Chapter 14 Section five

At the end of the cave, a giant egg-like space suddenly appeared.Ion was amazed and looked up at the dark ceiling.The sounds of talking and walking became louder due to the reverberation.With the light of the headlamp, you can see that there are many huge pillars that only appear in the temple on the far side. "Scared me, there is such a place." "Look left." Ian glanced over according to his words, and his whole body froze.In the darkness, the water reflected light.It is a swimming pool as big as Jingu Stadium.This is a huge underground storage pool, and the water hidden deep in the ground does not know how cold it is.Just imagining it, Ion couldn't help trembling.

"Do you know what's up there?" Sabu asked, pointing to the ceiling of the dome. "How would I know?" "It should be around the Meiji Jingu Shrine." There is a warm fire light by the pool, as if someone is warming up. "What's that?" Ion asked in fear, Sabu shrugged: "A group of old men lived here, and they settled here unknowingly." "Isn't it possible to live in such a place without being discovered?" Ion was surprised, but Sabu shook his head.When I approached the fire, I saw that three old people were putting firewood into the oil tank and burning it.

"Sabu, I haven't seen that child before." Said the old man who warmed his wrinkled hands by the fire.The old man was wearing a baseball cap that was so dirty that no pattern could be seen. "His name is Ion, and he wants to join the team." The old people looked at each other and smiled.The toothless old man spat and said, "Don't be foolish, it's so much more refreshing to live on the ground, kid. It's dark and cold here, so let's be a vagrant up there." The old man with white hair down to his shoulder smoothed things over and said, "Don't say that, there's nowhere else for people to go."

No, I'm here to find the copper and iron brothers.Ion wanted to argue, but what the old man said was true.Shibuya Palace burned down, and now I can't go back to Park Village.Ion's fate is the same as Jincheng's.I can only wander the streets alone. With a splash, something jumped out of the water.Ion looked towards the water storage tank and shouted, "There is something!" "There are fish, but we haven't caught them yet." The white-haired old man laughed. "Little friend, if you have no place to go, just live with us. Don't hang out with those guys from the Luminous Army. They will do anything for money."

Sabu tugged on Ion's clothes silently.Tell him it's almost time to go.The two left the old man's warming place.The three old men didn't seem to take them seriously and continued to chat. "The old men wanted an errand runner to go to the ground to help them get food, so they desperately poached us." "Even if you stay underground, you still have to go to the ground, otherwise you won't be able to survive?" Ian sighed, and Sabu said this: "Nonsense. We can only live underground, and we like underground, but there is nothing underground." Great emptiness.Dark, endless subterranean spaces are alluring, but also terrifying.What would happen if the mind and body were seized by it?

Sabu burrowed into the horizontal pit that looked like a gutter. "Ion, the ground is slippery, be careful." This is a circular tunnel-shaped cave, with water flowing through the center, and the passage less than one meter wide at both ends is wet and slippery. "There is very little water in winter, so it can be used as a channel, but not in summer. It is very dangerous when it rains." "What should we do at that time?" "Find another way." Sabu replied happily.There is also a lot of garbage in the gutter that is suspected to have drifted in with the rain.Plastic umbrellas, bicycle parts, kitchen scraps, cardboard boxes, and dead bodies of cats, small animals, fish, and reptiles.

"The old man picks up these things to make a living. The old man who picked up the rats and raised them is also the same old man." There are other people who live quietly underground.Ian was surprised that there was such a world underground in Park Village where he used to live. "Haven't you arrived yet?" Walking by the water, my body gradually became cold.Ion breathed out towards his frozen fingers. "It's almost here. Usually, you can take the station passage on the North Sandao, but today you have to take a long detour." The two came to a circular place.Sabu pointed to the iron ladder and said, "That's the manhole cover. Get out as soon as you open it, be careful."

Ion followed Sabu up the long ladder.Sabu removed the iron cover, looked around for a while, and went out.Ion then probed, it was the road in the residential area, and the forest of the shrine could be seen nearby. "Do those old people use these manholes to get out?" "Yes. But it will be seen by others, so this method can only be used at night." Ion sucked in the night air above the ground.He nostalgic for the air that smelled like exhaust fumes.