Trembling At A High Altitude

Countless bullets rained down on Li Teng's location like a downpour.

Li Teng had absolutely no place to hide.

He watched with wide eyes as his wooden bed's headboard was shredded by the bullets before the trajectory followed the rotation of the aircraft, sweeping from the head to the foot of the bed and towards the area where he stood.

Is this really how he's going to die?

Killed by a bored fighter pilot?

This fighter pilot had no reason to kill him; he was just sitting there idly, and upon spotting a living person at the top of the pillar by chance, he started firing!

It was like a person sitting idly by the street, noticing an ant on the ground, and without reason, crushing it with a foot.

What a tragedy.

As Li Teng pondered whether to die indignantly at the hands of the pilot, giving him the middle finger, or to leap off the pillar, preferring to be smashed to pieces rather than providing the pilot the pleasurable sensation of mowing a person down with machine-gun fire, the combat helicopter that had previously fled in panic suddenly swooped in from below.

Accompanied by the sound of the machine gun piercing the helicopter's floor, the pilot who was about to execute Li Teng bounced a few times in his seat, his body bursting with several blossoms of blood, and then he was no more.

The helicopter he was piloting also dove nose-first due to the forward tilt of his body at death, and the last few bullets from the machine gun thus missed their target, hitting the pillar beneath Li Teng's feet instead of his body.

Then, the helicopter continued its forward plunge, crashing into the pillar a few dozen meters below Li Teng's feet with a loud 'bang!', and the massive impact force, combined with the explosion, caused the pillar to shake violently once again.

Li Teng tightly hugged the leg of the bed at the foot, preventing himself from being thrown off the violently shaking pillar.

The head of the bed, which was destroyed by the helicopter's gunfire, was tossed away in this latest shake, leaving behind only two broken bedposts still standing on the top of the pillar.

As this helicopter was destroyed, a few more chased after it from below, continuing to perform various flight maneuvers around the pillar and engaging in fierce combat.

Every now and then, bullets flew past Li Teng, sometimes close by, other times overhead.

In that moment, Li Teng profoundly understood what turmoil in war meant and the suffering of civilians in an era of conflict.

He could only lay on top of the pillar, clutching the only remaining bedpost with both hands, then shivering as he waited for it all to end.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

It might have been a quarter of an hour, perhaps even shorter.

But to Li Teng, it felt incredibly long.

The 'tat-tat-tat-tat' of machine guns finally came to a halt.

The aerial battle was over.

The surviving party was the combat helicopter that was pursued.

Although it survived, its helicopter was riddled with holes and emitted constant streams of black smoke.

Facing enemies several times his number, the helicopter pilot secured his ultimate victory through superb flying and combat skills.

Before leaving, he seemed to glance at the top of the pillar. However, he neither approached for a rescue nor showed any intention of tormenting the miserable person perched atop, simply flying away with his helicopter.

The surroundings regained their peace.

The snow continued to fall, although much lighter than before.

Li Teng, lying on top of the pillar, looked at the battered bed with only three legs remaining and couldn't help but feel rage boiling up inside him.

Quite some time passed before he managed to calm himself down.

Angry?

Of course, he was angry.

But what use was anger?

No use at all.

So, there was no point in being angry.

Without anger, all that remained was sorrow.

However, Li Teng couldn't help but quickly become enraged again.

His highly precious beverage bottle, almost representing half his life, which he had tied to the bed's headboard with a sheet-made rope, had also disappeared during the aerial battle along with the headboard!

This loss brought Li Teng to the brink of explosion in a moment of intense rage.

In the end, he still had to exert effort to restrain himself.

Perhaps this aerial battle was all because of the beverage bottle?

Film and Television City had discovered his 'cheating', somehow obtaining a beverage bottle that made his survival a bit easier than before, which was absolutely impermissible to them.

So, during the air battle, his drink bottle was destroyed.

It seemed a bit over the top, but Li Teng couldn't think of any other reason, couldn't come up with a more suitable reason for the damn air battle to revolve around the pillar he was on.

Resign yourself to fate!

You can only resign yourself to fate.

After the anger came the endless cold.

Having lost the wooden bed planks that served as a ceiling, Li Teng was no longer able to rebuild his snow cave.

Without the wooden bed, the icy pillar top was extremely slippery, and a careless move could have sent him sliding off the edge.

The drink bottle was gone, and so were the torn quilt and padding.

Now, all he had left, besides the clothes he was wearing, were the three unevenly tall legs of the bed at the edge of the pillar.

Li Teng released his grip on the legs of the bed and carefully slid down to the center of the pillar top, then, slowly, he lay down on the icy top of the pillar.

The waist that had struck the bed legs sent throbbing pains shooting through him.

He didn't know if his bones were injured, but muscle contusions were definitely unavoidable.

The gunshot wound on his upper arm, compared to the agonizing pain in his waist, seemed almost negligible now.

The cold made his upper respiratory tract extremely uncomfortable, each breath of icy air felt like torture to his lungs.

"Only a day and a half left."

"I can definitely make it through."

Li Teng slowly turned on his side, trying to find a position that might alleviate the pain in his waist a little.

Unfortunately, each change of position only made the pain worse, not less.

This time going back, he would probably end up in the hospital again.

A gust of wind blew over, chilling to the bone.

Li Teng switched his position again, lying on his back, facing the sky.

Falling snowflakes landed one by one on his face.

His eyebrows and eyelashes began to ice over.

The skin on his face seemed to freeze and harden as well.

Then his hands and feet gradually lost all sensation.

"Sigh!"

After a long while, Li Teng heaved a sigh.

That was all he had left; otherwise, he was no different from a dead man.

Pain, agony.

Li Teng felt that if he fell asleep like this, he probably would never wake up again.

But if he didn't fall asleep this way, could he survive until the day after tomorrow when the helicopter from Film and Television City was supposed to come for him?

Although the saying goes, "Heaven never seals off all the exits."

But now, it seemed Heaven wanted to cut off his path to survival!

If it weren't for those damn helicopters, he should be safely hiding in his snow cave by now.

Making it to the day after tomorrow wouldn't be a big problem.

Their arrival destroyed everything he had, including his hope for survival.

Li Teng once again turned his body over with difficulty.

So his face wouldn't directly catch the falling snowflakes.

Thankfully, he had Daisy's raincoat, which provided a thin layer of plastic covering for the back of his head after he turned over.

Continue to suffer pain, continue to endure.

Despite the feeling that falling asleep this way might mean never waking up again.

But in the end, Li Teng couldn't hold on anymore.

The heavy pressures of cold, hunger, and disease made him gradually succumb to a coma on the cold stone pillar top.