Chapter 308: The Many Uses of Civil Defense Projects

"Is it an air-raid shelter?" Yu Dazhang asked.

Li Jun nodded, but then immediately shook his head:

"You only got one side of it right. The uses of civil defense projects aren't limited to just air-raid shelters."

He stared at Yu Dazhang's still somewhat boyish, chubby face and couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Can't blame you for not thinking of it. At your age, how would you know the development history of civil defense projects, and you never lived through that era. Even I only heard about it from the older generation."

"'Dig deep tunnels, stockpile grain'—have you heard that saying?"

Yu Dazhang's face was blank; he felt like he'd heard that line somewhere before.

Was it from elementary school or middle school?

He vaguely remembered seeing something similar in a textbook when he was a student, and there seemed to be illustrations too.

Too much time had passed, and there was just too much to learn back then. That he had even a rough impression already counted as a good memory.

Li Jun took one look at his expression and knew he couldn't recall it, so he patiently explained:

"In the late sixties and early seventies, our country launched a mass movement to dig deep tunnels."

"Back then it wasn't just ordinary folks digging—many local military units also dug plenty of similar underground fortifications."

"By the eighties, the country had already built a large number of underground civil defense projects. Later, a policy of 'using tunnels to sustain tunnels' was put forward, encouraging everyone to use civil defense projects and charging certain fees."

Hearing this, Yu Dazhang already had a picture forming in his mind.

"Those underground malls, warehouses, parking lots—are they all converted from civil defense projects?"

He said, recalling it in his head as he spoke:

"And plenty of underground hotels, underground production workshops, even restaurants."

He truly hadn't lived through that era, but in today's cities there are still many traces left from those years.

The most numerous among them are the underground civil defense projects left from back then.

According to incomplete statistics, the number of business facilities set up in civil defense projects within the country runs into the tens of thousands.

In H Province there's also an underground civil defense space of nearly twenty thousand square meters, converted into an underground wine cellar full of fun, culture, and taste.

Why say 'incomplete statistics'?

Because there are just too many—impossible to count them all.

The data just mentioned only covers the cities. Back then the whole country was digging; towns and even mountain villages weren't idle either.

"The civil defense projects in the cities are already a big headache."

Li Jun added:

"So those in towns and mountain villages far from the cities are even less possible to fully count."

"This has led to many of the civil defense projects left from those years remaining abandoned. People blocked up the entrances, and after enough time, simply forgot about them."

Yu Dazhang listened to his analysis while nodding involuntarily.

It really was like that.

Later, as rural populations moved into the cities, many villages became deserted, let alone the underground civil defense projects within them.

"Looking at it this way, Fang Peng's confession is highly credible," Li Jun summed up:

"Just as you said, there's no logical problem."

At the same time, both of them knew something in their hearts, but by unspoken agreement chose silence; neither spoke it aloud.

Back then, Fang Peng made a fundamental misjudgment.

He assumed that police across the country were all the same.

After filing a report at the Yancheng police station and not getting the result he wanted, he naturally assumed other police would be equally powerless.

This mistaken perception bred in him a contemptuous attitude toward the police.

He believed he could easily escape police investigation.

One has to say Fang Peng wasn't exactly a genius.

If he hadn't thought that way, he wouldn't have had the nerve to imitate the crime.

Flip it around and think.

Suppose back then Fang Peng had returned to Songhai, waited a while with no results, and reported the situation to the local police—maybe the case would already be solved by now.

Next came the investigation and verification stage; Yu Dazhang didn't need to keep following along.

This counted as a separate case, with no direct connection to Fang Peng's imprisonment case.

Besides, the incident happened out of town; by every measure, it wasn't Yu Dazhang's responsibility anymore.

What he'd been doing all along was finding every doubt in the imprisonment case and ruling out all other reasonable suspicions.

The work content hadn't changed—he'd always been focused on investigating cold cases.

The case of Fang Peng's murder was something he'd uncovered through a doubt and interrogated out, so naturally it had to be reported up to the detachment.

As for how the leadership arranged things afterward, it didn't concern him much.

He was still the cold case team leader; he just needed to do his own job well.

"If there's nothing else, I'll head back first."

Since he'd laid out the situation clearly and analyzed everything thoroughly, he naturally had to leave Li Jun some private space.

A detachment commander couldn't very well report up to his superiors in front of his subordinate.

Yu Dazhang stood up and at the same time picked up the He Tianxia on the desk, opened it, and took a look.

Half a pack left.

He remembered very clearly—this pack had just been opened, and he'd been here at most an hour.

One cigarette every six minutes…

At the thought of that frequency, the corner of Yu Dazhang's eye twitched involuntarily.

Good cigarettes aren't meant to be smoked like that.

Are you trying to kill yourself?!

He quickly rummaged through the cigarette case, took out all ten cigarettes inside and placed them on the table, then tucked the empty case into his pocket.

After he left, Li Jun casually picked up a cigarette from the table, held it up to his eyes for two seconds, then put it in his mouth and lit it.

After exhaling a puff of smoke, he said with a smile:

"Little rascal. Quite the schemer."

Between Yu Dazhang and colleagues of the same rank, it didn't matter whether he offered or gave cigarettes, because bribery wasn't involved.

But with a superior, that wouldn't do.

As a subordinate, handing Li Jun a cigarette in person — however he smoked it, there'd be no problem.

No leader has ever gotten into trouble for accepting a cigarette handed over by a subordinate.

But gifting an entire pack — that wouldn't do.

Gifting an entire carton — that'd be even faster.

So the cigarette case had to be taken away…

No matter how good the relationship with a superior, one still had to keep a certain distance; not a single leader likes a subordinate with no sense of boundaries.

Having lived two lives, if Yu Dazhang didn't even understand this much, he'd have lived in vain.

That evening.

The Qu family villa.

Yu Dazhang came straight here after work.

Qu Tuotuo had called him in the afternoon, saying Qu Wannian had something to discuss with him and asking him to come to the house that evening.

Because the three cold cases had just been merged, the work of compiling the case files was rather tedious, so he and Ma Jian and the others had worked a bit of overtime.

By the time he arrived at the Qu residence, it was already eight in the evening.

Seeing him, Qu Wannian snorted:

"Haven't eaten yet, have you."

"That's right, I came straight here after leaving the branch bureau." Facing Old Qu, Yu Dazhang still felt a bit uneasy inside.

After all, the man was his future father-in-law.

An elder — one still had to show respect.

Besides, this time he had arrived a bit late, making an elder wait for him; he really did feel a little guilty about it.

"Serve the dishes."

Qu Wannian gave the order to the butler, then went to the dining room and sat down.

Seeing this, Qu Tuotuo and her mother hurried over as well and took their seats beside Qu Wannian.

"This is—?" Yu Dazhang looked at them in disbelief:

"You didn't eat tonight, and have been waiting for me this whole time?"

(End of chapter)