Trembling At A High Altitude

The snow wasn't heavy, tiny snowflakes drifted slowly.

No wonder last night, during the first half of the night he was too hot to sleep, and in the latter half, he slept like a dead pig.

Between the heat and the cold, there might have been a few hours when the temperature was especially comfortable, allowing him an unusually sound sleep.

If it weren't for the cold he had caught, Li Teng would have preferred the cold over the heat.

Though the cold might also freeze someone to death, it was slightly more bearable than the heat.

Moreover, he already had the experience of digging a snow cave under the bed to keep warm.

Without water to drink, extreme heat sometimes left him with no solutions.

In a snowstorm, at least there was no worry about dying from dehydration.

A gust of cold wind blew by, making Li Teng shiver.

The situation was now somewhat awkward.

The snowfall wasn't heavy, but the temperature had already dropped very low.

Thus, he didn't have enough snow to build a wind-protecting snow cave.

He could only wear his pajamas, the thin coat he bought, his patient clothes, and the raincoat Daisy had given him, and then drape a tattered blanket over himself for warmth.

It was still very cold.

"Why can't the weather be a bit more moderate?"

Li Teng sighed.

He quickly adjusted his mindset.

This was already the third day. If he could endure one more day, the day after tomorrow he could return to Film and Television City.

Endure! Endure! Patience! Patience!

The snow started to fall heavier, turning from scattered tiny flakes to thick goose-feather flakes.

Li Teng finally had something to do.

He compacted the snow that had fallen on the bed into blocks, made them into snow bricks, and started to stack them between the bed board and the stone pillar to build his snow house.

Li Teng even had a notion to raise the walls of the snow house a bit higher and then try to find a way to make a cover or something of the sort, which would give him more space to move around instead of being stuck in that cramped snow cave unable to move.

There wasn't even space to take care of physiological needs.

Although he was compressing these snow bricks through padding and not directly touching the freezing snow with his hands, in no time at all, Li Teng's hands still became cold and painfully stiff.

Sometimes, the cold isn't frightening.

What is frightening is not having food, not having heat to replenish the body, the continuous loss of bodily heat, enduring the cold purely through bodily depletion.

This simply cannot withstand it.

But now, what hurt the most wasn't his hands, but his lungs.

The sting of the cold made his respiratory system increasingly uncomfortable.

His physical condition made Li Teng give up the idea of raising the snow walls higher, and he also hadn't figured out how to deal with the snow house's roof; simply raising the snow walls didn't mean much to him.

It was better to take advantage of not being too ill and still having strength to properly build the snow cave under the bed.

Lying inside at least was much better than being outside in the wind; otherwise, his sick lungs definitely wouldn't last.

Work a bit, catch his breath a bit.

Three hours later, Li Teng finally constructed the snow cave under the bed with the accumulated snow.

Lying in the wind-shielding snow cave, his respiratory system felt a bit better.

But it was still very uncomfortable.

His throat hurt more and more.

It was swollen badly, and every swallowing movement was painful.

But strangely, every so often he really wanted to swallow.

Sleep! Sleep!

Hurry up and get through these two days.

Once he was back at Film and Television City, it would be okay.

He couldn't sleep.

It felt colder and colder.

Was it... a fever?

"It was intentional, right?" Li Teng lamented.

People with colds and fevers especially dislike the cold.

After developing a fever, they feel even colder.

Had it been yesterday, he wouldn't have suffered this much.

He could only endure.

Endure.

He didn't know how long it had been.

Li Teng's mind was somewhat hazy.

A rumbling noise followed by a 'tattattat' sound woke him up.

Accompanied by the sound of the bed frame splintering, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his right upper arm.

Li Teng touched it with his hand, it was blood!

There was a large gash on his upper arm!

It seemed like... something had pierced the bed frame, grazed his upper arm, and left a large gash!

Li Teng felt the stone slab below his upper arm and found a bullet!

"Damn! Someone's shooting?" Li Teng couldn't help but be stunned.

This high up, who was shooting? And from above, shooting downward?

He reached up to feel the bed frame, and sure enough, there were a few bullet holes!

Because the snow on the bed frame was so thick, these bullet holes didn't let any light come through.

A while later, the rumbling noise came again.

Li Teng sensed that the situation was grim. He crawled to the corner where the bed frame had been shattered by the tail of a commercial airliner, pushed away the nearby snow, and peered outside.

It was an airplane!

An armed helicopter!

Several of them, chasing each other in the sky.

One of them was frantically fleeing, plunging down right below the top of the stone pillar where Li Teng was.

Looking at the design and color of the fleeing helicopter, it was different from the others. It seemed that it and the other helicopters were not from the same faction, while the others were all pursuing it.

Apparently, having not found any other cover nearby to avoid pursuit from the other helicopters, the fleeing helicopter began circling the stone pillar Li Teng was on.

The other helicopters relentlessly pursued, incessantly firing with the machine guns on their noses at the fleeing helicopter. The bullets that had pierced Li Teng's bed frame must have been inadvertently fired by them!

While Li Teng was observing, an armed helicopter swooped down less than ten meters above his head, its gusts of wind even blowing away much of the snow on Li Teng's bed.

Li Teng quickly withdrew his head and hid back inside the Snow Cave, his body trembling nonstop.

Truly an undeserved disaster!

A few damned helicopters, with so much open space around, you just keep flying. Why circle this pillar over and over?

Just as Li Teng was cursing inwardly, a 'bang!' echoed, and the pillar shook violently.

A blast of heat rose from below.

It felt as if a high-speed helicopter had crashed into the pillar or a missile had hit it, causing this accident.

Perhaps due to a frontal collision or bombing, the shaking of the pillar was far more severe than the previous time when the tail of the commercial airliner had grazed it.

The snow wall beneath Li Teng's bed, as well as the snow on the bed, and the blankets and padding frozen on top, were all tossed away in this violent shake.

During this severe shaking, Li Teng's waist hit a bed leg and was blocked by it; he quickly wrapped his arms around this bed leg to prevent being thrown off by the violent shaking of the pillar.

His waist in severe pain, with no snow, blankets, or padding left.

His entire body was completely exposed on the top of the pillar.

A pilot in an armed helicopter circling nearby glanced over and saw the ruined bed on top of the pillar and Li Teng holding onto the bed leg.

He whistled, then turned the helicopter's nose toward Li Teng.

He pressed the fire button.

'Tattattattattat!'

The heavy machine gun under the nose began spinning wildly.