Chapter 38 Entering the Secret Door (4K 2-in-1)

This extremely rare hot situation on the ticket opening day made all the media, big and small, move.

At around 10 o'clock, the ticket hall was surrounded by people carrying large and small bags and equipment inside and outside, front and back. The media that made various negative comments in the report last night were listed. The one who rushed to the front was Macaulay, the editor-in-chief of "Noisy Newspaper", who predicted that the box office of the St. Lenya Symphony Orchestra would be the last.

It was inevitable that the article that had been circulated would be slapped in the face, but slapping in the face... How could it be more important than being the first to attract attention?

Comparing the changes before and after, the top art media, who were restrained in words before and steady in behavior afterwards, did show their self-cultivation and demeanor.

At half past ten, the fans who were still queuing, especially those in the middle and back, became restless and had several unpleasant quarrels.

The concert hall sent staff to the back of the line and began to ask the fans about their ticket purchase needs, and regretfully informed the fans who wanted to buy tickets for this concert that it might be a meaningless wait.

Even so, these people were disappointed, but they were still asking about the pre-sale of the record.

At 11 o'clock, the concert hall added three more temporary queues, and with seven lines of queues, the speed of digestion was accelerated again.

The time was frozen at 11:40 am on August 1.

The 2,760 seats of the St. Lenya Symphony Orchestra concert, which had a 21-day ticket sales period, were sold out within half a day on the ticket sales day!

From this moment on, the scene returned to its normal state in previous years: occasionally queuing up, generally scattered.

The speed of news spread very quickly. An hour later, there was a "bang bang bang" knock on Professor Commons' office.

The sound was loud and urgent, and there seemed to be more than one urging voice to "open the door quickly".

Who was so loud? The old professor locked the door himself, and now raised his head from the sea of ​​books, with surprise and impatience on his face.

Now the orchestra is in the process of preparing for personnel changes, including the calculation of assessment results, the inclusion of new members, the mutual flow of regular and substitute members, the concerto performance cooperation of soloists, the appointment and removal of the first voice, and all kinds of favors have come, including students, parents of students, acquaintances and friends, and some relatives who have greeted other professors of the Conservatory of Music.

No matter what kind of quota is available for any matter, the orchestra will only have a double-digit quota each year. Compared with the number of students in the entire university, it is indeed a practical experience with extremely high gold content.

Students with adequate levels are fine, but more people who want to join by relying on connections are half-baked non-music majors or music majors. For example, a relative who just sent away, all the violin sounds were pulled in the gaps of the piano, and he also wanted to cooperate with the orchestra in a concerto at a certain school event, which is very annoying.

According to the spicy style of the old professor when he was young, this kind of cooperation proposal is like using good seasonings and superb cooking skills to encourage yourself to stew shit.

The matter of the principal is even more subtle. After the old students graduated, more than half of the positions were vacant, but the performances could not be interrupted, so many musicians who were previously second in line temporarily took the first position. This does not mean a formal appointment, but once a person has a sense of achievement, it is almost like a death to deprive it. Several temporary principals who are not satisfied with themselves do not know how to deal with it.

And... the problem of the performance at the art festival. Although they finally reached an agreement on a radical plan, when the public opinion pressure from the art world came, the feeling was another matter.

With all kinds of complicated emotions, Commons frowned and got up to open the door.

As soon as the doorknob was turned, he found that there were more than ten people standing in the corridor.

"Mr. President?"

Led by Steenike and Huxley, there were several familiar professors with excited expressions.

"Where is Carolan van Nin?" President Steenike asked.

"Sold out! Mr. Director! Sold out!" Vice President Huxley rolled up a pile of newspapers and hit his other palm with a clapping sound.

"What's sold out?" Commons saw Principal Stenike no more than three times a year. Seeing him come today, he had a vague premonition in his heart, but he didn't dare to believe it.

Didn't the tickets just go on sale today?

Commons had already prepared to check the sales progress every night and endure the torment for 20 consecutive days.

"Concert tickets! Sold out!"

"Tickets sold out!?"

"Sold out!"

"Now?"

"Now!" The conversation between the two gradually broke up and repeated.

"All the honorable guest tickets are sold out?"

"All the honorable guest tickets are sold out!!" Huxley grabbed his sleeve and asked again, "Where is Carloen? He doesn't know yet, right? Go tell him!"

"Oh, yes, he should be rehearsing now." Commons hurriedly checked the time, "He usually finishes at around one o'clock every day. Come on, I'll take you there."

From this office to the rehearsal hall, you need to go down three floors and bypass a corridor. More than a dozen people hurried over there. A minute later, Professor Commons pushed open the door: "Professor Fanning, are the students resting?"

The lights were bright and empty. Only the assistant conductor Kaplan was sitting in front of the piano, concentrating on writing something, leaving everyone with a thin head.

Professor Commons felt dizzy, took off his thick glass glasses, took out a handkerchief to wipe it, and put it on again: "Where are the people? Why is there no one?"

"No one?..." Kaplan quickly got up, with a tone that was a little unconfident, "I... I'm here."

"Where are the others? Didn't Carloen come here today?" asked Stenike.

"The principal...he finished rehearsal early today and dismissed everyone at ten o'clock."

Everyone looked at each other.

Does he know what happened on the ticket opening day?

"What happened? Did he do it on purpose? I am increasingly confused about this guy's style of doing things." Huxley said with a wry smile.

Fanning was indeed not very clear about the situation. When the show ended at ten o'clock, the media in the imperial capital had just arrived at the ticket opening site.

At this moment, he was standing in the circular exhibition hall of the installation art of the Turner Art Museum with Sheeran and Joan.

The air was filled with a foul smell again. The lime and wall tiles had been smashed open again. The black and old small door had been opened and hung in the air between the walls.

Joan re-arranged the isolation secret ritual with the room as the boundary. The invisible inspiration barrier appeared as a purple circle under the spiritual perception, and condensed into a thick shell on the doors and windows-it was unrealistic to explore absolute confidentiality. This might not stop the well-prepared and knowledgeable people, but it was enough to stop the ignorant and prevent them from noticing that there was something wrong with the room.

In the past month, the three of them have discussed this matter countless times, and they can no longer remember many of the specific and detailed discussions.

Although the tone of each discussion was to make inferences based on the newly acquired information and to rationally weigh the risks, everyone later discovered that rational discussions were just to convince themselves to satisfy their curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

This point was pointed out by Sheeran twice, and Fanning also pointed it out twice, but the result was nothing more than pushing the progress into the next rational discussion cycle.

At this moment today, the three of them stood here with full self-awareness: everyone no longer denied the deep-seated motivation of serving the pursuit of knowledge, and at the same time confirmed that the current preparations were relatively sufficient, and mutual care could reduce many risks.

Perhaps this is just like Fanning's feelings when investigating Vien's deeds before: the fragments of good fortune sealed behind the history of the secret door are as fascinating as the smell of precious aged red wine hidden in the cellar.

The three of them carried bags, and Fanning also carried a specially treated crowbar that was more practical in underground exploration.

He supported himself with his hands on the wall of the passage, jumped up first, pulled the two people up, and then closed the secret door from the inside.

Next to the wellhead, everyone was sitting in the two-meter-long, medium-length passage behind the door, and counted the items in the package again, including kettles, candies, candles, lantern boxes, binoculars, sample bags, flashlights, and ropes.

Sheeran took out two more black boxes. The first box contained a dark disc half the size of a palm. Under the light of the flashlight, three bubble-like things could be seen near the center of the circle slowly appearing, bursting, and disappearing, and so on.

Ritual "Alert Record": About ten years ago, a record collector in Uvlancel suffered a cardiac arrest due to extreme shock. When the Guidance School searched his home, they peeled off this small disc from the interlayer of a normal record. It can show signs of life with extraordinary factors around it, which brings a certain practicality of risk warning. But after too much contact with it, people's threshold of fright will gradually decrease to an incomprehensible level. The previous owner was frightened to death because his cat accidentally broke a coffee cup.

The second small box contains a bundle of scroll paintings that are similar to those after being gathered. The scroll is as black as lacquer, and the cloth back is dense purple.

Ritual "Consecration Curtain": The Guidance School's own inventory. It is said that in a certain period of withered and hard-to-find history, it has hindered the passage of a high-level existence in various senses. After reciting the appropriate secret transmission, it can create a plane and temporarily cut off all conceptual and substantial interactions on both sides. In the records of previous years, some users have rarely encountered some incomprehensible connection and interaction events afterwards, which seems to be a reverse influence.

Several people discussed the strategy of going down the well. Due to the existence of the escalator on the wall of the well, ropes and other tools are not used. In order to prevent separation after encountering some accidents, the three decided to go down together and no longer assign one person to guard on top.

Today, both girls changed into long clothes and trousers for easier movement. Fanning blew out the candle, put it back in his pocket, and climbed down the escalator first, so as to deal with the unknown space below in the first place. Joan was in the middle and Hiran was on top.

These escalators were not ladders connected together in the true sense, but many U-shaped "railings" embedded in the wall of the well, which could be stepped on or held by hands. The material felt between metal and wood, and extended to the darkness below in sections.

The soles of the three people kept making the sound of stepping on the railings. When Hiran's hair at the top disappeared from the well mouth, Fanning had already descended to a depth of more than five meters. At this time, he had felt that the hot temperature had cooled down a little.

The downward climb continued. The escalator felt cold and smooth, without other greasy and dirty dirt, only a layer of fine dust accumulated on his hands.

During this time, Fan Ning reached out and touched the wall of the well. From the cracks and textures, he could confirm that it was made of stone bricks, but there was no moss or anything like that, and it was not damp at all. This made Fan Ning feel that this well-shaped cylindrical space was not a well in the true functional sense.

The endless darkness under his feet made Fan Ning's heart beat faster. It was obviously a very stable escalator, without any shaking, and the physical consumption was not great, but every time Fan Ning went down a level, his hands could not help but exert the greatest grip, as if he was afraid that something below would pull him down.

But at least from the perspective of spiritual perception, there is no abnormal perception and no warning of danger.

"I seem to have heard that sound again just now." Joan suddenly spoke during the climb.

"Sound?" Fanning's hands and feet did not stop moving, and the echoes of the two people's conversation overlapped in this narrow space.

"I heard it too..." said Xilan at the top, "It was the day of the graduation ceremony, when we stayed in the activity hall on the first floor before we found the existence of the secret door."

Fanning remembered: "Similar to the dense sound of some sharp objects? Strange, I haven't heard it before, and I still haven't heard it now."

"If you feel anything wrong, you must say it immediately." Fanning reminded.

"Understood... I haven't found it yet, and it feels like it has always been a simple noise."

In the process of going down, the stench has always remained strong, but there is no sense of shortness of breath, which means that there is either a vent somewhere, or this space is large enough, so large that the oxygen consumption of the three people in a short period of time can be ignored, and there are no other biological consumption or pollution sources.

The temperature was obviously getting colder and colder. The people were wearing tight clothes and felt stuffy, and their skin was sweating a lot. But now the moisture has evaporated, and the body feels dry and cool, which makes people feel the autumn in advance.

This is not strange. It is normal for the temperature difference to exceed ten degrees in a place similar to the structure of a basement. However, Fanning felt that the well seemed to be too deep. He kept counting the steps of the escalator on the well wall. Now there are 610 steps. According to the distribution density of about half a meter per step, the current position of the three people is already 300 meters deep.

"Kaloen, why did you stop?" After a few dozen steps, Joan accidentally stepped on Fanning's hand holding the escalator.

"There is something on the well wall here." Fanning said.

Between the two bricks on his left hand, an object similar to a bronze material stretched out.

Above his head, Joan squatted down and shone a flashlight on it, and he could see that it was in the shape of a groove.

"Candlestick?" Fanning saw that the bronze hollow floral decorations around the groove were very complicated, with uneven layers of stacking, and some places were stained with red or white marks - because people's subconscious mind associates the protruding parts of objects with facial features, this looks like an expressionless face composed of red eyes, red nose, and white lips.

What kind of weird aesthetic style? Fanning couldn't figure it out, but he still said aloud: "Qiong, turn off the flashlight, this thing is too short to use."

He hooked his arm on the escalator, and groped behind with his other hand, took out one of the more than 20 small taffy candles, put it into the groove, and the temperature slowly reversed, and the candle wick ignited.

After going down the dark vertical passage for a long time, even though Fanning's spiritual perception was strong, his vision was a bit depressed. After a candle was placed on the wall, the firelight slightly alleviated this discomfort.

After the candles were lit, Joan spoke the next moment:

"Carlon, there seems to be something behind you"

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Thanks to HouseManVI for the reward on August 5~Thanks to anagae, Bersbudo, book friend tail number 2659, and Luofeng 3 for the monthly ticket~