Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 272 Checking the Water Meter

As everyone in the office was planning the fishing trip, Li Yunqi's phone, which had been temporarily confiscated and placed on the coffee table, emitted the distinctive sound of a WeChat message.

Li Chaoyang picked it up casually and looked at it, then said excitedly, "Senior brother, it's a WeChat message from Lao Xi."

The office immediately fell silent as everyone crowded around the broken phone screen, where a WeChat message addressed to "Old Xi" had clearly appeared.

The message was simple: "New stock has arrived, very fresh, I'll give you 500 yuan per gram, today only."

The special offer includes a countdown timer to increase the sense of urgency in buying!
Wow, that's professional!
Li Chaoyang's eyes lit up. He knew there was no need to fish anymore. The other party had cleaned themselves up and delivered themselves to their doorstep, just waiting for them to rip them off.

He gripped his phone with both hands, thumbs poised to strike, and looked at Chen Shu expectantly: "Senior brother, what's the reply?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Shu smiled and nodded, saying, "Don't rush. Go find Li Yunqi later and ask him how he usually responds to people."

Wang Chongming sat back down, lit a cigarette, and said with a chuckle, "I didn't expect the competition in this industry to be so fierce. I sent this promotional text message because I was worried that Li Yunqi might have gone to another company since I hadn't contacted him for more than half a month."

“Haha, that makes sense!”

"I really want to see his expression when he gets arrested tonight!"

The atmosphere in the office immediately relaxed.

The hardest part of fishing is taking that first step of baiting and hooking the fish. The later stages of catching it on the spot are actually relatively simple, except for taking care to avoid unnecessary injuries.

Finding a way to contact someone in the most natural way without arousing their suspicion is a truly difficult challenge. This is especially true for drug traffickers with extremely strong counter-surveillance awareness. Unless they are small-time dealers or deliverymen, anyone with a significant amount of drugs knows they only have one chance in their lifetime, and no amount of caution is too much.

In Li Yunqi's case, the most difficult first step has already been taken care of precisely because the drug traffickers took the initiative to propose the transaction.

In the afternoon, at the Zhongshan Police Station, in the interrogation room.
With sunken cheeks and a dull, lifeless face, Li Yunqi, thin as a skeleton, sat in a chair, constantly sniffling and yawning, as if he had caught a cold and couldn't control his physical reactions.

Li Chaoyang, who had been standing behind him monitoring his conversation with O-trafficker Lao Xi, took the phone from his hand with some disgust and then arranged for Zhu Chaoran to take the man to the detention room.

Chen Shu browsed through the complete chat and transaction history on Li Yunqi's WeChat, as well as the record of Lao Xi receiving a thousand yuan from Li Yunqi at the end. He was overjoyed, feeling that the matter was basically settled.

In particular, Lao Xi even took the initiative to ask Li Yunqi to pick up the goods from his rented apartment during this transaction, which was such a thoughtful service.

For many years, Chen Shu had never met such an honest and straightforward fellow.

Generally speaking, in O-type transactions, it's rare to see cash and goods exchanged simultaneously; the person and the goods are usually separate. For example, Lao Xi might pack the goods in a cigarette box, randomly throw it somewhere, then notify the buyer to come and pick it up, while he himself hides far away and watches.

This technique is called "embedding".

More experienced dealers might have one person negotiating with the buyer via WeChat, another throwing away the cigarette box, and a third hiding in the shadows watching the buyer come to collect the goods. However, this kind of operation is limited to large transactions. For Li Yunqi's case, with goods worth only 1,000 yuan, it wouldn't be so complicated. After all, labor costs are so high these days.

In high spirits, Chen Shu couldn't help but test his junior brother Li Chaoyang: "If you were to investigate this case, how would you plan to arrange things?"

Having worked with Chen Shu for several years, Li Chaoyang fell into deep thought, then said in a somewhat uncertain tone, "Pretend to be Li Yunqi's friend and go to his house to make the arrest."

Chen Shu said with dissatisfaction, "Old Xi is a very suspicious person. If Li Yunqi comes to pick up the goods and there is even just one extra person with him, believe me, he will run away the moment you enter the gate of the community."

Li Chaoyang frowned and said, "In a tenement building like this, with only one staircase, if we just break down the door, we still have to be careful he doesn't jump out. It's not a good situation."

At this moment, Zhu Chaoran, who had just returned from dropping off someone, listened for a while and realized that it was a small test on case handling proposed by Chen Shu. He rubbed his hands together excitedly and joined the discussion.

"Brother Shu, I have a thought that's not quite right yet, but I'm not sure if I should say it?"

Knowing Zhu Chaoran's consistent unreliability, Chen Shu deliberately waved his hand and simply said, "Then let's not talk about it."

Zhu Chaoran immediately put on a constipated expression and said in a coquettish tone, "Brother Shu, I just want to!"

At his age, Chen Shu couldn't take it anymore and surrendered.

Zhu Chaoran chuckled, tugged at his police uniform, and said, "We'll just drive the police car and wear the uniforms. When we enter the residential area, we should honk the horn or siren a few times, just like we received a normal emergency call and went straight into their building to investigate."

At first glance, the plan seems plausible, but upon closer examination, it reveals numerous problems.

Having his pride wounded, Li Chaoyang was the first to jump out and say, "Fatty, let's assume you can get into the complex or even into this building. I'm asking you, how are you going to trick Old Xi into opening the door? Oh, you'll just make up some excuse like the dog downstairs got lost, or the trash is being thrown out upstairs? Do you think he'll open the door?"

Zhu Chaoran chuckled, clearly confident of success: "When Lao Xi sent over the address, it looked familiar to me. I just checked the records at the duty desk, and guess what? Lao Xi lives on the fourth floor, and the old man on the third floor called the police last month because there was a 'thumping' noise from upstairs in the middle of the night that was disturbing his sleep."

Li Chaoyang's eyes widened: "What a coincidence?"

Zhu Chaoran, who was always criticized at the station for not thinking things through when handling cases, finally seized the opportunity. He propped up his chubby body, crossed his arms, and said arrogantly with his head held high, "No matter how clever it is, it's useless without my meticulous approach to handling cases!"

Chen Shu, in a relaxed mood, listened for a while while munching on sunflower seeds, and then gave his final comment: "Fatty's idea was pretty good, but it would be even better if we could refine the details. For example, we could borrow that open-style police four-wheeled electric patrol car from the Dawn Grid. That kind of slow, old-fashioned car wouldn't look like it's out to catch drug traffickers. Then we could make up some excuse to get the old man on the third floor to come upstairs with us to knock on the door. We just did it last month, so it wouldn't be strange if he did it again now."

Seeing this, Zhu Chaoran, who thought his plan was about to be adopted, exclaimed in an exaggerated tone of admiration, "Brother Shu, you are truly brilliant! I admire you so much! Shall we do it that night?"

Chen Shu glanced at him, shook his head, and chuckled.

"No, we'll stick to the old rules and check the water meter."

(End of this chapter)