Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 288 National Physics Competition
Back at Zhongshan Police Station, Chen Shu arranged for trainee police officer Xu Lei to take a statement from the supermarket manager in the interrogation room, while he himself took the woman to the office on the third floor.

The woman was clearly literate; seeing the words "Deputy Director" hanging next to the office door, she knew that the young policeman in front of her was a leader in the police station.

As soon as she sat down in the office, she burst into tears and poured out her unfortunate experiences to the leader. Her husband was paralyzed, and she herself was a child from an orphanage. Her family had no one to rely on, and she was able to survive until now entirely because of the girl in her family.

When talking about her child, the mother straightened her back slightly, took a sniffle to stop her sobbing, and her eyes were full of light. Her first words were about how well her child was doing in school.

Her child is currently in the second year of high school and will be a senior in the fall. She has decided to put in extra effort and take on another night job in hopes of saving some money for her child's college tuition.

The child is well-behaved and never mentions the difficulties at school. After class, he rushes home to help his mother cook and do laundry, and comforts his mother by saying that he can also do part-time jobs to help support the family after he goes to university.

The woman was both touched by her child's thoughtfulness and ashamed of her own incompetence.

Later, the woman overheard her boss's wife and son talking at her workplace and learned that if the high school student brought a calculator, his grades would definitely be much better.

Then I realized I'd never seen this calculator in my daughter's schoolbag or while she was doing her homework, so I took some time to ask the shop owner about its price and where it was sold.

The shop owner, knowing the woman's situation, told her the model of calculator suitable for her daughter and where to buy it. The woman couldn't understand why such a small gadget cost several hundred yuan; that was her family's food budget for a month. After much deliberation, she did something she shouldn't have.

Chen Shu lit a cigarette and, amidst the swirling smoke, told the woman that she might be detained and that her family, namely her husband, would be notified. He asked her to provide her husband's phone number.

The woman, who had calmed down, burst into tears. She didn't want her husband and daughter to know what she had done so despicable. Just like in the supermarket office, she knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, begging.

Chen Shu felt uneasy after hearing this, but his deduction in the supermarket reminded him that this woman might be putting on an act, and that her husbands and daughters were all fake, just to escape legal punishment.

After arranging for Zhu Chaoran to take the woman to the detention room behind the office building, Chen Shu took out his police mobile phone and searched her identity information. Seeing the rental address that popped up, he decided to go and see the woman's home in person.

Evening, Xicheng Road, Maple Leaf Residential Complex, Building 4, Apartment 401
Chen Shu and Zhu Chaoran knocked on the door, and a refined-looking middle-aged woman with white-rimmed glasses opened it. She spoke in a very gentle manner.

"Officers, hello. How can I help you?"

Chen Shu looked over the woman's shoulder and glanced into the house. He saw a family of four sitting around a round table eating dinner.

"Hello, we are from Zhongshan Police Station. I'd like to ask if you know someone named Lin Xiaomei?"

The woman thought for a moment, then shook her head: "I don't know him."

"Well, sorry to bother you."

Chen Shu nodded and prepared to leave.

Zhu Chaoran, who was standing nearby, suddenly said, "It's about a woman whose husband is paralyzed. Please think again, does such a person exist?"

At this moment, the woman finally looked enlightened and pointed downstairs, saying, "You must be talking about the woman downstairs. She used to rent this house from me, but she couldn't pay the rent, so the landlord kicked her out and made her live in the woodshed downstairs."

Chen Shu gave Zhu Chaoran an approving look, then asked the woman, "What woodshed?" "It's the row of small houses right across from us on the first floor, coming down these stairs. Oh dear, this is a family suffering a lot. I heard the husband was paralyzed in a fall at work, and the boss has disappeared. The whole family depends on that woman for survival. Hey? Officer, what did this woman do?"

Chen Shu waved his hand: "We're just here to register for the rental housing."

The two went downstairs, and there was a row of low houses three or four meters away. Except for one house on the west side with its door open and some light coming out, the doors of the other houses were all closed, and they did not look like places where people lived.

Zhu Chaoran asked doubtfully, "Brother Shu, isn't this just a warehouse? There aren't even any windows. How can anyone live here?"

Chen Shu didn't answer, and led Zhu Chaoran to the only one that was open.

Upon entering, there was only one room inside. At the far end of the room was a large bed. A man wearing glasses was leaning against the headboard reading a book, while a girl of about sixteen or seventeen, wearing a school uniform from a nearby middle school, was sitting on a small stool by the door, doing her homework on a round table that looked quite old.

The room was small, but it was full of stuff. There were neatly stacked cardboard boxes on the east side, several woven bags full of empty plastic bottles on the west side, and a considerable number of pots and pans in the middle. Chen Shu and the others couldn't find a place to put their feet.

The girl looked up, her big eyes wide with curiosity, as she examined the policeman in front of her. Aside from the landlord demanding money, no one had visited her house in a long time.

The man put down his book and asked, puzzled, "Officer, excuse me. My house is a mess. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Chen Shu smiled and casually said, "It's nothing, I'm from the police station, just came to check on things. By the way, is it just the two of you living here?"

Man: "My wife and I live here, the three of us. What's wrong? Are we not allowed to stay here anymore?"

There was only one incandescent light on in the room. Under the light, his face looked exceptionally clean, and his eyes were bright and piercing. If he weren't lying in bed, you wouldn't be able to tell that he had any problems. Clearly, he was being taken very well into care.

Zhu Chaoran stood next to the girl, glanced at the practice test paper on the table that was covered with writing in different colors, and couldn't help but ask, "Hey, why are there two kinds of handwriting and colors on your test paper?"

The girl blushed and turned her head away without saying a word.

The man inside must have heard Zhu Chaoran's question. He chuckled and said apologetically, "These are all exercise books that the child's mother picked up from outside. They've all been used by other people."

Although he wasn't extremely wealthy, Chen Shu, whose family had never let him go hungry since childhood, was somewhat unsteady on his feet upon hearing these words.

He squatted down, touching the exercise paper on the table, and suddenly couldn't speak. Yu Guangzhong suddenly noticed that there was a book of past years' National High School Physics Competition questions on the corner of the table.

Chen Shu knew the significance of this competition. Back then, their entire class was overshadowed for a whole year by the neighboring competition class in the grade-level ranking competition. It wasn't until the following year, when the competition class was ranked separately by the school, that everyone was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Those people are all ruthless; in addition to striving hard in competitions, they can also handle all subjects with ease.

He asked in surprise, "Young lady, your school recommended you to take this exam?"

(End of this chapter)