Police officer Chen Shu

Chapter 530 Better than going to work
He fetched a chair from outside and let the weeping landlady sit on the back of the cart, then walked toward the foreman.

"Hello, please show me your ID card," Chen Shu said politely.

The foreman looked impatient, but still took out his ID card from his bag: "We're just here to eat, what's the big deal? You don't check that woman, but you check mine, do you have connections?"

Chen Shu was taken aback, then realized that he hadn't actually checked the landlady's ID, but he couldn't admit it now. After all, the two of them had been standing behind the cart and assumed the foreman was just bluffing and hadn't actually seen her.

Chen Shu tapped the red-lit body camera lens hanging on his shoulder and said seriously, "We're recording everything. If you have any complaints, you can file a complaint, but please be polite."

The foreman glanced at the recording device, shrank back half a step, and said in a weaker tone, "We all do landscaping projects for the government. We maintain a good portion of the roads in Zhengming District!"

The foreman implied that they were working for the government, and the police were also government employees, so they should be in cahoots.

As Chen Shu handed his ID card and police mobile phone to Yan Song for verification, he said seriously, "Don't think that just because you work for the government, you have to cooperate with the police."

As he said this, Chen Shu suddenly recalled the time at the NX police station, where police officers checked identities on the street, and even if a passerby was a leader in the provincial government, they still had to cooperate with the checks properly.

Seeing that the foreman had finally calmed down and the surrounding crowd had been dispersed by the team members, Chen Shu began to conduct normal questioning.

The foreman's story was similar to the boss's: they found a cockroach in the soup while drinking it, so they demanded compensation.

Interestingly, the foreman's account never mentioned finding flying insects in the soup the previous night.

Normally, the foreman would definitely mention that he also ate a flying insect last night. This was his subconscious avoidance of talking about it. After that, Chen Shu had a general idea, but since there was no evidence, he couldn't deliberately favor either side.

Therefore, Chen Shu proposed a solution based on the idea of ​​mediating a dispute.

As soon as he finished speaking, the foreman subconsciously glanced at the roadside.

Chen Shu instantly caught this movement.

Because Ma Bowen and the others had dispersed the crowd, only one young man remained by the roadside, insisting on watching. Therefore, the foreman's gaze was obviously unnatural.

He's the foreman, so why did he look towards the passersby when making a decision?

Chen Shu couldn't help but have some doubts, but seeing that the foreman agreed to the suggestion of waiving the bill, he suppressed his suspicions.

Back at the back of the cart, Chen Shu saw the proprietress sitting alone on a small stool, tears streaming down her face. His heart softened involuntarily, but since it was all work, he couldn't say anything else.

When the proprietress learned that the other party had agreed to waive the bill, she wiped away her tears and reopened the business, hoping to avoid further trouble.

Chen Shu took out his police mobile phone, ready to complete the step he had forgotten earlier, which was to verify the landlady's ID card.

As a result, the other party read out a series of numbers, and when Chen Shu checked, he found that the other party was a public official from Dongzhou.

Chen Shu glanced back at the group of people still sitting outside, subconsciously thinking that they might have come to retaliate because of official business. But then he thought that didn't make sense; the landlady would definitely not reveal her identity as a public official.

The proprietress standing to the side saw Chen Shucha standing there dumbfounded, and she also nervously peeked at the screen on the police terminal, and immediately blushed.

"Officer, I'm so sorry. Could you please not tell our unit about this?" The landlady blushed and spoke very softly. "My husband is sick, and my salary is only enough to cover the mortgage and medical expenses. The family is under a lot of pressure, and we have a child."

Police officers in Dongzhou city take home a little over 200,000 yuan after deducting housing provident fund and insurance. It's not a lot, but it's not a little either. In a second-tier city like Dongzhou, it's enough to make a living.

Among civil servants, the police are among the highest-paid professions in terms of total income, but also among the lowest-paid in terms of hourly wage; this is not contradictory.

Chen Shu wasn't sure how much civil servants in other units earned, but it was definitely tens of thousands less than police officers. Add to that the nationwide wave of salary cuts this year, and the combined effect of these two factors must have significantly reduced their total income. Therefore, he'd heard of many people driving for ride-hailing services after get off work, but this was the first time he'd seen someone setting up a stall at a night market.

Chen Shu comforted him, saying, "You're earning your own living; there's nothing shameful about it."

After a pause, recalling the foreman's unusual behavior earlier, Chen Shu then gestured to the landlady to steal a glance at the men watching by the roadside to see if there was anything amiss.

The proprietress glanced over, then covered her mouth in surprise, saying, "That guy also has a stall, just a few dozen meters up ahead. He sells fried noodles and beef soup, just like me, but there are hardly any customers at his stall. Ah, could it be him?"

Those who can pass the civil service exam must be highly intelligent, so the landlady's speculation is not unreasonable.

At this moment, the man in the crowd took out his phone from his pants and walked out. A few seconds later, the foreman's phone also rang.

What a coincidence!

Chen Shu knew that if this was truly malicious competition, even if it was settled today, there would be tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the day after that. As long as the proprietress's business was thriving, this matter would never end.

With these thoughts in mind, Chen Shu re-examined the foreman and his group, and immediately had an idea, but not for now.

He told the proprietress to cheer up and resume her stall, while he went to the foreman to find out what had happened and learned that the proprietress had agreed to waive the bill.

However, the foreman put on a smiling face, saying that he was giving the police face and that he was not making a fuss for the sake of getting a free meal. Without saying a word, he scanned the code and paid the bill, and the crowd dispersed.

However, this inconsistency only deepened Chen Shu's suspicions.

Their goal wasn't to get the food for free, but to create a negative social impact on the owner's stall and thus damage her business.

Once the night market returned to normal, Chen Shu asked the proprietress to prepare about ten servings of fried noodles and beef soup, saying they were for his colleagues on duty at work to have as a late-night snack.

The proprietress knew that the policeman in front of her intended to patronize her business, and perhaps even pitied her family's plight. Being strong-willed by nature, she naturally refused repeatedly, even offering a number of reasons.

Chen Shu smiled and kept arguing, then directly scanned the code and paid.

With no other option, the proprietress had to go back to the other end of the cart, pick up the spatula again, and quickly start stirring the noodles.

While the proprietress was frying noodles, Chen Shu gave her an idea: to buy a few wireless cameras online and place them in a conspicuous location to create a shock effect, so that ordinary people wouldn't come to cause trouble.

Of course, if you secretly take photos in a corner, and the other party is indeed deliberately making things difficult, you can get a defamation penalty at the police station, or even detention in serious cases.

The proprietress just shook her head and smiled bitterly. They were all small businesses; who had ever seen a street vendor fiddling with a security camera?
The sight of special police officers eating noodles and drinking soup on the stall brought a lot of customers to the stall, and since the owner's cooking skills were already quite good, the number of customers naturally increased gradually.

Seeing that the small tables and stools were almost full, Chen Shu and his team packed up the disposable bowls and chopsticks and prepared to leave.

At this moment, Yan Song, an auxiliary police officer who was talkative and curious, took advantage of the fact that his captain got along well with the proprietress, and leaned closer to quietly ask how much money the stall could earn in one night.

The proprietress glanced at Chen Shu and lowered her voice to say frankly, "Young man, to be honest with you, this little stall is much better than my regular job."

Yan Song was shocked. Although Chen Shu was dragging him away from the street of street vendors, his neck was bent backward the whole time.

"Tsk tsk!"

"Tsk tsk!"

(End of this chapter)