That kind of thing could happen.
But everyone who heard it was speechless.
Lao Shi said, "Can't you say something positive? No one's luck is that bad."
"That's why I said if. Just if, alright?" Lan Jin said. "So the choice should not be mine."
Shen Zhiyu suddenly laughed. "Just pick. If the safe doesn't open, we won't blame you. Worst case, we break it."
Zhou Zhi added, "Even if it fails, don't stress. We're all guessing blind."
Lan Jin glanced at the five around her. "I want to believe you, I really do. So why do your words sound so untrustworthy?"
Even so.
The chips still ended up in Lan Jin's hands. Like drawing lots, Lan Jin shut her eyes and picked one, then, without a second of hesitation, turned and pressed it to the chip reader on the safe.
A familiar yet strange chime rang. The safe door beeped, then unlocked.
"Damn, that lucky?" Lan Jin blurted, and swung the door open.
No man-eating bugs burst out, not even anything strange. Instead, the shelves were lined with small glass vials filled with liquid.
They looked exactly like vaccine vials. Lan Jin lifted one and examined it. No labels, no markings. And even if there were words, Lan Jin might not read them. As it was, what she held was a three-no product with no name, no origin, no approval.
Lan Jin passed a vial to Captain Zhang. "Is this it? This should be what we came for, right?"
Captain Zhang studied it for a long moment. "I don't know. But it might be."
Lao Shi said, "If it looks useful, pack it."
Captain Zhang pulled a tough cloth bag from his backpack and started counting as he loaded the vials.
The vials were small, and the safe wasn't large. It wasn't even full. After Captain Zhang counted to one hundred, the safe was empty.
"Alright, upstairs."
Lan Jin slipped the used chip back into her pouch and followed the team to the third floor. After several tries, the safe finally opened on the last attempt before it would have locked itself.
Another one hundred vials. They went into the bag, and the team headed for the fourth floor.
There were two safes on the fourth floor. They tried the remaining two chips in turn. Two hundred more vials joined the haul.
Now Captain Zhang had four hundred vials of unknown liquid. They had no idea whether that meant the mission was complete. When they returned to the first-floor hall and were about to leave, a new worry hit them all at once.
"We did find something. But we can't be sure it's what our superiors wanted. And there's still the downstairs area we haven't checked. Do we go or not?"
Downstairs meant the negative levels shown in the elevator. They had already gone up there once to call it. If these four hundred vials were the target, great. If not, and they left a place they knew about unexplored, they would regret it the moment they got back.
So, go or not?
Lan Jin frowned. "The problem is we know nothing. No route, no exact location, not even what to look for. That puts us at a real disadvantage."
Even so, their faces all said the same thing: I want to go down.
There was no helping it. Lan Jin and the others had to go along.
Huang Jinghe took the bag from Captain Zhang. "I'm stronger. I'll carry it. You find the entrance. I'm not taking that elevator."
In a villa with both stairs and an elevator, there had to be another way down. They searched the first floor again. Finally, behind the hall, they found a hidden door. When they pressed and pushed it open, a dim stairwell appeared, leading only one way, down.
They had their entrance. Everyone pulled out a flashlight. Without hesitation, they headed below.
It was nothing like upstairs. Above, there had been no sound, only unnatural quiet. Once they all stepped through and closed the secret door, the space below was loud and chaotic.
If a single line could describe the difference, it would be this: the upper floors were quiet like heaven, while below sounded like a rowdy hell full of ghosts.
…
By the thin beams of their flashlights, they walked for a long while and reached level negative one.
Lan Jin asked, "Is it really this dark? No lights at all? In a place this dark, not only can we can't see, the owner of this place wouldn't see either."
Huang Jinghe gave a wry smile. "Sister Lan, you remember you aren't the owner, right? Let's just make do, hurry up and look, then hurry up and leave. Do we really need to find lights?"
"I can't see without lights. If there's something important here and I miss it because I can't see, then what?" Lan Jin said. "Since we're here, we look carefully. We see clearly. Then we get out."
Truth be told, their flashlights were too weak. Lao Gao remembered that Lan Jin had a high-power flashlight in her space. Even at midnight, it could make any spot bright as day.
With Lao Gao's reminder, Lan Jin remembered it too. Lan Jin slipped a hand into her backpack, focused, and drew out the palm-sized spotlight from her space.
The beam flared to life. Wherever it fell, the darkness peeled back like it was daytime.
Which begged the question: with gear this handy, small, and practical, why didn't they outfit everyone with one?
Ling Jiang said, "Finally we can see. Any more groping around and I'd go blind."
Even Pei Xin could not help chiming in. "I'm not worried about going blind. I'm worried about the dark. If a mutant comes and I can't see, and it hurts me, that'd be bad."