After a long while, the fire trucks and police finally arrived fashionably late. After extinguishing the blaze, the police conducted an on-site investigation and survey before releasing an official statement claiming that the fire was an accident caused by aging, short-circuited electrical wiring. They made not a single mention of the crucial clue that the theater's main entrance and emergency exits had been blocked from the outside and could not be opened from within.
Late that night, Wang Kai, Chief of the Xidu Municipal Public Security Bureau, had just fallen asleep when Miao Feng, Secretary of the Xidu Municipal Committee and top official of the city, "summoned" him straight out of bed, rushing him urgently to the municipal bureau.
The duty officer was heavy with sleep, his upper and lower eyelids feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds. He was only human, and by this hour, nearly everyone was exhausted.
Chapter 382