Chapter 307: Being Too Realistic Will Scare the Children

Hearing this, Li Jun said, exasperated:

"It's a perfectly fine compliment, so why does it sound so awkward coming from your mouth?"

As he spoke, he lit his cigarette and took a deep drag.

Watching Li Jun looking thoroughly content, Yu Dazhang couldn't help but ask:

"Is it good?"

"The taste of money," Li Jun replied, squinting.

Yu Dazhang had originally wanted to try one, but after hearing that, he forced himself to hold back.

"Cut the crap, let's get down to business." Li Jun flicked the ash and said in a serious tone:

"Based on my analysis with Director Wu, you should be able to earn a first-class merit for this."

Yu Dazhang didn't follow:

"What do you mean 'should'?"

He believed the final outcome of the Severed Finger Case wasn't good, because Han Lianwu's death had caused the case to end prematurely.

On the whole, it had a feel of starting strong but trailing off.

After all, since the suspect had committed suicide, criminal responsibility could no longer be pursued, so there was no way to convict him.

"If we look at the Severed Finger Case alone, a first-class merit for you is a sure thing. Any case that can be classified as a Class One criminal case is undoubtedly special-case level—the bigger the case, the greater the merit."

Li Jun analyzed:

"But this also involves twelve wrongful cases, with a time span of as long as sixteen years, so…"

No need for 'so'—hearing this much, Yu Dazhang already understood.

"Captain Li, you don't need to say more, I know this puts you in a tough spot too." Yu Dazhang waved his hand considerately:

"Don't worry, I fully understand, and I won't have any negative feelings about it."

The social impact caused by over ten wrongful cases could well be imagined.

So, well…

To use a TV drama as an example, people nowadays say crime-fighting dramas are too fake, that the gangsters in them are too dumbed-down.

But have you ever thought about whether bloody reality can pass censorship?

Take the film 'Under the Light' that Old Mouzi directed—it was filmed back in 2019, but was held back until 2023 before it could be released.

Over those years, it was cut and edited, even the dialect was scrubbed clean, all for fear that audiences would map it onto reality.

You have to know, Old Mouzi has another title: the National Master.

If even he has it this hard, then directors who aren't as accomplished as him would have an even harder time getting past censorship.

Now, looking back at those twelve wrongful cases, can you understand it now?

Let me state some basic common sense: maintaining stability is also one of the main duties of public security.

Li Jun's meaning was very clear: the merit that's yours, no one can take it away, but one must also take the overall situation into account.

So this merit won't come down anytime soon—at the very least, they'll have to wait for the storm of public opinion to subside.

One part of stability maintenance work is: not letting public opinion replace law enforcement.

"Captain Li, take a look at this."

Yu Dazhang shifted the subject and handed over a document:

"Inside is Fang Peng's latest confession material. I've already organized it."

After Li Jun took it, he set it on the desk. Before opening it, he looked up at Yu Dazhang:

"What's special about this confession?"

He was well aware that if it were content related to those three cold cases, Yu Dazhang wouldn't have brought it to him.

Unless some special situation had arisen, or something beyond the cold cases had been interrogated out.

"Fang Peng has confessed to another case."

Yu Dazhang quickly chose his words in his mind and gave a summary of the confession:

"In this case, he was the victim, and it was precisely this experience that allowed him to carry out his subsequent crimes smoothly."

Although he had already been as concise as possible, Li Jun still didn't understand.

"Learned how to commit crimes through being victimized?" Li Jun muttered, opening the document at the same time.

He'd only read the opening when he was hooked.

He spent a full minute on the first page, which showed how seriously he took this confession.

As he turned the pages, his expression gradually grew heavy and solemn, his eyes becoming unfathomably deep, and by the end he had even furrowed his brow tightly.

Five minutes later.

Li Jun picked up the lighter, and Yu Dazhang immediately handed him a pack of He Tianxia.

"Snap!"

With a crisp sound, Li Jun lit his cigarette and took a hard drag.

Then he exhaled a cloud of smoke; the bluish haze shrouded his angular face. After a long moment of deliberation, he asked:

"How credible is this confession?"

Who would dare to estimate that… Yu Dazhang cried out inwardly.

But he also knew this was Captain Li discussing the case with him, not asking him for a conclusion.

"I believe the logic holds up."

Yu Dazhang gave his own judgment:

"Although the whole thing seems a bit bizarre, it is doable."

When the two of them talked, there was no need to spell everything out—this saved a lot of explanation and wasted words.

What Yu Dazhang said he could do carried another layer of meaning when it reached Li Jun's ears.

Organized crime within the country has emerged in endless waves, never once letting up.

And some real-world criminal activities are far more complicated than anything shown in TV dramas.

Those criminals don't stop to think about whether something will pass censorship.

To achieve their goals, many of their methods are things ordinary people simply couldn't imagine.

Put it this way — if the Myanmar situation hadn't been exposed, a lot of people in this country would still believe that abroad is just like in *Wolf Warrior* — that as long as you have a passport, you're perfectly safe.

Li Jun naturally knew this, so when Yu Dazhang merely touched on it briefly, he understood right away.

Within the country, certain criminal organizations have guts so bold they exceed anything the police can imagine.

Bear in mind, the village of Ta Zhai has a real-life prototype too.

"An underground prison…"

Li Jun turned his gaze once more to the confession materials on the desk:

"An underground space big enough to hold over a hundred people — a project of that scale, once construction begins, would inevitably be noticed by the relevant departments."

"Just disposing of the excavated soil would be a headache, and you can't rely on manual labor alone for the digging — many sections require professional machinery to handle."

Though neither of them knew anything about civil engineering, just thinking it through was enough to grasp how difficult the project would be.

Excavating that large a space underground is far harder than building a building above ground.

This was the part Yu Dazhang hadn't been able to work out before.

The office fell silent, both men lost in thought.

Li Jun smoked one cigarette after another, while Yu Dazhang tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, his mind racing.

After a good long while, he suddenly raised his head and looked at Li Jun:

"Could it be… renovation!"

"Renovation?" Li Jun was stunned for a moment, then caught on and said quickly:

"You mean there was already an excavated space down there to begin with?"

"Exactly." Yu Dazhang nodded:

"That's the only way I can think of. Doing it this way, there's no need for large-scale construction, and it won't attract the attention of the relevant departments."

"They'd only need to reinforce and repair on top of what was already there."

"In fact, Fang Peng had been doing exactly that kind of work year-round inside that underground prison."

After hearing this, Li Jun thought it over for a while — the more he considered it, the more sense it made.

He then flipped through Fang Peng's confession materials again, hoping to find something along these lines.

But all he saw were a few scattered remarks from Fang Peng, with no detailed explanation on this point.

"Don't bother looking."

Yu Dazhang said, a touch helplessly:

"Fang Peng may be a normal person, but he's not exactly bright, and in a closed-off space like that, he wouldn't have been able to make much out either."

Li Jun had of course met Fang Peng himself, so he knew Yu Dazhang's words were no exaggeration.

Whether in looks or in speech and manner, Fang Peng couldn't be called clever — by normal-person standards, "clumsy" would be a fair description.

If he had any sense at all, he wouldn't have gone and learned criminals' methods to imprison girls.

The office fell silent once more.

Both men's minds were spinning fast.

A ready-made underground space…

About five minutes later, Li Jun took a drag of his cigarette and said, narrowing his eyes:

"If I'm not mistaken, that ready-made underground space is…"

"A civil defense project."

(End of chapter)