Everest

Geng Aiqing woke up amidst a burst of noise. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a flickering light. The light shook him for a moment. At that moment, he almost forgot where he was. But the severe headache dragged him back to reality in time.Geng Aiqing rubbed her temples, and felt that her headache did not ease with the short sleep time, but it tended to become more serious.It seemed that it was already dark outside, and I didn’t know what time it was. Geng Aiqing sat up and was about to ask other people, but the strange thing was that Shen Biwen and Luosang were all gone in the tent except him. If it wasn’t for them His backpack was still in the tent, Geng Aiqing thought they left him and left first.

The noise outside was getting louder and louder. Geng Aiqing crawled out of the sleeping bag after a few seconds of delay. He was just about to get out of the tent to ask about the situation. Unexpectedly, when he got up, he saw a corner of the tent being lifted. Lin Sheng Seeing him, Lin Sheng obviously breathed a sigh of relief: "You're awake!"

"Yeah." Geng Aiqing took a step back and gave him a seat, "What are you doing here?"

Lin Sheng didn't come in, but kept his original posture and said, "Uncle Pei asked me to wake you up, I was afraid that you would suddenly be beaten up by you hehe."

Geng Aiqing laughed and said: "How can I be so scary??!"

"Hahaha." Lin Sheng laughed twice, and then said, "Just get up, pack up quickly, we'll be leaving in a few hours."

The smile on Geng Aiqing's face hadn't recovered yet, she was stunned when she heard the words: "What are you going to do?"

Lin Sheng's flushed face was faintly excited: "What else can I do? Of course it's to conquer the highest mountain in the world!"

"..." Geng Aiqing hesitated for a while before saying, "Didn't you say to take a day off first, and then go back to work tomorrow night?"

"Oh!" Lin Sheng patted his head, "I forgot to mention this! It's snowing outside, and Lausanne said that the weather might not be very good tomorrow. Tonight is the best time to catch up before the weather turns bad tomorrow." Come back here."

Geng Aiqing didn't speak.

Lin Sheng patted him on the shoulder: "What questions do you have?"

Geng Aiqing thought for a while before saying: "Isn't it too hasty?"

Lin Sheng shook his head: "There's nothing to be done hastily. This is the last chance. If we delay, we won't have enough oxygen."

What he said made sense. If it was a decision made by Luosang and Uncle Pei together, Geng Aiqing believed that this choice would be the best choice at present, but it was so sudden that he always had an ominous premonition.

Seeing that his expression was wrong, Lin Sheng asked worriedly, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Geng Aiqing shook his head and said, "It's just that my head hurts too much, it's okay, how about you? Is Uncle Pei's cough healed?"

Lin Sheng was silent for a while, and the expression on his face became serious: "No, no one is in a good state, you know... Our rest time is too short, no, no matter how long the rest time is, it will be like this, maybe there will be more Seriously..." Lin Sheng said with a wry smile, "I don't dare to take a big breath, I feel like my throat is bleeding, and it hurts when I breathe, let alone them..."

Geng Aiqing sighed.

Lin Sheng patted him on the shoulder: "But we haven't reached the point where we can't move. Mount Everest is right in front of us. We have to fight hard no matter what. What do you think? Brother?"

This was the first time Lin Sheng didn't jokingly call him Young Master Geng.

Geng Aiqing nodded solemnly: "Me too, you go out first, I will clean up first."

"Okay." Lin Sheng smiled, "Hurry up!"

After Lin Sheng left, Geng Aiqing hadn't recovered from the news he brought. When he was packing his backpack, he found that his hands were shaking constantly. He had to admit that what Lin Sheng said made him A feeling of excitement also arose in my heart. The highest peak in the world is close at hand, just 500 meters away from the vertical height. The peak of faith when indulging in mountaineering is the dream of so many climbers, and he really can't calm down.

It was completely dark outside, and it was still snowing lightly. Only the faint light from a few tents illuminated the entire camp. At present, there are only two climbing teams in the camp. Everyone is very busy. Hastily looking for teammates to ask for something, it seems that everyone has reached a consensus.

Going to the top tonight.

"Are you up?" Geng Aiqing was a little dazed looking at this scene, and suddenly Shen Biwen's voice came from behind him.

Geng Aiqing subconsciously took a step forward and wanted to turn around. Unexpectedly, he stepped on a loose rock and slipped slightly. Geng Aiqing quickly stood still. Shen Biwen was faster than him, so he stretched out his hand to hold grabbed his arm, and even brought him in his direction.

Geng Aiqing: "..."

Shen Biwen let go of his hand: "Be careful, the slope here is too steep."

Watching the loose rock roll down the nearly 45° steep slope, driving the gravel along the way and making a rattling sound, Geng Aiqing nodded silently.

"Lin Sheng told you?" Shen Biwen asked breaking the silence.

Geng Aiqing nodded: "Well, I said it."

"What do you think?"

Geng Aiqing was taken aback, and said strangely: "I agree, didn't you say that tonight is the best time?"

"Ah."

"I think I'm fine, just a little headache." Geng Aiqing thought he was talking about his physical condition, and explained, "But I've had a headache from the beginning, so I should be fine."

Shen Biwen didn't speak.

Geng Aiqing didn't hear his voice, so he glanced at him subconsciously, wondering if it was his illusion, under the dim light in the camp, he felt that Shen Biwen's eyes were full of sadness, Geng Aiqing opened his mouth, Suddenly realized what Shen Biwen meant.

They will set off in a few hours. If there are no accidents, they will reach the top of the highest mountain in the world before dawn. That is also the time when Shen Biwen completes his last goal before he dies.

That is to say...

Geng Aiqing didn't want to think about it anymore.

The excitement of climbing to the top disappeared in that instant.

"You... What if you can't make it to the top?" Geng Aiqing asked him, staring into his eyes.

Shen Biwen looked at Geng Aiqing, but did not answer.

"You just...you have to..." Geng Aiqing didn't ask any more, because he saw the deep self-blame and entanglement in Shen Biwen's eyes. Those eyes really made people unbearable to look any longer, Geng Aiqing held back Uncomfortable in my heart, I staggered his gaze, grabbed his arm and whispered: "You will be with me in a while."

Shen Biwen nodded.

Lin Sheng was right. Everyone was in a bad state. It could be described as very bad. There was a small meeting for half an hour before leaving, but almost none of them said a few words. They were all wearing oxygen masks. , it seems that relying on oxygen inhalation can relieve the discomfort of the body, Pei Lei's cough became more serious, he would cough for a long time after speaking a few words, Lin Sheng tried to stop him several times, but was stopped by Yong Ke, Yong Ke's face was pale, but he also had the same determination as Pei Lei.

Another team set off earlier than them. Two of their team members had a very serious high reaction, and finally chose to stay in the camp and wait. When Geng Aiqing and the others left, those two team members also came out of the tent to see them off , and gave everyone a hug. Although the disappointment on the faces of the two team members did not diminish, they still firmly said to everyone: "Come on! Wait for you to come back!"

The atmosphere was inexplicably solemn, but also somewhat inexplicably moved.

After saying goodbye to them, the group of them finally left the assault camp and climbed up the hard mountain wall again.

According to the previous climbing experience, the departure time from the assault camp is around 2:[-] am, so as to ensure timely descent within the so-called "closing time". , otherwise you will encounter bad weather when descending, and there will be great danger to your life. The closing time of Mount Everest is around [-] pm, and the departure time is [-] am. .

But this also said that in the case of "smooth journey", everyone knows that the last part of the journey cannot be smooth.

Pei Lei and the others officially set off at twelve o'clock at night, an hour later than the last team. It is very risky to sacrifice one or two hours of rest time, but facing the last "chance", they had to Facing the threat of snowy weather first, starting early is also to deal with all uncontrollable situations that may be brought about by snowy weather, which is really helpless.

Geng Aiqing and the others made some adjustments to their climbing order. Pei Lei was still at the end, Lausanne was in front, and Shen Biwen was placed in the penultimate position, just behind Geng Aiqing. Pei Lei didn't care too much about this order. Originally, Geng Aiqing wanted to tell Pei Lei that he wanted to get closer to Shen Biwen, but he didn't expect to even say it, and everyone had no opinion on it.

Only Geng Aiqing felt a little strange.