Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Xu Xiaoyan shook her head. Now that she was here, she would definitely regret it if she didn't find out what was going on.

She had been digging for almost half an hour. If she gave up now, all her previous work would have been for nothing, and the question in her heart would never be answered.

She didn't want to leave with an unresolved question, nor did she want to spend the next few days repeatedly thinking about what would have happened if she had dug a little deeper.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiaoyan gripped the entrenching tool in her hand and buried herself in digging.

She plunged the shovel back into the soil, this time with even more force, the tip digging deep into the ground.

She stepped onto the shoulder of the shovel and pressed down, prying up the soil and turning over a fist-sized clod of earth.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't stop, continuing to dig, sweat sliding down her forehead and down her nose.

She didn't bother to wipe it away, only occasionally shaking her head to get rid of the sweat that was about to drip into her eyes.

After digging for about an hour and a half, Xu Xiaoyan's arms started to ache.

The anti-slip rubber on the entrenching tool handle was already soaked with sweat, so she had to rub her palms on her trouser leg every now and then, grip it tightly again, and continue.

The soil was harder than I had imagined, and I had to use my core strength with every shovel stroke.

When the shovel tip penetrates the soil, it makes a dull "thud" sound, and when you pry it up, you can feel the resistance traveling from your wrist all the way to your shoulder.

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The clods of earth she dug out were getting bigger and bigger, some of them even requiring her to pick them up with gloves and throw them behind her.

She had pushed the passage in nearly two meters. The walls on both sides of the cave were covered with uneven marks left by the shovel. Occasionally, a few grains of dirt would fall from above and land on her hair and shoulders, but she ignored them.

Just as she was about to lose patience with this mechanical repetition, the tip of the shovel suddenly hit something hard.

It wasn't the dull resistance of mud, but a crisp, slightly elastic touch; the shovel tip slid, making a sharp scraping sound.

She paused for a moment, then squatted down and used her gloves to brush away the loose soil and pebbles in front of her. When the flashlight shone on her, she saw a layer of grayish-white stones.

Xu Xiaoyan couldn't help but feel a little happy, and she quickly brought the flashlight closer.

The beam of light shone on the stone surface, illuminating the uneven textures clearly, revealing that the stone wall was indeed limestone!

She knew this kind of stone very well; she had learned about its characteristics in her geography textbook: grayish-white, not very hard, easily dissolved by water, and often forming caves and sinkholes.

The appearance of limestone means that the geological structure underground is exactly as she had previously speculated, and digging into it means that she is not far from the sinkhole.

Tiankeng is essentially a giant funnel formed by the collapse of limestone areas after long-term erosion by groundwater.

The presence of limestone indicates active karst development beneath, suggesting a high probability of natural passages and caves.

She switched the entrenching tool to her left hand and touched the limestone wall with her right hand. Even through her rubber gloves, she could feel the fine, sharp edges and pits on the stone surface.

Xu Xiaoyan swept the flashlight around the cave wall from top to bottom and left to right, and found that the limestone wall was not a flat stone slab.

Instead, it is a sloping, curved facade, more like part of some huge structure.

She decided to dig down along the edge of the limestone. Since the stone wall appeared here, the entrance or passage to the sinkhole was likely at the bottom or side of the stone wall.

She adjusted the angle of the entrenching tool, no longer digging horizontally as before, but dipping it downwards at an angle, clearing the area where the rock face met the soil, shovel by shovel.

This angle makes it more difficult to exert force than before, because she has to bend over, and sometimes even kneel on the ground, to insert the shovel into the soil.

Her knees were painfully pressed against the gravel and clods of earth, so she took out a scarf from her storage space and placed it under her knees, which made her feel a little better.

The soil became wetter and denser at the edges of the stone wall, and in some places it even had a muddy texture.

When the shovel is inserted, it makes a "gurgling" sound, and the clods of soil that are dug out are dark and can be squeezed to release water.

About an hour later, she had dug down nearly half a meter from the edge of the limestone wall.

The passage narrowed, and she could only crouch sideways inside, making it difficult to even turn around. Her flashlight was propped up on a mound of earth, its beam shining obliquely at the stone wall and the pit in front of her.

Her back was pressed against the cave wall, and she could feel the dampness of the soil seeping through her clothes, making her feel chilly, but she didn't care about that.

Just as she was about to pry up a clod of clay by sticking the shovel into the ground again, she suddenly felt a breeze brush against her cheek.

She stopped what she was doing, held her breath, and focused all her attention on the skin on her cheek.

A few seconds later, the wind came again, this time more noticeable, carrying a damp smell, as if it were blowing from somewhere.

Her heart skipped a beat, and almost instinctively she reached for the flashlight next to her, nearly knocking it over when her fingers touched it.

She quickly grabbed it, turned the beam to its brightest setting, and shone it in the direction the wind was blowing.

At first, she saw nothing; all she saw was that gray-white limestone wall.

The lower edge of the stone wall was buried in soil and gravel, appearing completely solid without any gaps.

But she was not willing to give up, so she narrowed the beam of her flashlight and swept it inch by inch along the bottom of the stone wall.

The surface of the stone wall is pitted and uneven, with light and shadow interplay. Some places look like cracks, but upon closer inspection, they are just natural patterns on the stone surface.

She was almost disappointed when, just as the beam of light swept across the lower right corner of the stone wall, she noticed that the shadow there seemed to be deeper than in other places.

She moved the flashlight forward and used her other hand to push aside a few pebbles and a clump of withered tree roots blocking her way.

This time I finally saw it clearly. There seemed to be a small hole in the lower right corner of the cave. The opening was not big, about the width of a child's fist.

There are some small pebbles and soil around the edge of the cave entrance, which is slightly turned outward.

She leaned closer, and the gust of wind came again.

This time, she could clearly feel the wind blowing up from the small hole, carrying a cool, slightly fishy smell.

She shone her flashlight into the cave entrance, and the beam of light refracted through the unevenness of the cave walls, creating a blurry patch of light and shadow.

She couldn't see the bottom, nor did she know how deep or big it was, but she knew that the other end of this small hole was most likely connected to a larger space.

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