Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei both looked at the mechanical dog.
Over the past few days, Yao Wei had come to understand what the light in the mechanical dog's eyes represented.
"Tap, tap."
Gou lifted its left front leg, the toy motorcycle wheel installed on its leg tapped on that floor tile, its sound solid and muffled, unlike something hollow.
But having traveled this far together, Lu Xi'an had already come to trust Gou's abilities thoroughly, and he immediately squatted down to examine the tile closely.
Yao Wei, still somewhat skeptical, squatted down with Lu Xi'an.
Yet after examining it carefully for a long time, touching and tapping it, they found no abnormalities with the tile.
It seemed quite ordinary, and fit perfectly with the surrounding tiles; even the seam filling from years ago showed no sign of any hidden object.
"Let's go."
Yao Wei gave up and stood up.
But as she rose, she saw Lu Xi'an suddenly raise his micro submachine gun high and slam the butt onto the tile.
"Bang—"
The force worked wonders; the tile cracked, and small fragments flew.
Lu Xi'an jerked his head to avoid the shards, then carefully lifted the cracked pieces, avoiding hurting his hands.
Yao Wei looked down at Lu Xi'an's actions, her eyes wide open.
Beneath the tile lay a thick layer of grout used for laying tiles. As some fragments were lifted, the hardened grout flipped over, revealing a metallic luster below.
Was there really something hidden underneath?
She couldn't help but glance at Gou, then squatted down to work with Lu Xi'an.
After clearing away the tile and soil, a metal surface appeared. There was a slightly raised mechanical password lock on it, covered by a protector.
This was a password cabinet embedded in the ground!
This password cabinet had escaped a disaster by being hidden underground.
But even if it wasn't embedded underground, it likely wouldn't have been easily opened.
Lu Xi'an tapped the metal, feeling its solidity and sturdiness; its material was clearly exceptional and expensive. The contents inside were likely even more valuable.
It was time for Gou to shine again.
"Gou, you go ahead."
Lu Xi'an lifted the protector off the password lock and issued an order to the mechanical dog.
This Gou was just so convenient; during the last visit to Mozhou City's police station, he had relied on Gou to find guns and bullets in the arsenal.
Yao Wei glanced at the mechanical dog and stepped aside for Gou.
Gou came forward, leaned its head in, scanned the password lock with its dog eyes, and a light flashed in its eyes.
"Two, four, three, seven, zero, six, seven, one."
Lu Xi'an read the digits making up the password from the light and then turned the lock according to the sequence.
"Click—"
The password lock was easily opened.
Yao Wei pursed her lips, looking at the mechanical dog several more times.
But after Lu Xi'an opened the underground safe, she couldn't spare any attention for Gou, and joined Lu Xi'an in looking inside.
Then they were both disappointed.
The safe contained piece after piece of gold nugget. In the past, this would have been the only truly solid currency, but now, who knew if these things were useful.
But it didn't matter, useful or not, they could be used as hidden weapons.
Lu Xi'an picked up a rectangular gold bar, weighed it in his hand, and sighed inwardly: how great it would have been in the past life, such a safe meant real fortune.
"Do you think using these as hidden weapons to smash people would work?"
He said this casually to Yao Wei.
With so much strength nowadays, tossing a gold bar was easy, its weight providing substantial power and perhaps quite effective.
Yao Wei did not reply, choosing not to evaluate Lu Xi'an's idea.
Lu Xi'an, still not giving up, took all the gold pieces from the safe, and glanced inside again, finding yet another surprise.
—At the side of the safe, there was another compartment, previously blocked by gold. With the gold bars moved aside, it became visible.
Lu Xi'an reached out and popped open the compartment board, a black-covered notebook slipped out along with it.
The notebook was bulging, its edges somewhat darkened and bent, likely due to years of flipping and exposure to the damp underground air, getting to this state.
Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei exchanged a look, then took out the notebook.
Opening the cover, an owner's signature page came into view.
The owner of the notebook had neatly recorded their identity information on it—
The first line, unit, stated the Fengcheng County Emergency Water Supply Management Bureau.
The second line was position, stating Emergency Water Supply Worker.
The third line was name, the handwriting somewhat messy and flamboyant, likely a specially designed signature. Lu Xi'an barely recognized it as "Yao Tianlai."
"Same surname as yours."
Lu Xi'an glanced at Yao Wei and said.
Yao Wei did not respond.
Lu Xi'an flipped through the notebook briefly; it was a work log, filled with records page after page of water deliveries to various households on certain days.
On one of the pages, there appeared a line in the top right corner that read: Keep delivering every day! People are freezing to death! How come Jiang Yu is fine?!
Lu Xi'an suddenly understood; this should be a notebook from the end times. Even then, there was someone delivering water from house to house.
He didn't know what had specifically happened in those times, but from the looks of it, severe cold had descended upon this world, with Fengcheng County's water pipes frozen, yet Jiang Yu County remained intact, even until now.
He flipped further, seeing account numbers being crossed out, and afterward, they didn't appear again.
More names were getting crossed out, more names were repeated, and in the end, several pages were ragged and crisscrossed, with the last names fragmented.
Lu Xi'an sighed, suddenly remembering when he first arrived in this world.
The vast heavens and earth, accompanied only by the biting cold winds, an empty world, eyes seeing nothing but snowy white and gray skies.
Despair shrouded the heart, giving way only to impotent rage.
The person recording the notebook likely felt the same back then as he did?
Turning past the ragged pages, a complete page appeared with only a few simple lines:
Took quite a few gold bars from the bank, never thought of it before. But with the world like this now, taking them doesn't matter. Consider it a bonus for my hard work.
Need to go to the command post for refuge.
Only now do I realize, they knew a disaster was coming, quietly preparing all these years.
Used to think it was just a cold period, thought all preparations were for surviving it, never realizing they were prepared for something even worse.
The closure projects at Tan Village entrance years ago turned out to be the temporary command post.
The change in gasoline and diesel standards and price increase was related to now, additives to extend fuel shelf life.
We were all kept in the dark, damn!
But I am fortunate, heading to the command post.
There are many supplies there, should last through the severe cold.
Gold bricks will stay here, and after the cold, I'll be well-off.
We'll make it through.
...
Lu Xi'an only then realized the truth about gasoline shelf life.
Thinking now, it's lucky people back then were prepared, altering gasoline standards and extending shelf life. Otherwise, their cars wouldn't work now.
Noticing there was more text, he turned the page again, finding the last page with:
The road under the reservoir has collapsed.
Going back to wait for death.
Damn it, why build the command post channel only at Tan Village entrance?! What madness!
Shouldn't have taken the gold bricks, it's karma...