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墨書 Inktalez
Xia Dongrong was once a figure of great promise in his youth. At a time when cars were still a rarity in the country, he learned to drive and later joined a transport team, traveling far and wide. Although it was hard work, he found immense joy in it. Back then, drivers often attracted the attention of young women, and wherever he went, he would draw the admiration of beautiful girls. However, Xia Dongrong never felt any romantic inclination until one time when he accompanied a client to the western regions. At that time, their transport team did not have fixed transportation tasks; they usually took on temporary clients who would negotiate a price and pay half the fare before setting off.
The client this time was from the south and only needed one vehicle. At that moment, Xia Dongrong happened to be available, so the team assigned him this transport task. The destination was the western regions, and Xia Dongrong did not inquire about the cargo; as long as the client negotiated with the team boss, he just had to drive. There were no highways in the country at that time; national and provincial roads were winding and rugged with poor conditions. Long-distance transport was not only time-consuming but also fraught with danger. However, Xia Dongrong was young and full of vigor, undeterred by any difficulties. He drove straight into the western regions with his southern client.
Xia Dongrong and the southern client traveled for nearly a month, stopping intermittently. Upon entering the western regions, the southern client mentioned knowing a shortcut that would save them a week’s travel by crossing through the desert in just one day. Xia Dongrong had never been to the western regions before and knew nothing about deserts. Thinking of saving a week’s time, he unhesitatingly followed the southern client's suggestion and turned the vehicle towards the vast desert.
However, after two days of driving in the desert, they realized they were lost. All around them was an endless expanse of shimmering sand, making it impossible to determine their direction. Even if they wanted to retrace their steps, it was already impossible because the sand in the desert shifts constantly; any tracks they left quickly disappeared. After another day of driving in the desert, they ran out of fuel in the back of their vehicle. With nothing but endless sand ahead of them, they began to feel death closing in; if things continued like this, they would surely perish in the desert.
With no fuel left, they had no choice but to abandon their vehicle and carry food and drinking water on their backs as they walked forward. They had no idea if they could survive long enough to escape the desert; all they could do was try their best and leave their fate to chance. They supported each other for another day, but neither had experience surviving in a desert, so their water supply ran out quickly. Yet there seemed to be no end to the desert. The southern client’s spirit waned; after running out of water, he could not hold on much longer and collapsed in the sand, refusing to move any further. Although Xia Dongrong lacked desert survival experience, he understood that staying put meant waiting for death. He gritted his teeth and continued walking for a while longer until finally succumbing to exhaustion and dehydration.
When Xia Dongrong woke up, he found himself lying in a cool stone chamber. He had been rescued by a local ethnic minority that had lived in the desert for generations; their population had dwindled to just a few dozen people. They resided in an ancient underground city deep within the desert where there was a constant supply of underground water. The people of this ancient city only organized camel caravans periodically to procure daily necessities and food from towns at the edge of the desert. It was during one such procurement trip that they stumbled upon Xia Dongrong unconscious in the sand and brought him back.
Later on, Xia Dongrong asked these underground dwellers why they didn’t live outside in the desert and how they managed to sustain themselves with necessary supplies since farming or hunting was impossible there. The people of the ancient city did not provide him with an answer but told him that if he did not wish to stay with them, they would send him out of the desert once he recovered. Naturally, Xia Dongrong did not want to live permanently in such an underground city within the heart of the desert; he decided that as soon as he regained his strength, he would leave. His years of transporting goods across various places had fostered a free-spirited nature within him—he could not bear to settle down for life in such a place.
However, during his recovery in that underground city, Xia Dongrong met his future wife—Weniko, who was also Summer Wind's mother—changing his mind about leaving. Weniko was the daughter of the leader of this underground ethnic group. When Xia Dongrong first saw her, he was utterly captivated; he never expected to find such beauty in an underground city deep within a desert. Weniko embodied all the virtues of both Eastern and Western women—a perfect blend—and Xia Dongrong fell head over heels for her.
Because of Weniko's presence, Xia Dongrong resolutely decided to stay longer in this underground city within the desert; he was determined to win her heart. For an entire year following that decision, Xia Dongrong remained there. He was already handsome by nature and had gained considerable knowledge from his travels over those years; thus it didn’t take long for him to win Weniko’s affection as well. Six months after Xia Dongrong settled there, a wedding ceremony was held for him and Weniko among her people; he finally married his dream girl.
After marrying Weniko, their leader began teaching Xia Dongrong swordsmanship every day. The knives used by this ethnic group were peculiar—not like thick-backed long swords from central plains nor like curved Arab sabers commonly used by desert tribes—but rather short wide knives resembling bone-cutting knives that looked like large kitchen cleavers at first glance. Initially dismissive of such knives as mere butcher tools with no finesse, Xia Dongrong soon realized their true power; crafted from unknown materials, these knives could effortlessly slice through large stones without sustaining any damage.
Moreover, this ethnic group's swordsmanship was quite formidable as well; attacks often came from unexpected angles—strange like venomous snakes in the desert—making them incredibly sharp when paired with these short wide knives. Gradually captivated by this swordsmanship style, Xia Dongrong devoted himself wholeheartedly to practicing under his father-in-law—the leader of this ethnic group. Although already past his early twenties—an age typically considered too late for martial arts training—his intelligence and quick comprehension allowed him to master about seventy or eighty percent of this swordsmanship style.
Time flew by quickly; before long, Xia Dongrong had spent two years in that underground city deep within the desert. During these two years, aside from being with his wife and child or practicing swordsmanship, Weniko gave birth to their child—their daughter Summer Wind—in her second year postpartum. With a loving wife and child and no worries about life’s necessities, Xia Dongrong still felt an inexplicable sense of longing for something missing from his life. He increasingly missed his hometown and family far away in central plains; more than once he woke up startled from dreams where his parents had passed away during his absence. This growing desire led him to wish to return home—to see again that hometown he had left two years prior.
Xia Dongrong shared this idea with his wife, but her reaction was quite firm. She said she would not leave this place and advised Xia Dongrong not to leave the ancient city either, as he would soon become the next Leader of this Minority. This was also the reason why his Father-in-law taught him the Swordsmanship of their people. However, Xia Dongrong had already made up his mind to return to his hometown. He told his wife that they were only going back to visit their parents and relatives, and he wanted to take his wife and child to meet the elders. If possible, he hoped to bring his parents back to live with them, so that their family could be together without ever separating again.
Weniko could not withstand Xia Dongrong's persistent pleas and finally agreed to take their child back to the Central Plains with him, but insisted that they must return to the ancient city within a year, no matter what happened. Xia Dongrong conveyed this idea to the Leader, who initially opposed it firmly. Later, Weniko also persuaded her father, saying they would definitely return to the ancient city within a year. The Leader reluctantly agreed but repeatedly reminded them that they must come back within that time frame.
Before they left, the Leader gave Xia Dongrong a sum of money. Xia Dongrong did not know where this money came from; during the two years spent in the underground ancient city, although the tribe did not live extravagantly, it seemed they had never been in dire straits either. Whenever he asked the Leader and Weniko about the source of their livelihood, they would say that the time had not yet come, and when it did, they would naturally tell him everything. Thus, Xia Dongrong set off with his wife and child after a long journey and finally returned home to Longchuan after two months. At that time, Summer Wind was only a few months old and had traveled thousands of miles in swaddling clothes with his parents.
Upon returning to Longchuan, Xia Dongrong learned that his father had passed away a year ago and that his mother's health had been poor. It seemed that if he were to take his mother on a long journey again, she might not survive even until reaching the Western Regions. Therefore, Xia Dongrong dared not leave and could only stay with his wife and children for now, deciding what to do based on the situation.
However, ever since Weniko left the desert, her originally healthy body began to deteriorate rapidly; she became increasingly weak and more susceptible to illness. At first, Xia Dongrong thought her condition was due to the exhaustion from their two-month journey and believed she would recover with some rest. But later he realized it was far more serious than that; Weniko's health did not improve but instead worsened significantly. Three months later, she was bedridden. In the beginning, Weniko often urged Xia Dongrong to hurry back to the Western Regions, but as she saw her own frail condition—perhaps fearing she could not endure another long journey—she stopped mentioning returning to the Western Regions altogether and spent her days silently weeping while watching Xia Dongrong and Xia Feng.
In truth, Xia Dongrong did not want to return to the Western Regions either; life in the underground ancient city was too monotonous and dull. Moreover, he truly could not bear leaving behind his aging and sickly mother. He also wanted Xia Feng to receive a proper education; he did not want his son growing up disconnected from society or spending his life in that isolated underground city. Thus, their family never mentioned returning to the Western Regions again.
Yet just as a year passed since they left the underground ancient city, beautiful Weniko succumbed to organ failure and passed away unexpectedly. This left Xia Dongrong in disbelief. Remembering what the Leader and Weniko had said when they left the underground ancient city, he felt there must be some significant secret behind it all, but he could not figure out what it was.
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