Chapter 8 chapter eight

April 1.Sunday.Night, 22:19. Tonight was the day when Zhou Xuan was already ready to commit suicide. Future Dream Hotel, top floor, Room 1919.Zhou Xuan stood on the open window sill.On the skyline of the city shrouded in rain, a dazzling aurora flashed. What followed was the shaking of the whole building, like sitting on a roller coaster, the higher the height, the more violent it was, if it wasn't for the window frame, it would have already fallen to the nineteenth floor.Zhou Xuan seemed to be in another world, the white light at the end of the sky blinded him, his heart almost jumped out of his chest, and he sank rapidly along with the future dream building.

If there was no such deadly aurora, no such sudden earthquake, Zhou Xuan would have closed his eyes long ago, let go of all distracting thoughts, leaped forward, and put his life into nothingness, only staying at the moment of kissing the ground, bid farewell to others forever, and got rid of more than thirty years Come all kinds of torture, all kinds of joy, all kinds of helplessness. But when he felt his heart beating so real, when he felt fear rule every inch of his skin, when he felt the blood almost burst through the capillaries, when he felt the adrenaline surge enough to jump over any obstacle... then he felt alive.

He also discovered from the bottom of his heart, from the depths of his undisguised desire, that he was so eager to live. Zhou Xuan had never felt that he was so powerful. When he was about to fly out of the window, he did a pull-up forcefully, and miraculously climbed back into the window with hands and feet. There was the sound of glass shattering behind him, and he had rushed to the door of the guest room like a bullet. The lights flickered on and off, the TV fell to the ground, and the big bed was thrown to the other side of the room. Zhou Xuan opened the door and rushed into the corridor, stumbled and fell on the carpet.When he got up again, under the will-o'-the-wisp corridor lights, he saw a man rushing out of room 1918 opposite, followed by a beige Labrador.

The man glanced at Zhou Xuan, his eyes were dark and cold, and he couldn't help but make Zhou Xuan take half a step back.He looks about forty years old, tall and straight, under the bushy eyebrows, there is a particularly mature single eyelid, which makes people want to look more often. Every man knows, and maybe a dog knows, that elevators are not to be used during earthquakes or fires. Zhou Xuan rushed down the stairs first, followed by the man, followed by the loyal Labrador. The most painful thing in life is to be on the top floor of a tall building when an earthquake strikes. You have to run from the nineteenth floor to the bottom floor, and you have to make sure there are no accidents in the middle, for example, the building is broken in two, or the escape route is blocked by a fire, or everyone squeezes into the stairwell. No one ran down, and even crowded people trampled each other to death... To eliminate all these possible disasters, it is possible to save this life that should have been ended by oneself.

Before running down half a floor, the flashing lights of the escape route went out.Two men and a dog rely on their mobile phones to light the way. People on all floors of the hotel must have come to this escape route.After running down several floors, he turned around and rushed into the next door, but it was not like a hotel floor, and he could still see the sign of an American company smashed on the floor.He didn't know that the tenth to fourteenth floors of Future Dream Building were high-end office buildings for rent.Fortunately, it's midnight and Sunday, so there won't be any perverted overtime freaks, right?

Suddenly, he heard a dog barking, and then the man's voice: "You chose the right escape route!" The other party had an extra flashlight in his hand, which he took from the fire box in the escape route. "A lot of people crowded the stairs on the lower two floors, and they were almost blocked. We had to change to another escape route—follow me!" He spoke perfectly in Mandarin.He took the Labrador dog and ran to the right side of the corridor of the office building - it seemed that he was very familiar with this building.Turned many turns in the corridor, passed two three-way intersections, and three crossroads-probably all white-collar workers who work here will get lost?When he came to an inconspicuous security door, he pressed a set of codes, and Alibaba's treasure cave opened automatically.

"Isn't there a power outage?" "The cryptographic system has an independent power supply and is not affected by the building's circuits." Walking into the secret escape passage, I noticed the floor - 12 written on the wall. There are several floors down the narrow stairwell, and each floor has to turn twice.I ran almost to the ninth floor, but was blocked by a pile of ruins, and the way down was buried tightly. "Hey!" The man stroked the barking Labrador, "The escape route should be made of the strongest material, but it's a pity—" Zhou Xuan couldn't help asking: "Are you the designer of this building?"

"no." When he returned to the corridor on the ninth floor, it was already an open space, next to it was the ticket window of the movie theater, and several movie posters hung on the wall. On the ninth floor, Future Dream Studios, the audience and staff have all escaped, and the ground is full of all kinds of garbage. Zhou Xuan thought, if he didn't follow this man and that weird Labrador, he would lose his way in this dark maze, either fall into the abyss of hell, or be smashed to pieces. A few minutes later, they came to the ground floor from the escape passage, and the noisy and chaotic human voices rang in their ears, sending out a whirling resonance.

The middle-aged man quickly bypassed several obstacles, stepped on the floor full of broken glass and objects, and approached the center of the ground floor.Looking at the empty overhead, Zhou Xuan imagined the usual nine floors, the escalators going up and down with people coming and going, half an hour ago the lights were shining like torches, now there are only a few twinkling stars left - there are still survivors who have not had time to escape downstairs ? A blinding light came from nowhere.For a moment, Zhou Xuan thought that the power supply had been restored, or that the rescue team from outside had arrived.The Labrador barked violently.

"Shut up! Churchill!" The man let out a deep and terrifying roar. The famous former British Prime Minister had been bestowed on this Labrador. The dog named "Churchill" lay obediently on the ground, looking up at its owner. The man's gloomy face, like a strict iron curtain, completely blocked his heart.If there is a mind-reading technique in the world, he will undoubtedly encounter Waterloo in front of him. Emergency lights flickered, and hundreds of survivors gathered to commotion.Holding various tools, the men are trying to dig out the vestibule buried by the ruins, and it seems that they are about to find a chance.

The mysterious man left these people who were eager to escape, and led Churchill back into the darkness.Zhou Xuan followed him through the emergency passage to the Culver Supermarket on the basement level.Churchill barked, and there was a dog barking from nowhere, maybe there was a pet store nearby. "Churchill!" The man yelled again, not showing off his anger, the Labrador had to regain his composure, and reluctantly followed his master. On the second basement floor is Calfort Supermarket.Continue to go to the third floor underground, the flashlight is dim, and they pass through the underground garage that is as silent as a tomb.Many parking spaces were empty, and a few cars hit the wall, probably because the shaking was too violent, or they forgot to apply the handbrake before getting out of the car. The building also has four basement floors.Like a demon, Zhou Xuan followed Churchill and went deep into the deepest part of the underground palace.The fourth basement floor is still a garage, where several priceless sports cars, as well as RVs such as Maybach and Lincoln, should belong to a certain boss or son of a rich family. This layer is extremely strong, and there are almost no traces of earthquakes.After walking tens of meters along the foot of the black wall, the man pushed open a wide door.The Labrador turned around a few times but refused to go in.Zhou Xuan smelled a pungent gasoline smell.Gasoline spill?About to explode?Just about to run away with Churchill, I heard the man's voice: "Don't be afraid! It's diesel, we need to restore the power supply to the building." The thick and deep voice with some magnetism, coupled with the standard Mandarin with perfect pronunciation, stabilized the panicked people and dogs.Zhou Xuan saw a large warehouse-like room, with emergency lights illuminating several strange-shaped machines.Several men in blue overalls lined up to connect a hose, filling the machine with acrid liquid. It's a diesel generator.Zhou Xuan counted silently, there are five in total! When the mysterious man appeared, the team leader in overalls immediately said respectfully, "Hello, Mr. Luo." Only then did Zhou Xuan know what his last name was. But Churchill was still stubbornly squatting at the door, wailing mournfully and daring not to go in. This Mr. Luo asked in a low voice: "How is the situation?" "The internal circuits of the building are basically not damaged, but the external power supply has been interrupted. It is certain that the entire city has lost power." "How long does it take for a diesel generator to start?" "I don't know, this machine has never been really used since it was shipped in." Zhou Xuan saw several lines of eye-catching text on the casing of the diesel generator, all of which were operating instructions and safety warnings.He noticed that in this room, there were large-diameter intake and exhaust ducts.Diesel power generation consumes a lot of oxygen and emits deadly exhaust gases, so air circulation must be ensured.There is also a water pump next to the generator. If there is no cooling water supply, serious accidents may occur at any time. "How much is the diesel reserve?" "All diesel is collected and placed in the oil depot on the fourth floor underground to supply electricity to the entire building. Even if the central air conditioner is turned off, it can only last for less than twelve hours. If there is a power outage, then it can be used for twenty-four hours - and so on, it depends on how we use it." "Have you checked both the air intake and exhaust?" The man looked carefully at the safety precautions and realized that this was a matter of life and death. "Inspecting, the diesel engine must be confirmed to be safe to start, otherwise, in the closed underground space, everyone will be suffocated by the exhaust gas." The team leader is very dedicated, and his expression remains unchanged even at this juncture. Zhou Xuan couldn't help being awed. "Can you make sure the exhaust vents go outside?" "If it can't be exhausted outdoors, there are secret backup exhaust outlets in the atriums on the third, fifth, and seventh floors of the shopping mall." "Exhaust directly to the atrium?" "Mr. Luo, the atrium of the shopping mall is huge. From the ground floor to the ninth floor, the exhaust gas will be diluted quickly. As long as it is not continuously discharged, there will be some peculiar smell at most, and it will not endanger human life." While they were studying technical issues, there was a rumbling sound above their heads, and the walls of the fourth underground floor were also vibrating, and the staff hurriedly stopped the oil delivery. April 1.Sunday.Night, 22:45. Under the shaking emergency lights, everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, only Mr. Luo said calmly: "Maybe, I shouldn't say such things at this time, but I don't want to lie to you. And, I am also very grateful to everyone, at this earth-shattering critical moment , You are the real heroes if you can stick to your posts. Well, let me tell you my judgment—the outside world is indeed destroyed!" "what?" "My God!" "what……" All kinds of exclamations came, but Zhou Xuan didn't know whether it was fear or excitement.For someone like him who wanted to commit suicide half an hour ago, the mood at this time is indeed indescribable. "That's right, I think we're not on the fourth floor underground, but maybe forty floors underground!" "Mr. Luo, how is this possible?" "The entire Future Dream Building may be buried underground, I just can't tell how far it is from the ground." "Then do we have any hope of escaping?" "I don't know, but as long as there is still a glimmer of life, we must work hard to fight for it!" Mr. Luo put on a firm expression. His tall body and powerful eyes gave people psychological comfort. "This building has special earthquake resistance. The design can withstand earthquakes of magnitude 10 or above. Although it is buried underground, the basic structure will not be damaged, and the outer wall of the building can also withstand huge pressure. As long as we don’t seek our own death, we can survive.” I don't know who shouted hopefully: "Someone will definitely come to save us!" "According to my analysis, if such a strong building can be shaken to the ground, then this earthquake must be unprecedented. It may be the strongest earthquake on earth, and the whole world will be destroyed!" As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent, and Zhou Xuan also lowered his head, thinking about whether he chose to commit suicide today, whether it was luck or misfortune. A man's sobbing sounded next to the generator, probably because he thought of whether his wife and children were dead or alive. Zhou Xuan approached the mysterious man and asked, "Who are you?" "My name is Luo Haoran, the owner of Future Dream Building."