Chapter 151: A Figure Descending from the Sky

"General Qin knows rescue too?"

Han Dong was the soldier who recognized General Qin.

Qin Yun nodded humbly: "Just a little—maybe a billionth!"

Because his wilderness survival skills included a built-in first-aid kit, he truly knew quite a bit about first aid, though mostly limited to outdoor emergencies, so his knowledge wasn't extensive.

"Do you have nifedipine in your vehicle?"

This drug dilates pulmonary blood vessels and is highly effective for emergency treatment of pulmonary edema.

Although the patient in the convoy hadn't yet developed true pulmonary edema, if this continued long-term, the probability was extremely high—Qin Yun had to plan ahead.

"No, but the military station has some. I'll send Xiao Cui back with you to get it."

"Alright, I'll go get it now. You keep going."

Saying this, Qin Yun got off the Dongfeng Mengshi, returned with soldier Xiao Cui to the Land Rover Defender, swiftly turned around, and sped back along the route they'd come.

The Dongfeng Mengshi roared forward again. Snow on the road scattered aside, leaving only a few centimeters of snow cover.

The convoy, finally rescued, finally exhaled in relief—the life-threatening crisis was over; everything else no longer mattered.

Everyone's heavy psychological burden lifted somewhat.

Except for Tang Tang in the Land Cruiser, who occasionally trembled, her face pale as ash, lips cracked, nearly slipping into unconsciousness.

"Water… water…"

Su Wan dared not give Tang Tang any more water—should anything happen, she couldn't bear the responsibility.

But as time passed, Tang Tang's breathing grew heavier, and even with oxygen, it still wasn't enough—the desperate need for air was only seen in those suffocating.

Her forehead burned hot enough to fry an egg; everyone knew something was terribly wrong.

"Commander Zhou, Tang Tang sister can't breathe."

Zhou Sihai heard the voice over the radio and immediately prepared to get out, but Liu Nanzhou grabbed his arm.

"Are you crazy? Don't go near her now—pneumonia is contagious."

Zhou Sihai glared coldly at her, yanked his arm free, opened the door, and stepped out without a word to Liu Nanzhou.

"Hmph. Ungrateful." Liu Nanzhou huffed angrily.

"Cough… cough…"

Zhou Sihai opened the door and heard Tang Tang, leaning against it, suddenly cough up a glob of phlegm that splattered onto the oxygen mask; sticky fluid slid down its edges.

Seeing this, Su Wan quickly removed the mask to clean it, but as she stared at the phlegm on the tissue, she worried: "Commander Zhou, this pink, foamy stuff—is that normal?"

Zhou Sihai shook his head—he had no idea. Seeing that Tang Tang's breathing had eased after coughing up the phlegm, he said: "I'll ask the rescue team. I feel she's still in danger."

"Yeah, hurry."

Zhou Sihai returned to the vehicle and reported the situation to Cheng Da.

Han Dong's face instantly changed: "Already?"

"What do you mean?" Cheng Da frowned. "Pulmonary edema?"

Han Dong nodded: "If she were coughing ordinary phlegm, no need to worry. But now that the patient is coughing pink, foamy sputum, it's serious—that's a sign of high-altitude pulmonary edema. At this stage, the patient gradually stops getting enough oxygen."

"But I just saw her breathing stabilize." Zhou Sihai was confused.

"That's because she coughed up one glob and cleared the airway temporarily. But her oxygen delivery system has already hit rock bottom. She must be moved to lower altitude immediately—otherwise, she could die within three to six hours."

Hearing this, Zhou Sihai's dark face turned instantly pale: "Officer… sir… how far are you still from us?"

Cheng Da said: "Two kilometers from Qitai Daban Ya Kou. The snow is too deep—we can't increase speed."

Hearing this, Zhou Sihai's heart plummeted. Eight or nine kilometers wasn't close, but not far either—but the vehicle's speed was obvious.

And as Han Dong had predicted, Tang Tang's condition rapidly worsened—her consciousness blurred, her heartbeat raced, her lips turned purple, and she began mumbling incoherently. She kept trying to lie down, leaning against the car door.

If not for Song Shanhe beside her, Su Wan alone could never have handled it.

"Tang Tang sister, Tang Tang sister, wake up, wake up!" Su Wan gently slapped Tang Tang's face, but Tang Tang showed no reaction.

She pried open Tang Tang's eyelids—the eyes were severely bloodshot, crisscrossed with veins, the eyeballs slightly bulging, terrifyingly hollow.

"Huh… huh… huh…"

Her breathing was now grotesquely heavy, like an old bellows being pulled.

With every breath, her chest heaved violently, ribs seeming ready to burst through skin and muscle.

"What do we do? Waaah… what do we do?" Su Wan was terrified.

Song Shanhe's face was pale too, but powerless.

At this moment, Qin Yun's vehicle finally caught up with the Mengshi—he and soldier Xiao Cui retrieved the medicine.

"How is she? Worse?"

Cheng Da nodded: "Worse. Han Dong says it's pulmonary edema."

Hearing this, Qin Yun turned without hesitation, returned to the Land Rover's trunk, and pulled out the black matte snowboard from Huan Teng Sports.

Then, clutching the snowboard, he dashed out.

"Cheng Da, I'm going ahead. You follow soon—otherwise, the patient won't last."

Seeing Qin Yun trudge deeply into the snow, Cheng Da hurried out: "General Qin, it's dangerous!"

Qin Yun waved his hand: "Don't worry—I know what I'm doing."

Walking through snow forty to fifty centimeters deep was slow—no matter Qin Yun's physical condition, his pace was uneven and sluggish. But compared to the Mengshi's progress, it was still several times faster.

Besides, he didn't need to walk all the way—he only needed to reach the high point of Qitai Daban, then he could glide straight down on his snowboard.

In this way, the remaining seven or eight kilometers might be covered in just ten or fifteen minutes.

He walked nearly an hour to cover the two kilometers. When he finally saw the iron sign at Qitai Daban Ya Kou, he finally exhaled. His view shifted from looking up to looking down—the road ahead was a continuous stretch of steep and gentle slopes.

The path was unclear, but with his ability, he could vaguely make it out.

He stepped onto the snowboard, adjusted his goggles, leaned forward, shifted his center of gravity, and pushed off hard.

"Shhh—!"

In an instant, it felt as if a gale had swept him down from the pass at over five thousand meters.

The moment the snowboard touched the snow, the surface was cleanly sliced open; the thick snow was forcibly split into two white waves, which only stopped when they could no longer sink, and snow spray was whipped up by the wind and plastered onto his face.

Wind howled past his ears; though his vision wasn't obstructed, each time the snowboard rose and fell over the snow, it sank more than half a foot, then shot back up violently before slamming down again—repeatedly—until Qin Yun's speed increased steadily, carving a path straight through the snow.

From afar, the snow surged in waves behind him, rising from his ankles to his knees, then violently flung aside by his speed.

For nearly thirty minutes, Qin Yun surged and plunged through this extreme environment, battling the gale, trampling deep snow, racing forward without pause.

He didn't even know the exact location of the stranded convoy—only that he had to keep going, and go further.

"Chief Zhou, what's that over there?"

He Guang suddenly gazed into the distance and spotted a black shadow rising and falling along the snow-covered road; his voice trembled with shock.

Zhou Sihai snapped his head up, following the direction of his finger, and his pupils shrank instantly.

Far down the snow slope, a black figure surged rapidly through the endless white snow, sometimes swallowed by snow waves, sometimes bursting through the snow layer—its speed was astonishing.

"Could it be… could it be a person?"

Even Zhou Sihai himself found it hard to believe. In this hellish weather, in this hellish place—could there really be a person?

The others, hearing this, turned to look as well. Xia Xiaoxing pulled out her phone and quickly zoomed in with the telephoto lens; when the blurred outline appeared on the screen, she screamed.

"Brother Qin! It's Brother Qin! It's really him!"

Xia Xiaochuan snatched the phone away and saw a black figure continuously kicking up snow, speeding closer—its silhouette unmistakably matched Qin Yun from the video.

"Holy shit, he actually came?"

He turned incredulously to Xia Xiaoxing.

"How do you even know him?"

"Hmph!" Xia Xiaoxing tilted her head up haughtily. "Big Brother Qin is my good friend. You better give me back my twenty thousand, or I'll make Big Brother Qin beat you up."

Xia Xiaochuan's forehead darkened with a black line: "Shit, am I even your real brother?"

At that moment, every eye locked onto the distant, undulating figure—as if witnessing a miracle, stunned into silence.

What kind of being would dare ride a snowboard down here in this environment? One misstep could send him flying off the road, into a crevice, or crashing into a rock—even the lightest outcome would be broken bones.

"Brother Qin—do you mean that outdoor streamer on TikTok, Brother Qin?" Song Shanhe turned to Xia Xiaoxing, his expression questioning.

Xia Xiaoxing nodded. "Yeah, that's him."

"Holy shit." Song Shanhe was stunned, then his face lit up with wild joy. "We're saved! It's really Brother Qin!"

"Who's Brother Qin?"

Zhou Sihai and the others rarely used TikTok and clearly didn't know Qin Yun; seeing that Song Shanhe recognized the figure, they pressed him with questions.

They saw Qin Yun—and Qin Yun saw them too.

But the more critical the moment, the less room for slack; in this extreme wilderness, one crash could easily end everything.

As the slope eased, Qin Yun dropped his center of gravity sharply, stomped hard on the snowboard, and his body sliced sideways; the board carved a long arc through the deep snow, spraying a storm of snow, then—"puff, puff"—came a muffled thud as the board came to a steady stop on the road the convoy had cleared, snow sliding off the edges to form a small mound at his feet.

"Big Brother Qin!"

At that moment, Xia Xiaoxing felt as if she'd found family; ignoring the snow, she dashed straight toward Qin Yun.

Qin Yun stepped forward, walking from the snow onto the cleared road; before he could even greet her, Xia Xiaoxing launched herself at him, clinging tightly to his body.

"Big Brother Qin! Big Brother Qin!"

Qin Yun found it amusing, patting her back. "Someone might think we're a couple."

"Hehe." Xia Xiaoxing's cheeks flushed faintly; she thought to herself, You're so handsome—I wouldn't mind being your girlfriend. She jumped off him. "Big Brother Qin, did Sister Ali contact you?"

"Mm. Zhong Li called me saying she couldn't reach you, so I came to find you." Qin Yun's tone was calm, as if he'd simply dropped by for tea.

"Thank you, Big Brother Qin."

Xia Xiaoxing was moved. In this age, who would risk coming all this way on just a word?

Besides, she'd only spent two days with Qin Yun—close enough to not be a stranger, but far from familiar.

Yet still, he came.

Qin Yun greeted the convoy members, then immediately went to the pickup truck. Inside, the woman named Tang Tang was gasping as if her lungs were being ripped out—her breathing was terrifyingly labored.

He swiftly pulled out nifedipine, ignored the foam at her lips, and shoved his finger into her mouth, placing the pill beneath her tongue.

Within less than three minutes, the medicine began to take effect.

Tang Tang had thought she was suffocating to death, her consciousness fading—but suddenly, her temples throbbed, her blood vessels seemed to swell open, and a wave of heat surged violently from her head downward.

Her already feverish body grew even hotter; her heartbeat quickened and grew heavier.

But it was nothing like the earlier feeling of emptiness—her chest's suffocating pressure eased slightly. Most noticeably, her ragged breathing grew easier; the suffocating lack of oxygen finally lifted.

Everyone saw Tang Tang's tense, hunched posture relax; her coughing decreased noticeably; the foam at her lips no longer bubbled out.

Qin Yun exhaled slightly—good, it worked. Otherwise, he had no other options.

"Great! Sister Tang is getting better!" Su Wan nearly burst into tears.

Everyone sighed in relief—if someone had died here, not only would responsibility be an issue, but it would become a shadow in everyone's heart.

"The station rescue team will take another three or four hours—probably arrive around eight or nine tonight. Reorganize all the vehicles—we'll head back the same way."

Zhou Sihai nodded. This winter expedition on the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway had ended in total failure—but he felt no deep disappointment; instead, he was relieved. As long as no one was hurt, that was enough.

"Next time I come to some extreme place like this—I'm a fucking idiot!"