A Snowless Sea of Sand

They were twelve people chosen for the show. An extreme survival reality show called The Killing Ground sent twelve "famous people" into an endless desert with no water and no roads. Two hundred and forty kilometers, one finish line, a hundred million in prize money, and only one winner. The rules had one clause that mattered most: they couldn't touch one another. Shake hands and it counted as an alliance. Form an alliance and you were eliminated. Cheng Ye was contestant 01. Bai Lu was contestant 02. He was a man who wore a fake watch and buttoned his shirt to the very top. She made a living by studying other people's wrists and earlobes. They stood a little over five feet apart. The production team hadn't forbidden them from talking. Everything else was up to them. On the eighteenth day, a sand wall collapsed. After they fell, there was still sand beneath their feet. But here, the sky was stuck at dusk. The wind called people by name. The water wasn't water. And this place had a rule harsher than the desert: to stay, someone had to remember you. And the most valuable things they had were each other's names. It never snows in the desert. But she still asked that question.