Chapter 300: 297: I'm Embarrassed for You, Despicable!
Thunder streaked across the sky, lightning pierced the heart of heaven, and rain rustled down.
The rain suddenly intensified, with large, cold droplets falling from the sky, causing a faint pain as they hit the skin.
The wind picked up, chilling to the bone, but Bi Fang, standing amidst the woods, felt no fear of the cold.
“Chun Yu, huh,” he muttered.
What a downpour.
Chun Yu was supposed to be as fine as cow hair, but this scene was clearly more like a summer thunderstorm.
Bi Fang looked up, his gaze piercing through the tree canopy towards the leaden sky, catching raindrops with his palm.
“Days of dry winds have evaporated all the moisture in the woods into the sky, only to burst forth once it reaches a critical point, causing Chun Yu to become this fierce.
Moreover, the massive rainfall will wash away any traces left by animals, making it almost impossible for Brown Bear to follow us unless our luck is incredibly bad and we just happen to run into him again, but that has nothing to do with the traces we left—it’s purely misfortune.”
His palm suddenly clenched, squeezing the droplets, which exploded on impact; Bi Fang flicked his hand forcefully, scattering the rainwater on the tree trunk like a knife cut.
The contestants must be having a hard time.
The surprise deluge caught everyone off guard; those searching for shelter in the woods, like the trio, were still manageable— the dense foliage blocking most of the rain.
But Ava and Lisa, who had already reached the plains, weren’t so fortunate. The rain came too swiftly, leaving them utterly unprepared, its bone-chilling coldness almost stabbing through to the marrow.
Women, naturally susceptible to cold, found it even more unbearable after being drenched, and they both felt dizzy after running in the rain for a short while. It took a two-kilometer sprint before they found a rocky slope and squeezed under a boulder to find a narrow space for shelter.
The chill of the past six days seemed to have converged on this one, forcing all contestants to endure the discomfort as the price for past comforts.
The two squeezed under the rock, took off their jackets, and began repetitive physical exercise to generate ample body heat. Afterward, they dug a dry pit in the dirt, placed charcoal and tinder inside, and quickly sparked a fire. When all was done, they embraced tightly in an attempt to preserve as much of their body heat as possible.
Better physiques were exposed to the air, greedily soaking in the warmth from the flames, skin palely glowing with a hint of color under the firelight.
[Ah, why am I not excited at all at this scene I’ve been longing to see?]
[Is that excitement? I’m too embarrassed to say this, but you’re indecent!]
[It’s normal, anyone who has survived in the wilderness for a week wouldn’t look all that great.]
[Can only appreciate the physique then.]
Surviving in the wilderness for a week definitely takes a toll, erasing any semblance of beauty— Bi Fang himself had grown a bluish stubble after surviving a week, still brave but by no means fresh.
For those living in the woods, the situation was much better, with the tree canopy blocking the rain, allowing them to find shelter without panic.
As for the contestant who had chosen to live in the forest from the start, there was even less to worry about. When the rain came, he stayed inside his shelter, not getting a drop on him.
Six days of building had made his shelter very solid, constructed beneath a giant boulder situated on high ground to avoid water pooling. Most of the dirt below had been hollowed out with dried branches and leaves spread across as a mattress. There was even a fence and a wooden wall woven from branches at the entrance, which, when pulled across, offered a feeling of security at night.
To prevent the boulder from collapsing, he had propped up thick tree trunks as “load-bearing walls.” Such a shelter was more than capable of shielding from the wind and rain.
“It shouldn’t be common knowledge to take shelter under a tree during rain, because if you stand under a big tree, when the powerful current of a lightning bolt passes through the tree and into the ground, spreading outwards, it can create different voltages at different points. The voltage difference between the feet of a person standing there can cause harm, which is often referred to as ‘step voltage injury’.
Unless necessary, during thunderstorms, try to keep as far away from tree trunks as possible; even if taking shelter, strive to maintain a distance of more than three meters from the trunk.”
[If it’s not raining and there are no dark clouds, does that mean it’s safe?]
[Lightning never strikes the same place twice.]
[I once saw a film that said if I can’t reach a shelter and hear lightning nearby, I should immediately lie flat on the ground.]
[A victim of a lightning strike is electrified; if you touch them, you’ll be electrocuted too.]
There were many comments from the audience, with a flurry of discussions, but Bi Fang leaped out of this loop, reading them out, right as the audience thought these were points to remember. Then, he took a turn in his talk.
“All of the comments I just read are rumors; everyone has been deceived and should not believe them.”
Audience: “???”
“Not raining, no dark clouds, does not mean you won’t be struck. The attack range of lightning can exceed 4 kilometers from the center of a thunderstorm, with some even reaching as far as 20 kilometers. There have been cases of fatal lightning strikes under clear skies. In fact, when you can hear thunder, you should hurry to find a place to hide.
Furthermore, lightning often strikes the same place multiple times, especially if there are tall, isolated objects in the vicinity; such places have a high probability of being repeatedly struck. New York’s famous landmark, the Empire State Building, is struck by lightning over 100 times a year.
Lying flat will only increase your chances of being injured by dangerous ground currents. During the early stages of a thunderstorm, you should keep moving towards a shelter, not stop.
As for the last rumor, it’s truly disheartening. I don’t know whether the person who said that is simply ignorant or had ulterior motives, but the human body does not store electricity; it’s not like touching an electric door. Once the electric current has passed through the human body, it’s completely safe to touch the victim and give first aid.”
Ah, this.
Many audience members scratched their heads, acknowledging they had learned something new, not realizing that everything they heard just before was a rumor.
Pah, such dangerous misinformation.
Watching the rain getting heavier and not stopping anytime soon, Bi Fang took down the tent from his motorcycle, and in less than ten minutes, he had it propped up, sheltering inside from the rain, all the while observing how the others were doing.
Except for Ava and Lisa, who were on the plains and initially unable to take shelter from the rain, causing substantial loss of heat, the others were all fine.
It was only in the evening that the rain gradually stopped.
The situation for the two of them was still not optimistic. The human body is very sensitive; a sudden change in the external environment can easily affect the transport ability of the cilia, leading to an imbalance in nasal flora and inducing an infection.
This is the main reason most people catch a cold.
The next morning, Ava’s constant sneezing proved Bi Fang’s guess was correct.
She had caught a cold.
Pulling out the thermometer, it read 37.5, a mild fever.
“Otherwise, you continue on by yourself.”
Ava’s nose was red as she touched the countdown timer on her wrist.