Evening Star In the Valley Chapter 1

Ryan is still a thousand kilometers away from Lhasa.

For the 800th time, he resisted the urge to turn around and return to Beijing.

He turned from the Beijing-Tibet Expressway onto National Highway 109 in the thick fog that was like a poison barrier. The heavy fog made the already poor visibility on the night road even more difficult to travel.

It has been four days since he set out from Beijing. According to the plan, after more than 3,000 kilometers, Lhasa should be within sight.

But after arriving in Golmud yesterday, he suddenly developed a fever. After taking antipyretics, he stayed in the hotel and slept for nearly 20 hours. He woke up this evening and scared the waiter so much that he almost called the police.

Fortunately, he had a good physique and his body temperature returned to normal after waking up. He took a shower, had a meal and continued on his journey.

After a good rest, Ryan was in good spirits. He decided not to delay any longer and headed to Lhasa tonight. It was 10 pm, the fog was still thick, visibility was poor, and Ryan turned on the fog lights and double flash.

He drives a Mercedes-Benz G63. He never drives this car worth more than 3 million yuan to go to school. He rides the small electric scooter that his grandfather uses to buy groceries.

His grandfather came back from buying groceries at 6:30 in the morning, and he continued to ride out to school at 6:30. An electric donkey served the grandfather and grandson, just like an old housekeeper who had worked in the mansion for a lifetime.

But after passing the assessment of volunteer teaching, a colleague discovered that Mr. Xu had three generations living under one roof. It was not the old and shabby parents squeezed into a small house as they imagined, but a quadrangle courtyard. Then they found out that his family had a rich background since his grandfather's generation.

So, right after Ryan passed the assessment, rumors started to spread around the school. Ah, the noble son of Beijing, he must pass the assessment for teaching in remote areas. It would be great to send the young master to a remote teaching post in a beautiful place, to learn some skills for a year, and then come back in glory after a year to add something to his resume.

All the way from Beijing to here, Ryan was so annoyed that his head was smoking.

He felt that if he poked a hole in his head, it would be another exhaust pipe of the car. He really wanted to turn around and beat up those weird teachers one by one by grabbing their collars.

Just think about it.

Several teachers who were interning with him half-jokingly blamed him for being dishonest, but his master comforted him, saying that in Beijing, if you threw a brick into a crowd of people on the street, you would probably hit at least three young masters out of ten, and told him not to take it seriously.

Ryan could only smile bitterly. He didn't want to hide it, he just wanted to keep a low profile, and everyone could get along peacefully as colleagues and do their own jobs well.

There are many large trucks on National Highway 109, the Beijing-Lashan Highway. The drivers are familiar with the route and passed him by honking their horns.

After driving for two and a half hours, he got out of the car to smoke.

At 12:30 in the morning, there were still a few small vendors on the national highway, with light bulbs hanging from their tractors, selling drinks and snacks. Ryan walked over and asked if they had lighters. The Tibetan man shook his head and said in Chinese: "If you come during the day, you will definitely be able to buy one. There are many people here during the day."

Ryan nodded and bought a bottle of Coke and Red Bull from his elder brother.

He walked back to the car, holding an unlit cigarette between his teeth. He was so annoyed that he was about to kick the tires. --- "Da."

The man wiped away the grinding wheel, and the flame jumped out and approached the end of his cigarette.

The orange-yellow flames twisted and turned, becoming the only bright color in this dark and gray world.

Ryan found that the fog had dissipated at some point, or perhaps he had driven out of the foggy area. This place was still 800 kilometers away from Lhasa.

The clear atmosphere at high altitudes made the night sky exceptionally clear. Under the evening stars, Ryan saw the only face that pleased him in the past few months.

He held the cigarette between his teeth, looked the man in the eyes, and burned the end of the cigarette into the flames.

He lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and felt much calmer.

Ryan put down his cigarette and waited for the other party to speak first.

Cars kept speeding past on the national highway, and the wind they brought blew up Ryan's coat and hair.

"Are you going to Lhasa? Can you give me a ride? My car broke down here." The man covered the windproof lighter and pointed to the side of the national highway. There was an inconspicuous auto repair shop with a pickup truck parked outside.

The man took out two more documents and handed them to him: "I didn't bring my ID card, this is my driver's license."

Ryan bit his cigarette again, without lowering his head, he opened his ID with his eyes downcast.

Noah.

A matter of life and death.

The license plate number on his driving license was the same as Ryan's, a Beijing license plate. Ryan looked up at him and asked, "Are you from Beijing?"

"Yeah." Noah nodded.

Ryan asked again: "You see I also have a Beijing license plate so you're asking me?"

Because the environment was too dark, Ryan only realized at this time that Noah was holding a small box with a red cross medical logo on it.

"Yes." Noah said, "I am a doctor helping Tibet. This incubator contains Aliszumab, a subcutaneous injection. The hospital in Lhasa has to wait two and a half days for refrigerated logistics. My patient needs it urgently, so I contacted the hospital in Golmud. I came here early in the morning to get it."

After that, Noah gave the name of a hospital in Beijing. Ryan glanced at him first. It was a very good tertiary hospital in Beijing. His grandmother was hospitalized there for high blood pressure one year.

Ryan lowered his eyes, holding Noah's driver's license in one hand and taking out his mobile phone with the other, and searched for the three words "Noah" on the hospital's official website. Soon, the hospital's medical aid projects in Tibet and Xinjiang over the years appeared, and Noah was listed prominently.

He looked up and down, comparing the person in front of him with the photo on the phone screen, then handed over the driver's license and vehicle registration.

Noah took the documents and put them in his pocket, then said, "I need travel expenses, can you give me a portion? Just tell me the amount."

Ryan squinted his eyes while holding a cigarette in his mouth and said, "Five hundred."

"You are still a kind-hearted person." Noah smiled.

...Damn, I charged too little.

Ryan bit his cigarette holder angrily and said, "Get in the car."

He put out his cigarette in the ashtray below the car's central console, turned on the turn signal and drove onto the national highway.

Ryan didn't ask Noah to open the incubator to check what was in it. He was really annoyed at the moment, so annoyed that even if Noah took out a gun and shot himself, he would only sigh: Okay, you are awesome.

As a result, Noah directly put the small insulated box on the ground in the back row, and then began to enjoy the bus view of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and chat with Ryan.

Noah: "Did you drive here from Beijing?"

Ryan: "Yeah."

Noah: "I forgot to say thank you. Driving the G-Class with one hand is really a very touching experience."

Ryan laughed softly.

Although the rear space of the Mercedes-Benz G63 is shockingly narrow, it is a hardcore off-road vehicle designed to provide driving pleasure, and the height of the window frame is just enough for people to rest their elbows.

At this moment, Ryan was in this position, with his right hand on the steering wheel, his left arm on the window frame, and driving the G-Class with one hand. With his handsome and arrogant face, when Noah looked over, his eyes stayed on his profile for more than two seconds before moving away.

Both car windows were rolled down, and the night wind blew between the driver and the front passenger seats.

Noah was a well-educated person and did not ask about Ryan's private affairs, such as what job he did or whether he came to Tibet for tourism.

As they moved forward, the wind and sand began to blow, so Ryan rolled up the car window, and the car became a completely enclosed space.

The navigation system was on the middle screen of the Mercedes-Benz. They were still 770 kilometers away from Lhasa, and the altitude had risen to over 4,000 meters. Neither person in the car suffered from altitude sickness.

The night was shrouding the National Highway 109, with only large trucks going in and out of Tibet, a desolate place. One of them got into a stranger's car, and the other let the stranger get into his car.

There is a sense of absurdity that is not caring about one's life.

"If you feel tired, I can start." Noah said.

Ryan shook his head: "It's okay, I slept all day."

After saying that, he added: "You can take a nap."

Ryan felt that this doctor should be a very cheerful person. His voice also sounded comfortable, without a strong Beijing accent, but with the usual laziness of Beijingers.

Doctor Fang said, "I'm fine. When we were studying at the medical university, we had a required course called "Staying up all night and not dying."

Ryan smiled and said, "Such a practical course should be popularized."

When driving long distances at night, you can only see the road illuminated by your own car lights. It is easy to get distracted, and you really need someone to talk to.

"That can't be popularized." Noah continued to joke, "If something really happens, at least you can find a teacher to help you in the medical school. Other universities are too risky."

Ryan smiled but said nothing. He felt that Noah was a little poor, the kind of poorness that is inherent in some northerners, but with a bit of humor.

In fact, Ryan is also poor, but he has been too annoyed these days.

"Yeah." Ryan said casually.

When he first looked at Noah's driver's license, he saw his date of birth. Ryan was 25 this year, and Noah was four years older than him. The two were of similar age and both looked dashing. Perhaps because of the long journey and the bad things left far behind in Beijing, Ryan's boredom gradually dissipated and he was willing to chat with Noah.

Perhaps Noah felt that his "hmm" sounded weak, and he didn't know whether he was sleepy or not, so Noah started to find words to talk about again.

"Oh, yes, I saw a joke online a while ago," Noah said, "which goes, 'When others are driving long distances and I'm sitting in the passenger seat, I dare not fall asleep at all and concentrate on the road conditions.'"

"And then?" Ryan was already a little unhappy.

Noah: "I can only sleep peacefully until I have the steering wheel in my hands."

Ryan chuckled and Noah followed suit. The atmosphere in the carriage was harmonious and cheerful, as if they had entered a happy state of traveling to Lhasa together.

Then Ryan immediately restrained his expression and asked in a cold voice: "Is it funny?"

"I'm sorry." Doctor Fang was brave enough to admit his mistake.

Ryan really wasn't sleepy, he was in very good condition. But emphasizing this kind of thing was like a drunk person constantly emphasizing "I'm not drunk". Ryan understood, so he didn't take it seriously.

It is more than 1,000 kilometers from Golmud to Lhasa, and the navigation estimates that the driving time is 18 hours.

If everything goes well, they will drive non-stop and arrive in Lhasa around 5pm. The Apple Watch on Ryan's wrist reminded him to stand up and move around, so at 4am, Ryan drove off the national highway, stopped on a dirt road, and got out to smoke a cigarette.

"Fire." Ryan tilted his head and said to Noah.

Noah came over and took out a lighter and handed it to him, while Ryan handed him a cigarette. Ryan looked up and blew the cigarette into the sky. In the dark night sky, it was like a piece of glass falling into the sky, shattering into stars all over the sky.

This was the first time in Ryan's life that he saw so many stars so clearly. It turned out that the stars and the moon could really illuminate the world. Places at high altitudes really make people feel close to the sky.

But Noah is different. He has been assisting Tibet for almost a year and is used to it.

So he was not looking at the starry sky but Ryan. He suddenly asked, "I haven't asked for your name yet?"

Ryan put down his cigarette, withdrew his gaze from the starry sky, looked at Noah, and said, "Please tell me your surname is Xu, Ryan."

"Mr. Xu."

"Hey, Doctor Fang." Ryan raised the corners of his lips and smiled, then bit back into his cigarette.

He laughed because he felt uncomfortable being called Mr. Xu. Usually he heard her call him Teacher Xu.

After smoking, I went to the toilet and walked to the car. When I got closer, Noah suddenly said: "Many people come to Tibet with stories."

Ryan walked around the front of the car to the main driver's seat, patted the hood of the car, smiled handsomely, and said: "Others carry stories, I carry a Mercedes."

Noah was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Indeed, it would be impossible without this Mercedes-Benz."

"If you don't have this Mercedes, you can take your highland wolf rider back to Lhasa. They won't charge 500 yuan, but probably 50 kilograms of meat." Ryan opened the main driver's door, "Get in the car, Doctor Fang."