Binjiang Police Affairs

Chapter 1403 - 205: Unluckier by the Minute!

The happiest people about Han Xiangning becoming Vice Mayor are none other than Master Han and Director Xiang.The old couple always keeps the TV channel on Changzhou TV Station, watching Changzhou news every evening, and they can really see Mayor Han on TV conducting investigations and attending meetings.

Little Han Han doesn’t know what a Vice Mayor does; she was excited to see her mom on TV at first, but soon got bored and wanted to watch cartoons. However, her grandparents wouldn’t let her change the channel.

"No cartoons anymore, a TV series is starting soon. You have school tomorrow, hurry up and wash, then go to sleep."

"I don’t want to sleep, I want mom."

"Mom is busy at work and won’t be back today, she’ll be back tomorrow."

"No, I want to find mom!"

"Where would you find her at this hour? Be good, grandpa will take you to eat KFC tomorrow."

"Really?"

"If you don’t believe, we can pinky swear."

...

Meanwhile, Han Yu, who just returned on a training ship, received a call from Linghai Mayor Shen Fan as soon as he came ashore.

Where would you find a landline at this hour?

Han Yu had no choice but to climb into his alma mater’s pickup truck, motion for the driver to start driving, and answer the phone, asking, "Mayor Shen, what made you think of calling me, is there something going on?"

"Did Ma Jintao and Chen Jian return?"

"They’ve returned, just now."

"How did the mission go?"

Linghai Mayor’s concern about the Linghai Reserve Camp’s task execution is normal. Han Yu answered without thinking, "Pretty good, the superior praised them."

Shen Fan worked overtime again today. As he was heading downstairs, he whispered, "Salted Fish, can you manage your family’s Mayor Han?"

"Mayor Shen, what do you mean by that?"

"She’s playing the outsider, and yesterday she even came back to poach our resources. Through several people at the Linghai Maritime Department, she invited the bosses of over a dozen ship machinery parts manufacturers in our development zone to go to Changzhou for an inspection."

The more Shen Fan thought about it, the more upset he became, and he said in a displeased tone, "She knew I had contacted some businesspeople across the river before. She secretly called them and also invited them to Changzhou to inspect the investment environment. She’s only placed in Changzhou temporarily, working there for at most two years, why bother doing this?"

Turns out I’m not the only unlucky one!

Suddenly feeling much better, Han Yu couldn’t help but laugh and said, "Who told you to always take her along to the river when bringing businesspeople for inspections? Who told you to frequently take businesspeople to the Linghai Maritime Department? She got hold of your business contacts, and now as Changzhou’s Vice Mayor, she’s definitely going to make use of those contacts."

"This is unfair competition. Strictly speaking, she’s stealing my business secrets!"

"File a report, call 110, let Shi Shengyong arrest her!"

"Salted Fish, can you be serious, I’m talking to you about serious matters."

"I am talking about serious matters too. She is stealing the Linghai City Committee and Municipal Government’s business secrets. This issue is very serious and must be severely dealt with!"

Unable to decide whether to laugh or cry, Shen Fan said, "Changzhou does have a Police Bureau. Besides, she’s currently a Vice Mayor there; asking Shi Shengyong to arrest her, are you kidding? If Shi Shengyong really dared to go, he would most likely be arrested by Changzhou Police Bureau!"

Han Yu sympathized with Mayor Shen and pretended to be serious, "Ningning’s actions are indeed improper. How about you discuss it with Director Zhu, let Director Zhu talk to her?"

"I called Director Zhu, but it didn’t help!"

"Why didn’t it help?"

"Director Zhu is also a woman. How can I argue with a woman?" Shen Fan sighed silently, thinking helplessly, "I asked Director Zhu to warn Xiang Ning not to do this, but Director Zhu said, aren’t you doing the same thing, saying something like attracting investment is just you undermine me, I undermine you."

"That sounds somewhat reasonable. Mayor Shen, it seems that attracting investment is exactly what you are doing too."

"But I haven’t undermined my own people!"

"The problem is, she is now Changzhou’s Vice Mayor; it’s impossible for her to see you as one of her own. You are competitors, and the kind of competitors who relentlessly oppose each other."

Changzhou is quite annoying, always going against Linghai in every aspect these past two years.

Enraged, Shen Fan whispered, "Salted Fish, now I want to know your stance!"

"What stance can I have? I didn’t even know she was going to Changzhou on temporary duty until Xiao Yu called and told me later. Moreover, from Ge Tiao to Mayor Yu, from Director Feng to Director Zhang, everyone requested me to support her work unconditionally."

"So you’re not going to manage her, letting her help Changzhou poach our Linghai resources?"

"I manage her, please, I’m like an outsider in the family, I have no status, she manages me more or less."

"Pathetic."

"I am pathetic, and I am proud."

"You are just giving up, talking to you is a waste of time, I’m hanging up!"

Shen Fan hung up the phone, and Han Yu couldn’t help but laugh.

The senior really likes to make trouble, let her make trouble, others won’t just laugh at me, they will also laugh at Shen Fan.

Gloating, another call came in.

The area code from across the river; I don’t know who’s calling, maybe it’s urgent.

Han Yu had no choice but to answer: "Hello, this is Han Yu, may I know who’s calling?"

"Secretary Han, I’m Liu Baoshan, a police officer from Huangjing Police Station at the Dacang Public Security Bureau. We’ve captured a fugitive at the ferry. The fugitive insisted he’s innocent and claimed to know you, saying you could vouch for him. We were concerned about a possible mistake, so we got your number through the Coast Guard Brigade."

"The fugitive you caught knows me?"

"Yes, his last name is Qian, Qian Yuzhu, from Hui’an Province. Before being captured, he was selling vegetables at a market in your area, Binjiang."

Han Yu suddenly caught on and asked with a wry smile, "How did Qian Yuzhu end up in your area?"

"He has a small cargo truck. He was helping a boss from Binjiang deliver goods here. We have a security checkpoint at the ferry, and when we checked over the identities of drivers and passengers, we captured him."

"Didn’t you contact his peers who wanted him in East Sea?"

"We did contact them, just a moment ago, but maybe that police station is really busy; no one answered the phone."

It turns out that it wasn’t just me and Mayor Shen having a bad day; Boss Qian, who delivers vegetables to the camp, was having an even worse one.

Han Yu couldn’t hold back a laugh, "Brother Liu, I’m aware of Qian Yuzhu’s situation. He was indeed wanted by the East Sea Police Department before, but it was a misunderstanding. He was falsely accused, and the police handling the case over there have figured it out and have already dismissed the case."

"But his name is still on the disc with the wanted list our superiors sent us, so he’s currently a fugitive!"

"We also caught him before, identified in the same way using the fugitive list disc. It’s now proven that he has no issues and isn’t a suspect, but since we’re still using the original disc, such misunderstandings will happen."

"Is he truly innocent?"

"If you don’t believe me, keep trying to reach out to his peers in East Sea. It can’t be that their duty phone is continuously unattended."

"Alright, I’ll call them again."

...

As they were talking, the car arrived at the entrance of the Meteorological Bureau residential area.

Han Yu thanked the driver and carried his luggage home.

His in-laws were already asleep, so he tiptoed to take a shower.

After showering and changing into clean clothes, he came out to find Master Han, awakened by the noise, already sitting on the sofa in pajamas, smoking and drinking tea.

"San’er, are you hungry? There’s food in the fridge, I can heat it for you."

"I ate on the boat, not hungry," Han Yu sat across from his father-in-law and whispered, "Dad, where’s Han Han?"

"Asleep, it took a long time to get her to fall asleep."

"What about Ningning?"

"Changzhou is developing a Yangtze River Bridge Industrial Park by the riverside, akin to a small economic and technological development zone. She’s busy these days with land acquisition and demolition. Ningning, being the secretary of the industrial park, can’t be a hands-off boss; she has to lead by example and work with the management committee to address the concerns of the populace."

Land acquisition and demolition work are challenging.

Even if compensations are adequate, there are still likely to be holdouts, requiring multiple efforts to negotiate.

While Master Han was both happy and concerned for his daughter, he stubbed out his cigarette and sighed, "Your father called me this afternoon. He was more excited than I was to hear Ningning got appointed as Vice Mayor in Changzhou. He’s in Zhangjia Port tonight loading goods and said he’s celebrating by buying a bottle of liquor, and drank seven or eight ounces by himself."

It seems everyone in the family was happy, except for me.

I wanted to be happy too, but I just couldn’t find it in me.

In two months, my in-laws will take Han Han to live in East Sea, leaving only me and Ningning. Now, with Ningning’s appointment to Vice Mayor of Changzhou, instantly transforming her into city leadership, she’s already too busy to come home, and it will only get busier.

The once intact family is now "shattered," and I’ve just become a "lonely man." What kind of situation is this?

Han Yu was at a loss as to what to say when his phone rang again.

He stood up and called back using the landline at home, discovering it was Boss Qian, mistakenly captured as a fugitive while trying to earn some side money delivering goods.

"Secretary Han, it’s Qian Yuzhu. I’ve been grabbed again by Dacang Police, I just got out of their police station!"

"I know, Dacang Public Security Bureau called me earlier."

While he was nabbed by the police again, this time he didn’t enjoy the treatment he received last time.

Boss Qian’s wrists hurt from the cuffs. Holding the phone in one hand and rubbing the blue bruises from the cuffs on his wrist with the other, he grimaced and said, "Secretary Han, could you possibly speak to those two officers from the East Sea Police Department who came last time? Since I’ve been proved innocent, my name should be removed from the list. Otherwise, as long as there’s a police check, I’ll be caught like today."

"Boss Qian, I’m part of the Anti-Smuggling Police, so it’s not really my place to intervene in this. You’re the involved party, you should speak directly with the East Sea officers handling your case. Since the case is closed, the fugitive information should be nullified too. You have every right to demand this."

"I just called them."

"What did they say?"

"They said they’ll report to their superiors, but they didn’t say when they’ll resolve it."

The superiors likely know only to compile the fugitive information and distribute discs, not anticipating a situation like Boss Qian’s.

So many copies of the disc have been distributed, it’s impossible to retract them all just for Boss Qian.

Han Yu realized that Boss Qian would have to remain a "fugitive" for a while, and if he wasn’t careful in the coming days, he might inadvertently boost various local police’s fugitive capture records. Han Yu could only sympathetically suggest:

"Boss Qian, don’t find it too troublesome—just keep calling the East Sea officers, nudging them to speed things up. Also, avoid traveling far for the time being, best not to leave Lang Mountain Town. As long as you stay close, you won’t get caught again."