Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 254 Holds a Secret

Xu Xiaoyan was taken aback by her attitude again, but the kindness in the other person's smile was genuine. Her tense nerves relaxed slightly, and after hesitating for a moment, she walked over as instructed.

As she approached the newly opened wall, she finally understood the secret behind the door.

It is not a door in the traditional sense; it has no door frame, no handle, and not even obvious hinge marks.

When it was first opened, it slid silently and smoothly into the wall to one side. Now it is closed tightly, with the seam so fine that you can barely feel it with your fingernail.

The walls have a uniform surface material, a light beige, high-end paint with a fine granular texture, which has a soft matte finish under the light, perfectly concealing the outline of the door.

If you hadn't witnessed it being opened with your own eyes, you would have thought it was just an ordinary load-bearing wall.

This concealed design carries an almost deliberate understated and secretive quality, creating a stark contrast with the overly cozy "living room" outside. This caused Xu Xiaoyan's newly emerging sense of relaxation to be mixed with a new sense of confusion and vigilance.

Inside the door was what she had imagined, or rather, what she had envisioned as the "service hall" based on the words "management office".

The light suddenly became much brighter, no longer the warm yellow diffused light from outside, but bright white LED light sources that poured down from the ceiling grid light panels, illuminating every corner clearly without shadows.

The space is several times larger than the outside, and the high ceiling makes it feel more spacious.

The lobby is a neat rectangle with six service windows arranged in an orderly fashion. The windows are made of light gray high-strength synthetic material, with the upper part being transparent bulletproof glass and the lower part being a solid wall. The glass has grooves for passing documents and conducting voice communication.

Above each window is a red and green electronic number display. At this moment, two of them are gray and display "Service Suspended," while the other four windows are lit up in green with the words "Please take a number to the window."

On the ground in front of the window, there are eye-catching yellow indicator lines, and a clear queuing area is marked with movable black barriers, indicating "Queue Start" and "Please wait behind the yellow line".

One wall of the lobby is a full-length electronic display screen, which displays clear and concise illustrations and text scrolling through the procedures for handling various businesses, the list of required materials, and summaries of some general rules and regulations applicable to the base.

In the corner, several rows of dark blue hard plastic benches are neatly stacked. They are all the same style and have no extra decorations, clearly designed for durability and easy cleaning.

At this moment, only a few figures were sitting there. Some were looking down at their personal terminals on their wrists, while others stared blankly ahead with the vacant look that was typical of waiting.

Behind the window, you can vaguely see several figures in uniform working at their desks or operating the terminal devices in front of them, their movements very efficient.

Xu Xiaoyan stood at the entrance of the hidden door, one foot still on the edge of the warm, almost unreal "living room" carpet outside the door, while the other foot had already stepped into the cold, bright light of the hall.

She subconsciously turned around and looked outside again, suddenly realizing that she had finally found the "right" place, absurd with the bizarre nature of the search process itself and the strange grafting of the two spaces.

She couldn't help but speak up, her voice tinged with self-deprecation and belated embarrassment, to the middle-aged woman who had been patiently waiting beside her, "Um... I thought that outside... was the service hall."

After saying that, she herself felt that what she said was a bit silly. What kind of service hall is decorated like a home living room?

The middle-aged woman listened without showing any impatience or disapproval of the woman's overreaction. Instead, she smiled gently, smoothing out the fine lines around her eyes and appearing remarkably simple and honest.

She casually turned to the side, gesturing for Xu Xiaoyan to follow her into the hall, and explained in a casual, even gossipy tone, "That place outside... well, it's a long story."

Originally, it was planned to be a comprehensive approval window for the western part of Zone C, with suitable size, lighting, and location, but later…” She lowered her voice slightly, even though no other staff members were nearby in the hall:

"There was a disagreement at the higher-ups, but in the end, it was decided that the approval process and the specific management, distribution, and execution should be completely separated, not only in terms of function, but also in terms of physical location."

To avoid... well, to prevent the process from being unclear, and to prevent some people from thinking of "getting it all done" in one stop, which could easily lead to problems.

She paused subtly, using a knowing look instead of a more direct statement: "So the approval department was moved far away, and this space was freed up."

They had already reached the center of the hall, and were still a dozen steps away from the nearest service window.

The woman walked unhurriedly and continued, "However, the new plan has been stalled. The specific new department to move in, the budget, the staffing, the equipment, it's been going back and forth for a long time and it still hasn't been decided. We can't just leave such a good place empty and gathering dust, can we?"

That would be such a waste. Our management office is located at the very back. Sometimes when things get busy inside, or when the colleague responsible for guiding people is temporarily away, if someone comes in and can't find the door, it's not good for them to just stand there and wait. They'd be anxious too, wouldn't they?

As she spoke, she naturally pointed to the direction of the hidden door behind her, which was completely closed and showed no trace of its presence.

"We made a small application to the higher-ups and did a simple setup for the front hall. Anyway, the sofa and coffee table were all unused items from the warehouse."

The idea was that if we didn't have time to come out and guide them immediately, at least the people coming to do business would have a place to sit down, rest their feet, and have a drink of water. It's better than them standing there dumbfounded in the cold corridor. They'd feel more at ease, wouldn't you say?

Her words contained no hint of boasting or seeking credit, as if doing so were a matter of course, the most natural thing in the world, just like using an umbrella when it rains or adding clothes when it's cold.

There are no slogans like "humanized service" or "customer first" touts; it's just a kind of thoughtfulness based on the most basic empathy, albeit a bit clumsy.

To Xu Xiaoyan, it was like a thunderclap. She was stunned and could hardly believe her ears. She subconsciously stopped and stared blankly at the middle-aged female clerk in front of her, who had an ordinary appearance and a plain tone.

The word "humanization" carries a long-lost, almost luxurious sense of unfamiliarity.

In her experience, in most of the "institutions" or "organizations" she has dealt with, "humanization" is often just a pretty word that is posted on the wall or printed in brochures.

In actual experience, what one encounters more often are cold, hard rules and regulations, efficient yet unquestionable processes that exploit, bureaucratic practices that are difficult to access and have unfriendly faces, and the various calculations, compromises, and humility that individuals have to make in order to survive.

Queuing? Just wait.

No matter how long it takes, just wait.

Ask a question? Read their expression.

Encountering patience is a matter of luck; encountering impatience is the norm.

Rest? That's your own time, it has nothing to do with the manager.

Seats in public institutions are for you to leave immediately after you've finished your business, not for you to linger.

As for proactively considering your comfort while waiting? That's simply a pipe dream.

And here, hidden behind cold metal doors and strict procedures, this "management office"—a place that should be impartial and operate according to rules—is actually...

They even considered that people might "not be able to find the door," "stand there waiting," or "be anxious," so they specially used an unused space and came up with a way to set up a simple but practical temporary waiting area.

They even prepared a sofa?

coffee table?

Are they worried about tiring out the people who come to do business?

Are you getting impatient waiting?

This is simply... Xu Xiaoyan was at a loss for words, racking her brains but unable to find the right words to describe her feelings at this moment.

She was used to systemic indifference and individual struggles within it, and suddenly encountered such straightforward, practical, and selfless understanding.

Instead, she felt somewhat at a loss, and even experienced a strong sense of unreality, as if everything in front of her was a carefully arranged illusion that would disappear in the next second.

Perhaps, this place really will be different?

Perhaps, in some unknown corners of the base, this kindness based on the most basic understanding between people still remains?

Of course, her long-standing survival instincts and the lessons learned from countless disappointments prevented her from immediately letting her guard down and accepting everything the other person said.

But at least, this unexpected start made her relax a little, a tension that had been constantly taut in her heart.

Xu Xiaoyan followed the kind-faced middle-aged female clerk deeper into the service hall.

She turned her head and her gaze fell on the crisp collar of the female clerk's uniform, where a small, silver department badge was pinned. The design was simple, seemingly a miniature door and a key crossed.

She carefully chose her tone, trying to make her voice sound like it came from pure curiosity and incomprehension, rather than questioning or probing.

After all, the other party had just shown goodwill, and she didn't want to appear ungrateful.

"Big sister," she said, her voice slightly softer than usual. "May I ask a question?" She raised her hand and pointed with her thumb toward the metal door behind her, which had silently slid back into place and blended seamlessly into the wall.

"Why did you make this door hidden? And why is it closed so tightly? Can't it just be left open all the time?"

This way, when we come in to do our business, we can see the lobby directly, saving you the trouble of having to come out every now and then to guide us. I noticed you came out quite promptly just now. In her view, this seemed to be an obvious efficiency issue.

Since the real core area for handling affairs is inside, why go to the trouble of creating such a hidden entrance that requires special guidance?