Not long after that, Gu Chen’s phone call came again. I was glad when I saw that, but then my heart sank again. The call meant that Gu Chen had found something, but whether it was a good or bad discovery, I couldn’t tell. There were only two possibilities, Guan Zhenglin was fine; Guan Zhenglin was dead.
The phone kept ringing. I looked at the green button but feared to press it. Humans would eventually die. That was nature at work. Life was saying goodbyes. We said goodbyes to our childhood friends, our first love, our university friends, our parents until we were alone. Then we die alone and say goodbye to this temporarily and lonely life. But on the road of life, you would run into friends, families, and lovers with who you couldn’t part. I didn’t know what Guan Zhenglin was to me. Did I feel love, friendship, or familial concern towards her?
I was a loner, but without knowing it, Guan Zhenglin had become an instrumental part of my life. Finally, someone walked into my life, and they were leaving already?
After taking a few deep breaths, I pressed the button and placed the phone beside my ear. Other than the car moving, it was silent. The other side of the line was silent before Gu Chen said, “Wu Meng, the tombstone can be moved. After moving it, we found a ladder that leads downwards. We are going down now, and there will be no signal underground. So don’t worry if you can’t reach me. When you arrive, come here immediately. If we find something and get out first, we’ll call you.”
Gu Chen’s people were going underground, and we needed two hours to get to Xing Dong Village.
“Got it, be careful,” I said seriously.
“Understood.” Gu Chen replied. Then the call ended. I closed my eyes. Since yesterday night, my nerves were pulled taut. At that moment, I felt so tired, and I just wanted to sleep. Were two hours long or short, that was a philosophical question. When we play games, 2 hours seem short; when we are sitting for an exam, 2 hours seem long. When I was woken up, we had already arrived at Xing Dong Village. I looked at my phone. There was no call from Gu Chen, so he was still underground.
I called the village head. This morning, the old man just witnessed something horrifying. When he received my call, the first thing he said was, “Wu Meng, have you captured the killer?”
I said, “Yes, we did, but we need your help to look after the killer.”
“Me?” The village head was shocked.
I added, “Get a few young men from the village. They should be up now. Come to the foot of the mountain.” Then I turned to tell the officer. “Wait here for the village head. The rest of you come with me.” Then I turned to leave and led the two officers away. We hiked up the trail and saw the moved tombstone. We shone our flashlight down and saw the long ladder. We looked at each other before getting down. This was a long ladder. There were around 20 plus rungs. The lower we got, the warmer it was. I sighed in relief. If this were the temperature, at least Guan Zhenglin wouldn’t freeze to death. The ladder wasn’t even, but at least it was sturdy.
We reached the bottom. I waved my flashlight around and realized this was a very large space. It was enough to fit more than several trucks. The wall and ground were covered in cement. I had no idea what this space was for. I shone my light down the distance and saw the branching paths. They had no clear markers. No wonder Gu Chen hadn’t gotten out of this place after 2 hours. Then the uncle persona was probably right. He had no idea which persona came up with this place and why?
I looked at the four branches, and there were only 3 of us.
“Let’s go.” I said, “We’ll split up and be careful. If you run into other forks, then come back out. Don’t get lost yourself too.”
The two officers looked at me, wondering whether to listen to my orders or not. I saw watchfulness in their eyes. When we were at Dong Xing City, Xiao Liu probably saw my movement. But he didn’t expose me and had people watch over me. Did Xiao Liu suspect me? I suddenly realized that Xiao Liu came back after me when I met Zhao Mingkun at the hospital. Did Xiao Liu know something?
All the different forces were mixed together, be it within the system or without the system. We were like fishes in a pond. We could feel each other, but we couldn’t see each other. Some of the fishes swam without worry, not knowing the storm was coming. Some of the fishes suspected something was wrong and had gone into hiding. Other fishes were prepared to wait for the storm to arrive. A few fishes were the kings and queens of the ponds. But most fishes were just innocent bystanders. And what kind of fish was I?
I knew they were monitoring me, so I said, “Now is not the time for internal strife, people’s lives are on the line.” Then I walked into one of the forks. I turned back and saw the other two enter different forks.
I shone my flashlight down the road. There was no end in sight. The dark and oppressive tunnel made me feel fearful. I touched my waist and realized I had no weapon. My gun had been taken away so it should be sitting at the station now.
I continued to walk down the path when suddenly the space opened up. This was another large space, but when I entered this space, I could feel a cold presence. It reminded me of winter. The chill here contained water vapour. This place was clearly damper than outside.
I closed my eyes as I recalled the map of Xing Dong Village. Beside the village there was a Xing Dong River. This was not a large river, it was not suitable for water transport. The river was only 10 meters deep and it was very muddy.
I made some calculation. The path slanted downwards so it meant that I was moving deeper underground. Combine that with the ladder, I was around several 10 meters underground. The tombstone was at the waist of the mountain so I should be deep inside the mountain by now. The water vapour I felt came from Xing Dong River’s underground passage. In other words, if I knocked down the wall, the water would flood in. The river wasn’t that strong but it wasn’t to be trifled with. I touched the wall and it was cold. I leaned my ear against it and I could hear the water rumbling.
I frowned. Why was the underground space so big and had so many branching paths? I was reminded of Chu Ye’s tomb at Lin Fen. The branching paths there were to confuse the tomb-raiders, and only one path was the correct one. At that moment, I had no idea if I was on the right path. I shone my flashlight around and noticed there were more branching paths. I thought about it and used a stone on the ground to mark one of the paths before entering it. But not too long later, I heard people running ahead of me. “Who is it?” I asked. But there was no answer, just more running sound. “This is the police! Who are you?” I shouted but the runner still didn’t answer me. If the person was with the police, they would stop, but this person ran faster after they heard me. So this was not a police officer, but who would be down here if not one of the officers?
I chased after the runner. But at that moment, I heard a gunshot. The gunshot travelled very far in this underground space. I heard that the gunshot came from before me. ‘What is happening?’
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