Chapter 388: Is This Kicking the Door Down or Knocking?

"Where's the pallet jack?" Yu Dazhang asked again.

A pallet jack is a manual forklift that can also drag solid-wood pallets to move goods.

"We only have forklifts here," the staff member replied.

They have forklifts but no pallet jack... Yu Dazhang could now be certain that this warehouse was hiding something.

Thinking that without moving equipment, the police would back off?

Childish.

"Move it!"

At Yu Dazhang's command, the officers immediately set to work, starting to clear out the warehouse.

With enough hands, everything went fast—in just over ten minutes, more than half the warehouse was emptied.

As a grey waterproof tarp was exposed, the pig farm manager's entire face turned deathly pale.

Yu Dazhang glanced at him, taking in every shift of his expression.

"No need to move everything."

Yu Dazhang pointed at the tarp and said:

"Move along the tarp on the ground, shift all the pallets aside."

In no time at all, the pig feed on the tarp had all been moved, the solid-wood pallets had been shifted outside, and the entire waterproof tarp underneath was revealed.

This tarp was in the southeast corner of the warehouse, roughly four square metres in size, and square in shape.

"Did I find it?" Yu Dazhang looked at the pig farm manager.

The man said nothing, but was already drenched in sweat, his complexion shifting from pale to ashen.

"Move the tarp. Everyone on alert."

The moment his words fell, two officers immediately stepped forward to shift the tarp, while the rest kept their guns at the ready, watching the area beneath it with vigilance.

Soon, a steel plate appeared before everyone's eyes. Once it was moved aside, a downward passage was revealed.

Two metres down the passage, an iron door stood in the way.

Found it!

Yu Dazhang's eyes lit up, and he began to examine the iron door.

No keyhole, no padlock hanging on it—only a door handle.

That meant the door was locked from the inside.

He then walked up to the pig farm manager and said in a low voice:

"I'll give you one last chance to come clean. Besides this, are there any other entrances or exits?"

By now the man could barely stand—if not for two armed police officers holding him up, he would probably have collapsed on the spot.

"N-no, that's it," the man answered, trembling:

"There should be a few ventilation shafts, but as far as I know, this is the only entrance and exit."

That was enough... Yu Dazhang let out a breath.

This was the most crucial piece of information.

Once this entrance was blocked, not a single person inside would be able to escape.

From here on, it was no longer his business—breaching the door and catching the people inside was naturally a job for the professionals.

He turned to look at Director Long, only to find Director Long and a group of leaders staring at him with a strange look in their eyes.

What's there to be surprised about... Yu Dazhang actually thought it was perfectly normal.

As long as one had a sufficiently deep understanding of the entire case, deducing the location of this entrance was actually not a difficult task.

This also owed much to the carpet search the police had conducted earlier.

When Yu Dazhang arrived, the search results had already been marked out on the map.

With this ready-made data as a foundation, he only needed to combine it with the case details to make his judgment.

He thought it was quite simple, but in the eyes of the leaders, it was a completely different matter.

One had to remember that before Yu Dazhang arrived, they had searched for a full seven hours.

They had turned over the entire mountain, yet still come up empty.

And then this fatty showed up, merely glanced at the electronic map, stood for a while at the resort villa, and just like that, found the entrance.

Way too easy.

They didn't even know what this fatty had based his judgment on.

If you've got the skills, why didn't you come sooner? We wouldn't have had to work so damn hard.

You did it on purpose!

Only Director Long and Captain Hua weren't too surprised—they both knew Yu Dazhang's abilities.

"This is the only entrance. Breach the door and go in," Yu Dazhang said to Director Long:

"There are still many abducted intellectually disabled people inside—try to avoid any large-scale attack."

His reminder was very necessary.

If there were only criminals inside, the police could have taken a series of tough measures without any hesitation.

For example, using smoke grenades, stun grenades, and tear gas to force those people out directly.

But now that wouldn't work.

There were too many people inside, and with only this one entrance—a narrow corridor with limited space—there was no way for people to pass through quickly.

If those measures were used, the people inside would have difficulty breathing and might even suffocate.

Given the density of people, evacuating everyone safely in a short time was virtually impossible.

Under such circumstances, it would easily lead to casualties.

Chief Long heard this, nodded, and immediately began discussing countermeasures with the heads of the various police units.

Time was tight; they made their decision in just one minute.

Breach the door first, everyone on alert, ready to rush in at any moment.

Soon, a police battering ram was brought over. Two officers gripped the two D-shaped pull rings on it, took position in front of the iron door, and launched themselves at it.

This kind of battering ram is actually a large solid hammer made of high-density material, with extremely high impact efficiency.

No matter what lock is inside, it only takes one or two strikes to destroy the lock mechanism, and two more strikes to break the door down.

One might call it simple and brutal.

The two officers had only struck twice when, to everyone's surprise, the door actually opened.

It hadn't been forced open — it had been pulled open by someone inside.

This sudden turn of events left the officers gathered at the entrance stunned, and they all aimed their guns at the iron door.

The two officers who had been battering the door immediately retreated and went back up.

As the iron door was pulled fully open, two men appeared side by side in the doorway.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, expressionless on their faces, simply staring blankly at the officers outside.

"Hands up!"

An officer immediately shouted the warning.

Hearing this, the two men obediently raised their hands. Their movements were a little stiff, giving the impression of slow reactions.

Although Yu Dazhang was standing at the back at this point, he could still clearly see the situation at the entrance.

Looking at the two men's wooden, dumb expressions, he made a preliminary judgment that these should be two mentally disabled individuals.

Could they possibly be criminals in disguise?

That possibility couldn't be ruled out.

But in Yu Dazhang's view, mentally disabled people aren't that easy to fake — and as for genius-level performance artists, he only knew one.

"Come out slowly," the officer at the front said to the two men.

The two men were very obedient; with their hands raised, they walked up the stairs step by step.

Yu Dazhang quickly noticed that one of them was holding a mobile phone — the old-fashioned kind with physical buttons.

What he found interesting was that the phone's screen was still lit, clearly indicating it was in an active call.

Pretty clever… Yu Dazhang guessed their purpose at once.

They were trying to talk to the police.

Seeing that the two men had already come up, Yu Dazhang said from behind:

"Take the phone from his hand."

The moment the words fell, officers immediately rushed over, restrained the two men, and snatched the phone away at the same time.

The phone was first handed to Chief Long. He glanced at the lit screen, then passed it directly to Yu Dazhang.

"Hello, go ahead," Yu Dazhang put the phone to his ear:

"Don't bother with excessive demands — say something realistic."

(End of chapter)