Chapter 14 Chapter 13 Permanently Contaminated Area

The night wind was like a wave, blowing past me, but I didn't realize it.People from the archaeological team came running from a distance, without exception, they all stopped in an instant, and slowly took two steps forward with a shocked and unbelievable expression. A diameter of 100 meters is a measure of length.The human record for running 100 meters is 9 seconds 58. It takes less than 10 seconds to cross the abyss from where we are to the opposite side.However, on this majestic and huge desert, this unfathomable round hole is like a long and endless passage, and the vertical wall directly points to the shocking darkness.

It shattered the flatness of the desert for no reason, and stared at us quietly and arrogantly. "How deep is it?" Professor Tan stretched out his hand to hold Li Dazui, and asked Uncle Yan. "Over 1750 meters, the limit of our measurements." Uncle Yan replied. When Li Dazui heard Uncle Yan's answer, his legs softened and he almost sat down again.He moved tremblingly to a place farther away from the black hole, resting his hands on his knees, panting heavily.Old Wei patted him on the back with concern, and Li Da mouth was out of breath and said: "Fortunately, I reacted and sat on the ground. If I follow the inertia and take two more steps, brother, I will go down."

Professor Tan crossed his arms and pondered for a moment, then raised his head and asked Uncle Yan, "What do you need us to do?" Uncle Yan gave her a meaningful look: "I need you to go underground with us." Professor Tan shook his head: "This is impossible, this is too crazy. If the 1,750 meters has not bottomed out, it is impossible to hang people down. Besides, it is not clear what the ground is, I can't let my team members risk their lives. " Uncle Yan laughed, his voice was very strange behind the mask. "Life? Life is the most insignificant thing here." He slowly walked a few steps on the edge of the black hole, "Now we are a whole, you and us, bound together. This time my team members and I are desperate, yes The same is true for you. This dream world has been entangled with me for too long, whether it is a door of darkness or light, I have to push it open to take a look."

Old Wei raised his head and asked, "Yan... Uncle Yan, do you have any plans?" Uncle Yan faced the black hole and stared at the ground for a long time.Perhaps the moonlight made him sad, or this bottomless mystery made him sigh, he slowly raised his head to the night sky, like a bloodthirsty and injured eagle, standing silently between the sky and the earth In the great darkness. "There are seven black holes like this in the desert, ranging from a hundred meters in diameter to meters in diameter. One of the entrances is within our reach." He suddenly turned to us, "The entrance to this hole is in Kuruktag mountains."

I looked at Uncle Yan in disbelief, and blurted out: "Such a wide area... Did you discover these holes? How long have you spent in the desert?" Uncle Yan looked at me coldly: "In nineteen years, I discovered six cave entrances. The last cave entrance is the location determined by Qin, and we found it together." Except for the caves in the Kuruktag Mountains, the other six caves are randomly distributed in the vast northeast of the Taklamakan Desert.Uncle Yan spread out the specially marked map in his hand on the sand, and under the moonlight, he could clearly see the coordinates of the cave entrance in the Gobi desert area.Nineteen years of time, condensed into six marks, even on the map, it looks small and pitiful.The mark of the seventh hole is marked with a red pen, which is a bit dazzling.

Everyone gathered around and looked at the map.Gengzi lit another cigarette and stood a little distance away from the crowd with his gun in his hand, as if he was used to it.Li Dazui looked at the map for a while, found a place and lay down on his back, apparently he was too frightened just now and needed to rest. Lao Liu poked his head over and said, "Did you see anything?" Tu Tuo gave him a hand and whispered, "Don't, don't talk. Uncle Yan won't disturb them." Lao Liu and Tudou also took out their cigarettes and walked to the side while chatting a few words.The people in Uncle Yan's team have different accents. They seem to be disorganized, but they have a natural vigilance in their bones, and their actions are quick and effective.I believe more and more in Yu Yanyan's judgment that they are professional soldiers, but what puzzles me is why professional soldiers hijacked the archaeological team, and how could they be so interested in the mysteries in this desert?

"Mr. Yan," Professor Tan looked up at Uncle Yan, "The six openings may be strange landscapes formed by geological tectonic movements. I think since you can spend 19 years here looking for these openings, can you at least tell us , what are you looking for? You want to go underground, what might be there in this underground is worth your risk at the cost of the lives of our two groups of team members?" Professor Tan's thoughts are clear at any moment, and his tone is gentle but hits the nail on the head. Uncle Yan squatted down next to Professor Tan, and I noticed that his hair was already dotted with gray hairs, which were the marks carved on him by time and malnutrition.

He pointed to the hole in the Kuruktag Mountains on the map: "I discovered the seventh black hole nineteen years ago. But I didn't know the mystery at that time—" Yu Yanyan suddenly interjected, "How did you discover this hole?" Uncle Yan glanced at her, did not answer, and continued to say to Professor Tan: "In the past 20 years, I have discovered other caves one after another. After I took Qinsuo here to look at it, he made a judgment, er, as an archaeological site. The judgment of the scholar. Later, when he and I returned to the seventh cave, we also verified his judgment."

Uncle Yan's words made us listen attentively, and everyone's eyes fell on him, expecting him to reveal more information.Professor Tan is different from us, her voice is as calm as ever, but there is a kind of anxiety that cannot be concealed: "Are Qin Suo and the others still alive?" Uncle Yan shook his head, as if he felt a little guilty about his answer: "They lost contact with us, and to be exact, I don't know their current situation." Professor Tan took a deep breath, without any expression on his face, showing no sadness or joy. "What judgment did Qin make?" Xiang Zhiyuan finally couldn't help asking.

Uncle Yan didn't answer right away, but looked at Professor Tan with half expectation and half questioning eyes. Professor Tan was silent for a moment and said: "This cave is the largest and unfathomable. If it is related to human activities, we should pay attention to the significance of its geographical location." Her slender and somewhat old fingers slid across the map and landed on the location of the hole with a diameter of 100 meters. "It is located in the center of the triangle formed by the Xiaohe cemetery, Gumugou cemetery and the Loulan ruins. Perhaps it is the key to interpreting these three ruins that confuse us. Before we have more information, we will I can’t jump to conclusions. But I have a vague feeling that these three ruins, and maybe even more undiscovered ruins, are related to these seven caves. Seven is a very important number in Chinese culture. This may be a metaphor for celestial phenomena. But... the construction of this abyss is beyond the reach of human beings, and whether it has cultural significance remains to be considered.”

Uncle Yan seemed very satisfied with Professor Tan's answer, and raised his head slightly: "The Qin Institute also concluded the same way. And we have gone deep underground for more than 1,100 meters, and there are traces of human beings there that are not obvious. I firmly believe that if we If you can go to the end, you will definitely find..." Almost at the same time, we opened our mouths and asked, "Found what?" Uncle Yan lowered his head to organize the map and stopped talking. To our surprise, after a short rest, we were on the road again.The continuous long-distance driving and the nervous tension caused us to have low-grade fever, motion sickness, vomiting and other symptoms to varying degrees.Uncle Yan was unmoved, and the two cars set off overnight under his instructions. I sat in the car in a daze, feeling vaguely in my heart that Uncle Yan seemed to be rushing for time.There is something hidden beneath his grim exterior that makes him rush toward his goal with anxiety, even urgency.And he obviously doesn't trust us, not only from the judgment he asked Professor Tan, it can be seen that he is calculating the highest strength of our archaeological team, but so far he has only revealed marginal information.He has always controlled the core information that hooks us and even temporarily forgets the dangers and threats in front of us, carefully guarding against us. Chen Wei's body was weak, and he couldn't eat anymore after vomiting that night.Professor Tan changed to another car to take care of Chen Wei, and Dou Miao got into our car. Besides me and the two master brothers, Yu Yanyan was also in our car. Since Xiaoqi's accident, Yu Yanyan has been silent most of the time.The difference from us is that she pays more attention to Uncle Yan and his group, which is similar to the struggle between the enemy and ourselves.And most of our minds have been occupied by the mysterious place more than 1750 meters underground.If the judgment assumptions of Professor Tan and Institute of Qin are true, what an incredible discovery it will be!Starting from four thousand years ago, when the Xia Dynasty coexisted side by side, the footprints of human beings on the Lobu Wasteland are full of mysteries.They may have come from the distant Black Sea and the coast of the Caspian Sea, and traveled long distances to this legendary place. They have their own beliefs and knowledge, their own words and ways of communicating with everything in the world.And now there is such a huge abyss at a place more than 1,700 meters underground, like an illusory clue, leading us to an unknown world.Of course, this is just a hypothesis now, but just this hypothesis also makes us who suffer from motion sickness full of anticipation and excitement. When you are young, curiosity is the driving force for growth.Because I am young, I look down on life. I always think that there is a lot of time and a large area of ​​land to stretch and explore.I had a hunch that this was the path to answers to mysteries that have plagued us for so long, but not the price we paid for it. This kind of pain and shock, even if recalled today, is still thrilling. The direction of the car is the Kuruktag Mountains, all the way north. Li Dazui was tall, and he couldn't use it in the crowded carriage, so he could only try his best to huddle himself into a ball, and huddled on the chair aggrieved.Old Wei sat beside him, his eyelids drooping, a little saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth, and he was soundly asleep. Sitting behind them, Dou Miao pulled Li Dazui's sleeve and said in a low voice, "Hey, did you take samples from the cave wall just now?" Li Dazui was woken up by Dou Miao, saw Wei Datou's saliva dripping on his shoulder, and quickly wiped it with his sleeve.He turned around and complained: "I almost lost my life, so I don't have the energy to think about taking samples." Dou Miao pulled him again, obviously very energetic. "I think the formation of this abyss is likely to be caused by the eruption of underground lava when it was subjected to plate changes. You know that there is a mud volcano in the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains, right? There are burning rocks and blowholes there, and there are fireworks all day long. Caused by the sedimentation of the Luo period strata. There is coal in the deposit. When the stratum is cracked during the activity, the air convection or exchange occurs. At this time, the coal seam slowly begins to heat up naturally, oxidizes, and burns from more than 70 degrees to more than 200 degrees. Afterwards, ferric oxide will be produced, along with some sulfur. On the surface, smoke clouds are seen, which are emitted from the ground, and a natural process occurs underground, and the smoke on the surface runs up along the cracks." Li Dazui smiled wryly: "Brother, the night is quiet, the moon is dark and the wind is high, if you don't plan to elope, go to bed early." Dou Miao raised her body slightly, grabbed Li Dazui's back, and became more energetic: "In fact, since the 1960s, the country has planned to survey oil in the Tarim Basin. At that time, due to restrictions, the survey area was only Kurukta. Ge and Altyn. At that time, six wells were drilled in Kuruktag, six wells, and none of them showed oil and gas.” Li Dazui was drowsy, but I was fascinated by it, and couldn't help but interjected: "And then?" Dou Miao smiled slightly: "Then, I retreated. Six wells were drilled, six people died, and two were missing. One of the missing people was reading an old newspaper wrapped in a lunch box in front of a tent while resting. The newspaper was blown away, and he chased after him, but he never came back. No one was alive, no dead body was seen.” When it came to the eight words "no one is alive, no corpse is dead", Dou Miao waved her hand subconsciously.The interior of the car was small, and the slap hit Old Wei right on the head.Old Wei let out a weak "ow" and woke up. "Where is the story meeting?" Old Wei narrowed his eyes, squinted at Dou Miao, and tightened his clothes by the way, "Old Dou, a friendly reminder, what Liang Ke's mother needs is a lawyer's son-in-law, not an archaeologist. It’s even more impossible to engage in paleontology.” Dou Miao's expression remained unchanged, and he whispered: "Vulgar." He leaned his head towards me and continued: "The geology of the entire Tadong area was studied in the 1960s. But the technical strength at that time was too weak, old Maozi Turned his face again, the Geological Bureau's eyes are basically smeared." I asked curiously, "What does it matter if the old man is gone?" "They took all the equipment and materials away." Li Dazui curled his body, and muttered in a sleepy way. Dou Miao nodded and continued: "What is known now is that the sedimentary cover system in the Tadong area includes the Sinian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, with a sedimentary thickness of nearly 10,000 meters. What is nearly 10,000 meters?" Concept? Lao Li told you to find Li Renxi in the Kuruktag area and told me that there are more than 5,000 meters of sediment there. I am very excited. I have never seen it before. The entire Tarim Basin is a huge geologically generated sample. The transformation of multi-stage tectonic activities here is generally manifested as the early Paleozoic extensional rift, the late Paleozoic uplift and denudation, and the Mesozoic and Cenozoic stable subsidence. In terms of sedimentary evolution, it is manifested in six stages-the change of depositional environment directly affects the depositional facies belt The distribution of rocks ultimately determines the spatio-temporal distribution of sources, reservoirs, and caprocks. This is simply a geological treasure house." Dou Miao's excitement was unusual.In the past, he seldom talked so much. He usually made a bad joke and then drifted away on his own.But this night he kept talking like he had been pumped out of chicken blood.Unfortunately, I couldn't understand most of what he said. "Big mouth, did you understand what Lao Dou said?" I asked Li Wenchang with a guilty conscience. "Isn't it because there are 10,000 meters of marine and terrestrial deposits here? Isn't it that it was an ancient ocean, and then it was turbulent, crossed the equator, floated to the current position, and became land? Is it easy for Tarim?" Li Dazui let out a sigh, shook his head and sighed, "There is another view that the Tarim Basin was created by a planetary collision, and it was crushed alive by others. God is its stepmother, this is it." We chatted for a long time that night, and I don't know when we fell asleep.Dou Miao's knowledge is far beyond the scope of a Ph.D. in paleontology. I didn't realize it until he inadvertently mentioned that his master's degree was in the Department of Earth Sciences. The speed of the car was very fast, and the driver changed several shifts in the middle. The laid-off drivers all fell directly on their chairs and snored three seconds later.It can be seen that he is tired.Due to Professor Tan's negotiation, we stopped halfway and rested for half a day.This delay prevented us from reaching the Kuruktag area until the early morning of the third day. It is also a barren land where not a single blade of grass grows, but when we return to a place closer to the Kongque River, there is a kind of kind sadness in our hearts.The shock brought by the abyss with a diameter of 100 meters still lingers in my heart, but the sense of fear is gradually fading.After all, we are still stepping on solid ground. No matter whether we can get there in the end, we still have to rely on science and professional knowledge to explore. The car stopped and several people asked to pee.The morning sun was very dazzling, I squinted my eyes and looked around for favorable terrain, trying to find Yadan or low hills that would allow me to travel conveniently.At this time, several ruined Populus euphratica piles not far away attracted my attention, to be exact, an obviously man-made stone tablet attracted my attention. I shouted to everyone, feeling a little excited that this might be another discovery.Everyone gathered around, and when they got closer to look, it was indeed a stone tablet. On the front of the stele are four large dark red characters: "Military restricted zone". There is also a line on the back of the stele: "Permanent Contaminated Area". Everyone was stunned at the stele.If the words "military restricted zone" make people feel a little heavy, then the five words "permanently contaminated area" are enough to make us shudder. Uncle Yan walked over slowly, his eyes fell on the stone tablet next to Populus euphratica Araki.His expression could not be seen clearly through the mask, he was thin but tall and straight, and everyone who approached him could feel his calm and ruthless aura.Professor Tan took two steps towards him, with a bit of anger in his voice: "You didn't say you were going to take us into the military restricted area. What does this permanently contaminated area mean? Does it mean..." "On October 16, 1964," Yu Yanyan said suddenly, "China detonated its first atomic bomb, code-named 596, with an explosive equivalent of 10,000 tons of TNT. Professor Tan, you guessed right." She turned her head to look at Uncle Yan, and said meaningfully, "Is that right, Uncle Yan?" Due to the relationship between disciplines, we don't know the specific situation of the country's nuclear test, nor have we cared about it.Yu Yanyan's words made us both excited and a little uneasy. In fact, we gradually learned about the specific situation of Lop Nur as a nuclear test area later. 596 was nicknamed "Miss Qiu" before it was detonated, and later changed to "Old Qiu". The atomic bomb and archaeologists have the gene of cold jokes in their bones. The detonation method of 596 was a ground iron tower. It was the explosion of this atomic bomb that opened the prelude to China's nuclear test.The Lop Nur and Kuruktag Mountains are one of China's nuclear test areas and have participated in every major advance in China's nuclear tests.Since then, various nuclear tests on the ground, airdrops, flat holes, and shafts have been carried out here.Until July 29, 1996, when China announced a moratorium on nuclear testing, it was a military restricted zone where civilians were strictly prohibited from entering. After 1996, after a period of cold storage, the nuclear test area is no longer as heavily guarded as in the past, but the people who know and enter here are still very limited. Uncle Yan nodded slightly, and said concisely: "Get in the car, we're almost there." We never imagined that the seventh hole discovered by Uncle Yan and Qin turned out to be in the military restricted zone for nuclear testing. Li Dazui was very worried about being discovered and arrested: "Uncle Yan, will we be arrested? This should probably be a 'crime of leaking state secrets'?" Old Wei comforted him and said, "We were kidnapped, it has nothing to do with us." Yu Yanyan looked out the window, and after a long silence, she seemed to be talking to herself in a low voice: "This place has been abandoned for a long time." After about two hours, the car finally stopped, and we were told to get out and walk, with all supplies carried by us.I noticed that most of the equipment carried by Uncle Yan and others was rock climbing equipment, such as dynamic ropes, static ropes, seat belts, quick hangers, protectors, etc.A lot of equipment was something I had only heard of but never seen before, so I couldn't help watching them curiously check the equipment one by one and put it into the bag. Li Dazui took the pickaxe and shovel from the car. On the hard saline-alkali ground under the wind and sand, this kind of brutal tool must be used for excavation work.Uncle Yan glanced at him and said in a muffled voice, "You don't need to bring it." Li Dazui gave him a strange look: "Aren't we going to excavate the ruins?" Uncle Yan said: "You can't use it. Besides, your physical strength is limited. Bring as much supplies as you can." Uncle Yan also put his GPS on the car. With the idea of ​​coming back. Uncle Yan seemed to see my concerns, his head turned to me, and I felt him smile at me: "The GPS below is useless." When I approached Kuruktag Mountain, I realized that it was more dry and hideous than it looked from a distance.This place is like a cursed land, there is no trace of water, no trace of life, and the mountains of various shapes stretch and twist, silently overlooking us. Uncle Yan is vigorous and strong, walking at the forefront of the team.He took us to the depths of the mountains, and after about three hours of advancing, he stopped in a mountain depression and gave a succinct order: "With the place where I stand as the center, within 50 meters of the surrounding Find." "Looking for what?" I am no longer as afraid of Uncle Yan as I was at first, and even my disgust has gradually decreased.I think no matter who spends 19 years doing something, this person must not be simple. "You don't need to look for it, I have enough people." Uncle Yan said lightly. Sure enough, within a few minutes, Xiao Fei yelled, "Here I am!" We ran over in a hurry, only to see Xiaofei pushing away the dry gravel on the ground with his hands, exposing a one-meter-square iron plate. Xiao Fei knelt on the ground and lifted the iron plate with some difficulty, revealing a small hole. Looking down, it was pitch black and bottomless.But what is surprising is that on one side of the cave wall, there are artificially installed support pedals.The diameter of the hole is less than one meter, and it looks very cramped. Gao Hong whistled lightly, pretending to be relaxed and showing tension and anticipation.We put our heads around the mouth of the cave, and carefully looked at this small but bottomless cave. After looking at it for a while, Professor Tan raised his head and said to Uncle Yan: "This is different from the 100-meter abyss we saw. This hole was dug manually." Uncle Yan nodded and said, "Not bad." Surrounded by surprise and doubt, we looked at Uncle Yan together.If the hole was dug by hand, the person who dug the hole must be a lunatic or have a huge and inviolable will.The experience of excavating at the Yingpan ruins made us realize how difficult it is to plan food on the saline-alkali soil, not to mention digging such a deep hole, it is impossible to complete this task without a lot of time, energy and physical strength . Li Dazui wiped his chin with his sleeve, I knew he was trying to hide his uneasiness: "You always dig this hole?" Uncle Yan was calm and composed: "My friend and I dug it." We looked at each other.I have always thought that Li Dazui and Wei Datou are the great gods I have met in my life. The amazing S University has produced such a great fairy as Zhou Qian, but at this moment, Uncle Yan, who is not great in front of me, has surpassed the standards of a great god and a great fairy. I feel like a crazy madman, maybe Nietzsche's Superman. Under everyone's surprised and respectful eyes, Yu Yanyan sneered slightly, and she said something in a low voice.None of us could hear clearly, only Old Wei who was standing beside her heard it. Li Dazui has always been very concerned about beautiful women, seeing Yu Yanyan's expression is different at this moment, he couldn't help asking Old Wei: "What did Yaner say?" Old Wei was a little stunned, and said with a confused expression: "What she said is not words, but numbers." Li Dazui said impatiently: "If you ask what you are, just tell me, where is the nonsense?" Old Wei was not annoyed, as if he was searching for the answer in his mind, but he still couldn't help but say: "7169." He was afraid that we might not understand, so he added: "She said, 7169." 7169. We don't get it at all, is this some kind of code or a cipher? We looked at Professor Tan, she also looked confused.When he looked at Uncle Yan again, Uncle Yan didn't speak or move, but just gave Yu Yanyan a deep look.We couldn't see the expression hidden behind the mask. We really didn't know anything at the time, and our eyes were dark. "Are you really not going to tell them the truth, just let them go down like this?" Yu Yanyan looked at Uncle Yan coldly. Uncle Yan shook his head: "Are you sure you know the truth?" For a while we whispered to each other.Yu Yanyan's words seem to have other meanings. Judging from her past experience with us, she really doesn't know anything about archaeology, and she doesn't even have the slightest interest in it.This kind of indifference to the archaeological cause also made Lao Wei and Lao Li quite sad. They are used to fooling MM with professional knowledge, such as Wang Jia and Xue Qingqing back then. If it wasn't for the sudden corpse of Y man, they might have succeeded .But right now Yu Yanyan's words are unpredictable, she seems to know some information that we don't know, my heart tightens, and suddenly I think of the words "there are ghosts in the team". Shake your head quickly and get rid of these unrealistic illusions.Whether it is a real warning or a prank, nothing attracts my attention more than Uncle Yan in front of me.He is resolute, resolute, ruthless, and except for Yu Yanyan, no one can guess the clues about Uncle Yan's true identity. Yu Yanyan smiled contemptuously, turned her head and said loudly to us: "If I tell you that this hole is one of the shafts where China conducted underground nuclear tests in the 1960s and 1970s, would you dare to go down?" As soon as this remark came out, there was an uproar. Our understanding of the power of nuclear weapons is limited to the Hiroshima tragedy in Japan and the theoretical understanding of nuclear deterrence negotiations among various nuclear powers in recent years.Of course, there is also the leakage of radioactive materials from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which affected the lives of millions of residents. As of 1992, more than 7,000 people died of nuclear pollution.These data are just numbers on paper, but in real life it is a tragedy of the victims.Although we have limited knowledge of nuclear radiation and nuclear pollution, we still know that regional activities after a nuclear explosion are very dangerous.The aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear leak will last at least a hundred years. Even if the shaft in front of us is a nuclear test site decades ago, the threat to life still exists. In an instant, my respect for Uncle Yan because of his perseverance disappeared, and I returned to the original disgust and hatred.He is the murderer after all, Xiao Qi once fell in a pool of blood just like that.No matter what purpose or reason, people have no right to sacrifice other people's life to achieve their own purpose. Perhaps everyone felt the same, looking at Uncle Yan with more or less contempt and hesitation in his eyes. Gengzi took a step forward and looked at Yu Yanyan fiercely: "Obey the order!" There was no sign of flinching in Yu Yanyan's eyes. If her eyes were still cold, perhaps the contempt that had been going on since just now was added. "This is an abandoned cave," Uncle Yan said indifferently when the tense atmosphere in the air was on the verge of breaking out, "This used to be one of the preparation shafts for underground nuclear tests, but it was not used later, it is an abandoned cave." "Why?" I couldn't help asking. On the one hand, I was curious, and on the other hand, I wanted to explore the authenticity of Uncle Yan's words. Uncle Yan's voice was a little low: "I dug this hole, of course I know." He looked at us, and the volume was a little higher, "This hole leads to the seventh hole, which is also verified by Qin."