Binjiang Police Affairs

Chapter 1460 - 248: Luck Shines Upon the Family

In the blink of an eye, school started again.As soon as he got off work, Xiao Yu rode his motorcycle straight to Four Factory to check whether there were any students surfing the internet in the "21st Century Internet Café."

Four Factory Town wasn’t in the jurisdiction of the Changhang Branch Linghai Police Station, so Xiao Yu had no control over other places in Four Factory Town, but he could管 the town’s only internet café, because this internet café was run by his family!

Counting it up, today made exactly seventeen days since it opened.

The place had been bought outright from a clothing-shop owner; they’d set up twenty computers in total. The investment wasn’t small, but business was really good.

In Four Factory Town there wasn’t just a big enterprise like Binjiang Dasheng Fourth Textile Factory, there were also plenty of small businesses, with lots of young employees. Those young guys and girls who knew how to get online had all been riding bicycles or motorcycles into Linghai City District to surf the net before.

Now that there was an internet café in town and the internet fee was the same as in the city, why bother going the long way around?

The owner of the internet café wasn’t Xiao Yu, it was Xiao Yu’s father, Comrade Old Liang.

Old Liang got the idea to open an internet café mainly because his heart ached every time he saw Xiao Yu going out to spend money on internet time. Later he made some inquiries and found out those internet cafés outside were all booming. He thought, if I’m idle anyway, I might as well open an internet café for my son to play in and make some money at the same time.

He didn’t know how to operate it, but there were people who did.

He had Yu Zhen recruit two vocational school graduates as network admins while she was hiring, and he and his wife took turns at the café, watching Little Crocodile while keeping an eye on things, and suddenly felt like they’d found that old feeling of running a shop on the boat back in the day.

Strictly speaking, it was even more profitable than running a shop!

Two yuan an hour—twenty machines meant forty yuan an hour. If you convert the overnight packages into daytime internet hours, on average each machine could "operate" twelve hours a day. Add in the profit from selling drinks, instant noodles, and sausages, and they could make five hundred a day!

Total investment was two hundred thousand; at most they’d make their money back in a year and a half.

The more he did it, the more fired up Old Liang got. Seeing his son rushing in all excited again, he said with a dark face, "What are you doing here?"

"The students are back in school, I came to see if there are any minors online."

"I’m here watching, what do we need you for?" Old Liang knew perfectly well his son was using "inspection" as a pretext to come play computer games again. He glanced back over his shoulder. "All the machines are full, and there aren’t any kids among the customers. Head home early."

The customer is God!

You can’t very well force God off the machine.

Xiao Yu looked at the customers sitting in front of each computer, playing away in high spirits, and couldn’t help feeling deflated. He muttered, "We agreed this place was opened for me to play in, but since opening I’ve only gotten to play a few times at the very beginning."

"Business comes first, besides, you’re not a kid anymore."

"Then I’ll go back?"

"Go on, and ride slower on the way."

...

He’d come in high spirits and left in low ones.

Back in Bailong Port, Xiao Yu was just thinking up an excuse to go to Sanhe and spend some money surfing the net when a call suddenly came in from Guo Weitao, who’d just rotated back from the South Sea not long ago.

"Xiao Yu, where are you? You busy tonight?"

"In Bailong Port, not busy tonight. What’s up?"

"Waiting for you to treat us!"

"Waiting for me to treat you to what?" Xiao Yu asked, puzzled.

Guo Weitao laughed and said, "You’ve already been promoted to Full Department Level, isn’t it about time you treated us?"

Xiao Yu realized what he meant and couldn’t help grinning. "If we’re talking about promotions to Full Department Level and Deputy Director, there are plenty of people in our branch who’ve been promoted. And what’s a Full Department Level or Deputy Director anyway? There are people being bumped up to Deputy Department Level—no way it should be my turn to treat."

The Changhang Branch was seriously showing off.

Just half a month ago, the organization had been restructured.

Before, the branch only had the Political Office, General Office, Legal Affairs Department, and three brigades—Security, Criminal Investigation, and Firefighting—plus four police stations.

Now the branch office had the Political Office, General Office, Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Department, Legal Affairs Department, and Equipment Finance Department; under it were four directly subordinate brigades—National Security, Security, Criminal Investigation, and Water Firefighting—and four police stations: Gaoru, Binjiang, Linghai, and Dongqi. And all four直属 brigades and four police stations were Deputy Department Level units!

The deputy positions in these Deputy Department Level units had been bumped from Deputy Director to Full Department Level, and just like that, Xiao Yu had muddled his way into becoming a Full Department Level Deputy Director of the Linghai Police Station.

Guo Weitao was very jealous and said with a laugh, "I know your branch is now mass-producing Deputy Department Levels and having a clearance sale on Full and Deputy Department Levels, but I don’t know those people. I only know you. Since you’ve moved up, you have to treat us!"

"You’re pretty close with Fang Guoya; why don’t you get Fang Guoya to treat?"

"He’s a Deputy Department Level leader now—give me ten guts and I still wouldn’t dare freeload off a leader."

"I’m a Full Department Level leader too, and here you are, a Deputy Director, daring to extort a Full Department Level leader like me!"

"The hell with you!"

Xiao Yu shot back with a laugh, "The hell with what, you’ve got no sense of decorum at all."

Guo Weitao couldn’t stand Xiao Yu showing off and snapped with a laugh, "So what if you’re Full Department Level? Forget your branch’s Full Department Level—even a Full or Deputy Department Level—salary-wise they’re only about on par with us staffers at the Smuggling Crime Investigation Bureau. What’s so great about that!"

When it came to pay and benefits, it used to be the Port Supervision Bureau that had it best, but now Customs was king.

The Smuggling Crime Investigation Bureau and Customs were essentially one family; the pay and benefits for their police and Customs Officers were about the same. They not only blew Local Police out of the water, they also crushed all the other Yangtze River law-enforcement units, including the Maritime Bureau.

Xiao Yu had long been annoyed at how much they made, so he followed his lead and said, "Old Guo, you make more money than I do, you should be the one treating!"

"Director Xu’s salary is higher than mine, why don’t you ask Director Xu to treat?"

"Brother Haoran is practically my real brother, how could I ask him to treat!"

"Xiao Yu, oh Xiao Yu, your teeth sure grow outward, huh? All you know is how to eat off others—you’re terrified of taking even the slightest loss yourself!"

"If you’re just reluctant to treat us, fine, but don’t make excuses." Xiao Yu chuckled, then grinned obsequiously and asked, "Old Guo, I won’t ask you to treat me to dinner—how about treating me to some internet time? I haven’t played Red Alert with you guys in ages, I’m really worried that after you’ve been drifting at sea for half a year you’ve forgotten how to play."

This kid only ever thinks about playing.

Guo Weitao cursed him silently with a smile and said, "Bro, go online some other time and have Xiao Gong keep you company. We’ve got real business today. If you’re not busy tonight, hurry to the camp—Minister Yang and President Sun have something urgent for you."

"Yang Jianbo and President Sun are looking for me?"

"Yeah. I’m already at the camp, Uncle Liu is here too, we’re just waiting for you."

"What exactly is it?"

"Can’t talk about it on the phone."

"Can’t talk about it on the phone" meant it had to be kept secret.

What kind of military secrets could the Linghai Reserve Camp possibly have?

Xiao Yu reacted quickly and said hastily, "Got it, wait for me, I’m on my way."

...

Everyone thought Xiao Yu making deputy director of the Changhang Branch Linghai Police Station was already like his ancestors’ graves smoking green, and they all figured that even if he worked until retirement he’d top out at Deputy Director. His education level was what it was; there was no way he could move up further.

Who would have thought that when the Changhang Branch restructured, four police stations and several brigades would all be upgraded to deputy department level, and Xiao Yu would rise with the tide and get promoted in place.

As soon as Guo Weitao put down his phone, Yang Jianbo sighed and said, "Their luck is really something, especially Fang Guoya—actually getting bumped up to deputy department level. His family’s ancestral grave didn’t just smoke, you could say it caught fire!"

"If it caught fire that’s easy, firefighting is exactly his line of work."

Guo Weitao burst out laughing, sat down, and said, "Actually, if you think about it, it’s normal. Units in the transportation system are all ranked high. Take the Maritime Bureau, for example—it has several deputy department level maritime departments under it."

These last two years, Sun Youyi had dealt a lot with the Yangtze River Water Bureau, and he couldn’t help laughing as he said, "Same with the water resources system—tons of bureau-level units, and department-level units are as common as cows. You even get provincial hall level units managing other provincial hall level units. Third-level official directors—three tiers up and down all at provincial hall level. It’s not just water resources; the transportation system has the same setup. Xiao Guo, I hear you Customs guys have them too."

"Seems like it."

"That’s the perk of vertically managed systems. At the local level, it’s hard enough to get bumped up to Deputy Director, never mind Director or deputy department level." Yang Jianbo was now deputy minister of the Linghai Armed Forces Department, dealing with local Party and government cadres every day. He was practically half a local cadre himself by now, and he really felt this, and envied it quite a bit.

Bailong Port wasn’t far from Sanhe.

The three were chatting when they heard a motorcycle engine outside. They stuck their heads out for a look—Xiao Yu had arrived.

"Minister Yang, President Sun, is the 105th Army Special Warfare Group coming here for sea training?"

"Your intel’s pretty sharp."

"When Salted Fish and I were studying in Hanwu we went to the headquarters, and I already knew the commander was planning to have the Special Warfare Group come here for sea training."

"Then why didn’t you tell me?" Yang Jianbo teased.

"The Special Warfare Group is a special operations unit, and anything they do has to be strictly confidential. I only skipped school a few days more than you guys, I’m not stupid."

"You ’only skipped school a few days more than us’? You never went to school at all, okay!"

"Old Guo, other people can make fun of me, but what right do you have to laugh? You joined the army’s art troupe at five to train acrobatics—did you go to school?"

"I didn’t go to regular school much as a kid, but I always had academic classes. Our art troupe was about the same as a sports school or sports team—when you’re young you still have to study."

Put the two of these semi-illiterates together and they’d immediately start sniping at each other and digging pits for one another.

Not wanting to watch them bicker, Yang Jianbo got straight to business: "Everyone, we just received notice from the superior: the 105th Army Special Warfare Group will arrive in Binjiang next Wednesday night. They plan to rest for a day after arrival and then head to the seaside for training. The superior has ordered us to fully support them."

Previously, Guo Weitao only knew the 105th Army Special Warfare Group was coming for sea training, but not the exact timing. He asked in surprise, "Minister Yang, it’s already September. The sea water’s getting colder and colder—are we really going to the seaside for training at this time of year?"

"I asked Li Shousong. He said if it’s a real war, the enemy won’t let us choose the timing, and definitely won’t let us choose the weather."

"What’s that got to do with Li Shousong? He’s not in the Special Warfare Group!" Xiao Yu looked completely puzzled.

Smiling, Sun Youyi explained, "He wasn’t before, but he is now. He was just transferred to the Special Warfare Group, and he’s currently their chief of staff."

Looking up, Liu Degui added, "The superior had him come over ahead to pave the way. Minister Yang had a meeting with him at the Military District this morning. Right now he and Captain Xia have gone to Dongqi."

"What’s he doing in Dongqi?" Guo Weitao asked curiously.

Before Liu Degui could answer, Xiao Yu laughed and said, "What else would you do in Dongqi? Obviously going to inspect the training sea area."

"Mm." Yang Jianbo nodded and picked up the thread: "The superior ordered that our camp has full responsibility for their logistics support and also that the Third Company is to coordinate with them on sea training. Xiao Yu, Weitao, your upcoming tasks are going to be tough and tiring—you’ll be serving as their instructors, and going into the water together with the Special Warfare Group officers and men."

Sun Youyi added, "The reason you two are being sent as instructors is because the President named you personally."

"No problem, you can be a hundred percent at ease—we will never embarrass the camp!"

As soon as Xiao Yu finished, Guo Weitao also grinned with high spirits and said, "Minister Yang, don’t worry. I won’t disgrace my old unit, and I won’t disgrace my new unit either. After all, I’m representing the Rescue Boat Team—I’m the only one from our team joining this operation."

"You’re not the only one." Yang Jianbo patted his arm and smiled. "If you count the days, the President should be back soon. Once he’s back, he’s definitely joining in too."

Xiao Yu immediately perked up and asked eagerly, "Minister Yang, do you know when Salted Fish is coming back?"

"At the meeting this morning, Commander Wang said the formation had successfully completed the visit mission and returned safely. Because of some urgent business, the President flew to the East Sea as soon as he set foot ashore, and from the East Sea he’ll go to Ningbo first. He’ll come back after he’s done there."

"What’s Salted Fish going to Ningbo for?"

"Think about it—what’s Ningbo?"

"He’s going to the East Sea Fleet? The East Sea Fleet Headquarters is in Ningbo!"

Yang Jianbo nodded and went on with the main topic: "You two going to serve as instructors for the 105th Army Special Warfare Group doesn’t count as taking leave—it’s an official assignment. The Military District will coordinate with your units. Considering the need for confidentiality in the upcoming training, go back and pack your gear. Report to the camp before 2 p.m. tomorrow. After you officially report in, you won’t be allowed any contact with the outside world until the 105th Army Special Warfare Group’s sea training is over."