Skin - Chapter 41

Chapter 41 – The Secret of the Underground Basement

　　Zhou Qiyang got up from the ground and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Excessive tension and exhaustion made him almost faint.

　　Meng Zhao walked forward, half squatted down, inserted his finger into a groove on the door, and tried to pull the iron door.

　　The three people present stared at the iron door and held their breath at the same time, as if a huge mystery was about to be revealed under the iron door. No one dared to imagine what would happen in the next second. The secret hidden under the iron door might rewrite everyone’s fate.

　　The heavy iron door slid slowly to the side, revealing a passage.

　　There was light in the cave, faint and dim, illuminating the stone steps leading down. The stone steps were three or four metres high, and although the situation inside the cave could not be seen, judging from the height of the stone steps, it should be a large space.

　　The presence of light once again proved that there was most likely someone in the cave.

　　It was a bit too risky to go down by himself, but if he waited for his colleagues from the Municipal Bureau to arrive, they might not arrive in time. When Meng Zhao was planning his next move, he suddenly heard a faint sound coming from the cave, like the sound of something hitting the stone wall – there was someone down there!

　　This kind of sound is most likely caused by the people below choosing to move and escape in panic after the secret passage was discovered!

　　Whether they planned to flee with the hostages or chose to kill and flee, the consequences would be disastrous. It would be a hundred times more difficult to catch those heinous bastards after alerting them.

　　There was no time to wait for others, they had to go down quickly.

　　”I’ll go down and take a look.” Meng Zhao said decisively in a low voice.

　　”Brother Zhao, I’ll go down with you.” Zhou Qiyang took the initiative.

　　Meng Zhao frowned: “No, we must leave someone at the entrance of the cave. If anyone tries to escape from here, you will be responsible for intercepting them. Also, quickly call someone to help.”

　　”But it’s too dangerous for you to go down alone…”

　　”I’ll go down with you.” Lu Shichen, who had been silent beside him, spoke at this time.

　　”No, it’s too dangerous, you stay up there.” Meng Zhao immediately rejected Lu Shichen. Then he stood up and stepped onto the first stone step.

　　The passage of the cave is empty and easily produced echoes, and any sound would be amplified countless times.

　　Meng Zhao tried his best to lighten his footsteps. His shadow was cast on the uneven stone steps, moving down one step at a time with his footsteps.

　　But soon, another black shadow covered his shadow, and the two tall black shadows overlapped each other. Lu Shichen did not stay there as he had told him to, but went down the stone steps with him.

　　If it wasn’t for the fact that it was forbidden to make any noise in the cave, Meng Zhao would have wanted to yell at him to go back. ‘What the hell? Why did Lu Shichen, a civilian, choose to come to such a dangerous place? !’

　　‘But now is not the time to fight with Lu Shichen about this matter, forget it,’ Meng Zhao thought. Also, the other party had learned how to fight, so he should be able to protect himself at a critical moment. Besides, his words and his temper never worked on Lu Shichen.

　　After climbing down a dozen stone steps, Meng Zhao’s feet finally touched the ground.

　　He shifted his attention away from Lu Shichen and concentrated on the underground space, observing the surrounding environment with full concentration.

　　The ceiling lights were dim, the passage was long and narrow, less than one metre wide, and seemed to lead to a bend at the end. Originally, he had thought that it was just an empty space hidden underground, but the layout was much more complicated than Meng Zhao had imagined.

　　Meng Zhao reached down to his lower back and took off the gun he was carrying, ready to be on guard against anyone appearing at any time.

　　Lu Shichen also stepped on the ground, stood beside him. Meng Zhao raised his hand and held Lu Shichen’s wrist, turned around, and mouthed to him: “Be careful.”

　　Lu Shichen nodded.

　　Meng Zhao held the gun in one hand, and tried to walk forward as lightly as possible through the passage parallel to Lu Shichen.

　　Although he was very anxious inside, Meng Zhao knew that he had to be extremely careful in his actions. At that moment, he was carrying not only his own life on his shoulders, but also Lu Shichen’s life and the lives of all the victims.

　　Just near the corner, there was a slight “click” sound, and all the lights suddenly went out, and the passage that was dim just now became pitch black.

　　The two men stopped at the same time, and Meng Zhao subconsciously tightened his grip on the gun.

　　Perhaps due to the effect of darkness, the underground seemed particularly quiet, so quiet that it felt a little eerie. Almost every step would produce an echo. Not only that, one could even hear the breathing of the two people.

　　”I have a flashlight in my pocket,” Meng Zhao lowered his voice, “on the right, take it out and light the way.”

　　After he finished speaking, Lu Shichen reached into his pocket, pulled out the flashlight, and pushed the button.

　　The cold white beam of the flashlight pierced through the long and narrow passage. After they could see the path ahead clearly, the two men walked towards the corner again.

　　But when he reached the end of the passage, Meng Zhao turned in and found another long and narrow passage.

　　The place is almost like a maze with no end in sight.

　　After walking several hundred metres in the narrow and quiet passage, Meng Zhao finally saw the first door.

　　He grabbed Lu Shichen’s arm and turned his face towards the door.

　　Lu Shichen immediately understood what he meant, and the two stood against the wall. After confirming that there was no movement inside, Lu Shichen walked to the door, held the door handle, and tentatively turned it— the door was not locked.

　　Meng Zhao clenched the gun and signalled Lu Shichen to push the door open.

　　After Lu Shichen slightly pushed the door open, Meng Zhao quickly dodged and pointed the gun inside the door.

　　Then they found that their previous vigilance seemed a little unnecessary – there was no one in the room.

　　Meng Zhao put down his gun and walked in with Lu Shichen. It was a monitoring room with a computer inside. The screen clearly showed the scene on the ground. At the moment, Zhou Qiyang was standing by the iron gate, looking around to see what was happening.

　　In other words, as soon as they approached the iron gate, the people hiding had already realised that danger was approaching.

　　And the sound of hitting the stone wall that Meng Zhao heard on the ground was most likely the person running away!

　　Meng Zhao noticed that Lu Shichen was touching the cup on the table with the back of his hand, which was half full of water.

　　Lu Shichen whispered: “The water is hot, the person just left.”

　　”Chase!” Meng Zhao raised his leg and walked towards the door.

　　At this moment, another sound was heard. The sound was not obvious, as if it came through a thick obstacle. It sounded like footsteps, messy and hurried. There were still people in this underground space, and they were trying to escape!

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen reacted almost at the same time, quickly left the monitoring room, and ran in the corridor.

　　The passage seemed to have no end. After running around a few corners, the sound was getting closer and closer. It was certain that someone must be trying to leave here not far away. No, it was not just one person, but the footsteps of several people!

　　Just as Meng Zhao made this speculation, he and Lu Shichen turned into the next passage, and then found an iron door in the middle!

　　Meng Zhao approached and found that it was an old-fashioned iron door, which was locked from the back. At the same time, the chaotic footsteps were mixed with other sounds, like the heavy sound of wheels rubbing against the ground. The other party was not only running away, but also moving the person hiding underground, and that person was most likely Xu Yingying!

　　Meng Zhao kicked the door hard. If it was a second later, the secret hidden here might disappear completely!

　　He held Lu Shichen’s wrist and took a step back with him: “Be careful, I’m going to shoot.” Then he clenched the gun with both hands, raised it, narrowed one eye, aimed at the imaginary position of the iron lock behind the iron door, and then exerted force with his fingers and pulled the trigger.

　　The next second, “BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!!” The bullet penetrated the iron door, making a loud noise, followed by a “CLANG” sound, and the heavy sound of a heavy metal object hitting the ground was heard, and the iron lock behind the door was successfully hit and fell off!

　　Meng Zhao walked forward and kicked the door open. The lights were bright behind the door. About ten metres away, four people were walking in pairs, each pushing a hospital bed. At this moment, they were looking back in horror.

　　Only then did Meng Zhao see clearly that there was a door at the end of the road, which should be the exit to escape from the basement!

　　”Don’t move!” Meng Zhao raised his voice and said to those people, “Or I will shoot!”

　　At the same time, he approached the men with the gun in hand.

　　But the warning did not have much effect. Those people actually dropped the hospital beds and ran away.

　　Seeing that he was unable to catch up with and arrest all of them at this distance, Meng Zhao fired another shot with a “bang”. The bullet hit the last man’s right leg directly. The man staggered and fell to the ground.

　　The iron door slid slowly and was about to close.

　　Lu Shichen quickly caught up.

　　Meng Zhao put away his gun and quickly chased after him. Unexpectedly, the person closest to the man turned around, ran over and pushed the bed hard.

　　The hospital bed immediately became an obstacle that prevented Lu Shichen from catching up. Lu Shichen did not have time to see the person on the bed clearly. He supported himself on the bed, raised his leg and jumped over the bed. He was only one step away from catching up, but it was too late. The man dragged the person who was shot in the leg out.

　　Then there was a loud “clang” and the iron door slammed shut. Someone outside locked it.

　　Meng Zhao also chased after him at this time. He clenched his pistol again and shot at the iron lock twice. However, he was unlucky and the bullets in the gun were used up before he could knock the iron lock down!

　　”Fuck!” Meng Zhao clenched his fist and pounded the iron gate hard, but he was still a step too late!

　　Fortunately, the person on the bed was not taken away. Because of the urgent chase, Meng Zhao was breathing rapidly. He calmed his breathing and looked back at the bed. The girl lying on the bed was Xu Yingying who had disappeared a few days ago!

　　Xu Yingying was wearing white clothes and lying on the hospital bed with her eyes closed. She had an IV needle stuck in her arm. There was a glass bottle hanging above the bed, and the liquid inside was dripping through the translucent plastic tube and into Xu Yingying’s body.

　　Lu Shichen glanced at Xu Yingying for just a moment, then passed by her and turned into the next room.

　　‘What kind of drip is this? Why is Xu Yingying unconscious?’ Meng Zhao walked over, held the drip bottle with his fingers, and looked at the glass bottle with a frown. There were no words on it.

　　Meng Zhao stretched out his fingers to test Xu Yingying’s breathing. Although he was not sure what drugs were injected into her body, he was certain that Xu Yingying was still alive and she was still breathing!

　　Meng Zhao walked towards the girl on another bed. Like Xu Yingying, she was also receiving an IV drip and was unconscious.

　　After checking on the two girls, Meng Zhao followed Lu Shichen and walked into the next room.

　　The white light in the room was brighter than in the corridor, so bright that it was blinding.

　　After clearly seeing the scene in the room, Meng Zhao was so shocked that he was speechless.

　　It was a huge room, roughly estimated to be several hundred square metres.

　　There were white walls all around, a white floor underneath, and seven beds which were also white. On each bed lay a person, it was unknown whether they were dead or alive.

　　Each one of them had plastic tubes inserted into their bodies, and liquid was dripping out from the IV bottles bit by bit, injecting them with some kind of medicine.

　　It took Meng Zhao a while to return to his senses from his shock.

　　He followed Lu Shichen and walked to each bed. The people lying on the beds seemed to be girls in their twenties, with one exception. On the fifth bed lay an elderly woman with grey hair.

　　Lu Shichen stopped in front of the bed and stared at the old woman on the bed.

　　Meng Zhao walked past him and continued to check the breathing of those people. They were all alive, and all were unconscious!

　　”What on earth is happening here…?” Meng Zhao held the glass bottle and looked at the liquid inside. He didn’t dare to pull out the syringe rashly. ‘Who knows if these people are relying on the liquid in the drip bottle to maintain their basic vital signs…?’

　　‘What on earth did the murderer want to do by hiding these people here and turning them into these mindless, puppet-like monsters…?’ Meng Zhao looked at the beds in front of him and almost felt that it was creepy.

　　Then he walked towards the last bed. The girl lying on it seemed paler than the others, her skin could almost be described as paper.

　　‘She looks familiar,’ Meng Zhao thought, as if he had seen the girl somewhere.

　　The next second, he was shocked by the picture that appeared in his mind. Although ten years had passed, compared with the girl in the photograph, the girl lying on the white bed in front of him had her eyes closed and her appearance had changed a lot from being confined to the bed for a long time, but Meng Zhao could still vaguely recognize her. Her name was Xu Yulin, who had disappeared for ten years!

　　It was an unexpected gain from the trip, but Meng Zhao did not feel excited, he just felt shocked.

　　‘How long had this basement existed? Could it be that Xu Yulin had been imprisoned here since she disappeared? Has she been injected with some unknown drug every day for ten years?’

　　”Xu Yulin is here too.” After trying his best to calm himself down, Meng Zhao said this to Lu Shichen.

　　But unexpectedly, Lu Shichen did not respond.

　　Meng Zhao turned around and saw Lu Shichen still standing in front of the old woman’s bed, staring at her face with a frown and a serious expression.

　　”What’s wrong?” Meng Zhao walked over and asked, “What’s the problem with this old woman?”

　　Lu Shichen came back to his senses at this time: “It’s okay.”

　　Lu Shichen’s expression didn’t look like he was fine, but Meng Zhao didn’t have time to guess what he was thinking for the time being. He walked out of the room and into the corridor.

　　Since everyone had been injected with some kind of drug, Meng Zhao guessed that there must be a room somewhere used to store or prepare the drug.

　　Sure enough, when Meng Zhao turned into another passage, he found the medicine storage room.

　　He walked in and opened the medicine storage box, which contained a large number of IV bottles.

　　‘Could it be that the murderer was slowly destroying the bodies and brains of these girls while maintaining their lives…? Were they simply turning them into living puppets!’

　　At that moment, he heard footsteps behind him. Meng Zhao turned back vigilantly, but then he let down his guard again. Lu Shichen also walked into the medicine storage room.

　　It seemed that Lu Shichen was not looking for him. He just came to take a look and then walked out.

　　Meng Zhao put down the medicine bottle and followed him out. Lu Shichen opened another door and walked in, but that room seemed to be just a rest room for the staff. After walking around inside, he quickly walked out.

　　Meng Zhao realised that Lu Shichen seemed to be looking for something, so he asked, “What are you looking for?”

　　Lu Shichen stopped and looked at Meng Zhao. After a pause, he said, “I’m checking if there are other people hiding here.”

　　Lu Shichen frowned slightly. He usually had no expression, but this time, Meng Zhao seemed to see a hint of anxiety between his brows.

　　Originally, he thought that Lu Shichen came to the basement like him to look for the missing Xu Yingying. Now it seemed that he was looking for something else.

　　‘What on earth is Lu Shichen looking for? What on earth is he concerned about?’ Meng Zhao’s doubts deepened. ‘What exactly is the connection between Lu Shichen and this sanatorium?’

　　Suddenly, the scene from twelve years ago appeared in his mind. In this sanatorium, Lu Shichen squatted on the ground with a splitting headache.

　　‘What exactly was the cause of Lu Shichen’s headache?’ Meng Zhao once again thought of this question that Lu Shichen had not answered.