Chapter 44 Red Leaves 05
"Lan An'an!" Deep in the well, strewn with dead bones, Luo Siwei hugged the unconscious Lan An'an and tried to wake her. But the girl's body was limp and unconscious.
Luo Siwei discovered that Lan Anan's condition was very similar to Ni Xiang's reaction just now.
After living underground for a long time, Luo Siwei began to feel dizzy and his heartbeat accelerated. This feeling was not normal. It was not caused by physical exhaustion or dehydration. There might be some poisonous gas slowly spreading out from the well.
Because the concentration of harmful gases here was low, they didn't feel anything unusual at first. However, their masks and protective clothing couldn't completely filter out the toxic gases, and the long hours of work caused them to develop poisoning reactions.
After finding the cause, Luo Siwei considered the solution.
The longer they stayed underground, the worse the situation would become. They had to escape the toxic environment. However, using the safety rope to ascend while unconscious was extremely dangerous, and the protruding shaft wall could cause secondary damage to Lan Anan.
Luo Siwei hesitated for a moment whether she should go up and call for help first, but then she quickly rejected the idea.
She can't go first.
Lan An'an's condition was unclear at the moment, so she couldn't leave her here alone at this moment. But she couldn't lift Lan An'an into the air with her either; the safety rope and the equipment at the wellhead couldn't bear the weight of two people.
Luo Siwei tried hard to calm herself down. She had to find a way to save herself.
She dragged Lan Anan a few steps. The girl was lighter. Luo Siwei's eyes fell on the basket used to transport the corpse to the bottom of the well.
This pull-out basket is designed for transporting objects and provides excellent support and protection. However, its drawback is its limited load capacity and a certain risk of tipping over. If the basket falls mid-air, the fall could result in death or serious injury.
Luo Siwei suddenly had an idea. She could make the pull-out basket more stable.
Thinking of this, Luo Siwei reached out and tied several safety ropes together. After the safety ropes were fixed, she wrapped them around Lan Anan's shoulders and waist to secure them. She put Lan Anan into the pull-out basket, passed the safety ropes through her and secured them again. Finally, she buckled the ropes around Lan Anan's body.
These simple movements in the past are now extremely physically demanding.
Luo Siwei was sweating profusely. As time went by, she felt more and more dizzy and her heart was beating like a drum. Luo Siwei relied on her own will and did everything with all her strength.
She thought that it was her decision that put Lan Anan in danger, and she had to get her out safely.
Finally, the pull-out basket and the safety rope were completely fixed and became one, protecting Lan Anan's body like armor.
After Luo Siwei finished doing all this, he pulled the rope hard a few times.
Looking at the pull-out basket rising, Luo Siwei finally felt relieved.
There was silence at the bottom of the dark well, and all the chaos seemed to have disappeared.
Luo Siwei leaned exhausted against the wall of the well and slid down. She felt cold sweat running down her cheeks, her breathing became more and more labored, her hands and feet were weak, and her eyelids became heavier and heavier.
She knew she could slip into a coma at any moment.
Luo Siwei entered a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness.
She was dreaming again. Although her consciousness was independent, the dream became concrete in her brain.
This time the dream was in segments, like some tiny pieces of glass, each piece reflecting different light and shadow, mixed with chaotic and bizarre pictures.
For a moment, she seemed to be sitting at the desk, and her mother was cooking beside her. She asked her, "Have you finished your homework? Did the teacher praise you today?"
"I've finished it. I got an A in math today, and my Chinese teacher also praised me. I also did two papers. Can I go out and play?" She answered carefully, trying her best to make sure her mother couldn't find any fault with her answer.
Mom frowned and said, "You should be more self-disciplined and review your homework. Or check what the teacher is going to talk about tomorrow. Do more extracurricular exercises."
She sensed a sense of irritation in her mother's tone.
Luo Siwei felt like she was split into two: one was her teenage self sitting at the table, and the other was her adult self watching this scene.
Luo Siwei recalled that her mother was very busy and under a lot of pressure at work. After the cheating case happened, her mood became unstable for a period of time. Sometimes she would stare at the mirror in a daze, lose her temper over trivial matters, and even break down and cry.
But in Luo Siwei's memory, her mother was very gentle when she was young. She was a beautiful and kind woman who always spoke in a soft voice. Luo Siwei looked a bit like her, so she was said to be a beauty since she was a child.
At that time, Luo Siwei felt that something must have happened to her mother, but she didn't know what had happened. She could only speak to her mother cautiously and not disturb her.
Now that she's grown up, recalling this memory, Luo Siwei notices some details she hadn't noticed before, and her detective intuition sharpens her. Her mother must have encountered something serious at the time.
When she was in high school, she suspected that her mother had a boyfriend during that time, and that the appearance of this boyfriend might have caused her mother's temperament to change drastically.
She had followed this line before, but she did not find such a man from her mother's computer, notes and related clues.
Later, she suspected that her mother's changes might be caused by some mental illness and ruled out this assumption.
But now, in a state half asleep and half awake, Luo Siwei suddenly thought of a possibility. Could there be some unknown connection between her mother's death and her emotional changes?
The dream continues.
Mom was busy cooking in the kitchen. From her angle, she could only see her mother's back. Her hands were constantly working, and the clacking sound was like she was beating eggs.
Her mother cooked a lot of delicious food and quickly put it on the table. As she picked up her chopsticks, her mother suddenly gave her a hug. She was a little overwhelmed by this sudden care.
Her mother held her tightly in her arms.
Then her mother said to her, "Lolo, you have to be sensible and obedient. You have to listen not only to your mother, but also to your grandparents. You have to be brave and strong, then your mother will be relieved."
After the mother finished speaking, she kissed her forehead gently: "You are the only one I have."
Luo Siwei recalled that this incident happened about a week before her mother's death. At that time, she thought her mother was just in a bad mood. Looking back now, these words sounded like her mother's last words.
After school, she passed by a small park. There were some high school students about her age. Some were sitting on the swings, and some were riding bicycles. They were discussing where to go to play next, but she was carrying her schoolbag and walking home with determination.
A friend called her: "Lolo, come and play."
She said, "No, I want to go home to be with my mother."
The friend was stunned and said to her, "Hasn't your mother already..."
Suddenly she realized that her mother was gone.
The children began to whisper, and then a few adults came and took the children away.
"Her mother jumped off the building because she leaked the exam questions."
"What kind of good daughter can a mother like that raise? Don't play with her."
She thought to herself that she must clear her mother's name and get to the bottom of the leak of the exam questions.
In a trance, she seemed to return to the empty school in the night, climbed up to the experimental building next to the teaching building, and stood where her mother once stood.
The wind is so strong, and it seems so high up from here.
Suddenly a hand pushed her from behind.
Luo Siwei fell from the building before she could even scream.
Her body tumbled in the air, and she felt herself falling rapidly, with the sound of wind in her ears.
At the beginning, she was afraid that she would fall to the ground and be broken into pieces, and die like her mother. Later, she felt that something was wrong. The height was too high, and the feeling of weightlessness was always there. She could not land on the ground.
The surroundings grew increasingly dark, the whistling of the wind filled my ears, and countless images flashed before my eyes. She seemed to be a high school student, but she also seemed to have suddenly grown up. She was admitted to university, she was working...
Luo Siwei opened his eyes wide and tried hard to think of a countermeasure.
Finally, she landed on the ground, without the severe pain she had imagined, and her feet were standing in the water.
Luo Siwei raised his head and found that he was at the bottom of a dark well filled with corpses.
She was alone, with thick mud under her feet. She was wearing protective clothing, and every time she moved, it would make a sound of water. There were corpses on the ground, and the eyes of the skulls were two huge black holes with centipedes crawling around inside.
She remembered that she was now the captain of the criminal investigation team in the municipal bureau, and she had gone down the well to retrieve the body.
Had I… awakened from the dream? Or rather, had I broken free?
Luo Siwei was just thinking about this.
The next second, countless hands that had turned into bones suddenly stretched out from the darkness. Those hands tightly grasped her body with such great strength that it seemed as if they wanted to tear her into pieces.
Those were the wronged souls in the well. They had been trapped here for a long time and finally smelled the breath of a living person. They wanted to feed on her flesh and blood.
She fell into darkness, as if she were trapped there forever.
It turned out that she did not wake up, but seemed to have entered a second dream.
Luo Siwei muttered in her heart: "I will find out the truth for you..."
Finally, the hands loosened a little, they let her go, the darkness gradually receded, and she could move her hands and feet again.
A light appeared, and she followed the direction of the light until she reached the place of light.
The protective suit on her body disappeared, the mask was no longer there, she felt very cold, had difficulty breathing, and fell to the ground exhausted.
There was no expected pain. There was snow on the ground, thick as a big white quilt.
She raised herself up and found that the scene had changed.
Everything was a sea of white. She felt waves of intense pain in her head and chest, and blood from her forehead dripped down her brow, freezing into icicles as it hit the ground.
For a while, her consciousness drifted away. When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on a man's back. His shoulders were broad and his arms were strong. She tried to raise her head, but could only see the back of his head.
The man carried her on his back and walked forward unsteadily, step by step. He didn't walk fast, but his steps were firm.
She could hear his heavy breathing, and a voice came from afar: "Luo Siwei, cheer up, your family is still waiting for you..."
Childhood, youth, adulthood, time and space seem to overlap in this moment.
Her mind was in a mess as she tried hard to think.
Then she thought for a long time, but couldn't think of anyone who would wait for her.
She felt a void in her heart, and then murmured, "But I have no relatives anymore."
Tears rolled down her eyes. Her mother passed away when she was in high school, and later her grandparents also passed away one after another. She hadn't contacted her so-called father for a long time.
Because she had no home to go to, she stayed in school during the Chinese New Year this year.
The world is so big, and no one will love her or care about her anymore.
She was a smart, capable and brave woman, but at this moment of death, her inner fragility was suddenly revealed.
Everyone around her said that she was precocious and indifferent, but she felt that she was the late bloomer.
It was as if she had just dozed off, and the children had grown up secretly, leaving her alone.
Her calmness and indifference were like a layer of ice wrapped around her. She had to hide her weak and ridiculous self and disguise herself with shrewdness and ability, so that people would be able to like her...
The elders, teachers, and leaders all wanted her to roll up, but she was like a spinning top that kept spinning tirelessly.
Everyone loves Luo Siwei, who is smart, brave, capable and able to solve cases. She does her best to investigate every case.
But she knew that no one had ever approached her, and no one cared about the real her.
The man seemed to know what she was thinking and comforted her: "I care about you, I don't want anything to happen to you."
She suddenly noticed that red blood was dripping from the man's body, leaving traces on the snow that looked like red plum blossoms.
She exclaimed, "Are you hurt?" She realized that he was much more seriously injured than she was. Luo Siwei struggled to get off his back, but the man did not stop.
"Put me down." Luo Siwei realized that in this situation, they might all be trapped to death in the endless snow.
"If you cooperate a little, I can save some energy." He panted and said, "Lolo, I will take you home."
Home, how wonderful it sounds. Home has the warmth she longs for, and her courage is ignited.
A ballad that my mother often sang when I was a child rang in my mind. It was so gentle and beautiful.
Her consciousness gradually faded, and gradually, the world seemed to quiet down, leaving only the white snow drifting down. It was beautiful, very peaceful...
At this moment, Luo Siwei faintly heard a voice, like someone calling her name. The voice seemed to penetrate the fog and dispel the darkness.
Luo Siwei was suddenly awakened by the sound. Her eyes moved a few times and finally opened. She coughed a few times and stood up.
There was no mother, no heavy snow, and she was not injured. In front of her was still the dark bottom of the well.
This time, she finally woke up.
It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it also seemed like just a blink of an eye.
She regained her consciousness, and Luo Siwei thought, she can't die here, nor can she become a burden to others.
She struggled to stand up.
Luo Siwei's vision was filled with stars, and she could no longer see anything around her. She forced herself to stay awake, fumbling to secure the safety rope around her. She held her head tightly with both hands, and, following the position Captain Wu had taught her, curled up and gradually rose as she was pulled...
Ten minutes ago, by the well.
The sun was already mid-sky and it was almost noon.
There was no news from the well for a long time. Guo Zhengyao went to the side and shouted a few times, but there was no response except some echoes.
He was getting anxious when an off-road vehicle stopped at the edge of the wasteland. Then the back door opened and Chi Li got out of the car and walked straight in this direction.
"Captain Chi..." Guo Zhengyao shouted.
"What's the situation now? How is the body recovery going?" Chi Li hurried over as soon as the meeting ended.
Chu Shisui pointed to the corpses lined up on the ground and said, "The progress is quite smooth. We have already salvaged two remains."
Chi Li glanced around and didn't see the familiar figure. He asked, "Where's Luo Siwei?"
Guo Zhengyao said, "Captain Luo and Lan Anan are currently salvaging the body down there." Captain Wu also came over and explained the situation, explaining that letting the female team members go down the well was a helpless move.
Chi Li frowned: "Didn't I tell her that I have requested support from the provincial department, and the equipment and personnel will arrive this afternoon..."
Huo Cunsheng suddenly realized: "Ah... I was wondering why Captain Luo's phone kept ringing over there..."
After hearing this, Ni Xiang hurriedly went to look for Luo Siwei's cell phone. They had just gone down the well wearing protective clothing, and their things were all put together. Sure enough, there were several unchecked messages on it.
Chi Li asked: "How many times have they gone down the well? How long does it take each time?"
"The third time, this time we stayed down for forty minutes." In order to salvage the bodies as quickly as possible, they stayed underground for longer and longer periods of time.
Hearing this, Chi Li frowned: "Hu Lai, they are not professionals. The situation underground is complicated. How can they work for such a long time? Have you forgotten that a forensic doctor was sacrificed when retrieving a body from the cellar in Li County last time?"
Huo Cunsheng whispered, "But... Captain Luo, you should know her temper. None of us can persuade her."
Luo Siwei was somewhat stubborn, but also quite capable. The two previous successful ascents had gradually relaxed their vigilance. However, they overlooked the fact that the difficulty and danger of such operations would increase with time and frequency.
Chi Li made a prompt decision: "Try to contact the people down there and ask them to stop the salvage operation."
Hearing this, Guo Zhengyao walked to the side of the well and shook the rope. Then he said nervously, "I wonder if they were busy and didn't see it. There's no response from down there."
Ni Xiang, still wearing protective clothing, stood up and said, "I'll take a break. I'll go down and take a look."
Chi Li said: "If someone faints down there, it will be difficult to bring them up. You are not in good physical condition and are not suitable to go down. Take off your protective suit and let the lightest professional on the scene go down."
If there is danger underground, exploration is not the top priority; the most important thing is to save lives.
As Chi Li said this, several ropes were pulled from below at the same time.
Guo Zhengyao said happily, "There's a response! Hurry and pull the person up!"
Chi Li felt that something must have happened in the well, and said decisively: "Pull up the shaking rope together."
The hoist and the machine started to move, and the first thing to come up was the basket. Something had indeed happened down there. Several police officers hurriedly carried the unconscious Lan Anan up, removed their masks, and checked on her condition.
Now Luo Siwei is the only one in the well.
The officers waited for Luo Siwei to wiggle the rope, but the pit fell silent, as if no one was alive anymore. Those tens of seconds were long, and for a moment, everyone's heart tightened.
Guo Zhengyao asked anxiously, "Should we go down the well to rescue people?"
Chi Li lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said, "Let's prepare first. Let's wait for three more minutes. If there is still no news from the mine after three minutes, send someone down to rescue!"
If he rashly sent people down, it might block the upward passage, which would put Luo Siwei in danger. He decided to give her some more time to save herself.
Time passed second by second, and everyone felt that the days were long, but there was still no response in the dark well.
Three minutes were about to pass. Chi Li stood by the well and shouted down: "Luo Siwei!"
Guo Zhengyao said: "Captain Chi, we have done an experiment... The well is too deep, shouting 'downhole' like this is..." Just when he said this, he suddenly found that the safety rope shook slightly twice.
It was like a miracle had suddenly occurred. Guo Zhengyao turned around excitedly, "There's a reaction! Quickly activate the device!"
The team members turned the gears hard, and with a creaking sound, the rope gradually lifted Luo Siwei into the air, and everyone finally let go of their worries.
Guo Zhengyao wanted to pull Luo Siwei up, but Chi Li took the first step and reached out to pull Luo Siwei up, then held her limp body horizontally.
Chi Li felt the woman in his arms was light and fluttery. He carried her to a safe place and pulled down the mask on her face. Luo Siwei's face was already pale, bloodless, and her bangs were wet with sweat and stuck to her temples.
Chi Li called her name: "Luo Siwei, wake up!"
As if she heard a voice, Luo Siwei's eyelashes trembled slightly, her eyes were unfocused, she gently pulled Chi Li's hand, and her mouth moved.
Chi Li bent down and listened attentively.
Luo Siwei felt the mask being removed from her face. The nauseating stench of corpses was no longer the smell, but instead the scent of grass and a faint mint. She could no longer see clearly, but she knew she was safe, enveloped in a warmth.
"There are other corpses in the well..." Luo Siwei murmured to the people around her, and then she suddenly remembered that if she were to die, she would not have spent all the money, so she forced herself to hold the man's hand tightly.
"My Alipay password is..."
Chi Li: “…”
After reporting a string of numbers, Luo Si tilted his head slightly and fell into a coma.
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