It's getting late, this place is far from the city center, and the road at noon is very congested, I'm afraid it's too late to rush back to eat with Gao Yusheng. Zhai Chen asked him to eat by himself, then put away his phone and walked to the path.
The gate of Gaoyuan Mining has been rusted. The old-fashioned iron gate is hung with a thick chain lock, and the small door next to it has fallen down long ago, and if it is locked, it is not locked. There was no knees in the grass in front of the door, and the old blue glass of the guard booth had long been smashed by bear children.
Zhai Chen stepped in through the fallen door. The yard is very spacious, the old-fashioned concrete floor is one by one, and there are earth gaps in the middle. Grass grew out of the crevices, eroding the cement a little bit. Fortunately, the age is not too old, the ground is still hard.
There is a flag-raising platform on the east side of the yard, only three round pits are bare, and the flagpole does not know where to go. Under the table, there are words carved in marble, which have been mottled over time, and engraved on it:
[Gaoyuan Mining Company, formerly known as Zhiyuan Mining Group Iron Ore Second Branch…]
When he visited the orphanage earlier, Zhai Chen had heard that this Gaoyuan Mining was a state-owned unit. Because of the reform of the system, it was only contracted to individuals. In the past, state-owned units had all the internal organs, including a whole set of living systems such as staff hospitals, primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, etc., while mining companies were special, and they also set up orphanages.
Zhai Chen's eyes stayed on the word "Zhiyuan" for a moment, and checked it with his mobile phone.
There is still some news about Zhiyuan, which is a declining old state-owned unit, including an iron ore factory, a coal mine, and a stone factory. By the end of the twentieth century, Zhiyuan was already in decline. To catch up with the tide of system reform, this behemoth was divided into several parts, the larger one was reorganized into a joint-stock system, the smaller one was contracted to individuals, and it was dissolved on the spot where no one wanted it.
Due to the old age, the Internet age had not yet arrived when the system was restructured, and there was not much information that could be found.
Taking pictures of this marble, Zhai Chen left the flag-raising platform and walked around the yard.
The structure here is simple. The front yard is all concrete, and there are several concrete ping-pong tables built in the corners. At the back of the building is the warehouse, which looks newer than the previous building, but it is also very dilapidated. Everything that could be moved was moved, including light poles, propaganda boards, and even the big iron gate of the warehouse.
Zhai Chen saw that the corners of his mouth twitched, thinking that these should have been dismantled by local villagers, and the metal objects within sight were probably sold for scrap.
The warehouse that lost its door was left open so unsuspectingly. It's okay to say that the light can shine in, and the dark holes in the depths can't be seen clearly.
Fortunately, night-blind people carry a flashlight with them all the year round, turn on the flashlight and walk in. The shoes stomped on the ground with a crisp crunch that echoed in the empty warehouse. Even though he was as daring as Zhai Chen, he was a little startled when he walked here, took out his oxygen bottle and took a sip.
"Who!" A terrified cry suddenly came from the depths of the warehouse.
Zhai Chen was startled and quickly took a flashlight. A dirty face instantly appeared in the light and shadow, and the zombie-like screams rushed towards him, holding a piece of unknown object in his hand. Without even thinking about it, I kicked out with one foot, but the foot strength that took in the oxygen was not covered, and I kicked the person directly to a bright place, and fell into the pile of debris with a "bang".
The man was like an overturned beetle, waving his limbs and struggling, but he didn't know how to get up and shouted: "Don't come here, don't come here."
When I got closer, I saw that it was an old man. The old man's hair was very long, and it was tangled and tangled in locks after not washing it for a long time. He was wearing an out-of-season military coat, bare feet, and had pitted scars on his face, which looked very strange.
"Are you okay?" Zhai Chen asked while keeping a safe distance.
The old man stuck his head out from the pile of junk, his dirty face was mostly covered by his hair, and a cloudy eye emerged from the gap, staring at Zhai Chen for a long time. Suddenly, he laughed madly, opened his military coat and patted his stomach with three torn short sleeves on: "Hehehe, Amin, Daddy is fine. It's thick, not cold!"
Are you crazy? It's rare to see lunatics running around in cities these days, only in places like the suburbs.
Zhai Chen took a look around with his flashlight. There were some messes in the place where the man was just now, old clothes, broken jars, and some leftover food. The huge warehouse shelters the wind and rain, and it is indeed a good place for the homeless to live. Probably because the madman's fighting power is too strong, there is no beggar living with him, and he is the only one here.
There were many fine black stones on the floor, including where he was standing, so there was a creaking noise when walking. Since it is the warehouse of the mine, it naturally stores ore, and these should be the scraps of the ore.
The old man patted his belly for a while, slowly crawled out of the pile of junk, and sat on the ground staring blankly at him.
"Do you know where this is?" Zhai Chen squatted down to talk to him.
"Hey." The old man grinned, showing his yellowed teeth.
"Are you living here alone?" Zhai Chen deliberately raised the volume, fearing that his ears would be too old.
"I'm here to look at the warehouse, the things here are valuable!" The old man grabbed a handful of black scraps and held them up to Zhai Chen like a treasure. There are also pitted scars on the back of his hands, the same as those on his face.
"What is this?" Zhai Chen asked him.
The old man suddenly withdrew his hand, as if he was afraid of Zhai Chen grabbing it, he put the black stone into the pocket of the military coat, "I dare not say it, it's dead, it's all dead, there are ghosts haunting it."
When Zhai Chen heard this, his brows jumped: "Who died?"
The old man looked left and right in horror, tapped his nose with his black fingers, and whispered mysteriously, "Oh, I'm dead."
Zhai Chen: "..."
This man has completely lost his mind, and he doesn't speak well before and after, and he seems like a fool to ask him questions seriously. Confirming that he didn't have any problems kicking others, Zhai Chen stood up and turned off the flashlight and left the warehouse. Further back is the courtyard wall, and an old parking shed for employees to park their bicycles. At a glance, there is nothing unusual.
The sky was a little gloomy, and the crow fluttered from the grass behind, making a hoarse cry. The man was still sitting in the bright place, watching him laugh madly and shouting "Amin". Together, it feels a bit like a horror movie.
Zhai Chen returned to the front yard and stood in the middle looking at the office building.
The five-story old-fashioned office building has no fancy decorations. The windows are still the popular brown aluminum alloy windows in the last century, which are basically broken. The interior of the building was dark, and the window openings were like scabies on a behemoth. On the tiles on the exterior wall covered with vines, a few large characters with peeling paint can be faintly identified—Gaoyuan Mining. Just like the building in the photo.
Zhai Chen walked backwards towards the office building, trying to find the angle of view in the photo. There was no flagpole in the photo, indicating that the flag-raising platform could not be seen from that angle. Zhai Chen retreated to the gate until he found that position.
That is to say, the person who took the photo was standing at the door.
Zhai Chen raised his mobile phone to take a photo, but took a step back in order to find an angle. He accidentally stumbled on the steel bars on the ground, staggered backwards, and was suddenly supported by a strong arm on his waist. He was startled, turned back to attack reflexively, but saw a familiar handsome face, it was Gao Yusheng who was supposed to have lunch in the downtown office building.
Zhai Chen was very surprised, he quickly stopped and stood up straight: "Why are you here?"
Gao Yusheng's speech was a little slow, or rather difficult: "I see you coming." He held the intimately shared mobile phone in his hand, his thin lips pursed lightly, and his face was pale.
Seeing his appearance, Zhai Chen didn't bother to ask any more questions, and grabbed him: "There's nothing here, let's go eat." He pretended to be relaxed and wanted to take him away, but he was gently thrown away.
Gao Yusheng walked to the broken door, looked up at the top of the office building, raised his hand and took a photo. The angle is almost exactly the same as the photo in the anonymous email, and it is suffocating to look at: "This is the angle I remember."
"!!!" Zhai Chen was startled, walked quickly to his side, and looked up. The meaning of this sentence makes people shudder. Gao Yusheng stood in this position when he was a child and watched his mother jump off the building, and the person who took the photo was beside him!
"Who brought you here?" This place is so far from the city center, eight-year-old Gao Yusheng couldn't have run over by himself. Who is so vicious that he specially brought him to see his mother jump off the building!
At that time, Ye Rong had already sent him back to Gao's house. Did his father bring him to persuade his mother not to jump, or did someone else bring him to watch his mother die? The latter guess made Zhai Chen feel extremely disgusted, and he wanted to grab the man and beat him 10,000 times left and right on the ground.
Gao Yusheng shook his head: "I can't remember, I only remember something the man said."
"What?" Zhai Chen tightened his body, intuition that it was not a good word.
"Aren't you looking for your mother? Your mother is there." Gao Yusheng imitated the tone at that time and pointed to the edge of the building in a trance. He couldn't remember whether that person was male or female or old or young. The voice seemed to be separated by a layer of water, indistinct, but deafening.
"Bastard!" Zhai Chen kicked the iron gate in anger.