Jiang Xueming was ready to get off the bus long before the broadcast.
He pressed against the car door glass and watched the dense stone forest in the wilderness getting closer and closer.
Within a few minutes, it started to rain.
To be precise, this kind of rainwater is more like condensate from a huge underground cavity. The sound when it hits the glass is very loud. If you look carefully, you can see many gray particles in the water stains, which seem to be dust.
He casually took a big black umbrella from the self-service shelf and brought some bread for dinner. These things were prepared for the guests without any additional payment.
Then, the door opens with the roar of the hydraulic valve.
A gust of cold and humid air hit her face, which aroused Xueming to tighten her collar and buckle the buttons of her coat.
After stepping out of the car door, he followed the announcement and walked all the way to the security department of the station.
He walked very fast, with long strides. His shoes stepped on the wet iron plank road, splashing circles of gray water.
There were few people around, and no other passengers were seen on the platform. Only Ah Xing trotted behind him and caught up later with his backpack on his back.
As Xing walked away, he smiled and asked, "Why didn't you wait for me? I have a lot of things..."
Xueming: "You can keep up."
Axing: "Hey! You trust me so much?"
Xueming: "I trust your muscles and height."
Ah Xing didn't understand the implication of Xueming's words, he just kept laughing.
At the side door of the exit passage, the two people turned into the security department. As if to save power, the lights on both sides of the road gradually dimmed.
The corridor was long and narrow, and there were many employee lockers on one side. Xue Ming strode across it with a long stride, but Mei Xing could only step in cautiously.
Then go to the department office door——
——Xue Ming, based on the principle that efficiency comes first and time is her sister’s life, went straight in without knocking on the door.
The office hall and the corridor have the same specifications and are very narrow.
At first glance, I visually estimated that it was only twenty square feet.
The walls on the left and right sides were crowded with filing cabinets and information bags. The bags were filled with some incomprehensible symbolic notes and yellow light strips, like props used to mark tracers in the wilderness.
Sitting in front of the desk was a blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigner, dressed in the attire of an armed officer.
Black nylon tight vest, MOLLE system, lamps and bullet bags, tweezers, pipe clamps and battlefield first aid kit are all available.
Painted on the armband of this security guard is a grinning black cat and the name of the station in both Chinese and English.
Xueming immediately stated his intention: "Hello, I'm going to SW. BOSS sent me here. According to BOSS, I will follow you now and find a place to stay first. Then I will conduct a two-day investigation in SW.
Is it right?"
The security personnel did not reply immediately, but nodded and stared at Jiang Xueming attentively.
That look made Jiang Xueming feel very uncomfortable.
In a dark light environment, the security guard's eyes did not reflect any light source, and they were like empty zombies. They said they were looking at something, but in fact, the eyes did not respond to focusing and seemed to penetrate Xueming's eyes directly.
Skin and flesh, we need to see his brain tissue clearly.
The security guard's soul finally returned to his body. He snapped his fingers and stood up quickly, as swiftly as Xueming.
"good."
After clearing away the messy desktop and taking away the black waterproof bag from the container, the security guard instantly turned into an efficient working machine. He even snatched away Ah Xing's backpack and led the way.
"Walk."
Bu Liuxing looked at this scene and was puzzled.
He pulled Mr. Xueming's sleeve and asked in a low voice: "What's going on? What's going on?"
Xueming didn't quite understand, but the security guard's attitude made him feel very at ease.
The two of them followed the security to the parking lot, and their transportation vehicle was still the old black Volga.
After a while, the car drove into a stone forest.
Jiang Xueming curiously looked out of the train window and saw that the buildings next to the station were getting further and further away.
The driveway looks very new because of the shadows of the trees in the stone forest and the deep and shallow marks left by uneven heating on the asphalt pavement.
The trees beside the road have been completely petrified, and it is not known how old this woodland is.
There was silence inside the car, except for the road noise of rubber tires grinding against gravel.
This stifled Ah Xing so much that he didn't dare to ask anything and didn't know anything. All he knew was that A Ming rarely talked to this security brother and didn't like chatting.
Xueming took out his notebook and wanted to know some basic information about the destination.
"Sir, can you tell me the basic information about SW? I will record the hotel we are going to stay in and the [attractions]."
The clear clicking sound when Jiang Xueming pulled out the pen was like hitting the play button on a WALKMAN.
The rain outside the window, along with the low voice of the security guard, reached the ears of the two young men.
"SW is a code name, which generally refers to the first characteristic of the temporary residence. You should smell it when you get off the car. The air here has a fishy and sweet smell. It is not very pungent."
Xueming lowered his head and took notes.
Meteor followed suit and opened the notebook on his phone and started rubbing the glass.
The security guard continued.
"Its original meaning is Sweet Wind. You are communicating in Chinese, so let's call it Fangfeng."
"Four years ago, the expedition team discovered this place. The ground reconnaissance equipment showed that there is a huge water reserve here. We decided to build a new station here - but surprisingly, a small settlement, like from
It drilled out of the ground and appeared out of thin air around the engineering team. It only takes half an hour to drive from the station to the south-southeast direction, and the distance is about 40 kilometers."
Axing asked curiously: "Settlement? What do you mean?"
"It means human settlement." The security guard replied: "When our engineering team came to this stone forest to reclaim wasteland and conduct on-site measurements - the stone forest mountain area that was empty last month suddenly appeared.
Human settlement.”
"Originally, we thought that these humans might be the descendants of the advance team at the station. During the station's pioneering history, many teams of more than a hundred people disappeared inexplicably in the underground world.
Maybe they didn't die, but just took root in this place, and the people living in this settlement are their descendants."
Xueming then asked: "Is there any trace of this 'sudden appearance'...?"
"It is precisely because there are no clues that the investigation has continued for so many years." The security personnel responded: "These human behaviors and habits that appear out of thin air are very strange. They are out of touch with modern society - before you, other passengers observed that this
There are only about 200 people in the settlement. There is no running water or electricity, and survival depends on some fish in the underground water source, as well as moss mushrooms and some plants that can grow in dark light environments."
"No livestock, no pets."
"No need for fire or light source, eat raw food."
"There are no written words, most people can speak, and the languages are also very complex, ranging from Latin languages to dialects from the Asian cultural circle."
"The strange thing is that the residents of this settlement can communicate with each other in different languages without any barriers."
"Later, our scientific research station believed that the original guess [of the descendants of the advance team] was wrong - except for language, this settlement has no traces of human civilization, and there is not even any symbol in the popular historical records."
"It's like a person who speaks English but doesn't know Elizabeth Yin and Victoria."
"It's also like a person who speaks Chinese but doesn't know who Qin Shihuang or Confucius is, or where the Chinese language comes from."
"The diving and hunting skills of these residents are superb, and their swimming ability is stronger than almost any professional athlete in the surface world."
“During the four years of station construction, although the engineering team had no accidents, many inexplicable things happened.
It's just like the brother who was talking to you about his life ideals and working hard to support his family yesterday suddenly left a resignation letter and disappeared into the underground world today.
Another example is that after talking for a long time in the team, a young couple who was planning to get married suddenly broke up. In just a few hours, they changed lovers and went to live in other blocks, or directly returned to the ground and lived a normal life.
The days are gone.
These abnormal phenomena make the staff of the scientific research station feel inexplicable panic. There seems to be an unknown spiritual energy at work in this settlement, which can change the people around us beyond recognition.
Moreover, we still can’t figure out how they got here——
——Why do they live here, why do they use our language, look so similar to us, but behave like another kind of creature. This is what I know about Fangfeng Settlement, and what BOSS wants me to tell you is also
These."
Xueming asked: "What is the scope of our investigation?"
"Anything is fine. Don't miss every suspicious place." The security guard warned: "But I still want to remind you not to treat these creatures as human beings. They look very similar to humans and are easy to get along with."
Confused, but after getting along for a long time, you will definitely feel the abnormalities in these creatures."
Ah Xing asked nervously: "How do you say this?"
The security guard looked back at Ah Xing, still staring blankly at Ah Xing with that blank look in his eyes, which made Ah Xing feel terrified.
"Drive well! Watch the road, Master!" Ah Xing immediately reminded.
"I've seen these things." The security guard looked back at the road and continued driving: "I was imitating their eyes just now. Didn't you feel uncomfortable? This is how I looked at you, including the first time I met you.
I just hope you won’t make a fuss when you arrive at your destination later.”
"Hahahahaha..." Ah Xing laughed dryly and patted Xueming's shoulder: "Look, Brother Ming, this master has a sense of humor and his eyes can talk! If you want me to imitate that look, I will
You may not be able to learn it correctly.”
"If what you said is true, how do I know - is that look in your eyes just fake?" Jiang Xueming closed his notebook: "Is there a possibility that you are also an aborigine in Fangfeng Settlement, but you are more clever.
He has blended into the human world."
The security personnel explained: "People in Fangfeng settlement do not eat cooked food. Passengers once brought food to the residents of these settlements. As long as it is cooked food, no matter whether it is protein or starch, they will vomit."
"
Through the cracks in the car window, the sweet and fishy air came in.
The fossil forest outside the window seems to have ancient mysterious and bizarre legends written on the rough bark lines.
Jiang Xueming handed over a piece of bread. His eyes were cold and he spoke.
"Then let's eat and see?"
Seeing that the security guard's expression was getting worse and worse, Ah Xing laughed and made peace.
"Why are you so nervous!~ Isn't it just a piece of bread? I'll go first!"
After saying that, Bu Liuxing tore open the packaging bag and took a big bite.
The security guard remained calm and took a bite of half of the bread from Ah Xing's hand.
Jiang Xueming calmed down when he heard the gurgling sounds from the two brothers' throats as they made swallowing movements, and then sighed.
Bu Liuxing asked curiously: "Brother Ming, there is no problem with the security master and I. Isn't this a good thing? Why are you sighing?"
"Excluding your two wrong answers, I still have to go to the settlement in person for two days." Xueming took a bite of the bread viciously, feeling a little resentful that iron cannot become steel, and uttered something that sounded extremely scary: "
It's such a pity that I can't personally send you to the dissecting table of the scientific research station."