I woke up from another dream. I dreamed about that desert and the sweat on our hairs and the Gobi long-distance running again.

  It has been two weeks since I came back from Guazhou where was filled with dirt and sand in the air. Every time I dreamed about the Gobi, I felt like forty years of exploration of life came to ground zero. All the desire for materials became unimportant. What would left?

  We hiked across the 117 kilometers long Moheyanqi in four days and three night. Moheyanqi was like the fire that used for forging the knife, and it forged the eternal moment of the eight warriors of Nanyang passing the deadline. It seemed like all the problems and symbol were gone at the moment. All our mind was blank. Only the insistence of our team, our beliefs, and our relationships left a deep impression in our heart.

  I am Old Cat and the slowest leader in Nanyang ‘s history. Our ex-leader fooled me that the leader does not need run fast, the leader only needs to have the ability to train a fast team. Because I believed that, so I brought eight fashion girls and boys to the 12th Gobi race. I am proud because this generation is the most beautiful generation of the A team of Nanyang Gobi team. According to the ratiocination of Floyd, the reason why I think I should try to influence them is that I was hit by my mother with the broom and rolling pin too much when I was a child. I always think that as a train head, I am a little old fashioned. I gradually became a mother chicken with eight chicks. I told them stories like Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Souls every day. I know it would not work and they often made fun of me. They also would take the stories as joke materials, but I never got mad. Is the pilgrim road still funny without Zhu Bajie？

  The first morning we set off, everything was going according to the plan. The stormtroopers caught up with Nezha at the first checkpoint. Our commissar Jiang accompanied Big Cat to make sure she has one day’s score. The road condition was not complicated. The wind we worried about became the helper of our teammate because we were hiking down the wind. Captain Fourteen was the one who endured a lot, and I was worry about him the most. That few days he barely slept, and he fell hard on the tryout day. His arm could not swing widely. The day before the race, we got some medicine and put the medicine on secretly, like thieves who tried to steal corn cob at the corn field. We thought the medicine could help us a little. Even with all the problems, Fourteen needed to make sure the speed of brother Yongjun at the first half of the first day’s race to guarantee the score of our whole team. But we did not foresee that because of the excellent performance of our two female teammates, Fourteen became the sixth at that day and he ran fast at the last twelve kilometers. Fourteen was the record of our team before he came to the Gobi, he never thought he would be the sixth, and he did not think that his score would be the whole team’s score. So the moment he reached the finish line, I held his hands, and his hands were shaking. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder, and his back was cold and wet. A handsome man who is tall would not let the insistence and resolution down and rely on somebody else until he reached the finish line. This is the insistence of captain Fourteen.

  The wind of Anxi did not stop since Xuanzang traveled to the west. The windmills on the Gobi are the masterpiece of the human for the people who looked at them through the windows of the train. The windmills on the Gobi are hopes for the students who study under the lamplight. For the Gobi warriors of Nanyang, the windmills on the Gobi means torture and belief. We need most of our insistence and courage.

  On the second day of the race, we had to go through the Windmill Array. It was a nightmare and anxious which was both hopeful and hopeless for any experienced runner of Gobi race. Because I already participated the Gobi race for four times, so I could go through the windmills without and desire and take this as a spiritual practice without an end and a beginning. But I thought for the commissar Jiang now, and the Windmill Array meant nothing and all he could see was the finish line. Jiang is the legend of Nanyang Technological University. He is the delegate of the advertisement line that says sport can change the life. In the past year, he lost 44 pounds from 198 pounds. He threw his XL coat and started to wear S size tights. He could not walk for 3 kilometers, but now he could run more than 30 kilometers with ease. He is self-disciplined, careful, funny and dependable. Probably because his fight gene was activated by the sacrificing accompany at the first day or by the impulse of contributing score that day which was the request of his self-discipline. Anyhow, he released on the second day. But people can defeat fate did not work in the desert. Jiang had sunstroke at this windy, sandy and hot Black Gobi. He felt dizzy, sick and week. All the discomfort mixed up the anxious of the longing for the finish line.It made him could not breathe and could not stop. He wanted to stop and cry to let all the unwillingness out, but what he wanted more was to be one of the top six and contribute to our team. The eleven windmills became the road to the sky. At that moment, Jiang became a part of the sky and earth. At the finish point, Jiang vomited. Even though he was not one of the top six, but every teammate felt commissar’s insistence.

  All the common insistence was for that marvelous moment. All the preparations was a magnificent feat that made a team success.

  The third day of this race was about transcending. That day was like the fourth movement of the symphony and made you could not breathe since the beginning.

  At that day, B team started early, so some experienced runners hidden in a sand hole not far from start point. They waited for the teammates of A team for an hour to accompany them. They other experience runners waited at 5km, 10km, and 15km to relay the companionship. The A team of the winning team experienced the pleasure of speed and the admiration of the audience, then Nanyang gained the sacrifice and the companionship of all team members, and what accompanied the team of eight people was endless encouragement, sacrifice and the meaning of life. I remembered a talk I had with a teammate of A team at the Gobi; he said,“I did not understand why experienced Gobi runners would sacrifice selflessly before. But I understand now when we go to the Gobi. I know we will be the same.” This is the insistence and responsibility of Nanyang.

  After a three days and two nights shower, eight people of A team had become a really strong team.

  They were the anchor. When there were problems in the team, they would discipline themselves and take the lead. They took the responsibility even when their ankles hurt. ——Yongjun

  They are the cattle light in front of the table. They ran across the finish line first, and the teammates behind tried their best to chase after them. All they wanted to improve their ranking a little big. ——Big Cat

  Even they ran through the finish line, and they did not forget to check in even when they fell. What they left was the perseverant look. ——Sky Web

  They are:

  Nezha, Jlingli Zhang

  Big Cat, Sushan Guo

  Fourteen, Dong Chen

  Jiang, Xinghui Jiang

  Lance, Jinge

  Yongjun, Yongjun Li

  Taichi, Xiaogang Luo

  Sky Web, Jianzhong Zhou