After confirming the signal's source, Zhou Zhenguo immediately dispatched helicopters for search and rescue. "Search every crevice in Valley 7. You must find him!"
Rain was falling, and the sky was growing darker.
Zhou Zhenguo dared not imagine what would happen if Ji Ting spent a night out in the wilderness. His heart burned with anxiety as he hurried toward Valley 7 without stopping.
Ten minutes before sending the signal, Ji Ting had been tearing at a hemostatic bandage with his teeth. The Escape Capsule's shock-absorbing gel had failed under the impact, causing some of its internal systems to malfunction.
He had actually discovered the shock-absorption problem during the previous test, but that time, he had only suffered bruising on his back. This time, however, the impact upon landing had dislocated his right arm.
Using his teeth and his one good hand, Ji Ting barely managed to bandage the wound on his leg, then leaned back against the seat to steady his pain-shortened breaths.
By the blue glow of the pod's emergency light, he examined the warped instrument panel. Smoke was already rising from the positioning module's circuit board, and garbled coordinates flickered across the display.
Ji Ting had no time to check whether the positioning system had failed. He first fumbled with his left hand to unfasten his seat belt, then took the laser cutting pen from a compartment in the medical kit.
With only his left hand usable, he had to hold the cutting pen between his teeth before reaching up to yank down the emergency lighting module at the top of the Escape Capsule. The light inside instantly vanished, leaving him to perform every remaining operation by the light reflected off the snow outside.
Ji Ting rarely felt regret, because he considered it a useless emotion. But