Chapter 626

Seven o'clock in the morning.

Tao Lu arrived at the Criminal Police Detachment.

The office lights were on, the floor looked like it had just been mopped, and the pothos plants had been watered, shining with a bright green luster. But looking at the seats, they were completely empty. As the detachment leader, Tao Lu was actually the first person on this floor to come to work.

Tao Lu hummed in dissatisfaction.

Not a single person had proactively come to work early. No wonder they had to spend a lot of money to hire outside help.

If the team could produce even one capable person—not even needing 100% of Jiang Yuan's ability, just 70% or 80%—would he need to beg and plead to request a budget?

A county public security bureau actually wanted to expand its detention center and even wanted high-standard prisoner transport vehicles. That was only because Huang Qiangmin had explained the urgency of cross-jurisdictional policing in Ningtai County with "earnest words." Otherwise, Tao Lu would never have lowered himself to go to the bureau chief.

Thinking of the bureau chief's expression and tone at the time, Tao Lu felt full of shame.

Don't look at the Zhengguang Bureau's 2.2 billion yuan annual budget; most of that was for personnel salaries and benefits. For a police force of over 10,000 people, personnel expenses alone were larger than those of the military. If the average was 150,000 yuan, 10,000 people would be 1.5 billion yuan.

The rest wasn't at the Zhengguang Bureau's disposal either; the budget at the beginning of the year was already set. There was more "live money" than local police bureaus, but it was still limited.

Fortunately, there were always various support policies and subsidies, and in the end, it was just the Zhengguang Bureau chief sacrificing his old face to ask for it.

Anyway, asking for case-handling funds was asking, and asking for subsidies was also asking. For the bureau chief, if he could raise the case-solving rate, it wasn't impossible to make him move.

What was truly uncomfortable was Tao Lu. If Jiang Yuan weren't so stubborn, especially with his outstanding family background, Tao Lu would have loved to use the condition of a PhD residency to dig Jiang Yuan over directly. The money saved might have been enough to build a postdoctoral workstation.

"Morning."

Finally, someone walked in... and happened to bump into Tao Lu's line of fire.

Tao Lu glared fiercely at the first police officer who entered. He couldn't remember his name, so he said, "Come earlier next time."

"Yes." The police officer stood at attention and replied, then returned to his seat, rubbing his eyes. He was a bit suspicious—wasn't there not a single person in this office?

However, he quickly achieved psychological balance because the police officers who came later were scolded even more severely, to the point that the political commissar heard about it and ran over to soothe Tao Lu.

"Is everything okay? Did your daughter date another scumbag?" the political commissar asked with concern.

Tao Lu's eyelashes broke free from their shackles, spreading out in all directions. He said angrily, "It's not because of that."

"It's not?"

"She did date another boyfriend, also a 'yellow-hair,' but I'm not angry because of that." Tao Lu paused before stating Huang Qiangmin's requirements, then sighed and said, "I made a military pledge to the bureau chief. Now, if the case-solving rate can't be raised and the cold cases can't be cleared, I won't have the face to stay."

The political commissar was greatly surprised: "It shouldn't be that bad, right? Why did she date another 'yellow-hair'? She never learns her lesson."

"Old Zhang, behave yourself. Is that the point of what I'm telling you?"

"Solving cases, just do it well. I don't think there's anything to say. As for your daughter, I'm also an uncle to her, should I..."

"Old Zhang!" Tao Lu interrupted the political commissar, his eyes about to spit fire. He didn't know what it was for.

Old Zhang then straightened his face: "Sigh, why did you make a military pledge? Is there anything certain about solving cases? Especially cold cases... If it doesn't work, then set up a few more cold case task forces. If a blind cat hits a dead mouse, you might solve a few more..."

"That guy surnamed Huang has a very strong bite. He knew I had my eye on Jiang Yuan and wouldn't let go. There was no other way, so I agreed to his conditions. The other side has high demands, and the bureau chief definitely couldn't agree easily..." Tao Lu roughly described his mental journey, making the political commissar sigh repeatedly.

"Then there's no other way. If it were me, I would only have this operational process. However—can Jiang Yuan really satisfy you?"

"Haven't you seen the cases he solved before?" ===== CHAPTER 627 =====