Pet King

Many times, only when humans had a brush with death did they realize how fragile human life was.

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It took mere seconds to go from smooth driving to falling into quicksand.
Between climbing out of the window and onto the car and getting out of the quicksand with the lead rope, barely two minutes had passed, but he felt like he had visited hell and come back to Earth again.
He was trembling hard, the beads of sweat on his forehead falling as though it had just rained.

The others who had stayed behind could guess that something bad had happened from what transpired over the walkie-talkie and abandoned everything to come to their rescue.

Seeing that the convoy had driven closer and closer, he was afraid that someone might fall into quicksand again, so he ordered them to stop.

Wei Kang had escaped the grasp of death, panting for barely a few seconds before he pushed away Zhang Zian’s helping hand, struggling to point at his own car.
“I’m alright! Save the car!”

In the blink of an eye, almost half the car had sunk into the sand, just like the other jeep.
But, maybe because this car was bigger, and because it had its car doors closed, it didn’t sink into the sand as quickly as before.
It was oddly beautiful how the car was slowly sinking in, just like the moment a sugar cube was dropped into coffee in slow motion.

The others had realized what had happened earlier on.
Even though they hadn’t witnessed the life-threatening situation with their own eyes, the mere thought of it sent shivers down their spines—the desert had opened its monstrous mouth and tried to swallow both the car and human whole.

The few students ran over to help Wei Kang up.

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Salem swallowed his saliva nervously.
This sight seemed oddly familiar, just like the hidden currents underneath a calm surface, reaching out their claws silently to drag someone into the unknown beneath.

The sea and the desert were startlingly similar!

Dozens of car headlights focused on the trapped car.
The car in itself was valuable, but even more important were the resources and equipment kept in it.
Losing those would have a huge impact on their mission.

If they wanted to drag the car out of the quicksand, someone had to go over to clip the lead rope onto the hook at the rear end of the car.
But no one knew how big the area of quicksand was, and it was dangerous to approach without enough knowledge.
It was sinking slowly now, but no one could guarantee that it would not suddenly sink in again with any additional movement.

No matter what, a decision had to be made.
Once the car was mostly sunk into the sand, they wouldn’t be able to save it even if they wanted to, unless they could get a crane out here.

Just as everyone was searching their brains for ideas, Zhang Zian’s eyes landed on the luggage on the top of the cars.
Everyone’s jeep had tents, anti-moisture pads, white cloth, and aluminium frames tied to the luggage compartment on the top of the car.
These things were bulky, so it was convenient to leave them on top of the car.
They also prevented the car from getting direct sunlight, so it helped lower the temperature a little.

He took the aluminum frame out of his car before curtly explaining, “Build a ladder.
Go in through the air.”

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The others were stunned for a moment before realizing what he meant.

The aluminum frames that they’d brought were meant for free extension, so in theory, they could extend these frames forever if they had enough connectors.
Of course, that was just in theory.

But in order to reduce their weight, the frames were hollow.
These were used for building tarps.
Whether they could hold a grown man’s weight…no one could be sure

Everyone helped in their own way, connecting the four frames together to form a long H-shaped ladder.
One of the ends was set up on the roof of the jeep closest to them, while a few strong men held onto it as they bypassed the area of quicksand to carefully place the other end on the roof of Wei Kang’s jeep.

Now that the ladder was set up, who was going to go over? It was a dangerous job, and were the perishables and equipment in Wei Kang’s car worth the risk?

“I’ll go.”

The one who bravely stood up was Salem.
At his age, this Bedouin young man was barely an adult, but the look on his face made him look years more mature than the young men his age from the city.

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“I’m the lightest here, and I am quite athletic.
Let me try.” He puffed up his chest.

Without counting the Detective and He He, he was definitely the lightest amongst everyone on the team.

Throughout the trip, Salem had learnt a lot from Nabari’s teachings.
Most importantly, he’d realized how ignorant he was—he’d used to think that, as a Bedouin, he knew a lot about the desert.
Now, he realized that he had been arrogant.

This young man, still undergoing the hormonal teenage phase, was growing at an incredible speed under such harsh conditions.

Some people felt that it wasn’t right for him to do it, seeing that he was still a child, and he shouldn’t be the one taking this risk.
But Nabari patted his shoulder, simply saying, “Be careful.”

Salem shed his jacket, spitting into his palms and grabbing onto the ladder with sharp precision.
Both his hands and feet wrapped around the aluminum frame while his body dangled below.

Zhang ZIan wrapped the lead rope around his waist as a security measure.
As long as their luck wasn’t rubbish, even if he fell from the frame, he shouldn’t lose his life.

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With everything in place, Salem moved his hands and feet, starting towards the other end of the ladder.
As half of Wei Kang’s jeep had already sunk into the sand, it was at a lower height.
With their jeep being higher up, Salem’s climb wasn’t extremely difficult.

His actions were small, and he crawled slowly too.
The aluminium poles were circular, and they weren’t the most stable things when locked on the top of the car.
Even if a few men were holding onto one end, if he crawled too quickly, he could still cause the pole to roll sideways or start jumping.
Then it would be a lot more dangerous.

Everyone watched his actions, their hearts in their throats, not even daring to breathe too harshly, worried that he would fall into quicksand if he lost his grip.
He He even turned her head away, not daring to take a single look.

When he crawled to the middle of the pole, the long aluminum was clearly bowed from his weight, and its swinging got worse too.
But the metal was still a relatively flexible and resilient material, so it did not break.

Salem quickened his actions, trying to get through the most treacherous middle portions.
When he finally reached the other end of the ladder, he flipped around to get a grip on the luggage barriers on the top of the jeep before using it as leverage to get on top of the car.
Only then did everyone get to breathe a sigh of relief.

The car had sunk into the sand headfirst, so the trunk was facing up.

Salem lay on top of the car, one hand grasping on the solid luggage railing while the other hand went to unravel the rope tied around his waist.
After tossing it a few times, he finally got it latched onto the hook on the back of the jeep.

Right then, he had to go back before the others could start pulling the car out.
No one could be sure whether they could successfully do that.
After all, they might just cause the quicksand to drag the entire car further down.

The road back was like climbing a slope.
Other than being more tired, he had also lost the protection of a safety rope.