Chapter 281: Hiring People

"Xiang Geng, show everyone how to use this surveillance system."

Third Uncle was walking around the surveillance room with his dog, looking like a middle-aged playboy.

His mongrel dog, a mix of Huibo Xuetu, was also stepping proudly, as if it were worth two coins.

Xiang Geng was a somewhat thin young man with slightly yellow fingers and a faint smell of tobacco on him—the unpleasant kind.

Being pointed out by Third Uncle, Xiang Geng smiled, sat down in front of the surveillance console, and said, "Because the overall system isn't finished yet, I'll switch it for everyone to see our surveillance range."

He pressed keys one, two, three, four, and fiddled with the joystick, showcasing the scene in front of and behind the houses in Jiang Village residential area.

Several middle-aged villagers who came with him all looked very solemn and said in deep voices, "From now on, no one can mess around in the residential area."

Third Uncle smiled and said, "It's fine, Xiang Geng is one of our own. He's the son of Fourth Sister's husband's younger brother, which makes him Fourth Sister's nephew."

Everyone nodded with an "Oh...", their expressions relaxing a little.

Third Uncle continued, "Xiang Geng, for this system of ours, if we record footage of our own people in the future, delete the inappropriate parts. This applies not just to us few, but to other villagers as well, okay?"

Third Uncle looked at the crowd.

Everyone nodded one after another.

Xiang Geng gave a bitter smile, "That's not easy. Deleting footage from this system is quite troublesome, and besides, if we delete everyone's, the footage will be useless."

He didn't dare to take on this task. Not only was it too tiring, but it was also too easy for things to go wrong.

Third Uncle frowned, "So everything we do in the courtyard will be recorded."

Xiang Geng remained silent and nodded.

"Any of you able to delete footage?" Third Uncle looked at the other five people.

The other five looked at each other and shook their heads. Deleting footage is one thing, deleting everything is another; if they delete it whenever they encounter it... these people are all living in the residential area, so they might as well just turn off the surveillance.

Xiang Geng said, "Uncle, before you installed the surveillance system, didn't you think about the fact that you would be recorded?"

Third Uncle frowned, "How could I possibly understand such high-tech stuff?"

Xiang Geng suddenly didn't know what to say.

Jiang Yuan was a Jiang Village person after all, so he coughed twice and said, "Um, Third Uncle, what is it that you're mainly worried about?"

Third Uncle was asked with his brows tightly furrowed. He looked to both sides before whispering, "Our village committee election is coming up soon..."

"Let me make a suggestion." Jiang Yuan said decisively, "We can change the surveillance direction of this system; it's a very simple matter. The square in the center of the residential area, right here next to the activity center, just turn all the surveillance cameras. I'll readjust them..."

As Jiang Yuan spoke, he directly operated the system.

For some cameras, he set restrictions; for those that couldn't be restricted and were pointed right here, Jiang Yuan recorded their numbers and would have workers dismantle them later.

Xiang Geng was a bit surprised at first and didn't even quite understand what Jiang Yuan was doing.

Once he understood, Xiang Geng was amazed. He had thought Third Uncle saying this system was arranged by Jiang Yuan just meant he had spent money to supervise the work; he hadn't expected it to be literal.

For Xiang Geng and the others who only knew how to use it, Jiang Yuan's operation was like a TV repairman walking in while they were using a remote to adjust TV channels.

They were fundamentally doing two different things.

Once Jiang Yuan was done, he explained the range of the safe zone to Third Uncle and the others while working.

Third Uncle understood and nodded repeatedly with satisfaction, "Right, that's what I mean. We can't attack our own people; it's too dangerous..."

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "I'll have someone paint a green line with paint later. The part outside the green line is where there are cameras; the part inside the line will be called the Green Zone, or the Council Zone. When you discuss things like elections, you won't be recorded. This way, we can... um, put an end to unfair competition."

"Hey, right, that's exactly what I mean. The Council Circle." Third Uncle was immediately satisfied and nodded repeatedly to the others.

Xiang Geng finally understood and smiled, "Uncle, is it your turn this year?"

"That's hard to say. It's not about whose turn it is; it's just that I'm preparing to be more active this year." Third Uncle said with a smile, then added, "Xiang Geng, you should learn well from Jiang Yuan. He arranged and set up this entire system, and he has a sharp mind."

"Alright." Xiang Geng nodded quickly.

He understood after seeing Jiang Yuan's operation just now; the man was truly a surveillance system expert.

Furthermore, Jiang Yuan was a Jiang Village person and belonged to the village's "permission dogs." Although Xiang Geng was considered half a relative, he wasn't from Jiang Village after all.

"From now on, the six of us will work in three shifts, two people per shift, watching surveillance, patrolling, and so on." Xiang Geng was introducing the situation to Third Uncle and the others, as well as explaining it to his colleagues.

This was the basic function of the "Jiang Village Security Surveillance Room." Jiang Fujian listened and added, "You all have experience in surveillance before, which is why we hired you as the first batch. Later on, our village will hire a few more people, and then we'll recruit some more."

Jiang Fujian looked at the others and said, "Security, at the end of the day, requires courage and fighting spirit. The security work in our village protects the safety of everyone in the village, so this must not be taken lightly..."

Everyone present nodded one after another. They were truly wealthy and truly needed a sense of security.

The next day, the video surveillance installation company sent people over to make new adjustments to the density and range of the cameras.

After Third Uncle and the others were satisfied, the elder generation of Jiang Village, such as Grand Uncle and Second Uncle, came to the surveillance room again to inspect and watch the operation of the surveillance equipment, and once again encouraged the 6 security personnel.

Afterwards, it was the Jiang Village people's intensive visiting and watching.

After all this settled down, another three or four days passed.

In yet another village-wide election, Jiang Yuan and Jiang Fujian were elected as members of the security group with high votes, and together with Third Uncle, the three were responsible for managing and maintaining the security work in the village, including the surveillance room.

The "Jiang Village Security Surveillance Room" thus got on the right track.

To celebrate, Jiang Yuan specially took a few people to re-screen the new surveillance footage from the past week.

They discovered one case of lost items—which were returned.

They discovered two cases of electric scooter theft—even though Jiang Village had set up a surveillance system, and even the county had set up a surveillance system, the petty thieves who made a living by stealing couldn't possibly stop immediately.

If their hands stop, their mouths stop; how else would they live?

Jiang Yuan sat in the "Jiang Village Security Surveillance Room," putting the headshots of the two suspects from the two electric scooter theft cases on the public screen.

"What now?" Xiang Geng asked, smelling a cigarette Jiang Yuan had just tossed him, looking at the screen with some curiosity.

He had graduated from an ordinary school, but when it came time to work, he entered a Golden Shield company in a certain place, and later worked for a period as an image security guard—that is, being a security guard for a real estate project under development, while also watching surveillance on the side.

Having stayed in the surveillance room for a long time, Xiang Geng was considered self-taught. Just as he heard that Jiang Village people had set up a new security company, he ran over immediately.

He knew a little about surveillance, but he wasn't very clear on how to use surveillance to catch people.

Jiang Yuan smiled and asked back, "What do you think?"

"Facial recognition?" Xiang Geng looked at the faces on the public screen and tried to say.

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "That's quite difficult. For such small cases, you basically don't need to think about it."

"Then... find fingerprints?" Xiang Geng still knew a little.

"That's possible, but the thief in the video is wearing gloves, right?" Jiang Yuan said.

"Uh... then follow the surveillance to find things they touched when they weren't wearing gloves?" Xiang Geng racked his brain.

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "You can try and see."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan sent the two photos from the public screen he had just taken to the "Ningtai Theft and Robbery Group."

Xiang Geng and the others were quite interested in mobilizing the surveillance to track the whereabouts of the two petty thieves.

Jiang Yuan asked in the group himself:

"Which hero knows these two thieves? Take them in. Our Jiang Village property surveillance caught them stealing an electric scooter. We have complete surveillance, video recordings, a victim, and the invoice for the electric scooter."

Soon, responses from several people came.

South Second Ring: 【I'll ask someone.】

Sixth Team Li Jing: 【Don't ask. I know the one on the left. Brother Jiang, send me the video. I'll go pick him up now.】

Property Crime Little Wang: 【I'll take the one on the right. I'm familiar with the Jiang Village area. Brother Jiang, the electric scooter is worth over 3,000, and it hasn't been used for long.】

Ningtai Jiang Yuan: 【The electric scooter is worth over 7,000, and it's about a year or two old.】

Property Crime Little Wang: 【I was shallow. How could an electric scooter in Jiang Village only be worth 3,000 yuan?】

South Second Ring: 【Envious. I haven't seen a thief for over half a month. Don't say, I actually miss them.】

Sixth Team Wei Zhengguo: 【When I entered the industry, my master said that catching thieves is a lifelong job. Some places might not have homicides, some places might not have arson cases, but it's impossible not to have thieves. I didn't expect that catching thieves would really be finished in a lifetime.】 Jiang Yuan smiled, sent the video over, put away his phone, and looked at Xiang Geng and the others.

They were already dizzy from looking for people along the surveillance cameras.

"Alright, both thieves have owners. Someone will go catch them later. When the police come to ask you for the raw data, just give it to them." Jiang Yuan didn't mean to watch a joke, just said: "You can continue following the surveillance. If you can find fingerprints, that would be even better."

Xiang Geng understood and nodded immediately, "Don't worry, we will definitely practice well."

"Good, then I'll head back first." Jiang Yuan stood up and walked two steps, then remembered Jiang Village's tradition and said: "After the two cases just now are solved, everyone will have a 1,000 yuan bonus. It will be like this from now on: if you find a case and catch a thief through surveillance, there will be a 500 yuan bonus per thief."

Xiang Geng's eyes lit up immediately, "Then I won't be polite. If I catch another thief, I'll send it to you!"

"Sure, just send it to me." Jiang Yuan noticed Xiang Geng's high enthusiasm and became a bit worried, asking, "Are you short on money?"

"Not very short, just that there are many places to spend it." Xiang Geng said embarrassedly.

Jiang Yuan frowned, "Are you married, or do you have a girlfriend with high expenses?"

"Not really... I'm not married yet." Xiang Geng hesitated for a moment and whispered: "My girlfriend doesn't actually spend much, it's just that the three of us sometimes like to compare with each other. Whatever we buy, we have to buy three copies, otherwise, they won't be happy."

Jiang Yuan was silent for a few seconds and said: "If you're short on money, come find me directly. You are not allowed to bring your girlfriend into the surveillance room—not even one of them." ===== CHAPTER 282 =====

"It's not that... I'm not married yet." Xiang Geng hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "My girlfriend actually doesn't spend much, it's just that the three of us sometimes like to compete with each other. We have to buy three of whatever we buy, otherwise, they won't be happy."

Jiang Yuan was silent for a few seconds, then said, "If you're short on money, come to me directly. You are not allowed to bring your girlfriend into the surveillance room, not even one of them."