Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

In the darkness, several police officers, accompanied by a team of patrol members, broke down the door and quickly arrested six men and one woman inside.

A young police officer excitedly ran over to report: "Chief Li, this is the den of thieves, we've caught a big fish!"

Chief Li of the police station laughed: "Quickly! Get the statement quickly and secure the evidence."

"But……?"

"If we don't have enough manpower, send people to the streets and have their security patrols come and help."

The term "military patrol members" later evolved into "assistant officers," and then into "auxiliary police officers." They generally came from two sources: one was the workers' militia in factories, and in rural police stations, they were militia members; the other was the street-level security patrol teams. Police stations would borrow some of these patrol members to assist in their security work.

It's important to note that patrol officers all have formal jobs; they are either nationally or collectively employed. They are simply seconded to the police station. If they perform well, they can be promoted to full-fledged police officers. Therefore, in terms of status, they are much higher than later auxiliary police officers.

To be honest, he was quite similar to Wen Anguo. Wasn't he an ordinary employee of the Commerce Bureau? Their positions were the same; he wasn't a temporary worker like he later became. This job was also quite good.

The street-level security patrol teams are directly commanded by the street administration, with their daily management falling under the jurisdiction of the street's armed forces department. The patrol members are armed; the armory even contains machine guns, mortars, and other weaponry.

In fact, they are a basic militia force with strong combat capabilities, and they are frequently dispatched to capture spies.

Now you should understand, right? The three old men are the outer perimeter of the street security patrol team, their eyes and ears placed among the people to better control the grassroots.

Upon discovering the thieves' hideout, Zhuang Zhongchen naturally... chose to call the police! Was he out of his mind to confront them head-on? Sure enough, the entire police station was mobilized immediately, and they successfully apprehended all of them.

"Chenzi, thank you!" Chief Li patted Zhuang Zhongchen on the shoulder. He was clearly in a good mood after solving this major case.

"Director Li, are you alright?"

"It's alright, you should get some rest. Try to come to the station to give a statement when you have some free time these next few days."

"Alright! See you later!"

"See you later! Hehe."

Back at the courtyard house, Zhuang Zhongchen took out his key, opened the side door, and quietly entered the yard. Unexpectedly, a dark shadow flickered at Yan Fugui's window; someone glanced outside. Upon seeing that it was Zhuang Zhongchen entering, they immediately fell silent.

Since there were no sanitary facilities in the courtyard houses, chamber pots and urinals were generally used at night. However, leaving them inside the house could feel a bit unpleasant. Women were not comfortable going out at night, but some men preferred to use public toilets outside.

Zhuang Zhongchen had used the same excuse before—he happened to spot the thieves while running to a public restroom at night. He then tracked them down to their hideout and immediately reported it to the police station.

To be honest, with so much coming and going, someone definitely needed to watch the door. So it became an unpaid job for Yan Fugui's family.

To be fair, Yan Fugui is indeed a shrewish and opportunistic person. However, he is also a very responsible and diligent gatekeeper, quietly accomplishing a great deal. Therefore, people have two sides, and cannot be simply categorized as good or bad.

Back home, Zhuang Zhongchen tallied his spoils: seven criminals had been apprehended, and six good deeds had been accomplished. This theft gang must have been operating on a serial basis; was each case solved count as a good deed?

I can't believe I got so lucky. I've probably completed more than half of these three main quests already, right?

Besides these unexpected surprises, Zhuang Zhongchen actually gained other benefits as well.

A few nights later, Zhuang Zhongchen disguised himself and returned to the courtyard house. Since it was deserted, he easily scaled the wall and entered, quickly reaching the rooftop.

Several abandoned pigeon coops remained on the roof. When Zhuang Zhongchen was tracking them that day, he discovered that as soon as those people returned to their hideout, someone secretly climbed onto the roof and hid some things in the pigeon coops.

Since that's the case, there's no need to be polite; these stolen goods are free money. After carefully searching the pigeon coop, Zhuang Zhongchen quickly found two large bags of things...

After returning home, I checked the contents again. There were two small yellow croakers, over 80 silver dollars, 300 RMB, and a thick stack of various tickets and certificates. This must have been prepared for my escape, right?

One small yellow croaker is worth about one tael of gold, currently priced at around 130 yuan. One silver dollar is 1.1 yuan.

The official exchange rate was pegged to the British pound, but in practice, it was pegged to the US dollar. However, settlements for import and export trade were made in Swiss francs. Therefore, economic statistics during this period appear rather chaotic.

However, we won't go into the details here; just a simple overview of the commonly used foreign currency, the Hong Kong dollar, is sufficient—1 RMB is equivalent to 3 HKD.

Whether it's precious metals like gold and silver, or various foreign currencies, you can exchange them at the People's Bank of China. There's no need to go to the black market; exchanges are anonymous. Furthermore, during this period, deposits could be made using your real name or anonymously. Almost everyone had a small stamp on their bank account. Bank deposit slips only recognized the stamp, not the person.

One-third of the country's foreign exchange earnings came from the purchase of precious metals such as gold and silver, as well as foreign currencies, through the People's Bank of China. In those days, remittances from overseas Chinese were one of the most important sources of foreign exchange.

Therefore, banks in those days were actually quite safe. Even so, people still held large amounts of precious metals and foreign currency. Unless they urgently needed money and had to exchange these hard currencies, they generally kept them at home. Surely very few people would be that foolish?

At this point, some of you may have noticed that 3 Hong Kong dollars were exchanged for 1 RMB? Were the Hong Kong dollars really that worthless at that time?

Congratulations, you've discovered a really obscure piece of trivia.

Take the police as an example: you can probably find similar storylines in old Hong Kong movies. In the early 60s, the lowest-ranking uniformed police officers on Hong Kong Island earned just over HK$100 a month. Even if they received some bribes, it would be at most a few dozen Hong Kong dollars, maybe around HK$200.

It's impossible for everyone to be like Detective Lui Lok, who has earned five hundred million dollars; most people remain low-level uniformed police officers for their entire lives.

The lowest-ranking police officers in mainland China earn a basic salary of around 45 yuan. With other allowances and benefits, their monthly income should be around 60 yuan, which is about 200 Hong Kong dollars.

But...! In mainland China, there's housing allocation, free medical care, and partial reimbursement for family members' medical expenses; children can attend school almost for free...

If you add all these benefits together, wouldn't that completely outclass the uniformed police force in Hong Kong?

Therefore, in this era, at least at the cadre level, the mainland looks down on those scoundrels from Hong Kong. Aren't they just a bunch of poor wimps?

Of course, decades later, that will be a different story.

Back here, Zhuang Zhongchen was hit by a windfall, receiving about 7 or 800 yuan.

Sure enough, murder and arson bring wealth and honor!