Police officer Chen Shu.

Dongzhou is silent at night.

Even as winter approached, there was no chirping of insects or birds, the quietness giving Chen Shu the illusion that he was in a leisurely countryside, making him feel relaxed and happy.

However, this short time always passes by quickly.

"An emergency call has been made, please respond!"

"An emergency call has been made, please respond!"

"An emergency call has been made, please respond!"

A loud electronic alarm sounded from inside the house.

Chen Shu, standing on the steps at the main entrance, smiled slightly. This was the kind of sound the Zhongshan Police Station's duty hall should have at night.

At this point in time, a police report is almost certainly about idle people who have started fighting after drinking.

Well, as long as there are no minor injuries, it's fine.

He took out a Liqun cigarette from his pocket, lit it leisurely, knowing that once the fight started, it would be all night long, so he would take advantage of the quiet time to smoke one.

"Officer Chen! It's a rape case!" Xiao Wang, the dispatcher at the station, rushed out from the front desk in a panic, shouting as he ran.

Chen Shu felt a chill run down his spine, but then he remembered the absurd "bow and arrow case" that Wang Chongming, a fellow police officer in the station, had handled a few days earlier, and he calmed down again.

When Wang Chongming received the case, he rushed to the scene, only to find that it was a dispute between a client and a prostitute over the price after the act. Dumbfounded, Wang Chongming administratively detained both of them, readily accepting the administrative quota that had been handed to him.

Seeing Xiao Wang running to his side, bent over, panting and unable to speak, Chen Shu gently patted his back: "Don't rush, take your time. Catch your breath first."

Xiao Wang straightened up and handed over the police report: "A member of the public reported that she was raped in a hotel last night."

Chen Shu quickly skimmed through the police report: "Was it transferred from the bureau's command center, or did a member of the public call the police themselves?"

"The people themselves called our office."

"Okay, let's head out to pick them up now."

Zhu Chaoran, who was originally engrossed in his phone somewhere, suddenly appeared on the side, listening intently to Chen Shu and Xiao Wang discussing the case with a serious expression.

"They wouldn't let us pick them up." Xiao Wang was also a little confused. "They said on the phone that they would come to our station themselves later."

Chen Shu nodded, knowing that the victim didn't want the matter to be publicized and was preparing to handle it discreetly. However, he still followed procedure and had Xiao Wang notify the duty room of the Criminal Investigation Division.

Sometimes, police stations can also accept and investigate rape cases with direct evidence.

"Sigh." Zhu Chaoran sighed abruptly.

Chen Shu and Xiao Wang looked at the strange fat man with suspicion.

......

Zhongshan Police Station, Public Security Office.

It was already past midnight, and the huge office was empty except for Chen Shu and the young woman.

The woman sat calmly and gracefully on the long sofa, taking off her cotton coat, folding it neatly, and placing it aside. Her fitted cheongsam hugged her curvaceous figure, and the cleavage below her neck was captivatingly white.

Isn't it cold?

Chen Shu calmly turned on the office air conditioner and selected the heating mode. Then he poured a cup of hot water for the woman and placed it on the coffee table in front of her.

"Please sit down for a while. We'll take your statement later when our female police officer arrives."

In addition to investigators, female police officers are required to be present when taking statements from victims in the Gong Gui case.

The woman nodded and softly said thank you.

Chen Shu pulled up his office chair and sat down opposite the woman. He was about to say something, but then thought better of it and decided against it.

Although he was a policeman and this was a police station, he felt it was inappropriate to be alone in a room with a young woman late at night, so he stood up and walked out of the office.

As soon as Chen Shu stepped out of the office, he saw Zhu Chaoran nervously leaning against the wall.

"Fatty, what's up?"

Zhu Chaoran rubbed his hands together: "Brother Shu, why wasn't this case transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division? Are we handling it ourselves?"

Chen Shu was a little surprised that the fat man was concerned about these things today. Normally, when the station received a case, they would stay as far away as possible unless Chen Shu called on him.

Zhu Chaoran followed Chen Shu to the duty hall on the first floor.

It was late at night, and apart from Chen Shu, who had taken on the case, and Zhu Chaoran, who was very interested, most of the staff on duty at Zhongshan Institute had gone to sleep.

Chen Shu stood at the entrance of the hall: "Generally speaking, most cases of assault are caused by disputes between clients and prostitutes over payment. In all my years of work, I've received many reports of assault, but in the end, there hasn't been a single case where someone was actually arrested because of assault."

"Officer Chen, that woman didn't look like a prostitute. She seemed quite refined." A head suddenly appeared from behind the dark front desk, accompanied by a faint voice.

To answer calls quickly, the dispatchers at the station would simply sleep on the floor behind the front desk, using a cool mat in the summer and a thick mattress in the winter.

It is also an extremely difficult position.

"You little bastard, you scared me to death!" Zhu Chaoran cursed, startled. "Little bastard" was the nickname he gave Xiao Wang, but he was the only one in the Zhongshan Institute who dared to give Xiao Wang, who was known as the king of gossip, a nickname.

"You fatso! Don't think I don't know, you've been staring at that woman and swallowing your saliva the whole time she came in! You've completely disgraced the police!" The dispatcher, Xiao Wang, was not to be outdone and jumped out to argue with Zhu Chaoran, clearly forgetting his earlier plan to sleep on the floor.

Chen Shu lit a cigarette, leaned against the wall, and watched the two of them bicker with a smile.

"Chen Shu, where is he?" A woman wearing a down jacket, who looked to be in her early thirties, walked into the duty room.

Chen Shu greeted her with a smile: "She's upstairs. Sister Huihui, I'm sorry to have called you over in the middle of the night. I hope Mimi won't mind?"

The woman who accompanied Chen Shu to take the victim's statement was Zheng Huihui, a female police officer from the Zhongshan Police Station. Mimi is her seven-year-old daughter.

Zheng Huihui's gaze softened immediately: "Mimi is asleep, her dad's with her. By the way, Chen Shu, what do you think of the girl who came to report this time? Is she a decent person?"

If Chen Shu had encountered a handful of rape cases during his years on duty, then Zheng Huihui, the only female police officer in the station who had to rush from home to accompany and question female complainants, had witnessed almost all of the suspected rape cases in the station.

Like Chen Shu, she also knew that most of the female complainants in the archaeological cases were either KTV hostesses, nightclub escorts, or professional prostitutes, and were ultimately not from respectable families.

Chen Shu thought of the woman sitting in the security office on the second floor; her posture and demeanor were somewhat like those of an educated girl.

"Sister Huihui, wait for me a moment, I'm going to get a law enforcement recorder from the duty car."

Stepping out of the hall and closing the glass door, a biting wind rushed in. Chen Shu's smile faded, and he exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling somewhat uncertain.

"Could this really be a case of rape?"