The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 625 Winter Swimming (Bonus Chapter 33 for AT)

Lunch consisted of prey brought back by Zanana and her hunting party.

After a busy morning, their harvest was only so-so. They caught a lynx weighing about 20 pounds, three pheasants weighing a little over two to three pounds each, and a snow rabbit weighing a little over five pounds.

The quantity seems like a lot, but it's only enough for Hu Biao and his gluttons to barely have one meal.

There's no way around it! In the frigid environment, the activity of wild animals in the forest is greatly reduced.

Even with a seasoned hunter like Zanana leading the team, it's still difficult to find any trace of the prey.

After the prey is cleaned, it needs to be cooked with a lot of dehydrated vegetables to make a meat soup so that everyone can barely get full; if they eat it as roasted meat, they can't even get half full.

During the meal, Hu Biao and the others sensed that something was amiss.

No other reason than that, after their bodies were warmed by the fire, they gradually felt pain in almost every part of their body, including their knees, elbows, waist, groin, chest, and back.

It seems that the falls they had taken during previous skiing practice were far more serious than they had anticipated.

After finishing lunch and resting for a while, I started taking a cold shower or winter swimming, and this realization became stronger and stronger.

Specifically, when Zanana and the others were hunting, they discovered a large lake, at least a hundred acres in size, about a mile away from the 8 o'clock position of the shelter.

Considering that so many people are taking a shower, just melting enough cold water with helmets would be a huge undertaking.

Hu Biao and his friends changed their plan to take cold showers to winter swimming.

After everyone arrived near the center of the lake, the men from Black Star took a sharpened piece of wood and began to vigorously chisel at the ice.

People who have never been to Northeast China simply cannot imagine how solidly the lake water freezes in winter.

With the help of a group of strong men working in shifts, even with somewhat inadequate tools, it took them nearly thirty or forty minutes to chisel out a hole of about two square meters in the nearly one-meter-deep ice.

By this time, all the preparations for winter swimming have been completed.

About seven or eight meters away from the ice hole, Annie and the others built a small hut out of wood and pine needles; inside the hut were four steel helmets filled with burning charcoal, and the temperature reached above zero.

This is for changing clothes and for taking a short break after getting out of the water.

There are also some dry towels, disguised as cloths; these are used to dry hair and body, and to wrap around the body like bath towels.

Hu Biao, who had been agreed to be the first to go, was naturally the first to go.

In the relatively warm shack, after stripping down to only a pair of bitter tea leaves, Hu Biao discovered that his body was covered in bruises; without a doubt, these were all from falling while practicing skiing that morning.

There was no time to pity himself. While warming up, Hu Biao kept reciting the winter swimming tips and precautions he had learned from Annie and Xiao Cui:

"Make sure to warm up properly and gradually adapt to the water temperature. Don't jump into the water all at once, and be careful not to stay in the water for too long..."

As a result, after only taking two or three steps out of the shack, a gust of cold wind blew in.

The indescribable cold made him shiver, and he felt as if his soul was about to leave his body, vaguely seeing his great-grandmother.

Instinctively, Hu Biao wanted to rush back into the shack and put the clothes he had just taken off back on.

After recalling the boast he had made, he forcefully suppressed his instincts. Gritting his teeth, he disregarded all precautions.

He took off running and plunged headfirst into the ice hole.

After witnessing this scene, the onlookers initially shouted, "You damn bastard, you're awesome!"

But after waiting for twenty or thirty seconds and still not seeing Hu Biao surface, she started to panic; a minute later, Annie threw off her woolen cloak and prepared to take off her clothes and go into the water to save him.

When he was only halfway through taking off his clothes, a head suddenly popped up in the water. Who else could it be but Hu Biao?

After it reappeared, it grabbed a piece of floating ice in front of it with both hands, put it in its mouth, took a few bites, and swallowed it.

Then, he raised his voice and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Awesome!"

Then he took another deep breath, submerged for about a minute, and then climbed out of the ice hole with his skin completely red.

He took the disguise cloth from his cheap sister-in-law and wrapped it around himself.

The hawks rushed into the shack, yelling and shouting, not daring to delay for even a moment.

The main reason was that he knew that even if he was in a vacant position, he had to take off his wet underwear and dry it; and he also had to wipe the water off his hair immediately, otherwise his hair would stand up like Mei Chaofeng.

The last point is especially important for all the girls.

******
Hu Biao's actions set a precedent for everyone; regardless of how this precedent was set, it prompted others to follow suit.

The moment Hu Biao climbed out of the ice hole, Annie plunged in as well. This time, she stayed underwater longer than Hu Biao, surfacing almost two minutes later.

Then, with a wave of her hands, the girl actually threw a large fish weighing at least three or four pounds onto the shore; because the weather was too cold, the fish only thrashed around on the ice for a short while before freezing to death.

However, that's not important. What's important is that everyone who was worried about where to have dinner suddenly had a bright idea in their eyes.

Before Annie could even get ashore, Mina shouted, "I'm next! My PADI diving certification is AOW level. I'm going to catch a fish too, and my brother-in-law will cook it for me tonight."

Immediately afterwards, Zanana shouted, "Next, I'll go. I'll bring a simple harpoon. If I can't catch any fish, I can still spear some!"

And so, with each 'plop' sound, one seasoned veteran after another jumped into the ice hole.

Without exception, they all adopted Hu Biao's wild method of diving headfirst into the water.

The only pity is that even though Zanana tied a bayonet to a stick and made a DIY harpoon, not many people could catch or spear fish.

Fortunately, it's not a big problem. As long as we know there are fish in the lake, whether we fish or use grenades to catch them, we'll eventually catch enough fish to enjoy for several delicious meals.

While Mina was in the water, Hu Biao, who was out of commission, emerged from the shack, dressed in clothes stuffed with ula grass, looking quite energetic.

I don't know if it's just my imagination, or if winter swimming in the dead of winter actually has the effect of fighting poison with poison.

Hu Biao was pleasantly surprised to find that the biting wind, which had seemed to chill him to the bone, was actually not nearly as cold as he had imagined...

Because it cannot be soaked in the cold lake water for too long.

The time that everyone spent soaking in the lake water was generally no more than three minutes.

With one seamless transition after another, it didn't take long for all 31 seasoned veterans to finish their winter swim.

It was the turn of the seven newcomers, whose names and code names Hu Biao and the others didn't even have time to find out.

Under the watchful eyes of those veterans who claimed to have transmigrated many times, Awei, a newbie who had just transmigrated this time, gritted his teeth and took action.

He rushed into the shack and quickly took off his clothes and the animal skins tied to his feet.

After gritting his teeth, he rushed to the edge of the ice hole, pinched his nose with one hand, and jumped into the icy lake water.

His decisiveness indicated that he had already accepted the reality of his time travel; as for the claims that they could return to the modern world, recover from their injuries, and be resurrected, he decided to wait and see.

After all, modern people are taught from a young age not to easily trust anyone.

However, that didn't stop him from trying his best to win over these veterans.

To be honest, Ah Wei is quite clever, but being clever doesn't necessarily give this southern man born in Hunan Province a stronger ability to withstand the cold.

Even before his entire body sank into the water, just his lower body was submerged when a bone-chilling cold swept over him, and Ah Wei let out a piercing scream: 'Holy shit!'

A little over a minute later, Ah Wei, whose legs were cramping, was pulled out of the water by Hu Biao.

Fortunately, even so, the winter swimming trip was completed, and Hu Biao and the others were basically satisfied.

With Awei taking the lead, the remaining four male newcomers also jumped into the water; if the performance of the above four was still beyond Hu Biao and his group's expectations.

The performance of the two new female guests was quite unexpected for them.

The older women among them did not hesitate at all; they stripped down to their underwear in front of Hu Biao and the others and plunged into the ice hole.

I stayed in the lake for almost three minutes before getting out.

The younger girls, facing the gazes of Hu Biao and the others, clutched their stomachs and said with pitiful expressions:

"Brothers, I'm on my period and can't go into the water."

Upon hearing this, Awei, Sun Shuang, and the other newcomers immediately tensed up.

Although they hadn't spent much time with Hu Biao and his group, they could clearly sense the murderous aura emanating from them, knowing that they were not people to be trifled with.

So that girl's excuse about having her period was obviously just that—an excuse. Such a manipulative act might work against other sycophants, but against these people, it's just asking for trouble.

Unexpectedly, after Hu Biao and the others exchanged glances,

Aside from a growing sense of amusement in his eyes, he said casually, "Fine! If you don't want to go in the water, then don't. Remember to drink plenty of hot water afterwards."

While Hu Biao appeared calm on the surface, he secretly thought to himself, "Does he really think making you go winter swimming is torture?"
That's nonsense. It's for your own good. If you don't adapt to the environment soon, you might freeze to death or die from disease at any time.

That's fine, at least it saves us from suffering all the time; but don't even think about getting a share of the spoils or joining the team after it's over, we're not going to take just anyone..."

(End of this chapter)