34 years ago, on November 20th, the homeland conducted its first scientific expedition to Antarctica.
And coincidentally.
Exactly 34 years later, today, November 16th.
The polar scientific expedition icebreaker "Xuelong," which set off 11 days ago, has now met with the "Xuelong 2," which recently completed the Arctic expedition task.
The two ships officially rendezvoused at Zhongshan Station in Antarctica.
This is the homeland's 38th Antarctic expedition, and it holds great significance.
And still, coincidentally enough...
The "Xuelong" also departed from Modu Port.
Therefore, through a series of simple formula transformations, one plus one equals two, two plus two equals four, combined with the extremely low temperature conditions within the cave.
Finally discovering that there is a team led by a polar expedition expert among Lu Chaoyang and his group, which is also a reasonable matter, right?
After all, even the cold weather gear has arrived, so adding some more people is a very normal situation.
This scientific expert is named Ouyang Dongshan, 42 years old this year.
He is from a subordinate unit of the National Oceanic Administration's Polar Science Key Laboratory and once served as a deputy at Zhongshan Station.
However, due to the relatively limited professional range, it is almost impossible to achieve any major results.
Therefore, Ouyang Dongshan is currently neither an academic committee member nor on the verge of becoming an academician like Cui Xiaofeng.
He's just a researcher who has rarely appeared in the public eye, quietly working for twenty years.
However, since he was dispatched to the cave site by the command center, Ouyang Dongshan's expertise shouldn't be doubted.
As everyone was wearing heavy cold-resistant suits into the cave, Ouyang Dongshan made a small cut in his palm.
Then he lifted his hand, letting his skin come into contact with the cold air inside the cave.
It was mentioned earlier.
The climate inside this cave is extremely low.
Even though Ouyang Dongshan's position was only seven to eight meters into the cave, the temperature reached minus twenty degrees.
Therefore, after just a dozen seconds.
Ouyang Dongshan's arm quickly turned pale, with some areas even tending towards blue-purple.
However, Ouyang Dongshan didn't mind,
he exhaled forcefully on his skin.
And as his skin became reddish, he quickly pulled up the zipper.
Then he turned his head, somewhat gravely saying to Lu Chaoyang and the others:
"Professor Lu, the wind inside the cave seems a bit off."
Lu Chaoyang and Cui Xiaofeng exchanged glances and asked:
"Researcher Ouyang, what do you mean by that?"
Ouyang Dongshan thought for a moment, gesturing as if chopping with his left hand in the air on the left side,
while repeating the gesture with his right hand on the right side.
Then he said:
"Professor Lu, assuming my left hand's position is the end of the cave, and the right hand is the entrance.
What should the wind direction normally be?"
To be honest.
Upon hearing the word wind, the first thing that came to Lu Chaoyang's mind was Yasuo's wind wall.
But the thought quickly vanished, and the notion was soon dismissed by this 0-21-8 player.
He looked curiously at Ouyang Dongshan, puzzled, and said:
"Researcher Ouyang, the end of the cave is sealed, with only one entrance for wind.
So the wind direction is surely from outside towards the cave, or flow from the right to the left."
Upon hearing this, Ouyang Dongshan lowered his hands, giving him a deep look:
"But Professor Lu, haven't you noticed?
The wind inside the cave.....
is blowing from left to right."
Lu Chaoyang was immediately taken aback, and his brow furrowed tightly.
An internally sealed cave, with wind blowing from inside out?
How is this possible?
But considering that there's no reason for Ouyang Dongshan to lie about something so easily disproven.
Thus, Lu Chaoyang remained silent for a few seconds, then took out a document sheet used for recording miscellaneous items.
The document sheet was very light and began to bend along the wind direction under the effect of the wind.
And its bending direction was obviously...
The entrance!
This meant Ouyang Dongshan's judgment was correct.
The wind direction inside the cave is clearly problematic!
And just then, Cui Xiaofeng suddenly interjected from the side:
"Researcher Ouyang, can I ask, is it possible that such a situation is caused by the cold high pressure inside the cave?"
Ouyang Dongshan looked at this expert on wild creatures with some astonishment, clearly surprised by his cross-specialty question.
But soon he shook his head and explained:
"Everyone should be aware, the wind's pressure difference in the horizontal direction forms from the horizontal pressure gradient.
The further inside the cave, the lower the temperature, possibly reaching below minus eighty or ninety degrees at the end, theoretically forming a strong downdraft.
When this downdraft reaches the bottom, it would form a cold high pressure mentioned by Professor Cui.
And ahead of us....let me think....
Fifteen meters, there might be a subpolar low-pressure area.
But honestly.
The possibility of this cold pressure difference forming a fourth or fifth-level wind in a forty-meter-long cave is even harder than the national soccer team's remaining twelve qualifying matches all winning for advancement.
Especially since this cave entrance faces south, where there's actually some external wind counteracting it.
It just doesn't feel obvious."
After hearing Ouyang Dongshan's words, the scene immediately fell silent.
The implication of Ouyang Dongshan was quite clear:
Although the end temperature caused by the ice coffin is very low, it is certainly not enough to create such a strong gust.
In other words...
Somewhere at the end of this cave, there may be another opening!
Then Lu Chaoyang thought of something else:
"Researcher Ouyang, did you say there's a subpolar low-pressure area about fifteen meters ahead?"
Ouyang Dongshan nodded:
"The subpolar low-pressure area forms when warm and light air from the subtropical high pressure meets the cold and heavy polar high pressure, creating an ascending airstream.
The higher the altitude, the less air there is, naturally reducing the pressure, forming a low-pressure area.
The cave is over forty meters long, with temperatures transitioning from extreme cold to zero degrees at the entrance.
Thus, it's certain that a subpolar low-pressure area would form in the middle section."
Hearing this, Lu Chaoyang immediately turned his head, exchanging a look with Zhu Yuhao.
Zhu Yuhao understood his meaning and nodded:
"That's right, Professor Lu, the Seven-Colored Spirit Fruit tree's location is roughly there."
Lu Chaoyang slightly nodded, seemingly thoughtful.
Then after over ten seconds.
He waved his hand and said:
"In that case, let's continue forward and see what's up ahead.
Major Su, arrange for a few people to take samples every five meters among the stones inside the cave and send them back for analysis."
"Understood!"
As soon as Lu Chaoyang's voice fell, the group began to take action.
Click-click-click—
The 6.8-pound BOO expedition ice boots made a fine yet chaotic sound as they came into contact with the scattered stones inside the cave.
But inside the cave, other than the low temperature, there didn't seem to be any other danger, silent as a tomb.
So before long.
The group reached the first and only significant location on the way to the end:
The location of the Seven-Colored Fruit.
....
Note:
Today, I chanced upon a comment from one of the earliest readers (when there were only about twenty or so collections and five or six continued readings) on a recent chapter, which moved me greatly, not to the point of tears, but it did make my eyes a little wet.
Many people are still here.....
There's no greater sense of achievement in writing books than this....
