Chapter 203
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June 21, 5:20 p.m.
The ship arrived at the North Pole coast.
The sky was overcast, fine snowflakes fluttered down, and the familiar glaciers came into view, the biting cold wind waking everyone up instantly.
Lu Haoxi, like a southern dog who had never seen snow before, shivered with excitement as he stretched out his hands eagerly, “It’s snow! Wow! And there are snow-capped mountains! Wow!!!”
Li Sanxin couldn’t help but scoff, “Can you stop being so ignorant?”
Lu Haoxi chuckled foolishly, happily rushing to the deck to explore. Finally, he curiously stared at the thick layer of frost on the railing, then glanced around surreptitiously, and seeing that no one was paying attention, quickly stuck out his tongue and licked the railing.
It is said that the frost on the iron railing in winter is sweet, let him try it, let him try it!
“Mmm? Mmm mmm?! Mmm mmm mmm!!!”
Hearing the sound, everyone looked at Lu Haoxi and saw him desperately shouting with his tongue stuck to the railing.
Everyone: …
After a chaotic moment, several people finally got themselves together.
Lou Yan put on sunglasses, adjusted his gloves, and turned to the crew, “Can we fly in this weather?”
The captain hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “Yes. But if the snowstorm gets worse, we will immediately return.”
Lou Yan nodded and clapped his hands with his companions, “Stop fooling around, get ready to go ashore.”
Actually, the temperature at this time was very low, not suitable for landing. But today is already the tenth night that Fu Xuezhou has spent in the extreme cold h*ll, which has exceeded the nine days recorded in the diary. Fu Xuezhou may still be alive, but he could die at any moment.
They need to speed up.
In order to save time, Lou Yan specifically arranged for a ship equipped with a helicopter. The helicopter was quite large, with enough space for four people besides the pilot. After the helicopter was refueled, the pilot took them off from the deck.
Lou Yan squinted at the snow-capped mountains below, distinguishing the route Fu Xuezhou had once flown with him and directing the pilot.
Lou Yan and Li Sanxin were not riding a helicopter for the first time, but it was the first time for Lu Haoxi. He was nervous all the way, gripping the handrail tightly and looking at the mountains outside the window until half an hour later when he saw that the helicopter was flying steadily, he slowly relaxed.
The helicopter’s speed was not as fast as Fu Xuezhou’s flight. It took almost an hour for Lou Yan to see the familiar “North Pole Seven Stars” mountain. Lou Yan also had a faint feeling of nervousness. His mouth was pursed, “Look to the right.”
The pilot turned right as instructed, but after flying for more than ten minutes, the wind and snow gradually intensified, causing the helicopter to begin to sway unsteadily.
“We can’t continue in this weather!” the pilot said. “I need to turn back!”
Lou Yan said decisively, “Fine. Lower the altitude and let us get off, then you can return.”
The pilot immediately lowered the helicopter to a height of just over one meter from the ground, and Lou Yan and the others jumped off the helicopter one by one. The pilot threw a pack of signal flares to Lou Yan and shouted, “When the heavy snow stops, if you want me to come pick you up, just light the signal flare.”
Lou Yan made an “ok” gesture, and the helicopter flew away.
The four of them continued walking forward in the snowstorm. Lou Yan was a bit worried about Lu Haoxi’s condition and asked him from time to time. Apart from his face being slightly pale from the cold, Lu Haoxi’s spirits were still good.
As they walked further, the temperature dropped, and the white snow obscured their vision like mist. Li Sanxin exhaled a breath of cold air, his entire face stiffening, and couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t it supposed to be the warm season in the North Pole now? Why do I feel it’s getting colder? The temperature must be at least minus 30 degrees Celsius.”
Duan Zege walked ahead with his head down, snow accumulating on him, “It’s because of the extreme cold h*ll. The extreme cold h*ll has been active for a whole ten days, and the cold air inside has surged out, causing this effect.”
Lu Haoxi exclaimed, “Ah? It’s already this cold before we even get close to the extreme cold h*ll. How cold must it be inside the extreme cold h*ll?”
Upon hearing this, Lou Yan’s steps paused for a moment, then he hastened his pace in the next second.
After walking for about three hours in the bitter wind, the temperature visibly dropped lower and lower. When they finally reached the edge of the extreme cold h*ll, all four of them were stiff with cold.
Lou Yan put down the bag, took out the tools inside to tie the rope, and then threw the rope into the extreme cold h*ll. After preparing to descend into the extreme cold h*ll, Lou Yan looked at Li Sanxin, Duan Zege, and Lu Haoxi, furrowing his brows, “It will be very cold below. You guys shouldn’t come down with me.”
Li Sanxin said, “No! I have to go down with you. With such a large extreme cold h*ll, how long would it take for you to find someone alone? I’ll accompany you!”
Lu Haoxi opened his mouth, wanting to say he would go down too. But Lou Yan interrupted him, “Lu Haoxi, you can’t go down. You’re already injured, you won’t be able to withstand the low temperature below.”
Among the four of them, Lu Haoxi was in the worst condition. Even before descending into the extreme cold h*ll, his lips had turned slightly blue, and he looked somewhat unsteady.
Lu Haoxi also knew his physical condition and didn’t insist, obediently nodding, “Then I’ll stay here and watch the rope. If you guys want to come up, I’ll pull you up.”
Duan Zege said, “Then I’ll stay above to watch the rope and Lu Haoxi.”
Lou Yan looked at Duan Zege with surprise. He thought Duan Zege would be the most anxious to go down and save Fu Xuezhou.
Duan Zege smiled at him, “If any anomalies come after us, I can also stop them here.”
Lou Yan looked at him deeply and nodded, “Okay.”
Lou Yan and Li Sanxin quickly used all the warming gear brought in the bag, and each drank half a bottle of strong liquor. They only felt a warmth spreading from their internal organs to their limbs, and sweat appeared on their foreheads even under the thick hats.
After exchanging a glance, they didn’t hesitate anymore, and directly wrapped themselves in the rope and descended into the extreme cold h*ll.
The wind and snow were raging over the extreme cold h*ll, unlike the other abyss cliffs. The walls of the extreme cold h*ll were deep black in color, covered with a thick layer of ice, making the entire wall slippery, with no footholds to climb.
Lou Yan supported himself on the wall with his feet and slid down rapidly. He looked at the wall with meters-thick ice layer, his heart sinking to the bottom of the valley.
The extreme cold h*ll was undoubtedly unfathomable, and such a wall greatly increased the difficulty of leaving the extreme cold h*ll. It might be easy to come down, but it would be really difficult for them to go up.
Lou Yan looked up at the top of the extreme cold h*ll, the wind and snow covering his sight, and he could no longer see Duan Zege and the others.
Perhaps they could only rely on Duan Zege and Lu Haoxi to pull them up if they wanted to go up…
The extreme cold h*ll was too deep. It took several minutes before Lou Yan saw the ground. He released the rope and jumped to the ground, but stumbled and was buried by the thick snow up to his waist.
Lou Yan dug through the snow and stood up, looking around, but found that the visible range was only about two meters around him.
The wind and snow raging at the bottom were much more exaggerated than above. In just a few seconds, Lou Yan was covered with a thick layer of snow and ice. He could feel the rapid loss of body heat, and the warmth brought by the strong liquor had disappeared in just a short while.
Even though Lou Yan was prepared, the low temperature in the extreme cold h*ll still exceeded his imagination.
“So cold…”
With each word spoken, a puff of hot air escaped, Lou Yan’s teeth clattered, and he tightened his scarf, a thin layer of ice crystals forming on his eyelashes.
It was truly too cold here, the words “extreme cold h*ll” were extremely appropriate. If an ordinary person fell into the extreme cold h*ll, they might turn into an ice sculpture buried deep in the snow within a few minutes.
After a while, Li Sanxin also descended. However, when he was still seven or eight meters above the ground, his hands were frozen stiff, and he didn’t have the strength to tighten the rope. He fell directly to the ground.
“Li Sanxin!”
Lou Yan hurried over and dug out Li Sanxin from the snow. Li Sanxin was curled up, his face turning blue, shivering as he said, “Yanzi, it’s so… so cold here.”
Lou Yan didn’t hesitate anymore. He took out a snow candle from his pocket, ready to light it. But when he picked up the lighter, he found that it was frozen and couldn’t be pressed.
“F*ck!” Lou Yan stuffed the lighter back into his pocket, luckily he had other preparations. He took out a box of matches, turned away from the cold wind, and lit the snow candle with a match.
The golden light from the snow candle enveloped the two of them, and within the golden light, the wind and snow gradually stopped. Lou Yan and Li Sanxin instantly felt their body temperature rising, as if they were revived.
Li Sanxin sat up from the ground, marveling at the snow candle, “This thing is amazing!”
“The snow candle is our only one. We can’t waste time. Hurry up, let’s go find Fu Xuezhou,” Lou Yan said as he stood up.
Li Sanxin stood up, looking around, “Which direction should we go?”
Lou Yan pursed his lips and looked around.
The snow candle covered an area within one meter of Lou Yan, creating a space where it felt like spring. The cold of the extreme cold h*ll disrupted their original plan to search separately. In this temperature, Li Sanxin could only follow Lou Yan.
With this, they only had one chance to decide the direction to search for Fu Xuezhou. Once they chose the wrong direction, the snow candle wouldn’t last for them to start over.
Lou Yan tentatively walked around.
He had deliberately chosen the place where Fu Xuezhou was pushed down originally. Fu Xuezhou should have fallen around this area.
Regardless, there should be traces left by Fu Xuezhou’s presence.
“Yanzi, is that blood?” Li Sanxin suddenly exclaimed, tugging at Lou Yan’s clothes excitedly.
Lou Yan followed his direction and saw a patch of mottled blood on a sturdy black tree trunk near the cliff.
He and Li Sanxin hurried over. The position of the blood stain was as high as Lou Yan’s chest, shaped like a bloody handprint.
Lou Yan’s expression was complicated. He reached out to touch the bloodstain. The position of his palm almost overlapped with it, but the fingers of the blood handprint were slightly longer than Lou Yan’s.
“This is Fu Xuezhou’s handprint,” Lou Yan affirmed.
He could almost picture Fu Xuezhou staggering away, clutching his bloody arm against the withered tree.
…
Lou Yan suddenly remembered a scene from when he was with Fu Xuezhou before.
Fu Xuezhou taught him how to paint, but Lou Yan couldn’t get it right, and Fu Xuezhou’s patience wore thin. The silver-haired man finally threw down the sketch pen, took Lou Yan’s right hand, and examined it with lowered eyes.
Lou Yan was annoyed at the time, “What are you looking at?”
“I’m looking at why your hand can draw such ugly paintings,” the silver-haired man said lazily, completely disregarding any sense of subtlety, while examining Lou Yan’s hand with interest. It wasn’t exactly sarcastic, but it was more infuriating than sarcasm.
Lou Yan smiled wryly, “So, did you figure it out?”
“Yeah,” Fu Xuezhou pressed Lou Yan’s hand against his own, then slowly interlaced his fingers with Lou Yan’s, a faint smile on his lips. “Probably because your fingers are a bit shorter than mine.”
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