Shanquan just received a call from Xinxiu. He was relieved that Xinxiu was okay. Right now, Shanquan and Yingyue were still sitting on the living room sofa. Yiren and Yixiong were still in the room to pack up the things they would bring if they had to evacuate for a while.
"I'll go to the backyard for a bit. Do you want to come or not?" Shanquan wanted Yingyue to take a look at the situation in the backyard. There was something significant there.
Yingyue nodded. She stood up and walked after Shanquan to the backyard.
The backyard was rectangular. Bounded by high walls on all three sides. The height of the wall was very unusual for the high wall of the house fence. Usually, the height of the backyard fence was only between three and four meters. But the wall in this backyard was over six meters high. Shanquan watched Yingyue look up at the towering wall.
"Six and a half meters," said Shanquan. He could guess what Yingyue was thinking.
"Lofty." Yingyue was amazed. "I've been in this backyard for quite some time this afternoon, but I paid little attention to the wall."
Ah! A year ago, it took me three days before I realized how high the wall was!
"Up there are rows of barbed wire and sprinkled with broken glass. So it's really not easy when someone wants to come in here." Shanquan pointed at the top of the wall.
Shanquan was sure that everyone would agree that the fence design that surrounded the house was odd. The land where the house stood was rectangular, with a side width of ten meters and a length of forty meters inward. The front yard was only ten by five meters. Behind the front yard was a house that measured ten by fifteen meters. While the backyard was ten by twenty meters. When he first saw it, Shanquan was also surprised.
There was nothing special about the front yard fence. It just like the fence in the front yard of the other houses around it. The brick wall stood only about sixty centimeters, and above it was attached seventy centimeters of iron. Exactly the same as an ordinary fence. The walls on the right and left of the front yard, which separated the courtyard from the houses on the left and right side, only had a height of no more than two meters. But, entering the building part of the house, the wall height gradually increased. Right at the back of the house, the wall was six and a half meters high. From that boundary all the way to the very back of the backyard, the wall height was constantly six and a half meters.
Anyone could conclude that the backyard was a closed and safe site. Uninvited people could not enter easily. In addition, people were also not easy to get out of the backyard. Just like any backyards in other places, the backyard of this house was also adjacent to the backyard of another person's house, whose house faced the opposite direction. On the left and right, next to the backyard of the neighbors who live on the left and right. If the wall was not high enough, people could easily jump over the wall. But the three sides of the backyard wall of this house were six and a half meters tall. So entering and exiting through that wall was a challenging endeavor.
Shanquan then walked along the wall to their left. He knew Yingyue followed him curiously. The backyard was only twenty meters long, so it didn't take long before they finally arrived at the back corner of the wall. The corner was covered by a roof only about two meters above the ground. Right in the corner, there was a large pot with an aloe vera plant whose leaves looked a little yellow. The diameter of the pot was about sixty or seventy centimeters. Shanquan stopped in front of the big pot. His hand then touched the edge of the pot. He tried to move the pot that looked quite heavy.
Without prompting, Yingyue stepped forward to help Shanquan move the pot aside. The pot was heavy, but not as heavy as it looked. Shanquan and Yingyue then managed to move the pot about sixty centimeters from its original position. The surface under the pot turned out to be covered with a layer of wood, a kind of plywood. Shanquan then tried to lift the plywood board to reveal the surface behind it. The plywood board was about half a meter by half a meter. Its position was right at the corner between the left wall and the back wall. Yingyue helped Shanquan to lift the plywood board.
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It turned out that behind the plywood board, there was another pedestal. The base was a piece of cloth that was like a tarpaulin. However, unlike tarpaulins, which were easily weathered when exposed to water, this cloth seemed to be water-resistant. At least that's what Shanquan thought when he first saw it. The fabric placed under the pot will often be submerged in water, but this cloth still looked good, even though it looked dull, shabby, and dirty. Shanquan then tried to remove the fabric, which was very similar in texture to the tarpaulin. Under the tarpaulin-like cloth, a hole was covered by a circular iron plate.
"Is this a hole leading to some kind of sewer?" Yingyue widened her eyes, watching the hole.
"What do you think this hole is?" Shanquan asked back.
Yingyue just shook her head. Her eyes widened in a question mark.
"A few months ago, we tried to get into this hole. After descending about thirty meters, this hole led to a corner of a fairly large room. About ten by ten meters. The location of the room was behind this wall. ."
"So the basement is under the backyard of the house behind this wall?"
"Not the backyard that's directly behind this wall, but the house next to it. We don't know what the cellar is for. But I think it could at least serve as a temporary hiding place."
"Isn't it dangerous to hide down there?" Yingyue's tone was full of doubt.
"The walls and roof of the room below look pretty solid. Of course, we've never tried to spend the night there. We only went in and had a look for a few minutes."
"What about the air vents down there?"
"When we were down there for a while, we didn't feel suffocated or anything like that. Maybe besides this inlet, there's another ventilation duct that connects the room down there with the other rooms. But we haven't had time to thoroughly examine everything."
"So we're going to hide here? Are you sure it's really safe down there?" Yingyue launched out those words with a tone full of doubts.
"This is only a last resort. We'll only go in there if we don't have time to get to a safe place in a short time. As for whether it's really safe down there, I'm not sure myself either. As I explained earlier that when we It's downstairs, we don't feel a lack of oxygen. So there might be another way out. If our suspicions are correct that this house is being watched, then we have to figure out how to leave this house unnoticed."
The kitchen door opened. They saw Yiren coming out from behind the door. He walked straight towards the two of them. The look on his face was outlandish.
"Are we going to hide in this dungeon?" Yiren repeated the question Yingyue had just asked.
Shanquan sighed. "That's not it. I'm just explaining the worst that could happen. This is only one of several plausible options. I also hope we don't have to hide underground." Shanquan stopped talking. He looked at Yiren and Yingyue. "I think we should all go inside for now."
The three of them rushed into the house. Arriving inside, the three saw Yixiong, who had just finished setting the dinner dishes on the dining table. The man smiled when he saw them.
"Uncle Yixiong is very diligent." Yingyue smiled widely.
"It's time for dinner. I don't think Zhengyi and Xinxiu won't be home any time soon. Besides, they seem to have had dinner out. What I mean is that we don't have to wait for them. We'd better have dinner for now." Yixiong explained briefly. He smiled widely. He seemed very satisfied with the result of his efforts, namely the arrangement of their dinner.
Shanquan believed everyone presented naturally agreed with Yixiong's thoughts. There was no doubt that they were all starving.