Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 146 Discovery of a Dead Person
That evening, on the third floor of the Zhongshan Police Station, in the deputy director's office...
After a day of running around, Chen Shu sat in his office chair after having dinner in the cafeteria, put his feet up on the table, took out his phone and scrolled through Douyin (TikTok), taking a break from his busy schedule and feeling quite relaxed.

"DOUBLE KILL!"

"TRIPLE KILL!"

"QUADRO KILL!"

"PENTA KILL!"

Zhu Chaoran, who had been lying on the long sofa fighting hard, suddenly jumped up, clenched his fist as big as a casserole dish, and slammed it upwards, shouting with great passion: "Yay! Bro, 6666!"

Chen Shu was somewhat tempted by the fat man's charm and couldn't resist exiting Douyin and opening "Honor of Kings," but he couldn't bear to let his teammates down. After all, he was still at work, and a phone call could come at any moment.

"Jingle Bell!"

Chen Shu answered the phone.

"Chief Chen, remember not to be late for the police light installation tonight, it's in Yangyi Street. I sent you the specific address and requirements via WeChat this morning, please check them again before you leave."

Tonight was Chen Shu's first time leading a team to set up a checkpoint, and even after work, the office clerk Zheng Huihui still made sure to call and give him a few more instructions.

"Yangyi Subdistrict? That's not in our jurisdiction."

"The checkpoint locations for the police light project are all arranged by the branch command center. Our station is assigned two locations, and I gave the one closer to the station to Lao Lei. Chief Chen, you'll have to do the work of going to the location in Yangyi Street."

Old Lei is 53 years old this year and is a veteran in the station. He usually takes care of answering calls or patrolling the community during the day. After so many years of working hard in all kinds of weather, it's time for him to enjoy his retirement and reduce his workload.

Zheng Huihui's arrangement was perfectly reasonable.

"I understand, Sister Huihui. You can stay home and take care of Mimi. Everything will be fine at the station."

Now that Chen Shu is the leader of the institute, he will bear some leadership responsibility if any problem occurs in the institute, even if he is unaware of it.

Chen Shu put his feet down from the desk and prepared to go downstairs to check the equipment for the night's checkpoints. As he passed the door, he reminded Zhu Chaoran of the assembly time for the "Police Light Project" that night.

The "Police Light Project" implemented by the Dongzhou Public Security Bureau, as the name suggests, involves setting up duty posts in areas with high pedestrian traffic and complex security situations, illuminating them with conspicuous red and blue police lights. By deploying police on the streets, the project aims to increase police visibility and deter and curb street and outdoor crime.

This is for external publicity.

Within the public security system, police officers with families are actually not well-regarded. This is because the normalization of this duty means that after their regular shifts, overtime, and case handling, they still have to set aside fixed time in the evenings to participate in duty.

Police officers without families are happy. In the "Police Light Project," in some suburban areas far from the city, there aren't many people or much to do; they just close their doors and play on their phones. They even get a subsidy of 200 yuan each time—why not?
Chen Shu first went to the plainclothes team office on the first floor to discuss the evening's work tasks and personnel arrangements with Captain Zheng Jie. As expected, Xiao Lin, who was short of money, was once again assigned to the evening's overtime duty.

After confirming the police force for the night, Chen Shu went straight to the station's equipment room and checked all the equipment for the night's duty according to the document Zheng Huihui had sent him that morning.

Large equipment includes simple tents, mobile police lights, and combined tables and chairs, while smaller equipment includes reflective vests, walkie-talkies, voice recorders, batons, and handcuffs.

There aren't many items, but we need to be thorough. In case the city bureau or branch bureau leaders come down for a surprise inspection and something goes wrong, we'll have to find the person in charge.

After gathering all the equipment, Chen Shu went to the community office to find Lao Lei and reminded him to make sure he brought all his personal equipment and police mobile phone that night.

Old Lei nodded lazily, asked about the meeting time, and then ignored Chen Shu, looking down at the variety show on his phone.

Chen Shu had grown accustomed to the attitude of the older officers at the station; after all, they had all worked their way up like this for decades. Now, having to work overtime with the younger officers at night was truly tough. It was already 7 PM when Chen Shu stood in the duty room waiting for the officers to assemble. He felt a pang of emotion; even though he had only been a minor officer, the responsibilities and tasks had increased considerably.

At 7:00, Chen Shu counted the number of people according to the list provided by Zheng Huihui. There were two groups for the police light operation tonight, each group consisting of one police car, one police officer, and three auxiliary police officers. Chen Shu led one group, and Lao Lei led the other.

Without any speeches or mobilization, once everyone was accounted for, the two groups got into the police cars and set off.

Around 9 p.m., a light drizzle was falling on Minhang Road, Yangyi Street.
The name of this road sounds a bit like "airport," but it's actually just an ordinary road in the suburbs of Dongzhou City, near Sanjia Mountain. If it weren't for the elevated highway and the avenue built a few years ago that connects Dongzhou City's airport and train station, this place would be deserted at night.

Unlike the city center, this place is mostly deserted at night, except for cars on their way. Especially now, with the light rain, it looks like there are hardly any pedestrians around.

Seeing the situation, Chen Shu arranged for three auxiliary police officers to take turns standing guard on the road, one hour each, plus himself as the last officer, for a total of four hours of duty time.

The others either sat at the makeshift tables and chairs set up under the roadside tents, or they sat in the police car without any problem.

Upon hearing the assignment, Zhu Chaoran was the first to volunteer for guard duty. Chen Shu knew that he had been playing games at the institute and was tired and wanted to stretch his body, so he nodded in agreement.

The other auxiliary police officer was not familiar with Chen Shu, who was leading the team, and only knew that he was the deputy director, so he did not dare to go to the police car alone. He picked a chair and sat on the simple chair set up by the roadside.

I was looking ahead but didn't dare take out my phone.

Seeing that there wasn't much left to do, Chen Shu called over Xiao Lin, and the two of them went to sit down in the police car.

Chen Shu pulled out a cigarette from his pants pocket, handed one to Xiao Lin, and lit one for himself. After lighting it, they took a few puffs.

Chen Shu said slowly, "Xiao Lin, I've thought about what you told me this morning carefully. There's no precedent in our station for auxiliary police officers to work two shifts. Although the working hours for administrative shifts and off-duty shifts are different, if you take on two shifts by yourself, it's easy to cause overtime or duty conflicts."

Upon hearing this, Xiaolin tightened his grip on the cigarette, a look of disappointment on his face, but he insisted, "It's alright, Director Chen. I have to get up at three in the morning to deliver milk, and I actually have to go to bed early at night, so I don't have time to take over this shift."

I got up at 3 a.m.!

Deliver milk!
Chen Shu felt a pang of sadness and swallowed the fact that he had originally arranged for her to work the night shift at the Liming Grid Service Center.

"Getting up so early, how can you sleep well at night?"

Xiao Lin forced a smile and recited a rhyme to try and lighten the dull atmosphere in the car: "No need to rely on your parents, no need to rely on your job, no need to rely on money, working people just work hard."

After saying that, he took a deep drag on his cigarette, quietly watching the passing vehicles outside the window, his eyes filled with weariness and a hint of loneliness.

The only sound inside the car was the "clattering" of the windshield wipers.

Just then, he saw two people carrying large bags and small packages tumbling and crawling along the mountain road west of the temporary checkpoint, heading towards the flashing police lights.

"Chief Chen, there's a situation!"

Chen Shu reacted quickly, getting out of the car and running over.

"Officer! Someone's dead! Someone's dead!"

From afar, a panicked voice could be heard.

(End of this chapter)