Squad Leader of Class One and the three soldiers under his command quickly disappeared over the far side of the slope. But just then, Liu Meng once again heard a muffled rumble coming from inside the mountain.
"Did you hear that? It happened again!" Liu Meng immediately turned to look at his Deputy Platoon Leader, who nodded grimly.
"Squad Leader of Class One! There was another disturbance inside the mountain just now! Have you found anything over there?" Liu Meng shouted into the radio.
"Reporting in, we found an abandoned construction site that has been left untouched for some years. It should be the halted subway project Xiao Li mentioned." The squad leader's Xiao Li was the soldier from Kuqiao Village. "There are relatively 'fresh' signs of cave-ins at the entrance leading underground. For safety reasons, we plan to send a drone in to take a look."
"Understood. Be careful. We're ready to support you at any time," Liu Meng replied.
"Old Liu, what do you think?" The Deputy Platoon Leader took out his portable information terminal and glanced at the screen.
The terminal displayed only routine combat information. Neither Battalion Headquarters of Battalion 151 nor the nearby Investigation Bureau Observation Post appeared to have detected the unusual noises deep within the mountain.
"Chunming City's Subway Construction Project... even if it was canceled, there should have been a department specifically responsible for wrapping things up. It shouldn't have been left as some unfinished project like a condemned building," Liu Meng said in a low voice. "There shouldn't be cave-ins for no reason... Kuqiao Village is right at the foot of the mountain. If the mountain collapses, no one could bear that responsibility."
"If it wasn't caused by people, could it have been a natural disaster?" the Deputy Platoon Leader asked.