novelsite Chapter 10: Evidence of Being Alive
Chapter 10: Evidence of Being Alive
boom…!
The aftershocks of the explosion still echoed in the passageway, and dust swirled like a thick fog.
Zhou Guoping was thrown several steps by the blast wave, his back slamming heavily against the wall with a muffled groan. His eardrums buzzed, and the world became blurry and distant.
"Report the numbers!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice sounding as if it were coming from underwater.
"Zhao Gang is here!"
"Lin Xiaoyu is here!"
"Xiao Wu is here!"
"Wang Lei... is here!"
One voice after another rang out, and Zhou Guoping counted them one by one.
Everything is here.
He let out a long breath, leaned against the wall to stand up, and shone his flashlight behind him.
The road we came from was blocked by rubble.
"Captain, the exit is blocked!" Xiao Wu's voice was filled with obvious panic.
Zhou Guoping gritted his teeth and turned to look ahead... The other end of the passage stretched into even deeper darkness.
"Go forward," he decided. "This fortification has more than one exit; let's find another way out."
Clang!
No sooner had he finished speaking than a heavy metallic clang came from behind him.
Everyone turned to look.
An iron gate, previously unnoticed, descended from the ceiling, completely blocking the path leading into the depths of the fortifications.
"This..." Zhao Gang rushed forward and pushed it twice, but it didn't budge. "How is this possible! This fortification has been abandoned for so many years, how could it still have an electronic control device?"
In the interrogation room, Jiang Chen closed his eyes, frantically recalling the structural diagrams of the fortifications in his mind.
"It's not electronically controlled." His voice came through the walkie-talkie, tinged with urgency. "It's a mechanical delay linkage. The killer set up a trigger device beforehand; the vibration from the explosion activated the gate."
"In other words," Jiang Chen's voice deepened, "his understanding of this fortification far exceeds our imagination."
Su Wan stood beside Jiang Chen, her hands unconsciously clenching into fists.
She looked at Jiang Chen's profile. The young man who had just been joking and bickering with her seemed like a completely different person now.
Calm, focused, and with a reassuring confidence in his eyes.
"Jiang Chen, what do we do now?" Zhou Guoping's voice came through the walkie-talkie, carrying a rare hint of anxiety.
Jiang Chen did not answer immediately.
He stood up and began pacing around the interrogation room.
a circle.
Two laps.
Three laps.
Su Wan wanted to speak, but she held back.
She suddenly realized that Jiang Chen wasn't panicking; he was... reviewing the situation.
Rearrange all the information in your mind.
Ding…
A crisp system notification sounded in his mind, audible only to him.
[Host detected to be in a high-pressure reasoning state; Detective Insight bloodline activation increased to 67%]
[New ability being unlocked...]
[Unlocked Successfully: Spatial Reconstruction... Constructing a 3D Site Model in Mind Based on Limited Information]
Jiang Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks.
The world has changed.
It wasn't that he had really changed, but rather that his perception had undergone a qualitative leap in that instant.
He closed his eyes, and a three-dimensional structural diagram of the underground fortifications appeared in his mind. Every passage, every room, and every corner was as clear as a CAD drawing.
The bombing point set by the killer, the trigger position of the gate, the coordinates of the trapped people... all the information automatically fits together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
He opened his eyes.
"Team Leader Zhou, you are currently trapped in area B-7, about fifteen meters above the ground."
Zhou Guoping was taken aback: "How do you know the serial number?"
"It's marked on the design drawings of the fortifications." Jiang Chen didn't explain much. "Ignore the blocked road behind you. Go forward, and after about thirty meters, there's a fork in the road to the right. Go in, and you'll see a vertical shaft."
"A vertical shaft?"
"The ventilation shaft leads directly to the ground. There are maintenance ladders on the shaft walls; although they are severely rusted, they should still be usable."
Zhou Guoping waved his hand: "Let's go!"
The team moved forward quickly.
Footsteps echoed through the narrow passage, mingled with heavy breathing.
He Yuting followed in the middle of the group, holding her phone steadily with the camera pointed at the darkness ahead.
The barrage of comments was overwhelming:
"This is scarier than a horror movie!"
"How did Jiang Chen know the project's number? Did he see the blueprints?"
"Those who said he was the murderer, come out and take your punishment! Would a murderer save a policeman like this?"
"I don't care anymore, from today onwards, Jiang Chen is my male god!"
"Please, please get out safely!"
Thirty meters seemed exceptionally long in the dark and oppressive passage.
"We're here!" Zhao Gang, who was walking at the front, shouted.
The beam of the flashlight shone on the wall on the right, and sure enough, a fork in the road appeared, almost half the width of the main passage.
The procession filed in.
At the end of the fork in the road was a space about three meters square. Looking up, a dark vertical shaft stretched straight up, and a faint sliver of moonlight could be seen shining through the shaft.
"This is it!" Zhou Guoping saw hope. "Xiao Wu, you go first and check the safety of the ladder."
Xiao Wu nodded, grabbed the rusty iron ladder on the well wall, and shook it vigorously.
Squeak…
The iron ladder emitted a harsh metallic scraping sound, but it did not come off.
"I should be able to hold on," Xiao Wu said, and began to climb upwards.
step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
When he reached a height of about five meters, his foot had just touched a horizontal bar…
Click!
The iron pole snapped in response.
Xiao Wu plummeted downwards, but luckily he managed to grab the horizontal bar above him with both hands, leaving him dangling in mid-air.
"Xiao Wu!" Lin Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise.
"I'm fine!" Xiao Wu gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his arms. "But the last few steps are broken; they snap with the slightest step!"
Zhou Guoping's heart sank.
If the ladder is only usable for the top 10 meters of a 15-meter height, what about the bottom 5 meters?
Jump up? You can't reach it at all.
"Jiang Chen, the ladder is rusted and broken; the bottom five meters are impossible to climb," Zhou Guoping said into the walkie-talkie.
In the interrogation room, Jiang Chen closed his eyes, and his spatial reconstruction ability was operating at full speed.
Shaft. Ventilation. Maintenance ladder. Rust.
"Team Leader Zhou, check if there are any fixed iron rings on the shaft walls?"
Zhou Guoping raised his flashlight and shone it around.
"Yes! There's one about every meter, and they look very sturdy!"
"That's the support frame used to secure the ventilation ducts back then," Jiang Chen said quickly. "Tie the rescue rope to the lowest metal ring, then climb up the rope. The metal ring should be able to support the weight of one person."
Zhao Gang acted immediately, took out a roll of rescue rope from his backpack, tied a knot on an iron ring about 1.5 meters above the ground, and pulled hard.
The iron ring remained completely still.
"I'll go first." Zhao Gang grabbed the rope, braced his feet against the well wall, and began to climb upwards.
His movements were steady, and he stepped on the knots of the rope with each step, quickly climbing to Xiao Wu's position.
"Xiao Wu, step on my shoulders to get up, then pull me up from above."
Xiao Wu hesitated for a moment.
"Stop dawdling!" Zhao Gang roared.
Xiao Wu gritted his teeth, stepped on Zhao Gang's shoulders, used the leverage to climb upwards, and grabbed the iron ladder at a higher position.
Click... That step of the iron ladder didn't break.
He continued upwards and eventually climbed out of the well.
"I'm up!" Xiao Wu's voice came through the walkie-talkie, filled with the excitement of surviving a disaster.
Next up are Lin Xiaoyu, Wang Lei, the rescued female reporter, He Yuting...
One by one, everyone successfully climbed up.
The last one is Zhou Guoping.
He grabbed the rope and had only climbed two steps...
Ding... Ding ding...
A metallic clanging sound came from deep within the shaft, as if something was spinning at high speed.
Everyone was stunned.
In the interrogation room, Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes wide.
"Quick, climb! Those are ventilation fan blades! The killer has turned on the ventilation system!"
Zhou Guoping didn't have time to think much and desperately climbed upwards.
His hands were chafed raw by the rough rope, and blood dripped down his wrists, but he dared not stop.
The metallic sound grew closer and louder...
call…!
A gust of wind surged up from the bottom of the shaft, carrying a biting chill.
The ventilation fan blades started to turn.
If Zhou Guoping gets involved...
"Quick! Grab my hand!" Zhao Gang lay on the well opening, his arm outstretched.
With his last bit of strength, Zhou Guoping grabbed Zhao Gang's wrist.
Zhao Gang suddenly pulled.
Zhou Guoping was pulled out of the well and fell heavily to the ground.
next second...
Boom!
The ventilation fan blades started up completely, and the entire shaft vibrated. Gravel and dust gushed out of the shaft opening like a volcanic eruption.
Everyone lay on the ground, covering their heads with their hands.
After the dust settled, Zhao Gang peered into the well and gasped in shock.
The fan blades were spinning at high speed like a meat grinder; if Zhou Guoping were to be even two seconds late…
"It's alright now." Zhou Guoping lay on the ground, panting heavily, his voice hoarse. "Everyone's out."
He Yuting sat on the ground, still holding her phone up, the camera capturing the entire process.
The comments section exploded:
"My God!!! So close!"
My heart is pounding!
"Jiang Chen saved another life!"
"This killer is too depraved. Is he trying to kill everyone?"
"Captain Zhou's hand is bleeding, quickly bandage it!"
"Jiang Chen! Jiang Chen! Jiang Chen! Just who is he?!"
In the interrogation room, Su Wan looked at Zhou Guoping, who was slumped on the floor on the screen, and let out a long breath.
Then she turned to look at Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen had already sat back in his chair, looking completely drained, leaning back with his eyes closed.
But the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
"What are you laughing at?" Su Wan asked.
Jiang Chen did not open his eyes and spoke very softly.
I laughed at that fool.
"Which one?"
"The murderer."
Su Wan frowned.
Jiang Chen opened his eyes, a certain light flashing in them.
"He thought he was very clever and had set up explosions, gates, and ventilation fans in advance, trying to trap us inside and kill us."
"But he made a fatal mistake."
"What's wrong?"
"He revealed his location when he turned on the ventilation system."
Su Wan was taken aback, then realized, "You mean...?"
"The control device for the ventilation system can't be too far from the fan blades." Jiang Chen stood up, walked to the whiteboard, picked up a marker and began to draw. "The ventilation system of the fortification is divided into three independent zones, and each zone has a control box."
He drew a simple diagram.
"The explosion occurred in Zone B, which was also the area sealed off by the gate, but the ventilation fan blades started at the boundary between Zone B and Zone C."
What does this mean?
Su Wan stared at the diagram on the whiteboard and suddenly understood: "The control box is nearby?"
"That's right." Jiang Chen drew a circle on the diagram. "The location of the control box is where the killer started the ventilation system. He thought he was in the dark, but the moment he started the fan blades, he essentially turned on a light for himself."
Jiang Chen turned around and looked at the camera.
"Captain Zhou, can you hear me?"
Zhou Guoping, having already bandaged his hand wound, leaned closer to the camera and said, "Yes."
"The murderer activated the ventilation fan blades when you escaped the shaft. The control box should be located in area B-9, about fifty meters horizontally from the shaft you just came from."
"There should be a separate control room there."
Zhou Guoping's eyes lit up: "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." Jiang Chen paused. "And... he must have been there when he activated the system."
Without any hesitation, Zhou Guoping waved to the team members beside him.
"Go! Arrest them!"
Everyone stood up, gripped their guns tightly, and followed Zhou Guoping as he ran towards another entrance to the fortifications.
He Yuting followed behind, the camera shaking violently, but her voice remained steady.
"Viewers, based on Jiang Chen's analysis, the killer is likely still hiding in the B-9 area control room of the underground fortifications. The task force has departed and we are en route to the scene..."
The screen was flooded with comments:
"Charge! Catch that pervert!"
"Jiang Chen is awesome!!!"
"Wait, if the killer is still there, isn't he afraid of being caught?"
"Upstairs, maybe he never intended to run away at all."
"It's terrifying to think about..."
In the interrogation room, Su Wan's gaze toward Jiang Chen grew increasingly complex.
Is this person really just a novelist?
She had some knowledge of criminal psychology, but Jiang Chen's series of deductions just now...
Spatial reconstruction, psychological profiling, behavioral prediction... almost without pause, flowing smoothly.
It's like... he was born to do this.
"Jiang Chen," Su Wan said.
"Um?"
"Once this case is closed, would you be interested in... joining our team as a consultant?"
Jiang Chen turned to look at her, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"Officer Su, are you inviting a suspect to be your consultant?"
Su Wan felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze and looked away.
"Your suspicion hasn't been completely cleared, but... if you're really innocent, your abilities will be very helpful in solving the case."
Jiang Chen smiled, neither agreeing nor refusing.
"Let's arrest this madman first."
Zhou Guoping's urgent voice came through the walkie-talkie.
"Arrived at the entrance to Area B! Ready to enter!"
"All personnel, guns loaded!"
Click, click... a series of sounds of bullets being chambered came from the walkie-talkie.
Jiang Chen's fingers clenched unconsciously.
"Be careful," he said into the walkie-talkie, his voice soft but earnest.
"That madman... won't be caught so easily."
Inside the passage, Zhou Guoping led his team forward silently.
The flashlight was turned off, and navigation was done solely using night vision goggles.
Darkness enveloped them like a physical entity, with only the sounds of breathing and footsteps echoing in the air.
B-7……B-8……B-9.
With each area marker they passed, Zhou Guoping's heart beat a little faster.
It took a full five minutes to walk a distance of fifty meters.
The entrance to area B-9 appears ahead.
A half-open iron gate.
A faint ray of light shone through the crack in the door.
Zhou Guoping made a gesture, and the team members immediately dispersed, pressed themselves against the wall, and aimed their guns at the iron gate.
He took a deep breath and pushed the door open...
Whoosh...!
There was nothing behind the door.
Only an old hand-held lamp sat forlornly on the ground, emitting a dim, yellowish light.
Next to the lamp was a walkie-talkie.
The red light on the walkie-talkie is flashing... it's transmitting a signal.
Zhou Guoping walked over and picked up the walkie-talkie.
A voice, altered and tinged with laughter, came from inside.
"They've tracked us down here? Not bad, not bad."
"But you were still a step too slow."
"The game continues; I'll be asking questions next time."
"By the way... please tell Jiang Chen for me that his reasoning was brilliant."
"But I'm still a tiny bit faster than him."
Beep... The signal is lost.
Zhou Guoping turned around abruptly: "Chase him! He can't have gone far!"
The team members rushed out of the control room and searched forward along the corridor.
After running less than a hundred meters, another exit appeared at the end of the passage.
Moonlight shone in, revealing freshly parted vines at the exit.
"He's gone out!" Zhao Gang shouted.
Everyone rushed out of the exit and into the mountains and forests.
Moonlight spilled onto the treetops, and the night breeze rustled the leaves.
But the surroundings were completely silent, and there was no one in sight.
Zhou Guoping stood there, panting heavily, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.
It was just a tiny bit off.
In the interrogation room, Jiang Chen listened to the message coming from the walkie-talkie and remained silent for a long time.
Then he stood up and walked up to Su Wan.
"Officer Su."
"Um?"
"What time is it now?"
Su Wan glanced at her watch: "11:40 PM."
Jiang Chen nodded, walked to the corner of the interrogation room, to the cot where he was given a temporary rest, and lay down.
Su Wan was stunned.
"You...aren't you going to continue?"
Jiang Chen closed his eyes, his voice calm.
"He's gone, we can't catch him. Instead of wasting time here, I'd better get some sleep."
"He will come to see me again tomorrow."
Su Wan opened her mouth as if to say something, but ultimately did not speak.
Looking at Jiang Chen lying on the cot, she suddenly felt that there was something inexplicable about this man.
Is it calmness? Is it confidence?
Or... has he already seen through the ending of this game?
The interrogation room was dimly lit, and Jiang Chen's breathing gradually became even.
But Su Wan knew he wasn't asleep.
He was just waiting.
Wait until dawn.
Wait for the killer to give the next question.
In a corner of the city, a lone lamp shines.
A person sits in front of a computer, with Jiang Chen's novel on the screen.
His fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard, his lips moved slightly, and he spoke in a voice only he could hear:
"Next chapter..."
"It's your turn."