Portable LED lights illuminated the ice cave brightly, making it as bright as day.
The lights were so bright they made it hard to sleep, so Mr. Qian turned over in the tent.
In a daze, a loud "boom" came from outside.
Wrapped in his sleeping bag, Boss Qian sprang up with a thud, like a zombie with a yellow talisman stuck to it.
He shouted, "Longevity Fish! Little Zhou, come quick!"
Xiao Zhou hurriedly untied his sleeping bag, rubbed his eyes, and followed Boss Qian.
Near the ice cave, a wooden barrel filled with rotting flesh lay overturned on the ground, the hairy, decaying flesh scattered everywhere, but there was no trace of the immortal fish.
The culprit that caused the barrel to fall was the collapsed ice hole.
Large chunks of ice fell, completely burying the ice cave. A wall was added to the tunnel, blocking it and shortening the distance by more than half.
Boss Qian's expression changed drastically: "Oh no, the ice cave has collapsed! Let's get out of here!"
His warning came too late; before the two could even get back to their tent, another loud "boom" echoed from the other end of the ice cave.
The once open ice cave has become a blocked ice chamber, where even air cannot circulate.
Currently, the only source of air is the ice cave that connects to the top of the frozen lake.
Boss Qian's expression was grim and uncertain. He said in a low voice, "Xiao Zhou, what's wrong with you? Didn't you say the ice cave wouldn't collapse and the information was absolutely reliable?"
Unable to answer, Xiao Zhou stammered and looked like he was about to cry.
The doctor tried to dig a hole out using the drilling tools he had brought, but as soon as he broke a piece of ice, another piece of ice fell down from above, blocking the hole even more completely.
"Stop digging, or it will collapse!" Mr. Qian said irritably.
Xu Ding and Xu Nuo exchanged a glance and decided to wait for the time being.
After venting his anger, Boss Qian immediately assigned tasks to Xiao Zhou: "Contact the director and have him bring the auger to rescue us. Also, call Director Qi and see if she's finished with her work."
Xiao Zhou took out the communicator, fiddled with it for a while, and said in a low voice, "No, no signal."
"Go find it if there's no signal!" Boss Qian said irritably. "Just wait, Director Qi will rush back to the research institute after she gets the samples, and she will come to find us."
...
Qi Zhen is sick, very sick.
She was delirious with fever, spouting nonsense about "microorganisms," "projects," "humans," and "curing diseases."
Dr. Han remained silent and anxious, silently speeding up the sample collection process.
Without Qi Zhen's help to check whether the samples were qualified, Dr. Qian was extremely busy with the collection work and alternating observations. The more he wanted to speed things up, the slower he could go.
"Can you help me?" Dr. Han looked helplessly at Xia Chuhe and Lu Dangui.
Xia Chuhe handed Qi Zhen to Lu Dangui: "What do you need me to do?"
Dr. Han handed the auger to Xia Chuhe and instructed her on how to use it to cut ice blocks.
All Xia Chuhe needs to do is learn how to use a spiral drill and hand over the cut ice blocks to him.
In this way, Dr. Han can focus on checking the quality of the samples and store samples containing low-activity viruses in the sample box.
Once the sample boxes are full, everyone can go back.
Xia Chuhe collected samples, and Dr. Han observed them; the two worked together to quickly fill the sample box.
Seeing the sample box getting fuller and fuller, Dr. Han breathed a sigh of relief: "Let's go back!"
Lu Dangui had already tied Qi Zhen to his body and even attached a ski to the motorcycle.
Lu Dangui, who was in charge of riding the motorcycle, sat in the front, while Dr. Han abandoned his instruments and sat on the back seat with a sample box in his arms. Qi Zhen, who was burning up and almost unconscious, was sandwiched between the two of them.
Before setting off, Qi Zhen suddenly snapped out of her daze for a moment: "Is the sample okay?"
Dr. Han: "No problem."
Qi Zhen: "The samples absolutely cannot be lost."
After saying these two sentences, Qi Zhen fell into a coma again.
Lu Dangui called out to Xia Chuhe, "I'm off."
Xia Chuhe gripped the rope connecting the motorcycle and the snowmobile tightly and replied, "Watch the ice, be careful."
...
There is a spare fuel tank in the rear compartment of the snow track vehicle, but unfortunately the director doesn't know how to replace it.
Fortunately, the documentary that Mr. Qian wanted included an introduction to tracked vehicles, and the video he filmed contained a tutorial on changing the fuel tank.
The director hurriedly crawled into the carriage and pulled up the video to study it.
However, a tracked vehicle without fuel cannot generate heat, and once the heat is gone, even breathing becomes painful.
The director climbed out of the car, chewed a large piece of gum to plug the small hole, wrapped the fuel tank with a cloth, and placed a wooden board underneath to slow down the oil leak.
After plugging the hole, he added a thin layer of oil to the fuel tank.
The car's heating system started working again, and the director put his hand to the air vent to regain warmth, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the tutorial.
"Tools...we need tools..."
After watching the tutorial, the director went to the back of the train to find tools.
Without the snowmobile, various instruments and supplies, the rear compartment looked empty, with only the spare track strips and replacement parts on the left side still packed full.
The director searched the fuel tank but couldn't find any tools.
He searched the back of the car for a long time, turning over almost everything, but still couldn't find the tools.
He suddenly remembered that when Xiao Zhou left, he put many small boxes on the sled, and there seemed to be two toolboxes among them...
The director cursed silently a few times and quickly contacted Xiao Zhou, only to be told, "The number you dialed is not in service."
The oil seeped into the snow drop by drop, and the gum used to patch the holes quickly lost its filling effect, so he had to get out of the car every now and then to refuel.
...
"I can't take it anymore, I feel a little dizzy."
Mr. Qian pulled his head back out of the ice hole and called for the doctor, breathing rapidly.
The doctor's breathing was steady, and his tone was calm: "Your feeling of tightness is simply due to excessive psychological stress and hyperventilation. Relax, follow my instructions, inhale—exhale—"
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