In fact, it's an entrance to a platform.

It is clear that due to the inviolability of the Metropolitan Station, even the Bolovit station did not have a guard on duty.

Far from the end of the tunnel's round arch, there is a concrete-brick entrance next to a corpse lying in a pool of blood.

When Su Mengfan came into the sight of the border guards in green uniforms and military caps, they ordered him to walk over and then let him stand facing the wall.

Seeing the corpse lying on the ground, he immediately obeyed the order unconditionally.

He was quickly searched, his passport checked, his arms twisted behind his back and taken to the station.

Light.

That's the kind of light.

They tell the truth, they always tell the truth, and legends don't lie.

The light was so bright that Su Mengfan had to squint to prevent his eyes from falling blind.

But the light even entered his pupils through his eyelids, and his eyes seemed to be blind, until the border guards blindfolded him to stop the burning pain.

It seems that if you want to return to the kind of life on the ground of previous generations all at once, the pain will completely surpass Su Mengfan's imagination.

It wasn't until I entered a guard's booth the size of a small office built of broken tiles that the blindfold was removed.

It's dark here. A candlelight flickered in an aluminum bowl on a stone-colored wooden table.

The Commander of the Guards was a burly man in a green military uniform, with rolled sleeves and a scruffy beard.

He tied a tie with adjustable elastic and looked at Su Mengfan while observing how the liquid wax on his fingers cooled,

After a long time, he asked, "Where did you come from?" What about your passport? What's wrong with your eyes?"

Su Mengfan felt that there was no point in distorting the facts, so he decided to tell the truth, and his passport was lost by the invaders of the Fourth Reich, and his eyes were almost left there.

When the commander heard this, he showed an unexpectedly compassionate expression.

"Yes. We know. On the other side of the tunnel is Chekhov Station, where we have built a whole fortress.

There is no war now, but some friendly folks have told us to be vigilant at all times.

As they say, the only thing that can make the world peaceful is war." He winked at Su Mengfan.

Su Mengfan didn't understand what his last sentence meant, but he didn't want to ask either.

His attention was focused on the tattoo on the commander's bent elbow.

The tattoo was a bird deformed by radiation - it had hooked claws, wings outstretched, and two heads.

It vaguely reminded him of something, but he didn't know exactly what he remembered.

After a while, when the commander turned to a soldier, Su Mengfan saw a slightly smaller tattoo of the same tattoo on the commander's left temple.

"Then why are you here?" The commander continued.

"I'm looking for someone...... His name was Melnyk, and probably that was his nickname. I have important news for him."

The commander's face suddenly changed.

The benevolent smile vanished from his lips, and he glared in surprise as the candlelight flickered.

"You can tell me the news."

Su Mengfan shook his head and apologized to him, and began to explain that the reason why he couldn't do this was because the news was strictly confidential and could not be told to anyone except Melnik himself.

The commander looked at him again, and motioned for a soldier to hand over a black plastic telephone receiver with a long enough rubber telephone cord neatly wound around it.

The commander dialed a number and said to the person who answered the phone: "I am Ivashov from the southern outpost, please let Colonel Melnik listen to the call."

While the commander was waiting for the other party to respond, Su Mengfan noticed that the other two soldiers in the room also had tattoos of the bird on their temples.

"How do I ask?" The commander asked Su Mengfan and pressed the end of the earpiece on his chest.

"Let's just say Hunter. There's an important piece of news."

The commander nodded and said these two words, not knowing who was listening on the phone. And then it hung up.

"Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock in the morning to the Arbat station's administrator's office, then you will be free," the commander explained to the soldier standing by the door, and the soldier left immediately, and then he turned to Su Mengfan and said,

"Wait a minute...... It's like you're coming to us for the first time. So, wear this, but don't forget to return it!" He gave Su Mengfan a pair of shabby metal-framed sunglasses.

Not to be free until tomorrow?

Su Mengfan felt endless disappointment and dissatisfaction.

That's why he's here risking his own lives and the lives of others?

That's why he searched so hard and forced himself to go to great lengths to get here?

He's going to report everything he knows to this guy called Melnyk, and he doesn't have time to deal with him, so what's the urgency?

Or is it that Su Mengfan is late, and Melnick already knows everything?

Or maybe Melnick knew something that Su Mengfan didn't know?

Maybe because he was late, his whole action didn't make any sense?

"Wait until tomorrow?" He shouted.

"The Colonel has a mission on duty today. He won't be back until tomorrow morning," Ivashov explained, "let's go, go outside and rest." He said, and then watched Su Mengfan walk out of the guard shed.

After calming down, Su Mengfan was still full of resentment, he put on his sunglasses, thinking that they didn't look bad.

They made him feel as if he had seen the light.

There were scratches on the lenses and distorted objects in the distance, but when he ran outside to the platform to thank the border guards, he realized he needed their help.

In addition, he is not the only one Su Mengfan who can't open his eyes, many people on this station are wearing sunglasses.

It is also likely that they don't know each other, he thought.

It was strange to see such a fully lit metro station.

There is absolutely no shadow here.

At the All-Russian Exhibition Station, as well as at all the other metro stations and substations he had visited so far, there were very few light sources, and it was impossible to illuminate everything as far as the eye could see, but only partially.

There must be a place where light can't penetrate it.

Everyone casts a few shadows: shadows in the candlelight, dry and haggard. The shadow under the emergency light, the shadow under the electric lantern, black and clear.

These shadows and the shadows of others cover each other, sometimes throwing several meters down the ground, surprising you, making you wonder, and forcing you to guess and speculate.