Chapter 035
Shimen Yihshyong
Yihshyong and his friends waited for a while until they were sure that the wall had completely stopped moving. They advanced to the end of the hall. To the left of the now hollow, there was another room. From inside, they could see that in front of them was an old dressing table made of wood.
"Jenqyih and I will enter the room in front of us. You keep watching here." Shannchyuan patted Yihshyong on the shoulder. After saying that, he stepped into the room. Jenqyih immediately followed what Shannchyuan was doing. Yihshyong was standing right at the end of the hall. Even though his left foot had already half stepped into the newly opened room, he didn't move forward. Shannchyuan's words were obvious.
From the outside, Shannchyuan gazed at the entrance of the passage. He was now standing opposite Yihshyong. Shannchyuan looked thoughtful for a moment. He then went back inside.
"You wait here a moment," Shannchyuan said to Jenqyih before he went back into the passage.
Once inside, he poked Yihshyong to follow him back toward the candleholder. After the two of them were in front of that thing, Shannchyuan straightened the candleholder that he had tilted to open the secret door. There was a smooth rumbling sound like before. The wall of the niche then moved forward, and the niche disappeared. Shannchyuan pulled the candleholder to the side again so that it was tilted like before. There was a slow rumbling sound followed by the wall going in and forming an alcove.
"Now we are sure that this candleholder can function properly," said Shannchyuan.
"There must be a similar mechanism in the next room," Yihshyong said.
"You are right. There must be a way to open this door from the outside. But our time is very limited. It's not enough to investigate that. So, for the time being, let's use this method first." Shannchyuan pointed to the candleholder.
Shannchyuan stopped talking. He shone his flashlight at the hall ceiling. He tried to see if there were objects hanging or attached to the top. There was nothing there.
"We don't know how long this door will be open. Maybe after a few minutes, this door suddenly closed itself. So I'm asking you to stand guard right next to this chandelier. If later, suddenly, the door closes itself. You just push the candleholder to the side, just like I did."
"Okay."
After that, Shannchyuan came out again, joining Jenqyih.
Yihshyong couldn't see what his two friends were doing. But he could still hear their voices. They seemed to have forgotten that they have to keep their volume not so loud.
"This dressing table and stool look clean." Jenqyih's voice sounded so sure. "So it's plausible that someone touched it relatively often."
"I agree. This dressing table and stool must have something to do with how to open this side aisle." Shannchyuan's voice also sounded sure.
"Shall we check these tables and stools now?"
"Later. Now we have to find another way out of this room." Shannchyuan's voice was firm.
After that, Yihshyong couldn't hear any sound. They seemed to have moved away from where they had been standing. Yihshyong was waiting in silence for a long time until suddenly he heard approaching footsteps. In an instant, Jenqyih had appeared in front of him.
"Now it's Shyongge's turn," Jenqyih said.
"What turn?" Yihshyong didn't understand what Jenqyih meant.
"Dahge asked Shyongge to go there."
"Where is Dahge now?"
"Shyongge saw a dressing table in the next room, right? Well, it's a rectangular room. The dressing table is in one corner. Currently, Dahge is standing in the corner diagonally opposite the corner where the dressing table is."
"Ah! Dahge wants me to take your place with Dahge there?"
Jenqyih nodded. "Be careful where you walk. Stuff is scattered everywhere. There are narrow passages where there are no piles of stuff. Shyongge can use it as a walkway."
After hearing Jenqyih's explanation, Yihshyong immediately walked away from Jenqyih. After exiting the alcove, Yihshyong walked carefully down the narrow path. Since the room wasn't huge, in no time, he was beside Shannchyuan.
Shannchyuan pointed down at the towering wall in front of them. There was a dog door which was quite large. Even a large dog would easily pass through that door, likewise with children or adults who were small. However, maybe not all adults could pass the door.
Ah! I understand! Dahge must have been afraid that the big Jenqyih would get stuck in the dog's door if he dared to try to enter it. So he asked me to come here.
Yihshyong shook his head while holding back a laugh.
The two of them crouched in front of the dog's door. Shannchyuan touched the plate that was the door leaf of the dog door. It was effortless to open the dog door. He just pushed it, the plate opened outwards at once.
This is a surprise. I thought we should spend a few minutes trying to figure out how to open this door!
"I'll try to get in through this dog door. You stay here," said Shannchyuan.
Uh? Dahge himself would try to get through this door? I thought he would ask me to try first.
Shannchyuan put his flashlight on the floor. He then lay face down. Pushing the dog's door open, it moved forward in a slithering manner. Little by little, his body passed through the dog door until finally, his whole body made it into the door.
"Give me my flashlight, please," Shannchyuan asked Yihshyong when he reached the room behind the dog door.
Yihshyong quickly handed the flashlight through the dog door, which was still open. "Can I come in now?"
"Wait a minute. It's so cramped in here. I'll check this room first," said Shannchyuan. "Besides, we don't know how to open this dog door from this side. I'll try to find out about it. It might take some time, so I want you to wait there patiently. If within twenty-five minutes I can't open this dog door from here, please open the door from there."
The dog door closed again. Just like earlier, Yihshyong had to wait for a while. In fact, he had to wait a lot longer. It seemed that Shannchyuan was examining the adjoining room attentively. Yihshyong was restless. Minutes passed. The dog door wasn't open yet. Finally, Yihshyong could breathe a sigh of relief. Twenty minutes later, the dog door opened from the next room.
"I've found a way to open this dog door from over here." Shannchyuan laughed.
"Is the method so complicated that it took Dahge more than twenty minutes?"
Shannchyuan laughed again. "Actually, from the start, I could have guessed about how to open this door from here. But there is something I have to make sure of first. If my guess turns out to be wrong, I don't want both of us to be trapped here."
Yihshyong nodded. ""What should I do now?"
"Now you come here," said Shannchyuan, "but first, you put in the kerosene lamp."
Yihshyong promptly laid the lamp down and pushed it through the dog door. After that, Yihshyong imitated the way Shannchyuan entered the door. Shannchyuan helped by pulling Yihshyong's hand. That way, Yihshyong could get into the closet faster than when Shannchyuan had done it before.
Arriving in the next room, Yihshyong was a bit confused. He found himself in a very narrow space. Turned out they were in a closet. But he saw Shannchyuan looked so calm. That's why he also tried to stay calm. The closing wall of the closet, which was the wall that separated the closet from the rest of the room, was made of wood. At the top of the wall covering, there were three buttons. Shannchyuan pressed the three buttons at the top of the wooden wall three times each. When he heard a click, he immediately moved the wooden wall. The wall was completely open. The two of them stepped into the room behind the closet.
When Yihshyong was about to close the wall covering the closet, Shannchyuan stopped him. "Don't do that. I'm afraid this door locks automatically after we close it. We don't know how to open this wall from the outside yet. So we should just leave this wall open. Next time, we'll investigate how to open it from the outside."
Yihshyong pulled his hand away. They both turned their bodies so that this time they had their backs to the closet they had come from. It turned out that behind the closet, there was a cupboard. Yihshyong was astonished to find the two of them in a cupboard. The cupboard looked like a wardrobe.
"Putting the wardrobe right in front of the closet? Does this make sense?" Shannchyuan muttered to himself. Shannchyuan's mutter was loud enough that Yihshyong could hear his voice clearly.
The cupboard door was not locked. Shannchyuan and Yihshyong quickly came out of the cupboard. They found themselves in a room similar to the room with the dressing table. Not only the shape was similar but also the situation inside the room. Stuff was scattered everywhere. The walls on all four sides of the room were also covered with piles of stuff. Exactly the same as in the previous room. There were parts on the floor that were clean of stuff. The passages form a path that they can traverse. Without wasting much time, they immediately traced the path. They quickly arrived at a door.
The door wasn't locked. Shannchyuan opened the door cautiously. Yihshyong understood they had to try not to make a sound. After the door was fully opened, they instantly entered the door.
Behind the door was a passage. The room they came in was the one right at the end of the passage. On the right and left walls at the end of the passage, there were also doors.
"Apparently, there are three rooms at the end of this passage. In front, left, right," said Shannchyuan.
"In Dahge's opinion, do we need to check the other two rooms?" Yihshyong pointed at the two doors.
Shannchyuan nodded. "I'd love to see what's in those two rooms. But right now, that's not our priority. We'll do that another time." After saying that, Shannchyuan walked away from the doors.
Maybe we won't have another time. Soon we will have to move to another place.
Shannchyuan stopped walking. He turned when he realized that Yihshyong hadn't left the door from which they had left. "Let's continue our journey. What are you waiting for?"
"Dahge, we have to be careful. What if that person is around here?"
"I know. But we have to take the risk. This passage must lead to somewhere out there," said Shannchyuan. "So we tread carefully."
The two of them walked down the hall. After walking for a while, they came upon a very sharp turn. After going through the bend, they were flabbergasted. They saw a bright light ahead. At the same time, they both stopped in their tracks.
"I think we should be more careful now than before," Yihshyong whispered.
"You are right," Shannchyuan replied curtly. His whisper was no less soft than Yihshyong's.
They both continued their journey. This time, they were sneaking around. Carefully, try not to make any sound. Luckily, the footwear they were wearing was made of a material that didn't make a sound when they set foot on the floor.
They came to another passage. The passage was wider. And what was surprising was that the hallway was bright. There's an electric light there. Obviously, it was a hallway that people used to walk through. The passage they had just come in was a fork of that hallway. A branch that seemed to be rarely passed by people. The other branch was a narrow hallway located parallel to the passage from which they had come.
"Which one shall we check first?" Yihshyong asked.
"Let's see where this branch goes first," said Shannchyuan.
They then walked down the hallway. Not far from there, Yihshyong and Shannchyuan arrived at the entrance to the public toilet.
"Is this the restroom?" Yihshyong couldn't hide his surprise.
"So this is a public place," said Shannchyuan.
They then turned around. A moment later, the two had reached the end of the dark passage from which they had come. They continued walking down the wide, brightly lit hallway. The hallway was quite winding, but it wasn't long. In a moment, they had arrived at the end of the hall.
Shannchyuan and Yihshyong arrived at a bright place. They were a bit dazzled because they had been in a dark place for a long time, so their eyes had adapted to the darkness. It took some time for their eyes to see normally in a place that was bathed in light like that.
They were still confused about the place. Looked like it was morning. It was time to do daily activities for some people. Astonished, they continued to walk, looking left and right. Yihshyong found the place somewhat familiar. He looked at Shannchyuan's face. The Dahge also showed a facial expression that he usually showed when he realized something.
"That's the Shindongchaang warehouse where we left our stuff two days ago!" Yihshyong pointed his index finger at the large arch in front of them.
"You are right!" Shannchyuan looked around them. "We should have guessed it earlier."
It turned out that they were currently on the bottom floor of the closest subway station to their house!
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