Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 277 Unexpected Discovery
Standing in front of the security door of room 402 in Lao Xi's rented apartment, Chen Shu gripped the key and turned it several times to make sure it wouldn't open the door, then pulled the key out.

Xu Chaofan noticed something and hurriedly took out the rental house key that he had temporarily confiscated from Lao Xi and placed it next to the key in Chen Shu's hand for comparison.

Chen Shu rested his chin on his hand: "The key heads are exactly the same, which means they are from the same brand and the same model of door lock."

Xu Chaofan added, "They are roughly the same age, so they were most likely purchased at the same time and place."

With his eyes closed, Chen Shu considered the circumstances under which someone would buy two locks at the same time.

Where could the other security door be?
The same question arose in their minds.

Chen Shu remained silent for a moment, then began to recall the clues he had encountered earlier, hoping to gradually sort out his thoughts from the chaos.

Xiao Zhang, a staff member of the community's property management, said that the water consumption on the sixth floor was extremely high last month.

What about electricity consumption?
Chen Shu was a little curious, so he put the key aside, walked a few steps to the electrical box, opened the thin metal door of the box, looked inside, and froze.

Xu Chaofan, who had been closely following Chen Shu's actions, also went in and watched for a while.

"hey-hey."

The two people, squeezed together, couldn't help but laugh.

Chen Shu swayed his body to the side and bumped Xu Chaofan's arm with his shoulder. Xu Chaofan laughed and raised his elbow to touch Chen Shu's back.

Then, the two of them turned around at the same time and looked intently at room 401, which was right next to Lao Xi's rental house. It was the only room out of the four rooms in the corridor that did not have a trash bag left at the door.

Criminals who manufacture electricity rarely falsify electricity meters or steal electricity. Firstly, electricity is cheap, so there's no need to save money. But if the power company discovers this, it will easily expose them. Secondly, there's no known case of police officers monitoring every household's electricity meters to search for leads.

Well, except for the crackdown on cryptocurrency mining that started this year.

The electricity meter data on the fourth floor clearly shows that the electricity consumption of room 401 is far beyond the standard range that a normal user should have.

Holding the key in his hand, Chen Shu felt as if he had grasped the main artery of a drug trafficking network. He believed that as long as he followed the clues, he would surely bring these people to justice.

"Kacha."

With a crisp, clear sound, the security door was opened.

Chen Shu pushed the door in, but after opening a crack about five fingers wide, it wouldn't budge. Inside, a finger-thick iron chain was connected to the door at one end and to the door frame at the other, holding the door tightly shut.

Xu Chaofan rubbed his nose: "Hey, interesting. He even installed a hotel-style double lock in his own place. What the heck! Chen Shu, what are you doing!"

"Boom!"

A loud gunshot rang in Xu Chaofan's ears, stunning him. He took two steps back, his head spinning, and watched helplessly as Chen Shu, who was standing in front of him, kicked the security door and rushed inside.

It turned out that when Chen Shu pushed the door open earlier, he found that the security door was locked from the inside with a padlock. In an instant, he realized that there must be someone inside. Considering that the person inside might jump out of the window, he hurriedly took out his Type 64 pistol and shot the lock.

Chen Shu rushed into the dark living room, relying on the few lights shining in from the window, and compared the layout of this apartment with the old house in the west in his mind. He then immediately rushed towards the master bedroom.

"boom!"

As usual, he kicked the door open again, aiming just below the lock. The wooden bedroom door couldn't withstand Chen Shu's impact and was kicked open in an instant.

Having just emerged from the darkness, Chen Shu was momentarily disoriented by the brightly lit master bedroom. He only saw a figure flash before his eyes before disappearing. The next second, Chen Shu's pupils narrowed, and he saw a man standing on the north-facing windowsill of the master bedroom, preparing to jump.

"stop!"

Chen Shu roared, disregarding everything else, and rushed out with narrowed eyes.

The man glanced back and then jumped straight down.

Damn it, this is the fourth floor!

Holy crap, I keep running into people jumping off buildings this year!
Chen Shu rushed to the windowsill, put his hands on the window frame, and leaned out to look down. He saw that the man had landed on the roof of the small courtyard on the first floor and was now feeling his way along the edge, trying to climb down to the ground floor.

"My boyfriend jumped off a building! Come after him!"

Chen Shu turned around and ran downstairs, calling out to Xu Chaofan, who was still standing dumbfounded outside. When he got to the third floor, he happened to see an old man just opening the security door and preparing to go inside.

Holy crap! Running to the first floor and then around to the back of the building won't give me enough time! They've definitely run far ahead! Damn it, I'll just have to go for it!

In the blink of an eye, Chen Shu grabbed the old man from behind and darted inside without any hesitation.

"Police officer, could you please let me pass?"

The apartment layout was exactly the same as the one upstairs. Chen Shu jumped onto the windowsill of the bedroom in a few steps, took a deep breath, let out a classic Chinese curse to bolster his courage, stared at the ceiling below, and decisively jumped down.

Although this is the third floor, if you can jump to the roof of the first floor, it's actually only the height of the second floor.

After landing, Chen Shu rolled over to cushion the impact, enduring the throbbing pain in his feet, and looked in the direction the man had fled.

Outside the courtyard are large flower beds, and several flat grassy areas are piled with chairs, tables and other miscellaneous items belonging to nearby residents.

Emboldened by Chen Shu's decisiveness, the man stumbled and ran away from the flowerbed, still within sight. The clutter piled up by nearby residents clearly hindered the man's escape, which was already strained due to his injury, making his speed barely faster than walking.

Swallowing the saliva in his mouth, Chen Shu ran to the edge of the roof, grabbed the horizontal bar with both hands, and lowered himself down. He let go when he was closest to the ground and landed safely on the flower bed.

"Snapped!"

Although he had tried to minimize the impact, the impact of jumping from the third floor earlier caused Chen Shu's feet to go numb after jumping again in a short time. He was unable to take a step for a long time after landing.

Anxious about the fleeing man, Chen Shu gritted his teeth and rushed out again.

A few minutes later, panting heavily, Chen Shu ran up behind the man. Without any fancy grappling or takedown, he simply swung his fist, as big as a casserole dish, and smashed it into the man's head, knocking him to the ground.

Then he pounced on the other person's back, pinned him down with one hand on the back of his neck, and pulled out handcuffs with the other, snapping them shut twice.

After subduing the victim, Chen Shufang felt a pang of fear for his hasty decision to jump off the building. Unable to contain his anger, he swung his fist and punched the victim a few times.

"Run again! Run again!"

"Boss...no...no...I won't run away anymore," the man pleaded in a low voice, curled up into a ball.

(End of this chapter)