Chapter 110 Site Selection in the Gobi Desert
Six in the morning, the sky wasn't fully bright yet.
Four off-road vehicles were already lined up at the base entrance. Captain Zhou and a few soldiers were conducting final checks—spare tires, fuel, satellite phones, first aid kits, and a week's worth of dry rations and water.
Zhao Gang stood by the first vehicle, holding a map, his brow furrowed.
Lin Mo walked out of the Prefabricated Building, followed by Chen Xueming and Li Xiao. Zhang Zhe stayed at the base to monitor the equipment, watching them with an envious expression.
"Zhang Zhe, it'll be your turn next time," Lin Mo said.
Zhang Zhe nodded, but couldn't help muttering, "When will 'next time' be..."
Chen Xueming patted his shoulder. "Watch the house well. I'll bring you back some stones when we return."
Zhang Zhe rolled his eyes. "The Gobi Desert is full of stones everywhere. Are you trying to coax a child?"
Everyone laughed.
Zhao Gang walked over and handed the map to Lin Mo.
"Professor Lin, the route is confirmed. Heading west from here for three hundred and seventy kilometers, it's all No-man's land. If all goes well, we'll arrive by evening."
Lin Mo looked at the winding red line on the map and nodded.
"Let's head out."
The convoy drove out of the base in the morning light, kicking up a trail of yellow sand.
Li Xiao sat next to Lin Mo, excitedly looking out the window. She had been in the Gobi Desert for two years, but the farthest she had gone was a town two hundred kilometers away; she had never ventured deep into a true No-man's land.
"Teacher Lin, is there really nothing over there?"
Lin Mo thought for a moment.
"There's sand, stones, and wind."
Li Xiao laughed. "Isn't that the same as here?"
Chen Xueming snorted from the back seat. "The same? At least we have a base here. Over there, it's truly a godforsaken place."
Zhao Gang gripped the steering wheel, looking straight ahead.
"Professor Chen is right. I went there once when I was young. There's no water source within a two-hundred-kilometer radius, and no traces of human activity. On the satellite map, it's just a patch of earthy yellow."
Li Xiao took a breath.
"Then how are we going to build a base?"
Lin Mo looked back at her.
"That's why we have to go see."
The car drove for six hours.
At first, there were roads, but later even the roads disappeared, leaving only the direction Zhao Gang determined based on satellite positioning. The wheels rolled over gravel, kicking up yellow sand into the sky, with visibility sometimes dropping to less than twenty meters.
At noon, the convoy stopped to rest.
Several people squatted by the vehicles, gnawing on compressed biscuits with mineral water. The wind was strong, and the biscuits were full of sand, making a crunching sound as they bit into them.
Li Xiao chewed on a biscuit and suddenly laughed.
"What are you laughing at?" Chen Xueming asked.
"I was thinking, when I was in Beijing before, I used to eat takeout, a different place every day. I never imagined that one day, I'd be gnawing on sandy compressed biscuits in the Gobi Desert."
Chen Xueming laughed too.
"Regretting it?"
Li Xiao shook her head.
"No regrets. It's pretty cool."
Lin Mo looked at them, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
After finishing his biscuit, Zhao Gang pulled out the map again.
"There are still three hours left in the afternoon. If all goes well, we'll arrive around four-thirty."
Lin Mo nodded.
"Keep going."
At four-thirty in the afternoon, the convoy stopped on a gentle hillside.
Lin Mo jumped out of the car and stood on this land where no one had ever set foot.
Looking out, there was the endless Gobi Desert. The ground was covered with gravel, glowing with a dark red light under the setting sun. There were a few low hills in the distance, and further away, continuous snow-capped mountains.
The sky was high and blue, without a single cloud.
The wind was strong, whistling past his ears like a sigh unchanged for ten million years.
Li Xiao stood beside him, so shocked by the sight before her that she was speechless.
Chen Xueming walked around slowly, then squatted down to grab a handful of gravel, rubbing it between his fingers.
"Lots of stones; the foundation will be easy to build." He stood up and looked around. "The terrain is flat, suitable for building large-scale equipment. It's not far from the snow-capped mountains, so there might be groundwater."
Zhao Gang took several instruments from the car and began measuring.
"Recording coordinates. Magnetic field is normal, radiation is normal, and the geological structure is stable." He looked up. "Professor Lin, this place is indeed suitable."
Lin Mo nodded without speaking.
He walked slowly, feeling the land beneath his feet.
For hundreds of kilometers around, there were no people, no life—only the wind and endless gravel.
But soon, a new base would rise from the ground here.
There would be Reactors, a Control center, laboratories, and hundreds or thousands of people fighting here day and night.
There would be light.
The light of Nuclear Fusion.
He stopped and closed his eyes.
The wind whistled past his ears, carrying the desolation of ten million years.
But what he heard was not desolation.
It was the roar of the future.
"Teacher Lin!" Li Xiao's voice came from behind.
Lin Mo opened his eyes and turned around.
Li Xiao stood not far away, pointing in a direction.
"Look over there!"
Lin Mo looked in the direction she was pointing.
At the foot of the distant mountain, there was a slightly whitish area. In the midst of the all-encompassing dark red, it appeared particularly striking.
Zhao Gang took a look through his binoculars.
"Saline-alkali land," he said. "There might be groundwater underneath."
Chen Xueming's eyes lit up.
"With water, we can build a base. It saves the cost of transporting water from afar."
Lin Mo looked at that white patch, then at the surrounding terrain.
Backed by snow-capped mountains, facing a plain, far from densely populated areas, with potential water sources and stable geology.
He took a deep breath.
"This is the place."
In the evening, the convoy began its return journey.
Li Xiao leaned against the car window, watching the land grow more distant until it finally disappeared below the horizon.
"Teacher Lin, when will we come back?"
Lin Mo thought for a moment.
"Soon."
Chen Xueming was in the back seat; he hadn't spoken, but his face wore an expression of satisfaction.
Zhao Gang focused on driving, occasionally glancing in the rearview mirror at the land receding into the distance.
He knew that from this day forward, that place would become another Kunlun Base.
Perhaps even more important than Kunlun Base.
The car fell silent, save for the roar of the engine and the sound of the wind outside.
Lin Mo closed his eyes, the outline of that land appearing in his mind.
One day in the future, a massive device would stand there.
That was their next battlefield.
And their next home.