No one can turn back time, not even for a heartbeat. How I wish someone had told me this when I was young, so I wouldn't have been so indulgent in unearthing past destinies and could have focused on changing the present.

Several years ago, while exploring a prehistoric site in the Eastern Gobi Desert, I stumbled upon a perplexing enigma. This very enigma stirred something within me, breaking my long indulgence in sorrow and rekindling the spark for change.

The geological age of the site was dated to around six thousand years, quite early in prehistoric times. The ruin was desolate, and I thought the only significance to be found was the site itself, until we unearthed the remains of a man and a woman adjacent to a structure resembling a well.

Apart from these two, no other remains were found throughout the entire site. Thanks to the solid well constructed from azure-coloured stone, the two bodies were sheltered from the ravages of time, preserving the remains that gave meaning to this exploration.

Yet, it was they who presented me with a considerable headache.

People shouldn't die beside a well. Even if someone were hanged for a crime, they wouldn’t be left to rot by the water source. The two died as if they hadn't foreseen their end. My first guess was some sudden catastrophe that killed them instantly, leaving them no time to react. The scale of this disaster might have been enough to obliterate the village, leaving no one to bury them.

What’s puzzling is that around the two bodies, the excavation team discovered an unknown mineral resembling glass in both appearance and composition. This mineral formed a circle around them, as if it were part of a ritual sacrifice.

Years of wandering through different times and spaces told me this transparent mineral held the key to traversing time. If we could discover the reason for its existence, we might uncover the past memories of the ruin. I immediately left the team, took the jeep, and brought the mineral back to Mandalgovi for analysis.

The night spent awaiting the results in the desert town was an exciting and sleepless one. If my speculations were confirmed by the data, it would be a discovery worthy of the history books. I called it the Meteorite Stone—this was my hypothesis. A more romantic expression was that the couple had been struck by a falling star.

In the centre of the empty desert lay a village. On their way to fetch water, a young couple was hit by a wish-granting stone from the sky... and those glass-like minerals were the remnants of the Meteorite Stone.

Holding rather romantic notions, I was greatly disappointed when I received the analysis results. Those 'unknown minerals' turned out to be nothing enigmatic but plain glass.

In fact, the thought of 'what if it's just glass' had crossed my mind vividly the moment I saw the transparent mineral for the first time. However, I am someone who clings to dreams of the past. As an East Asian who has faith in the freshness of first love, I have never been adept at letting go.

When I finally calmed down enough to scrutinise the analysis results, a new and thrilling possibility leapt out at me. This could be a groundbreaking discovery that could confirm the 'prehistoric nuclear war theory.'

It is speculated that Homo sapiens have existed for at least 200,000 years, but archaeology can only confirm human history for a mere seven thousand years. Are we to believe that for the past one hundred and ninety-three thousand years, Homo sapiens lived in an unconscious collective existence? It's hard for me to believe that humanity could develop today's civilisation in such a geologically short period of seven thousand years, a timeframe shorter than that of a mayfly's lifespan, while doing nothing for tens of times longer.

Perhaps, in the vast river of time, humanity once built a civilisation as advanced as our own, only to be obliterated by some unknown force, leaving no traces of their achievements. This speculation is popular in archaeological circles, but there is no consensus on the cause of such a cataclysm. Glaciers, volcanoes, meteorites, artificial intelligence, and nuclear explosions are all popular hypotheses—perhaps prehistoric civilisations developed nuclear weapons like modern nations, and the inevitable nuclear war wiped out their existence.

The hypothesis of a prehistoric nuclear war has never been supported by concrete evidence, but the young couple might become the great sacrificial offering that proves this lost chapter of history, precisely because... the high temperature of nuclear fission would cause the sand to vitrify and produce glass.

The village civilisation, unknowingly hit by a nuclear weapon from an advanced civilisation far away, vaporised the young couple fetching water, and the glass fragments surrounding them are remnants of this truth.

At that moment, this seemed like the only possibility to me. I even began drafting an article in my mind that would stir up a storm in the archaeological community and make my name famous enough to be used to name stars.

However, shortly after some team members transported the bones to the laboratory for analysis, the results shocked me:

Arsenic trioxide was found on the bones.

The cause of death was not a meteorite or a nuclear explosion, but poisoning.

Could it be that they unknowingly drank poisoned water from the well and died? But this contradicted the previous theory.

There were no signs of struggle on the bodies, and the villagers would not have left poisoned bodies exposed by the water source.

After the bones were taken away, in the deserted desert ruins, the puzzle that the young couple left me with before their death troubled me greatly.

If only I could go back and ask them directly—this is a dream every archaeologist has, myself included. But I know, if we could turn back, there would be no need for archaeology.

It is the irreversibility of time that gives meaning to everything in the present.

Seven months passed, and I was at a loss. The expedition team had long returned to the capital to launch a larger-scale exploration of the Eastern Gobi, but I stayed behind in Mandalgovi near the ruins, spending my time around the long-collapsed little well, throwing all excavation matters out of my mind.

I suppose it was because I once harboured such great hope that I was reluctant to let go.

I vaguely realised that what entangled me was no longer the cause of the young couple's death, but the effort I had put into seeking the truth—I couldn't let go of those lost times and hopes, much like the reason I remain single to this day.

You might say I'm too obsessed, but it's precisely because of this obsession that I became an archaeologist. Otherwise, I could just forget and move on like a mayfly that only lives for a single day—why persist?

As the Chinese saying goes, "Those who are in the forest see only trees, while onlookers see the forest."—though perhaps this doesn't entirely apply to archaeology. Archaeology is about uncovering the lost memories of those confused within the forest. To understand the truth in others' hearts, one must enter the forest.

That said, it was indeed an onlooker who helped me in finding the couple's cause of death.

At the end of August, to extend my visa, I had no choice but to temporarily fly back to Beijing. One rainy morning, on my way back to the hotel, I stumbled upon a group of children playing in the rain.

In my memory, East Asians always carry umbrellas when it rains, but these Beijing children, regardless of the rain, were playing around a big puddle as if they wished for the rain to pour even harder.

A little girl fell into the mud, splashing up a huge spray of water. She would surely be scolded by her parents when she got home. I thought so, but her young companions clapped and cheered. And she herself didn't seem to mind much. She wiped her face and continued to play and chase after them.

What if... what if they desired death?

All my previous speculations were based on the principle that "people don't want to die," even in suicide, I assumed the two would surely struggle... but perhaps there is a truth that would make them see death as natural.

They wished to die together.

Three months later, the expedition team unearthed horse and human skulls 120 kilometres from the site, on the edge of the desert.

Before their death, they had suffered painful struggles, possibly due to dehydration.

In other words, the reason why no other villagers' remains were found in the village was because they had all fled. To escape the imminent drought and the impending death, they rode horses towards the edge of the desert, but couldn't escape their fate.

Thus, the fate of the young couple was revealed.

They chose not to leave with the villagers but opted to end their lives together by the dried-up well.

Was it innocence? Or the courage to face the present? After solving the puzzle, a part of me felt grounded, but another part, empty.

I presented my theory. However, such an answer was only speculation, with no direct evidence other than my imagination to support it. Several months later, the two-year exploration concluded. The association deemed the conclusion of the two voluntarily taking their own lives too absurd and instead believed that the glass by the bones was decisive evidence supporting the theory of prehistoric nuclear war. As for the arsenic trioxide on the bones, it was dismissed as contamination during the analysis. I, of course, didn't believe this official explanation and refused to have my name attached to the article published by the association.

This persistence proved nothing. The site is now famous for being evidence of prehistoric nuclear war.

But, as someone who doesn't believe in fate, I'd rather believe in the meaning that exists in fragments and broken water splashes.

... He, no, she... chose to die with her beloved under the gentle night sky, scattering the ground with shards of glass by the well.

Gazing at the stars, listening to each other's heartbeat, they forgot their struggle.

"Know about Taifeng*?"

"Non?"

"Something that exists beyond the sands. On nights with Taifeng, the world is covered with wind and rain."

"Very good."

"Once again, in the time existing in this world, I'll accompany you there."

 

 

*It's assumed that in the language used at the site, "Taifeng" means "storm."