Trembling At A High Altitude - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: The Consequences Of Drinking Too Much Coffee

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Li Teng had also fallen into a semi-conscious state due to a severe lack of oxygen.

While there was still a little clarity left in his mind, Li Teng quickly thought back to the ventilation hole location relative to his location before he had fallen asleep and determined its direction.

The ventilation hole was covered by fresh snow, so it was the only place where snow build-up would be relatively looser. All the other areas had been tamped solid by Li Teng, making them practically as hard as ice cubes.

Li Teng felt about with his hands and dug vigorously in the direction of the ventilation hole. Soon, he found the spot where snow build-up was comparatively looser. He dug hard for a while and deepened the hole. Then, he punched it several times with great force and finally smashed a hole through.

Chilly fresh air surged into the cave rapidly. Clarity instantly returned to Li Teng’s mind upon the return of oxygen.

He hastily expanded the hole some more.

It was just as pitch-black outside the snow cave as it was inside. However, he could tell that it was snowing heavily outside again. Every once in a while, large snowflakes would be blown in through the hole, as if they were trying to gradually fill it up once more.

Li Teng didn’t dare to sleep anymore. He swept away the snow in front of the ventilation hole every once in a while to prevent his source of oxygen from becoming blocked again.

After he escaped the dangerous situation of almost suffocating to death, Li Teng was facing yet another pressing issue now—he needed to take a leak.

He was filled with regret now. He shouldn’t have drunk that much coffee in the day. At this point, even climbing out of the cave to take a leak was a terribly troublesome task.

It was snowing so heavily that he might just slip and fall off the stone pillar the moment he was even the slightest bit careless.

He would definitely be smashed into bits if he fell from a height of more than 1,000 meters.

Thinking about it again, it wasn’t as if there wasn’t any benefit to drinking that much coffee, either… It was fortunate that he had done so because it had been the need to relieve himself that had woken him up.

If he hadn’t been awakened by the need to urinate, he would have died in his sleep in the sealed snow cave.

For now, he’d better solve the urination issue first.

Considering how heavily it was snowing outside, it was too much trouble to dig a tunnel to get out and urinate.

If the hole was too small, he wouldn’t be able to get out. On the other hand, if he dug too big of a hole and ended up accidentally causing the cave walls to collapse, he would lose a place to hide from the biting wind for the rest of the night. It was snowing so heavily that he would be frozen into a popsicle in no time.

The clever Li Teng quickly came up with a solution after he thought for a while.

It was a solution that didn’t require him to leave the cave.

Bit by bit, at the part of the snow wall where his lower torso was, he dug a slanted downward hole.

It was very difficult to dig through snow that had frozen solid. Even after he had dug a very long while, he only managed to make a hole the size of his fist.

Very soon, Li Teng’s hands turned numb from the cold, and digging became an extremely difficult task.

He couldn’t wait any longer. He lay on his side, took out his ‘drainage pipe’, and aimed it at the hole. Then, he let out some of the scalding liquid while trying his best to control the flow.

The heat and impact of the liquid expanded the hole a little further.

However, it smelled rather unpleasant in the snow cave.

Fortunately, icy air occasionally blew into the cave through the ventilation hole and helped to dissipate some of the stench.

Although Li Teng wished that he could solve the issue carefreely and to his heart’s content, he couldn’t. There was a risk of it flowing backward if the flow was too heavy. It would be awful if he ended up flooding the snow cave.

Yet it felt terribly uncomfortable to have to control it while letting it out, just like how irritating it was to read a serialized web-novel chapter by chapter.

Left with no other choice, Li Teng could only seek a balance between the two.

More than ten seconds later, he suddenly felt another gust of wind coming from where his lower torso was.

Are you kidding me? Has dripping water worn through the stone… No, flowing liquid worn through the ice?

Since the ice had already been worn away, nothing was holding Li Teng back anymore. He hastily discharged everything without any reservations.

It stopped only after a good 30 seconds.

He felt fantastic!

Very much so!

When he was done, he reached through the ventilation hole, gathered a ball of snow, and filled up the ‘drainage hole’ to prevent the stench from filling the cave.

“I’m so damn smart!” Li Teng couldn’t help praising himself.

It was still snowing very heavily outside.

Li Teng didn’t dare to go to sleep anymore. He tried his best to stay awake and guard the ventilation hole to prevent the snow from blocking it again.

If only he had a plastic pipe with him now! By burying it into the snow wall and pushing it through to the outside, the ventilation hole would stay free of obstructions no matter what happened.

In the dark, he persevered with much difficulty.

Li Teng thought back to the web-novels he had read in the past. He thought of how the lead characters, who were full of positive energy, had overcome various trials and tribulations before they arrived at the shore of victory. He used the positive energy he drew from the novels as self-encouragement and motivation.

A few hours passed.

The drainage hole had been opened up and closed off several times.

The snow finally stopped when it reached the second half of the night.

Li Teng was rather drowsy by now. He couldn’t really hang in there anymore. After he thought for a moment, he expanded the ventilation hole a little further before lying back down.

The ventilation hole would easily become blocked if it was too small. Yet if it was too big, the wind would blow into the cave, and it would become too cold.

The only thing he could do was to seek a balance.

…

When Li Teng woke up, it was already bright outside—the kind of brightness where the sky was overcast.

It was still snowing, though only lightly.

He could feel that it was freezing outside.

Although it was also as cold as an ice cave inside the snow cave, it felt a little better than being outside, nonetheless.

There wasn’t much point in going outside under these circumstances, either.

There was nothing to eat and nothing to play with. Neither did he have a girlfriend with whom he could research on and discuss human reproduction and evolution.

In that case, let’s just continue hiding in the cave.

He didn’t know when his days of suffering would come to an end.

The only thing that Li Teng placed hope in at this point was thinking of ways to earn more points to lower the stone pillar’s height, but it was honestly very hard to earn points.

He had gone through so much in a scene, only to earn a few points in the end. The only things he could eat during the next time he went to the film studio were still just thin gruel and steamed buns.

When the thought of thin gruel and steamed buns came to his mind, Li Teng started to salivate again.

All the food he had eaten in the film studio the previous day had been fully digested.

All the coffee he had drunk had also turned into urine.

The current Li Teng was starving again.

When one was hungry, the surroundings felt even colder.

Fortunately, the weather was cold now, so he wasn’t that thirsty.

Every once in a while, inside the cave, Li Teng would stretch his limbs to prevent his limbs from suffering injuries due to long exposure to freezing temperatures.

He had initially planned on hiding in the snow cave like this for the whole day, but now…

Li Teng was facing a new problem again.

The previous day, he had been lucky enough to consume a considerable amount of food. Therefore, a substantial amount of waste had also been produced in his intestines by now.

There was no way he could settle this in the snow cave.

He had to get out of the cave.

He really didn’t want to get out in this weather.

However, it wasn’t as if he could stay in just because he wanted to under these circumstances.

Even if it was a roaring thunderstorm outside, even if it was a pandemic outside, he had to go out.

The bed that Li Teng was sleeping on was a large wooden bed, passed down by his ancestors that his parents had left him.

It was a double bed measuring two meters long and nearly two meters wide.

Although a passenger airliner had knocked off a corner of the bed, it could still fit a person sleeping on it without any problems.

Contrary to expectations, there was a benefit to having a corner of it knocked off—Li Teng now had a small triangular platform at a corner of the stone pillar.

After he did a quick sweep of the snow that had built up there, he now had a place where he could stand and do things.

Li Teng opened up a hole in the snow cave and got out. He took a few large snowballs from the bed and tamped them solid into a basin’s shape. Then, he squatted on the tiny platform and started to ‘solve his problem’.

He kneaded a few lumps of snow into triangles and used them to clean his buttocks when he was done.

Then, he kicked the snow basin that he had constructed just now down the pillar. He didn’t even need to trouble himself with the problem of flushing anymore.

He didn’t know whether anyone was living in the small town nearby. If there was, surely, they wouldn’t be out on such a cold day, right?

Surely it wouldn’t land so accurately on someone’s head, right?

Li Teng didn’t wish to put a sh*t basin on anyone’s heads, either. However, he honestly didn’t have any other choice at this point.

He didn’t want to die from the stench.