eurekapd Chapter 1756 Underground Archives
Chapter 1756 Underground Archives
Deep inside the Yanjing City Public Security Bureau building lies a nearly forgotten iron-clad wooden door.
As several heavy footsteps approached, beams of flashlight illuminated the area as bright as day.
"Right here!" Guo Qian patted the flashlight and handed it to Li Xiangnan behind him.
"Thank you!"
Li Xiangnan took the flashlight and shone it on the door.
The paint on the door had long since peeled off, revealing the dark wood underneath.
The locked brass lock was covered in dust, and no one had been inside for who knows how many years.
"I'll do it!" Wei Jingfei strode to the door, squatted down, and searched for the key in the pile of keys in the bag with Song Ziming, Liu Yiming, and the others.
Squeak!
When the key was found and inserted, it made a heavy, dull creaking sound, as if the interior space itself was resisting external disturbances.
Guo Qian reached out and pushed the wooden door, coughed lightly, and called out, "Advisor Li, please!"
Together with Li Xiangnan, they forcefully pushed open the door leading to the underground archives.
"Cough cough, cough cough..."
As soon as the door opened, a mixture of smells of old paper, mildew, dust, and something else indescribable that seemed to freeze time rushed out, causing the seven or eight people behind them to cough involuntarily.
"It's so cold!" Liu Yiming couldn't help but hug his arms.
As everyone stepped inside, they immediately felt the cold, sticky air; the atmosphere here carried the unique chill of the underground.
A downward-sloping staircase appeared in the flashlight beam.
Snapped!
Guo Qian reached out and pulled the pull rope next to him. The light bulbs and starting method here were still from decades ago.
The dim yellow light flickered overhead, creaking and groaning as it barely illuminated the downward passage.
"Let's go!" he called out, leading Li Xiangnan down the path step by step.
Footsteps echoed in the narrow space, giving everyone the illusion that they were walking on the shoulders of history.
We finally reached the ground.
Suddenly, the view opened up before them, but as they turned to look, they were instantly enveloped by an immense sense of oppression.
This is a huge, underground palace-like space; even a flashlight beam cannot reach the end of it.
Rows of wooden filing cabinets, almost reaching the ceiling, towered all around, like silent giants, stretching to the horizon.
"My God, there's still so much space here! Captain Guo, your city bureau is really good at hiding things!" Song Ziming couldn't help but exclaim.
Hearing this, Guo Qian shook his head: "I've worked in the Municipal Bureau for twenty years, and I've only been here once, and that was when Director Zhang brought me here! Our Municipal Bureau has a history of several hundred years, okay?"
Everyone, including Li Xiangnan, clicked their tongues in astonishment.
As Guo Qian spoke, everyone looked around, their flashlights sweeping across the surroundings, growing more and more shocked with each glance.
The surrounding shelves were filled with densely packed, layered kraft paper file folders, thread-bound dossiers, and many old documents bound with hemp rope, their dates completely indistinguishable.
These things are yellowed and dull, full of the marks of time.
Many of the files were already curled and torn, and there were also many scraps of paper left on the ground. Everything silently told the story of the long years that had passed in this room.
Dust swirled and danced in the flashlight beam, like countless guardian spirits.
As his companions walked slowly through this dusty forest, they occasionally exclaimed in amazement and wonder, giving Li Xiangnan the illusion of traveling through time.
He walked to the shelf near the wall, held the flashlight in his mouth, picked up a file and looked at it. It turned out to be a household registration book from the Republican era.
The neat and elegant calligraphy in small regular script is so striking that it makes one's scalp tingle.
There were also police clippings printed with red stars, carrying the distinctive style of the early era.
There are even thick files on cases of bandit suppression and counter-espionage in the early days of liberation.
Each file here is a slice of an era, embodying the hard work and wisdom of our predecessors in public security.
This place embodies nearly a century of social changes and the development of the rule of law in Beijing and even the entire country.
The soul of the Yanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau is rooted in this soil that has penetrated through history!
A sense of awe welled up in Li Xiangnan's heart.
He had a burning feeling, as if simply standing here, he was standing with those predecessors and heroes who stood together for the peace of the world.
For a fleeting moment, he seemed to see a beautiful figure squatting under a wooden shelf, reading the files with great eagerness; the figure resembled his wife.
But Li Xiangnan knew that if so, then it was Qin Ruobai's mother, Bai Haitang.
He stood there, tears welling in his eyes, speechless with emotion.
here--
It holds the final secret of Wan Shuisheng and the people behind him.
Those two dusty files were their goal, no matter what.
While moved by the history, Li Xiangnan was also filled with curiosity and doubt.
He hadn't thought much of it at first, assuming that the old underground archives of the Yanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau were nothing special.
But now, he has completely changed his mind.
Perhaps, in this vast, misty underground world, the truth behind the mystery of the Mu family case from back then truly lies.
In addition, there was another file that caught the attention of the mastermind behind the scenes!
"Captain Guo!"
"Advisor Li!"
Li Xiangnan called out, and footsteps gradually approached him in the darkness.
How do we find it?
Guo Qian swung his flashlight over, his face bitter. He rubbed his forehead and said, "Sigh, what else can we do? It's from decades ago. Even Director Zhang, who knows this place best, probably doesn't recognize it anymore! Let's just keep looking!"
"..." Li Xiangnan turned to look at the boundless darkness and sighed.
It can only be this way!
This place will probably become another important spot for me to stay.
"What a pity, Consultant Li! Although we secretly followed that old snake here and thwarted its attempt to enter the house, capturing it and shattering Wan Shuisheng and his backers' ultimate goal, we still don't know what they're looking for or where it is!" Wei Jingfei said with great regret and sigh.
Li Xiangnan shook his head and comforted him, "We shouldn't place our hopes on the enemy, and we shouldn't make any assumptions before we know the outcome! If that snake had gone in, who knows what consequences it would have caused? The current outcome is something we can control, which is good!"
……
Three days later, at the execution ground in Yanjing, the autumn wind was bleak.
Wan Shuisheng was escorted to the execution ground by two police officers and other criminals.
He was dressed in clean clothes and his hair was neatly combed.
But there was no fear on his face, only a calmness that seemed to have seen through life and death.
When the order was given, Wan Shuisheng did not hesitate at all, knelt down with a thud, and faced southeast.
That was his hometown in eastern Fujian, the direction where the graves of his parents, elder brother, and second elder brother were located.
Wan Shuisheng closed his eyes, his lips moving silently, as if bidding a final farewell to the world, or perhaps expressing his last thoughts to his sister and his home far away.
He did not pray for an afterlife, nor did he resent the injustice of fate. He simply poured his last lingering attachment and guilt towards the world into this kneeling towards his hometown.
Snapped!
The gunshot was clean and crisp.
Wan Shuisheng collapsed to the ground, his face pressed against the cold earth, facing southeast, as if his soul had been scattered, still wanting to kowtow to his parents to express his gratitude for their upbringing and his regret at not being able to fulfill his filial duties to them while they were alive.
In the captain's office of the Yanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau, Li Xiangnan suddenly looked up at the window.
A flock of wild geese flew south, passing right through his field of vision.
He quickly turned his head and looked at the snake cage in the corner.
"It's over. Can you feel it?"