SWNOVELXO Chapter 647 Cough Cough
Before two o'clock in the morning, they finished.
On the deck, a group of people stood, each one without exception wearing a thick coat, wrapped up like penguins.
If it were normal times, it wouldn't even be daylight yet, and everyone would still be asleep, but now quite a few people had come.
Clearly, everyone had gotten up to watch the aurora.
The huge cruise ship glided through the sea filled with floating ice, smashing pieces of thin ice, leaving behind a clear trail in the water.
The Arctic Ocean is a sea covered with sea ice, three-quarters of which is perennially not melting, with a large amount of floating ice and icebergs on the rest of the sea surface.
About half of the seawater here will be frozen all year round; the rest will melt in spring and freeze up again in winter,
The central region's sea ice has even existed for three million years, belonging to the permanent ice cover.
The climate type is even more singular, which can be simply summarized in one word: cold.
"Huh, so cold."
"It's really cold, what's the temperature now?"
"Minus thirty."
"Only thirty? Why do I feel colder than yesterday?"
The person who asked about the temperature was puzzled; it had been thirty the previous days, and today felt colder, so why was it still thirty?
"That guy is from Ugly Country, he's talking about Fahrenheit, the Celsius temperature is near minus thirty-five degrees already, damn, my nose is about to freeze off, Steven will definitely mock me once I'm back."
"Damn, my thermometer isn't moving!"
"Huh?"
On the deck, a man tapped his thermometer against the railing, making a metallic clanking sound.
The temperature on the thermometer wouldn't budge, which irritated the man.
"The freezing point of kerosene is minus 30°C, it's frozen, of course, it won't move."
The voice came from the direction of the cabin, everyone looked up, just in time to see Bi Fang close the door and step out onto the deck.
"Hey, it's Mr. Bi."
"Mr. Bi, you got up to watch the aurora too?"
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"Do you have any stories to tell us today?"
"I caught up on the videos last night, truly amazing, I regret not getting to know about it sooner."
The people greeted him one after another; in less than a week, everyone on the ship had gotten to know this young man, from the captain to the chef and the tourists.
Bi Fang smiled and nodded, walking over to the man who was complaining about the broken thermometer, leaning against the railing: "The materials for thermometers generally come in three types: kerosene, mercury, and alcohol."
"Kerosene's freezing point is only minus thirty, below this temperature, it solidifies, naturally, it won't move, or to be precise, the effect of thermal contraction is very small, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, and mercury's freezing point is minus 38.87°C, so it can't be used either."
"Coming to the Arctic, you can only bring alcohol thermometers because only their freezing point is at minus 117°C, suitable for all the low-temperature environments on Earth. You're lucky you're not using mercury, otherwise, if an explosion happened, it would be very dangerous. Though generally, thermometers rarely use mercury."
There are many differences in thermometers, with the most common ones being clinical thermometers and atmospheric thermometers.
Clinical thermometers usually use mercury, while atmospheric thermometers use kerosene and alcohol; what they measure can be understood just from the literal meaning.
"Why?"
Someone in the back shouted.
Bi Fang lifted his head: "Because mercury expands slowly when heated, and when taken out from the body, it doesn't cool down rapidly and fall, it needs to be shaken down to return to zero. Using it to measure temperature is simpler and more direct, and it can also avoid errors caused by external temperature transmission."
"Kerosene and alcohol thermometers expand significantly when heated, and react very rapidly, rising and falling swiftly with changes in temperature, which is why they're generally not used for measuring body temperature. They're often made red and hung indoors, roughly monitoring the ambient weather and temperature."
Everyone suddenly understood.
"Is everyone up so early today?" Bi Fang checked the time; it wasn't even breakfast yet.
Although the true polar night hadn't arrived yet, the exceptionally short daytime still reminded everyone to be mindful of time.
Most people probably wouldn't have experience with polar nights, but it's imaginable that polar nights are not easy to get through; they pose many problems, such as disruptions to a person's circadian rhythm.
A significant part of the human biological clock depends on natural light.
Therefore, one very important way of maintaining a schedule is through meal times. The meals on the ship are served at fixed times, with only three meals free of charge.
If you want extra meals, sorry, you need to pay.
"We all came to see the aurora."
"It's really beautiful."
"Yeah, but it's almost daylight, can we still see it?"
"Here you can see it even during the day, of course."
"Mr. Bi, you're up early, too."
"Hmm." Bi Fang nodded, pointing at the ice floes not far away, "As soon as it gets light, I'm going to get off the ship once I find a good spot."
Getting off the ship!
Although the crowd was somewhat surprised, they weren't too shocked; everyone knew that Bi Fang's purpose for joining this trip was to reach the northernmost point of Greenland.
They just didn't expect it to come so soon.
Half an hour later, the green bands in the sky remained, while the second streak of natural light slowly emerged from the horizon, lifting the dark veil, and a glimpse of dawn appeared.
A century ago, on the other side of Earth, on the Antarctic Continent, the bravest group of people embarked on an unpredictable path of exploration that teetered between life and death.
On the left was fire, on the right the sea, and ahead lay the dreams and glory they ardently pursued.
A century later, a young man arrived at another point on Earth, carrying no supplies, to challenge himself to survive a hundred days here.
The cold wind howled.
This giant cruise ship, over seventy meters in length, once again shattered an ice floe as the sun hung obliquely at the position of the ship's figurehead.
The figurehead shattered the most glaring rays of the sun, leaving scattered white light to spread in all directions.
The freezing tourists shivered and squinted, raising their heads only to see a vast expanse of white. It wasn't just ice floes, but a continent, an extensive and continuous expanse of pure white land.
No trees, no grass, no life.
Only the endless cold wind, like knives slicing across faces without blood. Any blood about to spill instantly froze into crimson icicles.
Many onlookers couldn't help touching their own faces, their skin almost numbed by the cold, not realizing there were no cuts from ice knives until their warm fingers touched skin that felt like blocks of ice.
A familiar voice mixed with the sound of the wind and reached their ears. When they looked, they noticed that the sturdy drone, which seemed like it would never break, was already hovering overhead.
"Looking back at the course of human evolution and change, if our ancestors hadn't risked and imagined, if they hadn't dared to innovate and bravely sacrifice with their magnanimous spirit and magnificent sentiment, humans wouldn't have taken canoes to surf the oceans, exploring the infinite mysteries beyond the shores."
"Human curiosity sparks the impulse for adventure, and human adventure ignites the torch of civilization."
"Adventure is not only contained within Nature's oceans and mountains, deserts, and marshes, but is also hidden within densely populated cities."
"I am Bi Fang, a professional outdoor explorer. This time, we have come to the Arctic."