Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 672 The First Test

In fact, Chen Shu overheard most of the banter and idle chatter from the police officers behind him on the way from the parking lot.

It's not their fault. As the saying goes, if the sky falls, someone tall will hold it up. Those below just need to do their own job well, and that's the best help they can give to the whole operation.

Yang Chang felt that, according to usual practice, their district-level special police brigade only needed to lead their team to guard the outer perimeter points; this was no different from routine checkpoint inspections. After all, it was far from the very center, so it was neither dangerous nor difficult—a truly easy job.

Although Old Guo is a high-ranking official in the technical investigation department, he is a technician. Whether it is a big case or a small case, their job is to operate equipment. After doing this kind of thing behind the scenes and pressing buttons for a long time, they will naturally lose the respect they should have for on-site operations.
Chen Chuan was a police officer in a government agency. He didn't need to handle cases and had never faced vicious criminals on the front lines. Although he was called a police officer, he was actually much like a white-collar worker in a private company, working nine to five, and even doing similar work. The only difference was that he wore an unusual police uniform.

On the contrary, Zhu Yiba, an armed police officer from the Yunnan border defense, still possesses a high fighting spirit and a fearless attitude. However, he has only been a local police officer for a short time and is still unfamiliar with public security work. He has the fighting ability but is unable to put it into practice.

This is all normal; the bigwigs in the command center are pretty much the same.

Therefore, when faced with major cases and events, there always needs to be someone to take the blame, or rather, someone who can shoulder the responsibility.

Snapped.

Upon arriving at the destination, Chen Shu took a deep breath and pushed open the door to enter.

The command room, temporarily requisitioned by the property management office, contained a long table covered with a white cloth. The crooked edges of the table were clearly visible beneath the cloth, suggesting it was cobbled together from several other tables.

The table was surrounded by a large number of police officers.

The first one is naturally our familiar Director Wang, who is currently staring at the real-time monitoring screen of his location on the PAD in his hand.

Upon seeing Chen Shu enter, Director Wang looked up, beaming, "Chen Shu, the taxi has stopped at Qingyue Bridge. I reckon everyone's in the neighborhood!"

Qingyue Bridge is located in the old town area, and there are basically no hotels or guesthouses nearby. The three people who came this time had their identity information and past records checked through the internal network, and they were all out-of-towners who had never been to Dongzhou before.

After getting off the bus, the three of them took a taxi directly to Qingyue Bridge, clearly indicating that they had a very specific purpose, namely, to find their hideout.

They must be heading there.

Chen Shu pulled over an empty chair next to Director Wang and sat down, asking, "Who are the people following them? Have you found their hideout?"

“It’s someone from your Zhengming Criminal Investigation Division,” explained a person sitting a little further away, presumably from the Criminal Investigation Division.

“The team leader is Li Meng.” Zhang Xuming, the executive deputy director of Zhengming Branch, stood up, his hands resting on the table. “Since the hideout is located in Qingyue Bridge in Zhengming District, which is within our branch’s jurisdiction, this surveillance mission will be handled by our Zhengming Criminal Investigation Brigade. Ren Guoqing is our criminal investigation captain, and he will now explain this surveillance operation.”

Ren Guoqing, who was standing to the side, came over and first glanced at the young man sitting next to Wang, the executive deputy director of the municipal bureau. He thought to himself: This kid, when I came here, I heard that a young man from Zhengming Branch had managed to get into the command position of this operation, and he was even Wang's background. I thought he was just some rich kid from the province who came here to get some experience, but I didn't expect it to be him.

When I first met him at the police station a few years ago, I thought he was a promising criminal investigator. I never expected that he would later turn out to be a promising talent in the police station, special police, and anti-fraud, and even went to NJ to make great contributions. His mentor, Old Man Zeng, is very lucky to have such a promising disciple who is destined to become a dragon and a phoenix.

"Cough cough."

Ren Guoqing coughed a few times to bring his thoughts back to the scene, and said in a deep voice: "First of all, I would like to thank the leaders of the Municipal Bureau for their trust in entrusting us with the task of tracking this operation. Now I will give you an explanation. First of all, we have arranged ten groups of people at the destination, namely four groups on foot, two groups patrolling by car, two groups of electric vehicles, and the last two groups for surveillance."

"Our deputy battalion commander, Li Meng, will lead the team."

Qingyue Bridge.

"Li Da, these young Ks look really inexperienced, they're not wary at all. They're probably not experienced. Should we just take them down?"

A veteran detective from the Major Crimes Unit, who had just deliberately bumped into someone, returned to a black sedan parked on the street corner and casually spoke to the man wearing black-rimmed glasses sitting in the passenger seat.

The one referred to as "Li Da" is Li Meng.

Li Meng stared at the three people who had turned into the alley not far away and said in a deep voice, "What are you thinking? If you wanted to arrest them, you would have put them in the SWAT ambush while they were in the taxi. Why would you wait until now? The higher-ups must be planning to investigate the case more thoroughly." Li Meng, who had not attended the command meeting, easily deciphered the correct thinking of his superiors. This was the insight he had naturally developed after years of fighting on the front line and contacting higher-level leaders.

He glanced at the veteran officer with a cigarette dangling from his lips in the rearview mirror, thought for a moment, and then took out his walkie-talkie: "I'll repeat myself, no one is allowed to act without my orders. Our objective this time is to track, track, and track again!"

"Tiger, received."

"Little chick, received."

"Old Ghost, received."

"."

Criminal police officers possess extremely rich combat experience and logical thinking. They spend years on the front lines dealing with criminals. In terms of all-round personal abilities, no other police department can compare with them, including the National Security Bureau and the Anti-Drug Bureau.

However, the downsides are equally prominent: a strong sense of individualism and a historical tradition of autocracy. Sometimes, when a temper flares up, the words of superiors are simply ignored; they listen if they want to, but if they don't, they go in one ear and out the other without ever thinking.

The criminal investigation team, from top to bottom, all have the same problem.

Li Meng pursed his lips, waiting for the tracking team's final feedback. He would then go to the scene to conduct an on-site investigation and finally report the location to the command center.

"Li Da, I don't think that silly kid was being coerced. He was chatting and laughing with those two Wei people, so I guess he's one of their own." The old detective rolled down the car window a little, lit the cigarette he was holding in his mouth, and started smoking in the car.

No coerced person would walk arm in arm with their kidnapper on the street.

Li Meng was naturally aware of all this, but he still reminded them, "We've checked with big data, and it's 99% likely that this is their first time meeting. I didn't expect these two guys to be so good at brainwashing; they managed to win over complete strangers in just a few days."

The veteran detective took a few deep drags on his cigarette, flicked the butt out the window, and rolled up the car window: "There's been a murder in Yiwu City, a brutal killing, and it was a young girl. I heard it was these three who did it. Tsk tsk, they've already killed someone and they're just letting it go. I wonder what the higher-ups are up to."

"Stop talking nonsense. What are you doing interfering in things above? Report the situation to me right now." Li Meng frowned, her mind preoccupied with how to maximize the results in the subsequent operations. As for the dead girl, well, what can you do now that she's dead? Let the police avenge her.

"Hey, let me be polite and call you 'Big Brother Li.' What, you really think you're the boss?" The old detective completely ignored Li Meng's attitude and lit another cigarette for himself.

"Detective Qian, what are you saying! We're all doing this for work. Why are you arguing about this crucial point? If you want to complain, I'll treat you to hot pot after the case is solved. You can complain all you want then!" A young policeman in the driver's seat turned around, completely disregarding Detective Qian's seniority and age in the back seat.

The old detective spat, somewhat annoyed, but still gave a brief report on the operation: "That young Chinese man shouldn't have any weapons on him. I bumped into him and stupidly helped me up. The older one was very alert; he dodged away before I even leaned over, but he made a gesture of hugging himself as he retreated, so he should be carrying something."

Li Meng felt a chill run down her spine. Just as she feared, her worst fears came true. She had just told them not to make any rash moves, and the first group of people who were following them dared to run right into their faces.

He had absolutely no way to deal with these veteran comrades who had served in the Criminal Investigation Department for over a decade.

Suppressing her impatience, Li Meng tried to communicate, "Detective Qian is definitely carrying a weapon, either a knife or a gun, it's one of those two. We really don't need to risk the operation failing by investigating this thing. For large-scale operations like this, we should just focus on doing our job well."

“Li Da, unlike you young people, we old men only believe in ourselves, not in those machines.” As if in compromise, or perhaps too lazy to argue, Qian Tan put on the honorific again, then rolled down the car window and slowly exhaled the smoke.

"I won't be confident without checking it myself, and neither will my brothers."

Qian Tan looked out the window, his thoughts drifting back to the scene of deliberately bumping into the three people earlier.

Why are you hugging yourself with both hands?
That spot is probably too big to put a machete.

It didn't seem like he was hiding a gun.

What could it be?

(End of this chapter)