Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 383 Reinforcements and the End (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
"Wow! What a big commotion! Although I heard about your situation on the train, your exhausted appearance is a bit too scary, isn't it?"

A slightly familiar voice sounded from behind.

Lin Ge turned around and his eyes lit up.

Before him appeared a dozen or so travel-worn men.

They were all dressed in wrinkled clothes and looked exhausted. Yet, they all wore smiles, and their eyes, as they looked around, were filled with emotion, longing, and a habitual wariness.

Lin Ge didn't recognize almost any of these people, but just by looking at their demeanor, he knew that every single one of them was a policeman.

"Sorry we're late."

The leader was the only guy Lin Ge knew, named Cao Chen, who belonged to the Economic Investigation Detachment of Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Lin Ge estimated that the people behind him were most likely his colleagues from the Economic Investigation Detachment who were often away on business trips.

As the department responsible for responding to economic crimes involving the greatest mobility and geographical distance, the officers of the Economic Crime Investigation Division are constantly on the move across the country. Their jurisdiction covers everything from fraud and embezzlement to pyramid schemes, counterfeit currency sales, money laundering, and even gambling operations. With the rise of the internet age, online fraud, online pyramid schemes, online gambling, and online money laundering have also become significant aspects of the work for the Economic Crime Investigation Division.

Deception can be carried out regardless of distance, but catching someone red-handed requires both the perpetrator and the evidence. Therefore, traveling across the country has become an unavoidable part of the work process for economic crime investigation police.

It's common for an economic crime investigation branch in a prefecture-level city to have fewer than five active staff members. Just like when Lin Ge visited the municipal bureau last time, the entire economic crime investigation branch office building had fewer than ten people, including clerical staff. Only three or four were actually available to respond to calls and perform their duties.

Therefore, Lin Ge was both curious and pleasantly surprised to see so many economic crime investigation police officers appear together this time.

"Upon learning about the situation in the city, we all booked train tickets overnight and rushed back. There are only a few long-distance railway lines, so it's not surprising that we bumped into each other along the way. We were all coming back from the south; the groups from the west and north will probably be a bit later."

Cao Chen smiled and explained to Lin Ge and his colleagues at Zhanghe Police Station, omitting the fact that he had also been traveling back and forth for several days without sleep.

He went to a small city in the south to retrieve a fugitive suspect who had been arrested by the local police.

Having just arrived in the area after a day and a half by train, he rushed to pick up his passengers without even taking a break. He had planned to spend the night there, but then he learned of the emergency situation in Zhangzhou. So he quickly bought a standing ticket for the return trip that very night, and stood like a zombie, leaning against the carriage door, all the way back.

Because they were still accompanied by a suspect, Cao Chen and his companion didn't dare to close their eyes the entire way. They could only take turns dozing off to keep up, and that's how they rushed back.

"Alright, leave the rest to us. Two of you can take the place of the four of you. Go home and get some sleep."

Cao Chen feigned a sprightly demeanor, indicating to Lin Ge and Zhang Ke that they could all go on like idiots. Compared to their near-burnt-out state, Cao Chen felt he could hold on for another two days.

"But……"

"No buts! I have a partner! He took the suspect back to the city station and will come to relieve me after he finishes the formalities. So stop dawdling, okay? Wouldn't it be better to go back and get some more sleep instead of wasting all this time?"

Cao Chen's attitude was very tough, and he drove away everyone from Zhanghe Police Station, including Lin Ge.

Lin Ge was too exhausted to argue with him. Normally, he would have left a couple of marks on his face. But right now, Lin Ge couldn't even open his eyes, so he lazily hooked his paws around Zhang Ke's trouser leg and lay on the ground, letting Zhang Ke drag him forward.

Helpless, Zhang Ke laboriously squatted down and picked up this living ancestor.

Neither of them had the energy or the mood to continue exchanging pleasantries, so they waved to each other and slowly parted ways.

Not only were the two girls disheveled and dark-circled, looking utterly exhausted, but Zhang Ke and Li Yiduo also lacked the energy and focus to drive. The four of them decided to go to a nearby hotel, booked two rooms, registered using their police IDs instead of their national IDs, and then the men and women went in separately and fell asleep immediately.

This time, I'm really exhausted.

The good news is that just one cat, Lingo, found over twenty bottles of problematic liquor that the buyers were reluctant to part with, and a few bastards who planned to hoard them as rare collectibles, waiting for the price to rise before reselling them. All in all, that's over thirty bottles of liquor. Even if we compromise a bit, at least ten people have been saved, right?

Methanol causes irreversible damage to the eyes, so it's good that Zhangzhou City will have fewer blind people.

After taking care of his personal hygiene in the toilet, Lin Ge returned to bed and drifted off to sleep amidst the snoring.

The next morning, Lin Ge woke up and spent another busy day with the group. He returned to the hotel in the evening to sleep, and this time he felt much better.

"puff……"

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Ge vaguely heard a familiar snicker. Opening his eyes, he saw Sun Chang, Li Siyu, and Jiang Yiyi, who had arrived at some point, taking pictures of the bed with their phones.

Zhu Jun, looking helpless at the door, turned to look at the wall, revealing an awkward expression as if he had a toothache.

"what's the situation?"

Lin Ge was stunned for a moment, and slowly his senses returned to his body.

Only then did he realize that he was lying arrogantly in the middle of the big bed, having driven Zhang Ke and Li Yiduo to the left edge of the bed.

The two men, both quite large, now could only sleep by tightly embracing each other. Especially the way Li Yiduo slept like a little bird nestled in Zhang Ke's arms—to put it more abstractly, it might truly be a beautiful sight for female fans of BL (Boys' Love).

No wonder Zhu Jun looked unwell.

Any man would feel awkward if his girlfriend stared at two shirtless men with shining eyes, right? It was only because Li Siyu and Sun Chang were there that Zhu Jun was so eager to kill Zhang Ke and Li Yiduo.

"And you!"

Zhu Jun glared fiercely at Lin Ge, who looked completely innocent.

"What the hell! What does this have to do with me? Who told you bastards not to book me another room? With such a soft bed, why should I sleep on the floor?"

Lin Ge rolled over with conviction, then stretched out his arms and yawned while lying in bed.

He didn't know how long he had slept, but he felt unusually refreshed. He didn't care about the women taking pictures with their phones; he was only curious about why they were in his hotel room.

"The case is almost resolved. The experts in the Economic Crime Investigation Department are still more capable than us. They can talk to anyone and understand their way of speaking. They've already retrieved all the remaining bottles of problematic liquor that they could find."

Zhu Jun brought some very good news.

"No more work?"

Lin Ge got up in surprise.

Jiang Yiyi smiled as she watched Lin Ge's overjoyed expression, nodding in agreement, "We really can't find seven more bottles, and everyone is just about to give up. The provincial commissioner is quite easy to talk to, and besides, seven days have already passed. Those who were going to have problems have already had problems, and those who haven't are lucky. That's all we can do. It seems the city still has some objections, but we've already reached the police's limit. What can they do if they object?"

"So, I can finally go home and sleep?"

Zhang Ke suddenly spoke with his eyes closed, and with a swift movement of his arm, he flipped Li Yiduo over.

Poor Li Yiduo was caught off guard and fell off the bed, letting out a muffled groan before groggily opening his eyes. Li Siyu, who was standing next to him, felt sorry for him and noticed that Li Yiduo was only wearing his underwear. She quickly ran over to help her boyfriend up and then pulled the blanket over him.

"Tsk!"

Zhang Ke didn't try to grab it back, letting the blanket fall away to reveal his muscular upper body.

He put his hands behind his head, still with his eyes closed, and said, "In short, this matter is finally over, right? Just because of six ignorant and unscientific villagers, innocent people suffered varying degrees of harm, and the entire city mobilized countless staff from various departments for seven days straight, practically turning the whole of Zhang City upside down. The losses and costs are incalculable! That's really something!"

"As of today's latest results, three people have died despite medical treatment, eight people have suffered serious injuries including blindness and kidney failure, and hundreds more have been affected. It's a truly terrifying number!"

While getting dressed with Li Siyu's help, Li Yiduo looked through the messages on his phone.

Even now, the entire city of Zhang is somewhat unsettled. Unaware of the situation, the masses are also shocked by this major event and have begun to speculate wildly.

Viral outbreaks, US missiles, biological leaks—the speculation is endless. Some even guessed a world war was brewing, and posted the Zhangzhou police's recent activities online. "What an undeserved disaster!"

Zhang Ke sighed.

"The Baimiao Police Station is finished this year. Even if the year has just begun, they are destined to have no hope for the future until the end of the year."

Zhu Jun laughed gleefully.

"Weren't we the same last year?"

Jiang Yiyi rolled her eyes, annoyed by her boyfriend's petty behavior, and said sullenly, "I worked so hard all year, and then the Baike Pharmaceutical Factory incident at the end of the year caused a huge blow to my year-end bonus. Why did I have to handle that mess? I'm so busy helping the community appease the unemployed workers from the pharmaceutical factory!"

"Isn't being a police officer just this miserable life? I'm just an auxiliary police officer! I've worked hard for five days and almost collapsed from exhaustion. Even our cats are exhausted, unlike other people's pets who just eat and sleep..."

Zhang Ke sighed, got up, and dressed. He grabbed Lin Ge by the back of the neck and threw him off the bed, then looked at Li Yiduo and said, "How are your cats doing? I heard you hired a nanny to take care of them? Too much money to burn, huh? Want to buy your buddies a drink?"

"I can't bother Siyu every day, can I? She's already working hard enough every day. She's my girlfriend, not my cat servant."

Li Yiduo looked at Li Siyu with deep affection.

The girl was bending down to tug at his sleeves and hem, trying to make the wrinkled police uniform look neater. Because of his words, Li Siyu's face flushed, drawing envious clicks of the tongue from the two women beside her.

"Look at people!"

The two women turned and glared at their boyfriends again.

As it turned out, Zhang Ke was playfully fighting with Lin Ge, who was retaliating by scratching him all over. Zhu Jun, on the other hand, was quite free, but at this moment he was hooking his arm around Li Yiduo's shoulder and smilingly asking him to treat him to dinner, completely unaware of Jiang Yiyi's malicious and murderous gaze.

"I told you not to throw my dad away!"

Lin Ge angrily lectured Zhang Ke until the rich second-generation begged for mercy, then reluctantly let him go.

After a period of joking and laughing, the group finally felt refreshed. The main reason they could finally breathe a sigh of relief was that the matter had been resolved and they no longer needed to work overtime.

These past five days have truly pushed everyone to their limits.

Every night, I would stay up all night searching for clues, analyzing data, identifying targets, and arranging tasks and work for the day. Then, I would start my day early, making countless phone calls and making numerous in-person visits, explaining my reasons for each visit repeatedly, and patiently enduring all sorts of complaints.

Time and again, they are turned away and stand anxiously at the door waiting for the person they are targeting to stroll back slowly, only to be blamed for wasting their time, unaware that the police have to hurry to the next house.

Everyone was afraid of arriving too late, lest someone with a strong sense of curiosity and a dark mind secretly drink the wine, causing further harm and death to the injured.

Moreover, even with the help of community staff, they actually faced more complaints. Nobody wanted to do the work, and the community staff were no exception. There was no shortage of grumbling along the way, and being given the cold shoulder after working for a long time was a common occurrence.

Some people think it's unnecessary to make such a fuss over a few bottles of counterfeit alcohol. Others think that deploying thousands of people for just a few dozen or a hundred bottles is an overreaction, a crude and inefficient approach. From this perspective, the police are useless and corrupt!
But for every police officer, every life is precious. Failing to save someone when there's an opportunity is a dereliction of duty on the part of the police. Efficiency and shortcuts are synonymous with laziness; to reduce accidents and save more lives, frontline officers are willing to work harder themselves.

"What's shown in TV dramas is all nonsense! Who would dare to take shortcuts or risks unless they're in a desperate situation with absolutely no other options? What's this talk of going against the majority, or making a decisive decision? Abandoning the group investigation and going in one direction—only TV dramas dare to portray it like that to highlight the protagonist."

Are we, the grassroots police officers, no longer even qualified to be tools?

The protagonist is awesome! If he succeeds, he'll be a hero! But what if he loses? He'll be a murderer! Which policeman can bear the cries of the victim's family? So what if he loses his job? Is a human life only worth a hat? How despicable!

On the way back, Zhu Jun talked on and on.

He was referring to a short video he'd seen a few days ago while taking a break from his busy schedule. It was about a crime-solving web series, something to watch for fun.

The protagonist is a police officer who employs innovative and unconventional methods, meticulously unraveling cases and employing a variety of unique approaches. He completely abandons traditional manual investigations, relying instead on deduction and high-tech solutions. While all other police officers are incompetent, he alone can identify key clues and flaws. Like an American superhero, he solves case after case, gradually climbing to the top of the police force…

"Isn't that just a crime-solving drama? It's the same kind of anti-Japanese war drama. In those kinds of scripts, we grassroots police officers, especially auxiliary police officers like me and Zhang Ke, wouldn't even get to be extras, let alone have our faces shown."

Zhang Ke curled his lip in disdain.

"But it can mislead the public, making people think that the police are easy and incompetent. They think that solving cases is left to their superiors and that running around is not hard enough. People even think that the police are corrupt and that they are henchmen of the rich and powerful."

Zhu Jun sighed with emotion.

This is what he personally witnessed the night before last.

A woman who had bought Zhanghe Daqu liquor refused to hand it over even when Zhu Jun came to her door. It's unclear what she was thinking; she somehow assumed the liquor was a treasure, something valuable, and that's why the police were taking it away from the public.

Despite Zhu Jun's earnest pleas, she insisted that he give her two thousand yuan to buy it back, or she wouldn't give it to him. Her husband, standing nearby, kindly tried to persuade her for a long time before she reluctantly agreed. But in the blink of an eye, as she went back to get the wine, she secretly emptied some of the wine from the bottle in the kitchen…

Fortunately, Zhu Jun was observant and noticed that the weight and packaging were wrong. He opened the container to check and immediately went back to stop them from leaving. Otherwise, her whole family would have had to eat that pot of crucian carp soup made with methanol to remove the fishy smell.

Even at this point, the woman remained unrepentant. She launched into a tirade of vile insults against Zhu Jun, repeatedly spouting accusations that the police only serve the rich and don't care about the lives of ordinary people…

She sat on the ground and made a scene about divorce, so the man didn't dare to persuade her and just left the trouble to Zhu Jun.

Honestly, Zhu Jun hadn't had a proper night's sleep for five whole days. In his anger, he felt like killing that damned woman. Of course, in the end, he could only patiently and kindly persuade her.

"Forget it, it's all in the past. Besides, all they did was throw a tantrum; it's good enough that they didn't actually hit us."

Jiang Yiyi offered words of comfort with a sense of helplessness.

"That's not what I meant! I'm used to getting scolded a few times."

Zhu Jun rolled his eyes, glanced at Jiang Yiyi in the passenger seat while the light was red, and said seriously, "What annoys me is, why won't this woman believe the police? I already told her there was something wrong with the alcohol, why does she not only question it but also contradict me? It's outrageous! Besides herself, she has her husband and a little girl who's only four or five years old. Who can guarantee that nothing will happen if that little girl drinks this pot of crucian carp soup?"

"Tsk! It really is all thanks to you. To be honest, no normal person would do something that goes against the police. I've seen many people who question the police, but it's rare to see someone who ignores the police's words or even insists on doing the opposite."

Zhang Ke nodded in agreement.

"Besides, it's usually the elderly who are stubborn. Why is she, a young person, also unable to distinguish right from wrong? I can't understand it."

Sun Chang asked, puzzled.

"You've been spending too much time on Xiaohongshu, haven't you?"

Zhu Jun's casual remark immediately drew angry glares from Jiang Yiyi and Sun Chang.

Lin Ge, who had been watching the commotion, tilted his head, somewhat puzzled as to why the two women had suddenly become angry.

"In a broad sense, Xiaohongshu has become a derogatory term that discriminates against women, satirizes women, feminism, and female supremacy, and is unreasonable and immoral. To be honest, it's quite offensive."

Jiang Yiyi sighed.

"But now Xiaohongshu has indeed become a hub for women's free speech. All kinds of people and all kinds of guidance are here. Xiaohongshu can single-handedly support a significant portion of the outrageous opinions on the internet. It's not that there's no good content on it, but as people's perception of it grows, it will eventually only attract bad people."

Zhu Jun's unexpected stubbornness in this regard suggests that he has been suffering under Xiaohongshu for a long time.

Lin Ge and Zhang Ke both looked at him; this guy seemed to be implying something.

"Can I delete it now?"

Jiang Yiyi rolled her eyes.

My job was recently rescheduled before the Lunar New Year, and now I'm working twelve-hour days a day! Seriously!
Add to that the 10,000-word update, and taking care of my family, honestly, I'm at my limit and feel like dying. Therefore, please forgive any typos or awkward sentences and point them out; I will correct them as soon as possible. I'll likely continue working 12-hour days until before the Lunar New Year, thank you for your understanding.
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(End of this chapter)