They Were Innocent

Li Banfeng held the documents on the demolition of the Workers' Culture Palace and read through them with great care.

Judging from the report's wording and the wealth of data in its prose, this demolition had been an extremely important mission. Judging from the rigorous procedures, it had carried a certain degree of risk.

Although the report repeatedly stressed that structural problems had arisen in the Culture Palace and that its demolition had been undertaken for safety reasons, that explanation was clearly just a pretext.

If it had merely been the demolition of a dangerous building, the job could never have been handed to the Dark Star Bureau. Outer State had already realized that the Culture Palace was an exceptionally dangerous place, which was why it had taken this action.

Yet judging from the results, the operation had clearly failed. Though the demolition site had left behind a great many photographs, the Culture Palace itself still remained.

What further action had the Dark Star Bureau taken?

The following morning, Li Banfeng summoned Chen Changrui to his office and asked directly, "Did you participate in the demolition of the Culture Palace?"

That single question left Chen Changrui stunned. Li Banfeng gave him no room at all to catch his breath or maneuver.

"Back then, I actually—"

"Did you participate or not?"

"I did." Chen Changrui admitted it.

Li Banfeng asked, "You demolished the Culture Palace. Did it restore itself soon afterward?"

Chen Changrui lit a cigarette. "Not soon afterward. Immediately.

"We evacuated the surrounding residents in advance, sealed off the nearby streets, deployed specialized equipment, and spent six hours demolishing the entire Culture Palace.

"By the time we finished taking photographs and left the site, before we had even made it out of Yi Ping Road in Flower Lake District, the