Chapter 358 Extremely Cold World

Chapter 358 Extremely Cold World

Chapter 358 Extremely Cold World
In Guangzhou where spring is in full bloom, the Global Climate Summit is still going on.

Thousands of miles away in Antarctica, near the Queen Mary Coast.

Aurora City, Antarctica.

At this time, the surrounding sea surface has begun to freeze, which indicates that Antarctica's short autumn is about to pass, and a long and cold winter will follow.

From the hemispherical transparent observation deck, you can see the snowflakes falling outside.

The only colors that came into view were pale ice and snow, and the aurora flickering in the sky. However, since it was daytime, the aurora was still relatively dim.

Aurora City has currently expanded to five districts, of which Districts 1 and 3 are not open to the outside world, and Districts 2 and 4 are agricultural production areas.

Area 5, which was recently transported from the mainland, is a multi-functional living area and the main area for external development.

This hemispherical observation deck is located in Zone 5.

"The aurora is not obvious!" A playful female voice sounded in the observation deck.

Click click click…

A young boy with a mushroom-shaped head held a professional camera, and he kept pressing the shutter: "Encore, jump once."

The girl jumped with all her might.

Click click click…

The shutter sounded again.

"are you done?"

Mushroom-head looked at the small screen of the camera, and then replayed the photos he had just taken. He felt a little dissatisfied, raised his head and said again: "One more time..."

"Okay!" Qiao Anke could only pose again and continue taking pictures with the mushroom head.

"Are you done yet? Stop dragging your feet. We haven't filmed yet."

The mushroom-headed guy said angrily, "Why are you yelling? I'm busy. How about you take the photo with your phone?"

Seeing the professional photographer’s mushroom-headed face getting angry, the others stopped complaining.

However, on the observation deck, several male tourists did not pay a photographer to take pictures. Instead, they brought their own SLR cameras and took pictures of their favorite scenes.

After taking more than a dozen photos, a middle-aged man with a spiky haircut felt that the aurora was not obvious during the day, so he gave up the idea of ​​continuing to take photos and turned to look at his friend: "Lao Qin, let's take photos again at night! There should be aurora at night."

"I'll listen to you." Lao Qin is a square-faced middle-aged man wearing a denim jacket. He looked at another friend who was taking pictures of the floating ice on the sea with a telephoto lens and said, "Awei, what are you going to eat for lunch?"

"What else can we eat? Of course, we can eat in the restaurant at the base." Avi continued to take pictures of the floating ice on the sea.

Lao Qin had already put the camera back into his messenger bag, and then continued to ask: "I'm asking what kind of food you want to eat."

Avi was slightly stunned, then he looked at the extremely cold world outside with ice and snow, and he couldn't help but say: "Food? Sichuan cuisine! Spicy food is the best in this weather."

"Sichuan cuisine, right? Tiehan, what about you?" Old Qin looked at the hedgehog-headed man again.

Wu Tiehan smiled and shook his head: "You have all decided, what else can I say, but I have to make it clear in advance that Sichuan dishes can only be slightly spicy. I don't want to have chrysanthemums withered tomorrow."

“Haha, got it.” Lao Qin naturally knew that Wu Tiehan, a native of Jianghuai, couldn't eat spicy food at all. If he cooked the normal spicy Sichuan cuisine, he would probably be so choked up tomorrow.

Some tourists continued to take photos at the observation deck.

Wu Tiehan, Lao Qin and Avi went back to the restaurant in District 5 together.

Suddenly, when they passed by the dock, they saw a large group of people wearing thick cold-proof coats walking in from a special isolation gate.

Lao Qin stopped and whispered in surprise: "Huh? Why are they all white?"

"Maybe they are tourists from Europe and America?" Avi, with his hands in his pockets, didn't care too much.

Wu Tiehan saw the words "Australian Antarctic Expedition Team" printed on the clothes of these people: "These people should be members of the Australian Antarctic Expedition Team."

"Australia? Oh, is it the Australian Casey Station scientific expedition team not far away?" Lao Qin had heard the tour guide introduce the situation around Aurora City before.

“It should be them.”

"Let's go! I'm starving." Avi continued to move forward.

At this time, the members of the Australian Antarctic scientific expedition team took off their thick cold-proof coats in a special room and changed into casual clothes and slippers provided by the base.

A middle-aged white man with a horse face rubbed his hands with flies and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that we were the first group of people to come here for vacation."

"Boss and his men still need to stay at the research station, so we'll just come here and enjoy ourselves first, and replace them next month." Another young white man with a ponytail was already in front of a vending machine: "This thing should be like this..."

Ding! He scanned a bottle of hot coffee through the tourist's mobile phone.

"Sweep me a bottle of fresh orange juice."

"Scan it yourself. I only have a limit of 1 Huayuan."

"Jack you are really stingy!"

"Haha, Wade, you're not stingy. How about you treat me to a meal?" The white man with ponytail rolled his eyes.

"Don't even think about it..."

Drop! A bottle of fresh orange juice fell from the top of the shipping drawer. He bent down to take it out and directly opened the pull ring.

呲!
Gulp gulp... Wade drank the orange juice in the can in one gulp: "Wow... So refreshing! We haven't had fresh fruits and vegetables for a long time since we ran out of them a while ago."

"Haha, I'll let you guys eat your fill next..."

“gogo…”

A group of people hurried into the restaurant.

At this time in the Area 5 restaurant, more than a dozen kitchen staff were operating the fully automatic cooking machines and cooking meals according to the procedures based on the customers' orders.

Lao Qin and his two companions, who had arrived in Antarctica ahead of the Australian Antarctic expedition team, had already ordered their dishes and were sitting at their seats waiting for the food to arrive.

After a while, the food delivery robot delivered the prepared meal to the designated dining table.

[Guests at table 26, please take your order of mapo tofu...]

Lao Qin and others have been in Aurora City for three days, so they are already familiar with the situation here. He took out the Mapo Tofu packed in a stainless steel box from the insulated box of the food delivery robot with ease.

When you open the stainless steel lunch box, a spicy aroma hits you in the face, making you drool.

Also delivered was a large bowl of white rice and bowls and chopsticks.

"Come on, come on, you're welcome..."

"Who's being polite to you!" Avi picked up the bowl and chopsticks with a smile, then scooped half a bowl of rice for himself, then scooped a large spoonful of mapo tofu, and started to eat.

Wu Tiehan didn't scoop too much mapo tofu. Although they ordered it slightly spicy, he didn't dare to eat too much. But after taking a bite, he felt that the spiciness was acceptable to him.

But Lao Qin and Avi were somewhat dissatisfied.

A Wei is from southern Jiangxi. Some dishes in his hometown are spicier than Sichuan and Hunan dishes. Therefore, the spiciness of this mapo tofu is almost not spicy at all for him. He complained helplessly: "It's not spicy at all. It's worse than Cantonese food."

"Just eat it!" Old Qin didn't complain.

Because when I ordered the food just now, the system automatically showed that I could only order mildly spicy or non-spicy dishes. The reason why I could only order this way was mainly because Aurora City was not a normal city.

As a city whose main function is scientific research, Aurora City's medical resources are relatively limited, and priority must also be given to Aurora City's own staff.

Eating too spicy food may cause serious gastrointestinal diseases, which not only squeezes the already limited medical resources, but may also result in tourists not receiving timely treatment, thus putting their lives in danger.

After all, Aurora City is isolated overseas, located between the uninhabited Howling Belt and Antarctica, and there are no large cities around it.

If a tourist really develops a serious illness and cannot be treated in the base's medical room, he or she can only be transported to Australia by plane for rescue. Obviously, the risks involved are very high.

Therefore, there is no need for this, and the base has implemented strict control over all aspects of potential danger.

This includes food, raw, spicy, and expired or spoiled food, which will not appear on the menu unless under special circumstances.

However, Jack and other members of the Australian Antarctic expedition team were quite satisfied with the food in the base restaurant. After all, white people in Europe and America are not used to spicy food.

Jack and his friends ordered a lot of vegetable dishes.

For example, stir-fried loofah with garlic, three fresh vegetables, stir-fried pea tips, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, plus curry beef rice, and a large bowl of assorted fruits.

"Burp!" Jack burped, then picked up a piece of watermelon and took a big bite: "Woo woo... Delicious!..."

"I didn't expect that I could eat so many vegetables and fruits in Antarctica. I'm so happy..."

Jack threw the watermelon rind into the trash can under the table, then wiped his mouth and asked, "Anthony, what did your logistics department say?"

"What?" Anthony, who was busy eating, looked up with a confused look on his face.

Jack picked up a piece of pineapple speechlessly. "Is it about purchasing vegetables, fruits and other supplies from Aurora City? Didn't you say you would contact them? There is no news yet, right?"

"Oh, about this matter?" Anthony swallowed a mouthful of curry and rice, and then replied: "The higher-ups said they would hold a meeting to study it."

"Haha, hold a meeting to study it? By the time they finish the meeting, I guess we won't have to eat fresh fruits and vegetables this year." Jack's face was full of sarcasm.

"Yes!"

"Anthony, you should react more often."

"For everyone's happiness, you logistics staff should reflect this matter more."

Don't be too polite to those local guys, otherwise they will think we are easy to bully. Weak voices will not attract the attention of those guys. "

The crowd cheered enthusiastically.

Anthony wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "Let the boss take care of this matter! I don't have the authority."

Jack and others naturally knew that Anthony did not have the authority, but they still continued to let Anthony report it, mainly because the logistics department of the research station could contact the mainland every week, and they had often reported some dissatisfaction through the logistics department in the past.

An old researcher picked up his beer glass and smiled: "In fact, handing over part of our research station's supplies to Aurora City will not only make it more convenient for us, but it can also reduce a large part of the operating costs of the research station."

"That's right. In the winter in Antarctica, transporting vegetables, fruits and supplies from the mainland is not only very costly, but also very dangerous. It's better to leave this matter to Aurora City."

Wade shared a piece of gossip: "I heard that Lucia also chose to purchase supplies from Aurora City."

"Wade, how do you know this?" The old expedition team member looked surprised.

Wade picked up the beer glass and took a sip, then said mysteriously: "Haha, I heard it on the radio."

Jack's eyes widened. "What? How is that possible? Does Lucia have a public channel to communicate with Aurora City?"

"They must have drunk too much vodka," Wade shrugged. "When I was on duty at the radio studio, I suddenly received a public channel signal from the Peace Station. At first I thought they wanted to contact us for something, but it turned out they wanted to buy supplies from Aurora City..."

Everyone had different expressions.

Jack couldn't help laughing: "Haha, this really fits the style of Lucia people."

The old expedition member wiped the beer foam from his beard and said, "Didn't they say that after Lucia joined the North Atlantic Union, she no longer had much business dealings with the Asian Union?"

Wade shook his head: "Haha, transporting materials from Lucia to Antarctica is more than 10 times more expensive than purchasing from Aurora City. Lucia's Antarctic research station does not rely on funding from the North Atlantic Union, so they naturally have to use a cost-saving solution."

"I don't know what the role of the North Atlantic Alliance is?" Jack's expression was full of disdain.

Wade shared another piece of gossip: "I heard that America came here before and wanted to get us Australia to join the North Atlantic Union, but something seemed to have happened later, and this plan did not succeed."

"Isn't that speculation on the Internet?" The old scientific expedition team member did not believe it.

"No! No no..." Wade put down his beer glass and whispered, "A classmate of mine works in Canberra. The department he works for involves confidential information. I heard about this from him when I returned to Taiwan last year."

"Is that so?"

Jack smiled and leaned over: "What other secrets do you know, kid? Don't hide it! Tell it out and let everyone see it."

The old expedition member's eyes flickered as he looked at Wade and kindly reminded him, "Speaking of which, is it really okay to say this kind of thing in the Seres city?"

"Old Ryan, don't worry. The other protagonist in this matter is the Seres! They have known about this kind of thing for a long time." Wade said bluntly.

"I see."

"Hurry up, I'm a little excited..."

People all over the world are very curious about this secret.

Wade took another sip of beer, then said mysteriously, "My classmate said that all those who agreed to this were suddenly cleared out, almost overnight, and then the people from America fled back to North America in a panic."

"real or fake?"

"Would the Seris actually do this?"

"Haha, if it was South America, they might not care too much, but Australia is next to Asia. If I were a Seres, I would never allow Australia to side with the North Atlantic Union."

Everyone was talking about it.

Although Seres was a bit unreasonable in this matter, Jack and others, who were descendants of Britain, thought that Seres should do so.

This is actually the perception of Westerners, which is very different from that of Easterners.

At the same time, it was also because the Asian Union was too powerful at that time. Australians were not fools. They naturally did not want to join the North Atlantic Union and become the first target of the Asian Union.

Now on Earth, anyone with a normal brain knows which force is the most powerful on Earth.

Why would they not join the world's biggest power, but instead join the declining North Atlantic Union? They must be crazy.

(End of this chapter)