Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 48 An Unexpected Encounter with a Beautiful Woman
Evening, at the New Era Cinema.

The three people stood in line at the door waiting to have their health codes checked.

Zhu Chaoran said with a relaxed expression, "Brother Shu, Brother Chaoyang, I didn't expect you two to like 'Slam Dunk' too. Not bad, you have good taste!"

Chen Shu and Li Chaoyang exchanged a smile and ignored the Gen Z.

"Senior brother, now that I think about it, when I was a kid, after watching the county-level competition, I would go home every day waiting to watch the national competition. I never imagined that I would have to wait for more than ten years." Li Chaoyang looked at the large poster at the entrance of the movie theater and those familiar figures, and sighed.

"Yeah, look at this team today, they're all from the 80s and 90s generation, mostly men, probably here to watch the national competition." Chen Shu gestured towards the team with his chin and answered with a smile.

The two followed the line, their eyes scanning the surroundings. Some people in the line smiled back at them in a friendly manner.

"This train has been running for twenty years."

A voice came from behind Chen Shu, seemingly a code word among insiders, which those in the know would understand instantly.

He turned around and saw a man in his thirties wearing glasses extend his middle finger to adjust his glasses frame, and continue speaking with a smile:

"I rewatched 'Slam Dunk' from the beginning in August, and I can seamlessly switch over to it today."

"Brilliant!" The three gave a thumbs up and said in unison, full of admiration.

The group was in high spirits, chatting as they waited in line. Although the line moved extremely slowly, it didn't detract from the enjoyment of the evening.

Chen Shu held up a bag of oranges in his hand: "I bought some oranges on the way. Everyone take one to try."

As he spoke, he took out three oranges from his bag and distributed them to the group, including the bespectacled man who had seamlessly connected with the group.

Li Chaoyang was closest and the first to get the oranges. He peeled a segment, ate it, and then expressionlessly handed the rest of the oranges to Zhu Chaoran.

Zhu Chaoran chuckled: "Thanks, Brother Chaoyang, I was just too lazy to peel oranges."

After saying that, he took the orange, broke off two segments with his thick fingers, and stuffed them into his mouth. Instantly, his fat face scrunched up, and he shivered from the sourness. He finished the orange while his face contorted in a grimace. Then he started peeling his own orange and continued eating it with the same contorted expression.

Chen Shu and the bespectacled man, who were peeling oranges, were both stunned by the scene and stopped what they were doing at the same time.

The bespectacled man stood frozen in place, unsure whether to eat or not.

Chen Shu thought for a moment, then lowered his head, carefully peeled off a petal, and gently put it into his mouth.

He then handed the whole bag of oranges to Zhu Chaoran to handle. Seeing this, the bespectacled man quickly stuffed a piece of orange he had peeled into the bag at the same time.

Zhu Chaoran deserves it.

Half an hour passed as the group dawdled, and the three of them finally entered the movie theater lobby.

Chen Shu told the other two to sit in the lounge while he went to the small supermarket to buy some snacks and drinks to share while watching the movie.

"It's not normal to go to the movies without some food and drinks," Chen Shu said as he carefully searched for food and drinks on the shelves of the small supermarket.

As he finished searching one row of shelves and looked up to walk to another row, he caught a glimpse of Huang Sixi out of the corner of his eye.

Under the bright lights of the small supermarket, her delicate oval face resembled a piece of warm, smooth jade, flawless. Her large eyes sparkled.

Chen Shu hesitated for a moment, then walked over and greeted her with a smile: "Xiao Qian, are you here to watch a movie too?"

"Officer Chen!" Huang Sisi also looked pleasantly surprised.

Chen Shu shrugged: "Don't shout so formally when you leave work. Look, you're scaring the people next to you."

Huang Sisi lowered her head, hummed in agreement for a long time, and then softly replied, "Brother Shu."

Chen Shu, who had previously been adept at teaching Zhu Chaoran how to date blind date girls, suddenly fell silent and couldn't say a word.

The two of them stood there, seemingly without prior arrangement. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Chen Shu looked in the direction of the voice and found it was Huang Siqian's colleague, Xiao Min.

Xiaomin pulled Huang Sixian aside warily: "Officer Chen, we're going to see a movie. You're busy."

"Xiaoqian, let's go."

Huang Sisi lowered her head and whispered, "Sister Xiaomin, what are you thinking about?"

"Let's go, let's go."

Xiaomin pulled Huang Siqian and walked towards the store entrance.

Chen Shu was somewhat taken aback. He had only said one sentence, so how could he have been treated like a wolf and dragged away like that?

He immediately lost his mood. He glanced at the time and realized that ticket checking was about to begin, so he bought some food, paid in line, and headed to the rest area with his bag.

From afar, they could see Zhu Chaoran standing in front of Li Chaoyang, who was sitting expressionless, making exaggerated gestures and gesturing wildly. On the contrary, the bespectacled man they had met earlier was playing along with Zhu Chaoran's antics.

Seeing them lifted Chen Shu's spirits somewhat. He strode to the entrance of the lounge and beckoned the three of them to head towards the ticket gate.

Perhaps Chen Shu spent a little more time buying food at the small supermarket, so by the time the four of them had their tickets checked and entered the screening room...

Apart from the movie light projected onto the screen by the projector, there were no other lights in the hall.

The four men, heads bowed and bodies hunched, groped their way to their seats in the dark. Coincidentally, the man with glasses was seated right next to the trio from Zhongshan Institute.

Zhu Chaoran led the way, and the four grown men finally managed to get to their seats, squeezing and stopping frequently.

"Phew!" Zhu Chaoran exhaled a breath of stale air, shifted his large buttocks, and complained under his breath:
"This space is way too small."

Sitting next to Zhu Chaoran, Chen Shu gently patted his large belly: "Shh, bear with it. Don't talk, it's about to start."

"Brother Shu?"

A familiar voice came from inside Zhu Chaoran's room.

Chen Shu squinted and, using the dim light from the movie, saw that the person sitting next to Zhu Chaoran was actually Huang Sixi.

The group of people ended up sitting in the same row of the same movie theater, right next to each other, without notifying each other.

Destined?

As Chen Shu had this thought in mind and was about to say something, the long-awaited theme song "I Want to Shout I Love You" started playing in the screening room.

The atmosphere in the hall immediately became lively, and some people even started humming along.

The surrounding environment suddenly became noisy, and Chen Shu couldn't speak, so he could only smile and nod at Huang Siqian.

Huang Sisi smiled sincerely, and it was quite radiant.

Sitting in the middle, Zhu Chaoran was a little confused at first, but when he met Li Chaoyang's gaze, the two of them laughed in a friendly and ambiguous way.

Walking at the very back, the bespectacled man sitting next to Li Chaoyang didn't notice the little incident. He adjusted his glasses again and started humming softly.

Chen Shu leaned heavily back in his seat, took out his phone, opened WeChat, searched for 'Crowd -- Huang Siqian', and thought that since he couldn't speak, he would send a WeChat message instead.

He thought for a moment, and before he could type more than a few words, he saw the other person send a WeChat message, which, as always, took up half the screen:

Brother Shu, this morning I went to the police station to thank you and Brother Pang in person. But Officer Wang told me you were on your day off and needed to sleep, so I couldn't call and disturb you. So I went home. However, Officer Wang told me you love receiving banners of appreciation, so...
(End of this chapter)