Binjiang Police Affairs

Ma Zhen held his handcuffed hands, hunched over and squatting in the corner, remaining silent no matter how he was questioned.

He definitely had a problem; even if there wasn't one, he wouldn't be trembling with such fear, but he stubbornly kept his mouth shut, making it impossible to tell what his issue was in the moment.

Zhang Ping's spouse, Wang Xiaoxue, now was not only a ticket seller but also a broadcaster.

Just as the interrogation proceeded, the loudspeaker outside broadcasted Wang Xiaoxue's reminder for passengers who hadn't had their tickets checked to hurry and board the ship.

The Bai Shen passenger ship was about to return, and Shao Lei needed to go back on board for duty.

Seeing he couldn't get anything out of him right away, he could only take the New Year goods that Han Yu had helped purchase and board first.

The Bai Shen had left, and now the Bai Liu arrived.

Han Yu didn't have time to go to the dunship to hand over duties to the Passenger Ferry Police Team and continued to interrogate Ma Zhen.

"Ma Zhen, if you don't want anyone to know what you did, then you should never have done it. As long as we want to investigate, no matter what you've done, we'll find out sooner or later."

Han Yu glanced up at Chen Zikun, who had just walked in, and continued, "If you keep this attitude, then don't expect to go home for Chinese New Year. Don't think we're clueless and can't deal with you. Have you ever heard of custodial investigation? That is, we send you to the detention center for custody and review until your case is thoroughly examined!"

Ma Zhen was still silent.

Han Yu really had no way of dealing with him at the moment.

As for the custody, it was just to scare him; sending him to the detention center wasn't a real possibility.

Because Wannian Police Station had just reported back, confirming that there was someone named Ma Zhen in Changhe Third Team, and he had indeed gone to East Sea to work with a fellow villager last summer.

Wannian Police Station had already asked village officials to locate his parents, who would surely rush over once they knew. Once his parents arrived and confirmed his identity as Ma Zhen, it meant there was no issue with his identity, and no grounds for custodial investigation.

But the current issue was that he looked extremely suspect!

If they just let him go and East Sea colleagues found out he committed a crime, and he fled in fear of punishment after returning home, the superiors would definitely see an issue with Bailong Port Police Station's work.

Han Yu was troubled when Chen Zikun reminded him, "Director Yu, it's almost ten."

"It's almost ten, why don't you take Xiao Gong to the bus station."

"Are things alright here?"

"There's nothing major. You hurry and take Xiao Gong, or he'll miss the bus."

"Okay."

Chen Zikun gave a curious look at Ma Zhen squatting in the corner, took the police car keys from Han Yu, and turned to leave the office.

Xiao Gong was very diligent in his work, hardly taking any time off this half year, and lived far from home.

The station decided to give Xiao Gong a lengthy vacation so he could reunite with his family in Yangzhou, arranging for him not to be on duty during Chinese New Year.

Han Yu was occupied with whether Xiao Gong could make it home before nightfall when Ma Zhen, probably uncomfortable squatting, shifted in the corner.

The pressing matter was to get him to speak.

In a low voice, Han Yu asked, "You don't have a single penny on you, you probably haven't eaten on the ship, are you hungry?"

Ma Zhen didn't expect the police to ask this and hesitated before whispering, "Hungry."

"How many days have you not eaten?"

"..."

"Do you want to eat?"

"..."

Han Yu realized that it was difficult to get him to talk by offering or withholding food and also felt it was rather inhumane to knowingly leave him starving. He decided to pick up the Port Supervision walkie-talkie to call his elder schoolmate, asking her to tell his mother to bring over some food.

Han Xiangning, with a walkie-talkie at hand while in postpartum confinement, was not just focused on her work but also felt very lonely. Having the walkie-talkie nearby allowed her at least to inquire if Director Jin and Old Ge had any issues at work.

After about fifteen minutes, Mrs. Han, who was unaware of the situation, brought over food.

The rice was leftovers from last night, just reheated.

The dishes were also last night's leftovers, also reheated.

These days, it wasn't her daughter and son-in-law visiting, it was her in-laws, or her eldest son and his wife, or Han Xiangmeng and his partner coming over, making the house seem like a restaurant. If nothing else, there was an abundance of food.

Ma Zhen was surprised by the sumptuous meal the police uncle had brought over, which included thin slices of sausage, stir-fried pork strips, chives scrambled with eggs, and a soup of pork organs.

Ignoring the astonished look of the lady who brought the food, and seeing the police uncle's nod, he immediately wolfed down the food.

"Eat slowly, don't choke."

"Thank you, police uncle."

"San'er, what happened to this child?" Luo Yanfeng couldn't help but ask.

Han Yu hurriedly said, "It's nothing serious, it'll be alright once things are clear, Mom, you go back first, I'll clean up the dishes later."

"Then I'll be going."

"Go ahead."

After seeing his mother off, Han Yu lifted his arm to check his watch and sighed lightly, "Ma Zhen, if your parents knew you were this hungry, they would feel very heartbroken."

Ma Zhen stared blankly for a moment before tears overflowed from his eyes.

Han Yu realized that appealing to his emotions was effective. Seeing that he was handcuffed and found it difficult to eat, he took out the key to unlock his handcuffs, whispering, "If your dad and mom saw you in handcuffs, they would feel very sad and hurt, let's remove these first."

"Thank you, police uncle."

"Don't thank me yet, eat your food first. The soup is good, drink more."

"Mhm."

These past days, he was so hungry that he had been scrounging in trash bins for food, never having tasted such good food before.

Thinking of his parents coming soon, Ma Zhen's heart ached, tears streaming down his face and into the soup.

Han Yu, seizing the moment, said, "Stop crying. A true man should solve problems rather than cry. If you feel you have let your parents down and brought shame upon them, then face the problem and rise up from where you have fallen."

"I can't rise up; I've caused trouble, big trouble..."

Ma Zhen couldn't eat anymore, he held his head in his hands and wept uncontrollably.

Han Yu patted his shoulder and said in the calmest tone possible, "Ma Zhen, you can probably tell that I'm from Linghai, and Linghai people definitely help their own. Whatever trouble you've caused, you can tell me, and I'll help you analyze it."

"Police officer, I... I..."

"What exactly happened? If you trust me and are willing to tell me, I'll definitely help you. At the very least, I can prove that you turned yourself in. You should understand that turning yourself in means you could be treated more leniently."

"It's useless, there's been a fatality, turning myself in won't help."

Han Yu was taken aback and asked intently, "There has been a fatality?"

Ma Zhen looked up and cried, "I didn't want to go, it was Chen Qiusheng who dragged me along. They had more people than us and started beating us as soon as they saw us. I... I couldn't fight back, so when I saw a brick on the ground, I picked it up and hit them a few times."

"You got into a fight?"

"Yes."

"Why did that Chen Qiusheng ask you to fight?"

"His girlfriend started seeing a chef from another restaurant and wanted to break up with him."

Ma Zhen, sniffling and crying, confessed, and Han Yu hurriedly took notes on paper.

The story wasn't complicated: he worked at a restaurant as a general laborer and apprentice, where the chef was essentially his master and he did as the chef said.

The chef's girlfriend, a server at another restaurant, had started a relationship with a chef there. His master couldn't stand it and called for him and three other kitchen staff to demand an explanation.

The other restaurant was bigger than theirs, with more kitchen staff. As soon as they saw them, a brawl broke out.

He picked up a brick and struck someone from the opposing side a few times. When that person fell and didn't move, he realized the trouble he was in. He ran without looking back, didn't dare return to the restaurant, had nowhere to go, and mingled with the crowd of the Spring Festival travel rush to sneak onto the passenger ship, planning to return to his hometown to lay low.

He ended up being questioned by Shao Lei for being suspicious and not having a ticket.

He thought he had caused a death, but whether there actually was a casualty was still unknown. Still, this was no trivial matter. Han Yu comforted him for a while, stabilized his emotions, handcuffed him again, and left him with Zhang Ping, who had just seen off the Bai Liu passenger ship, to look after. Han Yu then stepped out of the office to call the Political Commissioner at Bailong Port Police Station using his cell phone.

"Does the Bai Shen Police Team know about this?"

"They don't know; they left more than two hours ago. It's not secure to call over the radio, and even if they knew, they would still have to hand him over to the East Sea Police Bureau."

There were fewer travelers at Bailong Port, and not many fugitives were captured.

Binjiang Port, with more travelers, had the Binjiang Port Police Station capture an average of three to forty criminals each year.

No matter how many were captured, they ultimately had to be handed over to the Local Police Bureau of the place where the crime occurred.

Political Commissioner Jiang didn't see this as anything unusual and said without hesitation, "Don't you have a fax machine? Send the interrogation materials over, and I'll have the Criminal Investigation Team contact our colleagues in East Sea. Once East Sea Police receive the news, they will certainly come to escort the detainee back."

"The colleagues from East Sea Police Department won't be able to get here until tomorrow at the earliest, but I have nobody to guard the holding cells."

"No one to guard them?"

"Xiao Gong has gone home, Uncle Zhu has family matters to deal with, and Captain Fan needs to stay at the shipyard. I have to go to the shipyard this afternoon, too. Zhang Ping is on duty at the dock in the morning and has to be on stakeout at the dunship in the afternoon. There's no one available."

"Then send them to the Linghai Police Bureau detention center."

"Can't. It's full over there; they can't take any more."

"How do you know that?"

"Director Shi from the Four Factory Police Station told me. They caught a fugitive yesterday and tried to send him to the detention center this morning, but there wasn't any space left, so they had to send him to the Changzhou Police Bureau detention center instead."

After thinking it over, Han Yu emphasized, "I'm not familiar with the Changzhou Police Bureau, and right now we only have the kid's confession, no arrest warrant from East Sea, and no formal request from the East Sea colleagues for us to apprehend the suspect. They wouldn't accept the detainee if we sent them over."

The Changhang Bureau isn't the same as Local Police Bureaus; many of the police officers are from out of town. With the New Year approaching, we need to arrange for them to take time off, so our bureau's police force is also very stretched.

Political Commissioner Jiang, with no other options, weighed the situation and said: "You guys keep an eye on the suspect. I'll arrange for on-duty officers to escort the person to the bureau."

"That would be best."

"There's another matter. You reported the smuggling line, so why did you let Liu Guixiang continue to investigate it?"

"Political Commissioner, how did you find out?"

"Well, the New Year's coming, and since I can't go home because of duty this year, I went to the post office this morning to send some money home. I ran into him there. He was sneaking around, and when he saw me, he tried to hide, but I caught him red-handed!"

Bailong Port is small, and Binjiang Port isn't big either. Trying to do something under the radar is impossible without the leaders finding out.

Han Yu sighed silently and said with a grin: "Political Commissioner, it's not that I'm disobeying orders or refusing to follow commands. I considered that it had taken us a long time to gather this lead, and we can't afford to let it lose its value."

"The superiors will definitely take it seriously. It's been reported already. How could it lose its value?"

"Political Commissioner, hear me out. Liu Guixiang has made international long-distance calls and contacted Snake Head, pretending he wanted to make a fortune in Japan. If he just stops contacting them because the Snake Head's conditions were too high, the Snake Head will surely become suspicious. It's likely that they'll change their number, and they won't use the bank account they provided before. Wouldn't this make the lead worthless to the superiors?"

"You want Liu Guixiang to keep in touch with Snake Head and haggle with the Snake Head hiding in Japan?"

"It's not that I want him to keep in touch. As the Deputy Division Commander of the Criminal Investigation Team, he must stay in contact. Since the lead has been reported, if the superiors find out that the phone number no longer works, and the bank account is useless, they might suspect there's something wrong with the lead we reported."

It sounded somewhat reasonable.

Political Commissioner Jiang thought for a moment, then muttered, "But he's making international calls; it costs a lot of money to make a call. All grassroot case-handling units would report any leads, and you can imagine the accumulation of leads reported to the superiors. Who knows how long till the superiors take it seriously, and how long do we have to keep in contact?"

Han Yu realized that the bureau leaders were reluctant to spend on the phone calls. It was understandable, after all, international calls were more expensive than mobile phone calls. He quickly said, "At most two months. If we don't get any feedback from the superiors in two months, then we won't need to work on this lead anymore."

Turns out, a lead had to be nurtured, not just reported and forgotten.

Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to contact Snake Head every day, but rather once every ten days or so.

In two months at most, they would contact six times, and each time the call cost could be controlled to about a hundred yuan. The total for six times wouldn't exceed a thousand yuan.

Thinking of this, Political Commissioner Jiang reluctantly agreed, "Alright, we'll work on it for two more months at most. If there is still no feedback by then, we're not responsible even if the lead loses its value."