Chapter 536 - 420: The First Battle, A Success!_3

The people on the shore all burst into excitement.

Fang Huai focused his eyes and saw smiles also appearing on the faces of Li Zhi and the leaders beside him.

"Good job, Little Fang, you’ve all worked hard! I’ll report to the headquarters and commend you for your efforts!"

After Li Zhi spoke, he turned his head and chatted animatedly with the leadership.

Fang Huai knew without listening that they were surely praising how Special Service Squadron 2 had rushed here from afar at the behest of the Fire Brigade Headquarters and how they supported the local authorities.

Although those words were superficial, they were worth their weight in gold.

Once Fang Huai had a sense of the situation, he began to indicate to He Zhijun and Lian Xu the specifics of the area, and the three of them quickly dove back into the water, armed with their tools.

Stone Mountain was relatively large, but they soon found it.

Lian Xu broke into complaints when he saw the spot; mumbling under his breath, it was clear that they had passed this very place earlier but had missed the cave.

In underwater searches, it’s not just about passing by; sometimes you might be brushing right up against a corpse and still miss it due to a layer of silt.

Arriving at the cave, everyone found the situation inside rather troubling.

He Zhijun pointed at Fang Huai, then at the cave.

Fang Huai shook his hand, pointed at He Zhijun, then at himself and Lian Xu, and made a dragging gesture.

Now, he was the commander and had to resist the urge to do everything himself.

He Zhijun gave an "OK" sign and entered headfirst.

Fang Huai and Lian Xu stood on the edge of the cave, gripping He Zhijun’s safety rope tightly, slowly releasing it.

When He Zhijun reached the bend, his headlamp peered around the corner, and he hesitated for a moment.

Afterward, he glanced at the body, quickly averted his gaze, looked back at them again, and then carefully moved the body out while hugging its legs.

Stirring up a cloud of silt.

When He Zhijun pulled the body out, Fang Huai and Lian Xu both swallowed nervously.

Feet, body, a face frozen in terror.

Gruesomely distorted beyond recognition.

Having already developed a bit of Titan’s Condition, the corpse’s eyes were wide open, mouth half agape, its entire face tightly crumpled as if wearing a mask of agony.

The arms were half extended, with a branch clutched tightly in hand.

This was not something found in the river; in a panic during the fall, it must have been grabbed from the bushes.

Everyone didn’t dare to ponder further and quickly dragged the body away from the mouth of the cave.

Fang Huai looked at the face and then at the long puncture needle ready in his hand and fell silent.

That expression, damn, sticking this needle in would certainly make it seem like I was the killer.

After a moment’s hesitation, Fang Huai tentatively passed the needle to He Zhijun.

Exactly, I’m the commander, no need to handle everything personally.

Who would’ve thought that the usually tough He Zhijun started waving his hands through the water in refusal.

Lian Xu quietly moved away a bit further.

Shit.

He wanted to turn the body over, but it was protected by so many ribs, and he wasn’t sure if he could accurately insert the needle into the stomach and lungs.

Forgive me, deceased, forgive me...

Fang Huai gripped the needle, lining it up against a spot and then, with his eyes closed, harshly plunged it in.

A filthy substance slowly rose...

Several times over.

Fang Huai kept his eyes closed, but the other two couldn’t help squinting as they watched.

...

The body was placed on a stretcher.

"Yuan Gong, Yuan Gong..."

The dead man’s wife rushed forward, wailing as she tried to embrace the body, but pulling back three or four steps when she saw it clearly before continuing to kneel and weep.

Only the elderly woman behind dared to come closer, touching the body before she too continued to cry gut-wrenchingly on the ground.

Even the doctor who came to cover the body with a white cloth looked tense and didn’t dare to touch the corpse.

Fang Huai and his two companions emerged looking utterly composed, saluting Li Zhi and the leadership once they were on land.

They didn’t shake hands.

"This is Director Zhang from the provincial city!" Li Zhi introduced.

"Comrades, thank you all!" the leader said with a stern face.

"It’s our duty, leader!" Fang Huai shouted.

Li Zhi stepped forward and patted Fang Huai’s shoulder firmly.

"From seven in the morning, working until now! Truly made of iron! Well done! Go and rest! I’ll have someone prepare food for you!"

"Yes, sir!"

Fang Huai and his two companions saluted and turned around.

Li Zhi’s voice came from behind.

"Good soldiers nurtured by the provincial city! Not only experts in diving, but also... If our Detachment had a unit like this as well, we would be unstoppable!"

Fang Huai couldn’t help but chuckle as he listened to Li Zhi spill out their Squadron’s half-baked plan to the provincial leadership, clearly picked up from the Command Car earlier.

Only then did Fang Huai quietly open the system to voluntarily check the details of this police dispatch.

This dispatch achieved a full-score evaluation, military merit value +10, reaching 49.3.

Now that the military merit was accounted for, it meant no commendation was coming this time.

Tsk tsk, the promised commendations were just another lie to fool me.

The three walked out of the crowd, preparing to change clothes when Cao Yi came from somewhere with several large towels, saying:

"Quick, strip and wipe yourselves off!... What’s with you two?"

Fang Huai turned at the sound only to see a vacant look in the eyes of the other two, he slapped their backs and laughed.

"Stop thinking about it, our Squadron is going to have plenty more of this kind of thing in the future! Assistant He, how about you be the captain of the aquatic rescue team from now on?"

He Zhijun began to recover his composure, managing a somewhat toothy grin.

"I have no problem with rescuing people, but for puncturing... I really can’t do it!... That substance, ugh..."

Hearing this, Lian Xu seemed to be plunged back into memory and dry-heaved with an "ugh".

Then Cao Yi laughed: "You’re all old soldiers, what haven’t you seen? Rest a bit and you’ll be fine! Now that you’re up here, I can finally relax!"

Fang Huai also sighed in relief: "Yes... our Squadron’s first battle was not a disgrace!"

Just then, an elderly man in a suit accompanied by Captain Zhao of the Southwest Guizhou Special Services approached them, Zhao introduced that this man was a local hydrologist.

The old man didn’t beat around the bush but asked with a solemn expression:

"Young comrades, I heard that you encountered a cave down there. Is there really a cave beneath?"

Fang Huai nodded: "Yes, the person was trapped inside the cave."

He Zhijun immediately added: "It’s very long and dark inside!"

The old man frowned and murmured:

"It shouldn’t be... If there really was a cave, after so many years of erosion, how could it be that not even a person could pass through?"

Fang Huai also thought for a moment as if he had recalled something, and said:

"What if... it only formed three months ago?"