I waited until dawn, but Professor Dong and Dong Xiaodan still didn't return to the village on their own. I couldn't sit still anymore, so early in the morning, I went out of the village with Wen Qingshan, Jiangui, Basang and Tashi Duoji to look for them.
At the same time, Uncle Qianba ordered the local herdsmen to continue searching around the village.
In order to find more clues, we headed to the Gesang Valley again under the leadership of Tashi Duoji. Based on our itinerary, Wen Qingshan used a GPS locator to draw a topographic map from Daga Doma Village to the Gesang Valley.
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Looking at the topographic map, we found that the road from Daga Doma Village to Gesang Valley was not as complicated as we originally thought, because Gesang Valley is surrounded by mountains on the east, west, and north sides.
To the south is a relatively flat meadow.
Even if the professor and Dong Xiaodan deviated from the correct direction, it was unlikely that they would go over the mountains. Therefore, they most likely went south, and south is the direction of Daga Doma Village! So
, they should just be at a slight angle.
Based on this assumption, Wen Qingshan delineated a key search area on the topographic map with the mouth of the Gesang Valley as the axis and distributed in a fan shape, and the five of us began searching carefully within this area.
However, we searched from morning to 2pm, but still could not find any clues. After four or five hours of continuous search, everyone was very tired. There happened to be a plateau lake in front of us, so Tashi Dorje suggested that everyone take a rest by the lake.
, let’s have something to eat.
So we found an open space by the lake and sat down.
The lake in front of you is not very big. The water area is only about two to three hundred square meters. It should have been originally a low-lying land. The lake was formed due to rainwater erosion all year round. Because the lake is too small, it does not look like a lake, but more like a lake.
It is a pond. There are lush aquatic plants beside the lake, and there are even some floating meadows in the lake.
The scenery around the lake is very good, but I am not in the mood to enjoy the scenery at the moment, and I have no appetite to eat. When I think of all the mishaps that Professor Dong and his daughter may encounter, I feel like my heart is twisting. If
If I hadn't persuaded Professor Dong to let Dong Xiaodan come with him, and if I hadn't asked them to go back to Daga Doma Village first, this wouldn't have happened. If something unexpected happened to them, then I would be guilty of a grave sin.
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Jianjian has been comforting me by my side, but I actually didn't listen to what he said at all. Now my mind is full of thinking about where they will go.
In the blue sky, an eagle is soaring. Basang told us that it is a golden eagle. The golden eagle is the sacred bird in the minds of Tibetans. It is a huge raptor with a wingspan of up to 2.5 meters.
, it builds its nest on a cliff and often hovers at an altitude of nearly a thousand meters. It is said that it has an excellent field of vision and can clearly see prey dozens of kilometers away.
After listening to what Basang said, I wish I could transform into a golden eagle now. In this way, I might be able to find the whereabouts of Professor Dong and Dong Xiaodan.
I was having unrealistic fantasies when Tashi Duoji, who was washing the dust on his face by the lake, suddenly shouted: "Come here quickly!"
He spoke urgently, as if he had discovered something, so we all ran over quickly. Tashi Duoji pointed his hand toward the center of the lake and said, "What do you think that is?" We looked in the direction he pointed.
, I saw a large piece of meadow floating on the lake about seven or eight meters away from the lake shore, covered with water plants, and right next to this meadow, there was a light blue backpack floating
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I recognized it at a glance, it was Dong Xiaodan’s backpack, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bit in my heart. What happened? How could Dong Xiaodan’s backpack be in the lake!? Could it be that the two of them...
For a moment, my mind went blank and I didn't think much about anything. I immediately took off my coat, ignored the dissuasion of others, jumped into the lake, and swam toward the backpack.
The water in the lake was very cold, even a bit biting, but I didn't care about it at all and just paddled as hard as I could.
The closer I got to the backpack, the harder my heart beat. I was very scared, afraid that the backpack was still on Dong Xiaodan's body. Although I wanted to find her and Professor Dong, I definitely didn't want to be in this lake.
I quickly swam to the backpack. Looking at the backpack so close, my temples jumped. I slowly stretched out my hand, and the moment I touched the backpack, I felt like I was getting an electric shock.
, the body couldn't help but tremble slightly.
After hesitating for a while, I finally mustered up the courage, made up my mind, grabbed the backpack and lifted it up. What I didn't expect was that the backpack was so light that I could easily lift it out of the water.
I couldn't help being slightly startled, but when I looked again, I found that the backpack was empty, with nothing in it.
I searched around the meadow and found some scattered items, but I didn't find Dong Xiaodan.
At this time, Basang and Wen Qingshan also swam over. Wen Qingshan took a look at the empty backpack and asked, "What did you find?"
"Everything in the backpack was scattered, but Xiaodan was not found. Could she..." I didn't finish the sentence because I really didn't want to tell the ending that I least wanted to see. But Wen Qingshan understood me.
Meaning, he patted my shoulder gently and comforted me: "Don't worry yet. In my opinion, it is unlikely that they will fall into this lake."
I quickly asked: "Why?"
Wen Qingshan said: "The lake is not very deep near the shore. Even if they accidentally slip and fall into the water, they should not be seriously injured. Moreover, they are both riding horses. Even if they fall into the lake
, nor horses. But so far, we have found neither their people nor the two horses."
"But what's going on with this backpack?" I asked.
"It's indeed a bit strange that this bag appears here, but maybe it's just that Xiaodan accidentally dropped the bag into the lake when she was passing by the lake. It doesn't mean that she also fell into the water with her."
Wen Qingshan tried his best to guide me to think on the bright side, but the more this happened, the more worried I became about what happened to them. After thinking for a moment, I decided to dive into the water to have a look, so I took a deep breath and...
Mengzi plunged into the water. Wen Qingshan and Basang didn't react and didn't have time to stop him.
The lake water is quite cold. In fact, it is very dangerous for me to dive into the water rashly like I did, because once cramps in my hands and feet occur, my life may be in danger.
But I couldn't care about that much at the moment. I only had one thought in my mind, which was to check the bottom of the lake to make sure they didn't fall into the water so that I could feel at ease.
This lake is not very deep. From where I am now, I can dive to the bottom of the lake to a depth of about three meters. However, there are many algae growing under the water. So although the lake water is quite clear, the conditions at the bottom of the lake are not clearly visible.
I can only check it while swimming.
I swam close to the bottom of the lake for a while, and suddenly I found a large black thing in a dense algae. I hurriedly swam over. When I got closer, I was surprised to see that it was a horse.
corpse!
I immediately surfaced and shouted loudly without taking a breath: "Water... there is a horse at the bottom of the water!"
"What!?" Everyone was surprised.
Wen Qingshan and Basang hurried over and swam over. They followed me and dived to the bottom of the lake again to check.
At the bottom of the lake is a black horse. Basang identified it as the horse that Professor Dong was riding. Moreover, there were many scars on the horse's body, making it look like it had been attacked by something.
We searched around again and soon found the body of another horse. The situation was the same. There were many scars on the body. However, Professor Dong and Dong Xiaodan were not found. The three of us searched almost the entire bottom of the lake.
Tried it all over and still found nothing.
The three of us landed on the shore and were exhausted. I lay down directly in the grass, breathing heavily, but my heart still felt very heavy.
Although Professor Dong and Dong Xiaodan were not found at the bottom of the lake, the situation is not optimistic. Judging from the current clues, it is very likely that they were attacked by some kind of wild beast near the lake. The two horses panicked.
They lost control and jumped into the lake, resulting in drowning. As for whether they escaped the attack of the wild beast and where they went after escaping, it is a mystery.
However, Tashi Dorje felt that something was a little strange, because the largest beast in this area was the snow leopard. However, in this season, the snow leopard did not lack food, so it generally would not take the risk of attacking a person on horseback, let alone two people.
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Of course, it is not ruled out that some other unknown monster attacked them, such as a snow monster. Although we encountered one in the cave, there may be other snow monsters operating in this area.
If it is really a snow monster, the matter will be even more complicated. Wen Qingshan even believes that it is not ruled out that the snow monster abducted Professor Dong and Dong Xiaodan! Because there are indeed records of snow monsters abducting humans. As for them taking people away
The purpose of the abduction is unknown.
However, whether it was a snow monster or some other beast, it should have left some clues around here, so after resting for a while, we started looking around the lake.
I originally thought that the thing that attacked them would leave footprints and other imprints in the soft mud near the lake, but I couldn't find any after searching around. I was just wondering and looked for clues farther away from the lake.
Jianjian suddenly shouted loudly: "Come here quickly! There are wheel marks here!"
When everyone heard this, they hurriedly gathered together. When they took a look, they saw two rows of wheel marks in a piece of relatively soft mud!