Chapter 85: Extreme Heat 26
The outdoor unit of the air conditioner was on fire, “What do you think?”
Chu Yian rushed over and touched the barrels of diesel. They were scalding hot, the plastic on the outside almost melting. It was probably just a spark, or an ignition point, away from bursting into flames. The current situation was truly like having wolves outside and tigers inside, caught in a pincer attack, between a rock and a hard place.
She grabbed a rake and ran towards the pit she had dug. She continued to enlarge the pit; burying the diesel in the ground would definitely be much safer than leaving it outside.
Lu Qingyuan quickly understood her intention and came to help.
However, a few minutes later, the temperature rose even higher!
The most direct manifestation was that all the mineral water bottles had deformed, and most plastic products had begun to melt. Although there was enough air in the basement, they were now having difficulty breathing. In this situation, let alone working, they might not even survive for a few more days.
“Teacher Lu, I really can’t hold on anymore.”
Chu Yian slumped to the ground, gasping for air.
Her eyes had become blurry, and her breathing grew heavier. “I never thought I would die in this kind of situation.”
This high temperature was simply unbearable for humans.
“The happiest thing for me in this round of the game was meeting you, Teacher Lu. If you NPCs fail in the game, can you have another round? Or do you also die?”
Just as she was panting heavily, preparing to deliver her “last words,” a pair of hands suddenly lifted her up.
Lu Qingyuan cleared out the entire refrigerator and then threw her inside.
What is a refrigerator?
Excellent insulation material.
Even if it was scorching hot outside, inside, one could still feel a hint of coolness.
“Stay inside. If the flames can be extinguished within ten minutes, we won’t die.”
Lu Qingyuan’s indifferent voice sounded, and Chu Yian only heard the words “we won’t die.”
The bottom of the French-door refrigerator was very narrow, with a divider in the middle, too small for an adult. But the upper space was ample. Lu Qingyuan laid it down, and with some squeezing, it could barely fit two people!
Both of them were inside the refrigerator, bodies pressed against bodies, skin against skin.
If this posture were in normal times, Chu Yian would definitely have felt a little awkward.
But at this moment, she was about to die and was completely oblivious to the awkwardness! She only felt that the air blowing from Teacher Lu’s lungs was very hot. If he had more space on his side, his head could be a little further from her neck.
Unfortunately, she didn’t even have the strength to speak now.
Although the refrigerator could insulate, its insulating effect was limited.
Ten minutes.
The temperature inside the refrigerator was already similar to the outside.
The basement was like a steamer, the temperature probably around seventy degrees Celsius, but it was already the highest temperature. After more than ten minutes of burning, the area above was mostly burnt out.
The mud smeared on the basement door had been baked dry. Lu Qingyuan used something to break off the scorching hot mud.
The area above was indeed burnt to ashes.
But it was even hotter than below!
Chu Yian followed Lu Qingyuan and poked her head out, then saw the most shocking scene of this round of the game—everything in their small house except the walls had been burned, a complete ruin.
And around them was an even larger wildfire.
Twenty days ago, when Chu Yian first arrived here, the surrounding mountains were clear, the water beautiful, and lush greenery enveloped the area.
Five days ago, the surrounding forests and mountain vegetation had all withered and died.
And now, the dry vegetation was the best fuel. The surrounding mountains and fields were all burning, the flames dyeing the sky red. The basement was like a steamer, and outside was a scorching oven.
Like a sea of fire, a living hell.
“Teacher Lu, Teacher Lu…”
In that instant, Chu Yian was even somewhat speechless.
“Go down.”
Besides this basement, there was nowhere else for them to hide. Chu Yian sat on the ground. It was too hot around her; her head ached, her body was weak, and she repeatedly closed her eyes, losing consciousness in a daze.
Heatstroke.
Chu Yian looked at the water in the cistern, but unfortunately, the water was also hot.
It was the twentieth day. Could she not even make it through the last stretch? Suddenly, she thought of her treasure box. She had opened it once on the seventeenth day of the game, and fully calculated, she had one more chance on the last day.
With the thought of opening a blind box before she died, just to say she had tried every method, she pulled out her treasure box.
She did it openly in front of Lu Qingyuan, without any reservations.
Taking out the treasure box, opening it, she pulled out the last item.
[A ten-year-old ice block, roughly the same size as this treasure box.]
[Note: To be retrieved after this round of the game ends.]
[Good Item’s Thoughts: Every time you say this treasure box is black-hearted, is it black-hearted? Don’t think this treasure box doesn’t know how badly a certain ungrateful idiot curses it in their heart.]
Grandpa, how could I curse you!
Chu Yian rushed over and hugged the golden treasure box. Cold air billowed from the ice block, and the instant coolness almost made her body’s senses fail to react.
Cool, comfortable!
It was absolutely wonderful.
“Teacher Lu, come over!”
This ice block had practically saved their lives. Chu Yian no longer had the strength to move. Lu Qingyuan went up and closed the basement door. The indoor temperature dropped because of the ice block.
The crisis passed. For the next few hours of game time, Lu Qingyuan stared at the treasure box in front of him.
He stared from when the ice block was still as large as the treasure box, until it had melted into water within the treasure box.
In such hot weather, why was there ice?
A one-cubic-meter box, where had she put it before?
Was it an illusion that the box had appeared out of thin air just now?
…A myriad of questions gathered in Lu Qingyuan’s mind. It was the first time Chu Yian had seen Teacher Lu look so unworldly.
If it was Teacher Lu, it wouldn’t matter if the treasure box was exposed.
Not because of trust, but because Teacher Lu’s memory was disposable.
In the next round of the game, Teacher Lu wouldn’t even know who she was, let alone the fact that she had a box.
Chu Yian’s mind was muddled now. The after-effects of heatstroke had not left with the drop in temperature. She desperately needed something to perk herself up. “Teacher Lu, are you very confused by the box that suddenly appeared in front of you?”
“I’ll tell you, I can even put it away, and then make it reappear, shrink, and grow.”
Chu Yian stretched out her hand, playing with Grandpa Treasure Box in front of Lu Qingyuan.
Teacher Lu’s few moments of shock in his life were all spent on the treasure box.
“Cool, right? Do you want to know the scientific principle behind it?” Chu Yian reached out and scooped some cold water to wash her face, to clear her mind a bit, then looked towards Lu Qingyuan.
Teacher Lu, with his strong thirst for knowledge, indeed fell for it. “What principle?”
“The principle is…”
There is no principle.
In this survival game, not everything can be explained by science.
