Lake Vostok is located not far from Vostok Station, is more than 140 subglacial lakes in Antarctica, the largest underground water body, and the world's largest subglacial lake, 1500 kilometers away from the Antarctic coastline, 3500 meters above sea level, Lake Vostok is close to the Vostok Station below, 4 kilometers below the ice surface.

"Tsk, this is a big project in Russia, and it looks like it's going to cut through the earth?"

"Hehe, Lao Liu, you're talking nonsense again!"

"How many meters are you digging now?"

"Around three or four hundred meters."

"Amazing!" A middle-aged man who looked older than Leng Qi, about thirty-five or six years old, spoke up: "This is the coldest place in Antarctica!" ”

Leng Qi knew this person, this person's name was Li Guohua, a member of the Huaxia Institute of Geological Exploration, and a well-known glaciologist in China.

"In the crystal structure of ice, the ice crystal molecules will be arranged in a certain direction, and each water molecule will be surrounded by four other molecules, and these four water molecules form a triangular cone, which is relatively loose and large, and the water will have anti-expansion at about 4 °C, that is, heat shrinkage and cold expansion, and at the same time, if the molecules in the ice expand with the temperature of this dispersed structure, it will remain in a stable state!"

"This state will become more stable and solid over time! If it passes through tens of thousands of years of extreme cold environment, it will continue to absorb foreign water molecules, and then continue to expand! As a result, the freezing point of the Antarctic is formed, and the 10,000-year-old ice here can be said to be harder than the permafrost in Russia! ”

In the permafrost of Russia, an upright adult man in the prime of life can only leave two white marks on a shovel with all his might.

One is the white mark of the landing contact, and the other is the white mark left by the strong rebound force generated by the shovel that cannot cut into the soil layer and cannot produce the force point.

"It turned out to be an ice car, I said it was a little familiar." Yan Ling muttered, she double-flipped through the information Leng Qi handed him, and then began to prepare all the materials for going out.

There was still some distance from Vostok Station to the surface of Lake Vostok excavated by Russia, and the group set out on the journey to Vostok Lake in a specially equipped snow transporter, and no one noticed that the wind seemed to be blowing extremely weak, so weak that even an accurate barometer could not detect it.

……

An hour later, a team of men and horses could be seen faintly on a white plain with no end in sight, four dark yellow ice chisels the size of trucks chiseling the ice on the ground, and the sound of machines roaring from the ground in the middle of the four ice chisels.

"Dr. Trove, the depth has reached 375.23 meters."

Leng Qi and his party got out of the car, Trove is a bearded Russian, looking at his strong physique does not look like an academic staff who has been immersed in the sea of books and scientific research rooms all year round, to a bit like a professional wrestler in WWE, at the moment his beard exposed outside is full of ice ballast.

After giving Li Hemu a big hug again, Li Hemu smiled and said, "I heard that you have changed your research direction now?" ”

"Philosophy!" After Troff and Li Hemu hugged, Troff smiled heartily: "My current research has reached a bottleneck, and I found an interesting thing, Newton was obsessed with theology in his later years, and Einstein was the same, I think there will be something I want in it." ”

"So you're going to study theology?"

"No, no, no, my friend, philosophy is not theology, and I've been hooked on wrestling lately!"

Li Hemu and Trove met at an academic exchange meeting in China and Russia, both are top physics experts in various countries, and Trove can speak fluent Mandarin, of course, you have to ignore the taste of Beijing films.

After the two exchanged pleasantries, Leng Qi walked to the four roaring ice chisels, poked his head out and saw a deep cave with a diameter of about five meters, the entrance of the cave was irregular and circular, and there was an extremely operational sound in the deepest part of the cave.

"The current depth of 400.3 meters has reached the maximum feasible depth!"

The four roaring ice chisels gradually turned off, and a large number of crystal chips were slowly transported out of the makeshift conveyor belt, Leng Qi and Li Guohua couldn't care about the others, and then a few more old-timers came over in the scientific expedition team, and everyone began to observe the data that were transported.

"It's beautiful, like a diamond!" Yan Ling was holding a palm-sized piece of ice in her hand, the ice that had existed for 10,000 years was as crystal clear as this time, giving birth to a colorful dream under the refraction of light.

Li Guohua pushed the wide black-framed eyes on the bridge of his nose, he carefully put a small piece of scrap in the palm of his hand, and took out an old magnifying glass from the backpack he brought with him, and observed it carefully.

Leng Qi took out a small bottle with a label on it, filled it with a little, and then took a general look through the sunlight, "It seems that there are no unnecessary impurities, and further testing is needed." He walked up to Li Hemu and Trove, who were greeting, and said seriously: "Old Li, I want to go down and have a look." ”

"No way!" Li Hemu directly refused, but Trove patted Leng Qi's shoulder and smiled: "Yes!" ”

Then the two of them stared at each other, and Leng Qi said seriously: "I just went down to have a look, I can get some first-hand information, I think there are still many things that have not been discovered, and since I came, I can't miss it." ”

After a few minutes of stalemate, Li Hemu reluctantly nodded, and the rest of the scientific expedition team members heard that Leng Qi was going down, and they all came to him, especially Li Guohua.

"Brother Leng! Can you help me bring a small bottle of ice at the bottom of a while, I'm sorry for you! With that, he handed a small glass bottle to Leng Qi, Leng Qi smiled and nodded, and at the same time had a lot of expectations in his heart.

A depth of 400 meters is too little for Antarctic freezing point exploration, but this can't stop Leng Qi's fiery heart, maybe he can wait, wait for ten years and come back, maybe he will drill to a depth of more than 2,000 meters, but he has waited too long.

After a series of preparations, such as ropes, red snow suits, two ice drafts, and snow boots filled with dense iron nails on the floor, Leng Qi carefully checked one side again, until it was confirmed, in the eyes of everyone full of expectations, only the old man named Li Hemu was full of worry, Leng Qi was slowly lowered into the black hole like an abyss.

"Fifty meters!" From the communicator hanging from Leng Qi's left shoulder, there was the voice of a temporary base overhead.

"Everything works!" Leng Qi said loudly, he didn't collect samples, there is a conveyor belt here, presumably it will be found in the farthest place from the cave entrance of the conveyor belt.

"Continue to descend at a constant speed!" Leng Qi said into the communicator, his eyes were bright and full of confidence.

The further down it goes, the darker it becomes, and the color on the surrounding ice walls gradually changes, from white to blue, light blue, Leng Qi had no choice but to turn on the lighting facilities above his head, and turned off the lights after looking at it twice, this is the coldest place in Antarctica, and the electricity in all the batteries is not enough, if Leng Qi is holding an ordinary battery, it has now become a popsicle.

In the dark, Leng Qi kept in touch with the base above, and when he was about three hundred meters, a light suddenly lit up in front of him, Leng Qi was startled, and looked carefully at the staff who operated the drilling rig, which was a temporary rest and operation platform for manual excavation.

There is no way to directly hit the depth of 400 meters, so it must be completed in sections, 300 meters in sections, Leng Qi understood after explaining by two operators, it turned out that the other horizontal ice caves he saw during the descent were temporary workbenches built in sections.

At the same time, he also affirmed that 400 meters has reached the limit of what the current equipment can reach, and no one knows what is going on below.

In this way, Leng Qi couldn't wait even more, and finally, ten minutes later, he stood at the limit of four hundred meters as he wished.

Lighting the facilities again, Leng Qi was shocked by everything in front of him, and he had to sigh at the greatness and legend of nature.

There are about four or five square meters of activity space, and the rest of the space is occupied by equipment, but this is large enough for Leng Qi.

At this time, a beam of white illuminating light above Leng Qi's head hit the pure blue ice protruding on the opposite side, and the ice wall diffused the light on other ice walls, and then continued to diffuse, continuous, and reflected, so that a light blue mixed with a little white like the ocean fantasy world came into Leng Qi's eyes.

Leng Qi swallowed and foamed, he carefully removed the respiratory protection device, and found that the temperature here was higher than outside, and at this moment, the various measuring instruments in his hand were normal.

"-42°C?" Leng Qi carefully observed the surroundings, not letting go of every detail, he frowned, feeling incredible.

He is mainly focusing on biological genetics, and Li Guohua should have an explanation for the opposite side of geology, so Leng Qi contacted Li Guohua outside through the communicator, but there was a sound of interference from the current.

Leng Qi muttered, turned around and pulled the rope again, and found that it was still tight, and there were two staff members at three hundred meters, so there should be no problem, so he put his mind at ease and began to collect all the valuable specimens seriously.

At this time, everyone in the temporary base on the ground was very nervous, Leng Qi's communication was completely out of signal after reaching four hundred meters, Li Hemu's face was as heavy as water, and only his clenched hands showed his inner unpeace.

"Don't worry, I've already arranged for people to prepare to go down, and there are two staff members at 300 meters, as long as the rope is not broken, there is no problem!" Trove comforted his old friend and said, "It's normal for the electromagnetic signal inside to be unstable!" Don't worry! ”

Li Hemu's face softened at this time, he and his wife had no heirs, Leng Qi was adopted by the two when he was very young, and they have always regarded Leng Qi as their own son.

On the other side, Leng Qi's body squatting on the ground was a little stiff because he had not moved for more than ten minutes, so he stood up and prepared to move, with a bright smile on his face, and the army-green satchel he carried with him was also bulging, and even the pockets of his clothes were stuffed.

He considers himself a man whose name is easily satisfied, as he is now.

"Huh?" Leng Qi, who was about to leave with a happy face, suddenly saw an ice wall that was a little strange.

The pale blue ice wall was a little convex compared to the surrounding area, like a convex and smooth mirror, and Leng Qi felt the visual difference at the edge of the "mirror" due to the difference in the wall behind it.

Leng Qi faced the ice wall, first took three steps in the direction of the left hand, and found that it was visually exactly the same as the wall behind him, without the slightest special place, so he took three steps in the direction of the right hand, and then there was a drop just now, which formed a gap that ran through the entire ice wall.

"Nature!"

Leng Qi laughed happily, this is the joy of exploration, naturally he always gives you a small gift in a familiar place, so Leng Qi walked over and carefully examined the gap formed by the gap.

"It's about forty centimeters wide! I didn't even notice it just now! Leng Qi was surprised, he stood in front of the gap and first stretched out his hand to probe, and then used the light to illuminate it, and found that the ice wall around him at the position one meter in front of him had disappeared without a trace.

"There should be a lot of space in there! This naturally formed gap is like a secret door! Leng Qi rubbed his hands, and he showed a difficult expression.

It had been more than two hours since he came down, and the communication facilities were not working. A few seconds later, Leng Qi made a decision, "Just go in and have a look for a few minutes!" And then I'll come out! ”

Leng Qi took off the outer layer of antifreeze clothing, and instantly a severe cold enveloped him, moved his body slightly and put the antifreeze clothing in the gap where he could land, so that as long as he could get through, he could pull the antifreeze suit in again, Leng Qi finally untied the rope around his waist, and he carried the army-green bag and went headlong into the dark gap.