Chapter 698: Chapter 40: The Night Without Fire

Afternoon, at sunset.

Chen Wen tilted his head, watching the magnificent sunset amidst the desert.

His body swayed along with the camel’s strides.

At this moment, Chen Wen had an illusion, as if he had become an ancient merchant traveling in the desert, following the caravan to the Western Regions for business.

The others more or less had similar feelings.

After all, the desert offered no shelter, and the distant sunset looked far more complete and spectacular than in other places.

Moreover, everyone had hardly spoken in the past few days to reduce water loss, which affected their mood to some extent.

That’s why they were watching in a trance.

But soon, someone disrupted the atmosphere.

Chen Wen suddenly remembered the conversation he had with Adam when they were digging out a hornet’s nest.

At that time, they talked about how quickly the sun sets in the desert, and Adam explained the reason.

So, Chen Wen suddenly said, "Stop watching, we seem to have a problem!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback and quickly focused their attention on Chen Wen.

Chen Wen frowned and said, "Did we forget to pick up firewood this afternoon?"

Since entering the desert, the firewood for the nightly campfire was collected together by everyone.

This task was relatively simple, so Chen Wen hadn’t made it a fixed chore.

Whether to collect it or not was all up to them.

Once this was mentioned, everyone realized it.

Today, the weather was particularly hot, and in the afternoon, Dennis walked a bit and then grimaced back onto the camel.

At that time, he said, "The sand in the desert today feels like walking on flames."

Upon hearing this, Chen Wen told a story about the Flame Mountain to lighten the mood.

After this, no one got off to collect firewood.

Dennis realized this now.

He frowned and said, "Seems like it, no one picked up firewood this afternoon."

Hua Yun flipped through the pack carried by the camel and said, "I have some firewood here, enough for about an hour."

Fred said in a muffled voice, "I have about half an hour’s worth."

Dennis shook his head, indicating he was out of firewood.

Adam also shook his head.

Chen Wen didn’t look in his bag; he usually relied on Xiaoyuan’s reconnaissance before dark to find firewood.

But today, he missed that time.

"So our campfire tonight can only last an hour and a half, and it’s about to get dark."

Chen Wen said seriously.

As if to confirm his words.

In the sky, the sun seemed to plummet abruptly.

The darkness from the other side deepened in an instant.

The group started to panic.

"How do we fix this now?"

Hua Yun said nervously.

Fred remained silent, but his face was tense.

"This way."

At the crucial moment, Chen Wen, Adam, and the local Dennis stayed calm.

Dennis first said, "I’ll go collect dry branches, as much as I can before it gets dark!"

Adam also said, "Right, I’ll go too, and Chen Wen, now we need your beast taming skills to have the falcon and Xiaoyuan find a suitable camping spot."

Chen Wen nodded, whistled, then spoke in Chinese, "Find shelter."

The whistle was a command for the falcon, and the Chinese was to instruct Xiaoyuan.

Having followed Chen Wen for several days, Xiaoyuan was reliable and understood what kind of shelter they needed.

One that blocked the wind and was flat.

So, it didn’t take long for Xiaoyuan, who was circling in the sky, to find Chen Wen, who was collecting firewood.

"I found it, a place to stay!"

Xiaoyuan circled above Chen Wen’s head, loudly reminding him.

Hearing the commotion, Chen Wen immediately looked up at Xiaoyuan.

Under Xiaoyuan’s guidance.

Chen Wen found the place it mentioned.

It was at the bottom of a leeward slope of a dune, the terrain was flat, and there seemed to be no danger around.

Chen Wen nodded to Xiaoyuan, "Nicely done, this place is suitable."

Xiaoyuan nodded haughtily.

After rewarding Xiaoyuan with some hornets, Chen Wen began calling the others over.

In just a few minutes.

As everyone arrived one after another, darkness completely enveloped the area.

"Let’s light the fire, the firewood we collected should last two or three hours."

Chen Wen said, taking out the fire steel to start a fire.

With a few strikes, sparks flew onto the tinder, igniting it.

The flames caught the dry branches, and soon a fire was blazing.

With the bonfire lit, they finally felt a bit at ease.

But their firewood definitely wouldn’t last the whole night, and this was a big problem.

After thinking for a moment.

Chen Wen said, "Let’s do it this way, we’ll still take turns for the night watch, but once the bonfire goes out, we’ll have an additional person on watch to monitor the surroundings and keep insects at bay."

No one objected.

Given the situation, it was the only option.

After eating some jerky and drinking water stored in the camel’s stomach, they began resting. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

...

The desert is a magical place.

Many people have heard their geography teachers say this: Wear a coat in the morning, a gauze shirt at noon, and sit by the fire eating watermelon at night.

This phrase typically describes the northwestern region of China, particularly the deserts and semi-deserts in Xinjiang.

In these areas, desert and semi-desert terrain predominates, with significant temperature differences between day and night and long hours of sunlight.

Hence the analogy.

In the Great Sand Desert.

Except for not eating watermelon, it aligns with that saying in almost every way.

The desert’s daytime temperatures can reach over forty degrees, with the ground temperature even hitting sixty or seventy degrees.

At night, the temperature drops drastically.

It can fall to about ten degrees, with the ground temperature even lower!

This is the desert’s magical yet deadly aspect.

The reason for this phenomenon is simple.

One is the material properties of the desert, where the surface mainly consists of sand and rocks which have a low specific heat capacity, warming up and cooling down quickly.

Moreover, the large gaps between sand and rock particles allow air to circulate.

When the night temperature drops, this air circulation carries away more heat, further lowering the ground temperature.

Another reason is atmospheric insulation; desert regions have very low water vapor content, resulting in poor insulation.

Water vapor is a greenhouse gas that absorbs long-wave radiation from the ground and re-emits part of it back to the surface as atmospheric back radiation, thus providing insulation.

Without water vapor in the desert, the heat radiated by the ground at night is barely compensated by atmospheric back radiation.

Thus, the desert is like a bed without a blanket, where heat easily dissipates into the air and isn’t returned by the atmosphere, leading to a continuous drop in nighttime temperatures.

As the night deepened.

Simply wearing a T-shirt and a sun-protection jacket was no longer sufficient for the group.

Chen Wen and Fred were somewhat better off.

One had good physical fitness with experience in extremely cold regions while the other had grown up in such regions, having a high tolerance to cold.

Hua Yun wasn’t too impacted either, having survival experience in extremely cold areas, and women generally have a higher body fat percentage than men, making them more resistant to cold.

Adam experienced a mild impact, although he also had experience surviving in extremely cold regions, he wasn’t as resistant to cold.

Moreover, Adam was raised in Florida, which didn’t prepare him well for low temperatures, though he could endure it.

The one most affected was naturally Dennis.

The brother was raised in a northern Australian city and had very low resistance to the cold.

Around one in the morning, Dennis suddenly sat up, shivering all over.