Liu Xin’s outrageous behavior finally pushed the other passengers over the edge.

"Hey, young lady, how can you be so unreasonable?"

"Exactly! If you hadn’t been making a scene and preventing the doctor from saving her, would the plane have needed to make an emergency landing?"

"You’ve wasted everyone’s time, and now you’re the one who’s unhappy? We should be asking you to compensate us for our losses!"

"I’ve never met anyone like you. You’d sacrifice your own friend’s life and drag all of us down with you, all for your ridiculous ’innocence.’"

Even Cao Feng couldn’t hold back any longer, scolding her harshly, "Have you no conscience? Your friend is in critical condition! After the plane lands, she needs to be rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. As her only friend here, instead of staying with her, you’re still thinking about your vacation?!"

Faced with the crowd’s condemnation,

Liu Xin showed not a shred of remorse.

Instead, like an enraged hedgehog, she started cursing back at them.

Business class descended into a cacophony.

In first class,

Li Xu was completely unaffected.

It was perfectly quiet there.

Li Xu lay down again, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep anytime soon.

An hour later, the plane landed smoothly at Lan City International Airport.

Through the cabin window,

Li Xu saw an ambulance, its lights already flashing, waiting on the tarmac.

Soon, several paramedics from the ground crew hurried aboard the plane with a stretcher.

Qin Yingying was quickly carried off the plane, loaded into the ambulance, and whisked away toward the city, its siren wailing.

As for whether Liu Xin went with her to the hospital or continued on her trip, Li Xu no longer cared.

The plane remained at the airport, waiting for another long three-plus hours.

After an inspection and a newly approved flight path, it finally took to the skies once more.

The rest of the journey was uneventful.

When the plane finally touched down smoothly at Bumagan City International Airport in Stan Country, the sky outside was already filled with stars.

As Li Xu stepped out of the cabin, a dry gust of air, carrying the scent of sand and exotic spices, washed over him.

Following the information from the booking he’d made on his phone, he easily found a clean and tidy hotel outside the airport.

Despite having rested for half of the ten-hour flight,

Li Xu still felt a bit tired.

According to his plan, he would rest at the hotel for the night and head to his final destination the next day.

His destination was a small settlement called Donggan Village.

Li Xu asked a hotel attendant for directions to Donggan Village.

"Donggan Village? Never heard of it... Let me check the map. Oh, sir, that place is very remote."

The attendant explained in English thick with an accent, gesturing as he spoke, "There is no direct train, no long-distance bus. You need to first take a car from here to a small city called As City, and then from there, find a taxi to take you. The journey is very long, and the cost... will also be very expensive."

Li Xu nodded to express his thanks.

He had done his research before coming and was mentally prepared.

「The next morning.」

Li Xu woke up in the hotel’s comfortable king-sized bed.

He checked the intelligence that had refreshed in his mind.

[Today’s Intelligence: Patient, Snar, male, 36 years old. A resident of Donggan Village. Condition: ...]

The intelligence concerned a villager named Snar who was suffering from an acute illness, and it included a treatment plan.

Li Xu was delighted after reading it.

’This trip to find the medicine now has a perfect entry point.’

’If I can successfully cure this villager’s ’illness,’ I’ll be able to quickly gain the trust and friendship of the entire village.’

’And then, asking them about Yabulu will be much smoother.’

After finishing the complimentary, Central Asian-style breakfast provided by the hotel, Li Xu checked out with his simple luggage.

He first followed the attendant’s directions and boarded a long-distance bus to As City.

Three hours later, he arrived in a small, slightly dated city.

From a distance, the entire city had only a few lone high-rises, none of them taller than ten stories.

The other buildings looked rather dilapidated as well. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Outside the dusty bus station, Li Xu spotted a few taxis.

He picked an old Lada sedan that looked decent enough and used a translator app on his phone to show the name "Donggan Village" to the dark-skinned driver.

The driver glanced at it, nodded, then held up two fingers and said, "One hundred twenty thousand!"

One hundred twenty thousand som, which was equivalent to about one thousand Dragon Country yuan.

And according to the map, the distance from here to Donggan Village was just over a hundred li.

The price was, by all accounts, extremely steep.

But Li Xu also knew that in a remote place like this, he was lucky to find a car willing to go at all.

He didn’t haggle. He just nodded, opened the car door, and got in.

To his exasperation, the driver had to call over a few of his buddies to push the car from behind just to get it started.

Li Xu seriously doubted whether the car would even make it to their destination.

The driver slapped his chest, guaranteeing it would be no problem.

Li Xu sighed. He had no choice but to make do.

The other taxis looked even more run-down.

The car had no air conditioning, of course, only four rattling windows that let the wind whistle through.

As the car bumped along the road,

the scenery outside was filled with a desolate yet magnificent beauty.

Vast desert plains stretched to the horizon, with waves of heat rising under the scorching sun.

In the distance were rolling, barren, earth-yellow mountains.

Occasionally, he could see a few resilient desert poplars or a herd of camels grazing with their heads bowed.

Most of the locals he saw on the road were dark-skinned with deep-set features.

They wore brightly colored traditional clothing, either driving donkey carts or riding old motorcycles, their faces etched with a peace carved by wind, sand, and time.

「In the afternoon.」

After a long, bumpy ride, the taxi, which seemed ready to fall apart, finally delivered Li Xu to his destination: Donggan Village.

The sight before him was even more primitive and barren than he had imagined.

The entire village consisted of low-slung houses built from mud and thatch, scattered across a desolate stretch of desert plain.

In the distance, a muddy river snaked by. That was the Suerhan River, a tributary of the Amu River, the largest river in Central Asia.

After getting out of the car, Li Xu got the driver’s phone number and told him that he would call again today or tomorrow for a ride back.

Hearing he had a return customer, the driver beamed, grinning from ear to ear as he nodded repeatedly.

Li Xu stood at the village entrance, about to walk in, when he saw a large group of villagers gathered in an open area just outside. Smoke was swirling in the air, and they seemed to be holding some kind of ceremony.

He walked closer out of curiosity and saw a robust-looking man, who appeared to be in his late thirties, lying motionless on a white cloth spread on the ground.

Beside him, a large pit had already been dug.

In front of the pit, a large pile of wood was burning fiercely, along with what looked like various funerary items.

It was a funeral!