Chapter 497: The Secret Under Uncle Three's Shop

I saw a section of iron ladder. It was very dark inside, but I could see water at the bottom.

It really was a manhole.

I thought about it and agreed—the cover was full of holes, so rain would definitely pour in. The wires must keep going further down.

The manhole was very small; once I got in, there was almost no space to turn around. After going down, there was a cubic space about one meter across, full of water and fallen leaves. On the left there was another opening that could only be entered by crawling. I watched the wires go all the way down, directly connecting into that opening.

I held the flashlight in my mouth and crawled into the opening, moving forward.

This feeling reminded me of crawling through a grave-robber's tunnel; I felt very uncomfortable. Gritting my teeth, I crawled six or seven meters and finally finished the passage.

Sweeping my flashlight around, I discovered that at the end of the passage was a room. The room was elevated; the framework underneath was made of iron and wood, and water flowed under the frame. The frame and wood were badly rotted. When I stepped on it, it felt like stepping on cotton.

On the framework were several bookshelves, a bed, and a table. On the table was a computer, a VCR, and a TV. All of these things were heavily mildewed from the dampness, covered in mold spots.

The wires led to the computer in this room. But I didn't see anyone.

That person hasn't come back yet?

I was stunned for a moment and touched the computer. It was cold.

The manhole cover I came through had so many potted plants on top; if he wanted to go out, he would have to move those plants. He couldn't have come in and out through the way I entered.

I searched the room with my flashlight and found another opening on the right wall. Water flowed in from the direction I came from and out through this opening. I shone the light into it; it was deep, and no one was inside.

Who the hell is this? Someone actually lives in the sewer under Third Uncle's house, in such a secretive way, and keeps in touch with Third Uncle using this method.

This is too damn weird.

I shone the flashlight at the bookshelves; they were all filled with videotapes.

My hands began to tremble. I pulled out one tape... I noticed that all the tapes on the shelf were numbered, exactly like the ones I had received before. But the feel when I pulled it out was wrong—too light. I opened it and found it was empty.

I opened a few more tapes and found they were all empty. I was astonished—why would he keep empty boxes here? I calmed down, though my mind was in chaos. I needed to sort things out a bit.

Under Third Uncle's house there was a person who communicated with Third Uncle in a very strange way. Did Third Uncle know this person was here?

I thought it impossible for someone to do something under Third Uncle's nose. Building such a hidden room under Third Uncle's house—Third Uncle must have known about it. In fact, everything in this hidden room was arranged by Third Uncle himself.

So how many years had this person stayed in this hidden room?

Judging by the degree of rust on the wood and iron frames, these things had clearly been here for a long time. I couldn't tell exactly how long, but I thought that to reach this level of decay, it would take at least six or seven years, possibly even decades. Although Hangzhou has a lot of rain, overall sunny and cloudy days make up a larger proportion. Given this structure, the drainage pipe wouldn't have water all year round, so reaching this level of corrosion would require a very long time.

From the look of the bed, this person must have been living here. I checked the bed and the covers; they were clean, and the bed was neatly made. Obviously, even though this person lived in such conditions, he maintained extreme self-discipline.

This person must be extremely important in Third Uncle's plan, perhaps even the key figure. Otherwise, he wouldn't exist in this form.

But where had this person gone now? If he had to stay in this place, he shouldn't go out often.

This person must be someone who cannot exist in the world openly, so he hides in this way. It's a bit like the secret annex where Anne Frank lived in _The Diary of a Young Girl_.

I sat down, rubbed my face, listened to the surroundings—heard nothing—then turned on the computer. This computer was the exact same model as Third Uncle's. It booted up smoothly. Soon the same interface as Third Uncle's computer appeared.

I operated it a few times and found that, like Third Uncle's computer, it had almost nothing on it.

I immediately opened the email software.

I saw a blank list; there was only one email in it.

I opened it and realized at once that it was the last email I had written. As for the rest, both the inbox and sent box were completely blank.

Suddenly I had a bad feeling. I stood up, looked under the bed, opened all the videotape boxes on the shelf, and checked the VCR. This last email proved that the person I had been exchanging emails with was sending and receiving them here.

But there was nothing here.

If a person was hiding here, it couldn't be like this. There would be more traces of life. Either this person was a robot who did nothing but send/receive emails and process information.

That would definitely drive someone insane. If a person lived here, he would absolutely go mad.

I paced continuously in this tiny room, wondering what was going on. Could there be more than one room? That was possible. Thinking this, I crouched down and looked at the other opening. Maybe if I crawled through that opening, there would be another room filled with daily necessities, maybe even a basketball court. Maybe there would even be an inflatable doll.

Maybe that person lived in another room.

I took a deep breath, crouched down, and crawled in. This pipe was even narrower; I had to pull in my stomach to squeeze in bit by bit. Halfway through, I realized that this person definitely couldn't be a big man. If a big man had to live like this every day, I'd rather be dead.

Moving forward, I crawled about another ten meters or so when suddenly light appeared ahead. I crawled out and found that the end was not another room as I had imagined, but a wooden board. The board was pitted with holes, and light shone through.

I pushed the board aside and immediately realized—this was a hidden alley.

The so-called dark alley was formed when farmers built houses; two houses would be adjacent, leaving a very narrow passage between them, with the walls of both houses on either side. This kind of structure was very unsafe because thieves could step on the walls to climb up floor by floor, so many residents simply connected their own walls with their neighbors' walls, sealing off the two entrances of the long, narrow passage.

That way, people would soon forget that there was a very narrow space between their own house and their neighbor's house.

This structure was used by many antique dealers. Often, they would store contraband items there.

In this dark alley, a person could only pass through sideways, and once out, it was almost impossible to return to that hole. I sidled over to the wall, where there were a few bricks I could use for leverage, and stepped on them to climb up. Then I vaulted over the wall and went down.

Once down, I was outside Third Uncle's wall. I looked around, feeling bewildered myself. I could only slink back through the front door, wondering, what was going on? I walked around the yard for a bit, scratching my head. If this was the structure, then it meant that the guy underground must have gone out through the dark alley, just like me.

So how would he come back later? Could he vault back over the wall the same way? I thought to myself that might work—I could block him in the dark alley. That place was so narrow, no matter what, he wouldn't have a way to escape.

But after some thought, I decided it was better to ambush him in his room.

I went down into that manhole again, back to that room.

Climbing this time, I was already exhausted and panting. I sat down in a chair, concentrating and staring fixedly at the tunnel entrance. If anything poked out from inside, I would pounce on it and pin it down.

I didn't dare turn on my flashlight, just sat quietly in the darkness.

I don't know how long it passed. I was getting a bit dazed when suddenly I heard someone speaking. I snapped back from my daze with a jolt, held my breath immediately, and looked toward the tunnel entrance.

It was pitch black over there.

I was startled. An auditory hallucination?

Just as I finished thinking, another voice came.

"Friend."

The voice seemed to come from some corner of the room. I was scared almost out of my wits, immediately turned on my flashlight, and swept it around like a machine gun, but after scanning, I found there was still no one in the room. Was it in the sewer? I was about to shine the light down when the voice sounded again: "Turn on the computer."

I jolted. This time I clearly distinguished that the voice was coming from the ceiling.

In that instant, I suddenly felt as if something was hanging from the ceiling of the room, and I immediately looked up.