Chapter 031
Jongharng Chioujen
After the back wall of the cupboard was fully opened, Chioujen found that behind the cupboard was another cupboard. The cupboard behind the cupboard was similar to a closet. So, Chioujen stood in front of a small room that seemed to function as a closet. If there was no cupboard in front of the closet, then the room would be just a niche in the wall. Chioujen, who had been convinced that there was a secret passage behind the cupboard, was a little disappointed. He lay in the closet feeling a little tired after a while of fiddling with the lever to open it.
The more he thought, the more confused he became. He thought about the reason why people made a closet like that if it would only be covered by a cupboard. And, it was also not easy to open it. All of that seemed unreasonable. The existence of another way out behind the closet was a much more plausible thing. But, unlike the cupboard wall in front of the niche, the wall behind was a solid wall. Chioujen lay crosswise. The width of the closet was about one and a half meters. He had to bend his legs so he could lie in the closet. Because he had struggled to get to that place, Chioujen was reluctant to return to the subway station straight away. He decided to rest while lying down for a while.
He idly kicked the surface of the wall at his feet. Unlike the closet's back wall, Choujin felt something different from the wall on the left. There were certain parts of the wall that he felt were not solid. Chioujen stopped kicking. He got up to start checking at once. Chioujen discovered that some parts of the walls were not made of concrete. With her fingers, Chioujen felt more thoroughly on the surface of that part of the wall. Unlike the wall of the cupboard in front of him, which was made of wood, the part that Chioujen found was made of some kind of metal. Chioujen didn't know what kind of metal it was because when he touched the wall, he didn't feel like he was touching iron, But Chioujen was sure that the part wasn't made of wood. The problem was that the passage was so small that he doubted it was the entrance to a secret passage.
When Chioujen looked more closely using the flashlight, he realized that this passage was indeed similar to an entrance. But not an entrance for humans, more like a dog or cat entrance. In Chioujen's hometown, this kind of entrance was called the Dog Door. So-called because it was the entrance for dogs. For cats, this kind of entrance was called the Cat Door. The difference was in terms of size. The Dog Door was much bigger than the Cat Door.
Chioujen thought for a moment. A fairly large dog could indeed pass the entrance. A child would definitely be able to break through. But an adult, like himself, Chioujen, was a bit hesitant. If he forced himself, he was afraid he would get stuck in the door. No one knew he was there. Chioujen realized he was facing a pretty enormous risk. But he had to make a quick decision.
If I got stuck and couldn't get out, wouldn't I suffer for several days before finally dying of hunger and thirst?
Chioujen laughed to himself at the thought of that. It's ironic, so many things he had experienced and yet he must die stuck in a Dog Door.
As he continued to stare at the passage, he kept thinking about how to open it. He looked for something that resembled a lever, but he couldn't find it. It occurred to him to look for objects made of metal to break down the surface of the Dog Door. But he was still patient. Using such violence was a last resort. Chioujen then used his flashlight to illuminate the entire corner of the closet once again.
Then he turned around. He also highlighted where he had come from earlier. He looked again at the two levers in the cupboard. Suddenly, Chioujen realized that there was a part he had not noticed, namely the back wall of the cupboard that he had moved to the side. He had already seen from the front when he opened the cupboard. But he didn't see the other side because he had already moved to the side when he found the closet.
Now he was in the closet. So he had to shift back the part that limits the closet with the cupboard in front of him. Chioujen stood up and began to grope the wall. Just before shifting the wall, Chioujen gave up his intention. He didn't know how to open the sliding wall from the inside. It wouldn't be funny at all if he got stuck there because he didn't know how to open the wall. Chioujen then moved the wooden wall but did not completely cover the back of the cupboard. Only cover half of it. After that, he checked every inch of the wall.
Finally, he found something at the top of the wall. There were three buttons on the top. For a moment, he hesitated again, but in the end, he had the courage to move the wall completely so that the closet where he was standing was tightly closed. Just as the wall closed completely, Chioujen heard a "click." He was certain that it was an automatic lock mechanism.
To open the wall from the outside was to first press the combination of buttons on the two levers before moving the two levers. In order to open it from the inside, Chioujen tried to push the buttons at the top of the wall one by one. After trying several times, he finally succeeded. Turned out he had to press each button three times. After a "click" sound came from the device, he could move the wall so that the barrier between the closet and the cupboard was wide open.
Chioujen shifted the wall again. After closing it completely, he observed the wall's surface from the inside. Unlike the outer side, which was the inner side of the cupboard, the inner side of this wall was not plain. There was a painting there. The picture was painted on the surface of the wooden wall. Indeed, the image had faded, maybe because it had been so long. The object in the painting was an endless wall. The long wall was depicted snaking like a snake. Chioujen guessed that the long wall was the legendary long wall that existed in the old world where their ancestors lived thousands of years ago.
The old world where their ancestors came from was not homogeneous. There were various cultures and civilizations there. During the great migration, all the countries sent their inhabitants into space on giant colony spaceships. According to the history that Chioujen learned at school, there were about a hundred fleets departing from the old world. Each fleet comprised hundreds of colony spaceships.
Not everyone was willing to leave the old world. What would happen to the people who chose to stay there?
One of the important regions or countries in the old world was the place where the ancestors of Chioujen and many other people came from. In that area, a legendary wall was an essential part of the history of their ancestral civilization. The wall was built long before the great migration. Even the first construction of a section of the wall took place over two thousand years before the people there left their planet.
Unlike Jenqyih or Shannchyuan, who were very fond of studying things related to the old world, Chioujen, like most people in the new world, knew very little about the history of their ancestral civilization in the old world. So he couldn't remember any more information. The painting aroused curiosity in Chioujen. He promised himself not to forget to ask Shannchyuan or Jenqyih about it when he got home. Chioujen hoped he would make it through the night without encountering more difficulties than he had been through.
But the painting had nothing to do with how to open the Dog Door. So it was clear that no matter how much information Chioujen remembered, it wouldn't make things any better. Chioujen lay down again inside the closet. He kicked the Dog Door again. But this time, he felt something different from the part of the wall he kicked. He quickly got up and looked at the Dog Door again. The plate now looked nothing like before. Chioujen felt the entire surface of the plate. When his hand pulled the bottom of the plate, it turned out that he could open it. The Dog's door could open easily. The plate opened towards him. So it's like when people open the hood of a car. It turned out that there were conditions to open the Dog Door. The first was that the closet must be closed. And the second was that the plate must be pulled, not pushed.
Chioujen again cheered with joy. He pulled the plate so that the Dog Door was fully open. Once he reached that stage, he couldn't back down anymore. Chioujen should try to get into the room behind the Dog Door. The burning curiosity overcame the fear that overtook Chioujen. Cautiously, he began to curl up. It was the only way to enter the door. Slowly but surely, Chioujen shifted his body forward. Little by little, he entered through the door. Crawling like a snake was not a simple thing. But Chioujen enjoyed it. He couldn't explain the exact reason behind the feeling. Perhaps the satisfaction of having managed to enter the door had made Chioujen's subconscious feel a distinct impression.
The thing that probably made it a little difficult for him to get through the Dog Door was the fact that he was full. Just before Chioujen embarked on such a perilous journey, he had already eaten quite a bit of food. A bulging stomach automatically made it difficult for him to move faster. But that didn't dampen Chioujen's spirit. He inched patiently. Inch by inch, his body crept away under the Dog Door.
Finally, Chioujen passed through the door. The Dog's door automatically closed after its whole body penetrated the door. He found himself in another room. Before starting to explore the space, Chioujen turned around to examine the door he had just entered. He had to know how to open the door to avoid wasting time thinking when he had to leave. It turned out that his worries were unfounded. From inside the room, the Dog Door was effortless to open. All he had to do was push the door open. After feeling relieved, Chioujen then stood up. He was ready to inspect the room.
Chioujen was in a rectangular room. At least that's the impression Chioujen got from the room. Except for the Dog Door where he had come earlier, the entire wall of the room was covered with piles of stuff. The situation was almost the same as the three rooms that Chioujen had found earlier. The difference was that the room was much smaller. With the help of the light that came out of his flashlight, Chioujen explored all corners of the room. He was sure that another door was here. According to his guess, the door must be hidden behind the pile of things there.
Having managed to get there, a wild speculation emerged. Chioujen guessed that the person he followed had also entered the room. He searched the room for the least dust. Chioujen's reasoning was that it tended to be cleaner because the area was touched by people. Chioujen's attention was then drawn to a dressing table in one corner of the room. The dressing table was made of excellent quality wood. Still strong, even though it looked old. In front of the dressing table was a clean-looking stool. Even though it looked clean, Chioujen still tried to wipe the bench before sitting down. He looked at the mirror in front of him. The light from his flashlight swirled around the mirror's surface. He also shone a flashlight on other parts of the dresser.
There were three drawers on the dresser. Chioujen opened one by one the drawers that were there. The first drawer was empty. Chioujen put his hand into the drawer. He fumbled inside the drawer to check for hidden compartments. Sensing that there was nothing there, Chioujen turned to the second drawer. Just like the first drawer, this second drawer also did not contain a secret. When she opened the third drawer, which was the bottom one, Chioujen felt it was a bit difficult to open. It was like there was something stuck in the drawer. With exertion, he could also open the drawer. Just like before, Chioujen immediately put his hand inside. The drawer was also empty. But, he felt the distance between the front of the drawer and the back was much shorter than the two drawers above it.
Chioujen wiped the entire surface of the back of the drawer. He felt something at the left end of the back of the drawer. Turned out there was a handle there. There was a hidden compartment behind the drawer. Chioujen pulled the handle. Turns out he could open it. It was a little challenging to shine a flashlight on that part, so Chioujen just relied on his fingers to check the hidden part. Inside, there was an object made of metal. It was shaped like a vertical cylinder. After groping more closely, Chioujen felt that the object's shape was similar to that of a candle. At the top of the cylinder, conical like the top of a candle. He rubbed the conical part. Nothing happened.
Chioujen's fingertips touched the part between the base of the small cone and the top of the cylinder. He felt there was a tiny gap there. The conical top turned out to be not a part that connected to the cylinder below. Chioujen tried to rotate the top of the cylinder, the conical part. He moved his fingers like turning a bottle cap when he was about to open a bottle. At first, it rotated in a counterclockwise direction. The conical part didn't move at all. Then Chioujen rotated in the opposite direction, i.e., clockwise. This time, he moved the cone part. After turning the object roughly ninety degrees,, there was a "click." After that, Chioujen couldn't move it any further. He tried to turn in the opposite direction. That time, after turning the thing to its original position, it could still rotate even further. Chioujen couldn't explain it. Until finally, after turning about one hundred and eighty degrees from the position of the "click" he had heard earlier, he couldn't turn the object any further. However, Chioujen could hear another "click" sound. So there were two "clicks" that he heard.
Chioujen cheered with joy. Turned out the secret was to turn the conical part clockwise by ninety degrees. After that, people just had to turn the thing in the opposite direction by approximately one hundred and eighty degrees.
Whoever designed these things, that person must have a love for puzzles and mysterious things.
Chioujen thought back to Songfei. He really hoped that nothing terrible happened to the young man.
The designer of these tools must be very suitable for conversing with Songfei. They can spend hours talking just to discuss just one thing!
Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound. But the rumbling sound was meager volume. It was like a rumbling sound from a distance. Surprisingly, the wall to the left of the dressing table was suddenly pushed inward. The wall pushed back created a niche in the wall. There was only an ordinary wall on the left side of the alcove. But, there was a hole in the wall on the right. It turned out that the exit from the room was in one corner of the room, right next to the dressing table made of high-quality wood. Wasting no time, Chioujen immediately entered the hole in the wall to the right of the alcove. It turned out to be the beginning of a passage.
Just like before, before exploring the passage, Chioujen first checked the entrance. He must know how to open and close the entrance from the inside. He illuminated the entire surface of the wall that was there. A metal candle holder hung on the passage's wall. There were no candles there anymore, only the candleholder. The position of the candle holder was tilted. So it's like shifting about fifteen degrees to the left. Chioujen grabbed the candle holder and tried to straighten it again. There was a slow rumbling sound like before. The wall of the niche then moved forward, and the niche disappeared. Chioujen pulled the candleholder to the side again so that it was tilted like before. A slow rumbling sound followed by the wall going in and forming an alcove.
"Ah!" Chioujen commented curtly. Now he didn't have to worry anymore about continuing his exploration. Cautiously, Chioujen walked through the passage. The passage was quite wide, about two meters. The height was about three meters. So people could walk in it freely. People who were not tall could even jump up and down when they were happy. But Chioujen didn't try that. His body was quite tall, so there was a possibility that if he jumped high enough, his head could hit the ceiling of the hall. Banging head against the hallway ceiling wasn't such a good idea. Especially when he was alone like that.
Since coming out of the toilet, Chioujen had actually lost his way. The many twists and turns he went through had made him not know where he was now. Even Chioujen didn't know how far he was from the subway station, the place where he started his underground journey. Not only that. Chioujen didn't know how deep he was from the ground. The path along the passage was sometimes downhill, sometimes uphill. That fact made Chioujen even more unable to estimate the depth of the passage from ground level.
After over twenty minutes of walking, Chioujen arrived at a relatively large hall. The hall was in the shape of a hexagon. On each side was a door leading to another passage. Chioujen came from one of the six doors. It wasn't right to call it a door because it was just an empty space. No door separated the passages from the hall. Right in the center of the hall, there was a large circular stone about eighty or ninety centimeters in diameter. It was about half a meter high. The surface of the stone was flat. When Chioujen stepped forward to take a close look at the object, the rock looked very much like an enormous bench. Maybe it was a bench. Chioujen sat for a while on the bench to unwind. He was a bit regretful because he didn't bring a bottle of water with him. His throat felt so dry.
Five minutes of rest was more than enough. Chioujen got up and started walking again. He walked towards the door where he had entered. He took off his clothes. Removing poultice plasters that had been attached to his shoulder. Chioujen then crouched against the wall on the side of the door. He stuck the plaster on the bottom surface of the wall, about fifteen centimeters from the floor. All the doors in the room looked so similar, so he had to give a marker not to get lost when he intended to return to the inn. Of the five remaining doors, Chioujen must choose one for him to explore. He walked towards the door directly opposite the entrance he had come from. When he got there, he did the same thing. He was sticking another plaster on the wall near the door. However, the position was slightly higher this time, about thirty centimeters from the floor.
After putting his clothes and jacket back on, Chioujen immediately entered the hallway. The width and height of the passage were the same as the previous passage. About a hundred meters from the hall entrance, the path forked. The two branches of the passage were smaller than the passage he had passed. Chioujen hesitated for a moment, but he stepped into the passage to the right. The path was also winding, though not as much as the previous one. Chioujen suspected that the reason people built the winding passages was closely related to the condition of the rocks underground. The hard stones made it difficult for people to construct straight passages.
Chioujen arrived at a bend. The bend was so sharp that it didn't look like a bend at all. The aisle turned left. Hesitated, Chioujen paused for a moment. He shone on the walls of the hall for a better look. On the passage bend wall, there was a foreign inscription. Chioujen didn't know what the writing meant. He didn't even know what kind of script was used to write it. He tried to remember the form of the writing so he could tell his dahge or Jenqyih when he got home.
Chioujen turned to follow the turn of the passage. After passing the bend, Chioujen walked with great vigilance. He highlighted the walls to the right and left of the passage. When he pointed the flashlight forward, he saw a ray of light emanating from the other end. Not only that, he even heard a faint sound. It was like the sound of people having a conversation. A moment after that, Chioujen heard a scream. One of the few people there screamed. Maybe that person saw the light of the flashlight that Chioujen was carrying.
Some people were chatting there! It means I've reached the end of the underground passage! There must be another room or hall beyond this end of this passage.
Chioujen turned off his flashlight right away. He didn't know where he was now. Also, he didn't know who those people were. Perhaps things would be dangerous if he confronted them head-on. Chioujen didn't know how many people there were. He decided to turn around and walk briskly in the opposite direction. He walked on without stopping. Chioujen quickly came to the door that connected the passage to the hexagon hall he had just left. After arriving at the hall, Chioujen did not forget to remove the plaster that he had attached earlier.
Straight away, Chioujen headed for the door that led to the room where there was a dressing table. He also did not forget to remove the plaster attached below. Those people might just follow him. He didn't want to leave any clues for those people. Without wasting much time, he entered the passage to return to where he had come from.
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