The atmosphere was tranquil. Two guards were sitting in front of Xindongchang's office. Not only them but there were also still two other guards on the floor. Qiuzhen decided to stop looking for that person anymore. He didn't want to attract the guards' attention who were there. He decided to return to where he had previously eaten a delicious meal. If the person wearing the light blue shirt was no longer at the stall selling the tuna dish, then he would posthaste return to his room and resume his interrupted sleep.
Before leaving the floor, Qiuzhen took the time to stop by the restroom. There were several restrooms on that floor. Intuitively, Qiuzhen chose the one closest to him. The washroom was in one corner of the floor. Of course, that was just Qiuzhen's estimation. He didn't know for sure what the shape of the building on the bottom floor was. Qiuzhen had to go through a winding hallway to get to the restroom. Qiuzhen had never even explored the bottom floor, so he relied solely on the signs written on the walls there.
He went into the restroom and urinated there. As he came out of the restroom, he realized there was something important. In the hallway, it turned out that there was another turn that did not lead to the restroom. The turn was not visible from the direction he came in earlier, but people walking from the restroom to the outside would notice it easily. Even so, it was impossible for people returning from the toilet to enter the turn because it was so dark. There were no lights in the hallway after the other turn.
Qiuzhen was in no hurry to do anything else. He decided to see where the turn would lead. He walked carefully. Luckily, he had grabbed a flashlight before leaving the room, so he didn't have to worry about walking in the dark.
The other aisle turned out to be quite long. Qiuzhen had already walked about fifty meters from where he had turned earlier. Maybe more. Qiuzhen couldn't be sure because he was focused on the dark passage, not on the distance he had walked. He didn't know what place it was and why people had built the passage. He could only surmise that there might have been a plan to create a larger space. For some reason, the plan was not continued. Some of the hallways that had already been built in the project were abandoned. After that, people might forget about the existence of these passages.
Qiuzhen finally arrived at the end of the hall. The end of the hall was like a dead end. With the help of the flashlight, he scanned the three sides of the wall at the dead end. There was a door on each side of the wall. So, there were three doors in total. Qiuzhen tried to open the doors. Turned out he could open all the doors. All three doors were unlocked. He intended to examine the room behind the doors. Qiuzhen chose to start from the door on the left wall.
The room behind the door was a shed. Maybe the room was not a shed at first, but then it was used as a storage space. The door where Qiuzhen had entered was in one corner of the shed. The room was quite spacious, maybe about two hundred square meters. Many of the items appeared to have been there for decades. Zhonghang Station was an ancient subway station. Qiuzhen didn't know exactly when the station started operating, but at least it was more than five hundred years ago. Indeed, the station had undergone several renovations. However, renovations only touched the places that were actually used. A secluded and unused place like the room where Qiuzhen was standing definitely wasn't on the list of rooms that needed repair.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Qiuzhen opened wide the door on the right wall. It turned out that the room behind the door was exactly the same as the previous room. It was clear that the two rooms were a pair of identical rooms separated by a passage.
Finally, Qiuzhen opened the door on the wall at the end of the hall. The room differed slightly from the previous two rooms. The room looked cleaner. Not exactly clean, but at least not as dirty as the last two rooms. Qiuzhen shone his flashlight all over the room. Just like before, there were so many things inside the room. It looked like there was a lot more stuff there. But maybe it was just an illusion. The room was smaller than the other two rooms, so the things there seemed to be more.
Things were not only scattered in the middle of the room but also stuck to the walls. Almost the entire wall of the room was filled with objects. Only a few places were clean of stuff. The clearing of items started from the door where Qiuzhen had entered earlier. The places that were free of the stuff form a certain path. It was like a path in the middle of a forest. A place filled with goods was a forest, while a path clear of goods was a path. Qiuzhen sauntered down the 'path.' The path ended in front of the wall, in the right corner of the room.
Nothing special there. Just like the rest of the walls in the room, the walls in that part were also filled with stuff. There was even a big cupboard there. Qiuzhen tried to open the cupboard. He could easily see the inside of the cupboard made of wood. Unexpectedly, the cupboard was empty. He tried to get into the cupboard.
Inside the wooden cupboard, Qiuzhen tapped the inside of the entire wooden wall. When he knocked on the back wall of the cupboard, he felt a cavity in the back of the cupboard. Qiuzhen pushed against the back wall on the inside of the cupboard, but the wall didn't move.
Qiuzhen shone his flashlight all over the cupboard. He tried to find a lever or other objects that serve to pry or open the back wall. After a while of groping under the cupboard, he found something. There was a lever, or something similar to a lever. Instantly, he tried to move the thing. But nothing happened. The back wall of the cupboard didn't move at all.
Qiuzhen watched the lever carefully. He could see there were parts, like buttons, attached to the lever. The lever seemed to be moved frequently. Qiuzhen tried to press some of those buttons. But still, nothing happened. Qiuzhen highlighted another part of the base of the wardrobe. About sixty centimeters to the left of the lever, there was another lever. Qiuzhen did the same with the lever, pressing a few buttons before attempting to push against the cupboard wall. But this time, his efforts had yielded no results.
There were seven buttons on the right lever, while there were only five on the left lever. Qiuzhen didn't know which button on the two levers he had to press to get the inside of the cupboard pushed in. That's just a guess. He was fully aware that no one could guarantee that the levers had anything to do with the inner wall of the cupboard.
After pondering for a while, Qiuzhen decided to try simultaneously pressing three buttons on the left lever and three buttons on the right lever. After pressing the buttons, he moved the two levers simultaneously and then pushed against the inner wall of the cupboard. Still, nothing happened.
Over the next half hour or so, Qiuzhen tried the possible combinations of the buttons one by one. It was, of course, very tiring and frustrating for him. Until finally, he could open the wall of the wooden cupboard. He laughed after realizing his mistake. Finding the right combination when he pressed the buttons was not enough to open the wall. He had to move the wall to the left, not backwards.
"Hah!" Qiuzhen cheered so loudly. He was happy and relieved. Undeniable, the exploration was getting more and more interesting. Qiuzhen imagined Shanquan and the others would be very excited if they were with him at that time. He was excited to see what was behind the mysterious wooden cupboard wall.