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Book 1: Chapter 142
Book 1: Chapter 142
Book 1: Chapter 142
My plan was very clear and simple. The entrance to the calling spring was inside the tulou, so based on common sense, it should be under the tulou. People came and went in the lobby on the first floor, so I had never thought of the possibility before. As a result, I didn't try and look for any special entrances or strange places on the first floor.
The most important person tonight was Jia Kezi. There were too many noises during the day, but Jia Kezi should be able to hear any underground noises in the dead of night.
But the tulou covered a larger area than I could have imagined. Unlike hearing slaves (1), it was impossible for Jia Kezis hearing to pick up everything that was going on underground in one location. So, we had to divide the first floor up and have him listen in those different areas. Once he collected information from those places, we could infer what the basic situation was underground.
I divided the first floor of the tulou into twelve areas. The first floor mainly consisted of the warehouse, kitchen, and staffs dormitory. These areas were usually locked and inaccessible to guests, which was very troublesome. I needed a reason for Jia Kezi to enter every single area tonight, and I already had one in mind. I needed a power outage. The other floors couldnt be alerted and the power outage in each of the first-floor rooms needed to be controllable.
At this time, I wasnt afraid of being recognized since I knew that the information on the fourth floor wouldnt be transmitted to the fifth floor. And even if the people on the fifth floor knew that I was coming, Xiao Hua was so confident that he would just ignore me.
Fatty and I went down to the first floor and started messing with all of the wires. As we were arranging them, Fatty said to me, "If there are so many people involved in this rescue effort, dont you think the people on the first floor would have noticed that much activity since this is such a public area? There are at least a hundred people on the fifth floor and we didnt see any large-scale activities when we were monitoring the whole building at night."
Fatty's statement was somewhat exaggerated, but I thought it was reasonable. However, the entrance definitely had to lead underground and I needed to know what the situation was down there before we could infer anything.
To make a long story short, we used Xiang Duns tools to cut the wires on the first floor that night and Jia Kezis feedback proved my theory. There were a lot of spaces under the tulou. It was difficult to determine the relationship between these spaces, but we could confirm that about three of them could accommodate more than ten people. The most valuable thing Jia Kezi found was that there was a hidden staircase in the tulou.
This staircase led to the fifth floor and Jia Kezi heard the clear sounds of people moving about. Moreover, someone went directly underground from the fifth floor.
I sighed. Xiao Hua didnt have to go downstairs at all since they had a hidden staircase that could take them directly underground.
The staircase didnt go straight up and down, but wound around the tulou like a snake. It probably wasnt a real staircase, but a secret passage made while the tulou was being built. When Jia Kezi listened in to those areas, the sounds of people walking were very strange. It wasnt the sound of someone walking on stairs, but the sound of someone stepping on nails in the wall.
I couldnt go up to the fifth floor and use Xiao Huas entrance, but our room was too far away from the passage on our floor.
The most bizarre thing was that this passage was on the first, second, and third floors. The sounds were very faint, so we couldnt determine where the passage was on the these three floors, but Jia Kezi was able to clearly locate it on the fourth floor.
We stayed up until dawn to confirm which room on the fourth floor was nearest to the passage. I went back to my room and took a fifteen minute nap. After I got up, I moved right on to the next step. I had to go to the fourth floor, enter that room, enter the passage without anyone noticing, and then enter the calling spring.
I asked Bai Haotian to go directly to the fourth floor and see who was staying in that room. After she came back, she pointed to the picture of the young man with the copper coin necklace that I had stuck the wall. "It's him."
I looked at my watch. "We have to kidnap him."
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TN Notes:
(1) These are a reference to the hearing servants from the Mystic Nine drama. But the character the author used is , which means slave (not servant) so thats why I kept it as slave.