Chapter 874: The Story of Ling and Heng (137)
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“If I were you, I would have solved the snow and ice here first,” Li Nanheng said. “You haven’t solved your shelter. Why are you guys in such a hurry to find food?”
Although Boss Li seemed to be blaming them, his voice was tender. Obviously, he understood them. After all, in this environment, both shelter and food were crucial.
“Boss, sit in the tent, please. It’s too cold outside.” Feng Ling pointed to the two tents over there.
Li Nanheng didn’t look at her but walked to the cliff in front and looked down.
Feng Ling looked at his back. She was sent here as a punishment because she had done something wrong. He had allowed her to make amends, but she didn’t cherish it, so it was not surprising that he didn’t want to talk to her now.
She no longer spoke and looked back at the snow and the pile of dry wood on the ground.
She asked the other members to go out to catch fish because she wanted to stay alone. The seven bored men sitting together were as noisy as a group of gossiping women.
Everyone was used to the busy life in the base. Now they suddenly didn’t need to do any training. Every day, all they did was to study what to eat and how to live more comfortably, which was boring.
She would rather stay alone here, studying how to make them live and eat more comfortably than hear them bicker around.
Feng Ling suddenly went in and took out a sturdy shovel, drew a square space of about 20 square meters on the ground opposite the tent, and then removed all the snow on it and smashed the ice below.
Li Nanheng heard the voice and turned back to see Feng Ling’s hard work, and then watched her smash for a long time, only making a few white marks on the ice.
The man looked at her for a while, walked around her with his hands behind his back, before he stopped and watched her keep smashing the ice. “Do you know what you are like now?”
Feng Ling knew he was taunting her, so she ignored him and continued to smash the ice, saying, “This kind of ice layer on the snowy mountain is very thick and solid and very hard to break. Boss, please don’t stand here, lest I’ll accidentally hit your face with the shovel in my hand.”
Li Nanheng watched her continue to work hard and was gradually amused by her cumbersome movement. “Like a bear with uncoordinated limbs.”
Feng Ling paused and turned to stare at him with a jerk. The hat on her head was too big, so half of her face was buried in the hat. Not seeing the flashing smile on the man’s face, she dragged the hat down hard and stared at the man’s cold face. “This winter suit is so big and doesn’t fit me at all! I can barely walk normally wearing it! Boss, if you come here just to laugh at me, please go back to the tent and take a rest. Don’t disturb me!”
Li Nanheng sneered and grabbed the shovel in her hand. He pointed his chin to the off-road vehicle that they drove here. “Isn’t there any salt in the car that the base prepared for you?”
Feng Ling paused, looked at the shovel that he snatched, and was surprised that his face was not red at all although he had been standing in such a cold place. She asked, “Isn’t the salt the seasoning prepared for us?”
“Do you need so much salt for seasoning? Are you out of your mind?”
“…Then why is there so much salt in the car?”
Li Nanheng poked the shovel into the ground, put his chin on it, and looked at her. “Feng Ling, since you entered the base, you took so many cultural classes and field training, but what did you learn?”
Feng Ling stared back at him without any guilt. “Field training does not include snowy mountains and glaciers.”
Li Nanheng slightly raised his eyebrows. “Then go get me some salt and sprinkle it on the ground, and I will show you what to do.”
“…”
“Don’t dawdle. Go!” Li Nanheng looked at Feng Ling and motioned her to hurry up.
Feng Ling had no choice but to turn around to get salt in the car. After moving more than ten bags of salt over, Li Nanheng said that it was not enough, and she had to continue to move more salt here. Then he beckoned her to spread them on the ground, and she did what he told her to.
She looked at the salt on the ground and then at the man who just stood there watching her working. Neither of them moved.
It was about one o’clock in the afternoon when there was sun, so it was two or three degrees higher, but it was still thirty to forty degrees below zero, so it remained cold.
But as the salt on the ground gradually melted into the snow, the snow also melted. Seeing this, Feng Ling raised an eyebrow.
Seeing the snow on the ground had melted, he threw the shovel to her and walked to the tent where Feng Ling lived alone, and before entering it, he said without looking back, “Dig the ice under an hour later. No hurry.”
After seeing the snow melt, Feng Ling raised no objections. Looking at the melted snow and salt, she finally remembered this knowledge was taught in field survival classes.
When the temperature of the water reached zero degrees Celsius, it would freeze. But if salt was added, the freezing temperature would be lowered. The 10% salt solution would lower the freezing point to minus 6 degrees Celsius, and 20% salt solution would lower it to -16 degrees Celsius. This meant that if salt was sprinkled on the icy road, the ice could be melted more easily. Salt could dissolve in icy water, thereby lowering the freezing point.
Feng Ling rubbed her face that flushed with cold and took a deep breath. One hour later, the ice layer underneath would be more easily to dig, even if it wasn’t melted, so she no longer stayed here and followed Li Nanheng into the tent.
When she walked into the tent, she saw that Li Nanheng was sitting on the only bed. The bed was about one and a half meters wide. She slept on it these days. There were quilts, automatic heating blanket, and other heating materials stacked on the bed.
She was about to walk over, but suddenly she glimpsed the suitcase under the bed, in which there were a few chest wraps.
Her face stiffened in an instant.
Oh, no!