Chapter 1 — Melting Glacier

I'm chasing a guy who studies glaciers, which are colder than glaciers. Patience reached the limit, I immediately "got into bed" with him in the glacier tent, then quickly ran away in the night. I left a piece of paper: "Professor Tham, embrace my ice and live your life, I have to go to the tropical rain forest!" Three months later, I was stopped by him in a compartment simulating a twenty-degree geosonic polar environment. He took off his tie and leisurely tied my wrists, his breath hot. "Don't you like fighting outdoors?" He leaned close to my ear and said softly: "In Antarctica, that's called a snowstorm." 1I, Lam Nhien, a travel photographer who lives on the sky, my motto is "Life lies in having fun, love lies in getting up and doing it." My boyfriend, Tham Duc Chi, a PhD in glacial geology who lives on ice, lives by the motto "Data will not lie, but people can". Look, from the motto of life, we are already in conflict. Tham Duc Chi and I met each other, starting from a damn academic conference. That summer, I was hired by a partner to film a promotional film for the 100th anniversary of University A. The lens panned across the hall, and a man immediately caught my eye. He stood at the podium, wearing a simple white shirt and khaki pants, behind him was a dark blue slide of a cross-section of a glacier. He did not hold the manuscript, just leaned his hand on the podium, using a voice both clear and distant to tell about the secret sealed in the ice core for hundreds of millions of years. Light and shadow cut cold lines on his body. His eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses could read the age of ice, but it seemed like he couldn't see any infatuated faces underneath. At that time, I thought, it's over, my "in love for love" DNA is active. This man, like an unpolished piece of rough jade, was like a desolate snow mountain without people — damn, too much to conquer. So, I began a campaign to pursue the textbook standard “female attacking male.” I used the excuse of asking about academic issues to ask for his WeChat. He agreed, but our conversation history was drier than a laboratory beaker. Me: "Professor Tham, the weather is so nice today, it's suitable to go out for a walk!" He: "Yes, stable pressure, good visibility, convenient for collecting satellite images." Me: “…” I used the excuse of being interested in the glaciers he researched and wanted to take a thematic photo series. He agreed, then sent me a copy of the 30-page "Safety guide and equipment requirements when photographing polar environments". Me: "Professor Tham, are you free this weekend? Let's go see a movie? There's a new science fiction movie recently." He: "I don't have time, I have to process data. Besides, the glacial collapse scene in the movie doesn't conform to the laws of physics." Me: “…” Pursuing Tham Duc Chi is like climbing an eight thousand meter high mountain, both cold and lacking oxygen. But who am I Lam Nhien? I have conquered the desert, overcome the rain forest, just a human-shaped iceberg, what am I afraid of? Thanks to his calm face and his stubborn tactics, I was finally able to force him to agree to be my boyfriend. After being together, I discovered that we weren't conquering the snow mountain, but just camping at the foot of the mountain, and the snow mountain didn't care at all. Our dates were either at the geology museum of University A, or at his laboratory. The first gift he gave me was a rounded moraine stone. He said, this stone witnessed the advance and retreat of the Quaternary ice age, and has great commemorative significance. I held a stone that was older than my grandfather, trying to form one

The smile was both shy and polite. Our most intimate contact was when he discovered that the down jacket I had just bought did not meet the standards, so he immediately grabbed me to explain the difference between "porosity" and "amount of fur stuffing". I was so angry that I pushed him against the wall, intending to do a "bich dong" scene like an idol movie. As a result, he adjusted his glasses and calmly pointed out: "In this position, the center of gravity is not stable, easily leading to disc herniation." I'm really… sorry. My friends all advised me to break up, saying I was making myself miserable. "Nien Nhien, what are you so in love with him? Are you in love with the way he teaches you geological chronology?" — my best friend was so angry that she wanted to die. I drank wine, looked at the latest message he sent — an HD photo of a cross-section of an ice core — and fell into contemplation. That's right, what do I love? Maybe he's just in love with that face, and the "the whole world has nothing to do with me" aura about him that's full of lust. I always thought that if someone was so cold, once they caught fire, they would definitely die. I just want to see what the melting ice scene will look like. The last straw that broke the camel's back was that summer. Tham Duc Chi is preparing to go to the Dat Co glacier in Sichuan West to conduct a scientific survey for a month - this is the most important stage in his doctoral project. "This range is as hot as fire, there is nothing better than going to the glacier to avoid the heat." I happily packed my luggage and announced that I would follow him as a "photographer traveling with the group".