Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 200 Working Overtime on Christmas Eve

"Good morning, Chief Chen!"

"Morning!"

"Brother Shu, so early today?"

"Fatty, you're the one who came early today. Did you stay up all night last night?"

"Hehe, I've reached the King rank."

It was another morning, and as usual, Chen Shu arrived at the Zhongshan Institute half an hour early.

It's already late December, and the weather is getting colder. He's changed his coat into a bulky, thick down jacket, and added a hat with the brim covering his eyes. He's also carrying a black Xiaomi backpack.

It's like a mobile fortress, but it's definitely warm.

He walked to the front desk, took a bag of large apples from his bag, placed them on the desk of dispatcher Xiao Wang, and said with a smile, "Give one to each of the two shifts when we hand over the duties later. Merry Christmas Eve!"

"Thank you, Director Chen!" Xiao Wang said with a beaming smile.

"You're welcome. I'm indebted to you for your hospitality. Please be more considerate in the future."

"I'm speechless at how bluntly you put it. But I'm still a little happy about it."

"This is recognition of your 'King of Verbal Confidence'!"

I chatted with a few auxiliary police officers at the front desk for a bit, then took a look around the interrogation room, questioning room, and equipment room at the back before returning to my office to start another day's work.

Today is Christmas Eve, a foreign holiday, but it doesn't diminish the enthusiasm of Chinese people.

Often, these holidays for young people are days of hardship for frontline police officers. While other couples stroll hand in hand through shopping malls and movies on Christmas Eve, police wives can only prepare fruit or a late-night snack for their husbands who serve the people and deliver it to their workplace.

Working overtime goes without saying, and I'm not bothered by a few drunken brawls; at most, they're just practice for years. What I'm worried about is some group incidents or events with a huge social impact occurring in my jurisdiction.

Stability is paramount.

As the duty leader of the Zhongshan Institute today, Chen Shu was on high alert.

"Ding ding."

He took out his phone and glanced at it. It was a text message from Chen Chuan confirming a successful bar reservation, with the caption: "Want to party tonight?"

"On duty!!"

"High you immortal board board oh!" Chen Shu cursed inwardly.

The worst thing for a police officer on duty is to make careless remarks like this; it could easily ignite a major incident. If Chen Chuan hadn't been away, he would definitely have gotten a beating from Chen Shu.

He thought for a moment, pulled back the chat history to look at the reservation information, and then retorted with, "Prepare to arrange a surprise inspection of the identity information of the people in booth X at XX bar tonight, and verify it when you get back to the station!"

"Holy crap!!" The other party replied instantly.

Chen Shu smirked, put his phone aside, and began operating the computer's intranet to process some cases submitted by the police officers at the station the previous night.

Sitting in his office chair, clicking "Agreed" or "Read" on each item, Chen Shu missed the days when he was a police officer, and the kindness of Ma, the deputy director of the public security station.

At that time, he had many cases and many things to do. It was one thing to run to the branch office for approval, but Chen Shu was furious at the thought that he had to call Director Ma and get approval through the computer even for something he wanted to do in his own office.

One day, he took some time to visit Ma and poured out his grievances.

From then on, Ma specially made a key to Chen Shu's office, and also left a spare key to the drawer in his desk where digital certificates were kept, which he placed under the computer monitor, so that Chen Shu could freely enter and exit and run programs on the computer system in his place.

Just send a WeChat message to let them know afterwards.

Although Chen Shu eventually stopped sending WeChat messages altogether, Ma Su never took it personally. His motto was: "As long as the case is resolved, that's enough."

As the new police chief, Chen Shu was eager to continue this fine tradition, even adding "If anything happens, it's my responsibility" to Ma Suo's catchphrase. However, none of the four police officers under his command agreed. During meetings, they all implied that they would rather wait and have Chen Shu, who was in charge of public security, personally approve the matter, for the reason that boiled down to four words: to take responsibility.

Chen Shu was internally cursing, but outwardly he maintained a composed demeanor. Since everyone disagreed, they would proceed according to the rules from now on. Each side had its advantages and disadvantages, and it was impossible to say who was right or wrong.

After finishing my work in the morning, I checked the time and it was past ten o'clock. I was thinking that I should arrange for the security team and plainclothes officers to patrol and keep order in the evening.

Chen Shu took out his phone and sent a meeting notice to the security group and the plainclothes team group.

"Everyone, bring your eating utensils. The meeting will be in the conference room at 11:00!"

As is customary, everyone dreads these meetings close to the end of the workday, except for those convened by Chen Shu. His meetings never exceed half an hour.

11:00 AM, in the conference room!
Chen Shu raised his watch and looked around the conference table, which was packed with people. When his gaze fell on Zhu Chaoran's seat, he couldn't help but cover his eyes.

"Zhu Chaoran, you've been with the institute for over half a year now. Why did you think of bringing your own bowl and chopsticks to the meeting room?"

"Brother Shu, didn't you tell everyone in the group to bring their lunch supplies? Besides, isn't it almost lunchtime? I thought you were planning to give everyone a special meal today!" Zhu Chaoran said, his big, innocent eyes wide with grievance.

"Haha."

A burst of laughter erupted in the meeting room.

After a while, when the noise subsided, Chen Shu tapped on the conference table and said loudly, "Today is a Western holiday, and there will be a lot of people tonight, mostly energetic young people. I'd appreciate it if everyone could patrol the streets a few times to keep things quiet. The time is from 6 PM to 1 AM. I'll send the specific locations to the group this afternoon, so you can all check them out. By the way, if you have any questions or difficulties, you can raise them now."

Li Chaoyang raised his hand in acknowledgment.

Chen Shu nodded.

Li Chaoyang stood up, looked around at his colleagues, and said, "Senior, last time when we went on a business trip, you said you wanted to be considerate of those who were already married, and that it was inconvenient for us unmarried people to make the trip. Shouldn't we switch this time? They've already settled down, while we're just waiting to see them get their turn."

The meeting room erupted in laughter.

Chen Shu casually picked up the cap of a pen on the table and threw it at him: "You're so glib! Sit down."

After thinking for a moment, he smiled and said, "Including the security team B who were on duty yesterday and are now on leave, they all have to work overtime tonight. But I'll try to organize a get-together with the kindergartens in our jurisdiction before the Lunar New Year, when the station isn't too busy, so that everyone has another chance to connect with the teachers."

"Commander Chen is awesome!"

"I'm full of energy again!"

"Awesome! Awesome!"

Both married and unmarried comrades in the meeting room cheered and reached a consensus.

Zhu Chaoran was the second to raise his hand.

Chen Shu gestured for him to speak.

"Brother Shu, what's the plan for this late-night snack?"

The meeting room erupted in laughter again, as everyone seemed to agree that it was inappropriate to bring up eating instead of focusing on work in a formal meeting setting.

Chen Shu tapped the table again and said in a deep voice, "What are you laughing at! Eating is the most important thing in the world. When we meet, the first thing we ask each other is 'Have you eaten yet?' I've already made arrangements for the late-night snack. Since everyone is scattered in different places tonight and we can't get together, the late-night snack will be paid in cash at the standard rate of thirty yuan. Everyone can choose a place they like to eat."

Chen Shu paused, recalling the widely circulated story online a while ago about a police officer being photographed eating at a roadside snack shop during his working hours.

Once public opinion takes hold, the people won't care whether you're on duty all night, taking a break to eat breakfast, or doing unpaid work at night.

He said bitterly, "Ideally, when everyone is having a late-night snack, they should take off their police uniforms and put them on their motorcycles or in their police cars."

(End of this chapter)