novellhall Chapter 42 Going Down the Well
Chapter 42 Going Down the Well
Renye glanced at the fearful expressions on everyone's faces and said, "I'll go down and take a look first. Whether it's a female corpse or the rumored boil, we need to get to a conclusion."
Ren Shouyi immediately stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "Then I'll go down with you, so we can look out for each other."
Renye waved his hand: "Never mind, Dad. Your legs aren't very strong, you can just wait for me upstairs."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ma Tiejun stepped forward and said, "Then I'll go down with Brother Ren."
Renye nodded slightly: "That's fine too."
Without another word, the two immediately began preparing the tools to go down the well.
To avoid attracting attention, the two quietly approached the well, lifted the tarpaulin covering it, and peered down. The deep well was dark and gloomy, with a chilling atmosphere that made them feel uneasy.
Renye squatted at the wellhead, strapped his headlamp to his forehead, and adjusted the elastic band.
When the light was first turned on, the beam of light shone straight into the cave, revealing footprints carved into the well wall. These footprints varied in depth, and in some places, the edges had collapsed, leaving only half a foot's width.
"Brother Tiejun, I'm going down first. You wait up here, I'll call you when I get to the bottom."
Ma Tiejun hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Then be careful. The footholds aren't very sturdy. Some were recently dug by me, and some were done by Maocai. That kid is careless and unreliable."
Renye responded, braced his hands on the edge of the well, and stepped down, landing on the first foothold.
The soil was loose, and the dirt at the edge of the foothold fell down in a rustling sound, sinking to the bottom of the well.
He took a deep breath, let go, and fell down.
The beam of the miner's lamp swept across the shaft wall, revealing the boundary between the soil and rock layers—one layer yellow, one layer gray—like a cross-section of geological time.
The deeper you go, the more humid and colder the air becomes.
That wasn't the kind of cold you'd expect in winter; it was a rotten, chilling cold that seeped from deep underground, seeping into your very bones.
After descending about ten meters, Renye's foot landed on a protruding rock. Using it for leverage, he steadied himself, looked up, and called out, "Brother Tiejun, come down."
Ma Tiejun responded and descended.
Having worked as a miner for many years, he was much more agile than Renye when going down the mine. He supported himself with his hands on the mine wall and moved down step by step, quickly and steadily, like a gecko.
In no time, the two reached the bottom of the well.
Renye looked around, then squatted down, rubbed his finger on the ground, and smelled it.
Ma Tiejun warned, "Water has already started to seep from the bottom. If we don't pump the water out of this well, the water will accumulate more and more, and if we stay down there for too long, something bad will happen sooner or later."
Renye nodded but didn't reply.
His gaze was drawn to the horizontal tunnel on the east side of the well bottom.
It's called an alley, but it's really more like a tunnel.
It was about half a person's height and no more than seventy or eighty centimeters wide. The two walls and the ceiling were supported by wooden stakes. The stakes were made of newly felled poplar wood, and the bark was not yet completely dry, giving off a raw, grassy smell.
The tunnel stretched on and on, the beams of the miners' lamps never reaching the end; it was pitch black.
Ma Tiejun shone his miner's lamp into the tunnel: "We found our way in by following this path. After walking for about seven or eight minutes, we reached the spot where the roof collapsed back then."
After saying that, Ma Tiejun carried the miner's lamp and walked in front to lead the way, with Ren Ye following behind. Using the flickering light, they moved step by step into the depths of the tunnel.
The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the crunching of coal slag and gravel underfoot, mixed with the dripping sound of water seeping from the rock walls, echoing back and forth in the enclosed alleyway.
I don't know how long I walked silently, but the alley ahead exuded a suffocating deathly aura.
The alleyway turned a corner ahead.
Ma Tiejun suddenly stopped, then turned his head to look at Ren Ye, his expression grave, and said, "We've arrived just ahead."
Renye nodded and was about to take a step when his foot was suspended in mid-air.
He sensed something was wrong.
From the moment they entered the alley, the damp, musty smell followed them, growing stronger the further they went in.
But just a moment ago, the musty smell suddenly faded.
Moreover, the road was flooded just now, but the surrounding environment became unusually dry as we approached this spot.
This isn't normal. Deep inside the mine tunnels, the ventilation gets worse, the humidity should be higher, and the smell should be more damp and stuffy. How could it suddenly become dry?
"Brother Tiejun, wait a minute."
Renye squatted down and held his headlamp close to the ground to shine it on.
The surface of the gravel and cinders on the ground was dry, without any water stains; it was much drier here than outside.
Seeing that he didn't move, Ma Tiejun lowered his voice and asked, "What's wrong?"
Renye didn't answer; he raised his miner's lamp and shone it on the top of the tunnel.
Between the wooden piles on the top slab, a layer of fine white powdery crystals can be seen on the surface of the rock.
Following his gaze, Ma Tiejun dipped his finger in the white powder, brought it close to his nose, and smelled it: "What is this?"
Renye pondered, "It should be chloride crystals, most likely a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride. This tunnel is extremely sealed with no air circulation. When groundwater seeps through the cracks in the rock strata, it happens to pass through the shallow saline strata, bringing the salt with it. After the water evaporates, the salt adheres to the rock surface, forming this layer of white frost-like crystals."
This phenomenon is actually quite common in old mines. As long as the underground rock strata contain salt and the tunnels are blocked and poorly ventilated, after the seepage water flows through and dries, fine white salt frost will form on the rock walls, roof, and even the ground gravel. Veteran miners in the industry are used to it.
Ma Tiejun was completely confused, but Ren Ye suddenly had the answer in his heart.
He probably knows why the corpse didn't decompose.
This is not some strange or eerie phenomenon, but rather a result of the geological conditions here.
The underground is a saline stratum. When groundwater seeps through the cracks in the rock strata, it carries a large amount of salt, which slowly creates a high-salt environment in the tunnel.
Salt itself is highly hygroscopic, which will absorb all the moisture from the surrounding air and ground, creating a localized, dry, and highly saline enclosed environment in this area.
High-salt environments inhibit bacterial growth. In such a closed, high-salt, low-temperature environment, microorganisms cannot survive, so the body will not decompose. This is purely the result of the combined effects of the geological environment and salinity.
Renye stood up, glanced at Ma Tiejun, and said, "It's alright, let's go."
As the two turned the corner, the beam of their miners' lamps suddenly cleaved through the darkness.
At the end of the beam of light, a disheveled figure was quietly curled up there. Without even looking closely, it was obvious that it was the female corpse that the Ma brothers had mentioned.
Although Ma Tiejun was mentally prepared, seeing such a thing in this environment still made him take a few steps back. Neither of them dared to step forward immediately, and they just let the light from their mining lamps fixate on that dark shadow.
The body wasn't lying on the ground, but leaning against the rock wall on the right side of the alley, half-sitting and half-lying, as if someone had walked too far and was resting against the wall, and then never got up again.
Just as Renye had predicted, the rock walls around the body were covered with a layer of white frost-like salt crystals, and the ground was dry without a trace of water or dampness, completely different from the damp and cold alley outside. There was also a faint salty smell in the air, and everywhere was a trace left by the high-salt environment.
Renye had heard many rumors before, such as the ancient underground tombs in the salt desert of the Western Regions, and the people trapped in the collapsed salt mines abroad, whose skin and hair remained intact after thousands of years.
In ancient times, the Khitan people would use coarse salt to preserve the body during burial, relying on the salt to remove moisture and prevent decay. Even after the passing of a Tibetan Living Buddha, salt and spices would be used to slowly absorb the moisture from the body so that it could be worshipped for a long time.
The underlying principle is the same: salt absorbs moisture and inhibits the growth of decaying bacteria. Combined with a closed, cool environment free from insects and ants, it's not surprising that a skeleton could be perfectly preserved for decades or even centuries under these conditions.
The two stood there for about half a minute without moving.
Ma Tiejun's miner's lamp kept shaking, the beam of light flickering back and forth on the corpse. Renye took a deep breath, took the miner's lamp off his forehead and held it in his hand, then took a step forward.
"What are you doing?" Ma Tiejun's voice sounded somewhat unnatural.
"Let's go take a look."
"you--"
"Since we're already here," Renye said without turning around, taking another step.
After taking two steps, he squatted down in front of the corpse.
Less than a meter away, the light from the miner's lamp shone directly on the front of the corpse.
Renye held his breath and started looking down from the head, one part at a time.
It was indeed a female corpse, with her hair disheveled, the longest strands reaching her waist.
Renye noticed that there were no scabs at the roots of the hair and the scalp was intact.
This indicates that the deceased's head had not suffered a violent blow sufficient to cause scalp laceration before death.
His face was unrecognizable.
The skin was shrunken and clung tightly to the skull, like a layer of charred paper.
His eye sockets were deeply sunken, his eyelids were closed, the tip of his nose was sunken, his lips were pursed up, revealing two rows of yellow teeth.
The overall contours of her face still reveal feminine features.
Renye pressed his headlamp down, his gaze falling on the corpse's hands, and he was immediately stunned.
The entire corpse was shriveled and dry, with its face and neck intact, but its hands were completely rotten.
The skin and flesh were incomplete, and there wasn't a single intact part on the fingers, making it particularly jarring to look at.
Renye stood up, took a step back, and exhaled deeply.
Ma Tiejun asked in a low voice from behind, "What did you figure out?"
Renye shook his head, after all, he didn't know anything about autopsies: "This is indeed a female corpse."
Although he didn't know anything about autopsies, he was very knowledgeable about underground mines.
He raised his headlamp and stopped looking at the body, instead looking at his surroundings.
This location is not an ordinary alleyway.
Ordinary transport tunnels are straight, with flat roofs, regular walls, and a width of at least 1.5 meters to allow mine cars to pass.
But this location was almost twice as wide as the alleyway, and the ceiling was also higher. When Renye stood up straight, there was still almost a foot between his head and the ceiling.
He shone his headlamp to the left.
There are traces of human chiseling on the rock wall, which are niche-shaped grooves carved out one by one with a pickaxe or steel hammer. Inside the groove is a rusty kerosene lamp with a thick layer of salt frost on the lamp base.
This is not an alleyway.
This is a cave.
In a coal mine, near the working face, miners would dig a small cave along the side wall of the tunnel, neither wide nor deep, just enough for a few people to fit in.
These types of chambers are common underground. Some are used to store tools and explosives and are called "tool chambers" or "explosives chambers".
Some were used as temporary rest areas, food stations, and shelters from blasting, and were called "rest chambers" or "blast shelters".
In the early 1980s, the underground conditions at the Hongxing Mine were rudimentary, and these caverns were basically dug out by the workers themselves.
Choose a stable spot on the side wall of the alley, and use a pickaxe and steel shovel to dig two or three meters deep into it, wide enough for one person to lie down.
The entrance to the mine is covered with a ventilation duct cloth or old brambles to block coal dust. Inside, a few pieces of brambles or old conveyor belts are laid out, which becomes the best resting place for miners underground.
Normally, these underground chambers are reserved for miners to rest, and only men who work underground would come here to rest.
But then a female corpse was found here, which is really strange.
The mine is dozens of meters deep, closed and remote. An ordinary woman would never come to such a place alone. Who is she, and why is she trapped alone in this hidden chamber used by miners?
Renye turned around and looked at Ma Tiejun, whose expression was not good.
"Brother Tiejun, did you come to this cavern back when the West Second Mining Area was still in production?"
Ma Tiejun shook his head: "I never worked in Xier. When Xier was closed, I was still farming at home."
Renye looked at the direction of the cave entrance again.
The West Second Mining Area is within the mining field of the Hongxing Mine.
Every tunnel, every working face, and every chamber underground is an asset of the mine and is subject to daily inspections by the mine's security department and safety supervision station.
If a miner digs a rest chamber underground, the team leader will know, the safety supervisor will know, and the technician in the mining area will know.
It is impossible for a cave to exist that no one knows about.
If someone was locked in this cave, it certainly wasn't done by one person alone.
It was done by one person in the know, or by a group of people in the know.
Someone imprisoned a person for a long time in a rest chamber dug by the miners themselves, dozens of meters underground, until the mining area was sealed off, until the roof collapsed, until the chamber and everything inside were buried forever under the rock strata dozens of meters deep.
Renye squatted back down in front of the corpse, the light of his miner's lamp sweeping across those festering hands one last time.
He had a bold guess in his mind.
Let's assume that this woman was also underground when the mine collapsed three years ago.
In the instant of the collapse, she was unable to escape in time and was instead trapped in this hidden cave.
He didn't die instantly when the cave collapsed. He quickly regained consciousness and, desperate to survive, struggled and scratched at the rock walls inside the cave, trying to find a way out.
But the entire alleyway had already been completely blocked by a landslide, and no matter how hard she tried, it was all in vain.
The daily struggle of despair had worn her hands raw and ulcerated. Due to the constant scratching and bumping, her hands were the only severely damaged part. However, the uniquely salty and dry environment here had preserved her body intact.
In the end, she was trapped in the boundless darkness, and in despair and helplessness, she consciously endured until the end of her life.