Chioujen managed to persuade Hannrong to let him go to the basement. The place was closed because the building was no longer active, not because it was dangerous down there. So, it was actually okay if there were tenants who wanted to have a look. That was the essence of Chioujen's justification regarding the matter. Of course, Chioujen was not a tenant. However, he stated he represented Songfei, who was the tenant of the unit in the building. The lease agreement clearly stated that the rented space also included parking in the basement.
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Because Hannrong had to be on duty, Chioujen went down alone to the floors below the ground floor of the Dafeisy Tower. Chioujen couldn't go down to the basement via the elevator because, since about a year ago, service elevators and occupant elevators have been programmed to only be used up and down from the ground floor to the twelfth floor. To be able to reactivate the elevator function to go down to the basement floor, they had to call an elevator technician who used to repair elevators in the building. It was not a simple thing because the only person who could call an elevator technician to come to the building was the building management at a level above Hannrong. So, like it or not, Chioujen had to go down via the stairs.
Went down the stairs was not as easy as Chioujen had initially imagined. On the two stairs, namely the occupant stairs and the emergency stairs, iron bars had been padlocked. Chioujen had brought a small waist bag with the contents of the ring of keys from the iron bar lock and the rooms on the basement floor. Since the keys were very similar to each other, Chioujen had to try several times until he found the right key to open the lock on the iron bars.
The atmosphere on the B1 floor was the same as the atmosphere in the basements of other buildings designated as parking lots. The difference was that it's very dark in there. Each floor had its own electrical panel. The panels were connected to an electrical substation outside the building. The building management had disabled the connection between the basement floor panels and the electrical substation outside.
The electricity supply to the basement could be turned on again at certain times, such as when there were repairs to certain parts of the building. Chioujen's visit to the basement, of course, did not include as an important incident where the electricity in the basement had to be turned on again. Even if Chioujen could persuade Hannrong to turn on the electricity in the basement, it would still be impossible. Hannrong didn't have the key to the substation. So, only the building management and officers from the electricity company could open the panels at the substation. Luckily, Chioujen didn't forget to bring a flashlight so that now he could freely explore the place without worrying about bumping into or tripping over something in the dungeon.
After being satisfied walking around on the B1 floor, Chioujen went down to the B2 floor. The situation there was precisely the same as on the previous floor. The parking lot was empty. There weren't any vehicles there. Singing alone, Chioujen walked around the floor. He didn't know what he was looking for. He walked here and there, just following his intuition.
The B3 floor, which housed the generator and the rooms supposed to be used by the people who work in the building, looked even more mysterious. The generator that was there was never used. According to Hannrong, the last time they turned on the generator was more than a year ago. Some rooms on the floor were locked, but others were unlocked. Chioujen didn't know that because Hannrong had forgotten to lock the doors, or some rooms had been left unlocked on purpose.
Stairs and elevators only reach the B3 floor. It was clearly written in the building plan that there was a B4 floor. It seemed that the plan of the building that Chioujen had seen earlier was a copy of the blueprint of the building. Blueprints were actual plans for the building, not plans from initial designs. So, if the B4 floor was drawn there, then the B4 floor should really exist.
Squinting, Chioujen stood in front of the service elevator in the building. Chioujen observed the service elevator. There were two elevators. So, in the building, there were a total of six elevators. In addition to the elevator, people could also go up and down via stairs and emergency stairs. Nothing special with all the elevators and stairs in the building.
The service elevator had not worked for a long time. Not broken, but just never turned on. According to Hannrong, the two elevators were not turned on at all for months. When the building management came to have a look at the building, they turned on both elevators. It happened about three months ago.
Chioujen circled around for a long time and couldn't find his way to the B4 floor. He decided to go up and re-examine the floor plan of the building he had seen. When he got there, he saw Hannrong was in the room.
"Do you still want to look around this room?" Hannrong opened his mouth when he saw Chioujen enter the room.
"Sure. You can lock this room when I leave the building."
Hannrong nodded with a broad smile. "How are things down there, Sir? Did you manage to find the B4 floor?"
"No. Therefore, now I want to check the floor plan of this building again."
Chioujen returned to the table where he had placed the scroll of tracing paper that contained the building plan. He spread the papers again on the table. Firmly, Hannrong stood beside Chioujen. He seemed curious, too.
"Hanrong! Take a look at this. This is the floor plan of B4!"
Hannrong looked at the paper. He looked like he was thinking. Two seconds later, Hannrong opened his mouth. "How do you get down there, Sir?"
"This plan clearly depicts stairs and elevators." Chioujen pointed at the stairs and elevators clearly depicted in the plan.
"But the stairs and the elevator only get to the B3 floor, sir!"
"That's what amazes me. The blueprint should be the actual building plan. So, if there are stairs and an elevator down to the B4 floor in the plan, then, in reality, it should really be like that."
"What if, in fact, there used to be stairs and an elevator up to the B4 floor? But for some reason, the entrance to the B4 floor was closed."
"Have you ever heard people talk about it?"
"Never, Sir!" Hannrong's tone was so sure. He looked at the floor plan that was still spread out on the table. Frowning, he tilted his head. "Are the dimensions in this plan the same as the actual sizes, Sir?"
"Are you asking about the dimension size consistency? I mean, are you curious about whether the dimension ratio used in the plan is consistent with the actual room dimension ratio?"