A day later, just when everyone was holding out any hope, there was a sudden murmur from the pager, and although it was brief, it was still captured in the full band. After analysis, the communication personnel located the coordinates from the sound waves, which were somewhere southwest of the iceberg where Zhou Ran had an accident.

Zhou Ran may still be alive!

……

I don't know how long it took, Zhou Ran was awakened by a burst of pain, and he touched his ribs with his hand, as if a few were broken. Touching the head again, there was no bleeding, except for a little pain, probably a slight concussion.

"Where am I?"

The first question he raised.

Zhou Ran looked around, except for the ice or ice, and when he looked up, he saw a hole more than ten meters high, and concluded that he was in an ice cave.

It took a while for the groggy brain to slowly remember what had happened.

At that time, when Zheng Dashen walked behind him, he accidentally slipped and knocked him down, and after dozens of seconds of free fall, he lost consciousness.

"How do you get out of here?"

That was the second question that came to his mind.

Zhou Ran looked around, stretched out his arms just enough to touch the ice walls on both sides, and at the same time there was a sharp pain in his chest.

This is an irregular ice cave.

Looking at the high entrance of the cave, it is impossible to climb up. He tried to scream a few times, but it was useless, and it caused pain in his ribs.

This is the first instinct to survive in the wild. Zhou Ran knew in his heart that if he couldn't wait for rescue, he would become a dried corpse.

He felt for the badge he had in his pocket, thinking that if he was found in a few years, he would at least be able to prove his identity. Aside from the work card, thankfully the pager was still there, but there was no signal.

"Why did Zheng Dashen slip, was it intentional or unintentional?"

This is the third question that Zhou Ran pondered after calming down.

After recalling it carefully, he clearly remembered that the position he was standing in was very flat and the ground was wide, enough for two people to walk side by side. And after he stood still, he deliberately stepped on the periphery.

Zheng Dashen didn't fall all the way, but he slipped at this time and happened to kick himself down, is this a coincidence?

"Definitely not a coincidence, he did it on purpose!"

Thinking of many things dealing with him, Zhou Ran concluded his conjecture.

What is the motivation? Zhou Ran suddenly figured it out.

If an accident occurs during the scientific expedition, who would not think of it as murder? In this way, not only did he easily get rid of the important members of the "cautious faction", but also got rid of his own suspicion. The most important thing is that if the team leader dies, the deputy team leader becomes the head of the scientific expedition team, so that the entire scientific expedition can be completed according to his "wishes".

The next question is, what is Zheng Dashen's purpose?

His view has always been very extreme, believing that the earth's resources are close to depletion and no longer suitable for human habitation, and the only way out is to find a second "earth", which is the consistent view of the "expansionists".

If this Antarctic expedition can obtain strong evidence of the deterioration of the natural environment of the Antarctic continent, it can greatly support the views of the "expansionists". When the time comes, they will have a greater say in front of the council and even the chairman of the coalition government.

Thinking about this, Zhou Ran realized Zheng Dashen's insidiousness. Since entering the scientific expedition team, Zheng Dashen has been respectful to himself, and fully supports even some disagreeable views, such as the analysis of the "atmospheric river".

Zhou Ran is not sure which of what Zheng Dashen said is true and which is false. I did so much foreshadowing, just to make myself let my guard down, and it turned out to be such a tragedy.

"It's too careless!"

Zhou Ran regretted not being at the beginning, but this is not the time to make amends, and another voice came to his mind: "You can't give up, even if you die, you have to die for scientific research!" ”

Zhou Ran looked around carefully again, and touched the ice wall with his hand, which was very strong. Suddenly, he observed that one wall of ice was lighter than the others, and when he looked closer, he saw that the ice wall was thinner. Then, he pressed his hands on top of each other, pushed hard, and heard a "click" as a washbasin-sized hole in the ice appeared in front of him.

He looked inside, and it turned out to be an ice tunnel, and it seemed to be very long!

Zhou Ran climbed in without hesitation, this was the only chance to survive. The ice tunnel is the same size as the entrance of the cave, and it can only crawl, and it is very tortuous, going uphill and downhill at one time. After just climbing for more than ten minutes, Zhou Ran couldn't stand it anymore and could only stop to catch his breath.

Between gasps, he looked at the ice again, and suddenly felt a little strange. At the bottom of the iceberg, how can there be such an ice road?

"Was it excavated by hand?"

An idea suddenly popped into his mind, but he felt that it was impossible, and there was no trace of artificial excavation.

After climbing for an unknown amount of time, when he wanted to rest again, he saw a wall of ice appear directly in front of him—there was no way. Instinctively, he quickly climbed to the end, and it turned out that the ice road had bent a bend. He continued to climb for a while, and suddenly it dawned on him, and there seemed to be a larger passage ahead, for he heard a whirring sound—the wind.

Sure enough, it was a passage, about two meters high and more than one meter wide, and Zhou Ran couldn't help but get excited. Even more surprising was that the passage had clearly been dug by hand, and he could almost see the traces left by the ice sled.

Who would dig a passage here, what is the use of it, and what is the purpose of the person who dug it?

Zhou Ran didn't think much about it, determined the direction of the wind, and walked towards the right passage. The passage has always been uphill, and the slope is getting bigger and bigger, fortunately, the snow boots under your feet have a good anti-slip effect, otherwise I don't know how many times I fell.

Seeing that the end of the passage was ahead, he couldn't wait to speed up his pace, and the moment he walked out of the passage, he couldn't help laughing, it was a feeling of escape, even if the tingling pain in his chest made him almost unable to breathe!

But after the laughter, he was depressed because there were icebergs all around. And his location is exactly at the junction of icebergs, like a valley.

"It's over!" A wave of disappointment struck, and Zhou Ran was overwhelmed.

At this moment, a slight "sizzle" sound came.

He reacted suddenly, hurriedly put his hand into his pocket, and took out the communicator, which was the sound it made. Although it is located in an ice valley, the altitude here is higher than that of the ice road, so the communicator has a weak signal.

"I'm Zhou Ran, can you hear me?"

He called faintly, trying every channel, but there was nothing but the sound of "zizi".

Zhou Ran, relying on his own experience, estimated that it was about 15~16 hours, thinking that after such a long time, maybe they would have given up the search and rescue a long time ago. Moreover, Zheng Dashen is in charge of the scientific expedition team, and it seems that he is really going to die here.

As soon as he thought of Zheng Dashen, a sinister villain, he was angry, but he didn't expect him to use such despicable means.

But soon, he was relieved, because no one is innocent in the face of real interests. If there are no innocent people, how can you blame others?

I can only blame myself for letting my guard down and not seeing through the ugly and cruel face under the mask.

It's like a bus, when there are no seats, everyone can stand calmly and be safe with each other; When there are seats, people will crowd together to compete for the limited seats, but when there are more than enough seats, they will still be crowded, because some people are not satisfied with sitting, and they still want to lie down.

In the game of chasing profits, who is not scrambling to be the first?