Morning.
The sun beat down, and the rocks on the sea's surface were scorching hot.
Dong Xuebin woke from the heat. Groggily opening his eyes, he looked around, then propped himself up against the burning rock. The rescue team still had not come. It was cold at night and hot during the day. The conditions here were simply awful. Dong Xuebin did not even know how much longer he could hold on.
One day?
Two days?
Probably not that long. He was already at his limit.
A person could last two or three days without food or water under normal circumstances, but Dong Xuebin had gone through several life-or-death situations yesterday afternoon. Not only had he expended a great deal of physical strength, he was mentally exhausted as well. Afterward, he had drifted in the ocean for more than ten hours and been battered senseless by several huge waves. The energy and water in his body had long been nearly depleted. Hunger, thirst, fatigue—all those sensations flooded over him.
To conserve energy, Dong Xuebin lay motionless on the blazing rock. The clothes he had taken off yesterday had already dried in the sun, so he carefully put them back on to shield himself from the ultraviolet rays.
At this rate, he really was going to die.
One hour...
Three hours...
Five hours...
Hold on, hold on, keep holding on.
But as morning turned to afternoon, Dong Xuebin's heart grew colder and colder.
It had been a full twenty-four hours since the Plane Crash. By precedent, news of such a plane crash would have been broadcast in most countries and cities around the world, and search-and-rescue operations should have begun long ago. They could not possibly just abandon the plane. Yet even now, Dong Xuebin had not seen so much as