After midnight

The corridor was not long and they walked out in half a minute, after Xu Xing opened the door at the end of the corridor.

After walking slowly, An Yan, Su Ziling and He saw that it was already formed. After the second door was opened, the huge space was brightly lit. All the walls were covered with white tiles, and the cleverly designed ceiling was also installed. Among them, the most eye-catching thing was the two rows of tracks that had been laid for the hanging windows.

Su Ziling looked at An Yan in surprise. He found that although An Yan remained silent, his expression became three times colder.

An Yan looked at Xu Xing, who smiled and made a hush gesture. This hanging window station was not fully formed because the exit of the track was sealed. The reason why it was sealed was that it could be seen that it had been opened before.

The inside of the track is connected to a short and dark window passage, where the windows are set off one after another. After crossing two rows of tracks, there is a wall covered with white tiles.

"It's what you see." Xu Xing said to An Yan, "The structure of the other side of the wall is the same as here, except that the wall is missing."

"It shouldn't take more than a week to finish all of this, including laying the walls, floor tiles and electricity."

"more or less."

"Then let me guess the overall structure. Is it already the same as what is shown outside?"

As shown outside? It looks like it's only half built, Su Ziling wondered.

"Yes." Xu Xing said.

"I understand. The shape of the Beizhong Hanging Window Station is originally a semicircle because it has already laid the track." Su Ziling pointed this out excitedly. It cleverly deceived by taking advantage of the complete closed design of Jiudu, Xindu and even Beiguan.

"You are really smart." Xu Xing smiled with his head down.

"Then it won't take that long at all?" Su Ziling questioned.

"We're going to take down the exit wall and replace it with a transparent glass and steel frame. Of course, we also want to open up the space between the station and the exit, so the wall behind me will also be taken down, but in any case, it really won't take as long as three weeks."

As Xu Xing was talking, An Yan was looking around. Suddenly, he jumped off the track and walked along the track. Su Ziling and He looked at each other and immediately followed, while Xu Xing followed at a leisurely pace at the end.

After turning on the light on the wall, the soft light immediately illuminated the place clearly. Rows and rows of hanging windows stood upright in this space, motionless. An Yan struggled to get through the gap between the hanging windows.

Su Ziling was shocked. He stood at the entrance and let the two people behind him squeeze in. He didn't move anymore. He was afraid that he would get lost like An Yan. He couldn't see the end.

"An Yan, how is it?"

"256 units." An Yan turned back and said after a while.

This was not a simple number, so everyone turned around and looked at Xu Xing who was silent at the side. Xu Xing was stared at and had no choice but to explain: "This is sent from Beizhong to Beiguan. These numbers are enough for now. But I have been thinking about how to save more space recently. The hanging window can also be stretched into a carriage, but it is not as simple as mechanical operation. It is still a question of how to convert the ability to move into power."

Xu Xing seemed to be in a dilemma, but no one present could answer this question except him. So they turned back. After going out, An Yan led the way to the right passage, and Su Ziling and the others followed him. Xu Xing continued to remain silent.

When they were halfway through the passage, the light was already very weak. The four people continued to move forward for about a hundred meters before they saw a wall again, and then turned right. This time, they walked almost unimpeded around the place they had just visited and walked into the other half of the space that had not yet been completed.

It was indeed as Xu Xing said, the structure here was almost the same as when they first came in.

"So I said three weeks at the earliest." Xu Xing made the final decision.

"Indeed it is."

An Yan looked at him and said, but Su Ziling looked at An Yan, and his intuition told him that An Yan had not finished speaking. Sure enough, An Yan continued to speak.

"Xu Xing, three weeks at the fastest is no problem, but in my opinion, this sentence needs a subject, because you don't need three weeks. You have prepared the hanging window from Beizhong to Beiguan, and the same goes for the one to Beicheng. You have even debugged it. You just need the shell of Beizhong Station to be completely completed."

"So who needs three weeks?"

"I knew I couldn't hide it from you." Xu Xing smiled approvingly and shouted loudly: "Zhou Chen, can you come out and explain yourself clearly?"

Sure enough, with the sound of footsteps, Zhou Chen revealed his true face in a short while. When Zhou Chen came out to face An Yan, his eyes were a little wary, but full of spirit.

"It's not Beizhong but Beicheng that needs three weeks," Zhou Chen said.

"Su Ziling, do you still remember Ah Ming?" Seeing that Zhou Chen was not going to elaborate, Xu Xing took over the conversation. Su Ziling nodded. Ah Ming was referring to Bai Ming, the person Xu Xing had chatted with in the bar before.

"A few days ago, Amin left for North City from my place. My teacher is the chief technical officer in North City, but he is old and not only is he prone to illness, but he is also very stubborn. This time was no exception. After he fell ill, I persuaded him for a long time before he returned to Xindu. Yesterday, after Amin got familiar with the situation, he reported that the progress in North City was not ideal."

"I think you all understand that if we want to win this battle, the most important thing is that the Hanging Window Stations in Beizhong and Beicheng must be completed at the same time. Beizhong, as a transit station connecting Beiguan and Beicheng, must be intact. Otherwise, if someone with ill intentions knows that Beizhong can be opened in advance, the consequences will be disastrous."

"Let me think about it. The purpose of building the Xuanchuang stations in Beizhong and Beicheng is to get in touch with Beiguan, so that they can stick together and establish a direct connection with Xindu as a whole. Once this connection is established, Xindu can easily take the two towns of Beizhong and Beicheng and threaten Jiudu from the north. So on the contrary, if Beizhong falls, then the distance between Xuanchuang and Beicheng can only reach Beizhong, and even if the station is opened in the future, it will lose its strategic significance. Is that what you mean?" Su Ziling quickly concluded.

"Yes." Xu Xing said.

Indeed, in this case, even if Beizhong is ahead of the times, they will have to defend until the last moment.

"I let you know this because I want you to understand that it's not just North Middle School, there's also North City. Compared to those who go to North City, we have a heavier responsibility and the situation is more urgent. Therefore, the situation is not optimistic, and no one can guarantee that they will not be defeated."

"I will be on duty tonight." Zhou Chen said finally.

"Nine o'clock. We start at nine in the morning. I suggest changing crews at nine in the morning and evening."

"Su Ziling will be there at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, and I'll be there at night." An Yan continued walking slowly.

"I also……"

"No." An Yan interrupted He.

"...Then I'll take it." Zhou Chen agreed with An Yan's words.

"Okay, let's go." Xu Xing said, and everyone walked back. He Buman had no choice but to be pushed by Su Ziling to walk to the exit with everyone. After coming out, Xu Xing stayed in the control room, Zhou Chen parted ways with everyone, and only they were left to slowly walk towards their residence.

At this time, the two night lights standing next to the window station were lit up, and the incandescent light shone far away, illuminating the night along the road, and the lights of thousands of houses a few hundred meters away were far away. The wind blew, making the tulip trees planted on both sides of the road rustle, and the crickets chirped. The sounds of chirping and the sound of wind and leaves formed a chapter of nature.

"I haven't felt such a comfortable breeze in a long time, especially when the sky and earth are so vast." Su Ziling said as he stretched his muscles.

"Yes, I can still see the stars." An Yan looked up at the night sky, reflecting the endless starry sky into his eyes.

"Wow, there are so many stars!" He shouted excitedly.

Yes, the sky was full of stars. Su Ziling narrowed his eyes. He really hadn’t seen them for a long time.

Just as the road was about to come to an end, Su Ziling asked, "An Yan, how did you know that the window had been placed? How did you know about Xu Xing's clever cover-up?"

"It's very simple. Just look at the dust."

"Dust?" Su Ziling stopped and looked at An Yan's profile, which was still staring at the distant starry sky.

"Yeah." An Yan looked at him and said, "There is a thick layer of dust on the ground of the Hanging Window Station, and the thickness of the dust is very uneven. This is natural, but the strange thing is that the dust has not been destroyed by people walking around. Did you notice? Tonight, after many days, we are the first people to step on it."

Su Ziling reacted quickly. He widened his eyes and nodded as if he suddenly realized something.

An Yan smiled and continued, "In the laid track, the thickness of the dust is more regular."

"I noticed that, too. Are you saying that the dust on both sides of the track is significantly thicker than in the middle?"

"Look more carefully, there are actually two clear dividing lines between them."

"Oh, I see. The two dividing lines correspond exactly to the edges of the hanging window. When the hanging window flew forward, the flow of air carried a small amount of dust outward, making it thicker on both sides and thinner in the middle."

"Yes, and the room with 256 hanging windows is cleaner than the outside."

"Really? I didn't pay attention to that at the time."

"So the conclusion is that they built the window exchange station and the track first, so the dust outside was all over the floor. Because they had to frequently debug the window, the exchange station was cleaner and tidier than the outside, and the track also had obvious signs of the window running. In order to deceive the Song family and Jiudu, they did the exact opposite. Moreover, the wall was only blocked recently because the debugging of the window was completed and it was sealed again to conceal the truth. Xu Xing only put the slightly concealed truth in front of us."

"So that's how it is. Then why did Zhou Chen test us? Aren't we here to help them?"

"It may seem strange to you, but it is exactly appropriate for Zhou Chen to do so."

"Then An Yan, I have one last question. Why didn't Song Yu just destroy everything after he knew about it? After all, we didn't have any solid defenses at that time." Su Ziling asked hurriedly.

At this time, they had already arrived at their residence, and An Yan took out the key and prepared to open the vermilion door.

"Maybe it's because he wants more than just this." After An Yan opened the door, Su Ziling and He Yi walked in together. But they tacitly fell behind.

"He, who do you think is smarter, An Yan or me?" Su Ziling said in a low voice.

"It's hard to say, but I think it's Brother Anyan. Brother Yin only won because he had intelligence. Hey, if Brother Anyan also focused on scheming against others, would Brother Yin still have a chance?"

"How should I know? Remember to lock the door." After saying that, Su Ziling chased after An Yan and ran up the stairs in three or two steps.

At 8:30 the next day, Su Ziling was called by An Yan and hurriedly got up to wash his face. An Yan and He Du had already finished cleaning and were waiting for him. After Su Ziling wiped his face and came out, he saw the two of them blocking the entrance of the corridor. He curiously went over to see that it was Xu Xing and Zhou Chen who came.

"I'll ask others to help look after him, and bring Zhou Chen over to live with you. This way, we can look after each other and it will be convenient." Xu Xing explained to An Yan. It seemed that they had just bumped into each other.

"Okay, this is the house you found. It's my duty for everyone's safety." An Yan said politely.

Xu Xing smiled. "That's fine, you guys should go eat first. Zhou Chen, you can stay on the third floor."

After that, they were about to go up. Zhou Chen passed by An Yan, nodded to him, and then followed Xu Xing up. He climbed two steps, relaxed his shoulders as if relieved, but immediately picked it up again.

An Yan couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"What's wrong?" Su Ziling asked immediately.

"Nothing, just quite unexpected." They said as they walked downstairs.

"According to the information, Zhou Chen grew up alone and was not good at speaking. He was a very simple and shy person. The only person he was interested in was Lin Xuanfeng. Contrary to the rumors outside that they were always at odds with each other, Zhou Chen absolutely respected Lin Xuanfeng, although he never showed it in front of Lin Xuanfeng."

"Really? That's quite interesting." An Yan said something else in response to He Shaonian's mature words.

Su Ziling listened as he walked and finally understood what they were talking about. He had not had much contact with Zhou Chen and the others before. It turned out that An Yan had noticed his shyness and poor speaking skills.

After Zhou Chen entered the room, he first placed his handbag on the bedside table, and then opened the window. Outside the window, behind the rows of houses was a large expanse of blue sky, without a single cloud in the sky. The wind was blowing, cool and comfortable.

He closed the window, lowered the curtains, took off his coat, and went to bed. Beizhong is currently calm, but I don't know what's going on in Beicheng. If I calculated the time correctly, Lin Xuanfeng should have arrived in Beicheng last night.

Zhou Chen and Lin Xuanfeng set out together. He was selected to go to Beizhong, so Lin Xuanfeng had to go to Beicheng. He brought a child with him. But that child was really a young man to be feared. Would Lin Xuanfeng be happier if he came to Beizhong?

An Yan is only 17 years old, the youngest among them. He is the strongest "Son of God" at such a young age. There is a sense of oppression in front of him.

Zhou Chen covered himself with the thin and soft quilt, and soon fell into a deep sleep as his thoughts gradually diverged.