Chapter 38 Clues

I felt more and more surprised. This was obviously a secret passage someone had hidden behind a cupboard with a missing back. The fact that you would find it as soon as you opened the cupboard meant that it wasn’t a brilliant method by any means, but it did have the advantage of being easy to set up and access.

But why was this here? It seemed like this wasn’t just a simple sanatorium, but if that were true, then what was it really used for? Where did these stairs lead to?

Looking at the key in my hand, it was obvious that the person had sent me to this particular room because they wanted me to find this secret passage. So, the answers I was seeking should be below.

I wiped the cold sweat from my brow, walked into the cupboard, and stuck my head through the hole. At this time, a strange smell suddenly filled my nose. The first wave was so strong that I turned my head to try and avoid it, but once I was used to it, I used my lighter to try and see what was below.

The stairs seemed to be endless, winding down into the darkness until they disappeared from sight. They were obviously quite long, but I couldn’t tell whether they led to the second or first floor.

Looking at the stairs, I suddenly felt that it was midnight, and I was in a haunted building, standing in a secret passage built God knew when. It was enough to make me feel a little scared. But I was a man who had been in several ancient tombs. Compared to that, a place like this with streets and hair salons close by was nothing.

Immediately feeling calmer, I only hesitated for a moment before gathering my courage, carefully holding my lighter in one hand, and then climbing through the hole and walking down the stairs.

I figured that whatever the person wanted me to find must be at the bottom of these stairs, and now that I had reached this point, I couldn’t back down. I was already in Golmud, after all, so I should see what the person’s goal was.

After only a few steps, I felt an indescribable chill coming from the darkness below. It was so cold that I found myself shivering as my breath formed white clouds in the air—it seemed that the temperature here was really low.

In the dim light of my lighter, I saw rough cement walls on either side that were made of yellow cement, the type primarily used by the military back in the ‘60s. Some slogans painted in red could faintly be seen on the walls, but they were so faded that only a few outlines remained. Wires wrapped in cobwebs hung down from the ceiling, looking like snakes.

Compared with the bluestone bricks in ancient tombs, this modern setting is much more familiar, I said to myself, trying to relax. But even so, I still felt like something was waiting at the next turn in the stairs, ready to stick its head out of the darkness below. The eerie feeling wasn’t much different than what I felt when I was in an ancient tomb.

Soon after walking down the first section of stairs, there was a turn, and then they continued downward. The echoing sounds of my footsteps sounded especially creepy in the confined space. I estimated how far I had gone and figured that I had already reached the second floor, which was the one that was sealed with that cement wall. But there was no doorway anywhere—only solid cement walls—so the exit obviously wasn’t here.

It seems like the second floor has nothing to do with this, I said to myself, taking a deep breath of the musty air before continuing down to the next floor.

But the exit wasn’t on the first floor either. There was another turn in the stairs, and then they continued downward, but it was still so dark that it was impossible to see the bottom.

This leads underground, I thought to myself. Then another idea suddenly popped into my head, Could this staircase lead to a basement?

Was there an underground military bunker here?

I remembered the famous 704 Mansion in Hangzhou,⁽¹⁾ which was said to have been built as a sanatorium, but was really a mysterious structure full of deep, convoluted passages. Supposedly, there were even huge underground rooms that could be used during emergencies.

But looking at the appearance of this secret passage, it didn’t feel like that sort of thing at all—it was way too simple. If this were the entrance of a specially built military bunker, then there should at least be an iron door.

My thoughts were spinning wildly as I continued down the steps. I didn’t know whether it was because the temperature was dropping or I was covered in a cold sweat, but I suddenly felt extremely cold. My teeth started chattering so hard that I had to clench them tightly to get them to stop as I continued down to the next level. The stairs finally came to a stop, and I could see the exit right in front of me. I cautiously walked towards it and found myself in a large room.

I raised my lighter up and took a look at the walls on both sides, finding that I was in a reinforced concrete basement with blue brick flooring. It was very crude, damp, and empty all around.

This definitely wasn’t a military bunker, of that I was certain. Looking at the cement and blue bricks on the ground, it looked more like the kind of cellars the production brigade⁽²⁾ hastily built in villages back in the day. The workmanship here was way too crude to have been built by skilled military engineers.

What was this place? Was it really a cellar? Did Poker-Face ask me to come here to see if his pickled cabbage tasted good?

Amused by my own thoughts, I started walking towards the center of the room. But I had only gone a few steps when I suddenly saw the vague outline of a huge shadow lying on the ground.

I walked towards the strange shadow, illuminated it with my lighter, and suddenly froze in shock—sitting in the middle of the room was a huge, black, ancient coffin.

<Chapter 37><Table of Contents><Chapter 39> 

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TN Notes:

(1) Also called the “704 Project” or “Lin Biao Hangzhou Palace”. The 704 Project is a military fortification secretly built by the famous Lin Biao. Traveler reviews/pics here. Some article I found here (pretty sure it’s MTL but still readable).

(2) A production brigade was formerly the basic accounting and farm production unit in the people’s commune system of the People’s Republic of China.

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Did somebody say…double update?