out from Xining all the way to this point, Lin Shenlu had filled a total of three bottles of water.
Namely, Qinghai Lake, Chaka Salt Lake, and East Taijinar Lake.
Even when passing through the Water Yardangs, Lin Shenlu hadn't bothered to collect a bottle of water from beneath the Yardangs.
Instead, he stopped specifically at West Taijinar Lake.
Yet West Taijinar Lake was truly special.
Along such a straight loess road, the colors of the water on either side were completely different.
Should the left and right sides be considered two lakes?
Yet this was fundamentally a single lake...
Never mind... let's go with two glass bottles.
Lin Shenlu placed all the filled bottles of water inside the refrigerator.
His greatest fear was that this water would turn foul over time.
He had a vivid memory of this very thing.
When he was a little boy, Lin Shenlu’s mother had once traveled to Changbai Mountain.
Upon her return, his mother brought him a bottle of water.
It was contained in a one-yuan-a-bottle Master Kong mineral water plastic bottle.
His mother claimed it was water from the Heavenly Lake of Changbai Mountain.
And this water was even sweet.
His mother said little Lulu had never been to Changbai Mountain and had never tasted the sweet water of Changbai Mountain, so she brought back a bottle for little Lulu to try.
Lin Shenlu was young back then, so he happily opened the cap and took a sip.
Mmm! It really was a bit sweet.
Perhaps Nongfu Spring had nothing on it.
Lin Shenlu couldn't bear to drink any more of it.
He carried this bottle of water by day, and tucked it into his bedding at night when he slept.
He wouldn't even spare a single sip when showing off to his little friends.
Until a month later.
The water had turned somewhat green.
Curious, Lin Shenlu opened it and took a sip.
It had gone foul.
Oh.
So water could go bad.
Lin Shenlu vomited for many days.
It left him with a lifelong trauma.
Perhaps the microorganisms inside the water had died...
And their rotting corpses had stunk up the place.
Lin Shenlu’s terrifying childhood memory taught him a lesson today.
That is, bottled water from wilderness lakes will sooner or later go foul.
Therefore, Lin Shenlu chose to freeze it in the refrigerator; that would make it keep, wouldn't it?
His friend loved water, so he would just bring him water from this road.
...
Standing on either side of the sister lakes, *glug glug* went the water.
Soon, both of the lonely bodies of water were bottled up by Lin Shenlu.
Lin Shenlu tore a piece of paper from his pink notebook and wrote beneath the caps:
"West Taijinar Lake Emerald Green," "West Taijinar Lake Mint Blue."
This way they could be told apart, right?
Indeed, lakes like this were the epitome of loneliness.
That bubbling sound just now had been thoroughly, utterly lonely.
Clearly a single lake, yet forced apart by a straight line for thousands of years.
So close, yet so far away.
That was true loneliness.
...
Standing on the road in the middle, Lin Shenlu used his drone to record documentary footage and videos, while several girls resumed taking pictures.
In Lin Shenlu’s mind, calculations began to stir.
By now, reckoning the entire length of National Highway 315, he had covered about half of it.
The magnificent scenery along the way had truly shaken his inner soul.
Setting out from Xining, passing through Qinghai Lake, traveling onward to Delingha, hitting the internet-famous highway, and arriving at East Taijinar Lake.
Passing through the Water Yardangs, and coming this morning to West Taijinar Lake.
The destination for the group this afternoon was the Mars Highway 1.
And the latter half of National Highway 315 to come would be even more grand and sweeping.
Mangya Emerald Lake!
Akan Spring, the Eye of the Devil!
Huatugou and the Kunlun Grand Canyon!
Hoh Xil Uninhabited Zone!
Golmud!
...
All these sights were waiting for him.
And the next stop, the Mars Base, filled Lin Shenlu with even greater anticipation.
The Mars Camp was China’s first Mars simulation base, located in the Lenghu region of Mangya, Haixi, Qinghai.
It was said that the Mars Camp was the place on Earth most resembling Mars—vast and desolate—making it immensely popular among self-driving tourists.
The Mars Camp lay along the Northwest Grand Loop, situated midway between Dunhuang and Dachaidan, and it was rumored that one could see a multitude of sci-fi-looking tents here.
Legend had it that coming here meant simply following tire tracks, as there were no obvious landmarks whatsoever—just a vast expanse of saline-alkali land.
The so-called road consisted merely of tire ruts carved into the Gobi Desert; paradoxically, places without tire ruts, where the road surface hadn't been crushed by vehicles, were much smoother and easier to drive on without all the bumps and dips.
Moreover, within a 30-kilometer radius around the Mars Camp, there was basically no cell phone signal.
Lin Shenlu had previously read similar blog posts.
He had a brief introduction to the Mars Camp.
It was said that the scenery of the Mars Camp did not resemble Earth at all, and staying a night at the Mars Camp was highly recommended.
Rumor had it that the Mars Camp provided accommodation, though it wasn't cheap, and naturally, the living conditions were relatively rudimentary since it wasn't a fully equipped hotel.
At this moment, the matter causing Lin Shenlu the greatest tangle was the issue of the road.
On the way to the Mars Camp, the first thing they entered was this abandoned national highway known as Mars Highway 1.
This truly was an abandoned national highway.
On both sides of the road lay vast expanses of Yardang clusters, and for tens of minutes of driving, not a single vehicle could be seen, making it feel as though one were driving on Mars.
Perhaps this was why it was called the loneliest Martian road.
Fortunately this time, aside from his own vehicle, there was He Ku'er’s car trailing behind, along with Naihe’s car and Zumureti’s car.
Traveling together as a convoy made it feel a lot less lonely.
If there were only a single car, one would surely drive it to the point of doubting the meaning of life.
At this moment, right before Lin Shenlu’s eyes, aside from the Yardang landforms, there was only the road.
"Lulu, are we going to get lost?" An Muxi asked curiously.
This road was too bizarre.
Bizarre enough to make one find it hard to believe.
How could there possibly be such a desolate road with such curves?
"I hope we get lost too, but we really are just on the road," Lin Shenlu said with a smile.
Appreciating this rare scenery was also a form of happiness.
"Let's find a place to rest in a bit, I'm getting a bit tired of driving!" Lin Shenlu said.
Normally, if the person in the passenger seat knew how to drive, a road like this would be best suited for taking turns.
Just like in Naihe’s car, the three of them frequently rotated driving duties, so none of them got overly exhausted.
The ones who were definitely the most tired were He Ku'er and Zumureti.
Those two girls... let alone the two of them, even Lin Shenlu was tired out of his mind.
However... driving while tired was one thing, and riding a motorcycle was quite another.
A road like this reminded Lin Shenlu that he still had a divine artifact hidden in the back.
When buying the RV, he hadn't considered much else, but an off-road motorcycle had to be attached to the rear compartment.
That was the absolute standard equipment for a self-driving traveler entering an uninhabited zone.
Wilderness, desert, Yardangs, howling winds.
The uninhabited zone.
What was the limit of an off-road motorcycle?
Lin Shenlu longed to experience it.
Wearing a helmet, donning a windbreaker, tying a scarf, wearing sunglasses, stepping onto the dirt bike, and forging ahead unflinchingly.
That was the true joy of a real man.
It was only a pity that he hadn't had the opportunity to experience it for so long.
"Rest a while if you're tired, we're not in a rush, and everyone else must be tired too," An Muxi said.
Over the past few days, An Muxi and these girls had been getting along rather well.
An Muxi was the type of person who wasn't easily moved by others.
Especially strangers encountered along the road.
Perhaps it was also because after meeting Lin Shenlu, An Muxi discovered that she was slowly changing.
Of course... it might also be because of walking along a road like this.
Prolonged, uninhabited, lonely.
With only the people by her side to offer comfort.
This caused An Muxi to slowly alter her mindset, beginning to accept these few sole companions around her.
At the very least, with them here, it wasn't quite so lonely.
This was also what Lin Shenlu had hoped to see.
They say the longer two people stay together, the more they are changed by one another.
An Muxi hadn't noticed Lin Shenlu being changed by her.
But she herself had truly been changed by Lin Shenlu.
An Muxi didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.
Yet she was very happy with her present self.
And that was enough.
She looked at Lin Shenlu with a warm smile.
"Later on, I'm going to borrow one of your glass bottles!" An Muxi said softly.
"What for? This is the Mars Base! There's no water here!" Lin Shenlu asked in surprise.
"I want to pack a bottle of yellow sand to take back... My yellow sand won't go foul." An Muxi smiled.
"I use those for water... the bottles are very expensive..." Lin Shenlu felt a slight pang of heartache.
"Worst case, I'll pay you back ten bottles when we get back!" An Muxi had already made up her mind.
"Last time in Dali you also said you'd compensate me for an expensive hat..." Lin Shenlu expressed his lack of trust.