"Beep!"
The buzzer sounded again.
The red light on the Detection Instrument lit up again.
With a numb expression, Xia Wanyi reached out and cleared away the mixture of ice and soil spread across the Detection Instrument.
"Still nothing?"
Catching her stiff movements out of the corner of his eye, Bai Yixuan gave a wry chuckle and asked over the radio.
Xia Wanyi sighed softly. As she loaded the next batch of samples into the Detection Instrument, she shook her head and said, "Nothing yet."
"How many meters down are we now?"
Bai Yixuan raised his eyelids slightly and glanced at the LCD on the drilling rig in front of him.
"Counting from the surface, we're at twenty-five meters."
"Twenty-five meters?!" Xia Wanyi sounded astonished. "We've gone that deep and still haven't reached the actual ice layer?!"
Bai Yixuan shook his head with a bitter smile and let out a deep sigh.
"I think this whole trip is going to be a waste."
"Who could have guessed the surface fill at the bottom of this damned crater would be almost twenty meters thick?" Bai Yixuan's voice was full of resentment. "I bet even Professor Lü would be stunned to hear that."
Xia Wanyi looked speechlessly at the mere five meters of drill pipe remaining.
"So after all that work, we've effectively only drilled five meters underground?"
Bai Yixuan gave a sheepish chuckle.
"Ahem... you could put it that way."
Xia Wanyi: "..."
Suddenly, Hong Fan's startled shout came over the radio.
"Captain! Stop chatting!"
"I think the Drilling Machine's hit the ice layer!"
Watching the drill pipe's descent slow noticeably, both Hong Fan and Bai Yixuan lit up with surprise and delight.
Twenty minutes later.
"Beep!"
As always, the red indicator light shone through her glass visor, mercilessly illuminating