Chapter 9: Officer Liu Reports for Duty

  On a long-distance bus from Fujian Province to Hebei Province, Liu used his mobile phone to call his instructor at the police academy, Cheng Shangwu: "Master, have you recently stood on the wrong team? Why was I transferred? And it's such a bad transfer? Directly transferring me to the old revolutionary area."

  Cheng Shangwu is the vice president of Huaxia Blue Sky Police Academy, 66 years old this year. He is a famous criminal investigation expert in Huaxia Country and has solved many difficult cases in his early years. The most famous case was the theft of the Forbidden City's national treasure.

  That year, five national treasures were stolen at the same time, and no traces were left at the scene. Only a note was left behind by the thief to taunt the police, claiming that they would never solve the case.

  Afterwards, many detectives went to handle the case, but after more than a month of investigation, the police had no gains. However, after Cheng Shangwu took over the case, he only used two days and one night to capture the suspect, recover the national treasure, and the clue that Cheng Shangwu discovered was the note left by the thief.

  In the following years, Cheng Shangwu cracked many major cases one after another. From a grassroots civil police officer, he rose to become the director of the Ministry of Public Security's Criminal Investigation Bureau. Later, due to age limits, Cheng Shangwu retired and was hired by Huaxia National Blue Sky Police College as its first vice president.

  The Blue Sky Police Academy is the number one police academy in Huaxia, where the country's elite students gather. Liu Li is a top student at this academy. During a reasoning and analysis competition held by the school, Liu Li was discovered by Cheng Shangwu and became his closed-door disciple.

  "Hahaha……" On the other end of the phone, Cheng Shangwu couldn't help but burst out laughing: "You're the one who's always causing trouble and getting complaints filed against you, and now you're blaming me? What kind of logic is that?"

  Liu Li, in two months, the teacher will be retiring and going back home. I don't want to get involved with the police school's affairs anymore either. We're all old bones now, still occupying this vice principal position, it's not quite suitable. The opportunities should be left for those young people instead.

  There are many teachers in the school, all of whom are men of great character and ability. I feel that they are more suitable for this position than I am. After this batch of students finishes their exams, I plan to resign from my position as vice principal.

  I'm going to leave this city with your teacher's wife, and in the future, Teacher may not be able to help you anymore. You'd better take care of yourself, kid. I've taught you everything I know, just try not to stir up too much trouble in the future, and I believe you'll definitely make a big name for yourself in the police force."

  After a moment of hesitation, Cheng Shangwu said with concern: "In the future, if you encounter difficulties in your work, you can go to your two senior brothers, but generally speaking, don't go to them."

  "Teacher, how could you think of resigning? This is a critical moment to drop the chain. I still expected you to pull me up again, but now it seems that there's no hope." After complaining for a while, Liu Li couldn't help but ask: "Leave this city? Where are you going?"

  "After working for so many years, I have never accompanied your wife properly. These years, I owe her too much. After completing the handover procedures, I plan to take your wife on a trip around the world. When she's had enough fun, we'll return home. Take care of yourself, my young apprentice." With that, Cheng Shangwu hung up the phone.

  "Cut... at this age, what's with the romance, blind trendiness." After grumbling a sentence, Liu used his mobile phone to call Dou Zhihao.

  Liu Li told Dou Zhihao on the phone that he would definitely help with work-related things, and asked Dou Zhihao not to worry. After hanging up the phone, Liu Li let out a sigh of relief, and then slowly fell asleep.

  After a series of twists and turns, Liu Li finally arrived at the HB Province Chenzhou County Public Security Bureau at dusk. As it was already after working hours, the leaders in the county bureau had all gone home, leaving only a few on-duty middle-level leaders and police officers from various departments.

  Seeing this situation, Liu Li left the county bureau and planned to come back tomorrow morning to report to the county leadership. After a moment's thought, Liu Li hailed a taxi and asked it to take him to the Diying Township Police Station.

  The administrative area of Deying Township has 28 natural villages and more than 31,000 residents. It is the smallest township in Guhong County and also one of the poorest. For many years, since the implementation of the township merger policy, the county leaders have wanted to merge Deying Township with other townships, but due to various reasons, this matter has been repeatedly shelved.

  At this time, Liu Li was not wearing a police uniform, so the taxi driver did not know that Liu Li was a policeman. Seeing Liu Xiu's white and clean appearance, with only one suitcase on his body, he chatted with Liu Li.

  After chatting for a few sentences, the taxi driver casually asked: "Brother, why did you come here to work? You don't know, do you? The route that taxis are most unwilling to run is this Diying Township.

  "This place is too poor, I've been to the local government several times, and all the houses inside are dilapidated. The roads in the countryside are simply impassable for cars, with potholes everywhere, it's like a bumper car ride."

  After hearing the taxi driver's words, Liu Li had a preliminary impression of this place, that is, it was close to the disaster area. Thinking that he would be working here in the future, Liu Li's head felt a bit big.

  After a bumpy ride, they finally arrived at the entrance of Dizhang Township Government. Liu Li took down his luggage, paid the car rental fee and walked towards the township government building.

  The government compound of Deying Township is divided into two rows of houses, east and west, with a total of five rows. The first four rows of houses are the offices of various departments in the township, and the last row of houses is exclusively for the offices of the township leaders.

  Looking around the entire township government, only the last row is slightly better, with a coat of paint on the wall. Apart from this, all the other rooms are old and dilapidated. Under the dark night sky, rows of broken houses are dotted with weeds in front of each door. At this moment, the courtyard of the township government looks like a haunted house.

  Generally, police stations are set up in the front row of the township government, but Liu Li looked around and didn't find any buildings with white and blue signs, nor did he see any lamp posts set up by the police station.

  "What the...! What era is this? How can there still be such a dilapidated county government compound?! Liu Li sighed and then loudly shouted: "Is anyone here? Is there anyone here?"

  After shouting a few times, no one responded inside the courtyard. Seeing this situation, Liu Li walked towards the house with the bright light. At this time, all the houses on both sides of the first row in the courtyard were lit up. After looking around, Liu Li went to search for something in the brightly lit house on the right side first.

  The doors of these houses were all unlocked, and after entering, Liu Li glanced at the policy slogans posted on the wall and recognized that this should be the township government office. Seeing no one in the office, Liu Li went out the door and walked towards the row of houses to the left.

  As he walked to the entrance, he knew he had found the right place because there was a sign hanging at the entrance with "Diyang Township Police Station" written on it, and above the entrance, there was also a huge police emblem.

  The door sign of this room reads "Duty Room", but inside the lights are on, yet there is not a single person. Liu Li walked along the corridor to the side and found that there were eight rooms in total, from left to right: Duty Room, Inquiry Room, Interrogation Room, Waiting Room, Director's Office, Instructor's Office, Canteen, and Police Dormitory.

  When Liu Li walked to the dormitory of the civil police, he saw that the curtains were drawn on the windows, and the door was locked from the inside. The room was filled with intermittent "clinking" sounds, as if someone was colliding with bottles.

  "Clang, clang, clang……" Knowing there was someone inside, Liu Li knocked on the door. As soon as he heard the knock, the voice inside instantly disappeared, replaced by an eerie silence. Liu Li knocked a few more times outside, but no one responded from inside, just like the house was empty.

  Having seen this, Liu Li left the doorway, retreated to one side, then took out his mobile phone and dialed 110: "Hello, I want to report a crime. Just now someone was stealing things in my home. I've already blocked the thief in the courtyard. You police had better hurry over."

  "What village am I from? I'm a villager of Deying Township, my home is right next to the Deying Township police station. As soon as you step out, you can see me. Hurry up! If you come late and let that thief escape, I'll file a complaint against you!"

  Liu Li didn't learn anything else during this period, but he did learn the procedure for filing a complaint. He would often threaten people with "filing a complaint" at the drop of a hat. After hanging up the phone, he waited in the courtyard.

  After more than ten seconds, he heard the alarm phone ringing in the duty room, and the police dormitory also rang out. It seemed that there was an extension here, and after the phone rang for a few times, it was picked up by someone.

  About three or four minutes later, the door of the police dormitory was opened from inside, and a middle-aged policeman led three young auxiliary policemen out of the dormitory.

  After going out, the middle-aged policeman looked around and said, "Just now, was someone knocking on the door? Has that person left? Don't tell me it's an inspector coming for a spot check?"

  Seeing no one around, the middle-aged policeman obviously let out a sigh of relief: "Little Li, get in touch with the informant and ask for his location. Zhang Liang, go to the back and drive the police car. Xiao Zhao, bring the police equipment and camera, let's go catch the thief."

  "Stop struggling, I'm the one who called the police." As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Li walked out of the shadows.