Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 265 Zhang Yong's Frustration

As a parent with a bad temper, Lin Ge only ever had one way of dealing with his disobedient son.

A series of slaps!

But it must be said, this method is very effective! No wonder corporal punishment has been passed down for thousands of years; there is indeed a reason for it.

Under Lingo's physical punishment... no, patient training, the six police dogs quickly learned a lesson: don't make a fuss when there's nothing to do! Just wag your tail and stay quiet in front of the boss; barking and yelling will get you beaten, and specifically slapped in the face.

So, to the disbelief of Li Mei and the other three, Lin Ge taught his six underlings what the rules of a boss really meant in just half an hour.

Looking at the six police dogs sitting obediently in front of Lin Ge, licking their faces, sticking out their tongues, and secretly wagging their tails without moving, Yuan Qu and the other two trainers looked at each other, all showing a shocked expression of disbelief at the scene before them.

They've been assigned to the police dog unit for a while now, and when have they ever seen their own dogs so obedient?
Especially the two Labradors, Yingying and Xiongxiong. One is the oldest and acts like a spoiled brat, while the other is the youngest and most unruly; both are the most difficult to manage. Xiongxiong even has the bad habit of urinating anywhere, so why is he behaving so well now?
It's just a cat, not a tiger or a leopard!

Yuan Qu couldn't understand this situation, but reality left him no room for argument. He had initially thought the city bureau leaders were all incompetent, deliberately making things difficult for their unimportant "shit-cleaning" department. But now, seeing the situation, he had no choice but to admit defeat.

"An'an and Jingjing can be so obedient!"

Yu Rong was equally puzzled by the two Rottweilers she was responsible for caring for. Their name was Quiet, but they were anything but quiet. So why did they immediately become docile after being slapped by a cat? Could it be…

She looked at her hands, which had turned somewhat pale from washing the kennel every day.

"Woo!"

An An suddenly felt a chill and immediately turned to glare at her human, "What do you want to do, you human?"

"Shut up!"

Lin Ge let out a howl, and An An immediately turned around, obediently sitting still and not daring to move.

"Hehe... If this cat stays here from now on, our work will be much easier. With it leading the way, we won't get our butts nudged by the dogs when we're cleaning. Those weirdos who need to be disciplined have made me change my pants three times a day!"

Zhou Bo was quite open-minded, and he was smiling the most relaxed way at that moment.

Seeing that the police dogs were easily handled by Ling Ge, the three trainers finally put aside their doubts about Ling Ge and obediently stopped talking.

Heroic, Quiet, and Weird—these are the names of the six police dogs in the Zhangzhou City Public Security Bureau's police dog unit. I wonder which lunatic named them. Perhaps Beibei already had a police dog named Baobao?

Sure enough, when Li Mei led Lin Ge to the police dog squadron office and saw a portrait of a German Shepherd, her guess was confirmed.

"Its name was Baobao. It was the only meritorious dog in our police dog squadron and the only police dog in the bureau to die. It was hit and killed by a criminal with a motorcycle, but it was also because of its obstruction that the criminal was unable to escape and was arrested on the spot."

Li Mei, who had been teased as being crazy, stroked the portrait with a bitter smile and turned to Lin Ge, saying, "After Bao Bao's sacrifice, I started to care more about these little guys and couldn't bear to let them do dangerous work anymore. Hehe... I'm not a qualified squadron leader, and it's my fault that the police dog squadron became an undervalued department in the bureau. But actually, I think that as long as these little guys can live to retirement safely, it's a blessing for them. However... they are police dogs after all, right? They can't really become useless. After hearing about what you did in Zhuzhou, I'm honestly quite tempted. The police dog squadron isn't all useless; everyone is also looking forward to honor."

She looked at Lin Ge expectantly, but the unspoken meaning in her words made Lin Ge roll his eyes.

You woman, you're making things difficult for me, Lin Ge!

Wanting police dogs to make contributions without letting them encounter danger? There's no such thing as a free lunch!

"Never mind, I was just being weak." Li Mei understood this too, shook her head and said to Lin Ge, "These kids, and Yuan Qu and the others, are all yours. Every policeman wants to make a contribution, and I can't selfishly stop them."

Li Mei said with emotion that she had finally handed over command of the police dog squad to Lin Ge, allowing him to officially lead his men to work.

So, on the very day he arrived at the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, Lin Ge had a group of followers. It was still the same setup of police dogs and their handlers, although there were fewer of them. But compared to Zhang Yong, who was treated like a beast of burden, Lin Ge's status was undoubtedly vastly different.

"I've been running errands all day!"

While eating dinner in the cafeteria, Zhang Yong complained angrily to Lin Ge, "Are the people coming down here really inhuman? Every detective treats me like an animal, making me work for them regardless of whether they know me or not."

"Isn't this the criminal investigation life you've always dreamed of?"

Lin Ge rolled his eyes at Zhang Yong.

"I thought criminal investigation meant going all out to solve cases, strategizing, quickly finding the target, and then making a forceful arrest! Not this kind of thing where you rack your brains over every little clue, then run around aimlessly like a headless fly, relying solely on luck! It's unbelievable that in the 21st century, the city bureau's investigation methods still rely on visits and searches! It's only because we have CCTV now, otherwise wouldn't we be like in the 1990s, going door-to-door asking people if they've seen anything?" Zhang Yong was so frustrated that he couldn't eat.

After graduating from police academy and completing his internship, he worked under Nie Guoqiang at the Zhanghe Police Station. During this time, they encountered many difficult cases, but Nie Guoqiang always managed to find a way to solve them. Of course, this was also related to the fact that the cases handled by the police station were relatively less complex, while the city bureau's criminal investigation department dealt with major and serious cases. But regardless, with all sorts of high-tech advancements these days—not to mention the fantastical aspects depicted in novels—criminal investigations should at least see some progress, right?

What's the point of staring at the cameras every day looking for clues? The police station usually leaves this kind of thing to Li Yiduo or Chu Ting. Why would he need to personally supervise it and bring his own eye drops?

"Hehe... So Zhanghe Police Station is lucky! Li Yiduo alone could beat half of the city bureau's technical investigation team. Add to that Zhang Ke, who's paid as an auxiliary police officer but does investor work, the old and stern Hu Zhengping, and even the newcomer Feng Yi is a capable worker. All the talent has gone to the police station, so of course you're comfortable handling cases. You even have your wife and Nie Guoqiang's wife supporting you at the police station, while they can't interfere here."

Lin Ge mocked Zhang Yong with schadenfreude.

After arriving at the Municipal Public Security Bureau, their roles were completely reversed. Zhang Yong, who used to give orders at the police station, became a hardworking underling, while Lin Ge had become the leader of the Municipal Public Security Bureau's police dog squadron. The change in their identities was both comical and absurd.

"Forget it! As long as we can solve the case, a little hardship is worth it! It's just a pity that I was transferred here, and now Yi Ning can only be taken care of by Yang Xiaotong alone."

Zhang Yong quickly convinced himself and rallied his spirits.

After dinner, it was undoubtedly time to continue working overtime. After all, Yang Ye had called Lin Ge over, and Zhang Yong had come along as an afterthought; they weren't there for a vacation or further studies.

This smuggling case, which is likely to be of a very large scale, may not seem as serious as the "Eight Major Cases," but its harm should not be underestimated. While it may not appear to cause social panic, the actual harm... well, it could be much greater or lesser.

To be honest, the cases handled by the Municipal Public Security Bureau rarely involve unnatural deaths. These days, murder cases are actually quite rare; after all, most people understand the law, and unless someone is extremely vicious, they're unlikely to go so far as to commit mutual suicide. Therefore, among the eight major cases, the Municipal Bureau primarily handles assault or intentional assault cases. Furthermore, cases like telecommunications fraud, the recent video voyeurism case, and now smuggling of contraband—while seemingly minor in nature, have consequences no less significant than the traditional eight major cases—and these are the mainstream cases handled by the Municipal Bureau. Moreover, with the increasing popularity of online platforms, cases are becoming increasingly difficult to categorize by region, more complex, and harder to solve quickly.

A prefecture-level city's public security bureau only has so many personnel. Today, a victim reports being scammed in the south; tomorrow, another reports being blackmailed with nude photos by someone in the north; the day after, another reports being involved in a fraudulent investment scheme by a company in the east…

Each case is no longer investigated locally, but once a case is filed, the municipal bureau needs to send people to the location of the incident to investigate and collect evidence. Just like Xie Changjun's previous arduous trip to Zhuzhou for the telecom fraud case, each case is handled in a different location, forcing the police to divide their manpower.

In this situation, if manpower cannot be concentrated, how can resources be available for a full-scale investigation?

The kind of operation that used to be, where even criminal cases occurred locally and the lack of convenient transportation meant suspects couldn't escape far, allowing all criminal investigators to launch a massive manhunt, is simply impossible these days.

So why did Zhang Yong see people in the office frantically writing documents and making phone calls?

Because the distance between people on the internet is unlimited, and the victim and the suspect in this case are not even in the same city, the most realistic approach is to call and plead for help, begging them not to shirk their responsibility or to do even more.

For example, if the suspect is located in a rural town, where the local police station has fewer than a handful of officers, how many criminal investigation officers can a fifth-tier county-level city have? How much help can you expect from them, and how many people would you have to send over to find clues about the suspect?

Times are progressing, criminals are progressing, but the police... are progressing a little too slowly.

Zhang Yong was humiliated by the complaints of the Song people and realized he had been making assumptions. The thrill of solving cases he longed for could only exist in novels, specifically science fiction novels set in parallel worlds that didn't involve reality.

"So this case is that complicated too?"

Zhang Yong raised an eyebrow and stared at the Song man, saying, "Even if it's smuggling contraband nationwide, haven't our police station already investigated the Happy Shake Bar in Zhang City? Plus the logistics park, we should be able to take action directly there, right?"

"Do I need to tell you?"

Song Guoren glanced at Zhang Yong and said helplessly, "The field agents who could be sent out have already been mobilized! By the time you reminded me, it was too late. However, according to the current investigation, Happy Shake Bar is not a suspect. Or rather, even if Happy Shake Bar was turned into a transit point by criminals, at least it and its owner have been cleared of suspicion. That guy is a rich second-generation from Zhang City, and running a bar is just a hobby for him; he wouldn't do something so unprofitable."

Zhang Yong nodded; what he said made perfect sense.

Would someone worth hundreds of millions or even billions risk going to jail or losing all their wealth just to be greedy for smuggling profits that are only tens of millions?

Zhangzhou City is only this big, and its size is limited.

The city bureau easily found out the price of the "smart drug." One dose costs 20,000 yuan, and a course of treatment consists of eight doses, totaling only 160,000 yuan. After deducting costs, how much profit would a city actually make? Is it worth a rich second-generation heir taking such a risk?

"In other words, the people involved should only be bar staff, or at least related personnel."

Zhang Yong nodded, which greatly narrowed the scope of the investigation.

However, this reasoning didn't completely dispel his suspicions about the rich second generation. Consider the message Zhang Yong sent to Zhang Ke: Zhang Ke should know a lot about the circles of the rich second generation, right?

(End of this chapter)