Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 131: Air Raid Shelters, Again Air Raid Shelters

Before a complete underground drainage system was established, it was very unusual for underground civil air defense facilities to be free of waterlogging.

Especially in a place like Tianmen City, where nine rivers flow to the sea, don’t even mention underground air-raid shelters; if you dig a well three meters deep on the ground, by the next day, it could be filled with water.

Initially, Wang Yunxiao couldn’t understand why there was such a well-preserved underground civil air defense facility beneath Qinghe Middle School, and even more perplexing was that there wasn’t a single trace of water.

It wasn’t until he attended cram school that he learned the reason.

On the fifteenth of each month, the "Real World" would devour the "Outer Dimension".

This underground civil air defense facility wasn’t a real entity of the real world.

It had been snatched away.

Not to say that this explanation was definitely correct, but it could explain things with this principle.

Just as Nurse Liu said— "As long as the truth serves its purpose, that’s good enough."

Although the underground passageway seemed safe, free of any danger, Qin Xiangdong still maintained the utmost caution. He only allowed his regular police officers to explore a hundred meters in depth before returning to the surface.

Even though it was high noon, no sunlight could penetrate inside the tunnel.

And inside, it also might not necessarily follow the physical laws of the real world.

Qin Xiangdong didn’t have high expectations for Wang Yunxiao’s team; he only set half an hour for their exploration. If they couldn’t find an exit in a tunnel after half an hour of walking, the problem would be beyond the capacity of the Nantong District police department.

While waiting for the others to gear up, Wang Yunxiao ran to the scene of the incident in the yard, near the "corpse pit," and after circling it, he came back and took a closer look at the bodies laid out outside.

"Did you find anything?" Qin Xiangdong, noticing the grim expression on his face, walked over and asked in a low voice.

"It’s not ’one’ thing."

Wang Yunxiao, pointing at the fingers of the corpse, said, "The ventilation shaft is indeed a ventilation shaft, but it has been sealed off, with about a meter of soil from the surface. Look at these people’s fingers; they’re all twisted and deformed, covered in mud. So, I guess it might not be ’one’ thing, but post-mortem, under the manipulation of something, they worked together to dig open the layer of earth."

Qin Xiangdong frowned, "Are you saying that this pit didn’t exist originally and was actually dug out by these dead people?"

The initial hypothesis based on the crime scene suggested that these people died in the yard first, then the pit was dug to bury the bodies, and then so many corpses attracted who knows what kind of thing that dug its way up from underneath...

Put simply, the accumulation of corpse qi had broken the seal below, enabling a demon to escape and ascend to heaven— that’s how it’s often described in storytelling and dramas.

But now you’re telling me that the pit was dug out collectively by the dead from the inside?

Leaving aside whether this is accurate or not, how did you even come up with this line of reasoning?

Wang Yunxiao didn’t offer any further explanation.

He certainly couldn’t tell Qin Xiangdong that his brothers had personal experience in this area.

Two years ago.

Fully suited up in their gear, everyone assumed battle formations.

Matuan and Youbing, the two brothers, were in the front holding rattan shields, followed by the combatively stronger Guozi and Eryang. Chen Yan and Little Gourd were protected in the middle of the team, with Gangtou right behind them.

On both sides were two three-man Crane Wing Squads.

Youtiao and Wang Yunxiao took up the rear.

The rear, in fact, was the most vulnerable to sneak attacks.

Isn’t this a common plot point in novels? As a team marches on, suddenly, there’s one person missing from the back, or an extra one appears.

Wang Yunxiao and Youtiao watched from the back, able to observe the condition of everyone in the team at any time.

While descending the hole, Guozi looked at the traces left by fingers digging and said lightheartedly, "Nice handiwork, better than ours back then."

Youtiao kicked him down with one foot.

The entrance was very narrow, but the air-raid shelter below was quite spacious.

The passage was about four or five meters wide and about three meters high, enough to accommodate two donkeys ridden backward side by side.

It was the same familiar concrete structure that, had there been no ventilation, would have been useless to dig with hands, even if you ground all your bones to dust.

This thing isn’t like the building blocks in games that come with durability.

Wang Yunxiao glanced at his watch, 12:25 P.M.

This was a watch he had borrowed from Qin Xiangdong; otherwise, he would have had no way to accurately determine the time.

Qin Xiangdong was a retired veteran; he said to retreat in thirty minutes for a reason.

List to those who offer advice, and you’ll eat your fill.

Inside the air-raid shelter, there was no lighting, so everyone who came down brought kerosene lamps with them.

They served to provide illumination and also to gauge the oxygen levels in the tunnel.

This method wasn’t very accurate, because even with sufficient oxygen, it did not necessarily mean the air quality down there was good. The best method was still to bring a living thing, like a rat, for instance...

Thinking of rats, Wang Yunxiao couldn’t help but remember the big black rat he had let go.

Asking others about Tianmen City’s underground civil air defense might yield little clarity, but if you asked that rat, wouldn’t it be an expert?

Nevertheless, now was not the time to think about this issue.

"I’ll go back up and get a compass!"

Youtiao was always good at spotting what was missing; after coming down and taking a quick look, he climbed back up.

It wasn’t just underground where it’s difficult to distinguish north, south, east, and west; Tianmen City doesn’t distinguish them on the surface either.

Because the whole city was originally built along a river, expanding outward from the main thoroughfare of the river. Old Tianmen People could only discern river east, river west, Nantong suburb; within the actual streets, directions were merely left or right, without any concept of north, south, east, and west.

It took Youtiao’s meticulous nature to think of this. Otherwise, once you’d walked inside and encountered a turn or corner, everyone would become disoriented after a few twists and turns.

A while later, Youtiao came down with a compass and a city map, studying the direction carefully by the lamplight.

This ventilation shaft was a passage slanting upwards beside the main aisle of the air-raid shelter. The sides of the main aisle seemed clear and unobstructed, with no signs of danger.

"This way east, that way west..."

After studying the compass, Youtiao pointed in one direction and said to Wang Yunxiao, "In the east direction, it should lead to Nanshi. West would be outside the city, the desolate countryside..."

"Let’s go east!"

Wang Yunxiao chose the east without hesitation.

For civil air defense works underground, if they are not of a classified military level, the closer to the city center, the more complete the structure; as for those leading to the outskirts of the city, at best, they’re escape routes.

If the map is marked correctly, it shouldn’t take thirty minutes to go from here to underneath Nanshi Main Street.

There were many footprints on the ground, and without professional forensic personnel, it would probably be hard to analyze if there were any clues in them. But at least one thing could be confirmed - there were many shoe prints from leather shoes. Those dead, they really had passed through here.