“Why did you have to come down here to see it. It’s just a big warehouse down here.”
As we were both blushing with embarrassment, Yiyi Wu suddenly changed the subject, but her voice was soft, like she was heartbroken.
I mumbled Chu Xiaoxiao’s name in my mind before my emotions calmed down a little.
“Just coming down to have a look, have you been to this warehouse?”
“What is this Missy doing in a warehouse like this? You’re really funny.” Wu Yi Yi said, “This kind of place is always for workers or young apprentices.”
“So you’ve never been here once? Curious not even curious?”
“It seems like I really haven’t come once, the East Auxiliary Building was rarely visited in the first place, and there are very few disciples training over here, most of them are in the West Auxiliary Building.”
“The master doesn’t let you guys come?”
“Not at all, the master doesn’t care so much, we just don’t want to come, who is bored to come to such a place.”
Wu Yi Yi said, “There’s nothing of value in there anyway.”
Suddenly, her words came to a screeching halt and her footsteps stopped as a seal was added in front of us.
“Strange, it’s not like there’s been a fire in this place, so why are the police pulling the seal.”
“Let’s go down and have a look.” I said.
“Eh, you wait.” Wu Yi Yi hurriedly called out to me, “The police won’t let us go down there.”
But I had already crossed the seal and Wu Yi Yi had to catch up with me.
“What’s wrong with you people?”
She caught up with me at a fast pace, and at the end of the stairs was a large fire door that had fallen into a lock.
“These doors are sealed so well that smoke can’t get in, it’s just that they have a lock.” I muttered.
Yiyi Wu said, “Do you know why there’s a lock?”
“Why?” I asked her innocently.
She rolled her eyes, “It’s not obvious, there’s a lock just in the hope that you won’t go in. Let’s go, senior said you can’t come in where there’s a cordon.”
I laughed, “You listen to your senior brother on everything, so obedient? In all these years, there’s a place in the Thousand Fists Hall where no one has ever come in, aren’t you curious?”
Wu Yi Yi said, “Curiosity killed the cat, and a locked place is a place you are not allowed to come. Besides, it’s nothing special, it’s just a warehouse.”
“A locked place doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not allowed in, can the lock stop us?”
“Hey, hey, hey, you can’t open the lock yourself, that’s stealing.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than I grabbed the lock and poked it open with a thin wire.
“Hey, what are you doing, trying to steal from my thousand doors? No, you pay for it.”
Yiyi Wu blocked the door.
I laughed, “Stay with me, I’ll stay with you, okay?”
I actually just said it in passing, not even noticing how ambiguous it was.
By the time I realised and tried to change my mind, it was too late.
Wu Yi Yi blushed red and pushed me away, her voice as low as a mosquito’s cry, “What are you babbling about?”
“Hell.”
“What did you say? You dare to call this lady a ghost?”
“It’s saying you’re a ghost, look at this, a fire door with a safety door inside.”
I pulled open the fire door and that torch shone in, but I saw not far away was a black and green safety iron door.
I snapped my hand and this iron door was indeed empty later, but the iron was so thick that it was impossible to force my way through.
“Strange, isn’t it just a warehouse against the miscellaneous stuff, what’s the point of having so many doors and locks?”
I shone a torch at the lock hole, a one-piece lock, the kind you can’t poke open with a wire.
Wu Yi Yi said, “We at Qianmen have also learned some lock picking skills, but after all, we are not a thieves’ door, so we are not very good at this kind of thievery. This kind of lock can only be opened by people who steal doors.”
I shook my head and said, “If it’s unlocked from the inside, then no one can open it from the inside.”
When I touched the lock hole with my hand, it had accumulated dust inside, and it looked like it hadn’t been opened for many years.
If someone really lived in here, there was no way they could have gone so many years without eating and coming out, there had to be another entrance, possibly a tunnel, but if it was a tunnel, it would be too inconvenient for three meals a day, and besides, what kind of person would need to live in seclusion?
“Hey, it’s a pity we can’t get in now. Let’s go up first, I’ll ask the master for the key and we’ll come back.” Wu Yi Yi said, “I’ll ask for it, Master will definitely be there for me, Master loves me the most.”
I sighed, “Do you know why your master has a lock on it?”
“Hmm?”
I slapped her on the head and said, “Just to keep people out, stupid. If you don’t want people to get in anymore, how could you possibly let you have the key.”
“Blah blah blah.” Upset that I had gagged her with her words, she said, “So what do you say? Strange, why doesn’t this place let people in?”
“Doesn’t your senior brother know either?”
“I swear no one in the whole of the Thousand Gates knows, because we all know about this place and all just think it’s a warehouse, and no one has ever been suspicious.”
“And do you have a stranger or two here now and then?”
“Of course, we are open for business as a boxing gym, and it is only natural to have strange apprentices.”
I took my hand and ran it over the iron door, which was covered in black ash, the soot that had fallen from the fire upstairs.
“Hey, it can’t be helped, this iron door is too strong to be opened with the tools we have. Let’s go, there’s nothing we can do.”
I was thinking that there must be another entrance to this room because the man had by no means escaped through this door that day when the fire broke out, otherwise he would have been killed by the poisonous smoke as soon as he went out.
We went back to the ground floor and Moon Man Bow and Zhao Zichen hadn’t returned yet, presumably because Zhao Zichen had taken Moon Man Bow far away to buy me more time.
Wu Yi Yi said, “Let’s take a look while senior brother is still not back, maybe there is another entrance.”
“Strange, you’re not afraid of your senior brother anymore?”
Wu Yi Yi spat out her tongue, “Of course I’m afraid, but brother is sometimes too stubborn and doesn’t know how to adapt, so don’t tell him about this, you come with me, I know there is another door here that has never been opened, maybe that place is also a secret passage.”
Wu Yi Yi pulled me forward, I took a few steps, I felt a knife sharp murderous aura stabbing at my back, I couldn’t help but turn around, it was dark behind me, there was nothing.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, maybe it’s my illusion.”
I scratched my head, I couldn’t be wrong about the killing aura, but there was indeed nothing behind it.
“Hurry up and follow me, it’ll be too late when my brother comes down later.”
Wu Yi Yi led me through the hall to a small room, which had been blackened on all four walls, but no door could be seen.
Wu Yi Yi said, “Come, give me a hand.”
With that, she kicked the blackened table and chairs out of the way, pulled up the heavy carpet and dragged it to the side, and I went up to help her.
The carpet was dragged away and a tin door was revealed underneath.
“There’s no handle and no lock hole, this is locked from the inside.” Yiyi Wu said, “But it’s plugged and bolted, so there’s a way to pry it open.”
I said, “How do you know it’s a plug and bolt? You’ve been here before.”