Trembling At A High Altitude - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Snowball

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Li Teng didn’t return to the snow cave after he solved his problem. Instead, he stood on the little platform and did a few stretching exercises.

Although it wasn’t cold when he was huddled up inside the snow cave, he practically didn’t have any space to move around. His back felt rather sore now.

After a while, something occurred to Li Teng, and he disposed of the snow wall that he had contaminated the night before. Then, he took some snow from the bed, tamped them solid, and constructed another snow wall to replace the old one.

Humans were biologically-advanced creatures. He mustn’t fare worse than a cat in this aspect.

Even if he was trapped in such circumstances, he mustn’t lower his standards of living.

It continued to snow. Staying outside was honestly boring, and he couldn’t lay on the bed, either.

However, the biggest factor was the cold.

Li Teng had no choice but to duck back into the snow cave.

If it weren’t for the fact that he was now aware of the film studio’s existence, Li Teng would definitely have been filled with hopelessness to the point of developing suicidal thoughts now.

His awareness of the film studio’s existence was like a candle flame in the dark of the night—although the light was weak, it did point out a path to Li Teng after all. It gave him the conviction to persevere and gave him something to work toward. He now knew that he could improve his current situation through his own strength.

What was most important to people stuck in hopeless situations was conviction. If they lost even their conviction, then they would truly be doomed.

A day passed just like that.

The snow finally stopped when it turned dark.

Li Teng was convinced that the snow had stopped because the moon had appeared. The sky was no longer that overcast, too.

However, it was still freezing cold. In addition, his blanket and mattress had been frozen solid in the snow. Thus, he had to spend the night hiding in the snow cave, nevertheless.

Li Teng ate an uncontaminated snowball before he went to sleep.

It tasted awful, but it provided some hydration for his body.

“I hope it’ll be sunny tomorrow.” After Li Teng lay down, he prayed for a while before he finally closed his eyes.

…

Sometimes, Li Teng felt that he was still a very fortunate soul.

Take now, for example—his wish had come true.

When he went to sleep the previous night, he had prayed that it would be a sunny day today.

True enough, it was sunny today, indeed.

The weather at the top of the stone pillar was completely unpredictable. Neither did it make any sense, either.

The sun was out.

In addition, it wasn’t windy.

However, there were times when wishes coming true wasn’t necessarily something positive. For example, in the case of Li Teng, who woke up in the morning.

After the sun came out, it suddenly became very hot.

It was so hot that the snow on the bed and at the top of the stone pillar melted.

They turned into water and dripped downward, drenching Li Teng to the bone.

He was wearing the clothes he had bought in the film studio, as well as his pajamas. At the moment, all of them were soaked through.

Luckily, the sun was out, and the temperature had defied reason and rose. He didn’t need to worry about freezing to death anymore.

While he didn’t need to worry about freezing to death anymore, Li Teng would soon have to worry about securing a water source after the temperature rose abnormally high.

He needed to make provision for bad times now.

Li Teng gathered all the clean snow he could find on the bed and at the top of the stone pillar in one place. He made a huge snowball out of them and hid it under the bed.

When the tattered blanket and mattress were heated up by the sun and weren’t that hard anymore, Li Teng draped them over the big snowball under the bed.

The big snowball was his treasure now.

Should all the snow on top of the stone pillar melt from the sun and flow away, should it not rain at all the next few days, and should he be unable to return to the film studio, the snowball would become his one and only water source.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he didn’t have any tools and that the stone pillar was made out of an incredibly tough material, Li Teng would have even dug a pit at the top of the stone pillar to store the snowball in.

After he kept the snowball away properly, Li Teng took off all the wet clothes on himself and sunned them on the headboard.

Every once in a while, he would check on the big snowball under his bed.

Although he had draped a blanket over the big snowball, it was still constantly melting from the hot sun. Water occasionally flowed out from underneath the blanket and down the stone pillar’s edges.

Li Teng’s heart ached from the loss, but he had no means of stopping it.

The big snowball probably wouldn’t last till noon the next day if it was still this hot the next day.

Today was the third day since he had returned from the film studio.

He had heard from the others that intervals between performances typically lasted between three to five days. The day of return was not included in this period. In that case, the earliest he could enter the film studio was the day after tomorrow.

…I can only persevere.

…

It was very hot in the day.

However, it was very cold at night.

Although it didn’t rain or snow, the wind had started to blow.

Li Teng had given the blanket to the snowball, so he could only huddle into a ball on top of the bed base now.

Fortunately, his clothes were now dry. With his pajamas on the inside and the clothes he had bought in the film studio outside, it was a little better than when he only had his pajamas on him before he had gone to the film studio.

The next time he went to the film studio, he would definitely buy a thick piece of clothing.

This cold was seriously unbearable.

He was so cold that even his bones hurt.

…

Li Teng didn’t even know how he had survived the night.

He spent most of the time in a clear-headed state.

It wasn’t so much as he wanted to maintain clear-headedness.

Rather, he was so cold that he was extraordinarily clear-headed.

This coldness was even more unbearable than the coldness inside the snow cave.

The wind wasn’t strong, but it was enough to blow away whatever warmth he had left in him.

During dawn the next day, when the sun rose, Li Teng felt as if he was already on the brink of death.

According to the film studio’s rules, there was no way he could return to the film studio today. He only had hope of survival if he could persist until the next day.

When the sun finally returned some warmth to Li Teng’s limbs, he went to the bottom of the bed and used his somewhat unresponsive hands to flip his blanket over.

Compared to what he had made the day before, only 1/3 of the snowball remained.

It probably wouldn’t last till noon.

Li Teng grabbed a few pieces of snow and forced them down his throat.

They were both his breakfast and a drink.

As long as he was hydrated, he would be able to survive a few more days and persist till the next time he could go to the film studio.

Now that the snowball had shrunk, he could now drape a few more layers of the blanket on top of it.

If the layers wrapping around it were thick enough, a bit of the snowball might last till the next day.

After a day of exposure to the sun, Li Teng practically didn’t move an inch on top of the bed base.

Needless to say, this was to conserve energy and preserve strength.

Even so, when night fell, Li Teng had become so hungry that his eyes couldn’t focus at all. He had even begun to hallucinate.

He really wished he had something to eat now!

After a day of exposure to the sun, Li Teng was also quite thirsty apart from being hungry.

However, he persevered and didn’t touch the snowball.

If he flipped the blanket over in the day when it was so hot and ended up introducing heat inside, it would cause a huge loss to the snowball.

The snowball was his very life itself at this point.

Li Teng finally flipped open the blanket under his bed when the sun set, and the temperature on top of the stone pillar dropped. When he reached underneath, he couldn’t help but be thrilled for quite a while.

There was actually still a little less than half of the snowball, approximately the size of a fist, inside!

The snowball, which had initially been tamped solidly by Li Teng, had loosened considerably by now.

Li Teng estimated that it probably wouldn’t last till the next day. He took out the snowball carefully and gobbled all of it down.

His parched body finally received some replenishment and hydration after being out in the sun the whole day.

The next day… If it didn’t rain or snow the next day, he wouldn’t have a water source anymore.

He would probably be able to return to the film studio the next day, right?

I hope I can go back to the film studio tomorrow.

He wanted to eat delicious thin gruel! He wanted to gobble steamed buns matched with preserved vegetables!

A salivating Li Teng laid down on the bed base.