I was very curious and picked up the manuscript paper. At that moment, fine grains of sand actually fell from the crevices of the paper.

This was my first time seeing "Sand Sea".

The notebook recorded a story about the desert. It was hard to define exactly what category it belonged to. I sat beside that package, eating grilled rice cakes while reading it. After finishing, I was convinced that this would be an outstanding travel story, because when I emerged from the novel, I felt incredibly parched, as if even my nostrils still carried the scent of the desert.

I really wanted to ask him whether this notebook about the desert was truly written in the desert. Did he really go to that mysterious forbidden desert he described? But I was destined never to get an answer.

So, where did these grains of sand come from? Could they have fallen out from between those words, from that world of raging yellow sand in his notes? It seems I can only think so.

This was the last time this man named Edward Sullivan appeared in this world. Afterward, whether by my side or anywhere in the entire circle, this name never appeared again.

Sand Sea I: Phantom Shadows of the Wasteland

Prologue (II)

One night nine years ago, on the sixth floor of the inpatient department at Peking University First Hospital, an intern doctor was making her routine rounds.

In fact, she had already finished her rounds for this time slot. The reason she was still wandering around with the patient records was because there was a special patient on this floor.

This patient’s surname was Zhang. She had noticed him as soon as he was admitted. All his medications and treatments were handled by designated personnel, and there were always people taking care of him, but those caretakers had vastly different temperaments and acted very mysteriously.

Ordinary patients’ families generally fall into a few categories: either they are overly depressed due to the severity of the illness, or they are extremely optimistic, trying hard not to think about the future. But regardless of the type, their main concern is always the patient’s condition.

This patient surnamed Zhang was suspected to have memory impairment caused by brain damage, and all those who visited him, including the patient himself, bore visible old injuries. But she noticed that these people, including the patient, were all very calm about the illness. No matter how she discussed things with them, they always maintained a cautious and reserved attitude.

When she performed routine checks on the patient surnamed Zhang, she could touch his arm. Although his muscles were not overly bulky, the density of the fibers was beyond comprehension.

Even athletes rarely have such high muscle fiber density. He was a seemingly normal yet incredibly strong person. This kind of muscle cannot be developed through ordinary training. Her mentor told her that this could almost be called "willpower-type" muscle, formed only through long-term, highly unified movement of body and mind.

He was a person with exceptional physical skills and concentration. Even in deep sleep, as soon as someone approached, he would immediately wake up and regain full alertness.

What struck her as most odd was that this man had two unusually long fingers. Unless they had been deliberately shaped since childhood, it would be impossible for such a condition to occur.

This patient was taciturn, his gaze appearing lost and helpless due to his memory impairment. Grace Thompson, besides her curiosity, seemed to have developed a strange feeling toward this patient. After her rounds each day, she always liked to go to his room for one last look at him.

This day was no different. The person caring for the patient, Tom Foster, was not there. The patient was lying down, and it was unclear whether he was asleep. She entered the ward, reflexively glanced at the patient’s name tag, then walked over to check his pupils.

At that moment, she heard the patient suddenly say something.

This patient had a peculiar sleep habit. Unlike ordinary people who sleep for long periods, his sleep was fragmented. Often, when others were not paying attention, he would already be asleep. This kind of sleep allowed him to rest as much as possible during intervals of intense concentration, but it was also particularly damaging to the brain. So after he was hospitalized, the doctors administered sedatives.

Later, the doctors found that sedatives were not particularly effective for him, so they used a mixed medication, which gradually took effect. This became the main treatment method for this patient.

After this method was implemented, the patient began to have long periods of sleep and started talking in his sleep. The doctors believed this was a sign that his memory was beginning to recover.

But his sleep talk was generally meaningless, vague, and mostly indecipherable.

Only this time, the intern doctor Grace Thompson heard it very clearly.

At first, the sentence sounded very strange. She pondered it for a moment and lowered her head. At that moment, the patient repeated the sentence. Again, it was very clear.

Grace Thompson didn’t pay much attention at the time, but because the sentence itself was so odd, she immediately remembered it, then left the ward.

On that silent night nine years ago, no one knew how much more difficult and confusing the absence of that sentence would make unraveling the mystery shrouding the entire event. A key piece of information to a core secret was thus missed by everyone involved at the time.