When I felt I had reached the northern end, I saw another tunnel running horizontally. "Ling Ran, this isn't the East-West Street, is it?"
Ling Ran nodded, "It should be. I think the Wei Family Villa that uncle mentioned should be real. If it weren't for a wealthy family, who would have the financial resources to dig such a good tunnel? And it just happens to be aligned with two streets in the town."
"Yeah! This tunnel certainly doesn't look like the tunnels from the Anti-Japanese War. Besides, no one would dig a tunnel under the road!"
This time I chose to go to the left first. There was still a ventilation hole at the end, but I didn't find anything.
The two turned around and walked back. This time, when they were almost at the end, they found a stone house with a closed wooden door.
A stick appeared in Zhou Xiang's hand. Ling Ran took it and pushed open the wooden door with it.
As soon as the wooden door opened, Zhou Xiang, who was holding a flashlight, was startled.
Ling Ran protected the little girl with his backhand, took the flashlight and scanned everything he could see at the door.
Opposite the door was a horizontal bed, on which lay a skeleton dressed in clothes, with empty eye sockets, as if still looking out the door expectantly.
Zhou Xiang calmed himself down and stuck his head out, "Ling Ran, I'm not afraid anymore. Let's go in and take a look!"
"Okay!" Ling Ran held her hand tightly.
The two stepped into the stone house, which was only about ten square meters in size. A skeleton was lying on an ordinary wooden bed. Judging from the clothes, it should be from the Republic of China period. Judging from the color and style, it was a young man.
There is a desk and chair beside the bed. There are a few books and writing brushes, inkstones and paper in one corner of the desk, and an oil lamp in the other corner.
There are a few pages of paper in the middle with the writing still on them.
Ling Ran took Zhou Xiang to the table and asked her to check the paper. This kind of paper might have weathered.
Zhou Xiang used the light he shone on her to look at the first page. She gently lifted it up and found that the paper had begun to break into pieces. She carefully and gently removed the pieces and looked at the next page.
In this way, after she had broken all the dozen or so pieces on the table into pieces, she sighed silently, as if she was afraid that the noise would be too loud and would frighten the skeleton on the bed.
She stepped back to Ling Ran and pulled him out of the stone house until they reached the tunnel entrance of North-South Street. Only then did Zhou Xiang stop and tell Ling Ran what she saw on the paper.
The skeleton was indeed a descendant of the Wei family. The two tunnels were prepared in advance by the Wei family. Unfortunately, the Japanese raided the area before they could be completed or moved down.
In a hurry, the servant put the youngest child of the Wei family who stayed in the other courtyard into the tunnel, and also brought down writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone to relieve his loneliness, but did not bring down much food.
He thought that he only needed to endure for a few days before his family would come to rescue him, but he waited and waited, but no one came to save him.
When the Japanese invaders raided the city, his father and brother were not in the villa, but were escorting a ship carrying all of the Wei family's property, which they intended to donate to the team fighting against the enemy.
Also working on this were several wealthy families with a strong background in Huai County. They all had a common idea, which was to drive out the foreign enemies.
This fifteen-year-old boy, unable to wait for food and knowing that everyone in the courtyard might have met with an accident, recorded everything he knew, as well as his hope for life and his desire for the outside world.
Zhou Xiang's eyes were burning with anger. Although a young life had escaped the Japanese slaughter, it could not escape hunger and died of starvation in the stone house.
Ling Ran held the little girl's hand tightly. "Did he say where he came from? Did he have any last words?"
"The cave below the septic tank was the only entrance and exit, and a rope ladder was used for going up and down. He missed his father and brothers, hoping that they would return safely and take him out to be buried in a beautiful place."
Ling Ran raised his hand and touched the little girl's head. "Let's help him fulfill his last wish. The Wei family is a charitable family, and their descendants also have pure hearts."
Zhou Xiang sniffed and blinked away the tears from the corners of his eyes, "Okay!"
After a pause, she continued, "Do you think the ships of those wealthy families arrived safely in the hands of those people?"
Ling Ran shook his head. "I haven't heard of such a thing. If you go north from the Huai River, you have to go upstream. The upstream is more than a hundred meters lower than the middle reaches, and there are many sharp turns. With the boats of that time, it would be very dangerous."
"At that time, they must have left quietly. Few people knew about this. There's a sharp bend about a dozen kilometers upstream from Huai County. When the current is strong, the whirlpool can swallow an ordinary ship. The frequent floods in Huai County are also related to that sharp bend. So, could the R country spies staying in Huai County be related to these ships?"
Ling Ran pondered for a moment and nodded, "It's possible. With so many wealthy families, there must be someone who knows the news but can't keep it secret."
Zhou thought, "Then, we will investigate the bend about ten kilometers south of the Huai River."
Ling Ran nodded, "Okay! Now, what do we do with the bones?"
Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Let's go up first, buy a coffin, and then collect the bones. Put them in the space and wait for the right time to bury them."
"Then let's go up! We've been down here for a long time."
"Um!"
The two of them walked straight towards the round hole. When they reached the bottom of the hole, they heard someone calling their names from above.
Ling Ran cupped his hands to his mouth and responded to the voice above.
Xie Ling, who was calling for help from above, breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the answer.
Ling Ran carried the tied-up Zhou Xiang on his back again, put on the gloves the little girl had given him, and climbed up. When he came down, his palms were badly rubbed, and the little girl felt sorry for him.
This time, perhaps because the two of them were walking and causing air convection, or perhaps because more air was slowly flowing in from the cave entrance, they did not feel suffocated, so they did not enter the space anymore and climbed up the 40-meter rope in one breath.
Xie Lin reached out and pulled Ling Ran, dragging them both to the cave entrance.
As soon as the two men stood still, Xie Lin scolded them, "You two are so brave. You dare to go down such a big hole casually."
Zhou Xiang was put down and looked at his cousin with a smile, "Uncle, it's okay. There's just a hole down there. There's nothing inside. But, tell the father and son to go back and rest for a day, and come back tomorrow to do the work."
"Is there really nothing down there?"
"Of course. If anything happens, can we get up here safely?"
Although Xie Ling didn't believe it, he couldn't go down to check!
"Okay, I'll go tell the father and son."
"Um!"
Zhou Xiang looked at his watch and saw it was already half past twelve. He dusted himself off and said, "Let's go home quickly. They should be waiting for us to eat."
Ling Ran felt relieved after hearing this, "Okay, let's go home and eat."
When they got home, they were naturally scolded. Zhou Xiang waved his hand and said, "Mom, I'm going to take a shower first! You can scold me after I come out."
Zhou Xiang felt as if his whole body was covered with dust after seeing the white bones.
She hurried into the bathroom. Ling Ran smiled at Zhou's mother and said, "Aunt Jiang, could you please get some clean clothes for Xiang Xiang and a clean towel for me so I can wash up too?"
Zhou's mother kept muttering as she went upstairs, "What were you two doing? You smell like dust."
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