On the deck, a group of people stood, each one of them wrapped up in thick coats, bundled up like penguins.
On a normal day, it still wouldn’t be light out and everyone would be sleeping, but now quite a few people had actually shown up.
Obviously, everyone had woken up early to see the aurora.
The huge cruise ship slid through the sea filled with floating ice, shattering pieces of thin ice and leaving behind a clear trail of water.
The Arctic Ocean is a sea covered in sea ice, with about two-thirds of its surface area made up of perennially frozen seawater; the remaining surface is also thick with floating ice and icebergs.
About half of this water remains frozen year-round, the rest lts in spring and refreezes in winter.
The ice in the central area has even been there for 3 million years, belonging to the category of permanent sea ice.
As for the climate, it can be sumd up in one word: cold.
"Whew, it’s so cold."
"Too cold, what’s the temperature now?"
"Negative thirty."
"Only thirty? Why do I feel it’s colder than yesterday?"
The person asking about the temperature was puzzled because it had been thirty for the past few days. Today felt colder; why was it still thirty?
"That guy is from Ugly Country; he’s talking in Fahrenheit. The temperature in Celsius is almost negative thirty-five degrees. Damn it, my nose is about to freeze off. When I get back, Stephen is definitely going to mock ."
"Damn, my thermoter isn’t moving!"
"Huh?"
On the deck, a man tapped his thermoter against the railing, producing a tallic clinking sound.
The temperature on the thermoter didn’t budge, which was making the man quite frustrated.
"Kerosene’s freezing point is negative thirty degrees Celsius. If it’s frozen solid, of course, it won’t move."
The voice ca from the direction of the cabin. Everyone looked up and saw Bi Fang closing the door and walking out onto the deck.
"Oh, it’s Mr. Bi."
"Mr. Bi, are you up to watch the aurora too?"
"Do you have any stories for us today?"
"I caught up with the videos last night, absolutely amazing. I regret not getting to know you earlier."
Everyone greeted him one after another; less than a week aboard, and everyone, from the captain to the chef to the tourists, knew this young man.
Bi Fang nodded with a smile and approached the man who was complaining about his broken thermoter, leaning against the railing: "Thermoters are typically made from three substances, kerosene, rcury, and alcohol."
"Kerosene has a freezing point of just negative thirty degrees, below which it solidifies and naturally won’t move. Or more precisely, the thermal contraction is so slight, it’s almost imperceptible to the naked eye. rcury has a freezing point of negative 38.87 degrees Celsius, so it’s not an option either."
"In the Arctic, you can only bring alcohol thermoters because only they have a freezing point of negative 117 degrees Celsius, suitable for all the low-temperature natural environnts on Earth. Fortunately, you’re not using rcury because if it explodes, it’s very dangerous. However, it’s rare for thermoters to use rcury anyway."
There are many types of thermoters, with clinical thermoters and atmospheric thermoters being the most common.
Clinical thermoters are usually rcury, while atmospheric thermoters are kerosene or alcohol, and from their nas alone, it’s clear what they asure.
"Why is that?"
Soone called out from behind.
Bi Fang looked up: "Because rcury expands slowly when heated and doesn’t cool down quickly when taken out of the body. It needs to be shaken down to return to zero. Using it to asure temperature is simple and direct, and it also avoids errors caused by external temperature transfer."
"Kerosene and alcohol thermoters expand quite noticeably with heat, changing very rapidly, heating and cooling will make them rise and fall quickly, so they’re generally not used to asure body temperature, they’re made red and hung indoors, to roughly monitor the weather temperature."
Everyone had a sudden realization.
"Everyone’s up so early today?" Bi Fang glanced at the ti; it wasn’t even ti for breakfast yet.
Even though the real polar night had not yet arrived, the abnormally short day still reminded people to be mindful of the ti.
Most people probably don’t have the experience of surviving through polar nights, but it’s imaginable that it’s not easy, with many issues, such as a disruption to humans’ biological clocks.
A large part of the human biological clock relies on natural light.
So an important way to adjust their rhythm is to eat als, and the al tis on the cruise ship are fixed, with only three als free of charge.
If you want an extra al, sorry, you have to pay extra.
"We’re all here to see the Northern Lights."
"It’s so beautiful."
"Yeah, it’s almost dawn, can we still see them?"
"We can see them during the dayti here, of course we can."
"Mr. Bi, you’re up early too."
"Mmm." Bi Fang nodded, pointing towards the ice floes not far away, "As soon as it gets light, I’ll be getting off the ship to find a good spot."
He was getting off the ship!
People were sowhat surprised but not too shocked; everyone knew that Bi Fang’s purpose for joining this trip was to reach the northernmost point of Greenland.
They just didn’t expect it to co so soon.
Half an hour later, the green bands in the sky persisted, the second hint of natural light slowly appeared on the horizon, lifting the deep black curtain a notch, with the pallor of dawn spreading.
A century ago, on the other end of the Earth, on the Antarctic Continent, the bravest of people embarked on an uncertain voyage of exploration and adventure.
On the left was fla, on the right was seawater, and ahead was the dream and glory they desperately sought in their hearts.
A century later, a young man arrived at another node on Earth, carrying no supplies, ready to challenge himself to survive a hundred days here.
The cold wind howled.
The colossal cruise ship, over seventy ters long, once again shattered a piece of ice floe, with the sun dangling obliquely at the position of the ship’s figurehead.
The figurehead scattered the most glaring of the giant sun’s rays, leaving splayed white light, spreading in all directions.
The shivering tourists squinted and looked up, and before them lay a vast expanse of white void—not just blocks of white ice floes but a continent, an imnse and unbroken pure white continent.
There were no trees, no grass, no life.
Just an endless cold wind, like blades of steel slashing across faces without any bloodshed, as all the blood froze into crimson icicles the instant it was about to spatter.
Read new chapters at .Côm
Many spectators couldn’t help but touch their own faces, their facial skin almost frozen numb until the warmth of their fingers touched what seed to be icy cold skin did they realize, their faces had not been cut by the icy blade; it was all just an illusion.
A familiar voice, mixing with the wind, reached their ears, and as people looked towards the sound, they noticed that the seemingly indestructible drone had already taken its position overhead.
"Looking back on the course of human evolution and change, if our ancestors hadn’t taken risks and imagined, hadn’t dared to innovate and have the courage to sacrifice with their broad and grand spirit, humans would not have used canoes to surf the oceans and explore the endless mysteries beyond the opposite shore."
"Humans are curious, yielding the impulse for adventure; humans take risks, igniting the torch of civilization."
"Adventure is not only about nature’s oceans and mountains, deserts and swamps, but also lies within densely populated cities."
"I am Bi Fang, a professional outdoor explorer, and this ti, we’ve co to the Arctic."
Reviews
All reviews (0)