Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 43 Today's Duty
Late at night, in the duty room of Zhongshan Police Station.

Chen Shu, Li Chaoyang, and the dispatcher Xiao Wang sat at the front desk chatting.

Li Chaoyang sat upright behind the front desk with a serious expression and said, "Senior brother, when do you think this pandemic is going to end? All this commotion every day is exhausting."

Chen Shu leaned comfortably back in the ergonomic chair he had specially bought online, frowning slightly. Even after all this time, he was still a little unaccustomed to Li Chaoyang's serious posture: "Chaoyang, let's not even talk about how mentally exhausted you are from the pandemic. Just the fact that you're on duty 24 hours a day, maintaining this posture, how can you not be tired?"

Li Chaoyang was completely unconcerned about Chen Shu's dissatisfaction, and said in a nonchalant tone: "The branch command center and the computer monitoring in the leaders' offices can check this place at any time. Brother Shu, all the chairs at the front desk of our bureau are the same standard, but your gaming chair is unique."

Chen Shu shifted into a more comfortable position and chuckled, "This is an ergonomic chair, not a gaming chair. The boss wouldn't be that stingy. Besides, to stand out among many police officers and make the boss remember you, besides being outstanding, you also need to be unique. The worst thing is to be mediocre."

Li Chaoyang glanced at the chair Chen Shu was sitting in and hit the nail on the head: "NetEase's new Starship Chair is a pretty cost-effective human-made chair, and I bought one for my home too. But in the eyes of the leaders, especially the older senior leaders, it's just a gaming chair!"

Chen Shu felt as if he had been shot in the knee and almost knelt down.

Li Chaoyang pondered for a moment, then continued, "It's because I met someone as unique as you that I want to excel."

Chen Shu: "!!!???"

He felt like he'd been shot in the chest and was about to lie down. However, Li Chaoyang's words, though harsh, were indeed reasonable, and he was prepared to move his chair back to his office.

Chen Shu had no words to express his bitterness, and could only glare at the unlucky dispatcher, Comrade Xiao Wang.

Holding his thermos and sipping his tea, Xiao Wang, who was listening to gossip, misunderstood and thought that Chen Shu was asking him to give his opinion.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. But a few days ago, when Ma was on duty, he talked to his son on the phone, and I heard him say that the most important thing for getting promoted is having connections. If you have the right connections, even a pig can sit in a high position.”

Xiao Wang, affectionately known in the underworld as the "King of Gossip" at Zhongshan Institute, put down his thermos and slowly rotated the lid to close it: "His exact words."

The duty room fell into dead silence.

"Squeak!"

The sound of a car screeching to a halt came from outside the lobby, and white lights flashed through the windows of the duty room.

"Brother Shu, I'm back!"

Zhu Chaoran, a master of creating atmosphere and mood, arrived. He rushed to the front desk of the duty hall, his eyes shining: "Brother Shu, Officer Li, let's go! Let's go get some barbecue! Every time I'm on duty, I look forward to a big, free late-night snack!"

Zeng Hong visited Zhongshan Police Station and introduced many programs to benefit the police. One of these was a night snack allowance for the on-duty team, amounting to thirty yuan, with the officers having to make up the difference themselves if necessary.

However, Zhu Chaoran had an enormous appetite, so much so that even the patrol team on night shift were unwilling to go out for a late-night snack with him.

"Fatty, even though it's the middle of the night and there aren't many people around, we can't just block the main entrance with a police car. Instructor Zeng has his lights on on the third floor. Do we really need to rush like this?"

Chen Shu shook his head helplessly, turned to look at Li Chaoyang who was sitting to the side, unable to suppress his laughter, and said with a smile, "Little Li, you see, as soon as I mention coming back for barbecue, this fat guy will definitely show up immediately."

Li Chaoyang joked, "Zhu Chaoran, you rushed over so late to return the phone to the girl who reported it, and she didn't even treat you to a nice meal?"

Zhu Chaoran touched his nose, glanced at Chen Shu and Xiao Wang who were watching with great interest, and then said righteously:

"Yes, she did mention it. Now that I think about it, her friend seemed to be trying very hard to invite me out for a late-night snack. But at the time, I was thinking that it's our duty as police officers to help the people. How could we be greedy for anything else? So I refused them."

The group imagined the scene: late at night, a large, fat man stood before two beautiful women, his face serious and righteous, resolutely refusing their enthusiastic invitation.

The scene was very touching, but unfortunately the main character was Zhu Chaoran.

"Doesn't seem like it." "Unbelievable."

"It's so fake."

All three of them thought to themselves.

"Fatty, you've had it tough too. Let's go, everyone, let's get going!"

Seeing Zhu Chaoran's increasingly embarrassed expression, Chen Shu came to his rescue, stood up, and invited everyone to go out for a late-night snack.

Li Chaoyang sat upright in the chair, spreading his hands: "Senior brother, I have to work at the bar, so I can't go. You take Xiao Wang and Xu Lei with you."

Before Chen Shu could speak, Xiao Wang jumped in: "No, I have social anxiety. Just bring me a copy when you come back."

Does the gossip king at Zhongshan Institute have social anxiety disorder?
The three of them inwardly complained, but none of them dared to offend this big shot. Because he worked every day, Xiao Wang frequently ran into every leader, police officer, and auxiliary police officer in the station.

He can make anything he says sound true.

For example, there was that guy, Ma, who previously promoted the "pig sitting in a human position - relationship theory." I guess in a few days, everyone in the institute except him will know about this.

The pressure was put on Li Chaoyang.

Chen Shu earnestly asked, "Chaoyang, do you have connections?"

Li Chaoyang shook his head: "Senior brother is joking. If I had connections or a powerful background, would I be sitting here so formally?"

Chen Shu clapped his hands, his eyebrows relaxing: "That's right. Didn't Director Ma say it doesn't matter, even if you're a human, you can't sit in a pig's position!"

"Senior brother, you're talking nonsense again. Okay, okay, it's the middle of the night, there's probably nothing going on."

Zhu Chaoran ran out the door with a big smile on his face.

Chen Shu turned and called out to the interrogation room inside, "Xu Lei, let's go out for a late-night snack!"

"Alright, Master Chen!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a young man carrying a folding pole on his shoulder and sporting a standard 9mm police academy buzz cut walked energetically to the front desk of the duty hall.

Xu Lei placed the power bank on the front desk, nodded to Li Chaoyang, and said with a smile, "Thank you, Master Li."

Li Chaoyang waved his hand: "Just leave it there. You'll need it often. I have two more in my office."

Police officers must have been night owls in their past lives. Chen Shu thought to himself, "Don't always hang out in the interrogation room when there's nothing to do; the air there is bad."

Xu Lei chuckled and said frankly, "Master Chen, you have too many surveillance cameras here. It's inconvenient for me to use my phone."

Compared to the post-90s generation who are about to 'rectify' the traditional workplace order, what were these two outdated post-80s arguing about? Chen Shu and Li Chaoyang looked at each other silently.

"Let's go, let's go and come back as soon as possible. In another hour it will be the peak time for drunken disturbances."

Chen Shu gave a greeting, and the group walked together towards the gate.

(End of this chapter)