Chapter 28: Chapter 28 The Consequences of Drinking Too Much Coffee
Editor: Atlas Studios
Li Teng's consciousness was in a half-awake, half-comatose state due to extreme lack of oxygen.
Taking advantage of his last bits of lucidity, Li Teng quickly recalled the angle of his body relative to the ventilating snow cave before he fell asleep and locked in on the direction of the air hole.
The entrance was buried by freshly fallen snow, which meant that this area's snow was relatively soft; other parts had been compacted by Li Teng into almost ice-like hardness.
Feeling around with his hands, he furiously dug towards that direction and soon found the softer snow. After a fierce digging session, he punched through with his fist, finally creating a hole.
Fresh, cold air rushed in from outside, and Li Teng's mind cleared up instantly as he breathed in the oxygen.
He hurriedly made the hole a bit bigger.
It was pitch black both outside and inside the snow cave, but he could feel that the snowfall outside had increased, occasionally blowing large snowflakes into the cavity, slowly trying to block the hole again.
Li Teng dared not sleep anymore. He intermittently cleared the snow accumulating at the entrance to prevent the air passage from being blocked again.
Having escaped from a near-death experience due to suffocation, another pressing trouble now lay before Li Teng.
He needed to urinate.
Li Teng somewhat regretted drinking so much coffee during the day, as now crawling out to urinate was a troublesome matter.
In such severe snowstorms, he could easily slip off the top of the pillar.
Falling from a height of over a thousand meters would definitely mean certain death.
Thinking back, drinking all that coffee during the day wasn't without benefits... Fortunately, he had drunk so much coffee that it had awakened him.
If he hadn't been awoken by the urge to urinate, he might have simply slept to death in this sealed snow cave.
It was best to resolve the urination issue first.
In such heavy snow, making a hole big enough to crawl out and urinate was too much effort.
If the hole was too small he couldn't get out, but if it was too big he could accidentally knock down the wall of the hole, and without shelter in the latter part of the night, he would quickly freeze into an icicle in such ferocious snowstorms.
After thinking for a while, the clever Li Teng quickly thought of a solution.
A method that did not require leaving the cave to solve the issue.
He slowly dug a downward-angled hole in the snow wall at the level of his midsection, bit by bit with his hand.
The frozen hard snow was difficult to dig through, and after a great deal of effort, he managed to dig a fist-sized hole.
Soon Li Teng's hands were frozen stiff, making it extremely difficult to continue digging.
Impatient, Li Teng lay on his side, took out a drainpipe, and carefully controlled the release of some hot water into the snow cave.
The heat and force further expanded the hole.
However, the air inside the snow cave did not smell good.
Fortunately, cold air occasionally blew in through the vent, dispelling those odors.
Although he wanted to relieve himself thoroughly, Li Teng couldn't do so. If the flow was too great, there was a risk of backflow, which could flood the snow cave.
But controlling the flow made him very uncomfortable, like reading serialized novels online, chapter by chapter, which felt very unsatisfactory.
There was no choice but for Li Teng to find a balance between the two.
After several minutes, Li Teng suddenly felt another gust of wind pass by his midsection.
No way? Water dripping wears away a stone... no, water pouring melts through ice?
Since it had melted through, Li Teng had no more concerns and quickly discharged a large amount.
It took nearly half a minute to stop.
Refreshing!
Truly refreshing!
Afterwards, Li Teng reached out and dug a snowball from outside the vent, and used it to block the drain hole to keep the bad smell out.
"God Teng is just too talented!" Li Teng couldn't help but praise himself.
The snow outside continued to fall heavily.
Li Teng dared not fall asleep again, struggling to keep himself awake, guarding the air hole to prevent it from being blocked by the accumulating snow.
If he only had a plastic pipe to embed into the snow wall extending outside, the vent would never be blocked.
It was extremely tough enduring the darkness.
Li Teng recalled some online novels he had read, remembering how those positive characters overcame numerous difficulties to reach victory, and drew on the positive energy he absorbed from those online novels to support and encourage himself.
Hours passed.
The drainage hole was dug open several times and blocked several times.
Snow finally stopped after midnight.
Li Teng was very sleepy and couldn't hold on any longer. After thinking about it, he enlarged the ventilation hole a bit more before lying down again.
If the ventilation hole was too small, it could easily get blocked; if it was too big, the wind would blow in and be very cold.
He had to find a balance between the two.
...
When Li Teng woke up again, it was already light outside.
It was a gray kind of light.
The snow was falling again, very lightly.
He could feel that it was very cold outside.
Although it was as cold as an ice cave inside the snow cave, it still felt a bit better than outside.
Given the situation, there was no point in going out.
No food, nothing to do, and no girlfriend with whom to discuss the matters of human reproduction and evolution.
So, he continued to hide in the cave.
He didn't know when these hard days would end.
The only hope for Li Teng now was to try to earn more points to lower the height of the stone pillar.
But earning points was really difficult.
A lot of effort would only yield a few points, and the next time he went to Film and Television City, he could still only afford porridge and steamed buns.
Thinking about porridge and steamed buns made Li Teng drool again.
The food he had eaten yesterday in Film and Television City was completely digested.
The coffee he had drunk had all turned into urine.
Li Teng was ravenous once more.
After becoming hungry, one can feel even colder.
Fortunately, it was cold weather, so he was not very thirsty now.
Li Teng stretched his arms and legs from time to time in the cave to prevent the prolonged cold from damaging them.
He had originally planned to hide in the snow cave for the whole day, but...
Li Teng encountered a new problem.
Having been fortunate enough to eat a fair amount of food the day before, his intestines now produced a fair amount of waste as well.
He couldn't deal with it inside the snow cave.
He had to leave the cave.
He really didn't want to leave the cave in this weather.
But under the circumstances, it wasn't a matter of whether he wanted to go out or not.
Even if the outside had flashing lightning, thunder, and was full of viruses, he still had to go out.
The bed where Li Teng slept was an ancestral large wooden bed left to him by his parents.
It was a double bed nearly two meters long and two meters wide.
Although one corner of his bed was knocked off by a civil airliner, the remaining part was still fine for one person to sleep on.
Having the corner knocked off actually had a benefit.
It was that Li Teng had a small triangular platform at the corner on top of the stone pillar.
After slightly clearing the snow, he had a place where he could stand to conduct his business.
After crawling out of the snow cave, Li Teng took several large clumps of snow from the bed, packed them into a basin shape, and squatted on the small platform to relieve himself.
After he was done, he shaped a few triangular snow blocks and used them to clean his backside.
Then he kicked away the snow basin he had just made, thus avoiding the problem of flushing.
He didn't know if there were any residents in the small town, but even if there were, they wouldn't go out in such cold weather, right?
It couldn't possibly land precisely on someone's head, right?
Li Teng didn't want to literally dump it on someone else's head, but he had no choice right now.
He certainly didn't want to be stunk to death.
Chapter 29: Chapter 29 Snowball
Editor: Atlas Studios
After solving the problem, Li Teng didn't return to the Snow Cave but stood on the small platform to stretch his muscles and bones.
Curled up in the Snow Cave, although not cold, he hardly had any space to move, and now he was quite sore and achy in the waist and back.
After a while, Li Teng remembered something, so he dealt with the part of the snow wall he had contaminated the night before, took some snow from the bed to reinforce and made a new snow wall to patch it up.
Humans are higher beings, and one must not act in a way that is inferior even to a cat.
Even in such dire straits, one must not lower one's standards for the quality of life.
The snow kept falling, it was truly boring to stay outside, and it was also not possible to lie in bed.
The main issue was the cold.
Li Teng had no choice but to crawl back into the Snow Cave.
If he didn't know about the existence of Film and Television City, he would surely be in absolute despair by now.
Despair to the point of wanting to commit suicide.
Knowing there was such a place as Film and Television City was like a candle in the night. Though its light was faint, it showed Li Teng a path, gave him the belief to persevere, a direction to channel his efforts. He knew that through hard work, it was possible to improve his current situation.
In extreme situations, belief is most crucial. Without it, one is truly doomed.
And so a day passed by.
After nightfall, the snow finally stopped.
Li Teng was certain the snow had ceased because the moon had come out, and the sky was no longer that dim and hazy.
But it was still very cold, and the blankets and mats had frozen solid in the snow, so he had to spend the night in the Snow Cave.
Before going to sleep, Li Teng ate a snowball that hadn't been contaminated.
It tasted very bad, but it helped him replenish some water.
"I hope tomorrow is a sunny day," prayed Li Teng before closing his eyes as he lay down.
...
Sometimes Li Teng felt he was rather lucky.
Just like now, his dream had come true.
When he went to sleep last night, he had hoped for a sunny day today.
And indeed, today was sunny.
The weather atop the stone pillar was utterly unpredictable and made no sense.
The sun had come out.
And there was no wind.
But sometimes dreams coming true isn't a good thing.
Take Li Teng when he woke up in the morning, for instance.
After the sun came out, it suddenly became very hot.
So hot that even the snow piled on the bed and the top of the stone pillar began to melt.
Turning into water, it dripped and dripped downwards.
Li Teng was soaked through and through.
The clothes he bought from Film and Television City, along with his pajamas, all worn on his body were now thoroughly wet.
Fortunately, the sun had appeared, and against all logic, the temperature had risen. At least he didn't have to worry about freezing to death now.
Not worried about freezing to death, but with the abnormal rise in temperature, Li Teng quickly became concerned about the problem of drinking water.
He had to take precautions against a rainy day.
Li Teng gathered all the uncontaminated snow he could find on top of the stone pillar and on the bed into one place, making a large snowball to hide under the bed.
After the battered blankets and mats warmed up in the sun and were no longer so hard, Li Teng covered the large snowball beneath the bed with them.
This snowball was now his treasure.
If all the snow on top of the stone pillar melted away in the sun, and if it didn't rain in the next few days and he couldn't return to Film and Television City, this snowball would be his only source of water.
Without tools, and with the stone pillar being extremely hard, otherwise, Li Teng would have wanted to dig a pit on top of the stone pillar to preserve this large snowball.
After securing the large snowball, Li Teng took off all his wet clothes and draped them over the bed's headboard to dry.
Then, he kept an eye on the large snowball under his bed from time to time.
Although the snowball was covered with a blanket, under the scorching sun, it continued to melt away, occasionally causing water to seep out from underneath the blanket, flowing down the edge of the stone pillar.
Li Teng was quite distressed, but he had no way to prevent any of this.
If the heat remained as intense tomorrow, the large snowball probably wouldn't last until noon.
Today was the third day since returning from Film and Television City.
They said the interval between two performances generally ranges from three to five days, and the day of return isn't counted within these three to five days, so the earliest he could reenter Film and Television City would be the day after tomorrow.
Just keep enduring.
...
The day was very hot.
The night, however, was very cold.
Although it didn't rain or snow.
There was wind.
Li Teng gave his quilt to Snowball and could only curl up on the wooden bed.
Fortunately, his clothes were dry, with pajamas inside and clothes bought from Film and Television City on the outside, which was a slight improvement over just having pajamas before going to Film and Television City.
Next time I return to Film and Television City, I must buy a thick piece of clothing.
This kind of cold was really unbearable.
It made his bones ache.
...
Li Teng didn't know how he made it through the night.
Most of the time, he was conscious.
It wasn't that he wanted to stay awake.
It was the cold that kept him very awake.
This cold, colder than the cold in a Snow Cave, was even more unbearable.
The wind wasn't strong, but it was enough to blow away the little heat left in his body.
The next day dawned, and when the sun came out, Li Teng felt like he was on his last breath.
According to the rules of Film and Television City, it was definitely impossible to return there today, only tomorrow held hope.
When the sun finally made Li Teng's hands and feet warm up a bit, he came down from the bed and with his somewhat disobedient hands, he opened his quilt.
Inside, Snowball had shrunk to a third of its size from yesterday.
It likely couldn't last until noon.
Li Teng grabbed a few chunks of snow and forced himself to eat them.
It served as both breakfast and a drink.
As long as his body had water, he could live a few more days, make it until the next trip to Film and Television City.
With Snowball smaller, he could wrap the quilt around it several more times.
If wrapped thick enough, perhaps a little bit of Snowball could be preserved until tomorrow.
Bathing in the sun the whole day, Li Teng almost lay motionless on the wooden bed.
Of course, he did this to conserve energy and preserve strength.
Even so, by evening, Li Teng was still so hungry that he started to see illusions.
How he longed for just a bite to eat!
After a day in the blazing sun, aside from hunger, Li Teng was also very thirsty.
But he persisted in not touching Snowball.
Opening the quilt in the burning daytime sun, bringing the heat inside, would cause great loss to Snowball.
Right now, this Snowball was his life.
As the sun set and the temperature on top of the stone pillar dropped, Li Teng carefully opened the quilt under the bed and felt around inside, overwhelmed with surprise for a while.
Inside, there was still half of Snowball left, about the size of a fist!
The snow, which Li Teng had originally packed tightly, had also softened quite a bit.
Li Teng figured Snowball wouldn't last until tomorrow, so he carefully took it out and devoured it.
His parched body from a day in the sun finally received replenishment and moisture.
If it doesn't rain or snow tomorrow... there would be no water source.
He should be able to return to Film and Television City tomorrow, right?
He hoped to return to Film and Television City tomorrow.
He wanted to eat delicious porridge, he wanted to eat steamed buns with pickled vegetables.
Li Teng, drooling, lay down on the wooden bed.
Gifts
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received Weekly Power Status
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