ILSITM Chapter 1

I am a cave exploration enthusiast.

In recent years, I have explored the Ten Greater Grotto Heavens and Thirty-Six Lesser Grotto Heavens recorded in ancient books.

Small seclusion in the wild, great seclusion in the city.

Cave exploration is similar to seclusion.

Therefore, my Shifu, Old Lin, believes that cave exploration should be “small explorations in the wild, and great explorations in the city.”

Shifu decided to take me to explore a cave located under the Pedestrian Street in Jiudong City today.

My Shifu is someone I met after returning to Jiudong City a few days ago.

He graduated from college in the 1980s with a major in geology and taught geography at a middle school in Jiudong City. He retired at the beginning of this year.

When he was young, Shifu loved outdoor adventures and insisted on long-distance running and winter swimming all year round. Although he is over sixty years old now, his body is no worse than that of a young man.

Three years ago, after I retired from the Marine Corps, I joined the filming crew of the 46-episode television documentary “Another World in Caves.”

The television documentary “Another World in Caves” mainly films the Ten Greater Grotto Heavens and Thirty-Six Lesser Grotto Heavens recorded in ancient books.

That year, I had just returned to Jiudong City after retiring from the military and was preparing to apply for the civil service exam. I happened to see an advertisement on the internet for the television documentary “Another World in Caves” crew recruiting actors, so I immediately signed up online.

Among the thousands of applicants, Wen Rourou, the beauty, and I stood out and became actors—outdoor explorers—in the show.

The main reason we were favored by the crew was our previous special identities.

I am a former Marine Corps member who “becomes a dragon in water and a king in the mountains”; Wen Rourou is a former national rock climbing athlete who “flies over uneven rock walls as if walking on flat ground.”

This documentary was completed at the beginning of this year. During the two years of filming, I accumulated a lot of cave exploration experience.

After returning to Jiudong City, I saw the business opportunity of being a network anchor and was preparing to become a cave exploration network anchor.

That day, I met Old Lin at a Chess Club in Jiudong City.

In recent years, Old Lin has participated in chess competitions in the province and has achieved good results in the top eight of the individual competition every year, and was awarded the title of “Chess Association Master” by the chess association.

My chess level is also among the best amateurs, but after playing five games of chess with Old Lin, I lost two games and drew three.

I call Old Lin Shifu because he plays chess better than me and is older than me, so I respectfully call him Shifu.

After I called Old Lin Shifu, he did not teach me chess skills, but taught me a lot about caves from a geological point of view.

Old Lin said that he liked cave exploration when he was young, and also said, “Small explorations in the wild, great explorations in the city.”

“Caves are generally hidden in the wild. Can there be caves in a city built with reinforced concrete?” I asked puzzled.

Old Lin said, “Yes.”

At five o’clock this morning, before it was completely light, Old Lin and I arrived early at the Jiudong City Pedestrian Street.

Jiudong City Pedestrian Street is the most prosperous street in Jiudong City, but at this time, the shops along the street have not yet opened for business, and there are no pedestrians on the Pedestrian Street.

This Pedestrian Street is wide and straight, about two kilometers long, and there are more than a dozen alleys intersecting it on its left and right sides.

Old Lin took me to the intersection of the Pedestrian Street and an alley, and then said, “It’s here.”

I looked at this intersection. Except for a very conspicuous manhole cover on the road, I didn’t see any caves around.

“Where is the cave? Is it under the manhole cover?” I said jokingly.

“Correct,” Old Lin replied with a smile.

In Jiudong City, all public water supply pipes, sewage pipes, telephone lines, and fiber optic networks are connected through underground passages in manholes.

Old Lin took out a headlamp from the double-shoulder compression backpack behind him and put it on his head, then bent down to lift the manhole cover.

I also took out a headlamp from the compression backpack and put it on my head, and then tied a sports camera to my waist and pressed the button to turn on the camera function.

When Old Lin went to lift the manhole cover, I saw the word “Electricity” written on the manhole cover.

After opening the manhole cover, I visually estimated that this electricity manhole was more than two meters deep.

Old Lin took out a soft ladder from his backpack, hung one end of the soft ladder on the manhole opening, and put the other end into the manhole.

After putting down the soft ladder, Old Lin stepped on the soft ladder and went down first.

When Old Lin was about to go down into the manhole, I also stepped on the soft ladder and went down into the manhole.

After I went in halfway, I held up the manhole cover and covered it from the inside.

After Old Lin and I went down into the manhole, Old Lin used the headlamp to illuminate the side wall of the manhole. I saw a rusty circular iron door with a diameter of about one meter on one side of the well wall.

This iron door was a bit peculiar, with many patterns engraved on it.

Looking at its local details, the center was carved with a Tai Chi Yin-Yang diagram, surrounded by a circle of Tai Chi Bagua. Outside the Tai Chi Bagua, there were also depictions of figures, landscapes, animals, plants, and so on.

Old Lin stroked the Tai Chi Yin-Yang diagram on the door and said, “This is actually a turntable. Turning it can open the door to the passage.”

Old Lin pressed hard on the Tai Chi Bagua diagram, and the Tai Chi Bagua diagram immediately protruded from the door, turning into a turntable.

Old Lin turned it a few circles to the left, and then a few circles to the right. With a “click,” the circular iron door was opened.

“This is a passage to the underground cave, seven or eight hundred meters long. It is necessary to bend over during the entire journey,” Old Lin said, looking at the dark passage inside.

“How did you find this place?” I asked.

“Isn’t Jiudong City vigorously renovating the city’s underground pipe network this year? Last month, I accidentally overheard a conversation between two migrant workers. One migrant worker said that when he was repairing a manhole, he found a rusty circular iron door on the wall of the manhole, and said that the door was engraved with a Tai Chi Bagua diagram, and no matter what tools he used, he could not open it,” Old Lin seemed immersed in memories.

Old Lin paused, and then continued: “I guessed that there must be a mechanism installed on the door, so I invited a history teacher from the school and went down to the manhole that was being repaired early in the morning. Sure enough, I saw a rusty circular iron door on the side wall of the manhole, and the iron door was also engraved with a Tai Chi Bagua diagram. I have quite a bit of research on the *Book of Changes* and Bagua. The most basic unit of Bagua is Yao, which is a symbol used to record changes in the shadow of the sun. I tossed about for a long time and finally opened the door. From the passage, we walked all the way to the edge of the entrance of the underground cave. Because the underground cave was too deep and felt a bit strange, we didn’t go down and went back. However, afterwards, neither of us mentioned this cave to outsiders, nor did we go inside again.”

Old Lin and I squatted down and crawled into the passage one after another.

After crawling into the passage, we slowly stood up. Because we couldn’t stand up completely, we walked forward with our waists bent.

The passage was about one and a half meters high and very narrow, allowing only one person to pass.

Old Lin walked in front with his waist bent, and I followed behind Old Lin with my waist bent.

Just a few steps after Old Lin and I walked into the passage, we heard a “pop” sound, and the door behind us suddenly closed automatically.

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