Everest

Memories of the past are like entangled vines, and Shen Biwen didn't realize that the memories he had deliberately avoided in the past few years were completely spread in his mind on such an ordinary night. The original appearance was slowly revealed in the vines, and the thought of death was like the spikes in the center of those vines. Until today, the spikes penetrated deeper and deeper, becoming an obsession he could not ignore. To die, or not to die, he has already He hasn't thought about this choice for too long, and he hasn't thought about what will happen if he pulls out the thorn forcefully, but on a night like this, he fell into a situation that he should have thought about carefully a few years ago. in the predicament.

Shen Biwen didn't want to escape, even when he encountered a problem, he always wanted to be someone who took the initiative to find a solution, but in this matter, Shen Biwen seldom hesitated, which forced him to think about the reason Of course, it’s not just Geng Aiqing. If you want to say, since he officially embarked on this trip to Mount Everest, everything that happened on the road is completely different from what he expected. Ai Qing's feelings, and Uncle Li's death, everything that happened made him have to rethink the goal of his journey.

Thinking and entanglement made him toss and turn all night, half awake and half blurred, he heard Geng Aiqing turning over constantly, he didn't know if Geng Aiqing was not asleep, maybe he was waiting for his own Answer, maybe he was waiting for himself to tell everything. Shen Biwen looked at Geng Aiqing's direction in the dark, but didn't know how to speak. He found that when facing Geng Aiqing, he had the idea of ​​suicide for his persistence. A trace of unspeakable shame.

Geng Aiqing waited for most of the night and didn't hear Shen Biwen say another word. He was so angry that he almost couldn't hold back in the middle of the night and wanted to beat Shen Biwen, especially when he heard Shen Biwen turned over and sighed. After that, he really wanted to drag Shen Biwen up and ask him seriously, is this question so difficult to answer?

This question is obviously really difficult to answer.Geng Aiqing thought to herself mockingly.

The next morning, Shen Biwen got up before dawn. When he got out of the tent, Geng Aiqing kept watching his back. After he went out completely, Luosang next to him also woke up. Geng Aiqing and He said hello, and slowly crawled out of the sleeping bag. The sleepless night made his whole body sluggish, and even his movements were much slower. Luosang was in a better state than him, and he got out of the sleeping bag one step ahead of him. When Geng Aiqing rolled up his sleeping bag, Luosang climbed up to his side and looked at him.

When Geng Aiqing turned his head and saw Luosang's frowning black face, he was startled: "What are you doing!"

Luosang didn't understand what he said, showing a somewhat confused expression.

Geng Aiqing saw his ignorant expression, endured the unhappiness in his heart, and asked him what was the matter in English.

Luosang understood, but his expression became more tense. He moved forward and grabbed Geng Aiqing's hand, and babbled for a long time, mixed with English, Tibetan and Chinese, so it's strange that he could understand it.

"..." Geng Aiqing helplessly pushed him back, motioned him to stop talking, and then shook his head.

Luosang paused for a moment, and then he stopped talking so long, but pointed to Shen Biwen's backpack.

"Shen Biwen?" Geng Aiqing asked strangely.

Lausanne nodded vigorously.

Geng Aiqing stared at him: "What do you want to say? Is it about him?"

Lausanne nodded again.

"Can't you call him back?"

Lausanne nodded.

Geng Aiqing was silent for a while, and then said in a low voice: "Speak slowly, Chinese, English, keep it simple."

Luosang's expression was a little struggling, and he stopped for a few minutes before he tried his best to tell Geng Aiqing what he wanted to say in simple words. The more Geng Aiqing listened, the more he felt that something was wrong. Luosang's expression was a little incredulous.

"You...you mean, Shen Biwen...want to die? Hope I save him?" Geng Aiqing said slowly.

Luosang heaved a sigh of relief and nodded.

"How do you know?" Geng Aiqing asked after thinking for a while, "How can I save him?"

Luosang was silent for a long time, seeming to be looking for the right words, and then carefully said: "I...feel that you...he loves you."

Probably because the word love is heard too much at ordinary times. When Luosang said love, it was very smooth and clear, as if explaining an established fact, but Geng Aiqing wanted to laugh when he heard it. He shook his head and said: "No...no... "

Luosang thought that Geng Aiqing didn't believe him, so he grabbed Geng Aiqing's arm anxiously.

At this moment, Shen Biwen opened the tent and got in. Seeing the movements of the two of them, he was taken aback for a moment.

Luosang immediately let go of Geng Aiqing's arm, then whispered something in Tibetan, probably to greet Shen Biwen, and then got out of the tent under Shen Biwen's puzzled eyes.

Only Shen Biwen and Geng Aiqing were left in the tent again, and Geng Aiqing spoke first, "Good morning."

Shen Biwen hadn't come out of the doubt just now, and asked subconsciously: "What are you talking about?"

Really unexpected, Geng Aiqing thought, the "secret" that Shen Biwen had been asking him to keep was actually discovered by Luosang a long time ago. He thought he had concealed his feelings well, but he didn't realize that it was full of loopholes inadvertently. I don't know if anyone except Uncle Pei has noticed something wrong with Shen Biwen except Luosang. If everyone knows about it, what should Shen Biwen do?

So under Shen Biwen's puzzled eyes, Geng Aiqing grinned at him and smiled: "Secret."

Seeing his smile, Shen Biwen was stunned for a moment, and didn't ask any more questions. In fact, by the time their team started to attack the assault camp, Shen Biwen had already forgotten the small incident in the morning, and the more serious problem lay in the In front of him, in front of everyone.

Since the morning, Pei Lei has been coughing all the time, Yong Ke has been depressed due to not sleeping all night, not to mention Lin Sheng, the lack of oxygen is severe, and he put on an oxygen mask early in the morning, but Geng Aiqing and the others The condition here is better, but this "better" does not last too long. One hour after leaving the C2 camp, Geng Aiqing had to wear an oxygen mask because of poor breathing. Everyone climbed at a very fast speed. Slow, it is almost impossible to walk on the slippery rocks, never have they looked forward to the last snow, at least the rocks that have snowed will not be so smooth when they step on them, and now, the least of them are all slippery For this reason, they had to close the distance to prevent a teammate from slipping and falling because his foot slipped and missed the rope.

At this time, they were still nearly 400 meters vertically away from the assault camp.

The assault camp, also known as C3 camp, is only 2 meters vertically away from the C500 camp they were in before, but this 500-meter climb is more difficult than any road they have traveled before, whether it is the never-stopping wind or The severe cold to the bone and the difficulty of climbing the rock wall far exceeded everyone's expectations. Pei Lei had climbed higher altitudes than this before, but it was obvious that his physical condition was much better than now .

"Shen Biwen, keep going up." Pei Lei commanded from behind the team, "Follow Yongke!"

I don't know if it was Geng Aiqing's illusion, but when Pei Lei assigned the positions of the personnel, he specially placed Shen Biwen in the middle of the team, let Lausanne lead the way in front of the team, while he was at the back of the team, and During the climb, kept in touch with Shen Biwen in the middle of the conversation, it is rare to keep talking during the climb, because not only does it mean that he has to constantly take off the oxygen mask to get more volume , It also means that he has to allocate part of his climbing energy to talking.

Geng Aiqing glanced at Uncle Pei suspiciously, wondering if Uncle Pei knew something too.

But he didn't ask anything, not because he didn't want to ask, but because he couldn't open his mouth at all.

If the journey at the Dafengkou was the pain of blurred consciousness, then it was the pain of conscious awareness during this climbing process. He took a big mouthful of oxygen to keep himself awake as much as possible, but the excessive force made his every breath Everything has become extremely difficult. Geng Aiqing can clearly feel the pain inside the brain. This is no longer a needle-like pain, but like someone has been beating violently on the back of his head. The functioning brain compulsively thought about where to set down and how to distribute the strength of his body.

After climbing for another 10 minutes, Geng Aiqing was exhausted and had to stop to rest. Pei Lei, who was following him, stopped beside him.

Hanging on the rock wall, Geng Aiqing barely bent his eyes at him. Pei Lei wanted to say something, but he coughed a lot. Seeing Pei Lei's face getting paler, Geng Aiqing felt a little worried. As if he didn’t feel much about his state, he took a few breaths after coughing and then patted Geng Aiqing’s shoulder to show encouragement. Geng Aiqing wanted to talk, but he opened his mouth and felt the burning pain in his throat. There seemed to be no oxygen left.

I guess it's running out of oxygen?Geng Aiqing thought, this can was used up too quickly.

So he pulled out a hand to change an oxygen tank, but it was obvious that he couldn't do it alone, so he turned towards Pei Lei, and Pei Lei moved closer to him to help him After taking off the oxygen mask, he let out a short exclamation, and Geng Aiqing was stunned for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Geng Aiqing asked with his eyes.

Pei Lei pulled off his oxygen mask and showed him, only to see that the inside of the oxygen mask was covered with icicles, and the white and red were intertwined, which looked unsightly and terrifying.

"Don't move." Pei Lei whispered, and then he put his oxygen mask on Geng Aiqing's face, and Geng Aiqing subconsciously took a deep breath.

The whole person is a little pleasant and relaxed.

"The oxygen mask is broken." Pei Lei explained, and then he took out a new oxygen mask from the interlayer next to his backpack and put it on Geng Aiqing's oxygen tank. With a hint of surprise, "You can count on being able to survive until now."

It was only then that Geng Aiqing realized that he had been climbing without oxygen since he didn't know when, but he didn't have any big surprises, and all he had was fear.

Pei Lei has rich experience and has a new oxygen mask with him. If he is not with Uncle Pei, Geng Aiqing knows that he may not be able to last long. Being able to climb here is probably a psychological effect, but the psychological effect will not always work. Functional.

After several hours of climbing, they finally arrived at the assault camp in the afternoon. At this time, it was snowing in the sky, but it was not too heavy.

Geng Aiqing was lying in the tent prepared by the camp and could not move. Not only him, but everyone in the team fell into the great pain caused by the high altitude. Even the experienced Lausanne looked a little nervous.

"How are you?" Shen Biwen couldn't help asking while lying beside Geng Aiqing.

Geng Aiqing glanced at him, and replied without much strength: "Do I seem to be okay?"

Shen Biwen looked at him with a worried expression. Geng Aiqing's whole body was aching, and his mind was burning like boiling water. He couldn't think about anything. Facing Shen Biwen's worried eyes, Geng Aiqing closed his eyes. He closed his eyes, put aside his complicated feelings for him, and slowly leaned his head over him as if he was a companion in the team who could encourage each other. He still wanted to say something, but he fell asleep just like that.