novelraw Chapter 290 Inspection
Chapter 290 Inspection
"Alright," he said, "drive the car over there."
Xu Xiaoyan took the documents, nodded, and gave a perfectly timed smile, saying, "Thank you."
She stuffed the documents back into her backpack, zipped it up, and walked back to the driver's seat.
Get on the bus and close the door.
She put her backpack on the passenger seat, fastened her seatbelt, placed her fingers on the steering wheel, and took a deep breath.
ignition.
The engine gave a low hum, and the instrument panel lights came on.
Shift gears and release the handbrake.
She stepped on the gas, and the small truck slowly started, passing the soldier and driving smoothly towards the entrance of the passage.
It was a huge arched doorway with some words embedded above it. Before she could see what was written, the front of the car had already disappeared into the darkness.
Xu Xiaoyan gripped the steering wheel, her mind going blank for a moment.
She could see nothing, hear nothing; only the small patch of ground illuminated by the car headlights reminded her that she was still driving forward.
The passage was straight with no forks, and there were metal walls on both sides. Every so often, a sign would flash by on the walls, with white background and red lettering, bearing numbers and symbols that she couldn't understand.
She glanced at the rearview mirror.
It was pitch black behind them; the lights from the distribution center had long since disappeared into the darkness and could no longer be seen.
She continued driving forward.
One minute.
Two minutes.
three minutes.
A bright light suddenly appeared ahead.
Xu Xiaoyan narrowed her eyes and slowed down the car.
It was a distribution center similar to the one before—the ground was flat and the ceiling was high, but that wasn't what caught her eye.
It is the person standing in front of the doorway.
Soldier.
More soldiers.
Xu Xiaoyan subconsciously stepped on the brakes, and the wheels rubbed lightly against the ground, making a short, sharp friction sound.
She looked ahead through the windshield, her gaze quickly sweeping over the area.
Six soldiers.
They stood in two rows, blocking the entrance to the passage.
They were wearing the same uniforms as the previous group of soldiers, but unlike the previous group, there were several machines next to them.
She had never seen that kind of machine before, but she could tell at a glance what it was used for—a security gate.
Three security gates were placed side by side, with each gate about two meters apart.
The door frame is made of metal, silver-white, and various sensors and displays are embedded in it, with red and green indicator lights flashing alternately.
The gaps between the gate frames were wide enough that a small truck could drive right through them. Xu Xiaoyan gripped the steering wheel, stared at the security gate for a few seconds, and then slowly drove the car forward.
She drove to within about five meters of the soldiers, stopped the car, rolled down the window, and leaned out.
This time, her expression wasn't one of confusion, but rather a hint of helpless bewilderment.
"Hello," she said, her voice carrying just the right amount of confusion, "Didn't we already have a checkup? Why do we need a second one?"
The soldier at the front walked over, stopped by the car window, glanced at her face, then looked down at the license plate, then at the car body, and finally back at her face.
"Everyone entering Zone B must go through security checks," he said. "The previous checks were just for information and bomb disposal, but here we need to thoroughly check people and vehicles."
She nodded, a "I understand, I'll cooperate" expression on her face, and got out of the car.
"Tell me what you want me to do," she said, trying to sound as compliant as possible, even a little cautious.
The soldier didn't say anything, he just waved his hand behind him.
Another soldier walked over and stood in front of Xu Xiaoyan.
"You, come with me," he said, pointing in another direction.
Xu Xiaoyan looked in the direction he pointed—it was a small door on the side of the distribution center, nestled between two pillars, easily overlooked if one didn't look closely.
Just as she was about to take a step, she suddenly remembered something.
Her car!
Xu Xiaoyan turned her head sharply and saw the third soldier walking towards her car.
The soldier opened the car door, got into the driver's seat, and started the car.
"Hey—" Xu Xiaoyan blurted out instinctively, her voice tinged with panic.
"Routine check," the young soldier in front of her said, as if explaining, or as informing, "Drive the vehicle over there for a detailed inspection, and you come over here for a security check. Once everything is done and there are no problems, the vehicle will be returned to you."
Xu Xiaoyan opened her mouth, as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.
Seeing that she was cooperating, the young soldier didn't say anything more and turned to walk towards the small door.
He took two steps, then looked back at her, gesturing for her to follow.
Xu Xiaoyan took a deep breath and followed.
There was a corridor behind the door.
It was narrower than the outside passage, with light gray paint on the walls on both sides and polished cement flooring.
The young soldier walked in front, with Xu Xiaoyan following behind, her eyes secretly scanning the surroundings.
There was another door at the end of the corridor.
Metallic, silver-gray, with no markings on its surface, smooth as a mirror, reflecting blurry human figures.
There was no handle or keyhole on the door, only a palm-sized sensor embedded next to the door frame.
The young soldier walked to the door, stretched out his finger, and pressed it on the sensor.
Xu Xiaoyan noticed that he was using his index finger. The light on the sensor lit up briefly and then started flashing, as if it was reading some information.
A "beep" sound.
The door opened, and behind it was a room.
It's not big, about 20 square meters.
But the layout was strange—a metal chair was placed in the center of the room, and next to the chair stood a machine that Xu Xiaoyan had never seen before.
It looks like a giant ring.
The ring is about two meters in diameter. It is made of metal, silver-white, and its surface is covered with a dense array of lights and probes.
The probes varied in size, some resembling buttons, others coins, and still others like a baby's fist, all pointing towards the center of the ring.
The bottom of the ring is fixed to the ground, and the top is connected to several thick cables that extend along the ceiling and disappear into the vents in the corner of the wall.
Several large monitors were embedded in the walls around the room, almost filling the entire wall.
The screen displayed green waveforms and numbers, with the waveforms rising and falling and the numbers changing rapidly. Xu Xiaoyan glanced at it but couldn't understand it at all.
"Stand in the middle," the young soldier pointed to the circle.
Xu Xiaoyan nodded, walked over, and stood in the center of the circle.
"Hands down naturally, don't move," the young soldier's voice came from the side, more serious than before.
Xu Xiaoyan stood up straight, her hands hanging at her sides, motionless.
The lights on the ring suddenly turned on.
It doesn't light up all at once, but rather lights up sequentially, rotating in circles from bottom to top.
Each time a ring of lights illuminates, it emits a low humming sound. The sound is not loud, but the frequency is very low, and it vibrates so much that it makes your chest feel slightly numb.
The probes also began to rotate, scanning back and forth from bottom to top and from top to bottom in rhythm with the lights.
She could feel a slight warmth that started from the top of her head, slowly moving down her face, shoulders, chest, and abdomen, all the way to her feet.
That feeling was wonderful.
It felt like countless fine threads brushing against her body, gentle, tingling, not painful, but making one instinctively want to avoid them.
She didn't dodge; she just stood there, staring straight ahead.
The buzzing sound lasted for about ten seconds, then stopped.
The lights on the ring went out, and the probes dimmed, leaving only a few faint indicator lights still flashing.
The young soldier walked up to a display screen and stared at it for a few seconds.
His expression didn't change, but Xu Xiaoyan noticed that his brows furrowed slightly before relaxing.
The movement was subtle and quick; you wouldn't have noticed it if you weren't constantly observing him.
Her heart skipped a beat, but her face remained expressionless.
A few seconds later, the young soldier nodded.
"Come out," he said, his tone as flat as before.
Xu Xiaoyan walked out of the circle and stood to the side.
The young soldier then pointed to a small table in the corner of the room—the table was inconspicuous, with a silver-white metal top and four slender legs. On the table was an empty tray.
"Put the backpack on and open it," he said.
Xu Xiaoyan walked over, put her backpack on the table, and unzipped it.
The backpack contained only a bottle of mineral water, two dry biscuits, a few bags of snacks, and the stack of vehicle documents from earlier.
She took them out one by one, placed them on the tray, and waited for him to inspect them.
The young soldier walked over and picked up the bags of snacks and biscuits.
He walked to a machine by the wall, a machine that Xu Xiaoyan hadn't noticed before—it looked like a square metal box with a transparent window on it and a tray below the window.
The young soldier put the snacks and biscuits into the tray and pressed a button on the box.
The tray retracted, and the window light turned red.
Xu Xiaoyan stared at the window, watching the red light flash for a few seconds before turning green.
The tray extended again, and the contents remained safely inside.
Then he picked up the bottled water.
He unscrewed the cap, glanced at the water in the bottle, and then handed it to Xu Xiaoyan, saying, "Take a sip."
Xu Xiaoyan took the bottle, took a small sip, and handed it back to him. He screwed the cap back on and put it back on the tray.
Finally, he picked up the stack of vehicle data and flipped through it page by page, faster than the soldier before him, his gaze lingering on each page for no more than two seconds.
When he turned to the modification registration form, he paused, his eyes scanning over a few numbers, and then turned the page.
After reading it, he put everything back in his backpack, zipped it up, and nodded to Xu Xiaoyan.
"Alright, go wait over there." He pointed to a door on the other side of the room. "Someone will call you after the car inspection."
Xu Xiaoyan took the backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and walked toward the door.
Pushing open the door, you'll find a small room behind it.
It's smaller than the previous one, about ten square meters.
There was a metal bench in the room, silver-white in color, with a black plastic seat, exactly the same as the folding chair from before.
Opposite the bench was a glass wall—one-way glass. She guessed that someone was watching her from behind the glass.