Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 332 A Busy New Year's Day
The Zhanghe Police Station was bustling with activity on New Year's Eve.

Seven drunken guys, having somehow acquired half a pickup truckload of boxed fireworks, were setting them off near the riverbank while drinking. Some of the fireworks, even dubbed Gatling guns, were being used as weapons by the men, creating a spectacular yet dangerous scene.

When Zhu Jun arrived, these guys were in a state of high excitement. They even dared to confront Zhu Jun provoked; two of them blocked Zhu Jun's path, while the other five lit all the fireworks they had set up at once.

Then, facing the pitiful policeman who was all alone, they excitedly and arrogantly scattered and fled.

Well! It's a pity that in the end, they were all arrested and taken back to Zhanghe Police Station without exception.

"You're the one who made me not finish my New Year's Eve dinner!"

Xie Hua glared at the drunkard in front of him. The thought that this drunken bastard had made him have to work overtime on New Year's Eve made his teeth itch.

"Hey! Officer, I was just setting off some fireworks. Hiccup, what's the big deal?"

The drunken middle-aged man, handcuffed on one hand and waving his other hand, said, "It's the New Year, what's wrong with having some fun? We've been setting off fireworks for so many years, and nobody's said anything! Environmental pollution? That's all bullshit!"

"Heh... I don't know if it's bullshit or not! But one thing is for sure, you'll definitely be spending this Spring Festival in detention!"

Xie Hua bared his menacing white teeth and said viciously, "By the way, after you're detained, the traffic police will be waiting for you! Seven people in two cars, at least two of you will be caught for drunk driving! As for whether your jobs will be affected, pray to God!"

The middle-aged man's movements suddenly froze.

But faced with Xie Hua's serious gaze, he quickly slumped back down: "Whatever! So what if I'm unemployed? Do you really think I care? I quit that damn company a long time ago! Overtime every single day, they don't treat me like a human being at all... Heh... Overtime, overtime until my wife and kids are gone, what do I care? Damn it! I'd rather go to jail, at least I'd be well-off and wouldn't have to worry about money..."

"..."

Xie Hua paused for a moment, then softened his voice: "Divorced? The child was awarded to the mother?"

"Well."

The middle-aged man remained noncommittal.

Xie Hua stared at the man for a moment, then stood up and rummaged through the cabinet to find a bottle of mineral water—the kind given away with gas—and handed it to him. “So, having no ties means you can do whatever you want? Don’t the other six with you care about anything either?”

The middle-aged man was speechless.

He was thirsty after drinking too much, so he took the water, unscrewed the cap, and gulped it down in one go. Because Xie Hua was very polite, he behaved himself and returned the bottle to Xie Hua, who was standing next to him, saying thank you again.

"Setting off fireworks is a small matter, but it's too dangerous for you to shoot them at each other. You should understand, right? Even though it's winter, who can guarantee that the dry grass near the riverbank won't catch fire? Don't tell me it just snowed. Do you think the strong winds outside are a joke? If it really causes a fire, can you take the responsibility? You're more or less sober now, so you can listen to what I'm saying, right?"

The middle-aged man nodded listlessly.

Xie Hua nodded, then took a deep breath and said, "To catch you seven, more than a dozen people from our police station stopped their holidays and came out to play hide-and-seek with you. To be honest, what were you running for? The license plates of both cars are right there; we could easily find you. Now, resisting law enforcement is no excuse. It's fine for the police station staff to work hard on New Year's Eve, but your charge has gone from three days of detention to seven days, and that's only because we showed leniency. Otherwise, to be honest, turning an administrative penalty into a criminal case would have been a matter of a moment for us. Who pushed that policeman who kindly stopped you earlier? It wouldn't be innocent to be convicted of assaulting a police officer, would it?"

Xie Hua's tone grew increasingly stern, and the middle-aged man dared not raise his head. He was now drenched in sweat, finally regaining his composure, and deeply regretted his earlier actions.

But by then, it was too late to say anything.

The interrogation room was monitored. Xie Hua could show sympathy and leniency towards this man, but he certainly wouldn't release him without charge. This wasn't about personal grudges, but about the dignity and seriousness of the law, which couldn't be undermined by individuals.

The case is basically settled in this way, and the other six people will probably receive similar results. The only difference is that they can't be interrogated all at once; they'll have to be detained in cells and interrogated one by one in turn.

"I'm so unlucky."

After sending the middle-aged man back to his cell, Xie Hua rubbed his back and complained. It was supposed to be his day off, but he was inexplicably forced to work overtime because of these drunkards. Xie Hua secretly felt like killing them all.

But what can you do when he's a policeman?

Fortunately, even though he was working overtime every day, his wife and children were understanding and supportive. Even when he rushed back halfway through the New Year's Eve dinner, he only received his wife's words of advice and his son's encouragement.

Unlike the man we just interrogated, who was forced to divorce last week due to long hours of overtime work. Not only did his wife cheat on him and leave with the children, but he was also all alone during the Lunar New Year, and he had given up on himself and ended up like this.

"People these days..."

Thinking of this, Xie Hua shook his head helplessly.

Passing by the lounge, I suddenly saw Zhu Jun and Jiang Yiyi inside. Zhu Jun was shivering from the cold with his right arm bare, but he could only smile and let Jiang Yiyi apply iodine to his arm while he kept complaining.

Unlike Xie Hua, Jiang Yiyi came to work overtime voluntarily.

Upon hearing the news of Zhu Jun's injury in the group chat, he left his parents and younger brother behind and rushed to the police station.

That attitude, tsk tsk...

Didn't you see that Zhu Jun's face was beaming like a chrysanthemum?
Xie Hua chuckled softly, quite looking forward to next year...

The New Year's bells suddenly rang, and Xie Hua heard the sounds of New Year's greetings from the Spring Festival Gala coming from the lounge. He thought for a moment, took out his phone, sent his wife a Happy New Year message, told her to go to sleep early, and then continued to hope that one or two couples in the institute would get married this year.

However, less than ten minutes later, the alarm suddenly rang.

Xie Hua had already gone back to the interrogation room to work. Jiang Yiyi held back Zhu Jun, who was trying to run out, and put on her police uniform as she went to the duty room.

Yan Ziming was on duty and was somewhat surprised to see Jiang Yiyi.

But thinking of Zhu Jun's injury, she chuckled again, and after a long while, under Jiang Yiyi's speechless gaze, she said helplessly, "The police called from the bar street. A group of people didn't spend the New Year at home, but were partying together in a bar. As a result, one of the idiots deliberately rushed the countdown, which supposedly caused the 'Happy New Year' shouts to be all jumbled up. Plus, he was drunk, and it seemed like they were trying to film a perfect video or something, so two people impulsively beat him up. According to the person who called the police, the injuries were quite serious, and they called 120. Yiyi, are you sure you can handle it by yourself? Those two who beat him up didn't run away, but drunk people are still quite dangerous."

"Um……"

Jiang Yiyi hesitated for a moment, but couldn't bear to see Zhu Jun go on duty injured. It was the middle of the night, and it wasn't convenient to drag her colleague out of his house, plus there wasn't enough time. So she tilted her head, thought of an idea, waved goodbye to Yan Ziming, and hurriedly left.

"Mimi!"

Jiang Yiyi walked straight through the construction site and came to the cat shelter.

Seeing that the lights were on at the cat shelter, she didn't hesitate to call out, summoning Lin Ge, who was speechless and followed by a bunch of tagalongs.

"what?"

Lin Ge called out impatiently.

"Come with me on a call! Let's go, hurry up and talk on the way. Don't tell me you don't know there are time limits for responding to calls, and time is already very tight."

Jiang Yiyi waved to Lin Ge and walked straight towards the police car without waiting for his response.

"I'm not on duty, so why should I be involved?"

Despite his complaints, Lin Ge had already heard the alarm bells from the duty room. He was speechless at the sheer number of problems during the Lunar New Year, and obediently followed Jiang Yiyi with his tail drooping.

The little ones tried to follow, but Lin Ge glared at them and sent them back.

"The situation is like this..."

"So you're worried you can't handle it, so you're asking me for backup? Wait, a cat won't be taken seriously by a drunkard. You're not asking me to be your thug, are you? But I don't know my own strength. Aren't you afraid of ending up with two more people in the hospital?"

Lin Ge squatted in the passenger seat, staring silently at Jiang Yiyi.

"It's alright, things probably won't escalate that much. Although they hit someone, they didn't run away. Besides, the other people in the bar have sobered up by now, so to avoid trouble, we won't let them cause any more trouble."

Jiang Yiyi was quite familiar with this kind of ordinary report; the police station usually handled similar cases.

These days, drunken brawls and other disruptive behavior account for at least a quarter of all cases handled by the police. The other three-quarters are family disputes, neighborhood conflicts, and issues involving minors. As for petty theft and commercial fraud, which were more common in previous years, their proportion is decreasing. Of course, these kinds of people will never disappear; they've simply evolved into more complex issues like telecom fraud.

At this point, it's no longer the local police station that has the authority to handle the matter; it usually escalates to the municipal bureau level, with Zhanghe Police Station being the only exception.

Firstly, Zhanghe Police Station has a deputy director who loves solving cases and an elite police officer who enjoys criminal investigation. Secondly, Zhanghe Police Station also has a street urchin who likes catching thieves, and a cat that likes to meddle in other people's business. In short, these guys often do some extra trouble, increasing the burden on other ordinary police officers. Police officers like Jiang Yiyi, Xie Hua, and Hu Lijun, who are actually responsible for maintaining local security, have inexplicably become a minority in the police station.

"Once the new building is completed, we absolutely must get Chief Yu to hire a few more officers for duty. Our police station has far too few people actually doing odd jobs; it's at least ten times harder than the Baimiao Police Station next door!"

Amidst the complaints, the police car quickly arrived at the bar street where the caller was located.

As soon as Jiang Yiyi got out of the car, she turned on her body camera. Before she could even call the person who reported her, she saw a young girl waving at her from the entrance of a neon-lit bar across the street. The girl had clearly seen her.

There were seven or eight young men surrounding the girl. Four of them were surrounding two men with flushed faces and disheveled clothes, taking pictures of them with their phones.

"Officer, I'm the one who called the police!"

Before Jiang Yi could get closer, the young girl waved her hand and said, "It was those two who were causing trouble, but we've already stopped them. Policewoman, do you still need to go to the police station to give a statement? We can all be witnesses."

Does this girl think taking statements is something fun?

Lin Ge walked lazily behind, glancing sideways at the silly girl who was wearing a skirt in the dead of winter, with bare legs and no pantyhose.

"Where is the victim?"

Jiang Yiyi first signaled to the girl and her companion to calm down, then took photos of the two assailants and investigated whether they had any criminal records before turning to look at the overly lively little girl.

"They were taken away by an ambulance, less than a minute ago."

The girl continued to stare at Jiang Yiyi with excitement and curiosity.

"Well."

Jiang Yiyi remained noncommittal, then thought for a moment and held out her hand to the girl: "Let me see your ID card. Are you an adult or not before coming to the bar to drink? And you guys too, each of you, take out your ID cards and let me see them."

"Forehead……"

The girl froze, and the boys next to her exchanged glances, their expressions turning grim.

"Minor?"

Jiang Yiyi squinted and reached for the stun gun at her waist with her right hand.

It wasn't that she wanted to resort to violence, but young people in these kinds of situations are always particularly impulsive. Scattering and running away is one thing, but what if they encounter someone who acts rashly and tries to fight back... Even if Jiang Yiyi was confident, she wouldn't dare say she could subdue this group of seven or eight young people.

"Sister, I'm the one who called the police, not the one who got arrested. Just consider me an Good Samaritan and let me go."

The young girl pleaded with Jiang Yiyi with a pained expression. She couldn't understand why doing a good deed had drawn the police's attention to her.
"ID card! How old are you? What year were you born? We'll talk about whether to let it go or not later. Even if you're a minor drinking, it's not a big deal. The responsibility lies with the bar. They won't bother you. Just register it and that's it."

Jiang Yiyi remained unmoved, her expression particularly fierce.

The young men and women exchanged glances, and softened when they heard that they wouldn't cause trouble.

Thinking about it, it was just a drink; at most, I'd get a scolding, but would I be locked up? It's just a shame this bar is going to be in big trouble, and I won't be able to come here again. A little disappointing. But... they actually took down a bar! How exciting!

"I didn't bring my ID card. I was born in August 200X and am not a minor."

The girl muttered something under her breath.

"what about you?"

Jiang Yiyi then looked at the other people, determined not to let any of them go. Coming to a bar to drink during the Lunar New Year, and some of them even being minors—it was utterly outrageous!
"Year 0X".

I am sixteen years old.

"Ten... fifteen!"

"Year 0, 0X".

One by one, the little ones obediently reported their ages. Sure enough, they were all minors; the youngest claimed to be fifteen, but it seemed there was more to it than that.

Jiang Yiyi remained silent, only taking photos of all eight kids before arranging for the original mission targets to sit in the back seat of the police car.

Seeing that the two were behaving themselves, Jiang Yiyi breathed a sigh of relief.

To be honest, it's a strict rule that police officers should work in pairs when responding to a call. However, the reality is that police stations are never short-staffed. Normally, they can manage to squeeze in one or two auxiliary police officers to help, but on New Year's Eve, it's really inhumane to make those officers, who have finally had a day to reunite with their families, or who may have just returned home after working overtime all day, come back to the police station. Plus, with the police cat Mimi by her side, Jiang Yiyi took it upon herself to handle the case.

The two assailants behaved themselves, so Jiang Yiyi asked Lin Ge to keep an eye on them from the passenger seat, then turned to look at the troublesome little ones.

"What about you? I've registered your names, identities, and appearances. Are you going to take a taxi to the police station to report yourself, or wait for me to call a colleague to take you there in a police car?"

"Take...take a taxi..."

Upon hearing the word "police car," the boys became a little timid. One of them had just answered when a girl suddenly raised her hand and interrupted, "Police car! I want to ride in a police car! Officer, I've never ridden in a police car before! I want to ride in one so I can brag to my girlfriends later!"

"hiss……"

Jiang Yiyi had a slight toothache. Eight people, that'll require at least two police cars, right? In other words, the station will need to spare two more people. Yan Ziming can't move, and if Xie Hua is delayed, then there's still one…

Zhu Jun had to play despite his injury?

Jiang Yiyi was somewhat reluctant.

She tried to persuade the kids to just take a taxi, saying she could reimburse the fare herself. But the girl's words made those jerks, who were probably just sucking up to her, suddenly realize something, and one by one they refused to take any other car except the police car.

This willful and immature behavior pained Jiang Yiyi deeply.

"These are a few spoiled kids, aren't they? You can tell they have no social experience at all. One of them is even wearing the uniform of a top high school. They're all living emperors!"

Lin Ge, squatting in the driver's seat, watched the situation speechlessly.

As for the two suspects behind him, Lin Ge didn't care. He could tell that they were also acting impulsively after drinking, and with their bloated bodies and flabby flesh, he could easily take them both down.

"Officer, what's going on with that cat? Is it your pet?"

Jiang Yiyi had no choice but to request backup, but the girl still wouldn't give up. Seeing the cat's head peeking out from the police car window, she curiously and brazenly approached Jiang Yiyi.

“That’s our police cat. It’s a regular staff member and has done a lot of good work. It’s not a pet, so please don’t touch it.”

Jiang Yiyi gave a perfunctory reply.

"But I still want to touch it! Sister, can I sit in the passenger seat of your car?"

The girl continued to provoke her.

"call……"

Jiang Yiyi closed her eyes and let out a long breath. She suddenly regretted impulsively running back to the police station. So what if Zhu Jun got hurt? It wasn't a big deal. Why did she have to put herself through that?
Eight ancestors!
You can't hit them, you can't scold them! And they're all top students from key high schools, who the hell would dare to mess around and ruin these kids' futures!
(End of this chapter)