Diary of a Criminal Investigator-Chapter 341: An Old Story from Three Years Ago
June 9th.
The flamingo-lily in the Crime Scene Investigation office is thriving.
However, it seems like it hasn’t been tended to as much recently, showing signs of wild growth.
Lu Chuan has also changed his habits recently, only watering the plants and not tending to them as carefully as he used to.
After all, now he has real people to worry about, so naturally, the energy spent on the plants is less.
Biting into a bun made by Forensic Doctor Shen’s mother, it tastes pretty good.
Liu Guodong went to the morning meeting early, so before nine o’clock, Lu Chuan was still alone in the office.
"Haha, today right after six in the morning, I dragged that brat of mine out of bed."
The door hadn’t opened yet, but Old Yang’s hearty laughter echoed down the corridor.
Yesterday, the college entrance examination officially ended, and Old Yang’s spring had finally arrived.
"Old Bai, let me tell you, this really feels like getting even. No more need to keep an eye on his studies, finally free!"
Six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, three years of high school.
Who knows when it started, but parents, kids, and teachers started getting especially competitive.
Parent committees, tutoring classes, one learning art, another learning piano.
When Lu Chuan was a kid, he’d only ever heard of summer camps.
Back then, his family didn’t even oversee his studies.
But now, according to Old Yang, there’s a parent group in his kid’s class where more homework is handed to parents than to the kids.
"Brother Yang, have a smoke!"
Seeing Old Yang walk into the office with a spring in his step, Lu Chuan quickly handed him a Chunghwa.
Old Yang’s eyes lit up as he took the Chunghwa from Lu Chuan: "It’s been a week since I dared to smoke a single cigarette at home. I almost thought I’d quit."
"How did your kid do on the exam?"
"Heh, he says it’s okay. I’m not worried, since he’s finished it now. We’ll see what school he gets into once the scores are out."
"Does he want to apply to the police academy?"
At this, Old Yang paused slightly and sighed: "That’s not decided yet. I haven’t really talked to him much about college choices."
Actually, emotionally speaking, Old Yang hoped his son would apply to the police academy.
With the father being a police officer, the son also being one, and in the future, his grandson as well, having three generations of police officers starting with him would sound impressive.
But rationally, Old Yang didn’t quite want his son to attend the police academy.
While it’s a stable job and offers the security of a government position, the pay for police is admittedly low, and the job is highly dangerous.
Of course, attending the police academy doesn’t necessarily mean specializing in Criminal Investigation; he could study something like Crime Scene Investigation and become an administrative officer like Lu Chuan.
But being an administrative officer doesn’t mean there’s no danger.
In the event of a homicide, when staff is stretched thin, it’s possible for everyone, including the entire team or department, to be pulled in.
Since starting work, Lu Chuan has been in Crime Scene Investigation and has never really been in dangerous situations, but hasn’t he had close calls?
"Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings, whether he goes to the police academy is up to him."
Old Yang sighed, accepting the situation.
Luckily, he had been watching a lot of short videos recently, many of which were about choosing university majors.
The goal is clear—choose a major for future employment.
So at least his son won’t choose pitfall majors like Business Administration or Journalism.
"If you ask me, being a police officer isn’t bad. So what if it’s a bit dangerous, with overtime and low pay? It’s no big deal."
Old Bai, having been a police officer for a lifetime, evaluated his job very aptly and had profound insights.
"Anyone else doesn’t need to look, just look at me. I’m almost 60 now, about to retire, and have been involved in major and minor cases from frontline to now in our Criminal Investigation Team. What’s the result? Any promotions or advancements?"
"So, I’d say that being a police officer is still a very good career choice. Like me, at my age, I’ve probably raised the average lifespan for police officers, right?"
Listening to Old Bai’s analysis, Old Yang suddenly felt that the Chunghwa in his hand lost its appeal.
Is this even a fair comparison?
"Brother Bai, you can’t say it like that." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
Lu Chuan had a different opinion: "Look at me, my family’s ancestral hall has a plaque commemorating my achievements, and even if I die in the future, that plaque will still be there."
"As long as the Lu Family is around, I’ll always live on in their hearts."
"Don’t mention yourself," Old Yang shook his head: "In our team, how many living first-class merits have there been over all these years?"
The Criminal Investigation Team handles major cases and primarily homicides.
Awards and commendations are common, with many second and third-class merits, but first-class merits are really rare.
When they do happen, they’re exchanged with sweat and blood.
Like Lu Chuan...
Over the years, Old Bai and Yang Sen have only seen one like him.
While they were chatting, Liu Guodong’s morning meeting had also ended.
Lu Chuan checked the time; it was ten o’clock.
If the morning meeting lasted an hour, Lu Chuan knew it was going to be a slack day.
Because only when there’s nothing going on does Captain Qin talk so long at morning meetings.
In case of a real case, there wouldn’t be a morning meeting but an immediate case analysis reporting meeting instead.
The case on Changhe Street was cracked swiftly, so quickly that many hadn’t even reacted or switched from slack mode to emergency overtime mode before the case was resolved.
Of course, not everyone was happy about this.
A good number of the detectives in their thirties and forties in the team were not too keen on going home.
What’s good about going home?
Either facing a disobedient son or a wife who asks you to mop the floor?
So whenever there was a case, this bunch of folks would rush out of their homes, ready to set up a camp bed and enjoy some time away from everyday domestic chores.
But before a night even passed, the case would be solved, and their grand escape from their wives would end before it even began.
One by one, they could only head back home, fulfill their domestic duties, eat kidneys, and buy pills as needed.
"Old Yang, how did your kid do on the exams?"
This was the hundredth time Yang Sen heard this greeting today.
"Not bad, not bad. We’ll see once the scores are out."
This was also the most frequently asked greeting by Liu Guodong today.
There are a total of seven colleagues’ children taking the college entrance exam in the team, with almost one in every department.
"Lu Chuan, there’s a file here that Captain Qin just handed to me. Please take a look."
Lu Chuan noticed the file box Liu Guodong was holding, thinking it was materials related to the Changhe Street case, but it turned out to be a different file.
Accepting the file box, Lu Chuan opened it: "Huh?"
"This isn’t our case?"
"It’s from Liangzhou City. The detective working on it over there is Captain Qin’s brother-in-law. He’s asking you to take a look."
Lu Chuan nodded, understanding that it was Captain Qin’s brother-in-law.
While Liu Guodong continued chatting with a few others, Lu Chuan opened the file and started digging into it.
It wasn’t a current case, but an old one from three years ago.
