Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 748 Where to Go
When the two classes were over, Han Haizhou was already waiting outside the classroom for Tang Zhitong to finish class.

"Chief Tang, these are the meal tickets for the next few days. They indicate the meal times, the daily ration of one and a half kilograms per person, and one egg every morning. If you are late, you will not be served and your order will not be replenished. Please keep them." Han Haizhou handed Tang Zhitong four pieces of paper and an enamel rice bowl with the words "Souvenir of the Ninth Mandarin Phonetics Research Class" printed on it.

Tang Zhitong didn't expect that he could get an enamel rice bowl. He took it and glanced at the meal ticket. Each piece of paper represented one day. There were three framed areas printed on it with the words breakfast, lunch and dinner written on them.

Each area is stamped with the distinctive seal of the Cultural Reform Commission, and the month and date are stamped in red, which greatly increases the difficulty of counterfeiting.

"Thank you, Chief Han. I won't come for breakfast. It would be a waste for me. If you don't mind, take it and use it." Tang Zhitong aligned the four slips of paper, folded them in the middle of breakfast and lunch, then tore them off and handed them to Han Haizhou.

Although he is already an expert at skipping classes, Tang Zhitong still tries his best to complete what he should do as a student. He cannot skip the morning class just because of an egg.

"This..." Han Haizhou was stunned holding the meal ticket in his hand. He really didn't expect Tang Zhitong to act like this and just give the eggs away.

"Captain Han, where is the cafeteria? What time does dinner start? Can I go home after dinner?" Tang Zhitong smiled. This morning's eggs were out of date. There were only three days left. Three eggs, so he might as well consider it as a good omen.

"Thank you, Chief Tang. Come with me and I'll take you there." Han Haizhou accepted Tang Zhitong's kindness, with a stiff smile on his face.

As a literati in the cultural system, Han Haizhou's inherent "nobleness" prevents him from doing anything too servile for a few pieces of silver. However, the current supply of meat cut with a blunt knife also makes him uncomfortable. This time, he took Tang Zhitong's breakfast ticket, which seemed like eating a charity's food, making him feel awkward.

Tang Zhitong thanked Han Haizhou politely and followed him to the cafeteria. Tang Zhitong didn't know what Han Haizhou was thinking, otherwise he would have asked: Has your Tao heart been broken?

The cafeteria had obviously made preparations for this training and had opened two separate windows for the teachers and students participating in this workshop to get meals, while the teachers and students of the school went to another window.

In the workshop, everyone, teachers or students, lined up to get their meals. Each person was given two full spoonfuls of a dish with oily spots, plus three steamed buns. The enamel rice bowl couldn't hold all of them, so each person had to hold two steamed buns in their hands.

The teachers and students of the Continuing Education College all looked at the food of the research class with envy.

There was limited space in the cafeteria, and many students chose to take their dinner back to the dormitory. Tang Zhitong had nowhere to go, so he simply stuffed the steamed buns into the lunch box he brought with him, tied the enamel rice bowl with a rope and hung it on the handlebars, then slowly returned home.

Because it took some time to queue up for food, by the time Tang Zhitong got home, Xiao Wang and his two younger sisters had already returned home.

Fengzhi didn't play with Beibei today, nor did she do her homework. She and Fengzhen were lying on the eight-immortals table, reading a book intently.

"The sun is rising from the west today? What book are you reading so engrossed in?" Tang Zhitong joked, holding the enamel rice bowl in one hand.

"My sister-in-law brought it back. It's so nice!" Fengzhi lifted the book and showed the title to Tang Zhitong. Fengzhen lifted the book at the side.

Tang Zhitong glanced at the book and saw that it was titled "The Sign of Four" and "A Study in Scarlet". He then teased Fengzhi and said, "Fengzhi, this book is about solving crimes, right? Can you understand it?"

"Hmph! Stop looking down on me. If you don't understand, you can ask my sister-in-law!" Fengzhi was so fascinated by what she was watching that she replied without even raising her head.

"Okay, I guess you've found a good guy. I hope you'll study hard and forget about food, but don't drop your books when you see food." Tang Zhitong said cheerfully, put the enamel lunch box on the eight-immortals table, untied the rope, took off the lid, and a fragrance wafted out.

"Brother! I can ask you if I don't know something. My sister-in-law brought back several books this time. Let's discuss and learn from each other!" Feng Zhi smelled the fragrance of the food and didn't bother to read the book. She turned the book upside down, leaned forward, got down from the stool, and immediately came in front of Tang Zhitong.

"Go away, are you so unprincipled just for your stuttering?" Tang Zhitong gave Fengzhi a slap on the head, and while taking out a steamed bun from his bag, he asked Xiao Wang: "Why did you think of borrowing this kind of book? It's a bit difficult for Fengzhi."

"I borrowed them all for you to read. She insisted on seeing them." Student Wang replied somewhat helplessly.

"Oh? Anything else?" Tang Zhitong was a little confused. Why did Xiao Wang borrow this kind of books for no apparent reason?

"Look, they're all from the same series." Classmate Xiao Wang took out the book she borrowed from under Fengzhi's textbook and handed it to her husband.

Tang Zhitong took it and first looked at the title of the book, "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories", and then looked at the publishing information. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" was published two years ago, and "The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories" was published in 1916, published by Zhonghua Book Company. It is an old book in every sense of the word.

"Didn't I tell you that I wanted to read this kind of book?" Tang Zhitong touched his head, still having no idea.

"The case of defrauding the People's Bank of China was solved a while ago. My colleague said today that many people must come to borrow these books, so I kept them in mind and lent them to you first. Do you like them?" Student Wang smiled sweetly. In fact, she borrowed them because her colleague said that gay men like this kind of books, but she didn't say it in front of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

"Yes, yes, then I must read it carefully." Tang Zhitong had read the "Complete Works" before, but he could no longer remember the plot, so it would be nice to review it.

As long as you have seen it, you will have a reason to play the "Blind student, you found the highlight" joke with classmate Xiao Wang.

After saying that, Tang Zhitong put down "The Hound of the Baskervilles", leaving only "The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes" in his hand. He opened the title page and found that the paper had turned yellow, but the book was not damaged or stained because it had been well kept by the Beijing Library.

"I guess this translator is from Fujian." Tang Zhitong pointed at the translator inside and showed it to Xiao Wang.

"How do you know? Have you read it?" Xiao Wang was a little surprised, because when she talked about the past with her husband, her husband admitted that he had not read many books before.

"I haven't read it. I guessed it. When I was teaching pinyin in the workshop today, I met a student from Fujian. He pronounced h as f, and no matter how I corrected him, he couldn't change it." Tang Zhitong flipped back and pointed to the English word Holmes before the main text and said, "The name of this male protagonist, if translated according to the phonetic notation, should be Holmes, Holmes, but it was translated into Sherlock Holmes in the book. The translator obviously can't tell the difference between h and f."

"He speaks so seriously, like a detective." Classmate Xiao Wang laughed so hard after listening to her husband's nonsense.

"Okay, let's eat first, and then we can discuss this after dinner." Tang Zhitong didn't dare to provoke classmate Xiao Wang anymore, for fear that he would not be able to control his wild thoughts.

The dishes that Tang Zhitong ordered from the Teachers’ Training College were ready-made and could be eaten after just heating up. The steamed buns were still soft and could be eaten directly without heating them.

Although Tang Zhitong teased Fengzhi, he gave her everything she was supposed to. She ate one of the three steamed buns, and the others ate half of one. The remaining part was supplemented with the steamed bread from home.

While the Tang family was enjoying their meal, Wu Aijun was eating even more happily.

Zhao Quanyi's case caused a very bad impact. The top leaders were furious and demanded that the case be solved within ten days.

Although the leaders of the public security department issued a military order, there was no progress in the first few days. They wanted to make six calls a day to urge the municipal bureau to solve the case as soon as possible. The pressure was huge from top to bottom.

Although Zhao Quanyi was arrested on the tenth day, he refused to disclose the whereabouts of the stolen money.

Although Zhao Quanyi has confessed the process of committing the crime and the country can afford the loss of 200,000 yuan, it is always imperfect to close the case based on the confession.

Wu Aijun's attentiveness just filled in the most critical link. Zhang Xinping submitted his application materials the next day, and the Municipal Bureau quickly approved them and reported them to the ministry.

There are only a few main leaders in the department, and they basically know which children are in which unit, not to mention that Wu Aijun is in this system.

From then on, the smile on Lu Lan's face never fell. At the end of the day, his face became stiff from smiling.

Merits must be evaluated, but the process has to be followed and it won’t be that quick.

The ministry reported the case to senior management early in the morning on the 4th. The confessions and evidence were very solid, and the top management and the ministry were satisfied.

But the matter did not end there. Today, the head of the department personally hosted a banquet and invited all the comrades of the special task force to have a meal to express congratulations and rewards.

The banquet was of a very high standard. Wu Aijun was not only praised at the banquet, but also satisfied with the food.

After returning home, Wu Aijun felt sleepy, so he said hello to his mother and wanted to go back to his room to sleep.

"Kid, you slept all day yesterday, and I didn't have a good chat with you about what happened this time. Sit down first." Lu Lan did not do as his son wished, and pointed at the chair in front of him and ordered.

Wu Aijun was helpless. In fact, it was not his fault that they didn't talk. Although No. 4 solved the case, there was still a lot of follow-up cleanup work to do. He stayed in the unit and stayed up late to write reports about the case, about the information that Zhang Xinping wanted to recommend him for credit, and so on.

As soon as No. 5 came back, he fell into a deep sleep. If he had not been extremely hungry that night, he could have slept until the next day.

Although he got up on the night of the 5th, he was still groggy, so Lu Lan didn't disturb him.

"Didn't the file get handed in to the department yesterday morning? Didn't you read it?" Wu Aijun yawned involuntarily after sitting down.

"The file is the file, and what you said is what you said. Tell me in detail everything you participated in and were responsible for." Lu Lan poured a glass of water for his son and waited for the next words.

Lu Lan not only read the files, but also heard from others about the whole process of the incident. He even learned that the Municipal Bureau had recommended credit for his son.

It was this incident that made Lu Lan decide to have a good talk with his son, not only about the case itself, but also about future developments.

Seeing that his mother was serious, Wu Aijun recounted in detail the work he had done in the case.

Lu Lan nodded as he listened, rarely interrupting, and just watched his son's facial expressions change carefully.

Wu Aijun had a clear conscience and spoke naturally, fluently, and even with a certain suppressed complacency.

Lu Lan noticed his son's subtle expression and felt relieved knowing that he was not fake.

It is no secret to some people who are interested in which unit the children of which leader in the department work in. Lu Lan is worried that some people will take advantage of the opportunity to take credit for his son.

Now that the worry was gone, Lu Lan asked, "So, you were inspired by Xiao Tang?"

"There is indeed a reason for this. After I went to the criminal investigation department, I found that many of my colleagues focused on investigation and mobilizing the masses to provide clues, and often ignored the subtle evidence at the crime scene. Of course, this is also related to the fact that technology cannot keep up. A lot of evidence does not play any role before the case is solved." Wu Aijun said realistically.

"What else did Xiao Tang say to you?" Lu Lan nodded, thinking that his son had a very valuable friend. Not only did he silently complete his son's job transfer, but he was also able to give him inspiration at critical moments. If Tang Zhitong hadn't been received a while ago and made too much noise, Lu Lan really wanted to recruit him and make good use of him.

"What else..." Wu Aijun scratched his head. It had been more than three months since the last time they met. He needed to think about it carefully.

“I think there was some talk about crime-solving techniques, and we were asked to try to cooperate with universities.” Wu Aijun drank quite a bit at the time, so his impression is vague.

"Little Tang is quite insightful." Lu Lan affirmed Tang Zhitong's opinion from a distance, and then asked Wu Aijun: "The Municipal Bureau has recommended you for merit. I estimate that in addition to the collective merit, you can be awarded a third-class merit. What are your plans for the future?"

When Wu Aijun heard that he could get a third class, he grinned. He understood the difference between the third class for an individual and the third class for a group. A carefulness in exchange for a third class merit, it was worth it!
"You kid, say something." Wu Aijun was happy, and Lu Lan was also happy. The leader of the department informed them after seeing the application materials.

The report was well written, emphasizing the significance of Wu Aijun's discovery of the stolen money.

In fact, in Lu Lan's view, finding the stolen money has two meanings: one is that it allows the leaders to put a perfect end to the case within the stipulated period of ten days; the other is to recover the major losses for the country in a timely manner.

If the 200,000 yuan had been burned, the country would have paid only a small amount of printing costs. However, if it was hidden or transferred and could not be found, it would have become a major loss.

Two hundred thousand is equivalent to the income of an ordinary worker for 500 years, and is one eighth of the total amount of embezzlement in Zhang and Liu's first major case since the founding of the People's Republic of China!

If no one discovered that Zhao Quanyi's mother used the money to buy things after the hype had passed, it would be like the Zhao family getting 200,000 yuan of supplies from the state for free without putting in any work!

This potential loss is so huge that it can be equated with the third-class merit.

"Work hard, keep up the good work, strive to solve the case, and don't let any bad elements go!" Wu Aijun stood up and promised.

"You!" Lu Lan was not very satisfied with his son's statement. He pointed at his son with a smile and helped him make a decision: "Your city bureau has just been promoted half a level. From what I heard, there is a sign that you will be asked to lead the team to handle the case. After the commendation is over, I will see if I can get you an opportunity to study at the Public Security College."

(End of this chapter)