The old man sighed and coughed again. Thehot days and cold nights of the desert hurt hiswindpipe and lungs and gave him bad asthma.His back and legs were failing too.
"If only that vixen could turn into a person,dad," said his daughter melancholically. "Theyused to say that foxes turned into beautiful girls.Do you think they turn into young men too?"
Sandy threw a silent glance at his daughteras the hard wrinkles on his face deepened, sud-denly realizing that she had grown up. Hecouldn't tie her young heart down any more. Hewould ask Beardy to have her transferred to thecenter. This was what he had been dreading. Hewas aware that only the desert and the old vixenwould stay with him all his life. Fate hadbrought him here, and he would never leave thisdemon of a place. He had an inkling that hismisfortunes-his miserable life and the earlydeath of his parents-had something to do with地辨認著，‘“大胡子？旁邊是誰？”
“旁邊那個是場部秘書小楊。爸，咱們快回去吧，讓客人等著多不好。”女兒拉著父親的胳膊往家走去。
“老夥計， 日子過得下賴吧？”大胡子主任胡子還是那麼濃密，性情還是那麼直率。
“湊合著活歎。”
“湊合著活？承包了這麼一大片佗子，又是草木揮，又是沙打旺，光沙打旺草籽一斤就兩塊八！你快發冒泡了吧，啊？”好像承包給老沙頭的是畝產超千金的黃金土地，而那些植物又像雨後的春筍般會生長一樣，大胡子主任輕鬆地說笑著，拍著老沙頭的肩膀。
老沙頭沒有做聲，隻是嗬嗬笑著。他對老主任懷有一種樸拙的感恩之情，盡管知道他吃治沙林場主任的官晌二十年，在造林治沙方麵沒有什麼建樹，卻以酗酒打獵遠近聞名，老沙頭始終還是對他抱有好感。“老主任，啥風把你吹到佗子裏來了？”
“啊，我要走唆！這回批下來了，安排到縣林業局當顧問。這不，臨行前來看看你，看看你this demon. He had manipulated it. For half alife time he had tried to make a living on bothsides of the Great Wall, and ending up in thisplace was the work of this demon too. He hadno fear, but rather icy hatred. He looked up a-gain at the strange sun. The white sand cloudsbeneath it were thickening, moving slowly andheavily. The old man pummeled his back andmumbled, "Who let you out of the bottle, de-mon? Are you going wild again?"
"Hey! Sandy!"
Two men on horseback called outside hishome. A man took off his hat and waved atthem.
"Ah! Someone has come, dad! We havevisitors!" his daughter cried with joy.
"Yes. Who are they?" The old man rubbedhis eyes and looked hard. "Beardy? Who's withhim?"