After Shaft D-2 in Sealed Compartment No. 3 was cut off and sealed, the broadcast declared the accident to have been caused by intern Shen Yan's unauthorized operation of the V-grade sealed valve, resulting in seven people going missing. Of the twenty people in the compartment, he was the only one who had passed zero pressure but not one pressure. Zhou Yangong pressed him to admit whether he'd touched the valve. Shen Yan said he'd turned it three and a half times, but the valve had been stuck at the time. If he hadn't turned it, water would already be flooding the compartment. Captain He Zheng told him to put his ear to the wall for ten seconds. He heard a spotted ray a kilometer away, pressed against the pump station's outer wall by the water pressure, calling out. He heard water grinding like sandpaper against the steel seams, bubbles surging upward. The pressure wasn't rising gradually; it was jumping in steps, nine and a half minutes per level. It had jumped twice already. One more level and the bolts sealing the compartment would reach their fatigue limit, and the door would give way first. He reported that the sealed valve was in the northwest corner, beside the W-3 return pipe. The valve stem was rusted solid on its seventh turn, the valve core stuck in the open position, and the shutoff plate was still holding back the water. He Zheng roared that anyone else who mentioned zero pressure would be skinned alive. Old Jiao led a team to connect the W-3 bypass, buying them two more hours by brute force. Under all ten of Shen Yan's fingernails, the nail beds were bleeding, their surfaces marked with ridges like those left by a steel plate rolling machine.
