Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

After entering the outer area of ​​Lop Nur, the convoy slowed down significantly.

The Gobi Desert was covered with gravel and dried salt crusts, and even the expensive all-terrain tires of the Unimog could only move forward at a snail's pace on this washboard road.

Zhao Gang sat in the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel tightly, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Mr. Su, five kilometers ahead is the officially designated core restricted area," the assistant in the passenger seat said nervously, staring at the GPS navigator.

"Hmm." Su Ming leaned back in the back seat, closed his eyes, as if he were resting.

Gu Changfeng sat next to him, clutching his daughter's photo in his hand, his knuckles turning white.

"Mr. Su, the location where Weiguang and the others lost contact is about eighty kilometers northeast of the core area." Gu Changfeng's voice trembled slightly. "At this rate, it will take us at least two days to get there."

"We can't get there." Su Ming suddenly opened his eyes.

"What?" Gu Changfeng was taken aback.

"These cars will break down after driving at most another twenty kilometers." Su Ming pointed to the complicated electronic equipment on the roof of the car. "Haven't you noticed? The GPS positioning error has increased from five meters to fifty meters."

The assistant looked down and his face turned deathly pale.

The cursor on the navigator twitched wildly, as if it had been drinking fake alcohol, sometimes showing them in the desert, sometimes pinpointing them to the Pacific Ocean.

"This...how is this possible?" the assistant panicked. "This is a military-grade GPS!"

"Military-grade equipment is also electronic equipment." Su Ming pulled the snakeskin bag out from under his seat and started taking things out. "In the face of electromagnetic interference, all things that rely on satellite signals are just scrap metal."

As soon as he finished speaking, the car radio suddenly emitted a piercing electrical buzzing sound.

Immediately afterwards, the indicator lights on the dial began flashing wildly.

"Holy crap!" Zhao Gang jerked the steering wheel, the car swerving in an S-shape on the sand before screeching to a stop. He yelled, "Engine overheating! The temperature gauge exploded!"

"Stop the car, everyone get out." Su Ming pushed open the car door and jumped out.

The other two cars also stopped one after another, and the bodyguards, guns at the ready, vigilantly observed their surroundings.

Zhao Gang opened the hood, and a plume of white steam shot out.

"The circuit board is burned out." His face was grim. "It's not just ours; the other two are probably in no better shape."

Sure enough, the drivers of the other two cars also reported the same message.

Gu Changfeng panicked completely: "What...what do we do? We just got in!"

"Don't rush." ​​Su Ming squatted down, took out the bundle of hemp rope and a few bamboo strips from the snakeskin bag, and began to fiddle with them on the sand.

He first sharpened the bamboo strips, inserted them into the sand, and then connected them with hemp rope to form a strange triangular structure.

"Mr. Su, what are you doing?" Zhao Gang couldn't help but ask.

He was already mentally complaining: Dude, what time is it? Are you still playing in the mud?

"Make a mark." Su Ming didn't even look up. "Starting from here, I'll make one of these marks every five hundred meters. Just follow the marks, and you'll find your way back."

"But..." Zhao Gang pointed to the GPS, "we have navigation."

"Are you sure?" Su Ming looked up at him with a half-smile.

Zhao Gang glanced down at the tactical watch on his wrist, and his expression instantly changed.

The compass on the watch was spinning wildly and wouldn't stop.

"this……"

"The electronic devices are all useless." Su Ming stood up, brushed the sand off his hands, and said, "From now on, we can only rely on the most primitive method to locate them."

He took the mechanical pocket watch out of his pocket, opened the cover, and revealed the intricate gear structure inside.

"It's 3:20 PM now." Su Ming looked up at the position of the sun, then squatted down and drew a circle on the sand with his finger. "The sun's azimuth is 45 degrees west of south, and its altitude is about 30 degrees."

He then took out a copper wire and a magnet from the snakeskin bag, wrapped the magnet with the copper wire, and then hung it on a bamboo strip.

The magnet slowly rotated in the air, eventually pointing in one direction.

"Magnetic North Pole, deviation seven degrees." Su Ming drew another line on the sand. "Combined with the sun's position, our current true coordinates can now be determined."

Zhao Gang and several bodyguards also gathered around, staring in disbelief at the lines Su Ming had drawn in the sand.

"Mr. Su, how did you do that?" Zhao Gang couldn't help but ask.

"Junior high school physics." Su Ming put away his pocket watch, picked up the snakeskin bag, and said, "Solar azimuth, magnetic declination, time correction... these are all basic astronomical navigation knowledge. My grandfather used this method to survive in no man's land when he was a reconnaissance soldier."

"But..." Zhao Gang swallowed hard, "How much computing power would that require?"

"No calculations are needed." Su Ming pointed to his head. "Just memorize the formula, and the rest is observation and experience."

He turned and looked at the boundless sea of ​​sand in the distance, his gaze sharpening.

"Mr. Gu, from now on we will proceed on foot," Su Ming said. "The vehicle is no longer needed. Take the necessary supplies and leave everything else behind."

"On foot?" Gu Changfeng was stunned. "But... we're still eighty kilometers from our destination!"

"So we need to hurry." Su Ming glanced at the sky. "We need to cover at least twenty kilometers before sunset. Otherwise, the low temperatures tonight will kill us."

Zhao Gang gritted his teeth and began directing his bodyguards to organize the supplies.

Food, water, medical kit, tent... everything that could be carried was stuffed into the backpack.

Su Ming only took two bottles of water and a pack of compressed biscuits, using the rest of the space to store the "junk".

"Mr. Su, aren't you going to bring more water?" Gu Changfeng asked worriedly.

"No need." Su Ming pointed to the sand dunes in the distance. "The desert doesn't lack water; what it lacks is the method to find it."

"Is there still water in the desert?"

"Of course." Su Ming grinned. "My grandfather taught me that as long as you find the right spot, there's water under the sand."

He shouldered his canvas bag and took the lead into the depths of the desert.

The setting sun cast his long shadow across the sea of ​​death.