manynovel Chapter 295 Driving to the East Gate
Chapter 295 Driving to the East Gate
Chapter 295 Driving to the East Gate
The ceiling was covered with spider webs of varying lengths and in all directions, and the scale was formed by the dust that had accumulated over the years. The mold caused by the seepage of prefabricated boards gradually expanded, forming the wall above that collapsed from time to time. Even though someone had tried to make it look normal, it eventually fell apart layer by layer, leaving behind traces that looked like the ground covered with fledged white moths.
The thirty or forty-year-old white eucalyptus trees grow quietly, and at some point they have soared to a height that is difficult to trim. So they slowly disappear from the sight of residents, like balloons that have escaped from their hands and are flying high into the sky. Only thin, twisted black shadows fall to the ground, weaving into a ghostly zebra crossing on the broken concrete ground.
The man and woman walked quietly in the dormitory of the old Agricultural Bureau, their footsteps dodging the broken leaves on the ground, trying not to make any extra noise.
The narrow lane was full of parked cars. Some of the cars were also covered with fallen leaves, but they were carefully blocked from the outside with car covers, exposing only the shriveled tires on the wheels and a few weeds stubbornly surviving in the cracks.
"Where are we going..."
The tall girl followed with a hunched figure, her inner thoughts complicated and disordered, the unknown breeds fear, expectations fuel uneasiness, it was as if she was reading a light-hearted everyday ranch novel, but as she turned the pages she read a creepy ghost story, which made her current situation seem particularly absurd and funny.
The boy quickly stopped and put his finger to his lips.
He turned around with difficulty in the narrow lane and tried hard to get close to the tall girl's ear. If he did this action normally, it would seem a bit frivolous and offensive, but at this special moment, the girl even felt that his voice was still too harsh and obvious, and he was a bit reckless.
At that moment, she was troubled by her own thoughts, but after a little thought, she understood the whole story - the dark and old residential area, the old and sleepy residents, the empty corridors, and the bizarre rumors. The atmosphere alone was enough to scare people into silence, not to mention what they were going to do...
Wait, he hasn’t said what it is yet?
"When you pass the security office later, you must not make any noise, understand? Otherwise, I might die..."
The boy said something creepy, and then he started counting on his fingers, "Last month, I sneaked into the community to interview residents and was reported for promoting a cult. Earlier this month, I was studying relics along the outer wall and someone called the police thinking I was a thief. In the middle of this month, I tried to look for clues in the dark and was taken to the police station by two security guards."
"The police in this area told my family that if the child has mental problems, he should be kept under close watch. If he is caught in the act next time, the police station will have no choice but to file a case..."
Then he looked at the tall girl cautiously and asked tentatively, "It's a good thing I asked you to come with me today. If we get caught again, can you tell the police that these were all your ideas?"
Before the tall girl could scold him, a beam of flashlight passed over their heads. If they had stood two centimeters taller, the horrible thing the boy described would have come true on the spot.
The boy was obviously experienced. Apart from the trembling at the beginning, he did not show any hesitation at all. He even had the energy to signal the girl with his eyes to stay calm.
The two of them were crouching in the bushes, and they heard the sound of keys jingling gradually approaching. Someone was walking slowly with sleepy steps, and the wandering light of the flashlight seemed to be just his habit of clearing the way. The irregular shaking caused the batteries in the flashlight to collide with each other, making a muffled sound, revealing the same old and aging atmosphere.
"Zizizizi... Lao Lu... Zizizizi..."
The intercom on the old security guard's waist suddenly made a sound amid the sound of the electric current, and the girl was so frightened that she almost made a noise again.
"We received a complaint from residents of Building A, saying that several children were playing hide-and-seek in the parking lot... Zizi... Read the report after you finish reading it, and don't let any more thieves and mentally ill people in here... Zizi... Huala Huala..."
The final clattering sound was accompanied by the unique rhythm and beat of the collision of mahjong tiles.
The tall girl looked at the boy with despair in her eyes, wondering how she had been exposed tonight. Could it be that they had escaped the surveillance but not the eyes of those dark units in the old Agricultural Bureau dormitory, and someone had been hiding in the dark, spying on their furtive movements?
Thinking of this, the girl felt her scalp tingling. She suppressed her fear and tried not to look at those dark cells that were connected together.
However, when the old security guard came very close to them, he suddenly stopped, spat fiercely on the ground, stepped on it and spoke in a low voice.
"Bah, a bunch of cowards, playing hide-and-seek month after month, year after year, is there anything else you want?"
After that, he picked up the intercom and muttered a few words in a rude and loud voice. It seemed that he did not want to report anything, but just wanted to make some noise to give some psychological comfort to the elderly residents who were tossing and turning on their hard beds.
"Should we go?"
The girl didn't know what happened, but it was clear that the crisis was over. The old security guard was now walking somewhere else, which seemed to be the best opportunity to break through the defense.
But the boy shook his head and said viciously: "Don't act rashly! This is how I got caught last time!"
The boy then told her that the old Agricultural Bureau dormitory was divided into two buildings, A and B, in the shape of a "U". Building A was next to the road, and Building B was next to the Catholic church. Between the two buildings was the only parking lot in the community - and this was a small green area that was flattened and rebuilt just to alleviate the increasingly embarrassing parking difficulties.
Therefore, the old security guard's patrol route was very skillful. He went from the back of Building A to the front of Building B. The actual distance was less than ten meters, but his line of sight happened to cover most of the space of the old Agricultural Bureau dormitory.
Last time, the boy saw the old security guard out on patrol and thought he had waited for his chance, so he immediately lowered his body and tried to get through. However, just as he watched the old security guard walk to the back of Building A, he found that the old security guard had turned around and returned to the direction of Building B, staring at him, and quickly raised the walkie-talkie in his hand, while he was still awkwardly sticking his head out and grinning at the empty space...
"Listen to me. Go to the basement of Building B first, then hide under the green wall and don't move."
The boy tiptoed forward two steps and immediately got into the embrace of the green belt, groping forward along the storm drain of the old dormitory building. The tall girl said nothing more, because their actions of bypassing the cameras and entering the community were no more innocent than those of roving thieves. The best way now was to avoid being discovered.
The figure of the old security guard had just disappeared at the end of Building A. Just as the boy said, he suddenly reappeared around the pillar. The two of them leaned against the green wall to hide their figures and barely escaped being discovered in the night. However, they could only watch the old security guard dangling the keys on his body and slipping into a road that was diagonally down from the building. His voice slowly disappeared inside.
"…The security guards have left, so why don't we leave?"
The tall girl asked in a low voice. She couldn't accept the feeling of spider webs sticking to her hair. Even if they didn't fall on her hair, it would be an indescribable psychological pressure.
"Where are we going? That's where we are going."
The boy pointed to the ramp that led diagonally into Building B of the Agricultural Bureau Dormitory and said seriously, "I suspect that what we are looking for is actually inside here."
The rough cement floor was covered with cracks, and with the occasional rain, green velvet moss and alfalfa grew there. Even purslane climbed over the wall unnoticed.
These tiny lives crawl in the cracks, and in the night they seem to quietly raise their heads and look towards the dark depths of the underground.
There was a faint light, shining through the window gap covered with newspapers, and between the remnants of the old-fashioned glass, there was the incessant noise of a radio, and a tone-deaf voice singing along, which seemed particularly melancholy.
"Everyone says that the old love can be continued and it should be comforting...but why are there tears quietly wetting my collar...oh oh oh oh..."
"…I think it's 'Double Butterfly Fan'? They just sang 'Li Qing'. Looks like we have to wait for a while…"
The boy made comments without any reason, trying his best to keep his voice as low as possible, which made the girl even more nervous.
After all, the distance between the two parties was very close, and the slightest sound might arouse vigilance, and the boy's words were not redundant. They were obviously explained to her deliberately, taking the risk of being exposed to reduce the possibility of her acting on her own and disobeying orders.
But things in the world are always unpredictable. The only common sense is "Planning is the key to success, while lack of planning leads to failure", and another common sense is "Good times are hard to come by, and good things are hard to come by", which repeat themselves over and over again and never change.
The two of them were listening to the hoarse singing coming from the basement gatehouse. Just as it was lingering in their ears, a noisy and abrupt voice suddenly came into the intercom.
"Zizizi... Lao Lu... can you hear me..."
The silhouette of the old security guard suddenly appeared on the window paper under the illumination of the incandescent light, leaving a deep and dark figure - it seemed that he suddenly jumped up from the bed, and then muttered twice in anger, trying to ignore the voice of the intercom.
"Zizizi... The residents of Building B facing the street complained that someone seemed to be abusing their dog nearby, and it's barking loudly now... Zizizi... The stench complained about last time hasn't been found yet, go check it out... Hurrah, huh... Hit me!"
These words seemed to have triggered something, and at last there was the old security guard's angry sigh and the rustling sound of packing up.
Such a sudden change made the two men who were lying in ambush with swords in hand overjoyed. They didn't expect that the opportunity would suddenly jump in front of their eyes while they were hiding in the bushes waiting for the security guard to fall asleep.
The two men turned around and hid among the grass, holding their breath and refusing to move, concentrating on the mixed sounds of slippers and keys.
The sound came from far away, then gradually went away, until it drifted to a direction that they could hardly distinguish. Only then did they come out from their hiding places with their arms and legs covered with mosquito bites, and trotted towards their destination.
The downward slope fell into complete silence, with only the light in the gatehouse quietly spying on them. However, this could not stop their determined steps. It seemed that every step was driven by the desire to explore in their blood, and they were madly trying to get closer to the truth.
It was not until she walked into the stuffy basement that the tall girl realized why this old Agricultural Bureau dormitory was so densely packed with cars on the ground that it blocked the road, but no one parked their cars in this long-abandoned underground parking lot.
What she could see in front of her were densely packed iron doors, some new, some old, some bright, some dark, but there was no doubt that each of them blocked off a narrow area. The aisles left were crisscrossed, only wide enough for two people to pass side by side. Parking a car was simply a fantasy.
Apparently, this dormitory was built at a time when private cars were a rarity, so parking requirements were limited to bicycles and motorcycles.
In this era, the old residential communities did not consider equipping underground garages. Instead, they built a type of warehouse that now seems outdated, also known as a "firewood room". Each room had a corresponding house number to indicate ownership, and was barely big enough to park motorcycles side by side or store furniture and sundries.
It is precisely this special configuration of one room for each household that makes the subsequent renovation of the parking lot extremely difficult. After all, several firewood rooms have to be demolished to create a parking space, which may also involve building safety issues. As a result, these old buildings that are neither worth eating nor worth throwing away are just abandoned underground, hoarding rare treasures and waste that have been collected for generations.
"There are so many iron doors. Where is the thing you mentioned hidden?"
The tall girl followed closely, her scalp numbing as she stared at the densely packed iron doors that extended into the depths of darkness. The fear of the unknown lies in the suspicion of "what is behind the door", and the countless "doors" here undoubtedly magnified the fear to an unprecedented level.
The most difficult thing to say is that she has a special fear of "doors", or more specifically, "firewood rooms".
In her hometown, the last stop before a person's funeral is often to be buried in these firewood rooms; even some terminally ill elderly people, in order not to die at home, will move into the firewood room when they feel that their time is running out, and complete the last journey of their lives.
When she was a child, she always had to walk past the row of closed firewood rooms in front of her house on her way to and from school every day. She never knew when one of the rooms would be opened and reveal a row of wreaths, a portrait, a coffin, or a dead body.
What frightened her the most was often the sight of some skin-and-bone, deathly old men, leaning against the crack in the door.
They would lean on the sickbed in the firewood room and watch, and there seemed to be a dark aura on their bodies that led straight to the underworld. Whenever she passed by there, she always felt that the dying old man's gaze was following her fiercely, with an indescribable light of jealousy in his eyes, as if it was a longing for things with vigorous vitality.
The girl always ran over and never dared to look back. She was afraid that if she stayed for even a second longer, the old man would jump up from the bed like in the nightmare, use his skinny arms, spray rotten breath, snatch her life and go to the underworld together...
"Don't worry, I don't know where the things are, but I know the clues left here..."
The boy used his cell phone to illuminate the room, carefully examining the details of the doors that were lined up among the firewood, as if he was inspecting an ancient tomb of the Western Han Dynasty buried deep underground. He might have mistaken the tall girl's nervous movements for an impatient reaction, so he spoke to comfort her.
But in the eyes of girls, his current behavior is extremely strange and cannot provide any psychological comfort.
He was seen knocking on the outer door of the firewood room, his expression somewhat stiff and impatient. The old security guard might come back at any time, and he didn't have much time left. In the darkness, he seemed to be visiting the exiles who had lived underground for a long time, waiting for "them" to hear the knocking and push the door out, greet the two of them with a smile, and his body was filled with a ghostly aura.
Suddenly, in the darkness, they heard slow and dragging footsteps, accompanied by some off-tune humming, which seemed to be following their direction. This sudden panic made them quickly alert, and they turned off the lights of their mobile phones and covered themselves with darkness to protect themselves.
In the darkness, a black shadow passed by them without noticing them, and then walked over with slow and firm steps.
The tall girl first lowered her head and held her breath, then walked forward in the dark with the boy. Her fear continued to grow, but she still tried her best to calm down, trying to ignore the boy's strange behavior and the increasingly absurd situation, and instead focused on her own fear itself, constantly breaking it down and analyzing it, and facing her inner fear.
Although the fear of "doors" is rare since ancient times, it is not without traces. Especially in the history and archaeology industry, people often see the door at the end of the mysterious palace half open in the cold and cramped underground tomb space, and a girl half leaning against the door with a dim look...
"Woman Opening the Door".
This type of mysterious ancient tomb murals began to appear frequently in tombs, tomb shrines and stone towers since the Han Dynasty. For some reason, they disappeared for a time in the late Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but suddenly became popular again during the Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties.
There are various signs that this form was originally related to the Han Dynasty when Huang-Lao philosophy was popular. The Queen Mother of the West was believed to be the controller of the door to immortality. The source of the so-called "Woman Opening the Door" was that the tomb owner hoped to see the Queen Mother of the West with the help of fairies and help the deceased achieve their long-cherished wish of immortality.
However, it presents a tidal change on the timeline that is so puzzling that many religious scholars have linked this change to the rise and fall of a certain trend of thought in history, and are convinced that it is highly related to certain secret sects. Even many well-known ancient people were witnesses of it.
More rigorous historians would analyze from the perspective of tomb space. This half-open door must lead to an undisplayed space. Therefore, the tomb owner used this method to expand the limited space by using the infinite unknown space behind the door, that is, to use "people's imagination" to expand and extend the tomb space.
In short, no one knows whether these "doors" hidden deep underground in the ancient tombs, which imitate the pillars and brackets of wooden buildings with stone and brick carvings, represent the door of life or the door of death, and whether behind the door is the eternal fairyland or the hell. All we know is that in the dark and deep underground palace, there are always eerie and strange pictures of the door opening, which constantly inspire people's fear...
I don't know how far I walked, but at the end of the underground garage there stood an iron door. The iron chain imposed on it many years ago was rusty. The boy slowly moved forward and knocked on the iron door that had been sealed for many years again. He put his ear close to it and felt a mournful sound in the rippling waves, which seemed to reach a vast and mysterious space.
A look of joy appeared on the boy's face, and the rusty iron chain broke with a slight bend, as fragile as a fried pancake. Dust fell from the door, and behind the door was something more solid and real than the darkness, like a basalt wall that had stood there billions of years ago.
The boy finally calmed down from his devout and enthusiastic mood, and the voice in his ear gradually disappeared, as if it was just a routine inspection. After calming down for a moment, his hands did not stop moving, but his state became much more natural, as if he had put on the personality coat he had just forgotten, and he spoke as gently as possible.
"Sorry, I forgot to explain that to you."
The boy's tone was filled with a hint of guilt, and the light from his cell phone once again illuminated the space between the two of them, also lighting up a glimmer of hope and warmth.
"It's okay, just say it."
"It is like this. There are 127 units of various sizes in the old Agricultural Bureau dormitory, so there should be 127 firewood rooms in the basement. However, according to my investigation, there were actually 128 firewood rooms built in the beginning."
The girl said curiously, "It's just one more room. Maybe it's just because the area planning is a little extra. We can't just leave it empty for the sake of fairness, right?"
The boy shook his head disapprovingly.
"That's because you don't understand that era. Fairness and equality were still very important things... Mainly, have you ever thought about why the basement of the old Agricultural Bureau dormitory was only built in Building B, but not under Building A?"
Without waiting for the girl's reply, he continued on his own.
"In October 1969, the Central Military Commission issued the 'No. 10 Order', which believed that the Soviet Union might take radical military measures and required the whole country to be prepared for war. Air-raid shelters were then built everywhere, and Fujian, as the front line against Taiwan, was the focus of the construction work."
"This area has always been the gathering place of Chong'an County's administrative agencies. In order to protect the integrity of the data and administrative organization, the government dug a number of semi-permanent underground air-raid shelters, which were abandoned as Sino-Soviet and Sino-American relations changed. It was not until the 802s when the old Agricultural Bureau dormitory was built that an air-raid shelter code-named 'Jian ' was accidentally dug up."
"After the air-raid shelter was dug, the construction of the basement of Building A encountered some strange problems, which led to the project being shelved. The numbered air-raid shelters were military facilities at the time, and the local authorities did not dare to fill them in at will. So they reported to their superiors and built the 128th firewood room as the gate to the 'Jian 802' air-raid shelter. All the cultural relics and historical sites that were dug out during the construction process and might affect the construction of the dormitory were also placed inside."
After hearing this, the girl felt that the smile created by the light of the mobile phone was warm, but as fragile as a piece of white paper, which could be overturned by sudden thick ink at any time. However, her sense of mission and desire to explore gathered strength again, which put her in a dilemma.
The sound of dragging footsteps sounded in the distance, with a strange rhythm, as if they were following their footsteps again. The girl was shocked to realize that the person who just passed by them seemed to have everything, but did not have the sound of the key chain jingling...
In the darkness, the tall girl's vision began to blur. She seemed to see a half-open door, so dark that she couldn't tell whether it was a door to life or death. A girl who looked exactly like her was half-leaning at the door with a dim gaze and slightly parted lips as she said, "The door is open. Do you dare to come in?"
(End of this chapter)