Still the same middle school, building the gatehouse, nearing completion, there are some rebar about the thickness of a thumb, not yet used, piled up near a dug pit with pipes.
My brother and I's team is called the Divine Dragon Special Forces, and we have recruited quite a few Han youth since then. This operation is still called the Long Fist Operation. The naming is inspired by the skill of Zhang Fei in the arcade game "Three Kingdoms," the Up-Down A move. Why still? There have been many previous operations.
At that time, arcade games were also electronic heroin, similar to today's short videos or other screen addictions, just that now the name for electronic addiction sounds nicer, called electronic pickled vegetables. Many people scroll through their phones while eating; if they watch food videos, even ordinary fried rice can feel like a delicacy.
Addiction comes at a price; spending money leads to being short on cash, which means needing to make money. In this light, live streaming, short video teaching, and selling goods align with the national GDP consumption logic.
Preparation work, basically no need for candles anymore, this time it's a flashlight, silver tin, using two size 1 batteries. Quite heavy, it hurts to hit someone with it. Two people. Also, black donkey hooves? Not needed. Still need a brave heart. Let's go.
We went directly to the area near the pit piled with rebar and entered the tunnel from there. The tunnel is square, surrounded by red bricks, although the red bricks have lost their color, now black and gray. It's been a while.
At the entrance, there are 2 or 3 large valves, and the pipes are quite thick, about the same thickness as my waist at the time. The surface is wrapped in insulating asbestos and a material like snake skin, which I've seen in some hallways too, heating up in winter, like heating pipes. Just never seen such thick ones.
As soon as we entered, we realized we made a mistake. We brought only one flashlight, but it seems there’s only one usable at home; the other one’s battery is dead, and buying batteries costs money, and these big batteries aren’t cheap. Let's try it first; I turned on the flashlight, it's quite bright, there are no pipes above us, most pipes are on the right side, two thick ones, and a few thinner ones. I'm in front, shining the light on the path, crawling forward, and if I feel slow, I adjust my posture, trying to keep my weight on my legs to speed up.
At first, my brother was afraid of the dark; I shone the light ahead, illuminating above us. Initially, we couldn't see the path clearly, but later we adapted, feeling that no matter how the light shone, we could see the way. There are probably pipes inside, and artificial bricks, neatly arranged. There wasn't much worry or fear. We kept moving along the passage, encountering bright lights indicating exits, and for some reason, there were no covers. We just popped our heads out to see where we were in the school; the first exit was about 30 meters south of the teaching building, and the second exit was at the southeast corner near the east wall of the school.
I was very happy to see the southeast exit, near the wall, which is south of the teacher's dormitory, separated by trees and a pile of waste. Previously, we caught dragonflies and roasted sweet potatoes here, with no one supervising. Very good.
The path was clear, and we began our action. The rebar, about the thickness of a thumb, upon closer inspection, was too long, around 2 meters, and we couldn't bend it. Luckily, there were shorter ones, about 1 meter long. We pretended to play nearby, throwing stones at each other, or imitating characters from Street Fighter fighting each other. This time, I felt it was too fake; it might just be a cover for something else. It seemed there was no opportunity, as the construction workers were all on this side working close to us, with no chance at all. That rebar isn’t like Wukong’s needle that can shrink; I wish it could.
We couldn't just wait around, so I told my brother, we should go home and eat something first, and see if there’s an opportunity when they eat lunch before making a move. We didn’t walk on the surface but went through the underground passage to the east wall, then climbed back home.