County Town. State-Owned Hotel!
By the time Li Yi arrived at the State-Owned Restaurant, it was already 10:00 a.m.—a full hour later than usual.
There was nothing he could do about it—he’d been up all night.
By the time he finally fell asleep, it was nearly midnight, and when he woke up, it was already 7:00 a.m.—a full two hours later than usual.
Third Sister had actually gotten up early. She’d originally planned to drag Li Yi out of bed to make liangpi, but Tang Xue stopped her.
Tang Xue knew Li Yi had gone to bed late the night before. To let her husband rest a little longer, she didn’t let Li Na disturb him, but got up herself to help Li Na with the chores.
Although the two of them had watched Li Yi make liangpi before, and Tang Xue was from Qin Province, they had assumed they could manage without his help.
But when they actually tried their hand at it, they discovered that these little liangpi were really hard to make—they demanded both quick hands and precise heat control.
After ruining several batches of dough, the two of them barely managed to make a few servings of liangpi.
But the appearance was, well, hard to describe—they had no choice but to give up!
Fortunately, they didn’t just sit around idly. While waiting, Tang Xue and Li Na grilled the white flatbreads and chopped all the toppings for the liangpi.
By the time Li Yi woke up and they got back to making the cold noodles, it was already quite late.
Li Yi had just tied up his black horse when he saw Liu Jingshan emerge from the shop with a delighted expression.
“Hahaha, they say ‘the land of temptation is the hero’s grave’—you can’t escape that old saying either, kid!”
Li Yi smiled and said, “No, I just couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up late!”
“I see, I see…”
Knowing the old man had surely jumped to the wrong conclusion, Li Yi didn’t bother explaining. Instead, he immediately unloaded the mountain produce and mushrooms from the truck one by one and began weighing them.
At the same time, he carried the prepared liangpi into the back kitchen!
After weighing everything, Liu Jingshan settled the bill with Li Yi while remarking, “You’ve been bringing in quite a lot these past few days, kid. I’m almost at my limit here!”
“Heh, I’ve picked a bit more than usual these past few days. Brother Liu, you’ll just have to put up with it!”
“Hmm, a thousand catties a day—no more than that!” Liu Jingshan said.
“Alright, but Brother Liu, if you trust me, stock up now and dry them into preserved goods!” Li Yi said.
“Dried goods?”
“Yeah, barring any surprises, the price of dried goods is going to go up this year. If you don’t get some now, you might end up spending more later!” Li Yi said.
“Alright, I’ll think it over!”
“Hmm!”
Seeing that Li Yi was about to leave after settling the bill, Liu Jingshan hurriedly said, “Wait a minute, Brother Li Yi—there’s something I forgot to tell you!”
“What is it?”
“Captain Wang from the Dxmbang unit stopped by this morning. He waited for you for a while but didn’t see you, so he asked me to pass along a message: please swing by the county bureau when you have a chance!” Liu Jingshan said.
“Got it!”
Li Yi then hitched up his black horse and drove straight to the county police headquarters.
In fact, Li Yi didn’t even need to think to know that the gold theft case had been solved, and Wang Guo’an probably wanted to thank him.
Knowing him as well as he did, Li Yi figured that if he didn’t go, the guy might just show up at his doorstep.
Better to go see him than risk that.
Besides, Li Yi had something he needed to discuss with him anyway!
When Li Yi arrived at the county police station, it had returned to the quiet and leisurely atmosphere of recent days.
In fact, public order in Qingshan County had always been excellent, with very few major criminal cases occurring over the years.
Whether it was the Criminal Investigation Division or the other units, their workload was light; theft cases like the one at Factory 812 and the recent child abduction case were the biggest incidents to occur in recent years.
And precisely because of this, the county police’s investigative skills were, frankly, not very impressive.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Come in!”
Upon pushing the door open, Li Yi discovered there was actually someone else in Wang Anguo’s office—an elderly police officer in his sixties.
Upon seeing Li Yi, Wang Anguo hurriedly stood up and said, “Brother Li Yi, you’re here! Come on in!”
Li Yi didn’t stand on ceremony and immediately walked in with a smile.
Before Wang Anguo could speak, the older police officer beside him said with a look of surprise, “Comrade Anguo, is this Comrade Li Yi you’ve been talking about so often?”
“That’s right. He’s the Li Yi who helped our county bureau crack three major cases in a row!”
Then, Wang Anguo pointed to the older police officer beside him and said, “Brother Li Yi, let me introduce you. This is Deputy Director Qian from our county bureau, who also oversees our Criminal Investigation Division.”
Li Yi immediately replied, “Hello, Deputy Director Qian. I’m Li Yi!”
“Hahaha, Comrade Li Yi, are you 20 this year?” Deputy Director Qian asked with a friendly smile.
“Deputy Director Qian, I’m 21 this year!”
“Twenty-one? You’re so young! It truly is a case of the new generation pushing the old—each wave is stronger than the last!”
Standing nearby, Wang Anguo chuckled and said, “Without the support of you ‘older waves’ like Deputy Director Qian, we ‘younger waves’ wouldn’t be able to make any headway!”
“Hahaha, you’re quite the smooth talker!”
After saying that, Director Qian added, “All right, give the matter I mentioned earlier some careful thought. The bureau is waiting for your response. I won’t keep you any longer!”
After exchanging a few more words with Li Yi, Director Qian turned and left Wang Anguo’s office.
Once Director Qian had left, Wang Anguo immediately closed the office door.
He then poured Li Yi a glass of water and said with a smile, “I went to the State-Owned Hotel early this morning to wait for you. I waited until past nine and still didn’t see you show up. I thought you weren’t coming today!”
Li Yi smiled and replied, “No, I just got up a little late today and ran into some delays.”
“Hmm, the gold theft case has been solved. The suspect has been apprehended!”
Wang Anguo changed the subject and began discussing the case with Li Yi.
“Did they confess?”
“Yes. When we summoned them for questioning, we also searched their residence and found the stolen gold there.”
Wang Anguo continued, “Faced with the hard evidence, Hao Guanchang and his wife have fully confessed to stealing the gold from the factory!”
“That’s good. This matter has finally been resolved satisfactorily!”
“Yes, you played an indispensable role in resolving this case smoothly. If we’d continued investigating along our previous lines of inquiry, there’s a good chance these two cunning individuals would have evaded detection. On behalf of the County Bureau and the comrades in the Criminal Investigation Team, I thank you, Brother Li Yi.”
Li Yi smiled and said, “Come on, you know I don’t care about that sort of thing!”
“Yeah, I get it!”
Wang Anguo then added, “The gold theft case is now in its final stages, and we’re not as busy as we were before. That’s why I called you in—to ask how you plan to handle the educated youth poisoning case!”
Li Yi replied immediately, “My approach is simple: aside from the ringleader, Xu Hong, the rest just need a lesson!”
Wang Anguo nodded and said, “If it’s just a matter of teaching them a lesson, that’s simple. Leave it to me!”
“Alright!”
Then Li Yi added, “Oh, and there’s one more thing I need your help with, Captain Wang!”
“What is it?”
“My third older sister was harassed by some thugs while she was running her street stall yesterday. If you have time, could you take some of your team members over there to patrol the area and intimidate those thugs a bit?”
“Thugs? Who are they working for?”
“Not sure. I beat them up yesterday, so I don’t know if they’ll try to get even!” Li Yi said.
“Leave this to me. I’d love to see who in Qing Shan County dares to mess with you!” Wang Anguo replied immediately.
“Alright!”
Just as Li Yi thought the conversation was over, he heard Wang Anguo suddenly say, “Brother Li Yi, actually, there’s something I’d like to ask you today. I don’t know if it’s convenient for you.”
“Uh… why are you being so polite all of a sudden? Just ask whatever you want. If I can tell you, I will; if I can’t, you can ask all you want, but I still won’t say a word!” Li Yi replied.
“Well, here’s the thing. Director Qian just came by and told me that the Municipal Bureau is planning to transfer me to serve as the Criminal Investigation Division Chief. Do you think I should take the position?”
Li Yi furrowed his brow and said, “Going from being the head of the county bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division to the head of the municipal bureau’s—that’s a great opportunity. What are you worried about?”
“That may be true, but I know the situation at the Municipal Bureau isn’t looking too good right now!” Wang Anguo said, frowning.
“What’s so bad about it?”
“From what I’ve heard, there’s a backlog of major and high-profile cases in the city right now. Two deputy chiefs and two criminal investigation team captains have already been removed for failing to solve cases. Who knows how long I’d even last if I went there!”
Hearing this, Li Yi immediately recalled that during this period in his previous life, the city had indeed seen a spate of heinous crimes, several of which weren’t solved until twenty years later.
Clearly, by transferring Wang Anguo to the Municipal Bureau at this time, they were treating him as a firefighter.
If he could put out the fire, there would naturally be no problem.
But if he failed to meet expectations, he might be replaced in no time—so it was only natural that Wang Anguo had reservations.
Li Yi smiled and asked, “What do you think about it?”
“I want to go! But my brother and my father both think it’s too risky!”
Moving from county criminal investigation captain to municipal criminal investigation captain is definitely a great opportunity for Wang Anguo.
Although both positions are “chief,” they are at different levels and ranks, which means the potential for future promotion is also different.
So, from Wang Anguo’s perspective, he didn’t want to miss this opportunity.
But Wang Anmin and Old Man Wang were, after all, seasoned veterans. They understood all too well the risks hidden within this opportunity, which was why they didn’t want Wang Anguo to take the risk.
“Outsiders are, after all, outsiders. Whether it’s your brother’s or your father’s opinion, or even mine, you can take them into consideration, but the final decision is yours alone!” Li Yi said ambiguously.
“What about me?”
“Don’t seek others’ opinions. Follow your heart, and let things take their natural course!”
“Follow my heart and let things take their natural course?”
“Mm-hmm!”
“I understand. Thanks, brother Li Yi!”
“You’re welcome!”
……..