Chapter 296: The Cave Entrance Is a Bit Small

On the road.

Ma Jian drove.

Yu Dazhang turned his head and glanced at Liu Miao in the back seat.

"How did you think of the abandoned school?"

He figured Liu Miao hadn't said it offhand — he must have raised it because he had some understanding of the abandoned school.

"I handled a homicide case before."

Liu Miao answered:

"After the killer murdered the victim, he buried the body behind the teaching building of an abandoned school."

"It stayed buried for ten years, until the killer was brought to the scene to identify it, and only then were the remains dug up."

"Strangely, no one discovered it in all those ten years, and that school has remained abandoned to this day."

After hearing it out, Yu Dazhang immediately found the key point in his words.

The abandoned school had no one watching it, and it had been abandoned for too long.

"Why has the school stayed abandoned so long after it shut down?"

That was the main reason some criminals set their sights on abandoned schools.

It was also the part Yu Dazhang couldn't figure out.

Even in Songhai, where every inch of land costs a fortune, an abandoned school still sat unused for years — there had to be some special reason behind it.

"Because it's hard to change the nature of the land."

Liu Miao had clearly looked into it and offered his own take:

"School land is allocated land — public welfare use. It can't be transferred or have its purpose changed."

That was enough explanation.

Both Yu Dazhang and Ma Jian understood.

Unless the land's nature was changed, the abandoned school would keep sitting unused.

No wonder Liu Miao thought of an abandoned school back in the interrogation room.

A long-abandoned place with no one watching it really was a good spot to hide someone.

They arrived at Minjiang High School.

The school gate was already surrounded by police cars.

Yu Dazhang noticed the school's main gate could no longer be used normally, so vehicles couldn't get in — people had to enter through the small side door.

It seemed that in the ten years it had been abandoned, no repairs had been done here at all.

Crossing the overgrown playground, Yu Dazhang walked to the front of the teaching building. When the detachment officers saw it was him, they immediately lifted the cordon and let him through.

Along the way, every officer on site looked at him with admiring eyes.

No jealousy, no doubt — only respect and admiration, and heartfelt recognition.

The detachment officers had taken turns at it, interrogating for two whole days, and come up empty.

Fatty had been on the job only once after clocking in, and the suspect not only talked, he gave up the hiding spot outright.

How could they not be impressed?

Same as always — ability isn't talked about, it's earned, plain and solid.

If Yu Dazhang knew what the detachment officers were thinking, he'd surely say modestly:

A blind cat caught a dead mouse.

If it hadn't lined up with the cold case he'd been investigating, he really wouldn't have been sure he could take down Fang Peng.

Walking to the far east end of the teaching building, Yu Dazhang saw a wooden sign nailed to the wall.

Though the sign was badly weathered, the lettering on it was still clearly legible: Biology Lab.

Then down another level.

Yu Dazhang and the other two reached the basement, where they met Li Jun.

"Captain Li." The three greeted him in unison.

Li Jun gave them a nod, then looked at Yu Dazhang and said:

"Just like the intel you provided — there were only two girls down below. Before you got here, they'd already been carried up and taken away in an ambulance."

"Then why did you call me here?" Yu Dazhang wasn't quite sure what Li Jun's purpose was in summoning him.

"To look at the scene, of course." Li Jun said it as if it were the most natural thing:

"See if any other leads can be found."

What he said was, in a way, a slap in the face — and a slap to his own face at that.

That very morning he'd just lectured Yu Dazhang about "biting off more than you can chew," and now he was practically itching to have Yu Dazhang personally handle every last thing.

It was just that Fatty was too capable!

No case he touched went unsolved.

He'd just gotten back from Province S, and during his downtime he went to the detention center to meet a death-row inmate — and stumbled onto a brand-new case.

After clocking in, he'd actually connected that new case with the cold case he'd been investigating.

In just half a day's work, the case wasn't only cracked — the victims were rescued too.

Just too efficient!

Li Jun now even felt a kind of blind trust in Yu Dazhang, convinced that as long as Fatty stepped in, no case was unsolvable.

"The tech team didn't come?" Yu Dazhang glanced at the wooden board pried up in the corner and asked, a little puzzled.

"They did — they're down below." Li Jun answered:

"I want you to go down and see for yourself. After all, this case is yours now."

He wasn't wrong to say that.

The three cold cases had always been the responsibility of Yu Dazhang's cold case squad.

Now the cases had been merged, but the person in charge hadn't changed.

"Alright." Yu Dazhang nodded in acknowledgment, then walked over to the cave entrance.

It was a bit small.

At a single glance, he could tell the dimensions of this opening didn't match his build.

But then he thought back to when he'd rescued people at Guaizi Village — he'd gone down into a cellar back then too.

At that time he'd weighed over three hundred jin, at least sixty jin heavier than now, and he'd managed to get down then, so he could do it now too.

But then again, this opening had been dug really unprofessionally.

You could tell Fang Peng had dug it to his own size — not a single thought for anyone else.

After a moment's hesitation, Yu Dazhang gritted his teeth, walked to the edge of the opening, crouched down, and put both legs in one after the other.

He eyeballed the size of the opening up close, then looked at his own belly, and figured he should be able to fit through.

So he planted both hands on the ground and shoved his body in...

With a "poof," his entire body got wedged in the opening, sealing off this only passage completely.

Li Jun:...

Ma Jian and Liu Miao exchanged a glance, barely holding back their laughter.

Though both of them secretly pinched their own thighs hard.

"No good, pull me up quick."

Yu Dazhang struggled a couple of times, found he couldn't move at all, and hurriedly called for help:

"I'm stuck, I'm stuck! My feet are still dangling in empty air down there."

He realized that after his two twists just now, his body had sunk a few more fractions down, sealing the opening even more tightly.

Li Jun also found his appearance a bit comical, but held back his laughter.

He directed Ma Jian and Liu Miao to stand on either side, each grabbing one of Yu Dazhang's arms, while he himself crouched down and lifted Yu Dazhang with both hands.

At the count, the three of them hauled together.

Not a hairsbreadth of movement.

They tried again — still no luck.

Now they were all getting a bit anxious.

After all, there were technicians down below surveying the scene.

This opening wasn't just an entrance and exit — it was the only ventilation shaft.

Beside the opening there was a plastic pipe about as thick as a forearm used to pump air down, and now Yu Dazhang had squashed it flat too.

After several failed attempts at pulling, Li Jun called a few more officers from outside — still no luck.

More people didn't help either; there was simply nowhere to get a grip.

Yu Dazhang only had two arms, and his current state was wedged in the opening.

After half an hour of fussing, not only had they not pulled Yu Dazhang up, everyone even felt he'd sunk a few more fractions down.

More and more tightly wedged~

Just as Li Jun was considering whether to enlarge the opening, Qian Cheng's voice came from below.

Though not loud, it was very clear:

"Who is it? What were you thinking, blocking the opening? I can't breathe!"

(End of chapter)