Wu Dongfang was not afraid of the animals inside the umbrella bag; rather, he was worried about the damage they might cause to it. The umbrella bags of parachutes are tightly packed, and only rodents or pangolins, skilled in burrowing, could squeeze in. Regardless of the animal that gets in, the parachute would be severely damaged.
After a brief panic, Wu Dongfang quickly calmed down. He looked down and saw a mist swirling below, unable to see the situation at the bottom of the valley or determine the approximate height from the ground.
Without seeing the specifics, he could only calculate based on common knowledge. Most of the mountains along the China-Myanmar border are around two thousand meters high. A damaged parachute would definitely not be able to safely land two people at such a height.
He had two options: one was for both of them to descend simultaneously, pulling open the parachute when close to the ground for a first cushion, then, after the parachute failed, using the drug dealer's body for a second cushion, and then landing.
The other option was to detach the parachute from the drug dealer and descend alone, which could maximize the reduction in falling speed and reduce the weight the parachute had to bear.
Without hesitation, Wu Dongfang chose the second method. Although this method had a higher chance of survival, it also came with greater risks. He would have to carry the parachute in the air, and if he couldn't put it on properly before landing, he would fall to his death.
Having made up his mind, Wu Dongfang quickly unfastened the parachute's buckle, kicked away the drug dealer's body, turned his back downwards, and quickly put the umbrella bag on his shoulders, then stretched out his limbs as much as possible to increase resistance and slow down the fall.
The mist below was thicker than he had imagined, and during the descent, he could not see the surrounding scenery or the ground at all. This situation made Wu Dongfang secretly worried; without being able to judge the distance from the ground, he could not time the opening of the umbrella bag.
Wait.
Wait again.
Stay steady, wait a little longer.
With each passing second, Wu Dongfang felt the pressure increase. He didn't know at what height the mist would disappear. Waiting could result in falling to his death or a higher chance of survival.
Just as Wu Dongfang was extremely nervous, the mist suddenly cleared, revealing a flat field below with large patches of red flowers, indicating the likely cultivation of opium poppies.
Wu Dongfang wasn't concerned about what was being grown here; he was concerned about the distance from the ground. Being able to see the landscape below meant he was very close to the ground. He had clearly missed the optimal moment to open the parachute; now it was urgent to do so.
He pulled the rope, guiding the parachute to open, and the main parachute opened smoothly, but after reducing most of the momentum, it did not lift him back into the air. This was the consequence of the damaged parachute bag.
As the parachute failed, Wu Dongfang made a series of actions in the last few seconds before landing.
He threw away the parachute and rolled to prevent possibly breaking ribs from piercing his lungs.
He clasped his hands over his head to cushion the severe shock to his head.
He tensed his muscles, preparing to absorb the impact.
He exhaled and opened his mouth to prevent internal organs from rupturing under the intense shock.
These were all he could do. Whether he could survive the next fall depended on the softness or hardness of the ground.
"Plunk!"
"Why is it water?" Just as confusion arose, his back and legs hit something hard.
After choking on water, Wu Dongfang quickly floated up. The intense pain and numbness in his left calf indicated that his leg was likely broken.
The water wasn't deep. He quickly surfaced, intending to breathe, but what he saw made him gasp. The previously expansive poppy fields were gone, replaced by a gentle river with a rocky riverbank on both sides.
Wu Dongfang urgently surveyed the surroundings. Suddenly, he noticed a woman standing less than ten meters away in the shallow water, holding a sharpened wooden stick, staring at him in astonishment.
Seeing no hostility in her expression, Wu Dongfang didn't stare at the woman too much. She wore only a piece of tattered linen around her waist, with no other clothing.
It wasn't until Wu Dongfang struggled ashore that the woman came to her senses and ran into the jungle to the west.
The communication device had been swept away by the airflow during the descent, but fortunately, the locator was still intact. However, it only displayed his own latitude and longitude coordinates, without showing the positions of the other team members.
With a heart full of doubts, Wu Dongfang stood up on one leg and observed the surrounding mountains. The terrain around him was about seventy to eighty percent similar to the area where they had previously ambushed the enemy, except that the peaks were higher and the vegetation denser.
When he saw the position of the sun in the sky, Wu Dongfang gasped again. Although there was little difference in light between before and after he fell into the water, judging by the current position of the sun, it was not morning but evening.
Despite the strange circumstances, Wu Dongfang did not panic excessively. He took out a cigarette from the cigarette case, picked one that was not wet, and smoked while recalling the events.
He had clearly seen a poppy field below before he opened the parachute, but in the end, he landed in the water. The change in scenery occurred in the few seconds after he opened the parachute.
Based on various clues and his current location, Wu Dongfang immediately understood that he had hit the jackpot. In those few seconds, a highly rare phenomenon of time and space crossing had likely occurred to him.
Anyone who has studied high school physics knows about Einstein's theory of relativity and, consequently, about time travel. This is an extremely mysterious phenomenon, theoretically divided into active and passive time travel. Active time travel refers to prepared and purposeful time travel, which current scientific technology cannot achieve. All instances of time travel in human history have been passive, occurring without warning. Although the true cause of this phenomenon is unknown, the general consensus in the scientific community is that the faster one travels, the higher the probability of encountering time travel.
If it were an ordinary person, encountering this situation would likely result in a long period of confusion. However, as the commander of the Cheetah Squad, Wu Dongfang had to make quick and accurate judgments when faced with such situations. His judgment at this moment was that either he had suffered a serious hallucination due to a brain injury from the fall, or he had unintentionally crossed through time and space to some ancient period.
His train of thought was interrupted by the intense pain in his left leg. Wu Dongfang threw away the cigarette butt and checked his injuries. Through the flesh, he could feel that both the tibia and fibula in his left leg were fractured.
Having confirmed the injuries, Wu Dongfang hopped on one leg towards the western forest. Fractures needed to be reset and immobilized as soon as possible; the longer the delay, the more severe the swelling, making it increasingly difficult to accurately reset the broken bones.
At the edge of the forest, Wu Dongfang pulled out his dagger and cut off several branches, then scraped off some tree bark to use as bandages. After preparing, he felt for the broken bones and reset them. The whole process was extremely painful; each bone needed to be aligned multiple times to fit perfectly. It was crucial to align the bones accurately; otherwise, he would end up lame after healing.
He wrapped his left leg with branches and tree bark, sweating profusely and almost fainting.
Wu Dongfang looked back at the woman not far away. After he left the riverbank, she had returned and taken away a dead fish left on the bank. She then hid behind a stone about twenty meters away, observing him. She stayed there until he finished setting his bones.
When she returned, the woman was wearing a tattered piece of clothing. Her hair was long and unkempt, covering half of her face. Wu Dongfang could only see that she had a round face, not ugly but not particularly attractive either. Judging by her figure, she didn't seem very old.
Setting the bones took more than half an hour, and the sun had already set. Nightfall was approaching. Wu Dongfang habitually checked his locator, feeling very desolate. The coordinates were the same, but the era was different. His teammates would never appear again.
As night fell, Wu Dongfang lay quietly at the edge of the forest. The woman had left at some point.
After a brief darkness, the moon rose, casting a gentle and chilly light over the valley. In the moonlight, Wu Dongfang took out his belongings: a lighter, a dagger, half a pack of cigarettes, some loose change, and the locator on his wrist. These were all he had.
Putting away his things, Wu Dongfang lay back and fell asleep. It wasn't because of his remarkable adaptability, but because although he knew what had happened to him, deep down he still held a glimmer of hope. He hoped that when he woke up, the surroundings would turn into a poppy field, and that some of his teammates would wake him up while he slept.
He was awakened by the pain in his leg after a very short sleep. The sound of rushing water nearby and the moon hanging in the sky dashed his last bit of hope.
The locator also displayed the time: 11:30 AM.
After a bitter smile, Wu Dongfang picked up another cigarette from the pack and smoked, lost in thought. He wasn't thinking about himself at this moment, but about his teammates. After discovering that his signal had disappeared, his teammates would definitely cross the border to search and rescue him. They would reuse the parachutes they had used before, and they would definitely land in the valley and find the poppy field. However, they would never find him.
This mission would be overshadowed by his disappearance. His teammates would be implicated. Without finding his body, the military would find it difficult to recognize him as a martyr. His third aunt might not receive the benefits entitled to a martyr's family...
At some point, Wu Dongfang fell asleep again, and the cigarette went out on its own due to the dampness.
When he woke up again, it was early the next morning. He felt parched and crawled to a tree to cut off a branch to use as a cane. When he reached the riverbank, he once again saw the woman. She was still in the same place as yesterday, holding the same stick. When she saw him, she stopped and turned to look at him.
After hesitating for a moment, Wu Dongfang shouted to her, "Hello, can you tell me what year it is?"
The woman looked puzzled and quickly said something in a fast and strange accent.
Wu Dongfang couldn't understand a word she said and didn't bother trying again. After drinking some water, he limped back to where he had been sitting.
From the woman's dress, accent, and the surrounding mountains, it was easy to see that he was in a very distant era from modern times. This discovery made Wu Dongfang extremely depressed, but amidst the depression, there was also a sense of relief. The Earth has been around for over four billion years, and humans have only appeared about a hundred thousand years ago. Encountering time travel and seeing people was fortunate in misfortune. If he had seen a group of dinosaurs, he would have been devastated...