The brilliant sunshine poured down on this deserted road.
It was actually only three traffic lights away from the bustling commercial street, yet it was a world of difference.
The road, though wide, had never been opened.
Both ends were blocked by tall sandbag barricades, with only pedestrians able to squeeze through the gaps.
This was originally supposed to be a commercial street, with a huge marketplace in the middle to meet people’s daily needs, and then some supporting facilities like a stadium, swimming pool, and cinema, as well as a few dozen-story apartment buildings on the sides.
She remembered in elementary school, she often saw advertisements about this new street.
The concept images showed a scene of immense prosperity, yet reality was desolate and barren.
The sites of those so-called supporting facilities were just big pits.
The only thing that was almost completed was the large marketplace in the central area.
The overgrown weeds had turned yellow, and a small maple tree had shed red leaves all over the ground.
It didn’t look like it had been transplanted, but rather that a seed had been blown here and naturally took root.
“Orange Commercial Street, I think I heard about it when I was little.”
Zhu Ying carefully stepped over a mud pit, looking up curiously.
“It was very famous.”
Fang Qiang had his hands in his pockets, wearing an expression of ‘recalling the past’.
“I was still little back then. This was a construction site. I often passed by here, couldn’t see any workers, but always heard ‘thump, thump’ sounds. I even told my dad, looking at the concept map of the advertisement, that when I grew up, I wanted to buy a house here.”
“Back then, they talked it up to the sky.”
Zhou Chao supported Yang Lingfei, who almost tripped over a shallow pit, and put his arm around his shoulder.
“They said it was something like, ‘Prosperous Millennium Road, Golden Commercial Shops, See Mountains Red at Orange Isle Head, Orange Commercial Street…'”
“Damn it, now that you mention it, I remember!”
Yang Lingfei’s eyes widened.
“They also said they were going to build apartments, right? Something like ‘Good Flowers Good Scenery Good Apartments, Hundred Good White Flower Apartments’.”
“They even boasted that this would be the future city center of our small town back then.”
Sun Wei sneered.
“Just a few years, and it’s already dilapidated and deserted.”
“I think I heard my dad talk about it.”
An Jing walked at the very front.
“It’s not that the boss here didn’t want to build it. It seems he got scammed back then. Construction had already started, but they said the previous procedures weren’t compliant and required re-submission of documents. Then, after submitting, they just wouldn’t approve it, and the boss eventually ran away…”
“But, is it really necessary to build such a prosperous commercial street here? I feel like the Covered Shopping Street is already lively enough.”
Zhu Ying picked up a yellow and red gradient maple leaf, examining it in her hand.
“Maybe the houses over there are too old. Perhaps they’ll tear those down once this is built.”
Zhou Chao waved his hand.
“But if you ask me, even though it’s a bit old, it’s still usable, and everyone’s used to how it looks. I think it’s quite good.”
“Yeah, and if they do that, prices will go up, like at my house.”
Sun Wei held the back of his neck with both hands, walking aimlessly without looking at the road.
“The old vegetable market in town was torn down and moved to the new one. The rent immediately went up a lot. If you don’t want to lose money, you have no choice but to raise vegetable prices too.”
The teenagers chatted, one after another, and soon passed through the bumpy concrete road, arriving in front of the marketplace building.
Not only were the windowpanpanes missing, but even the main entrance wasn’t installed.
Looking in from outside, it was a pitch-black, empty void; nothing could be seen clearly.
For adults, this was just a boring abandoned building, but for the teenagers, it was an exciting adventure maze.
“Don’t just stand there like idiots at the entrance, let’s go in and see!” “It’s so dark even in broad daylight.”
“What, Ah Wei, are you scared?”
Zhou Chao smiled and followed An Jing.
The two walked at the very front.
The few people behind hadn’t even had time to step onto the cracked steps when they heard two exclamations.
“Ah!”
“Damn!”
The two who had just gone in seemed to have been truly swallowed up, gone from sight.
“An Jing, Zhou Chao, what happened to you?!”
Fang Qiang rushed forward in a panic, then heard a loud shout.
“Don’t come over! Be careful! There’s a pit here!”
“Pit?”
Using the sunlight streaming in through the windows, he finally managed to vaguely make out the outline of the marketplace.
The sunlight was actually quite sufficient, but the marketplace was simply too big; it could only illuminate the edges and couldn’t light up the central area clearly.
In front of them was a huge, empty space, and beyond that concrete floor, there was a large pit occupying a third of the area.
It didn’t look like it was formed after a collapse, but rather as if it had been designed that way.
“Are you guys okay?!”
Fang Qiang shouted downwards.
He could only vaguely see two figures moving.
“What’s going on?”
“Did they fall down?”
“Are they alright?”
The others also quickly gathered around.
“We’re fine, there’s a pile of sandbags below. It just hurt a bit falling so unexpectedly!”
Zhou Chao’s voice came from below, with a slight echo.
“It’s pitch black, can’t see anything! Where did we fall?”
“This place… it’s a bit like the basement level of the marketplace. It was originally designed to have an elevator,” Yang Lingfei’s mind quickly conjured a concrete image.
“Then people would take the elevator down from here, or go directly to the first floor from the side, but since no elevator was installed, they just fell straight down.”
“Can you two unlucky guys come up?!”
Sun Wei yelled down from the edge.
“It’s a bit high, might not be able to climb up!”
“What do we do?!”
An Jing shouted, a bit panicked.
“Should you guys go call for help?”
“Not yet.”
Yang Lingfei calmly assessed.
“An underground shopping mall definitely has more than one entrance and exit, and usually connects to an underground parking lot. It could be on the same level, or a lower one. If we reach the parking lot, we might find a ramp leading to the surface.”
“So, how do we do this? Do we go from below?”
“Yes, you guys go below, and then we—”
“Since we’re already in, let’s explore inside, and then meet back at this entrance later.”
Fang Qiang looked at Yang Lingfei and nodded.
“Okay, see you later!”
“No problem?”
Zhu Ying held her flip phone, adorned with charms, and asked softly, “Do we really not need to call 119 for help?”
“Let them look first!”
Sun Wei waved his hand dismissively.
“It’s such a hassle to get people over. We’ll get lectured later.”
“Yeah, why do girls always like to seek outside help?”
Fang Qiang pouted.
“Zhu Ying’s right, you guys should go with that plan!”
An Jing, from below, quickly shouted, trying to smooth things over.
“Yang Lingfei, please take care of the girl!”
“Ah, me? Okay…”
Actually, Fang Qiang would definitely help take care of her, but his mouth was too sharp.
If he were to take care of someone, he’d probably say something sarcastic.
This guy clearly liked Zhu Ying, but he always spoke ill of her.
An Jing truly couldn’t understand him in this regard.
A flurry of footsteps came from above.
Zhou Chao patted the dust off himself, pulled out a BlackBerry phone with a full QWERTY keyboard from his pocket, opened the camera interface, then held down the mini spacebar, and the LED flash lit up.
***
Although it only lasted for two or three seconds, the brief light still allowed them to slightly make out their surroundings.
“It’s so empty here…”
An Jing mumbled, fumbling in her pocket.
“Zhou Chao, can your phone still be used as a flashlight?”
“Yes, it can, but I have to keep pressing the button.”
“Better than nothing.”
An Jing sighed slightly in relief.
“I was wondering how we’d find our way in the dark.”
“If worst comes to worst, we can always ask them to buy a flashlight and throw it down.”
Zhou Chao continued pressing the button, turning to glance at An Jing’s somewhat blurry figure in the dark.
“Let’s go, let’s find our way out quickly.”
“Damn it, such bad luck.”
An Jing cursed, patting the dust off her backside.
“Should’ve known to let Ah Qiang go first.”
“Haha, why did you walk faster than him?”
“Weren’t you too?”
“I walked with confidence, walked out into a vast world, walked out into a whole universe…”
“Alright, alright, enough of that.”
She rolled her eyes dramatically.
“Which way do we go? This way?”
“There seem to be emergency lights on the wall.”
“They’re not lit up.”
“They’re not, but the direction that sign points to shouldn’t be wrong, right?”
Zhou Chao walked a few steps forward, the light sweeping across the wall, and both their gazes fell on the exit sign.
“To the left?”
“Yes, to the left!”
“Let’s go, light, light!”
Seeing it getting dark again, An Jing quickly urged.
“No choice, I have to keep pressing it.”
Zhou Chao gave a wry smile, pressed the button again, and the light came on.
It wasn’t as bright as a flashlight, but it was better than nothing.
After leaving the empty hall, there were long corridors, one after another.
The narrow space made them feel a little breathless, and the labyrinthine dark world made them a bit uneasy.
“Zhou Chao.”
An Jing broke the silence, which was filled only by their footsteps.
“Why are you limping?”
“I twisted my ankle when I fell.”
“Haha, you’re even unluckier than me!”
“No matter what, we’re both damn lucky.”
“Yeah, if it weren’t for that pile of sandbags, we might have broken bones.”
“It’s entirely possible when you’re completely unprepared—there are so many forks in the road here.”
“Yeah, let’s look for the emergency exit sign.”
“I’d like to, but the problem is, there doesn’t seem to be one here.”
“How can there not be?”
“Maybe they just didn’t install them?”
“Holy crap.”
“Let’s just keep looking slowly!”
Zhou Chao continued moving the light.
Their biggest hope now was to suddenly see a green reflection, but unfortunately, no matter how the light shone, they could only see the concrete walls that hadn’t even been painted.
Everything around them was a monotonous grey-white.
After walking for a long time, it felt like they were just going in circles.
“Holy crap… we’re not going to be able to get out, are we?”
Zhou Chao started to panic a bit.
An Jing, on the other hand, was surprisingly calm at this moment.
She nonchalantly placed her hand on his shoulder and comforted him, “How could that be? There must be an exit! If worst comes to worst, we can just go back the way we came!”
“The problem is, where did we come from?”
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