Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Three Groups

At the entrance of No. 88 Courtyard.

Qin Yu smiled and asked, “Lin Nianlei, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here to look at a place to rent.” Lin Nianlei brushed the tips of her hair and casually asked, “What about you?”

“What a coincidence,” Qin Yu paused, “I’m here to look at a place too.”

“Huh?” Lin Nianlei blinked her bright, lively eyes. “Doesn’t the police department have dormitories?”

“Heh, the dorms are too crowded. I’m not used to it, so I figured I’d rent my own place.”

“Oh.”

Lin Nianlei gave a playful nod, then extended her hand in an easy, natural manner and said, “Since it’s such a coincidence, let’s properly introduce ourselves. I still don’t know your name.”

“My name is Qin Yu.”

“Qin Yu, thank you so much!” The real reason Lin Nianlei had taken the initiative to chat with him was precisely to say those words.

Qin Yu knew she was thanking him because he had saved her life in the alley, so he responded with a show of modesty, “Just doing my duty. It was the right thing to do. No need to thank me…”

Lin Nianlei straightened up with admiration upon hearing that. “Hehe, salute to the officer!”

“Come on, let’s go in and take a look together.” Qin Yu wasn’t exactly immune to pretty girls, but his circumstances had been too limited before for him to act on it. Now that things had settled down a bit, he felt a little stirring inside, and at the very least wanted to chat a bit more with a good-looking girl.

“I’ve already finished looking. I’ve put a deposit down. My colleague went to buy something, and we’ll leave once she’s back.” Lin Nianlei replied warmly and generously, “If you end up renting here, we’ll run into each other from time to time. Once I get my paycheck, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Heh, I’ll have to see if the place suits me first.”

“I work at the broadcast network. I’ll definitely be in touch with the police department going forward. See you around.”

“Sounds good!”

After a brief exchange, Qin Yu stepped into No. 88 Courtyard. He hadn’t had a chance to get Lin Nianlei’s contact information before she left with a female colleague.

……

Inside the courtyard.

Old Mao was sitting on a stone stool, waving and calling out, “Qin Yu, over here!”

“Coming.” Qin Yu heard him and headed over.

“I just heard you talking at the entrance. Who was that?” Old Mao asked casually, “Did Qi Lin come too?”

“No, I just ran into that girl who got kidnapped the other day. We chatted for a bit.”

“???” Old Mao stared blankly for a long moment. “You ran into that girl? Where is she?!”

“Can you not look like you’re about to eat someone? She already left.”

“What was she doing here?” Old Mao asked in rapid succession, clearly very interested. “Who did she come with? What did she say to you?”

“She works at the broadcast network, which isn’t far from our department, so she came to check out a place to rent and happened to run into me.” Qin Yu replied impatiently, “Why are you asking in such detail?”

“Did she rent a place in this courtyard?”

“Looks like it.”

“……!” Old Mao furrowed his brow and thought for a long moment, then suddenly looked at Qin Yu and asked, “Hey, are you by any chance looking for a roommate? I can cook.”

“You’re such a shameless flirt.” Qin Yu was speechless.

“She’s really got my attention, brother.” Old Mao rambled on, “How about we co-rent? Live together, I’m telling you…”

“We’ll talk about it later. Let’s look at the place first.” Qin Yu waved him along impatiently. “Hurry up, I need to get back to the unit in a bit.”

“Alright, alright, let’s look first.”

With that, the two of them stepped into the main hall of the front building.

The room Old Mao had found for Qin Yu was roughly thirty-something square meters. It had some basic furniture inside, the walls had been freshly painted, and the overall environment looked clean, though the price was on the higher side. The landlady was asking three hundred a month, and required six months paid upfront.

The price wasn’t low, but it was reasonable. No. 88 Courtyard was located in the most concentrated area of Songjiang’s government institutions, right next to the television station, the broadcast network, the police department, the transportation bureau, and other agencies. That was also why Qin Yu and Lin Nianlei had crossed paths. Their workplaces weren’t far apart to begin with, and even if they hadn’t met here, they would likely have run into each other eventually.

The currency currently in circulation in the Ninth Special Zone was the Asian Yuan, which had only been issued recently. The global reserve currency was the Alliance Dollar, issued by the United Allied Reserve, a body under the United Government. Of course, the EU zone had its own currency, the Euro, but that’s a separate matter.

The exchange rate was roughly 1 Alliance Dollar to 6 Asian Yuan.

Since the Asian Yuan had only been issued recently, its purchasing power was quite high. Roughly speaking, it was probably about ten times the purchasing power of the old Renminbi. So three hundred Asian Yuan was equivalent to about three thousand in the old currency. Qin Yu’s current salary was only five hundred a month, so if he rented this place, after food and daily expenses, there would be almost nothing left.

This was a snapshot of life for the lower class in the Ninth Special Zone. The cost of living was rising day by day because resources were dwindling, and with relatively more people than jobs, wages were very low. That was why Qi Lin racked his brain trying to get promoted to Level 2 officer, because a higher rank meant a higher salary.

Old Mao could see that Qin Yu liked the place but was wincing at the three hundred a month rent, so he said quietly, “In the police department, apart from guys like Qi Lin who are too timid and just focus on being a yes-man, the vast majority of people don’t rely entirely on their salary to get by. I can tell you’re no saint either. You’ll definitely be pulling in some gray income down the line…”

“Do you have gray income?” Qin Yu asked, side-eyeing him.

“Of course I do. How could I not?”

“What kind of gray income do you have?”

“I specifically shake down guys who put up escort ads. If they don’t pay up, I rough them up.” Old Mao replied shamelessly.

“……!” Qin Yu was speechless.

“Stop overthinking it. Just rent it. I can come crash here sometimes too.” Old Mao urged him again.

Qin Yu weighed it for a while. He figured he probably wouldn’t find anything better or cheaper anytime soon, and the courtyard really was close to the police department, so after a moment’s hesitation he said, “Fine, I’ll take it. Six months first.”

……

After work started in the afternoon.

In the third squad’s office area of less than fifty square meters, nine young officers stood in uniform, feet apart.

Yuan Ke looked at everyone with a smile and said, “I’ll keep this brief. Qin Yu may have just arrived, but he genuinely took down the major criminal Matsushita and successfully cracked a kidnapping case. So after careful deliberation by the department and the team, it has been decided to provisionally appoint Qin Yu as the leader of Squad One, Group Three.”

Everyone exchanged glances for a long moment before a round of enthusiastic applause broke out.

“Qin Yu’s personal third-class merit citation has already been submitted by the department. His rank will be bumped up in due course, so don’t let any other thoughts creep into your heads. I’ve said it before, as long as you’ve got what it takes and you’re working in Squad One, I will promote you. That goes for everyone equally.” Yuan Ke finished speaking and reached out to pull Qin Yu forward. “Go ahead and introduce yourself to everyone.”

Qin Yu stepped forward, dressed neatly in his light green police uniform, two stripes on his shoulders, and saluted. “My name is Qin Yu. I look forward to working with all of you.”

In the crowd, Qi Lin stared blankly at Qin Yu, a bitterness in his heart that he couldn’t put into words.

Just dozens of hours ago, he had personally brought this newcomer back to the unit. And in less than two days, the guy had become his superior. That feeling… was genuinely hard to swallow.

“Let me say this again. Once you put on this uniform, you follow the rules here. Qin Yu may be new, but if any of you try to give him a hard time, slack off, or let it affect the work, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Yuan Ke smiled as he addressed everyone, then turned to look at Qin Yu and said, “Alright, you all get acquainted.”

“Will do.” Qin Yu nodded. “Thank you, Captain Yuan.”

“I told you, no need to be polite.” Yuan Ke drifted away.

In the office area, Qin Yu looked around at everyone and casually pulled out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from his pocket, the kind he normally couldn’t bring himself to smoke, and said with a grin, “I just got lucky and stumbled into something good. Ended up as team leader by a twist of fate, but my personal experience is definitely less than yours. So when it comes to cases going forward, I’ll be counting on everyone’s help. Come on, relax, have a smoke.”

Qin Yu said this purely as a polite opener, intending to break the ice, but to his surprise, the relatively older young man standing at the far left of the group reached out and took the pack from his hand, tore open the packaging with practiced ease, and said, “Heh, brother, you’ve got connections. You can even get hold of flue-cured tobacco?”

Qin Yu paused, then smiled and replied, “A good friend gave it to me.”

The person talking to Qin Yu was named Zhu Wei, a veteran of Group Three who had been on the job for four or five years. He had never moved up due to his somewhat blunt personal style. Had Qin Yu not come along, the internal selection might well have put him forward as group leader, given his seniority and his decent relationship with Yuan Ke.

Zhu Wei pulled out a cigarette, lit it, took a long hard drag, then passed the pack to the others.

“Sit down, everyone.” Qin Yu called out.

“Smack!”

Just then, Zhu Wei suddenly slapped Qin Yu on the arm and laughed loudly, “Now this is the real deal. Hits different. Brother, you’re generous, not stingy at all, haha!”

There was nothing wrong with the words, but the slap landed right on Qin Yu’s arm where it had been grazed. He’d taken a graze from a stray bullet during the shootout with Matsushita, and it still hadn’t fully healed.

“Hiss!”

The slap sent a sharp pain through Qin Yu. He winced, brow tightly furrowed, and stepped back, turning to look at Zhu Wei.

“Brother Wei, the squad leader has an injury.” Qi Lin had by this point already changed how he addressed Qin Yu, and without even realizing it, had started calling him squad leader.

“Damn, what happened?” Zhu Wei asked Qin Yu casually. “Where are you hurt?”

Qin Yu glanced at Zhu Wei and replied with a smile, “Got grazed by a bullet when we were taking down Matsushita.”

“Just a graze? That’s nothing. Go to the hospital later and get some medicine and you’ll be fine.” Zhu Wei said with a grin, “Skip the injection though. You won’t die from this, and one shot costs half a month’s salary these days.”

Qin Yu heard that, narrowed his eyes at Zhu Wei, and said nothing more, just gestured for the others to take a seat.

Once all ten members of Group Three had sat down, everyone began chatting quietly.

In the course of that first conversation, Qin Yu got a rough sense of how Group Three was set up.

Including himself, the group had ten members, among them three Thai nationals, one African national, and six Chinese nationals. But since the Ninth Special Zone was located in what used to be northeastern China, Mandarin was the official language, and they had all lived there long enough that their Mandarin was very fluent, and they all spoke with a slight northeastern accent.

After a brief exchange, everyone got down to their respective tasks and began studying the files on the drug trafficking gang.

……

By evening, Qin Yu had just finished inspecting the two beat-up police vehicles belonging to Group Three in the parking area downstairs. He turned and headed back up to the office, only to find the room nearly empty. Only Qi Lin and the African brother were left, going over the case notes.

“Where is everyone?” Qin Yu asked.

“Brother Zhu took them out to handle something.” Qi Lin replied.

Qin Yu frowned. “I said we’d be studying the case and holding a meeting tonight. Why did he suddenly take people out? Is there a case?”

“No, he took them out to handle some personal business, it seems.”

“……It’s not even the end of shift yet, and he just took people and left without a word?” Qin Yu muttered, his expression flat.

Qi Lin stayed silent for a long moment and didn’t respond.

Qin Yu sat down in his chair with a furrowed brow, staring at the desk phone, fingers tapping lightly on the table.

What was Zhu Wei playing at?

Was he trying to test him?

On the very first day officially leading Group Three, Qin Yu’s first challenge had arrived.