The next stop was the hospital.
They had agreed to meet up at the old house.
Only Qingyi and Ruoping showed up today. Things were very busy at Du Kang's family restaurant, so he and his beloved Zorro were there helping out. Zhang Shutong hadn't forgotten his good buddy after all; when recommending restaurants to his older school sister, he had put Du Kang's place at the very top of the list.
Of course, to avoid looking like a paid shill, Zhang Shutong didn't have the nerve to tell her that mentioning his name would get her a free cold appetizer—truth be told, it wasn't that he carried that much weight anyway; he'd just have to ask Du Kang for a favor when the time came.
As for whether she would actually go or not, he wasn't going to push it.
They arrived at the hospital soon enough. This time, Qingyi had lugged a high-powered flashlight and a safety helmet from home, while Zhang Shutong tucked his tactical gloves into his pocket. The group could be described as fully equipped. Lu Qinglian went into the tunnel first; she wanted to check the basement area for any signs of someone having returned, while Zhang Shutong waited outside.
It was 9:55 AM when he saw Ruoping. The young girl was wearing a white down jacket. She wasn't particularly excited, merely yawning with dark circles under her eyes.
Could anxiety disorders be contagious?
Zhang Shutong waved a hand in front of her eyes. Ruoping said crossly, "Get it away, get it away. I'm tired to death today."
He had almost forgotten that Ruoping had been dragged here against her will.
Some people didn't want to come but were forced to, while others wanted to come but couldn't.
Zhang Shutong told her that he had already set up a SIM card for Lu Qinglian.
There was nothing to hide about this matter anyway. Everyone knew what their own mothers were like. It was a perfectly normal thing, and Zhang Shutong didn't want to make it seem like some underhanded secret.
Ruoping finally showed a bit of energy:
"What's the number? Let me save it... 2670..."
Zhang Shutong looked at the girl and went quiet for a moment.
"You picked it?"
"She picked it herself. Why?"
"Nothing." Ruoping looked at him twice with a deeply meaningful gaze.
"What about QQ?"
Zhang Shutong recited another string of numbers for the QQ account, which Lu Qinglian had registered from the backseat under his guidance while he was riding the bicycle earlier.
"Her username is actually just 'Lu Qinglian'?" Ruoping rubbed her eyes.
Zhang Shutong saw Ruoping delete the character for "Lu," changing it to just "Qinglian," before flashing a peace sign at him.
"What's up?" Zhang Shutong didn't understand why she had suddenly cheered up.
"Successfully brought our relationship one step closer."
Ruoping's determination to befriend Lu Qinglian was unshakeable, so Zhang Shutong could only offer a token round of applause.
"Very challenging," Ruoping said profoundly. "The achievement of getting the two hardest-to-get QQs in the entire school has finally been unlocked before graduation."
"Why two?"
Ruoping rolled her eyes at him.
"From now on, our operations will just be the few of us," Ruoping added. "Being with Qinglian feels much more reassuring than being with you boys."
The words sounded a bit strange, but Zhang Shutong admitted it was the truth.
As Ruoping spoke, she added the suffix "Comrade-in-arms" after "Qinglian."
He wanted to take a look at his own contact name, but before he could see it, Ruoping pushed him away with a look of disdain.
While waiting around for Qingyi, he watched Ruoping lock her phone and continue yawning in place.
Zhang Shutong asked curiously:
"I thought you would add her to our group chat."
Ruoping was the group owner, so only she had that permission.
"Why add her?"
"Didn't you just say she's a good friend and a comrade-in-arms? And won't it be convenient when we do things together in the future?"
"It's different," Ruoping said casually. "We can just make another group, but no one else can be added to it."
"Is this a girl's concept of friendship?"
"Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is called properly managing one's interpersonal relationships. You boys mature way too late; you wouldn't understand even if I explained it."
Zhang Shutong nodded, understanding her meaning.
Soon, Qingyi arrived as well.
"Hello." He hopped off his bicycle with a flourish. "Are you guys ready?"
"You seem unexpectedly hyped up."
"That day we weren't prepared, but today we have a full kit." Qingyi patted the trunk strapped to the back of his bicycle, looking far more excited than he had been when they went to the city to play yesterday. "Shutong, where's yours?"
"Uh... left it at home."
The three of them walked down into the basement once more. Three flashlights shone forward in unison, and while it wasn't as bright as broad daylight, it lit up the surrounding scene with absolute clarity.
They stood at the fork and waited for a while. Shortly after, a flurry of footsteps echoed from the right side. Lu Qinglian walked over and calmly greeted the two of them.
"I'll go in front," Lu Qinglian said.
No one argued politely over the order. The tunnel on the left suddenly narrowed, making it difficult for two people to pass through. Even the vertical space had become quite low, requiring them to bend over slightly as they walked.
Zhang Shutong brought up the rear this time. He glanced back, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the dim light, and then kept pace with the group.
The smell underground was truly foul.
It had been a bit better on Wednesday. Although it hadn't been opened for a long time, there was only a musty odor inside. Lately, however, filthy rainwater had invaded the interior of the tunnel, turning into stagnant, unmoving water. Even though it had mostly dried up, it left behind a thick, putrid stench.
Zhang Shutong shone his light on the ground and saw a dense mass of white lines in a puddle of water. The lines were crowded into a clump, writhing and surging—they were newly hatched maggots. Zhang Shutong did his best to hold his breath and averted his gaze.
At this moment, Qingyi slowed down a step. Zhang Shutong originally thought he had discovered something, only to hear Qingyi whisper:
"Guess why I was late?"
"Hmm?"
"I did a good deed today," Qingyi chuckled quietly. "On the way here, a group of out-of-town tourists asked me for directions. I gave them directions, and also told them that if they wanted to eat on the island, they could go to Du Kang's family restaurant."
Zhang Shutong glanced at him. Qingyi usually wore a deadpan expression. Even if this kind of guy acted as a tour guide leading tourists to spend money at a local specialty shop, he wouldn't look like a paid shill at all. People would only praise the guide for being truly professional and taking them to experience the local flavor.
"So unscrupulous," Zhang Shutong complained.
"But they were a group of students, about the same age as those two we saw at the movie theater yesterday. It made me feel a bit guilty."
"Is that so." Zhang Shutong instinctively looked toward the ceiling. The vast surface ground lay up there, which he naturally couldn't see; in his line of sight, there was only a layer of cracks formed on the concrete walls of the cave. He could also guess who the tourists Qingyi met were, but he couldn't voice any more than that.
Better keep working on the task at hand.
Before they had gone even ten meters, the sound of splashing water echoed beneath their feet. The head of the line halted, and Lu Qinglian's voice came from up front.
"It's blocked," she said cleanly.
"A collapse?" Zhang Shutong asked hurriedly. This was no joke.
"A low wall."
"A wall?"
"See for yourself."
Zhang Shutong and Qingyi went to the front.
The two of them shone their flashlights and were both somewhat astonished, because a wall made of concrete material really did rise out of nowhere from the ground, taking up half the space, while the upper portion was blocked by some debris. At first, Zhang Shutong thought the cave wall above had collapsed, but as he looked closer, although it was concrete mixed with rebar, it wasn't the same material used in the tunnel.
"Man-made blockage?" Qingyi murmured.
"It... really seems like it?" Zhang Shutong pulled out a wooden strip from the top. The wood had already rotted away, looking like it had been dismantled from some piece of furniture. Looking further, he saw some bricks as well.
"Is this actually a wall, or is it a platform?" Zhang Shutong frowned.
Although it looked a lot like a low wall standing from the outside, who was to say a raised platform hadn't been built up from the ground starting here?
"Hard to judge by sound alone." Qingyi tapped the "low wall." "So, what do we do?"
He had originally been in high spirits, but now he was a bit dumbfounded. Today's adventure journey had hit a dead end in less than ten minutes. Were they really going to turn back and go home just like this?
Zhang Shutong didn't rush to answer, but instead turned his head to look at Lu Qinglian. Lu Qinglian gave a nod.
No one noticed this small interaction. He thought about it and said:
"Let's dismantle it and see."
"You guys really want to dismantle it?" Ruoping couldn't hold back anymore; she had been pinching her nose since earlier. "How long is this going to take to dismantle?"
"Look at this wood, there's quite a lot of it." Zhang Shutong pulled out another wooden strip.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying, the basement on the far right has two pieces of wooden furniture sitting in it."
"In fact, there was more than just two pieces of furniture, and that person dismantled the others to block this up?" Ruoping said in surprise.
"Hard to say, but I think if someone was living underground, they would at least want to see what was at this end. Of course, it also can't be ruled out that he saw it was blocked and returned empty-handed."
"The question now is whether this place really is an air-raid shelter," Qingyi's tone grew solemn.
"Can we look it up online?"
"You can't find such detailed information. It only says there are air-raid shelters under the island, and the only recorded one is the one under the school back then."
"Then let's give it a try while there are many of us right now."
Zhang Shutong put on his gloves. He and Qingyi positioned themselves against the two sides of the tunnel respectively, with Ruoping holding the flashlight, while Lu Qinglian was responsible for moving the dismantled debris behind them.
Soon, the quiet tunnel was filled with human voices.
"Hold the flashlight a bit lower..."
"Is this okay?"
"Down, further down... okay, that's good."
"How is there still a steel nail here, hiss, good thing I wore gloves, be careful when you guys grab things... Shutong, give me a hand."
"Three, two, one—"
"Meng Qingyi, you are so dead!"
"What happened now?"
"My down jacket! I just bought it, today is the first day I'm wearing it!"
"I told you not to wear a white down jacket when doing manual labor."
"What did you say?"
"I'll help you wash it..."
Ruoping had less strength, so only the three of them took turns working. Not long after he started busying himself, Zhang Shutong was swapped out by Lu Qinglian. Shortly after, he took a concrete block containing rebar and glanced at the time:
"Careful of oxygen deprivation, let's go up first to get some fresh air."
It was already 10:30 AM.
He felt his chest growing tighter and tighter. If this continued, that illness of his was going to flare up again.
The sunlight above ground was piercing to the eyes, and the feeling of breathing fresh air once more was undoubtedly beautiful. Zhang Shutong casually threw the debris in his hands into the old house—several very troublesome concrete blocks had been hauled up by them.
Despite being very careful, the tunnel was too narrow, and their clothes and hair inevitably brushed against the cave walls, leaving several of them looking somewhat covered in gray dust and dirt for a time.
Lu Qinglian and Ruoping were slightly better off, but he and Qingyi couldn't care less about the dirt anymore; they found a clean spot, plopped down, and panted heavily for air.
"Just what... is hidden inside... that was worth going to such great lengths to block up?" Qingyi said in bewilderment as he calmed his breathing. "Never mind clearing it out, just blocking it in the first place must have left them exhausted to death."
Zhang Shutong didn't reply. After coming up to the surface, his phone caught a signal, and only then did he realize that several new messages had appeared on QQ. They were actually sent by his older school sister:
"There really are foxes."
Then came a photo of a fox.
A small piece of the fox's ear was missing.
Zhang Shutong's eyelids jumped, recognizing whose fox this was.
Last night, he had told his school sister that she could go walk around the mountain, that the scenery was nice, casually mentioning that there were wild animals up there like foxes, rabbits, hedgehogs, and the like. He hadn't expected her to actually run up the mountain to gather material.
In the frame was a clean, fair hand, stroking the fox's fluffy, large head.
Even across the screen, one could feel the joy of this hand's owner.
Yet Zhang Shutong inexplicably felt a bit guilty. Did this count as... introducing Lu Qinglian's fox to his school sister?
No, the fox was wild; Lu Qinglian had said so herself.
Thinking of this, he glanced at Lu Qinglian. As if sensing his gaze, Lu Qinglian returned his look. She knit her brows, and Zhang Shutong turned his head back.
Qingyi was still brainstorming:
"I'm wondering if this entire tunnel used to be occupied by the owner of that basement. When he finished his business and was about to leave, the room filled with photos wasn't locked—clearly an important secret—yet the other end of the tunnel was blocked up instead. I'm getting more and more curious about what's hidden inside now."
"Can you guys please stop being so curious?" Ruoping went to the bicycle to grab some water and tossed it to the three of them, looking ready to cry without tears. "I shouldn't have agreed to come on an adventure with you guys. Isn't it better to stay at home on the weekend and get some beauty sleep?"
"There, there," Qingyi comforted her. "It'll be done very soon."
"You liar!"
Zhang Shutong also felt that Qingyi was lying. By his estimate, they had only cleared out a quarter of the space. The good news was that by shining the flashlight through the gaps, they could already faintly see the space inside.
It was better than them working themselves half to death moving debris only to find a solid wall behind it.
"My fellow young heroes, let's make a deal. How about I go swap Du Kang over here? I'd rather help serve dishes," Ruoping said solemnly.
"That would be fantastic," Qingyi said in pleasant surprise.
"You..." Ruoping was furious. She turned for help, "What about Qinglian? Do you think there's still a need to clear it?"
"I will stay."
Lu Qinglian had always spoken very little in these situations, but she was concise and to the point.
Ruoping let out a long sigh. She had originally wanted to call Lu Qinglian out to go shopping and let the two boys adventure by themselves, but she hadn't expected that she was the only one who wanted to leave.
"Fine, fine, fine," she said through gritted teeth. "Then let's save energy one more time, let's go and come back quickly!"
Zhang Shutong didn't dare to correct her that it was called environmentalism.