Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 241 The Opening
A ray of morning sunlight shone on Chen Shu's face.

He got out of bed as usual, washed up quickly, changed into his sportswear and sneakers, and went out to run in the park behind the community.

Since transferring to work at the police station, Chen Shu has not experienced such a regular life for a long time.

As I strolled to the park entrance, I saw a few people exercising. Some were practicing Tai Chi, others were doing square dancing, and still others were walking their dogs.

The plum blossoms at dawn are exceptionally beautiful, serene and elegant.

Chen Shu leaned closer and took a sniff. The fragrance of the flowers filled the air, permeating his entire being and instantly making him feel refreshed.

After warming up for a while, I put on my headphones, listened to Jay Chou and Eason Chan's hit songs from more than ten years ago, and then started running freely.

Perhaps it's a habit I developed at the police academy, but for many years I've always kept my long-distance runs to five kilometers, taking about twenty minutes.

The long-distance run ended, and I was soaked in sweat.

Chen Shu took off his coat and did some relaxation and stretching exercises while admiring the colors of the sky, which made him feel relaxed and at ease.

With well-defined facial features and a height of over 1.8 meters, coupled with a slightly tight black outfit that perfectly showcased his well-proportioned and muscular physique, he attracted the attention of many passersby, including women.

After a half-hour break, Chen Shu headed home to prepare for work.

Since being discharged from the hospital after his injury, Zeng Hong forced him to take a month of sick leave at home. Today is his first day back at work, on duty.

When I arrived at Zhongshan Police Station, the clock had just struck eight. Although it wasn't too early, with half an hour to spare before the start of the administrative shift, the duty hall was already bustling with activity.

That's how effective our police station is—working 24/7, 365 days a year.

After enjoying a long-awaited meal of pork ribs and rice noodles in the canteen, Chen Shu, as usual, took a stroll through the detention room and the case-handling area. Since taking charge of the security work in the detention center, these two places had been on his mind, for no other reason than the high incident rate.

The case-handling area of ​​Zhongshan Police Station is located behind the duty room. You can see an iron gate after passing the reception desk; going through it leads to the case-handling area. After passing through this gate, there are four case-handling rooms and a restroom in the corridor. The doors to the four case-handling rooms are staggered; when you come out of one room, you are directly facing a wall, so you cannot see what is happening inside the other rooms.

Chen Shu entered the password to open the iron gate and stepped into the case-handling area.

"Chief Chen." A plainclothes officer standing at the door of the investigation room closest to the iron gate was smoking. When he saw Chen Shu come in, he quickly threw away his cigarette butt and stomped it out.

Smoking is strictly prohibited in the investigation area; this is a newly issued ban by the Dongzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau. Sure enough, there's a "No Smoking" sign hanging on the wall directly in front of the officer who was smoking.

Chen Shu pretended not to see it. After all, when he was interrogating suspects late into the night, he would open packs of cigarettes one by one. Besides keeping the police officers awake, he also had to slip a few cigarettes to the suspects. If that could dispel their concerns, Chen Shu would be secretly overjoyed.

"You're here quite early today. Is this for case handling or random checks?" Chen Shu asked casually, noticing the noisy and bustling atmosphere in the information collection room.

"Director Chen, we found him on the road. This is the third person we've found this morning."

Chen Shu laughed and said, "This is the third one already? We can find someone to do it on the way to work after breakfast. There's no need to start working so early."

The plainclothes officer had a smug look on his face: "Chief Chen, you don't know. We've discovered that going out to pick up people at seven o'clock is the easiest. Because everyone is rushing to work, the roads are packed with people. In just two hours, we can easily complete our daily quota and still have some left over."

The investigation room closest to the iron gate was originally used for information collection, that is, to collect preliminary information on those who need to be questioned or interrogated, such as fingerprints, blood, height, and footprints.

However, later, a plan for building a database Y was announced, and from then on, information collection was no longer limited to collecting data from specific individuals. The bureau directly issued collection quotas to the institutes, requiring them to enter a specified number of personnel each month.

The police station had no choice; the officers were busy handling cases or going out to the community, so they had to delegate these tasks that didn't require law enforcement authority to auxiliary police officers. To improve efficiency, after meeting the daily quota, each officer received a subsidy of fifty yuan for any additional tasks.

Chen Shu nodded: "Okay, then you guys get back to work. Remember to keep your body cameras on while you're doing your jobs."

"Okay, we've been doing this for so long, you can rest assured." These random inspections are met with widespread complaints. Imagine, on your way to work, several police officers suddenly pull you aside and try to take you to the police station to collect information—wouldn't you be anxious?
This thing only works on honest people. In private, Chen Shu had held meetings with the plainclothes teams and patrol teams that went out to collect data, and told them that if they encountered any difficult or troublesome people, they would not be investigated.

The targets set by the higher-ups must be met, but conflicts with the masses cannot be created. If necessary, the next target can be taken. After all, there is still the "satisfaction rate" hanging over our heads.

As Chen Shu passed by the fingerprint collection room, he peeked inside a few times. Although it was a bit messy, it was still relatively orderly. The person whose fingerprint was being collected looked like a college student, and was sitting in front of the fingerprint scanner, pressing his fingerprints one by one.

Now that there are quotas, and the number of people coming and going every day is quite large, it's easy for this constant flow to disrupt the interrogation or questioning work in the case-handling rooms inside. "We need to move the information collection room outside tomorrow," Chen Shu thought as he walked towards the case-handling rooms at the back.

Looking into the interrogation room from the doorway, you can see cigarette butts everywhere, clearly indicating a case had occurred the previous night.

Upon entering the interrogation room, Chen Shu glanced around and noticed the police officers' digital certificates still plugged into the computer host. He was delighted, unplugged them, and put them in his pocket.

We need to make people nervous once, otherwise they won't develop the safe habit of unplugging when needed.

The interrogation room was still clean and tidy, but who else could be hiding inside playing mobile games but trainee police officer Xu Lei?

"Xu Lei, you must have had a lot going on last night. Hmm, what game were you playing?" Chen Shu approached and peeked inside.

"Genshin Impact. Senior brother, wait a minute, this is a crucial moment in the dungeon run, I'll talk to you later." Xu Lei didn't even look up.

Xu Lei, as a trainee police officer, is actually still a student at the police academy and is not officially under the jurisdiction of Zhongshan Police Station. He will only stay at the station for a year before leaving.

Moreover, the two also have a fellow disciple relationship, and Chen Shu's management style is to only pursue results, turning a blind eye to those who steal moments of leisure in their busy schedules.

"It's almost time to get off work. Go back to your dorm and rest early." Chen Shu noticed Xu Lei's dark circles and guessed that he must have been on duty last night.

"okay."

After walking around the case-handling area, Chen Shu was about to leave when he was stopped by Xu Lei, who had rushed over at the iron gate.

"Senior brother, wait for me, I need to talk to you."

Chen Shu stopped and replied with a smile, "Is the dungeon over?"

Although there is a six or seven-year age difference between the two, they are both people who came from the gaming era, and they retain at least some respect for ranked matches or dungeons.

"Hehe, it's over."

Xu Lei touched his nose, suddenly feeling embarrassed for having been so engrossed in playing games. Despite being a senior colleague, Chen Shu was still the deputy director of the institute and had always taken good care of him.

"Senior, a good friend of mine has defaulted on his online loan and has been constantly harassed by collection calls lately. Do you have any good ideas?"

Chen Shu glanced at Xu Lei. Last time, a friend encountered (a type of online chatbot), and this time, another friend encountered debt collectors. This young man has quite a lot of experience.

Is your friend planning to repay the principal?

Xu Lei: "I haven't considered it yet, but it seems like I'm not prepared at the moment."

"Next time they call, just say you specialize in exploiting vulnerabilities. Yeah, be a little arrogant in your tone, they'll understand."

Xu Lei thought for a while, then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he gave a big thumbs up.

"Senior brother, you're awesome!"

(End of this chapter)