“This shouldn’t be an airport line either. Whether it’s the old or new airport, they’re not in this direction,” Ma Lu muttered. “What were the designers of this line thinking? Why did they make this section so long?”
After he spoke, he turned to look at Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan behind him and apologized profusely. “I didn’t expect the two stations to be so far from each other, and I didn’t bring any water. If you’re thirsty and tired, you can head back first. While you’re at that, might as well help me inform the higher-ups about the situation here and ask them to send a couple more people down.”
Zhang Heng, however, shook his head. “We’re not heading back until we find the missing people.”
Ma Lu was stunned. He saw that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan had been following silently the entire time, and they showed no signs of anxiety. He thought that they didn’t have much to do with the missing people, or at least weren’t relatives or friends. However, for some reason, he had no choice but to join them in the search.
Thus, Ma Lu kindly suggested that the two of them go back. The main reason was that they had been gone for so long, and there was no cell connection down there. Hence, contacting the higher-ups was necessary, thus making it a win-win situation. He never expected Zhang Heng to reject it.
After that, he heard Zhang Heng continue, “I think you should go back. You’ve been shouting for so long, and you’re starting to sound a little hoarse. You need some water to rest.”
“I’ll be fine.” Ma Lu shook his head. “The sooner we find the two missing girls, the sooner we can be at peace.”
After that, he saw that Zhang Heng and Fan Meinan had no intention of leaving, so he raised his flashlight and continued forward. However, Zhang Heng was right. Ma Lu had been shouting for 40 minutes, and his mouth was getting dry. He stopped shouting after they left.
The three of them walked forward silently.
After about five minutes, Zhang Heng spoke again. “Master Ma, you’ve worked for the subway company for quite some time, right? How much do you know about this line?”
“This is my first time here. In fact, I don’t think anyone from the company has been here before,” Ma Lu explained. “Construction here stopped before this place was completed, so it was never handed over to the subway company. I don’t know its length, direction, and its number of platforms. To be honest, I didn’t even expect this tunnel to be so long. In fact, this section is basically completed. The construction materials seem fine, too. It’s a pity they just abandoned it like this.”
“Hmm… What about the rumors?”
“What?” Ma Lu thought he had misheard Zhang Heng’s question.
“I remember you mentioning something about this place in the past. Could you tell us about it?”
“Now? You want to hear about the rumors now?”
“Is there anything inconvenient about it?” Zhang Heng asked.
“Well, because most of the rumors are ridiculous, and we happen to be in this tunnel right now. Even though I’m not superstitious, there are things that we should avoid.”
“Yes, but we have nothing to do now,” Zhang Heng said. “After walking for so long, everyone should be a little tired. Chatting eases the fatigue a little.”
Ma Lu glanced at Fan Meinan, who was standing beside him. He realized that the skinny girl didn’t show any fear, so he nodded. “Okay, where do you want to start?”
“Why don’t we talk about why this subway line was abandoned,” Fan Meinan began.
“The official story is that a change in administrative planning caused this line to become obsolete, so they stopped the project completely.”
“But in reality?”
“No one knows the actual situation,” Ma Lu said. “But when I first entered the company, I did hear some old employees saying that the real reason this line was abandoned was that none of their workers were willing to continue work. From the construction of the project to the remaining third of the place, people began to fall gravely ill. In the beginning, no one paid too much attention to it, though, thinking that it must be the workers themselves.
“At that time, machinery and equipment weren’t that advanced, and work was very labor-intensive. It was not uncommon that these workers usually suffered health problems. Typically, they would just recuperate for a while. But soon, when a second person fell ill… and then the third, the construction company began to pay attention. They reduced the labor intensity and increased ventilation in the tunnel. They even went as far as to change the cooks at the construction site, but it was no use. More and more people kept falling ill. At this time, the diagnosis report of the first person who got sent to the hospital was also out.
“It turned out that it was not possible to find out the cause of the illness from routine examinations. His body functions were normal, but he showed signs of severe weakness, memory decline, and even developed cognitive impairment. Not only him, but several workers who were sent to the hospital later also showed similar symptoms to varying degrees, completely ruling out the possibility of a genetic disease.
“The report did nothing to dispel the workers’ doubts and worries. Moreover, as the number of ill increased, the rest of the workers would start to panic one day. In the end, under the leadership of a few leaders, they went on strike together and were unwilling to continue work. The construction company had no choice but to transfer teams from other places to replace the workers who went on strike. In addition, they even found experts to conduct inspections.
“The experts stayed here for two weeks, but unfortunately, found nothing. Eventually, they took some samples and left. Fortunately, there was a new batch of workers, and the project could finally continue. The good times didn’t last long, though. About half a month later, another worker fell ill, and the symptoms were the same as the previous batch of workers.
“Moreover, this batch found out about the previous batch of workers from god knows where. Furious that the construction company hid the actual situation from them, they too went on strike after that.
“What’s worse was that this matter gradually spread among the workers. It wasn’t long before the construction company couldn’t find any workers who were willing to continue construction. At the same time, this matter had also alerted the higher-ups. After some research, they finally decided to abandon the railway completely,” Ma Lu sighed.
“What about the sick workers? What happened to them after that?” Zhang Heng asked.
“I don’t know. There are no more rumors about them,” Ma Lu replied. After a pause, he added, “But it’s said that this wasn’t the only thing that happened during the construction. Before the first worker fell ill, there were already workers who had gone missing.”
