BXBX NOVEL Chapter 45: Extreme Cold of 50 Degrees
Shark TV.
Wang Weifeng’s heart skipped a beat when he saw this scene. He turned to look at Lu Wentao, who had just returned from surviving in the wilderness, only to find him stunned as well. He asked directly, “Can you do this?”
“Air!?” Lu Wentao snapped back to reality, and upon seeing Wang Weifeng’s displeasure, he faltered.
“This, it should be possible,” he said.
“Should?” Wang Weifeng frowned, realizing that the matter was not simple. The most shocking performance from Bi Fang before was ‘Snatching Food from a Bear’s Mouth,’ but he didn’t care much about it.
Because if that feat was true, Bi Fang’s survival would certainly be a fluke, but if it was staged, then the Black Bear must be an old drama king from a zoo. If Bi Fang could get the bear to put on a performance, then so could anyone else.
Wang Weifeng agreed to work with the Tami Association because Lu Wentao had trained in Sanda and learned Karate – he had some skills, and Wang Weifeng believed the gap between them wouldn’t be too significant. But now, it seemed, the gap was quite apparent.
Lu Junming, sensing the tension, quickly tried to smooth things over, “Of course he can! Didn’t this guy say it was a Judo move? Brother Lu definitely knows it too; he’s a trained fighter after all. He just didn’t have the chance to show his skills, right, Brother Lu?”
Distracted by this, Lu Wentao quickly nodded, “Right, right, right. I can do it, too, it’s just that I’m a bit rusty because I haven’t practiced it in a long time!
Seeing Wang Weifeng’s continued frown, Lu Wentao gritted his teeth and declared, “It’s just that I wasn’t expecting it to be broadcasted like this. Next time, next time I’ll jump from a helicopter, not from two thousand meters, no, but three thousand meters!”
As a host who could be recommended by the Tami Association to livestream Wilderness Survivalist, Lu Wentao definitely had talent – he held a professional skydiving certification.
Now that a great opportunity for widespread fame was within reach, Lu Wentao truly did not want to let it go.
Having experienced the popularity of 800,000 viewers and been pursued by thousands of fans, he really didn’t want to go back to being the small-time streamer who had to be overly grateful for receiving a rocket donation.
Only then did Wang Weifeng’s frown ease, and he looked somewhat more favorably upon the two in front of him.
“Good!”
After completing the Fall Protection, Bi Fang patted off the dirt from his body, tightened his collar, took a deep breath, and felt an unrivaled sense of freshness.
[Master Fang has successfully landed. Beware, the cuties of Mohe!) [Beep! Beep! Beep! Destroyer Number has completed its drop, now detecting all mobile life forms to use as its energy source!]
[Wow, you guys really have some nerve.]
[Why do I feel like Master Fang is suddenly enjoying just breathing?] [I’ve been doing Wilderness Survivalist all my life. Can’t I enjoy it a bit?] [I feel like this survival challenge will be even more difficult, especially with the icy snow everywhere; there will definitely be less food.]
“Of course I’m enjoying it!” Bi Fang took a few more deep breaths. “Mohe is one of the natural sanctuaries with no pollution in our country. It has over 350 days of ‘excellent’ air quality yearly, with 50,000 negative oxygen 10ns per cubic centimeter in the air and an annual average PM2.5 concentration of less than 10 micrograms. You people breathe smog every day in the city, but if you were to suddenly come to a place like this, it would be as refreshing as a fish returning to water.”
[Damn, trying to lure me into Wilderness Survivalist again?]
[Master Fang has such a dark, big heart!]
[I really do want to go out and take a walk.]
Bi Fang laughed, “Alright, since I am now playing the role of a stranded traveler, I must look the part. Just like before, we need to first observe our surroundings, then determine our direction and devise a survival plan.” “Mohe is located in the Greater Khingan Range, and the Greater Khingan Range is the western part of the Khingan Range, a massive mountain chain stretching over 1200 kilometers. If you get lost, there’s no way you can walk out on foot. Hence, determining the direction is extremely important.”
“In the snow, we have a very good method to determine north and south, which is to look at the snow accumulation!”
Bi Fang walked through the snow, his boots squeaking crisply against it. “The snow on the southern side, facing the sun, melts faster, while on the northern side, shielded from the sun, it melts slower. We can just see which side of the hilltop exposes more soil to know where the south is. If the soil is not exposed, we can also judge by the thickness of the snow,” he explained.
“The weather is good today. Look at this hilltop; it’s an irregular circle. This part stands out clearly, so we’ll head in this direction, southward!” Bi Fang pointed at the irregular oval beneath his feet and then pointed forward. Considering that Mohe is at the northernmost edge, if one doesn’t want to go to Russia in search of a populated area, naturally, one must head south in search of life. This time, his target was Mohe City.
The drone soared high, and in the lonely expanse of the snowy forest, Bi Fang’s figure looked exceptionally tiny but also extraordinarily resilient, as if no environment could bring him down.
[Every time I watch Old Fang’s live stream it’s so amazing, it’s a pity I’m not well-educated, I can only shout ‘awesome’…]
[Same here, almost every time I can sense the vastness and boundlessness of nature, as well as the insignificance of humans. I really feel like Master Fang is no ordinary person.]
[A lone figure strides against the blizzard, and there’s another screensaver.] [Isn’t Mohe located in the Greater Khingan Range? What happened to the range? Why does it feel like there aren’t many mountains?] As Bi Fang made his way through the forest, the audience failed to feel the imposing presence of a massive mountain range that spans 1200 kilometers in total length.
Unlike Qinling, known for its lush and tall trees, the vegetation of Mohe consists of coniferous forests with sparse canopies. The trees aren’t densely packed, avoiding excessive obstruction of one’s line of sight. Many viewers, looking into the distance, felt as if they were looking at a snowfield rather than a massive mountain range.
“Ha!” Bi Fang breathed out a cloud of warm air and chuckled, “That’s where you’re mistaken. The term ‘Khingan’ is actually in Manchu; in Chinese, it means either ‘hili’ or ‘extremely cold place1 and, of course, some also think it signifies ‘gold mountain’. But no matter which meaning you take, it accurately highlights the characteristics of the Greater Khingan Range.
The uniqueness of the Greater Khingan Range lies in its span across two countries, with an average elevation of just about 1000 meters. There are only a few hills over 1500 meters, and the highest peak, Huanggangliang, reaches 2029 meters in height. Even from the summit, one might not feel the commanding view one expects from a mountain.
Moreover, Heilonghe Province Mohe County Arctic Village had recorded the lowest temperature in existing meteorological records-a chilling negative 52.3°C, a record that held for forty years until the early morning of December 31, 2009, when a new extreme low of -58°C was measured in Genhe, officially becoming the new “cold pole.”
The ‘gold mountain’ refers to the abundant resources in the Khingan Range, ranging from rich mineral resources to diverse surface vegetation and countless rare animals.
And after listening to Bi Fang’s introduction, the audience finally understood just how cold the snowy Mohe could be.
[My god, below fifty degrees? Wouldn’t people freeze to death?] [No wonder Old Fang is dressed in so many layers this time.] [I remember the Arctic being just around negative forty or fifty degrees, right?] “Haha, it’s not as exaggerated as that; after all, it’s just a historical record. Moreover, it’s morning now, and I feel it’s just about negative seven or eight degrees,” Bi Fang said as he exhaled steam, then pointed at the condensing vapor, “Let me share a piece of knowledge-when the temperature drops below negative twenty degrees, you generally don’t see any mist when speaking, so this can be a crucial indicator to assess the severity of the situation.”
“It’s also due to the low temperatures that the survival environment in polar regions is extremely harsh. Even though Mohe is abundant in resources, we still have to be cautious of the deadly dangers that the cold brings!
“In 2017, a mountaineering team in the Rocky Mountains encountered a sudden cold wave. Because the climb caused their bodies to sweat, increasing the moisture on their bodies, out of 23 people, a full 17 showed symptoms of hypothermia. Among them, 14 suffered from severe hypothermia and died before the rescue team could even arrive!”