Edited—

Regarding the surveillance footage in the tunnel, it was black-and-white and not very clear. But one could still make out the human figure walking inside. Yu He tapped the screen and said, “This is the worker who disappeared.”

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak with his eyes closed. Lin Jue, however, watched very carefully. She noticed the time in the upper left corner of the footage. “The construction party is still working at night?”

Yu He said, “Yes, the schedule for this section is rather tight, so there’s also construction at night.”

Lin Jue said, “With people already missing, they still dare to work at night?”

Yu He said helplessly, “The first few who disappeared were during the day. The construction party didn’t take it seriously and didn’t even check the surveillance.” This also caused the previous surveillance footage to be overwritten, so they couldn’t know if those few workers had also disappeared in the same manner.

Zhou Jiayu sat in a slightly rearward position and watched as the worker on the screen slowly moved toward the depths of the tunnel, finally stopping before that wall.

There were some cracks in the wall, but these cracks were all very small; the largest was only about the size of a fist.

“How exactly did he squeeze in there?” Zhou Jiayu said in disbelief. Compared to words, the scene before his eyes was truly hair-raising. The worker first stretched out his hand, then his head and body, and then actually forcibly squeezed himself into the tiny crack.

The surveillance was rather blurry. After the worker squeezed his body in, it was hard to see the situation inside clearly, and the footage stopped.

Lin Jue said, “The tunnel construction was halted after this?”

Yu He said, “Yes, after watching this footage, the higher-ups reacted rather strongly and said they had to resolve this matter before resuming work.” After all, this subway line was supposed to pass through the downtown area. If after construction was completed and passengers were riding it, and something happened to the passengers because of this, it would be a huge mess.

“Bring me the map of the locations the subway passes through.” Lin Zhushui spoke.

Yu He had already prepared these materials. The map was actually a specially made tactile map for the blind. When Lin Zhushui’s fingers touched it, his expression paused slightly, and he said warmly, “Old Yu is very thoughtful.”

Yu He said, “Mr. Lin, you’re too kind. You being willing to come here is already giving our Yu family face.”

Lin Zhushui’s fingers traced over the map. After a moment, he asked a question: “Why would they choose this route?”

This sentence was unclear, but Old Yu seemed to understand. He let out a long sigh, his tone carrying thick helplessness. “Mr. Lin, although I also knew, this matter wasn’t something we could decide. At the time, I advised them not to go this way, but among the various plans, the land price for this section was the cheapest, and they didn’t have to consider demolition issues…”

Lin Zhushui said, “Then they should have been mentally prepared for something to happen here.”

“Sigh, the incident has already happened; we can’t just ignore it.” Yu He wore a helpless expression.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong both listened in a fog. Lin Jue, however, caught the meaning and said, “How? There’s a problem with this location?”

Lin Zhushui tapped a spot on the map with his finger. “This air-raid shelter has a big problem.”

“Yes.” Yu He said, “The air-raid shelter does indeed have some problems.” He sighed and slowly spoke of the matter regarding the air-raid shelter.

This city was the wartime capital during the Republican era. Because of its special geographical location, it was extremely difficult for outsiders to attack. Unable to attack, the enemy came up with an even more vicious method—bombing.

Thus, planes carrying bombs would frequently streak across the sky, dropping bombs of tremendous destructive power. Because of this situation, many air-raid shelters were built in this city. Once the alarm sounded, the masses would carry all their valuables and move into the air-raid shelters.

After Shen Yiqiong heard this, he said, “But aren’t air-raid shelters life-saving facilities? How could there be a problem?”

“Sigh, that’s a long story.” Yu He’s tone was heavy as he continued, “You know, it was the War of Resistance back then, supplies were tight, and the buildings weren’t constructed according to particularly standard regulations. Then one time, there happened to be a major bombing…”

The people seeking refuge from the bombing all gathered in the air-raid shelter. The air raid came suddenly, causing people to all go to the nearest shelter, and the number of people inside grew more and more… more and more… People gathered at the entrance, and oxygen was continuously being consumed.

By the time the people inside discovered something was wrong, it was already too late. People showing symptoms of oxygen deprivation continuously gathered toward the entrance, wanting to rush out. However, at this moment, a fatal flaw in the air-raid shelter was exposed—the door of the air-raid shelter actually opened inward from the outside.

The people inside wanting to squeeze out were stacked in layers at the door, which instead caused the door to be unable to open, creating a vicious cycle.

Although Yu He’s words were concise, everyone present felt their hair stand on end because of these few sentences. Before Zhou Jiayu’s eyes, a scene beyond words seemed to appear.

“My grandfather was here back then.” Yu He said, “He saw that scene. When the door was opened, what came out first was a mass of corpses stacked in layers. Then the survivors behind them poured out, and quite a few died even while running out.”

Lin Jue said, “Rescue efforts were carried out after?”

Yu He shook his head. “Rescue? Rescue efforts were indeed carried out, but the people below didn’t like listening to orders from above. It’s said that the people who came to rescue didn’t do anything good. Some who hadn’t stopped breathing were directly dragged to death by them. There were also those who took advantage of the chaos to loot—the people who came to the air-raid shelter were all carrying good things on them. They took advantage of people being unconscious and ransacked them…”

This history was truly too horrifying to hear. By today’s standards, it would be unimaginable. But human lives were worth the least during wartime. Better to be a dog in peaceful times than a human in chaotic times—there was truly some truth to this.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong both had faces full of sighs. Lin Jue said, “No rituals were performed after the incident at this place?”

Yu He said, “Of course they were. If they hadn’t, this place would have had a major incident. The ritual was performed by a famous feng shui master at the time. It’s just that his family has declined now…”

Lin Zhushui said, “Was it done by the Li family?”

Yu He nodded. “Exactly.”

The Li family was a major clan in this city. There was even a place named after their surname called Lijiaba. Their family also counted as a famous feng shui clan. It’s just that in recent years, the abilities of the descendants grew weaker and weaker, and they gradually declined.

From them, one could see that the most important thing for feng shui inheritance was talent. Taking in a talented disciple was no different from winning the lottery.

“When you built this tunnel, did you not ask for their opinion?” Lin Zhushui asked.

“We naturally asked.” Yu He smiled bitterly. “But Old Master Li only passed away last year. Their family doesn’t even have anyone in charge now. Although I asked, their family could only give the suggestion that it was best not to build it.”

Lin Zhushui tapped his finger on the table and didn’t speak.

Zhou Jiayu watched his movements and knew he was in a bad mood, although it wasn’t very apparent from his expression.

“We also told them to change the route as much as possible, but they didn’t believe in such superstitions. Look, now that something’s happened, they’re panicking.” Yu He also wasn’t very happy. “We also went to inspect it several times and couldn’t find a solution. Helpless, we could only invite you to come out of seclusion.”

Lin Zhushui said, “Specifically how many have disappeared?”

Yu He said, “Six.”

Six people had disappeared without explanation. This already counted as a major accident. No wonder the higher-ups couldn’t suppress it and were forced to halt the project. Otherwise, if they continued building, there would probably be more disappearances.

Lin Jue said, “Earning money is comfortable, but you need a life to spend it. If something really happens to these six people, the karma will probably fall on the person in charge.”

Yu He said, “Who cares about him. As long as the people are found, what happens to him is none of my business.” It seemed their attitude toward the construction party wasn’t very good either. But those workers were innocent; they couldn’t just leave them alone.

“We’ll go take a look tonight.” Lin Zhushui said.

Yu He said, “But Mr. Lin, with your constitution going over there, will the dirty things not come out?”

Hearing this, Lin Zhushui said, “It’s fine. There’s something they like here.”

The moment he finished saying this, Shen Yiqiong and Lin Jue both cast their gazes toward Zhou Jiayu. Zhou Jiayu: “…”

“Mousetrap.” Lin Jue pointed at Lin Zhushui. “Cheese.” Then she pointed at Zhou Jiayu.

Shen Yiqiong, this little bastard who didn’t think it was a big deal, laughed heartily.

It was still morning; there was still a whole day until night. After looking over the materials, everyone decided to go eat. Yu He said that since they were here, they should eat some local specialties. How about eating hot pot in an air-raid shelter?

Zhou Jiayu was startled. “Hot pot in an air-raid shelter?” He suddenly thought of the cooling effect dirty things brought, and in this sweltering weather it seemed like it would save quite a bit on electricity.

Yu He saw Zhou Jiayu’s expression and laughed heartily. “Of course not that air-raid shelter where the incident happened. There are many air-raid shelters here. You don’t need air conditioning and it’s cool. I’ve already reserved a table. We can go over in a bit.”

So at noon they really did go eat hot pot.

Lin Zhushui as usual didn’t touch a single chopstick. Shen Yiqiong and Lin Jue, however, watched the boiling red soup before them with complicated expressions.

“Is this mild spice?” Shen Yiqiong asked.

“It is mild spice.” Yu Xiaomian had already started putting his chopsticks in. He ate a piece of tripe, his lips turning bright red, and greeted Shen Yiqiong saying, “Eat, it’s not spicy.”

Shen Yiqiong tremblingly put his chopsticks in.

However, the “not spicy” of Sichuan-Chongqing people was simply a merciless deception to outsiders. After eating one piece, Shen Yiqiong’s tears immediately came down. He covered his mouth with his hand: “Not spicy??”

Yu Xiaomian said, “Really not spicy.” He licked his chopsticks.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit smarter than Shen Yiqiong and didn’t dare put his chopsticks in. Very weakly he asked, “Um… can we eat clear broth?”

The atmosphere at the table instantly froze. Yu Xiaomian slowly lifted his head and looked at Zhou Jiayu. That resentful gaze made Zhou Jiayu feel baffled.

“Fine.” Yu Xiaomian said, “We’ll eat yuanyang.” The melancholy in his tone made Zhou Jiayu feel as if this was a compromise from the soul.

Where they were from, the clear broth was half and half with the red soup, but at this restaurant the clear broth was only a small circle in the middle. Still, it was barely edible, and Zhou Jiayu breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Yu Xiaomian said, “You know, here we have a spice level called ‘chrysanthemum blossom.'”

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong both tightened their buttocks.

Yu Xiaomian said next time they could try it.

In the end, no one at the table responded to his words. Everyone watched their noses and minded their own hearts, earnestly eating the clear broth before them.

Time passed in the blink of an eye and it was evening. For dinner, under Lin Jue’s strong demands, they had porridge. She didn’t believe that even the porridge here had chili peppers in it. Fortunately, they weren’t so deranged here; the porridge was still light and mild, alleviating Zhou Jiayu’s unaccustomed stomach. Shen Yiqiong went to the restroom and came out with a face full of pain, saying he hoped they could resolve this matter quickly and return early, otherwise he felt he might really have to register at a colorectal hospital.

The sky gradually darkened. On the streets was a river of light formed by converging vehicles.

They went again to the tunnel they had visited during the day. Before they even entered, Zhou Jiayu felt gusts of yin wind blowing out from inside.

Yu Xiaomian said, “Although rituals were performed here, it actually frequently has ghost incidents. According to residents living nearby, if you pass by here at night, you can hear people inside asking questions, saying ‘Did the planes leave? Has the bombing stopped?’ At this time you absolutely must not answer. If you answer that they left, the things inside can come out…”

This kind of urban legend sounded somewhat horrifying. Shen Yiqiong said, “Then what if you answer that they didn’t leave?”

Yu Xiaomian laughed: “If you answer that they didn’t leave, then he’ll make you go in and keep him company…”

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

Yu He also couldn’t do much about his own grandson and said helplessly, “Alright, stop messing around.”

Yu Xiaomian said, “Are you scared?”

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong exchanged a glance, then he said frankly, “Actually, I think the hot pot at noon today was a bit scarier.” No matter how scary dirty things were, wasn’t Lin Zhushui here? But eating hot pot really made him feel like his rectum was going to prolapse.

Yu Xiaomian failed to scare anyone and clicked his tongue in regret.

When they went in, Yu He had the guard at the gate turn on all the lights inside. There were three night watchmen in total—from the number of people, one could tell the construction party was very worried about the guards having accidents too.

Fortunately, it seemed that as long as they didn’t enter the tunnel, there were no major problems.

The lighting in the tunnel wasn’t very bright. On both sides were dirt walls that hadn’t yet been lined with bricks. Xiao Zhi was quite excited after coming in, lying on Zhou Jiayu’s shoulder and looking left and right. It seemed to quite like the environment around it.

The tunnel was somewhat long. Everyone slowly moved forward. They hadn’t gone far when they suddenly heard some sound.

Lin Zhushui was the first to react. He said, “The sound of a door closing?”

Yu He’s expression changed. “Should we go back and look?”

Lin Zhushui shook his head. “That door is opened and closed from the outside. If it’s closed, we can’t do anything either. Let’s go in first and resolve the things inside before talking.”

Zhou Jiayu took out his phone and looked at the signal. As expected, he saw only a tiny bar of signal that looked like it could disappear at any moment.

“Then let’s continue forward.” Yu He nodded, agreeing with Lin Zhushui’s suggestion.

With tempting cheese present, the effect was indeed very good. Certain things in the darkness around them were stirring restlessly.

Who knew that after they walked forward a section, three forked paths would appear.

“How can there be forked paths?” Shen Yiqiong said. “When we came in that day, wasn’t there only one path here?”

Zhou Jiayu looked a bit more carefully than Shen Yiqiong. He said, “The color of the walls isn’t right either.” He walked to the wall and poked it. “These walls look like they were built a long time ago… Wait, why are there kerosene lamps hanging on the walls?”

At some point, the electric lights on both sides of the tunnel had turned into kerosene lamps. The kerosene lamp light was very weak, flickering slightly in the darkness, which instead made the atmosphere even more eerie.

Lin Zhushui said, “It seems we’ve entered a strange place.” After saying this, he actually cracked a rather cold joke. “From the surveillance footage, would they also see us squeezing into the cracks in the walls one by one?”

Only Lin Jue and Yu He laughed. The other juniors all had expressions of Sir, please stop talking.

The tunnel emitted an earthy smell, with a feeling of unventilated air that was very uncomfortable. But what made people most uncomfortable was the forked paths before them. Choosing which one to take had become the most important question right now.

“How about we split up?” Lin Jue proposed. “I’ll take one, Old Yu will take one, Zhushui you take one. We can split into three teams just right.”

“But what if something happens?” Yu He was a bit worried.

Lin Zhushui took out several talisman papers from his bosom and handed them to him. “If you encounter a situation you can’t resolve, burn the talisman papers and I’ll get here as soon as possible.”

Yu He didn’t try to act tough either and accepted the talisman papers from Lin Zhushui’s hand.

So it was decided just like that: Zhou Jiayu with Lin Zhushui, Yu He with Yu Xiaomian, and Lin Jue with Shen Yiqiong.

Inside, the tunnel was pitch-black and deep. Relying only on the dim kerosene lamps at the side, one couldn’t even see the scenery of the depths. Zhou Jiayu held Xiao Zhi and followed behind Lin Zhushui, entering the last tunnel.

This tunnel wasn’t wide—only enough for two people to pass side by side. The air was also somewhat terrible. Zhou Jiayu lowered his head and noticed that where they walked there were many messy footprints, as if many people had just run wildly through here.

Zhou Jiayu told Lin Zhushui about this situation. Lin Zhushui nodded to indicate he understood.

“Sir, are we in the tunnel from back then?” By now Zhou Jiayu had also caught on. Looking at the surroundings, he felt as if he had traveled back several decades, returning to that special period at the time.

“Perhaps.” Lin Zhushui, however, gave a vague answer.

Remembering the story he had heard from Yu He during the day, Zhou Jiayu felt a bit upset in his heart. Yu He had said that back then there was no specific number of people who died—several hundred was definite, and there were even folk legends saying the number was in the thousands. Of course, these things couldn’t be verified anymore, but the fact that this tunnel had swallowed countless lives was beyond doubt.

Every inch of land Zhou Jiayu stepped on could possibly be covering layers upon layers of corpses.

The two continued forward. They didn’t know how long they had walked, but this tunnel seemed to have no end at all. On the sides were all similar walls and identical oil lamps. Zhou Jiayu felt something was off. He had just opened his mouth: “Sir…” when a black shadow flashed before his eyes. This black shadow moved extremely fast; in the blink of an eye it pounced onto the oil lamp hanging on the wall.

With a cha sound, the oil lamp directly went out. The tunnel, which hadn’t been bright to begin with, instantly plunged into pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t see their own hand. Zhou Jiayu reacted quickly, taking out his phone and turning on the flashlight function—however, when he clearly saw the scene before his eyes, he would rather he hadn’t seen it.

He saw that on the left and right walls, pairs upon pairs of hands had actually stretched out, grabbing toward them. The skin of these hands was purplish, carrying black spots on them. One glance was enough to know that these absolutely didn’t belong to living humans.

“Fuck!” Zhou Jiayu was greatly startled, nearly jumping up from the ground. “Sir, there are hands!”

“Mm.” Compared to Zhou Jiayu, Lin Zhushui’s reaction was much calmer. It wasn’t possible that he hadn’t sensed the things around them, but his expression didn’t change in the slightest. “Don’t be afraid.”

Goosebumps rose on Zhou Jiayu layer after layer. “W-what are these things?”

Lin Zhushui said, “Mm?” His speech was slow and calm, which instead pacified Zhou Jiayu’s emotions. “I can’t see, but dirty things only have those tricks. Whatever you’re afraid of, it will become that.” He once again stretched his hand toward Zhou Jiayu.

This time, Zhou Jiayu wasn’t stupid enough to take out a cigarette from his pocket and hand it over like last time. Mainly, the atmosphere here wasn’t very suitable for smoking either. So carefully, Zhou Jiayu placed his own hand into Lin Zhushui’s hand, feeling Lin Zhushui slightly tighten his grip and hold him.

“That scared?” Lin Zhushui seemed to feel that Zhou Jiayu’s palm was full of sweat and casually asked.

Zhou Jiayu said, “I’m fine… I’m fine…” After being held by Lin Zhushui, Zhou Jiayu completely calmed down. Once a person calmed down, their ability to think was clearly much stronger. Zhou Jiayu also sensitively noticed that the pairs of hands stretching out from the surrounding walls seemed to have stopped at a certain specific position, unable to move forward another inch.

“If you’re still scared, turn off the light.” Lin Zhushui said. “I’ll just hold you and it’ll be fine.”

Zhou Jiayu thought about it and still refused Lin Zhushui’s kindness. He felt that avoiding some things wasn’t a good thing either.

Lin Zhushui nodded and held Zhou Jiayu as they continued forward.

This place was practically a hellish scene. On the walls, on the ceiling, were densely packed hands of all kinds. These hands were male and female, old and young. Some stretched out toward Zhou Jiayu with an appearance wanting to grab him; some were scratching at the walls, as if experiencing something extremely painful.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Sir, there seems to be something up ahead.” The weak light of the phone illuminated the road before them. Zhou Jiayu vaguely saw that they seemed to have reached the end of the tunnel, and in the darkness, something was slowly squirming.

Lin Zhushui didn’t speak, slightly tilting his head.

But Xiao Zhi lying on Zhou Jiayu’s shoulder suddenly said in a sharp voice, “Eat, eat!”

Zhou Jiayu was completely baffled: “Eat?”

He was still thinking about what “eat” meant when he saw the squirming shadows in front moving toward them. And Zhou Jiayu finally clearly saw what the thing before his eyes was.

It was a mass composed of human bodies, indescribable in words. As if human bodies had been forcibly squeezed together, you could see people’s torsos, limbs, and heads. Their skin all displayed a terrifying purple color that only appeared after oxygen deprivation. And this mass was moving toward Zhou Jiayu and Lin Zhushui. Although its speed wasn’t fast, the tunnel was only this big, and it was about to reach them.

This scene made Zhou Jiayu involuntarily tighten his grip on Lin Zhushui’s hand. “Sir!! Run!!”

Before Lin Zhushui could speak, Zhou Jiayu grabbed his hand and turned around to run for his life.

Huff huff! Running wildly forward, Zhou Jiayu used every ounce of strength he had. His heart was beating wildly, but the hand holding Lin Zhushui’s didn’t relax for a moment. Until he saw faint light appear before his eyes did his footsteps gradually stop.

“Sir.” Zhou Jiayu let go of his hand, panting heavily. “What was that thing?”

No one answered.

Zhou Jiayu was slightly stunned. He turned to look behind him, only to discover that behind him was completely empty. Lin Zhushui, who should have been behind him, was actually gone… And on the ground was a hand flopping around like a fish just out of water.

Zhou Jiayu’s expression froze… Could it be that he… had grabbed the wrong hand??

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: Sir, your hand is so soft.

Lin Zhushui with a cold face: You grabbed the wrong one.

Zhou Jiayu: …………AHHHH!!!!

This tunnel tragedy really existed. At the time, they even issued textbooks about this content, and there seemed to be illustrations and such—truly terrifying.