Chapter 7: The Iceberg Visitor

This is a steep peak at least 400 meters high, its entire body covered in the eternal ice and snow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. From a distance, it looks like a giant silver-white tower, shining coldly and brilliantly under the sunlight. In this realm where almost no life can conquer, there are vertical cliffs at ninety degrees everywhere. Year after year, day after day, no one knows how thick the layer of ice and snow on it really is, nor can they clearly see its original color.
Two trainees from the Fifth Special Forces Elite Training School stood beneath this iceberg, squinting and straining to look upward. And halfway up this iceberg, a lonely figure was slowly climbing upward.
"You bastards!"
Long Jianhui led the other trainees to run past them. He raised his hand and slapped the two trainees hard several times. Pointing at the mountain peak overhead, he roared, "You bastards bastards just ran to the snowy mountain, and you dare to let your comrades conquer this iceberg?" Are you being too arrogant, or do you want your own companions to go to their deaths?! Report to me immediately, what tools did Zhanxiage bring! ”
A trainee with a bright red palm print shouted, "Reporting to the instructor!" Zhanxiage brought three sabers, three bayonets, an entrenching shovel, a roll of 450-meter-long special climbing rope, a bag of sugar, a bottle of distilled liquor, a single soldier's sleeping bag, two lighters, fifteen sets of self-heating rations for individual soldiers, two tassels of beef tallow, five liters of gasoline, and a small vaporizer that could support a micro oxygen tank for thirty minutes......
Another student whispered, "And ...... Instructor, your two packs of cigarettes were secretly taken from your car yesterday. ”
"Kid, you're pretty well prepared, actually reaching out your claws to me, your instructor!" Long Jianhui didn't get angry but laughed. He sized up the war hero song that had already climbed a hundred meters above his head and snorted, "But you guys are underestimating the iceberg on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, aren't you?" Alright, I'd like to see what achievements a trainee who has consecutively won the Earth, Jungle, and Mountain Honor Medals can come to my snowfield training ground! ”
Snatching a trainee's radio communicator, Long Jianhui said, "Battle Hero Song, I'm Instructor Long Jianhui!" Don't look down, I'm right at the foot of the mountain you're climbing! Don't answer me, just listen carefully to every word I say! ”
"I won't order you to come down again, because the average slope you're climbing now is eighty degrees—a dead end where you can only move forward, not retreat!" Even if you regret it now, you won't be able to find a way to return it! If you want to survive, there's only one way: keep climbing until you reach the top of the iceberg, then find a way to secure the 450-meter-long special climbing rope you're carrying to the summit, and use it to climb down! ”
The radio communicator carried the heavy breathing of a war hero's song, so heavy it seemed to shatter his lungs. Long Jianhui said in a deep voice, "I believe you are already beginning to understand the power of the plateau, right?" I've already heard about the equipment and supplies you carry, which together exceed thirty kilograms. On the plateau, the oxygen concentration in the air is only 47% of that on flat ground. Even if you have empty hands, you still have to carry 20 kilograms, and the higher you climb, the greater the pressure on your body. In other words, you're carrying a load of fifty to sixty kilograms, using a few simple bayonets to conquer an iceberg four hundred meters high! ”
"I order you, once you find a suitable place, immediately discard all unnecessary equipment and proceed as lightly as possible!" Otherwise, if you slip, I'll have to collect your body at the foot of this mountain! ”
"Pfft!"
The bayonet in the Heroic Singer pierced fiercely into the unmelted ice before him. His left hand tightly wrapped around a cloth strip, his five fingers exposed to the air had turned pale from the cold, yet they still managed to grip a protruding piece of ice. He tried to keep his body pressed against the iceberg, avoiding the ever-increasing mountain wind. He took several deep breaths, struggling to resist the altitude dizziness caused by rapid physical drain, his voice hoarse as he whispered, "I can do it!" ”
"Isn't it just thirty kilograms of weight? I refuse to believe that two seniors carrying the red flag, who can't even eat enough or have shoes, can conquer the iceberg—I can't climb it! ”
Long Jianhui's furious roar pierced through the communicator, fiercely ramming into Zhanxia Ge's ears: "What exactly do you want?" ”
"Instructor, didn't you tell us that once we get here, we should toast these heroes and light a cigarette? That's the rule of the Snow Mountain!" I want to see these two greatest heroes with my own eyes. I want to have a drink with them and smoke a cigarette with them! ”
Zhanxiage lowered his head. Beneath his feet was a nearly vertical, smooth ice surface over a hundred meters long. Standing at the foot of the mountain, Instructor Long Jianhui and his classmates looked so small, but the earth, blended with snow and gravel, suddenly became menacing. The war hero could almost see that if he really slipped and fell, the blood and flesh of his body would merge with the snow and soil of the plateau in a tragic scene.
A creature, facing death at its doorstep, struck Zhan Xiage's hands involuntarily. The bayonet embedded in the ice made a crisp "crack" sound, and a few ice shards drifted out, gently striking Zhan Xiaoge's face. Instantly, the heat of his skin melted and mixed with the sweat on his face, indistinguishable from the other.
Looking up again at the iceberg above him, Zhanxiage let out a heavy breath. Instructor Long Jianhui was right—as long as he kept looking up, he wouldn't be so afraid.
"Instructor, I once abandoned an older brother, letting him sink with my own submarine in the sea. I, the one who abandoned my brother, friends, and brothers, couldn't even recover his body!"
Tears burst fiercely from Zhan Xiaoge's eyes as he said foolishly, "From that moment on, I swore to myself that I, Zhan Xiagoge, will never let a true hero, after giving his life, never find peace!" I would allow heroes to bleed and then cry more! Therefore, I want to take the remains of heroes and the red flag they protected with their lives...... bring it back!! ”
Listening to the war hero song's slightly choked yet unbreakable voice, feeling the fighting fire and passion bursting from deep within his body, where everything was on the line, Long Jianhui fell silent.