NOVEL NEXT Chapter 221 - 218 Isolated and Without Help
Chapter 221: Chapter 218 Isolated and Without Help
Bi Fang clenched his eyes shut until, with a “plop,” he was enveloped in bubbles.
He fell into the water.
The huge recoil numbed his legs as numerous bubbles rushed upwards, displacing the air. Sea water instantly surged in, completely engulfing him.
The bone-chilling cold penetrated every pore, crawling up his spine like a venomous snake, injecting its deadly venom into his marrow.
Under the intense shock, his blood vessels contracted reflexively. Bi Fang slowly opened his eyes underwater, immersed in the pale blue water.
In such severe cold, Bi Fang didn’t immediately look for the life raft but stayed motionless in the water, waiting for the initial chill to subside as his blood began to circulate rapidly to provide warmth.
Then he kicked with his legs and burst above the water’s surface, swimming towards the bright orange life raft.
Seeing Bi Fang safely in the water, the helicopter didn’t linger at all and flew straight into the distance.
But nobody expected that, just as Bi Fang was about to reach the life raft, a wave suddenly struck, tossing the raft several meters away!
The icy seawater quickly began to sap his energy. Bi Fang took a breath, dove into the water, and swiftly swam towards the life raft.
[Damn! That wave is fierce!]
[Damn, why does it feel like it’s getting further and further away?]
[Hiss, this sea water looks so cold. I’ve fallen into a river in winter before; that refreshing pain, I almost froze to death!]
Remembering what Bi Fang had just said, that a normal person might only survive a few minutes in cold seawater, many people felt anxious for him.
Fortunately, as the distance shortened, no waves struck this time, and Bi Fang successfully grabbed the life raft.
“Ha! This seawater is really too cold, I feel like my bones are about to freeze, I hope I don’t get arthritis when I’m old,” Bi Fang joked to the camera, grabbing the life raft’s inflation cord.
“Okay, what I need to do now is inflate the life raft. At this moment, we mustn’t let go because once we do, the inflated valve can easily be blown away by the wind, and then no matter how fast you swim, you won’t be able to catch it.”
Inside the inflatable life raft, there are items for inflation, which can quickly blow up if opened correctly.
Bi Fang yanked the inflation cord forcefully, rapidly opening the inflation valve. White mist billowed out over the sea, as he clung to the edge of the life raft – his lifeline, and the only mercy from the production crew.
Without the life raft, no matter how clever his methods, he wouldn’t be able to survive twenty-one days in the frigid ocean.
Already on the plane, Bi Fang had observed that there were no nearby islands. From a height of twenty meters, even ignoring whether he could reach the edge of his line of sight, even with unlimited stamina, he wouldn’t have been able to survive long in such cold seawater.
With a strenuous effort from his waist and abdomen, Bi Fang somersaulted into the life raft.
Once inside the life raft, he quickly zipped it up, leaving only a small opening to keep out most of the cold sea breeze, then he removed his clothes, wrung them out vigorously through the small hole, and spread them inside the raft to dry as fast as possible.
After dealing with his clothes, Bi Fang closed the last small opening and started a series of intense exercises to restore his body heat.
A few minutes later, Bi Fang’s previously pale skin quickly reddened.
After all this, Bi Fang didn’t dare to lie down but huddled in a corner of the life raft, continually exhaling.
“Ha! I was really close to freezing to death just now. Luckily, I have a life raft. Most of these rafts have a tent-like design and are very warm.”
“When you’re inside, the heat radiation your body emits will quickly reflect back, raising the temperature inside the tent rapidly, preventing you from freezing from the sea breeze, and the increased temperature will also speed up the drying of your clothes.”
“So unless necessary, I definitely won’t unzip it again.”
Bi Fang rubbed his skin nonstop to alleviate his discomfort, “To be honest, this challenge is the harshest environment I’ve ever encountered, not only is it cold, but we don’t even have the basic supplies. Without supplies, I can’t establish more fundamental survival assurances.”
This challenge, even he himself didn’t have confidence in it, surrounded on all sides by the sea, aside from fish, no creature could feel safe in this environment, there were no food, water, or fire above.
“And look, my feet are still numb.”
The camera focused on Bi Fang’s feet, and the audience suddenly noticed that despite not being rubbed, the skin was a bright red.
[Is it from diving?]
[I think I understand why Old Fang entered the water feet first. I always thought diving started headfirst.]
[The person above, have you been watching too much diving on TV?]
“See that? That’s the danger of high-altitude diving, even though my movement was precise enough.”
“Whenever we dive, the moment we hit the water we’ll face the impact of the waves. And this force increases with the height. In such cases, it’s quite easy to get injured if the posture is not properly controlled.”
“The world record for the highest dive is 61 meters, but the diver broke his spine from the fall. The injury-free diving record is held at 53.90 meters, created by Oliver from Switzerland in 1987 on a French cliff, where he even performed a beautiful backflip with two rotations and entered the water smoothly.”
Upon hearing this height, the audience was astounded—fifty meters!
Without some technique, wouldn’t diving be just like jumping off a building?
“The reason why divers can dive from platforms over 10 or even 20 meters high and remain unscathed is because they have received professional diving training and know the correct way to enter the water.”
“The correct diving posture is to enter the water feet first, the body must be straightened, legs tight together, hands pressed to the sides, just like standing at attention, this way, the surface area of the body in contact with the water will be minimal.”
“Plus, we can also throw a large rock or something ahead of time to break the surface tension of the water, minimizing the force of the impact, that’s why I threw the life raft in first.”
“Of course, it’s not a problem if you don’t throw anything, as the wind is strong, and the waves on the sea surface are already significant.”
Bi Fang pointed to the shadow outside the tent of the life raft, waves half a meter high crashing against the tent, making the life raft very bumpy. Thankfully, the drone could fly low to film, otherwise, some viewers would certainly start to feel dizzy.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect the production team to set such a tough challenge, it’s indeed difficult. Just now when I surfaced, I glanced at the helicopter and saw it was a CH-46 transport helicopter, which has its distinctive features—it can land and take off in shallow seas, and when necessary, it can even be driven like a boat.”
“Looks like the production team is willing to spend money. If I remember correctly, this helicopter was only recently retired from service a few years ago; they’re probably watching me from a few dozen kilometers away.”
Bi Fang looked towards the camera as if he could see the production team dozens of kilometers away, making even the director of photography feel a sense of disquiet from being seen through.
Turning away from the camera, Bi Fang watched the waves breaking against the tent.
To survive twenty-one days, the best approach would be to find an island or, even more fortunately, land directly, but that wouldn’t be easy.
The production team wouldn’t foolishly drop him off near the coast.
The one thing Bi Fang could confirm was that there was no land within at least thirty kilometers!