Along the way, we crossed two ridges and saw several engineering tracked vehicles stopped in front of a mine.

"We've arrived at the Pelican Lake mining area, get off the car." Whistle Officer Liu blew a whistle.

Lan Yu jumped out of the car and looked around. The area was still surrounded by gray-black mines. There was no lake, not even a speck of green.

Lu Rankong saw his confusion and explained, "There used to be a lake here, Pelican Lake, but it slowly dried up."

"Pelican Lake is a pearl on the planet Quyu. It covers an area of ​​nearly 1,000 square kilometers and has a total water storage capacity of 10 trillion cubic meters. Unfortunately, too many mines were dug and the landform was severely damaged. The lake dried up and disappeared half a year ago. The pearl is gone, and only the name of Pelican Lake is left." Officer Liu turned the copper egg in his hand, shook his head and sighed.

The mine cave is at the foot of the mine. It was left behind by a previous mining company, along with a complete set of mining equipment and machinery.

"Everyone, gather together, get ready to go down to the mine."

The other prisoners also jumped out of the car and gathered in the small square in front of the mine.

"Those in rooms 15 and 14 go to hole B, those in rooms 13 and 12 go to hole C, and those in cell 11 go to hole A." Officer Liu made the arrangements.

It was not the first day for the prisoners to mine, and after answering, they walked towards the mine.

"The green blood of the Longte people was found in Cave A." Lu Rankong whispered as he walked, "Pay attention later."

"Hmm..." Lan Yu nodded.

As we walked into the mine, the light suddenly dimmed, and only the gas lamps every ten meters on the cave wall emitted a faint light.

"Won't the prison guards go down with us?" Lan Yu couldn't help asking as she watched the prisoners queuing up in an orderly manner to get on the mine cars without any supervision from the prison guards.

"In the past, I did follow them, but it made no difference whether I went or not. Which prisoner would want to escape? Where could he go if he escaped? Gradually, I stopped following them. The prison authorities were not worried at all," Liu Junjie explained.

After the prisoners from other caves left in batches, the people in cell 11 also got on the mine car.

The car was not big, just enough for them to sit in. Seeing that everyone was ready, Qiu Dao released the valve above his head.

With a loud bang, the mine car slid forward along the downward extending rails.

This mine cart is composed of a metal bed and four wheels, with a manual brake at the front. As the slope of the track increased, the speed also increased. On some bends, the whole car felt like it was floating and almost flying.

Seeing that everyone else looked calm, Lan Yu realized that although the car ride seemed thrilling, it was actually safe, so she calmed down and began to pay attention to the surrounding environment.

There are some forks along the way, with railroad tracks extending deep into the area. When encountering these places, Qiu Dao skillfully turned the steering lever to let the mine car slide onto the correct track.

After sliding for about ten minutes, the rails gradually became flat, the mine car began to slow down, and finally it stopped with a creaking sound.

Qiu Dao said, "We're here..." and jumped out of the car first, followed by the others.

This is their destination, Cave A.

There are gas lamps hanging on the walls and ceiling of the cave, each of which has a high wattage, illuminating the entire Cave A brightly. The air is quite fresh, there is no bad smell, and you can feel the wind blowing.

There were two mining machines parked right in front. Liu Junjie and Lin Lin got on one each, while the others pushed carts back and forth, transferring the ore to the mobile mine cars on the rails and then transporting them out.

Lan Yu pushed a cart from the pile against the cave wall and followed others to load ore.

The gray-black ore looks no different from ordinary stones out there, except that it is denser and heavier.

It would be hard to push a cart with just a few pieces on it. Except for the thin Qiao Fei who only packed one or two pieces at a time, everyone else packed four or five pieces.

They worked in silence. Every time a mobile mine cart was filled and slid away, a prison guard’s voice would be heard over the loudspeaker in the cave: “Cave A, +1.”

"How many mobile mine carts do we need to fill to qualify?" Lu Rankong asked the others after he poured a full cart of ore into the mobile mine cart.

"Maybe ten carts..." Qiao Fei pushed the cart forward.

"How long does it usually take you to fill ten trucks?"

"About three hours."

"Three hours, that's noon." Lu Rankong patted his cart and said, "Let me speed you up so you can finish the work early and rest early."

After that, he pulled out another small cart, pushed it in front of the mining machine with one hand, and said to Liu Junjie: "Fill them all up..."

While loading the truck, Liu Junjie asked loudly: "Is it ok? Brother Bao..."

"No problem, just pretend."

"good……"

Large chunks of black ore were loaded into the cart, and with each chunk that fell, the cart sank under the heavy load. When both carts were full, they contained six or seven large pieces of ore each.

Everyone around stopped what they were doing and looked at Lu Rankong. He lifted a cart with one hand, the muscles on his arm bulging, and two fully loaded carts were pushed away.

Qiu Dao looked at Wang Jin beside him, rubbed his hands, and dragged out a cart. He placed two carts in front of the mining machine and said proudly: "Fill them up for me..."

Wang Jin was not willing to be outdone, and silently pushed two cars in.

Qiao Fei looked at Lan Yu and Chen Zheng a little nervously. If they also took up the fight, he would be the only one left.

Seeing that they were unmoved and still only pushed one car, Qiao Fei felt relieved, but he also added another stone to his own.

In this way, the efficiency was indeed greatly improved. It only took them two hours to complete the ore processing, which usually took three hours.

They spent the rest of the time resting. Liu Junjie, Lin Lin and Qiao Fei sat on the ground chatting, while Chen Zheng sat quietly aside.

Lan Yu also found a piece of ore to sit down. Seeing Qiu Dao pulling Wang Jin's hand, he said, "Let's go over there and smoke."

"No..." Wang Jin shook his hand away.

Qiu Dao said nothing, put his arm around his shoulders and led him into the mine. Without much effort, Wang Jin followed reluctantly.

Everyone knew that they were not smoking but were really just looking for a place to be intimate, so they didn't care and continued chatting about their own things.

Lu Rankong walked past Lan Yu and glanced at him. Lan Yu understood what he meant, stood up and followed him into the mine.

"Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, where are you going?" Liu Junjie turned around and noticed, and asked loudly: "If you want to go to the toilet, go 50 meters ahead and turn left. You can use that abandoned hole to relieve yourself."

"Ah, we're just walking around, getting familiar with the environment, and smoking a cigarette." Lu Rankong replied.

Several people who were chatting stopped and turned to look over, their eyes moving back and forth between Lan Yu and Lu Rankong.

Lan Yu shuddered and said coldly, "Why are you smoking? I don't smoke, I'm just strolling around."

Liu Junjie said obediently: "Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, you guys go get familiar with the mine. You can just walk around and smoke. We'll wait for you to come back and then go up together."

"Okay..." Lu Rankong walked inside, and Lan Yu had to follow.

After walking a few dozen meters, the voice behind him could no longer be heard. Lu Rankong turned his head to look at him and asked, "How did I offend you again? Your face is so droopy, like an ion cannon."

Lan Yu said irritably, "Didn't you hear Qiu Dao and Wang Jin say that smoking means hiding to be intimate? Obviously, neither of us smokes, but you still say that. Those people look at us in a strange way."

"So what? Do they think we will hide away and be intimate with each other?" Lu Rankong asked in surprise.

Lan Yu just looked at him coldly.

Lu Rankong recalled the scene just now and seemed to find it very interesting. He smiled and said, "Maybe they really think so. But it doesn't matter. It's best if they think so. They won't suspect that we are doing something else."

Lan Yu felt that this seemed to be true, but she still felt uncomfortable and had a gloomy face.

This mine is very large and the mine tunnel seems to have no end. Every few dozen meters there is a branch leading to other mine caves, crisscrossing like a maze.

There are abandoned mining machines and tools everywhere, which were left behind by mining companies when they withdrew.

Lu Rankong took out a flat instrument, looked at the screen and walked forward, saying, "This is the map surveying device I got from the warden this morning."

Lan Yu saw a real-time map on it, showing the long and short branches and the small mines at the end of the branches.

"Where did Qiu Dao and the other two go?" Lan Yu couldn't help but ask.

Along the way, I didn't see the two people, nor did I hear any movement.

"Just ahead..." Lu Rankong pointed at two small red dots on the real-time map.

"Do you think there's something wrong with them?"

"Won't……"

"Why?"

"They used to be in the same interstellar gang and were the gang leader's right-hand men. The gang leader died during the arrest, and they were both arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. They were originally in different prisons, but they both expressed their willingness to come to Quyu Star to serve their sentences, as long as they could be together."

Lu Rankong turned to look at Lan Yu and said, "Two people who love each other so much and are so familiar with each other, if one of them changes a little, the other will feel it."

Just as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of fighting coming from a fork in the road in front of him on the left, accompanied by the growls of Wang Jin and Qiu Dao.

"Look, two people who love and know each other so well." Lan Yu said lightly.

When passing by that fork in the road, they saw Wang Jin with his prisoner's clothes wide open, and he and the shirtless Qiu Dao were leaning against the wall, strangling each other's necks.

Hearing footsteps, both of them looked over.

Seeing that it was Lan Yu and Lu Rankong, Qiu Dao, despite being shirtless, tried to close Wang Jin's clothes. Wang Jin also quickly grabbed the clothes on the cart beside him and put them on Qiu Dao.

"We are just passing by, you guys continue." Lu Rankong smiled and turned his head away.

Lan Yu took a quick glance and continued walking forward without looking away.

"Oh, right..." After Lu Rankong took a few steps, he suddenly turned around and asked the two people: "Did you meet other people when you two came to smoke last time?"

"No..." The two answered quickly and then shook their heads together.

Lu Rankong didn't ask any more questions. He nodded and turned around. Not long after he walked away, he heard the two men behind him fighting again. The cart hit the wall of the cave, making a loud bang.

After walking for a while, Lu Rankong suddenly stopped and said, "It is here that we found the blood of the Longte people. The warden said they have dealt with it, but I think there should be more."

The two looked around and found that a layer of the cave wall had been scraped off, and the exposed rocks looked particularly clean.

Lan Yu walked along the wall of the cave and found several marks as big as coins on the ground ten meters away.

Lu Rankong walked forward and squatted down.

Just as he stretched out his finger towards the mark, he remembered something, paused, and quickly withdrew his hand.

"Is it the blood of the Longte people?" Lan Yu walked behind him and asked softly.

Lu Rankong frowned and didn't reply.

"Or you can just scrape a little and smell it." Lan Yu said.

"I don't have a dog nose."

"You obviously want to smell it."

"I can tell without even smelling it that this is dried Lonte blood."

This is a big hole. The railway tracks end here. There is a mountain wall in front and there is no road anymore.

Lan Yu looked around and didn't find anything unusual.

"What is the guy from Longte doing here? There is nothing here. Why did he sneak into this prison?" Lan Yu pressed the mountain wall with his hand and asked in confusion.

Lu Rankong looked at the real-time detection map device in his hand and frowned. He muttered, "That's not right. The survey instrument shows that there is another passage inside."

Lan Yu leaned over to look at the screen. Lu Rankong pointed to a small area in the upper right corner and said, "Look here, there is a red line."

Lan Yu looked carefully in the direction of his finger and found that there was indeed a line there, which was dark red in color and not very obvious.

Lu Rankong adjusted his position and walked to the left wall of the cave. "It should be here."

He stretched out his hand and felt around on the smooth cave wall for a while, then said, "The entrance isn't here. It should be somewhere else. Look around."

The two separated and began to look around the area.

The mine was as big as half a basketball court, with broken tools and rusty carts scattered everywhere, with words like "Sasu Xingxia Mining Group" printed on them.

Lan Yu walked around to a few broken carts and suddenly felt a cool breeze on her calves, as if there was a breeze blowing.

He stretched out his finger and felt it, and there was indeed wind.

There are vents in the front, but not here. So where does the wind come from?

His eyes fell on the cart beside him and he reached out to move the overlapping iron buckets down.

Lu Rankong heard the noise on the other side and hurried over to help move.

Soon, the pile of carts were emptied, and a dark hole appeared on the wall of the cave close to the ground. The wind came from inside.

The entrance to the cave is not big and can only accommodate one person. Lu Rankong squatted down, stretched his head to look for a while, then took out the map detector for comparison.

"You found it. This is the entrance to the passage." He said to Lan Yu.

Lan Yu asked: "Should we go in now?"

"It's too late today. I'll come back tomorrow. I don't know how far ahead it is. If I stay too long, it will arouse suspicion."

"Okay..." Lan Yu said, "Let's go back now."

Lu Rankong looked at him without moving, with a somewhat strange expression.

"What's wrong?" Lan Yu looked around vigilantly.

Lu Rankong cleared his throat and said, "Well, didn't we come out to smoke? It's not appropriate to finish smoking so soon and go back."

Lan Yu pondered for a few seconds before reacting, and said angrily: "Who came to smoke with you? Why don't you just say we were just strolling around?"

"The words have already been said, how can I change them just like that? Besides, the time we've stayed here is too long to be called strolling, and too short to be called smoking." Lu Rankong looked down at his shoes.

Lan Yu looked him up and down and laughed angrily, "It's a little short? How long do you think it should take?"

Lu Rankong put his hands in his trouser pockets, stepped on his toes, and said lightly: "It should be an hour, and only about half an hour has passed."

"An hour? I remember you finished in a short while." Lan Yu sneered and lowered her voice, "When you were taking a shower in the bathroom, I was counting the time with a stopwatch for you."

Lu Rankong suddenly looked at Lan Yu, his face full of shock, "You fucking eavesdropped on me? Crazy K, you are too disgusting, aren't you?"

"Who is disgusting? I was taking a shower peacefully, and you rushed in and started shaking my wall so hard that it almost collapsed. And you still have the nerve to accuse me of eavesdropping?" Lan Yu couldn't help but sneer.

"You could have knocked on the wall to remind me, even if it was just a cough. You did it on purpose."

"Then why didn't you listen to your surroundings before you started? The water in my shower was so loud, I should have suspected that you were doing it on purpose."

Lu Rankong opened his mouth, then raised his hand and said, "Okay, okay, okay, it's all my fault. I admit my mistake. Is that okay?"

Lan Yu turned away angrily and ignored him.

Lu Rankong was silent for a while, then said, "You know, if you do it yourself, the sooner the better—"

"Don't tell me that. I don't want to know how long you can hold on." Lan Yu interrupted him fiercely and walked out. "I've had enough. Why should I discuss this with you here?"

"Hey, didn't you say to wait a little longer?"

"Okay, let's wait, even two or three hours is fine." Lan Yu stopped and turned around, dragging out her voice and saying, "Anyway, I still have a lot of time."

He gave Lu Rankong a meaningful smile, "You know, I have an omega, Gu Gu."

Lu Rankong looked as if he had been struck by lightning, and said incredulously: "You mean, between us, you and I smoke, I am the one who gets smoked?"

"Is it not possible? We are all alphas." Lan Yu put her hands behind her back and squinted her eyes as she looked him up and down. "Besides, you don't even seem to have an omega. It seems inappropriate for you to compete with me for a higher position, right?"

Lu Rankong opened and closed his mouth, lowered his head to lift the hair on his forehead, raised his eyes with a smile on his face, stretched out his finger and pointed at Lan Yu in the air, "You are showing off your skills in front of an expert, you are showing off your skills in front of an expert."

He shook his head and said, "Is, I don't have any omegas, but I just don't have any leaves on me. Flowers are beautiful, but you can just leave them in the garden after you admire them. You don't have to pick them and take them home. If we talk about experience, I probably have dozens more than you."

Lan Yu was shocked after hearing this.

He felt disgusted in his heart, but the smile on his face deepened. It was the kind of smile that both we alphas understand.

"Li Baozi, how do you know that I only have one omega, Gu Gu? After all, if an alpha wants to do something behind his omega's back, he won't know, right?"

Lu Rankong's face froze and his smile froze. Lan Yu caught the expression on his face at that moment, which showed disappointment, confusion, and a hint of anger.

But he smiled again very quickly, so quickly that Lan Yu wondered if she had seen it wrong.

"Let's go, it doesn't matter anymore."

After Lu Rankong finished speaking, he led the way out of the cave, and Lan Yu followed behind him.

Both of them had dark faces, tilted their heads and said silently: "Scumbag..."