From humble beginnings to the pinnacle of life

It's hard to describe this feeling; excitement and emotion are intertwined.

But more than anything, there is a sense of calm after experiencing great ups and downs.

The desolate, uninhabited place that had tormented us for days had finally come to an end.

Looking at the open and flat road ahead, I was filled with mixed emotions.

Just then, the walkie-talkie rang again.

Luo Peng's voice rang out with an incredulous surprise:

"Holy crap! I have a signal! My phone actually got a signal here!"

Hearing Luo Peng's excited shouts over the walkie-talkie, I instinctively reached for my phone, only to find the screen completely black; it had long since run out of battery and shut down automatically.

There was no signal throughout the uninhabited area, so my phone was essentially useless; I simply didn't charge it.

I picked up the walkie-talkie and asked, "Does your phone still have battery?"

"I just plugged in the car charger, and surprisingly it actually found a signal, just one bar!"

Luo Peng's voice trembled with excitement over the walkie-talkie.

No wonder he was so excited; as long as there is a signal, it means we are not far from the civilized world.

I quickly stopped the car, then took out a data cable from my backpack, plugged it into the car's charging port, and charged my phone.

Luo Peng and Su Wan saw me park my car and then parked their cars in turn.

The engine shut off, the deafening roar vanished abruptly, and only the rustling sound of the wind brushing the ground remained in the open field.

The moment I pushed open the car door and my feet touched the ground, my calves went weak.

For the previous twenty days, I survived by sheer willpower.

All my energy was focused on watching the road and anticipating dangers, so I didn't care about the physical exhaustion I was going through.

But once they stop, the fatigue accumulated from days of lack of sleep, insufficient food, and high-intensity travel will take its toll.

Like a flood that has been accumulating for a long time, it all surged up at once.

I steadied myself by holding onto the car door, and it took a long time for my strength to slowly return.

Luo Peng and Su Wan also got off the bus one after another.

At that moment, the three of us looked as disheveled as savages who had just crawled out of the wilderness.

His face was covered with a thick layer of sand and dust, his lips were dry and cracked with fine blood seeping from the cracks, and the high-altitude ultraviolet rays had tanned his skin to a dark reddish-brown.

Before entering the no-man's-land, Su Wan had fair skin, but now her face is covered with a thick layer of high-altitude red.

But her bone structure is still good, and even though she looks weathered, it can't hide her natural beauty. Instead, she has the look of a magazine model from a wilderness epic.

Luo Peng and I were in a terrible situation; our hair was so oily it got tangled.

The rain jacket was covered in mud and frozen ice, with several tears in the fabric, and the body smelled of dust and sweat.

His chin was covered with messy stubble, his eye sockets were sunken, and his eyes were bloodshot.

But in this desolate place, who cares about appearances?

Being able to walk out alive is already an incredible stroke of luck.

The three of us took a short break and replenished our energy. I spread out the map to check our current coordinates.

Luo Peng leaned closer, eager to ask, "Brother Lin, are we really about to get out?"

I pointed to our current location on the map and said:

"We are here now. If we drive another 30 kilometers, we will be able to get onto National Highway 109. Once we are on the national highway, the journey will be much easier."

Luo Peng let out a long breath, plopped down on the ground, put his hands behind his back, and looked up with a sigh:

"Finally! We've finally made it through!"

Anyone would be excited.

Being trapped in the no-man's-land for a full twenty days, those days were so difficult that they still feel unreal when I think back on them now.

We ourselves can't explain how we gritted our teeth and persevered back then, let alone that we actually made it this far.

Su Wan, remaining relatively calm, asked softly, "So, at most, we'll be able to leave the no-man's-land in two more days?"

I nodded emphatically and replied in a deep voice, "Yes, at the current pace, we should be able to get out within two days."

Luo Peng's voice trembled slightly as he asked again, "Is this a dream? Are we really about to leave the no-man's land?"

I turned to Su Wan and we smiled at each other.

Luo Peng suddenly sat up straight, stretched out his arms, and unexpectedly hugged me.

I completely understand his excitement; I felt the same way.

So I hugged him tightly and gently patted his back.

No need for further words, these twenty days of life-or-death experience will be etched in our hearts for a lifetime.

I turned my head to look at Su Wan, who was standing quietly to the side, and stretched out a hand to her.

She instantly understood what I meant, and without much hesitation, slowly walked over.

The next second, the three of them hugged each other tightly.

There were no loud cheers, only the emotions that had been building up for twenty days, slowly released at this moment.

Ice cracks and treacherous terrain, vehicles stuck in the ground, ambushes by robbers, howling wolves in the dead of night, getting lost in dense fog...

Scenes flashed through my mind.

Countless times I teetered on the brink of life and death, countless times I felt I would never escape this desolate wasteland that devours life.

The biting cold of a desolate night, the hunger endured when rations were insufficient, the despair of being lost in the thick fog...

All the torment poured out at this moment.

Tears streamed uncontrollably down my cheeks.

"We all survived...not a single one of us was missing."

Luo Peng lay buried among us, muttering to himself, his voice already choked with emotion.

I closed my eyes tightly, my chest heaving violently.

They traversed the most treacherous glacial heartland of Purogangri and endured one desperate situation after another in the uninhabited area.

The three of us, all of us, are standing here alive and well.

Su Wan, who is usually calm and composed and rarely shows vulnerability, also sheds her hard shell at this moment.

We hugged for a long time before slowly letting go of each other and hastily wiping away the tears on our faces.

Dust mixed with tears, the more I wiped my face, the dirtier it became.

Looking up at each other's disheveled appearance, the three of them simultaneously gave a bittersweet yet relieved smile.

Luo Peng sat back down on the ground and said in a low voice, "I don't want to move. I'll just sit here for as long as I want."

I sat down next to him, and Su Wan hesitated for a moment before sitting down beside me.

The three sat side by side on the rough ground, quietly gazing at the straight road stretching ahead and the distant, rolling mountains, without uttering a sound.

Only after surviving a life-or-death ordeal can one experience the exhaustion and peace that comes from ultimate relaxation.

Having crossed the threshold of life and death, my nerves, which had been stretched taut for twenty days, finally relaxed completely.

From now on, there will be no need to constantly be on guard against hidden ice and worry about getting stuck, no need to carefully calculate every drop of water and every piece of dry food, and no need to be constantly vigilant against hidden dangers.

I don't know how long I sat there in silence. I looked up at the sky, came to my senses, and spoke:

"Alright, let's rest enough and continue on our way. The road conditions are good today, let's try to get onto National Highway 109 before dark."

The two nodded and got up to return to their cars.

I sat back in the driver's seat and waited for my phone to turn on while it was charging.

The screen lights up, and the signal icon slowly appears, showing only a single, lonely bar.

Even though it was only one square, my heart still skipped a beat.

Immediately following, text message notifications kept popping up one after another, almost instantly filling the notification bar.

When the notification stopped, I opened the message list, and the screen was full of messages from Su Qing.