Chapter 262: Ice Age

Mu Sicheng looked down, rummaged through the thick pile of thirty-three years of temperature records Bai Liu had handed him, and found the coldest spot on August 10th of the previous year.

The latitude and longitude of this location is clearly marked in the record, and it is exactly where Bai Liu and his team are now.

Tang Er hit the radar detector to the ice, exhaled a breath of hot air and straightened up, turned his head to Bai Liu: "The same old rules, first detect and then drill?"

Bai Liu nodded.

Tang Er hit the ice with the weighing hydraulic hammer, and after carefully checking that there were no ice crevasses in the vicinity, he climbed into the helicopter and began operating the instrument.

Liu Jiayi went back to the helicopter with him.

The wind was so strong in this part of the world that it almost had the power to roll her flat out, forcing her to return to the helicopter.

Liu Jiayi, with his hands on the driver's seat that Tang Er had hit, padded his feet in an effort to probe the radar screen on the dashboard.

The instrument scanned down layer by layer, eventually scanning out a regular shaped metal object at over a thousand meters, a discovery that made her frown, "That deep? How long do we have to dig?"

"A conservative estimate is that it will take more than six hours of work." Tang Er rubbed his hands, which were red from carrying the instruments, and frowned, "It's a bit of a problem, the temperature here is too low, and even if several of us take turns to do the work, those who are resting don't have a way to warm themselves, because the fuel is running out as well."

"It would be dangerous to dig by force."

Liu Jiayi looked at the thermometer hanging beside Tang Er's hand, looked up and asked him, "But the temperature here is not very low now, only minus thirty degrees, didn't you work safely in minus fifty degrees at Taishan station before, why is it more dangerous to work here?"

"Because the wind is so strong here." Tang Er hit the ground running, explaining, "In Antarctica, wind is a colder thing than snow."

"Cold temperatures will only slowly take away one's heat, but high velocity winds will take away one's body temperature much more quickly, and having been exposed to working in such wind speeds, with such imperfect equipment and warmth as we have, it would be easy for us to have a great deal of heat taken away from us by the gusts of wind, and to freeze to death outright from the wind."

Tang Er looked over at Bai Liu and the others outside the helicopter, who were stabilizing their equipment.

Mu Sicheng and Mu Ke were turning purple from the cold in just a few minutes, and kept making slight movements on the snow surface to keep warm, Tang Er hit a rare sign of concern: "I'll go down and switch them up."

"But you won't be able to last long under this gusty wind, you'll freeze to death just the same." Liu Jiayi thought clearly and pinpointed the crux of the matter, "Even if each of us took turns freezing and forcibly digging for our hearts, freezing to death would just be a matter of sooner or later-because we don't have any warming supplies left, and we've long been low on fuel, right?"

Liu Jiayi paused and paused, but still couldn't hold back his words:

"We don't need to die with Spades in this game for now, it's normal that we can't win against him now, we can convince Bai Liu to log off first."

"Either this mission to excavate the heart below a thousand meters, or, or win Spades, is too much bravado for us!!!"

Liu Jiayi was clinging to the side of the helicopter, her eyes red with some very faint tears, and her voice almost seemed a little feeble in the snow and wind, like that of a truly helpless little girl:

"Spades is really scary, I've seen Heart go up against him and she asked me if I was sure I could save her from Spades. I didn't answer her at the time."

"But now I can tell you the answer, the answer is absolutely not, I am completely incapable of saving any of my teammates from Spades." Liu Jiayi stifled a sob, the fingers clutching the helicopter's rim thin and white, "...... I don't want to see Spades kill Bai Liu, like he did before when he threw [Bai Liu] into the pool of strong acid."

"He's going to lose, and I can't save him."

Liu Jiayi watered, "But I'm not sure I can persuade Bai Liu to leave the game, he trusts you more, can you help me persuade him?"

Tang Er hit back to look at this little girl with tears in the corner of her eyes earnestly begging him, her look is so fragile, he realized in a trance - this in his memory has always been bloody and cruel methods, the smartest little witch is also afraid.

--The scene she had seen earlier at Edmund's Station still scared her.

Though the frightened little girl hadn't shown it at all from the time she boarded the plane, calming down to the point where she now waited for Bai Liu to leave before attempting to conspire against him.

Tang Er hits a slight pause in his outward stepping, then takes a continuing step outward, sinking deeper into the snow as he turns back to the helicopter and tilts his head toward Liu Jiayi by the door, the wind scattering the animal plush on the edge of his hat brim.

Liu Jiayi is right, but Bai Liu is the tactician.

--This is an unquestionable identity.

"Are you questioning the tactician's decision?" Tang Er hit asked in a deep voice.

Liu Jiayi bit her lower lip and stopped talking.

"Never question a tactician's decisions." Tang Er hit looked up and straight at Liu Jiayi, "The moment he made a good decision, he was ready to give his life for the victory - Bai Liu knows the consequences of all this better than you do."

"But to the tactician, winning the game is all that matters, and all you, as his player, have to do is execute his decisions and then win the game."

Liu Jiayi's voice was hoarse: "...... Even if Bai Liu died for this victory, it wouldn't matter, would it?"

Tang Er hit said calmly, "Yes, it doesn't matter."

"Because that's what he wants."

Tang Er hit finished and turned away, making very heavy footprints in the snow.

Liu Jiayi stood by the door and looked down at the footprints for a while, took a deep breath, rubbed two handfuls of tears around her eyes, and turned back to start rummaging through the cabinets looking for maps and information.

She gritted her teeth and thought fiercely - let's die, let's die, let's get through this first, let's dig out the heart first.

Can't freeze to death out here!

By the time Bai Liu and the others were rotated back by Tang Er with the drill, Liu Jiayi had skillfully set up camp on the snow, and even took out the warming equipment to keep the three men warm.

Mu Sicheng shivered as he held a cup of hot water, his words coming out with wavy lines of cold shivering, "Shit~ah~ also~ too~ cold~!"

Liu Jiayi handed Bai Liu a small plush blanket, and Bai Liu took it and wiped the ends of his ice-covered hair, "Thank you."

"We're running out of fuel." Liu Jiayi calmly began to recount the objective dilemma once the group had slowed down, "Because there was still enough fuel left for the helicopters to fly, and we didn't have enough fuel to last six hours."

Bai Liu proposed a solution after just a little thought, "Are there any other observatories nearby? We can go over and search the map to see if there's any fuel and supplies we can replenish."

"Yes, that's right, that's what I thought." Liu Jiayi takes out a map and lays it between her and Bai Liu, "But I've looked carefully against it, and I've only found one place where there might be a stockpile of supplies."

Liu Jiayi points to a cabin marker on the map, "It's this Scott Cabin, it's an artifact that was left behind when the early explorers came over in 1912."

Mu Ke poked his head over as he huffed at his palms, "But a heritage building like this, still wooden and flammable, would leave a large fuel reserve inside?"

"Will." Liu Jiayi nodded affirmatively, "I went through Edmund's books and there's a travel brochure in there that has quite a bit about this Scott cabin, and since the cabin is still being maintained and renovated, and there are people living near it, there is a fuel reserve."

Bai Liu nods, "It's not far from this location, we can start by walking straight to Scott's cabin to check it out."

He simply ordered, "Mu Ke, Mu Sicheng, and Jiayi you come with me, take a small portion of the fuel and supplies, and leave most of the rest to Captain Tang, who is hardy, has helicopter piloting skills, and is more familiar with the Antarctic, so let him major in drilling and digging here."

"Give him a satellite call when we get over there, and if there's fuel let him come over and refuel, if not, let him stay put."

Bai Liu looks around the room, "Does anyone have any comments?"

Mu Ke and Mu Sicheng: "No."

Liu Jiayi pursed her lips and didn't answer.

Bai Liu looked at her quietly.

Liu Jiayi lifted his reddened eyes to meet his for a moment, "Do you have to win against Spades?"

Bai Liu smiles, "Nonetheless."

Although she had expected this answer, Liu Jiayi couldn't help but scold him, "It doesn't matter if you die?"

Bai Liu smiled and stood up, he patted Liu Jiayi's head, reached out his thumb to wipe away the tears she was holding back, and hugged her gently, "--I promise I'll win him before I die."

The group bid farewell to Tang Er Fight and grabbed their sleds and snowball fights and headed in the direction of Scott's cabin.

Scott's Cottage was indeed not far away, and the group did not have long to walk before they could see this nostalgic style building on the coast.

There was a hidden light in the cabin, and a warm heat flooded out, giving the line of people who had trudged through the wind and snow an invigorating warmth, and Mu Sicheng was so comfortable that he couldn't help but soften his shrugged shoulder blades.

Bai Liu put the snowball fight aside, took off his sled shoes, took out his whip and walked into Scott's cabin.

Sitting on a creaky wooden bench was an old man, his eyes half-closed over the fire by the fireplace, arms folded in front of his belly as he dozed off, his upturned mustache twitching and a small string of little snorts that only sound sleep can emit emerging from the corners of his mouth.

The sound of Bai Liu's footsteps stepping into the house and the wind chill intruding from the doorway woke him up, he opened his sleepy eyes and then saw Bai Liu standing less than five meters in front of him.

He seemed pleasant enough, not distressed by the revolt of this uninvited guest, but instead raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Look what I found."

Edmund's smiling gaze fell on the whip in Bai Liu's hand, "--another new guest who enjoys using the whip."