Chapter 9
During the afternoon investigation, Tang Ruxin learned from Yu Lei that Liu Dong's death was indeed caused by prolonged exposure to low-concentration hydrogen sulfide gas, not a sudden encounter with a lethal concentration. In theory, Liu Dong should have had ample time to escape the toxic environment.
"There were no signs of anesthesia or external injuries on his body. The forensic doctor said individual differences cannot be ruled out. Some people are extremely sensitive to hydrogen sulfide and may experience dizziness and fatigue at low concentrations."
Yu Lei's words kept spinning in Tang Ruxin's mind. She always felt that the breakthrough lay in these two sentences, but she couldn't figure it out for a while.
Liu Dong didn't call for help despite knowing he was poisoned. Was he unable to, or didn't want to? If he couldn't, he would have been unconscious or exhausted. If he didn't want to...it's hard to prove he didn't want to. His last medical report clearly stated he was mentally normal, even though it was six months ago.
The night filled the view, and the lights in the installation area not far away were bright, covering up the stars in the sky above.
Standing on the twelfth floor of the office complex, Tang Ruxin gazed out the window at the dazzling sea of lights. The machines there ran 24/7, barely stopping except during maintenance periods. The same was true for the workers, whose five-shift, three-shift work schedule had long since robbed them of their normal routines.
In the more than two years that she has served as safety director, the phrase she hears most often is: Operators work hard, managers should consider them more, reduce their burden, lower costs and increase efficiency.
When Tang Ruxin first heard the last slogan, she almost laughed out loud. She even ran to ask Yu Zhe who came up with such a stupid slogan. Yu Zhe scowled and kicked her out of the office. Tang Ruxin understood: it was Yu Zhe.
Reducing the burden is possible, and reducing costs is not difficult either, but these two things run counter to increasing efficiency. How can you expect efficiency without working or getting paid? They really treat people like donkeys; they can even pull a millstone even if they eat grass.
After Tang Ruxin took over, she tossed this slogan into the trash. She maintained the workload for all positions, increased annual leave and medical examination expenses, and shortened the length of service limit for early retirement. To be profitable, the company couldn't reduce workloads, and to guarantee output, it couldn't reduce costs. The only thing she could change was benefits. Besides, employee health and safety fell within her purview, so while Yu Zhe was dissatisfied, he couldn't interfere too much.
After two years, judging from occupational health examinations, the situation has improved significantly compared with previous years. It turns out that working less is the best health product.
This security director thought she had done her job well before this incident happened.
Tang Ruxin put the thermos in her hand on the windowsill and took out her cell phone to make a call.
"Director Liu, this is Tang Ruxin. Tell the lab to add a temporary analysis for the confined space gas composition test for sewage well HD3306 in the West Boundary Area. Yes, do it now. The test results don't need to be recorded in the system; send them directly to me."
Half an hour later, Tang Ruxin stood beside the sewage well in her navy blue work clothes, looking at the dark wellhead beneath her feet.
To facilitate her descent, she didn't wear a padded jacket and shivered in the freezing wind, which reached temperatures of more than 10 degrees Celsius below zero. She wore a filter-type gas mask, which made her helmet a bit cumbersome. She took it off and placed it by the wellhead, donned cotton gloves, and slowly stepped onto the steel footrest at the wellhead, descending into the dark well.
Every few steps down, she glanced at the portable alarm on her wrist. Until she reached the bottom of the well, the hydrogen sulfide alarm always showed zero.
At the bottom of the well, the leaking flow control valve has been isolated. The front and rear manual valves have been fitted with blind plates and a leak warning sign has been posted. Sewage is now being discharged via the regulating valve crossover line. The corrosion spots in the photo look different from what you'd see in person; the edges of the holes are sharper and colder.
Tang Ruxin took the flashlight and removed the glove on her other hand. She gently stroked the surface with her fingers, feeling a rough texture on her fingertips. The mist from her breath obscured her vision, so she removed the filter-type gas mask from her face and tossed it at her feet.
The bottom of the well was small, barely wide enough for two people to stand side by side. The air was stagnant, and Tang Ruxin had to gasp for air to ensure she wasn't running out of air. A large valve sat against the wall, its thick stem jutting diagonally in mid-air. Two east-west pipelines connected to the valve. The muffled sound of running water echoed through the pipes, accompanied by the murmur of her own breathing and heartbeat.
It's noisy, yet also quiet.
Did Liu Dong hear the same quiet sound when he sat here?
In the area between the valve and the ground below the well, the police had drawn a white outline of a human figure. The figure was seated, hands hanging naturally at their sides, head slightly tilted.
Liu Dong had been sitting here before he lost consciousness. Perhaps he wanted to call for help, but he couldn't. He watched helplessly as his vision blurred, his hands and feet lost feeling, and his breathing slowed. If he had remained conscious, would he have felt fear?
The exact time of equipment corrosion and perforation cannot be accurately predicted. If he had gone down the well earlier, he wouldn't have encountered the leak. If he had gone down later, the smell of leaking hydrogen sulfide would have been detected by inspectors from a distance, and the leak would have been immediately addressed. Liu Dong arrived at the time when the valve had just leaked and no one had noticed.
——What a coincidence! The probability of winning the lottery might even be greater than this.
Tang Ruxin sat among the white human silhouettes, imagining the possible reasons why Liu Dong appeared here.
Liu Dong is an operations and maintenance worker. Before he can perform on-site maintenance work, he must receive a maintenance work order. When a maintenance work order is issued for a device, no specific person is assigned to perform the repair. Regulations stipulate that the order should be received by the maintenance team leader, who then assigns an available employee to perform the repair on-site. Upon completion of the repair, the team leader for the corresponding device must sign off to confirm the completion of the work.
——Who is Liu Dong’s current squad leader?
Tang Ruxin closed her eyes, thinking about the entire process. The squad leader handed the repair work order to Liu Dong, who was currently unassigned. So, he went to the well at the western boundary. However, there was only a valve. Was this the valve he was planning to repair?
——That means someone already knew about the valve anomaly, so they issued a work order. Who issued the order?
Tang Ruxin let her hand hang naturally, the flashlight shining along the ground at the bottom of the well onto the wall, creating a clear, bright disk. She fiddled with the direction of her left wrist and found that no matter how she twisted it, it seemed impossible to completely align it with the white outline drawn by the police.
Is Liu Dong holding something in his hand? What's that protruding part? It can't be an outstretched finger, because it would have to be straight.
That's right, it should be a walkie-talkie. The protruding part is the walkie-talkie antenna. Every Donghe Refining and Chemical employee knows that they must carry a hard hat and a walkie-talkie when on-site. If Liu Dong was holding anything, it would only be a walkie-talkie.
He had a walkie-talkie in his hand, but no one knew he died here. Either the walkie-talkie was out of battery, or he deliberately kept it a secret, but neither possibility made sense.
When the battery is low, the walkie-talkie will keep sounding the alarm. No one would walk around with a walkie-talkie constantly sounding the alarm; it's too noisy. If he had taken it out and then started sounding the alarm, Liu Dong would probably have gone back and replaced it with a charged one. If he deliberately didn't want anyone to know he was at the scene, why did he even bring the walkie-talkie?
The more Tang Ruxin thought about it, the more her headache grew. The cold air had already soaked through her clothes, and her hands and feet were frozen numb. Her throat was constantly irritated by the icy air from her deep breaths, and even swallowing became difficult.
——Is it so cold when Liu Dong sits here?
Suddenly, a heavy object fell from the sky, followed by a dull thud that hit her in front of her body, frightening Tang Ruxin so much that her heart almost stopped beating.
Amidst the smoke and dust, she saw a figure rushing towards her.
Tang Ruxin took a deep breath, raised her leg and kicked forward, but it was as if she had hit a wall and could not kick at all. The man stopped moving after being kicked by her and did not try to get closer.
"Not dead?"
Yu Lei's voice came from the darkness, a voice that was filled with gnashing teeth. He pulled Tang Ruxin's ankle away from his chest, turned over and sat down, panting.
When Yu Lei saw two feet in the flashlight beam at the wellhead, his brain almost exploded. He jumped down without thinking, and was almost kicked to the point of cardiac arrest.
The two were silent for a moment, each trying to digest the shock they had received.
Yu Lei, the first to recover, patted his clothes and stood up. He let out a long sigh and bent down to pick up the flashlight that Tang Ruxin had dropped on the ground. He had been too hasty when he jumped down and accidentally bumped into the wellhead, and his flashlight had shattered into pieces in his pocket.
"Tsk, get up. Just sit anywhere. You might blur out the sign later." Yu Lei pulled up Tang Ruxin, who was still sitting under the valve, and put his other hand under the valve stem to prevent her from hitting her head.
It's no wonder he misunderstood. Not many people in this world would be so calm sitting in a place where someone had died. This woman was quite courageous, daring to go to the scene of death alone in the middle of the night.
Tang Ruxin's hands and feet were frozen stiff, and when he suddenly pulled her up, she stumbled and couldn't stand steadily. She subconsciously grabbed Yu Lei's arm.
Looking up, she saw Yu Lei looking at her strangely, so Tang Ruxin could only speak:
"I'm not a green tea, my feet are really frozen and I can't stand steadily."
Yu Lei suddenly realized. He had been thinking that there seemed to be a word that could aptly describe a woman like Tang Ruxin, but he just couldn't think of it.
Now I think of it - Green tea, speaks in a sarcastic and hypocritical manner, and does insidious and despicable things with a gentle and innocent face.
Yu Lei nodded in approval, not in approval of her frozen feet, but in approval of her self-image.
"You kicked me quite skillfully just now."
"Oh, I'm sorry. If you were sitting at the bottom of a dark well and suddenly a huge creature fell from the sky and pounced on you, your reaction would only be faster than mine, right, uncle policeman?" Tang Ruxin climbed onto Yu Lei's arm and moved half of her body weight over, almost leaning on his shoulder.
Yu Lei pursed his lips and turned his head to look at her helplessly. He had just said that he was not a green tea, but she immediately showed him the tea. And the tea was so open and aboveboard, I don't know if she thought he was a fool or didn't care what he thought.
With the support of Yu Lei, Tang Ruxin stood firmly on one foot and stomped hard on her other foot which was numb from the cold. Only after she regained some feeling did she let go of Yu Lei's arm.
"You're wearing so little?" Only then did he realize that she was not wearing a cotton coat.
"It's inconvenient." Tang Ruxin answered casually, then pointed at the human figure on the ground and asked, "Is the walkie-talkie Liu Dong holding out of battery?"
"How do you know?" Yu Lei looked at her in surprise.
"It should have been charged in the past two days. Which device does the intercom's channel belong to? Or..." Tang Ruxin pondered for a moment, then said firmly, "The channel doesn't correspond to any device. It's an empty band."
Yu Lei fell silent. He suddenly felt that this Green Tea Director was more perceptive than he had thought and knew how to investigate cases better. Recalling that she had just sat where Liu Dong's body had been, this behavior was very similar to the simulated scenes their police often used. She was putting herself in the situation of Liu Dong's death.
"Does he have a maintenance application form?" Seeing that Yu Lei didn't say anything, Tang Ruxin continued to ask.
"No."
really.
Tang Ruxin raised her eyes and looked at Yu Lei seriously.
"It's a murder case, police officer."
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