Abyss Empty House (The Salvageman's Adventure)

The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)

There aren't many dangerous jobs in peacetime, but underwater salvage happens to be one of the most dangerous.

I was originally an ordinary member of an amphibious reconnaissance team of a naval unit in Fujian. However, I retired in 1983. After leaving the army, I transferred to a county town to do clerical work. I lived a peaceful life for ten years. Thinking that I was still young, I couldn't resist the persuasion of my old comrades. So, I went back to my old job, which is to be a "ladies' man". The pay is decent.

The job is simple: during diving team training, you have to go down into the water first to prepare for rehearsals of complex underwater tasks such as welding, leak sealing, and pipe connection. Sometimes, you also have to design emergency scenarios such as damaged diving suits, lost diving shoes, drifting entanglement, and air supply interruption, and then hand them over to the diving team instructors to train the novices.

This diving team belongs to Shanghai Municipality. Their daily work is nothing more than exploration, salvage, and troubleshooting of ship hull malfunctions in the Yangtze River estuary and Huangpu River. In previous years, they also provided underwater safety for some important meetings in Shanghai. They have nothing particularly strange to share.

Date: 2008-03-08 11:40:00

What I want to talk about is a strange matter that I reluctantly got involved in just three years after I retired. I shouldn't be talking about it now, because twenty years have passed, and some people who knew about it back then have already revealed a lot of information. But there are some details that they will never know.

Besides me, only Ding Gen knew the details of this matter. The others, carrying their secrets, sank into the abyss back then.

Date: 2008-03-08 11:42:00

This year, that old bastard Ding Gen finally couldn't take the torment anymore and died. Before he died, he told me that this matter must be told before I die, and it can't be covered up in ambiguity like this.

So, the strange thing that happened in Qiandao Lake, Zhejiang Province, twenty years ago, in 1985, is what I want to tell you. Some things are hard to explain, and I still can't figure out the reason. I can only tell you the whole story and hope that someone can come up with a reasonable explanation.

Date: 2008-03-08 12:00:00

In 1985, the social atmosphere had just begun to improve. My county was located in a mountainous area of Zhejiang. My daily work was not particularly difficult. Occasionally, old comrades would come to visit me for drinks. Most of the rest of the time I was idle, so I lived a very leisurely life.

If I weren't someone who enjoys a leisurely life, I wouldn't have retired so early. But the underwater skills I honed during my time in the army haven't been neglected at all. I've maintained the prowess of a frogman in the military. In this wretched county town, everyone knows I'm a dragon in the reservoir. Unfortunately, once I came ashore, I turned into a lazy old eel.

Just as I was hesitating about whether I should find a woman to marry and have children since I was getting old, my former military instructor sent me a strange letter.

Our instructor's surname was Deng, and his full name was Deng Jianguo. During training, he always had a stern face and would scold us, but he was actually quite nice in private. He also had some real skills, so we all respected him and called him Head Deng.

The letter said that he had received orders from his superiors to carry out a mission in Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province. After arriving at the location, he discovered that the Xin'anjiang Reservoir was indeed vast, with numerous islands and complex underwater conditions, making the task very difficult. His superiors also said that the situation was special and that the personnel assigned to him were all green recruits with guns. After thinking it over, he wrote to me and Ding Gen, his old subordinates who had been demobilized and were in Zhejiang, who were skilled enough, to ask if we could ask our unit to let us go and help out. It would just be to go into the water to salvage some things, which would only take three to five days. As usual, the army would provide a stipend.

The letter also mentioned that after his trip to the lake area, he brought back some very strange clues and urgently needed help to get into the water. Therefore, he specifically left someone at the reception station to wait for me and Ding Gen, hoping we could get there as soon as possible.

Date: 2008-03-09 10:47:00

No matter what profession you're in, once you form a habit, it's hard to change it. At that time, I was dawdling around, bored out of my mind. The reservoir in the county town was also in its dry season in spring, and no one had asked me to go and fish for anything. So as soon as I received the letter, I immediately packed my things and prepared to head to the Xin'anjiang Reservoir to take a look.

Chun'an isn't far from the county where I work; it's less than a day's journey by bus. So when I arrived in Chun'an, it wasn't even dusk yet. Following the address on the letter, I went to the so-called reception station, which was really just a simple storefront with two broken tables at the entrance, covered by a frosted glass pane, and a few tea mugs on top.

Standing by the table, I kept wondering to myself, "Is nobody here?"

Looking inside, I saw another room filled with smoke. I wondered how many people were puffing away and causing trouble. I thought to myself, could this be Deng Tou's headquarters? Didn't he say that the situation was special and that he didn't have enough manpower? How come there are so many people here?

Just as I was hesitating whether to say hello, someone came out from inside. I was delighted to see him. I recognized him. He was a veteran naval diver who had become famous for beheading people during the anti-submarine warfare in the early days when the situation in Kinmen was tense. After the situation eased in 1975, he became an instructor with Deng Tou. When I was training, I often saw him come to drink with Deng Tou. He was very warm to me back then. His surname was Luo, and I called him Captain Luo like everyone else.

Team Leader Luo, his eyes red and dressed in civilian clothes, paused for a moment when he saw me, then blinked, and immediately rushed over with great enthusiasm, tightly grasping my hand: "Oh! Comrade Huang Ning is here! Good day! Good day!"

Date: 2008-03-09 11:34:00

His sweaty hands made me very uncomfortable as I followed Captain Luo inside, asking him, "Where's Deng? It's almost dark, and he's still not back?"

Team Leader Luo frowned and said, "Old Deng only went out this morning, he probably won't be back so soon. Come in first, get to know everyone, and there are some things I need to tell you."

I went into the inner room and looked around for a while before I could see clearly that it was just a passageway with a few benches. Five or six people were sitting there smoking, all with their heads down and not making a sound. They looked like soldiers.

Captain Luo beckoned me to continue inside. Several rooms were filled with stacks of sacks, and two men with guns were guarding them. I looked closely and noticed that their clothes had no identification markings; everything that could identify them had been removed. They looked like soldiers.

Finally, we arrived at a slightly larger room. Captain Luo said loudly, "Comrades, listen up. Let me introduce you to someone. This new comrade is Huang Ning, Deng Tou's prized disciple. He's the underwater dragon we need most right now. Later, another expert named Ding Gen will also be coming. Then things will be much easier for us! You all introduce yourselves. Lao Gu, you go first."

Chapter 2 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Chapter 2 of "The Empty House in the Abyss (The Salvage Worker's Adventure)"

Author: Ghost Grinning

Date: 2008-03-09 11:47:00

In a short while, I got to know the four people in the room. They weren't from the same unit, and they didn't seem to know each other very well: the one called Lao Gu was actually Gu Jinping, the deputy director of the reservoir fishery administration and supervision department; Zheng Jian was an officer from the Fujian Navy, the leader of the team, but I didn't know him, judging from his age, he must have gone there after his retirement; there was also a woman named Zhang Liheng, an officer from the Zhejiang Provincial Fisheries Department; and the last one was someone I knew from when I was in the army, Lu Tongchun, a leader from the Fujian Navy, who also looked like the commander here.

After everyone finished their introductions, Lu Tongchun expressed his warm welcome to my joining the company. From his tone, I could tell that they were all at a loss, probably because they had encountered some difficulties in their work.

After sitting down, Lu Tongchun said seriously, "Comrade Huang, this mission was assigned by our superiors. I can't tell you all the details right now. It's partly our fault for being complacent and careless. We thought things on the island would be easy and we wouldn't need the navy's frogmen's help, but after going in a few times, we found the problem to be very complicated, extremely complicated. Some situations are simply unclear and quite dangerous. The area of water where the incident occurred has been tightly sealed off by Zheng Jian. You need to think this through carefully. This mission must not be leaked."

He made me nervous. Something happened? It's just a reservoir, maybe with a lot of islands in it, but what could possibly happen?

Date: 2008-03-09 11:56:00

There are fishery administration officials, fishery bureau officials, and naval officers and soldiers from two provinces. How did they all end up together? It's a complete mess.

Lu Tongchun continued, "Deng Tou said he would be back before dark, so Comrade Huang, you should get some rest. Tomorrow we'll all get up early and set off together. Remember, don't ask any questions or go out for a stroll. The higher-ups are taking the secrecy of this mission very seriously, and it's hard to say whether there are other people from other units involved."

I was taken aback: "That's it? You haven't even told me what happened yet? You have to give me some time to prepare myself, otherwise, I won't do it."

Lu Tongchun smiled wryly and said, "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that I can't explain it clearly at all. There are some things that I'm not allowed to say because of orders from above. So you'll have to go and see for yourself tomorrow."

I was a little annoyed: "Hey, you assign me a job without saying why? Fine, I'm not doing it. I'm retired anyway, I'm just helping out. Why don't you wait f

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