Chapter 1144: Criminal Police

One week after Wang Xin and Yao Yuling were married, on an ordinary morning, Niu Dali left the compound with his luggage on his back. There was no farewell; he only left a letter for Cai Xiaonian, saying he would return once he had made his fortune.

In fact, everyone knew Niu Dali was leaving. He had to ask his leaders for permission, and since he had brought it up, there were no secrets. Wang Yongge was even the one who handled the paperwork; he kept Niu Dali's employment status, just stopped paying his salary, so that if Niu Dali didn't make it, he would still have a place to return to, and his house was kept for him too.

Wang Yongge, of course, also knew that Niu Dali liked Yao Yuling, so the old man had looked after Niu Dali a little bit.

Niu Dali's departure didn't cause any major impact in the compound. People just sighed and mentioned it, and two days later, no one brought it up anymore. Only Old Wu and Cai Xiaonian would occasionally mention him.

Wang Yan felt even less about it; whether he was poor or rich was a path he had to walk himself. However, if the original Niu Dali could make a fortune, he figured he could do it now too. Although the kid was a bit of a petty thief, he wasn't truly useless.

He could study books to research how to make tape recorders and the like. In the original story, he even went to Shenzhen to collect swill. He had brains, didn't care about messy things, and was willing to throw himself into his work—these were the necessary conditions for starting from scratch. Even if he couldn't become incredibly wealthy, having enough to eat and drink and being content with small wealth wouldn't be a problem...

Now that the development of the economy had been confirmed and the Shenzhen pilot had been established, the exploration of how to develop was still ongoing. But in some areas, the shackles, while not explicitly removed by document, were already gradually dissolving.

On this point, even in the Northeast region, which was the slowest to react to everything and not much different from other inland areas, it was already clearly felt. Everything was changing, including Wang Yan's wealth.

Because the environment was gradually relaxing, that group of people who were never good at earning money through proper channels were earning even more. Although some had been "exchanged" multiple times and had cried as they left their hometowns, there were always successors, ensuring that Wang Mou and the Old Ma family lived in comfort...

Ma Yan knew his money was problematic, and the old couple of the Ma family certainly knew too. One day, Old Ma couldn't hold it in anymore and secretly asked him where the money came from. He told the truth, without hiding a thing. Old Ma scolded him for a long time, but in the end, he couldn't stop him, so he stopped nagging Wang Yan about how he spent his money. Anyway, the wine was still drunk, and the meat was still eaten.

It was the same old saying: he was traditional, not pedantic. Wang Yan robbing others of their wealth—no problem, very reasonable. He trusted Wang Yan's character, but having spent a long time together, he also knew Wang Yan was quite wild, his methods were wild, his paths were wild. Overall, he was a good person, but in no way could he be called a positive figure.

It was fortunate he became a police officer; otherwise, if he had gone down a criminal path, it would have been hard to handle...

Over the past year or so, the public security situation on the Ningyang-Harbin line had continued to improve. By the second year, even during holidays and festivals when passenger traffic was high, the incidence of theft and child abduction had plummeted compared to the first year.

After fermenting for such a period, his "thief-catching" methods had already spread throughout the Northeast region. Whether it was railway police or regular government police, all had learned a little bit. Other units weren't clear, but the entire Liaoning Province railway system reported good feedback, and the number of thieves caught had risen significantly.

But in the final analysis, the safest line in the entire Northeast, and even the whole country, was still the Ningyang-Harbin line, and Wang Yan deserved the greatest credit.

As Wang Yan's direct superior, Hu Guangjun, the old comrade, naturally had plenty of merit. So, in the latter half of his official career, seeing no hope for advancement, he was transferred to be the Deputy Detachment Leader and Captain of the Ningyang Railway Criminal Investigation Division. It was a high-ranking position, but his main responsibility was still leading a brigade of forty or so people to handle cases.

How he got promoted, he naturally knew in his heart. For the powerful "merit baby" under his command, he naturally had to take him along.

So, Wang Xin, who had always been obsessed with becoming a criminal police officer, finally succeeded. The trio moved along with Old Hu and became criminal police officers under his command.

Just as Wang Xin had always pestered Wang Yan, nagging about becoming a criminal police officer, Wang Yan could have arranged this transfer. He didn't have that power, but he had the resources. It was just that he wanted to do the train police work well for a while longer, catching one more thief for every one he could, which was why he had been a train police officer for over two years. Now that he had caught enough, he changed his post and started a new achievement in his life.

Truth be told, he had actually been a criminal police officer before. The plainclothes police in Hong Kong were roughly the same as criminal police duties, but the era and situation were special when he did it, so it couldn't count as a proper criminal police role. This was his first time.

As for the original Ningyang-Harbin line, without his suppression, the situation would certainly deteriorate a little bit; this was unavoidable. But now that the average level of thief-catching had improved, everything was slowly developing for the better...

The office was filled with smoke. Old Hu had finished his inauguration speech, and the trio had already met everyone. The atmosphere was relaxed, with people smoking and drinking tea.

"Wang Yan, you're great at catching thieves, but I wonder if you can adapt to handling cases now?" someone asked.

Everyone present looked at Wang Yan. They all knew Wang Yan was impressive, and now that he had transferred to a field they were familiar with, they still held the thought of watching a joke. Seeing an impressive person not be impressive was, to a certain extent, pleasing.

"It definitely won't be a problem. It's mainly about careful observation and clear logic, right? Wang Yan isn't bad at that." Old Hu expressed his support. "Right, Wang Yan?"

"Who can say for sure?" Wang Yan shook his head and smiled. "Let's handle cases. Didn't you just say that someone is stealing rails in the direction of Hongyang and no one is handling it? That's simple, just stake it out. The three of us will adapt first. Old Ma, what do you think?"

"I have no opinion." Old Ma shook his head. He was the nominal leader, but he was clear about how things actually were.

Old Hu nodded: "Alright, then this case is handed to you. This stuff isn't easy to catch, stake it out for a few days first and see. If there are no clues, then forget it."

Seeing no one say anything, Old Hu stood up, bracing himself on the table. "That's it, let's disperse."

Everyone greeted Wang Yan and the others in a friendly manner and left the conference room one after another.

Old Hu pulled the trio aside to smoke and talk: "Wang Yan, give me a straight answer, can you do it?"

"Look at this, the old comrade is rejuvenated, but he's impatient. Do you think the suspects are lining up waiting for me to catch them? I can't say for sure, I really can't say for sure. This stuff has to be encountered."

"If you ask me, we should do that corpse-dumping case. If we pull that off, we'll have established a foothold," Wang Xin said.

"If we don't pull it off, won't it drag us to death?" Old Ma snorted, then said, "Old Hu, don't be anxious. The three of us will definitely do our best, we can do it well, not poorly. How can work be done well in a day? In this line of work, how can anyone give any guarantees?"

Of course, this was because Old Hu was close to everyone; otherwise, if he asked them for a deadline to solve the case, they would only be able to bite the bullet and say yes. Whether they said it was one thing, whether they could do it was another, and what the punishment would be if they couldn't was yet another.

"How could I not know? It's just that at this age, I've finally moved up, so I want to strive a bit more? Alright, you guys work hard. Anyway, I'm counting on you. If it works, it works; if not, forget it. Carry your guns when you go out; this is much more dangerous than on the train."

Old Hu was also speaking the truth. Criminal investigation is assessed by solving cases; solving many, solving them quickly—that is good, that is competent.

Old Hu left. Wang Yan and the two others went to collect their guns and ammunition, then found someone to get the relevant information and data, and gathered around a table to look through it.

"I'd like to ask, what are the three of us waiting for now?" Wang Xin fiddled with his gun, looking at the silent Wang Yan and Old Ma.

"What do you think we should do?" Old Ma asked.

"Go out and stake it out, otherwise how do we catch people?"

"A railway line is so long, any section is dozens of kilometers. Where are you going to stake it out? Besides, it's still morning. If you were a thief, would you get up early to steal rails? If they were really lost like that, wouldn't the train have derailed long ago? Can you use your brain, Police Academy Second Place?"

Scolded by Ma Kui, Wang Xin sighed, tucked his gun into the holster at his waist, covered it with his clothes, and moved over to Wang Yan's side.

"See the pattern?"

"Look, isn't he quite understanding?" Wang Yan raised an eyebrow at Old Ma.

"What's the use of understanding? He doesn't use his brain! A reckless brute." Ma Kui looked at him with disdain, then said, "Now we have two paths. One is to stake out these locations where rails were lost, and the other is to find the sales channels near these locations. My meaning is to do both paths together; the fence must also be dealt with. We'll look for sales channels during the day and stake it out at night."

"I think that works." Wang Xin nodded in agreement, then turned and said, "These thieves are truly crazy. Rails are 140 jin per meter, and so long, they must be sawed off. Just sawing off one section takes how long? Hundreds of jin of stuff, then moving it, wouldn't it tire you to death? It's only because this section of the route is semi-abandoned; otherwise, this gang of thieves would have been caught and shot long ago. Why would it need the three of us to catch them?"

Wang Yan smiled: "I looked at it, the frequency of the crime is basically once every three to five days. It's been three days since the last time, so I estimate they should act in these two days. Wait for me to make a call to borrow a car, and we'll go over."

"I thought we had to take the passenger bus. It really has to be you, dear brother."

"With these conditions, why bother struggling."

Wang Yan didn't care that everyone in the office was looking at him; he naturally took out his phone book and made a call using the phone on the table.

Not long after, a car drove over. Wang Yan chatted and laughed with the person for a few sentences, then took Old Ma and Wang Xin and left the bureau. They first went back to the compound to tell Wang Sufang that the three of them might not be back for several days, and only then did they truly leave to handle the case.

"There are three villages and one town nearby. It can be confirmed that this gang of thieves is here. There is a village ahead, shall we check it first? Or go directly to the town?"

Wang Xin's brain was still active; after being scolded by Ma Kui, he consciously made up for it.

He was also the one driving the car. Young people, they all want to explore, especially in this era when cars were still rare, unlike later when they were everywhere on the street.

"Go to the town." Ma Kui, in the passenger seat, spoke. "Who in the village can afford to buy it? Whose family has scrap to sell? It has to be the town. Besides, there seems to be a steel mill, right?"

"Oh..." Wang Xin suddenly realized, exclaimed, and said happily, "Then haven't we finished handling it? Your eyes are sharper than anyone's. Once we go over and look, we won't need two sentences before we see everything. Shall we just catch the people and take them back, and once we interrogate them, won't we know everything?"

"The factory has a security department. Do you think this is a joke, catching them just like that? Let me tell you, once we get there, you kid behave yourself. If you cause trouble, we won't be able to clean it up," Ma Kui instructed.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Old Ma? On someone else's turf, would I dare to stir up trouble? You should talk about your son-in-law; he's a ruthless person, he dares to do anything."

"Whenever something happens, you shift the firepower to me, destroying our family unity. When it's truly destroyed, I'll take ruthless action, and let you feel what a ruthless person is."

"Look, I said you two are in cahoots, just picking on me alone."

"That's a funny thing to say, there isn't a fourth person anyway," Ma Kui said with a smile.

Laughing and joking like this, the few of them arrived at the town. They didn't go to the steel mill, but first went to several scrap collection places in the town and walked around, but found nothing.

"I don't think this one looks like it, what do you think?" Ma Kui asked Wang Yan.

"I don't think it looks like it either."

Wang Xin clapped his hands: "Alright, this case is considered solved. It's almost noon, let's eat something before we go. I estimate they are eating right now too."

"This suggestion is good." Wang Yan expressed his approval. "I seemed to see a stall selling lamb soup just now, it smelled quite fragrant. Shall we go taste it?"

"Let's go, eat more. Once you're full, you can work. This stuff isn't easy to handle," Ma Kui let out a long breath.

The three of them got into the car and found the place where the cart was set up to sell lamb soup.

This belonged to the pioneers. Being bold was one aspect, but they also had to have some connections. After all, this side was relatively slow, and the officials were pursuing "no mistakes." This kind of street stall selling food was definitely not right, and whether to catch them and judge them was still in the balance.

It was exactly the lunch hour, and the lamb soup was truly fragrant, drifting across two streets, so the business was quite good, and the couple was busy and sweating profusely.

The three of them ordered lamb soup and tendon pancakes, gathering around a broken table. It was very affordable, a big bowl full of ingredients, and they really had some skills, it was made very well, and it was fragrant. The trio ate until they were sweating profusely.

Wang Xin gave a high evaluation: "Looking at it this way, I think this policy is very good. No coupons needed, just spend money, and it's made well. Right, Old Ma? I see you're eating quite happily."

Ma Kui snorted and didn't speak.

Just like in the original story, Ma Kui hadn't adapted well to some changes, and the two of them had some conflicts in concepts because of this.

Wang Yan shook his head with a smile: "Aren't you looking for a scolding? I see your mouth is even cheaper than Cai Xiaonian's."

"He's a bit worse."

"You're being humble. Given your cheap mouth, this meal is on you."

"Why?"

"Let's vote, Old Ma."

Ma Kui raised his head, smiling and raising his hand: "I agree."

Wang Yan shrugged: "Two to one, Comrade Wang Xin, please obey the organization's decision."

Wang Xin didn't say a word, slapping his own mouth twice with a *slap-slap*, and said with a look of despair, "You two just keep picking on me. How much money do I even have? And you're still eyeing it? You have absolutely no humanity."

After speaking, he drank the last mouthful of soup and said angrily, "Give me a cigarette!"

Wang Yan took out a cigarette and threw it over. Wang Xin lit one himself, and put the rest, cigarette and lighter, into his own pocket, only then getting up angrily to pay the bill.

After paying the money, smoking the cigarette, and eating and drinking his fill, the three of them drove towards the steel mill... ===== CHAPTER 1145 =====