The recovery time for snow blindness is one to three days. If I get it here, not only will I die earlier than the stifled oil bottle, but I will also die more miserably than him. What am I doing this for?
With my eyes closed, I felt extremely frustrated. Damn it, the last time I came here, it was all gloomy snow clouds everywhere, so there was no chance of getting this condition. This time, I came completely unprepared, but who would have thought that I would encounter such a situation? This time, I really brought this upon myself.
Snow blindness is a very strange ailment. Most people think it is a symptom of temporary blindness caused by strong light stimulation to the retina. Generally, after resting for several days, vision will recover on its own. Those who have experienced snow blindness should be careful, as they can get it again. The symptoms of recurrent snow blindness are often more severe. Repeated episodes can gradually weaken one’s eyesight, leading to long-term eye diseases, and in severe cases, even permanent blindness.
When walking in the snowfields, it is common to wear goggles. Regular sunglasses can also help alleviate and prevent snow blindness. However, a study by Americans shows that snow blindness is actually caused by the eyes being unable to find a focal object in the snow (often, all you can see on a snowy mountain is a pure white expanse), leading to excessive strain on the eyes. Snow blindness rarely causes sudden blindness, but once symptoms appear, one must stop using their eyes and give them time to rest.
This means that, given my current situation, I estimate that I won’t be able to use my eyes comfortably for about twelve hours. During this time, I must be very careful with intermittent eye use. This implies that I will definitely have to stay here for a long time.
Thinking about this made me feel extremely depressed. I wondered why everything was so smooth when I arrived, and now it had turned into this. If something had happened when I first arrived, the stifled oil bottle might have had to take me back.
If I had known, I should have found a reason to cripple myself a few days ago.
Just as I was sulking, I suddenly felt a loosening beneath me, and the entire snow slope I was sitting on slid down.
It is completely impossible to stop once sliding down a snow slope. I didn’t even have time to react; I just felt myself spinning and sliding down. My hands were flailing aimlessly around me. At this point, it was impossible to keep my eyes closed. I tried several times to dig my hands deep into the snow, hoping to use the resistance to stop myself. But each time I dug in, it only caused larger chunks of snow to slide down.
I screamed as I rolled down the slope. I knew that below was a very steep cliff. The drop was at least thirty meters, and even if there was snow at the bottom, I would definitely not come out unscathed.
In the past, I might have thought, “If I die, then so be it,” but now I found it hard to accept. I frantically grabbed at everything around me, but in an instant, I slid off the cliff and fell into the air.
As I tumbled off the cliff and fell about six or seven meters, I noticed that everything around me had turned into slow motion. I could see all the snow chunks flying out with me, each following strange trajectories.
Then, I landed on my back in the snow.
Falling from thirty meters into a snowbank that felt like cotton was actually quite exhilarating to think about. I had no idea how deep I had fallen into the snow. But I knew that on the surface of the snow, there would definitely be a human-shaped pit, and my posture would surely be very strange.
The snow here is particularly soft and fluffy. After I fell, countless fragments of snow rolled down from the edges and hit my face. My head was spinning. Fortunately, I didn’t feel like I had hit anything hard when I fell. If there had been even a couple of stones in the snow, I definitely wouldn’t feel this way now.
I brushed the snow off my face and struggled to climb up, poking my head out of the pit. Just as I was about to curse, I suddenly sensed a shadow above me. When I looked up, I saw that the snow slope I had triggered earlier on the cliff had completely slid down.
That shadow was the snow slope: judging by the commotion, I estimated that about a ton of snow would come crashing down on my face, likely knocking me back into the pit.
The fragments of snow blocked all the space around me like sand. This included my nose and mouth. I struggled hard but found the layer of snow above me was particularly thick. It buried me tightly like a mound of earth. No matter how I clawed, I couldn’t find a way out.
I could no longer hold my breath; I started to breathe, but each inhalation brought a mouthful of icy shards. There’s a significant difference between being in snow and being in water: snow isn’t solid; it contains countless small spaces filled with air. I twisted my head to compress a small space and immediately took a few breaths. Although I felt a bit less suffocated, my chest still felt extremely tight, and I was dizzy.
Just when I was about to despair, I suddenly heard some commotion outside. Then, someone grabbed my flailing hands, and I was pulled out of the snow pit. I gasped for air and saw that it was the mute oil bottle, who had grabbed the back of my collar and pulled me out of the snow.
Everything I saw was still a blurry pink. I looked at him, feeling furious, and asked, “Why did you come back?”
He glanced at me, then at the cliff above, and said, “I heard your cries for help.”
Sound travels well in the snow, and since I was upwind, it wasn’t surprising that he could hear me. I thought to myself, “Damn it, I was probably cursing your ancestors at that moment.” I got up and squinted around. I immediately realized that he must have jumped down from a height of about thirty meters, which moved me a little.
He came back. Suddenly, I wondered if he had finally come to his senses. Was this a chance for me to persuade him? His return indicated that he still had some attachment to the world.
But before I could say anything, he spoke first.
“Follow me,” the mute oil bottle said. “This is a dead valley, and more snow will collapse down. We need to get to the center of the valley first.” He pointed around. I then noticed that this place was surrounded by cliffs over thirty meters high, and I couldn’t help but curse under my breath.
I looked around and realized there was no route to escape. Then I saw the mute oil bottle squeezing his own hand.
He had a blank expression, but his hand was clearly gripping his wrist tightly. I hurriedly asked him, “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” He replied淡淡道, “It’s nothing, just an old injury from before I came here. It hasn’t healed completely.” I sighed in relief and wanted to help him with his backpack, but he blocked me with his hand. I immediately noticed that his hand was bent at a particularly strange angle, clearly indicating that it was broken.
I couldn’t help but frown. “What happened to your hand? It looks like it’s broken.”
The silent man said, “It was broken before I met you. It healed a bit, but when I jumped down just now, I swung it too hard.”
I was stunned for a moment and couldn’t help but laugh. The situation had developed to this point, which was truly unexpected.
Now we were trapped. I was showing early symptoms of snow blindness, and the weather was getting worse. To save me, the silent man had broken his wrist, and my choices were becoming limited.
If I couldn’t accompany him out, then I could only walk with him until he knocked me out. Otherwise, it simply didn’t make sense.
A broken wrist is extremely painful. I looked at my gear, trying to find something useful to give the silent man first aid. Fortunately, nothing had broken; the backpack and food were mostly intact. Some items had been thrown out during my roll and were buried in the snow, making them impossible to find, but the most important freeze-dried food was still there. I found a snow slope and broke off two icicles to use as splints to stabilize the silent man’s wrist. The wind wasn’t particularly strong here, but snowballs occasionally blew down from above and hit us on the head, which was very painful. If a slightly larger snowball or one containing ice hit us, it could seriously injure us.
After I finished helping him, I said, “No matter what you plan to do, you first need to reach a destination. But in your current condition, you might die on the way. I think it’s best for you to go back and recover from your injury. Let’s head back.”
He shook his head and quietly said, “It’s a small matter. You go ahead.”
I said, “You broke your hand to save me. If this leads to the failure of your ultimate plan, I would feel guilty, so I must go with you.”
He replied, “Then I will still use the method I mentioned last night.”
“That’s fine, do whatever you want. If you really knock me out, I won’t have anything to say. But I hope you know that if you need someone to accompany you to the end, I won’t refuse.” I said, “I want to go with you; this is my own decision, so you don’t need to hesitate.”
Without saying anything more, I felt that the silent man was truly out of options. We fell silent for a moment and continued forward. When we reached the center of the valley, the silent man said, “The first snowstorm will arrive within three days. If we can’t reach the hot springs before then, we’ll die here. And if we go back from here, you will quickly return to your world.”
The “Mysterious Oil Bottle” wants to tell me that even if I decide to accompany him, things won’t be as easy as I think. But I have made up my mind; I will no longer pay attention to or even consider the reasonableness of his words. I said, “Then I will go too. This is my own decision.” I organized and divided all the gear a bit to lighten his load. However, he took his own equipment and didn’t let me split it; instead, he slung it over one shoulder. His gear wasn’t much, but it was quite heavy, pressing down on him and making him appear extremely burdened.
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