Chapter 2449: New Clues

Li Ziyu reviewed the case files repeatedly in his office, feeling increasingly that there were many suspicious points. He felt that this matter was probably not as simple as flower-patting, robbery, or assault—there was likely some conspiracy behind it. But he couldn't figure out what.

He tried hard to make connections but couldn't link this matter to the Mao family case, so he eventually had to give up.

Luck can't always be on my side, he thought resignedly.

Gao Chongjiu, however, had long developed a train of thought, but he wanted to keep this idea secret for the time being. First, he wasn't very confident, and if there were no results, it would seem too rash. Second, he didn't want to reveal his thinking to Li Ziyu too early.

Gao Chongjiu had worked as a runner in the kuai class all his life and was a good hand at reconnaissance and arrest. However, in the past, solving cases as a runner relied mainly on the accumulation of experience and social connections. Neither would be given to you by your seniors for no reason. When he first became a runner, he apprenticed and worked as a "White Body"—an unofficial runner—for more than ten years. Only when his master grew old and retired, recommending him as a successor, and after he paid a sum of respect money to the head runner and the clerks in the administrative office, did he manage to become a "Proper Body"—an official runner.

Although both Proper Bodies and White Bodies muddled through in the kuai class, and outsiders feared them like tigers, to insiders a Proper Body was a tiger while a White Body could only count as a fox. The various groups coming to the city to make money would not pay respect money to a White Body, nor could a White Body hold a warrant to arrest people. They could only rely on extorting small commoners and getting a share of the soup when running errands during case handling. The hardship Gao Chongjiu endured rising from White Body to Proper Body was difficult to describe to others. Thus, he placed extreme importance on his experience and connections.

After the Australians came, Gao Chongjiu, by a twist of fate, solved a major case and leapt from an obscure "retained person" to become a cultivation target, sent to Lingao to attend a police administration short-term training class.

Although this training class was only two months long, it greatly expanded Gao Chongjiu's horizons and thinking. While appreciating it, he also harbored great worries: under the Australian system, the case-solving techniques and thinking that originally required long-term experience to enlighten could be obtained through systematic instruction, while social connections could be acquired through various systems established by the police organs. Household registration, baojia, and informants were not brought by the Australians, but the Australians could obviously manage and use these measures more effectively. This allowed any criminal police officer to quickly master reconnaissance resources and carry out work independently.

Gao Chongjiu felt an unprecedented sense of crisis—he was already in his forties. He had no deep origin with the Australians, nor had he actively defected to them; retaining him was simply because they valued his experience and familiarity with the local situation. But now, Guangzhou's lower-class society was undergoing an unprecedented cleansing. Centuries of accumulated filth were being constantly washed away, and social control was becoming increasingly strict. "With the skin gone, to what can the hair attach?" His social connections in the lower class were depreciating accordingly.

Therefore, his sense of crisis was heavy, and he very much wanted to take this opportunity to solve a few more critical cases—to raise his position and rank a bit higher. After all, a Senior Agent was still just an agent; it would be best to have a "Chief" in the title.

This case, based on his experience, was definitely not as simple as intentional injury or robbery. Now he had successfully piqued Li Ziyu's interest. Li Ziyu was not only his superior now, but more importantly, a newcomer who had entered through the civil service examination. Apart from the Northbound Detachment cadres brought from Lingao, the Australians valued these local civil servants who passed the exams the most. Letting him come forward would be beneficial for securing police resources.

But this coming forward also had to be carefully managed—otherwise it would be making wedding clothes for others. He, Gao Chongjiu, did not mind being a "little brother's" assistant, but it had to be the right-hand man kind.

Gao Chongjiu arrived at the teahouse he frequented and, through the waiter, called over a few White Bodies he commonly used. The White Bodies who had exerted themselves in the Mao family case had all officially joined the police force now—although it was indeed a good thing for the brothers, it was very inconvenient for him. Once these people joined the police, they belonged to the police station and had their own work content, so they could no longer be dispatched to do things.

Fortunately, he still had a few people in his pocket, either those whom the police station considered to have significant historical stains and unsuitable for re-employment, or those who didn't want to work in this line anymore but didn't mind earning some extra money. These people were unified into the informant system under the new regime.

"You go to various places that exchange silver and ask around. Find out if anyone has exchanged silver since January 11th, whether whole ingots or broken pieces."

The places he mentioned for exchanging silver were naturally not the Central Reserve Bank, Delong, or the money shops designated as City Government Designated Exchange Points—after the currency reform, in order to continue exchanging silver and copper coins from society, the Central Reserve Bank had designated a batch of financial institutions as exchange points. Silver holders could bring silver to these places and exchange it for corresponding silver dollars and banknotes after color inspection and weighing.

Local commoners, for various purposes and needs, sometimes needed to exchange silver dollars and silver dollar coupons back into weighable silver. However, the Senate only promised that silver dollar coupons could be exchanged for silver dollars, but neither silver dollars nor silver dollar coupons could be re-exchanged for silver.

With exchange in but not out, there was a certain arbitrage space for speculators. Corresponding black markets emerged as the times required.

The Ministry of Finance naturally could not tolerate the existence of these speculators and had carried out crackdowns. But just like in the old timeline, as long as the arbitrage space existed, people like ticket scalpers and "yellow oxen" would always find their gray space for existence.

Gao Chongjiu estimated that because the source of the robbers' silver was improper, they probably wouldn't go to places like banks or money shops to exchange it, but could only find these money traffickers to unload the goods.

"The total silver is two hundred taels. The victim said there are five twenty-tael ingots, three ten-tael ingots, and the rest is broken silver. Right, the five twenty-tael ingots look like they have the mark of a smelting shop—the stamp is 'Sanjiangmao.'" Gao Chongjiu mentioned the details. "One more thing. Ask around everywhere if there have been any flower-patters committing crimes in Guangzhou recently—come find me immediately if there's news."

Li Ziyu still had other cases on hand. After putting aside the Grand Market Street robbery case, he busied himself with other matters—public security in Guangzhou city had improved compared to when the Senate first entered the city, and vicious cases had decreased significantly. But there were still many fragmented cases, especially theft cases. Because Guangzhou had a large floating population and a huge Tanka population that had not yet completed household registration, the detection rate of theft cases was pitifully low. They had to frequently organize dragnet-style security sweeps to solve cases. Li Ziyu was also run off his feet because of this.

Just as he was busy with all four limbs in the air, Zhao Gui suddenly barged in.

"Rep... Rep... po... Report! Inspector..."

A-Gui had followed Li Ziyu smoothly enough; he had no great merits but drank plenty of soup. Although the man was useless, he had been promoted one rank in police grade because of the Mao family case. When Li Ziyu was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Section after returning from training in Lingao, he asked for Zhao Gui from the Public Security Section patrol team. Now he was also an agent of the Criminal Investigation Section. Of course, this matter went so smoothly also thanks to Lian Nishang's appreciation of his "firm stance." She believed that although Zhao Gui lacked ability, he possessed the simplest form of loyalty. Other police officers called A-Gui "Li Ziyu's follower" or "Li Ziyu's silly sworn brother."

A-Gui didn't care about these titles at all; instead, he was somewhat triumphant. In this Criminal Investigation Section, apart from a few cadres from the Northbound Detachment, the local cadres vaguely regarded Li Ziyu as their leader.

"What is it?"

"Time to get off work..."

Li Ziyu looked at the wall clock; it was already past seven-thirty in the evening. As an Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Section, officially he worked from eight in the morning to six in the evening, but in reality, there was no fixed time for getting off work. It was common to work through the night when busy, and sometimes when he got off too late and missed the gate closing time, he would simply sleep at the station.

Seeing Li Ziyu still intent on working, A-Gui hurriedly added: "If... if we don't go, the street gates will close soon."

At present, the security situation in Guangzhou caused the police department to continue adopting curfew measures, only the curfew time was shortened to start at nine in the evening and end at dawn.

Usually, if he didn't go back, he didn't go back; he only went home two or three nights a week nowadays. But today was different; Li Ziyu's mother had specifically asked someone to send a message, asking him to come back tonight no matter what.

Li Ziyu knew his parents were very supportive of his work. Unless there was something particularly urgent, his mother would not specifically call him back.

"Alright, I know." Li Ziyu said, starting to tidy up his desk. Inside the police station, whether it was case files, reference materials, or other documents, after finishing work they had to be either returned to the archives department or locked back in the filing cabinet; in short, they could not be left on the desk. This was something Mu Min, and also the police cadres from the Northbound Detachment, emphasized repeatedly.

After tidying the desk, Li Ziyu put on his uniform and adjusted his hat and collar buttons. The winter police uniform used a thin wool Chinese-style jacket, which was much stiffer and more stylish than the cotton-hemp texture of the summer uniform. The Senate was gradually getting richer now, and they were also much more lavish with clothing. Police badges and collar tabs, which used to be cloth embroidery, were now all changed to metal. Paired with a diagonal Sam Browne belt, it looked quite formidable.

The two signed out and walked back together. A-Gui was currently still staying at the Li house. On the road, he inevitably muttered about some personal matters.

A-Gui muttered for the hundredth time about Sister Qiao. After the Zhong family's collapse, although Sister Qiao was not implicated and was released without charge, she had no relatives in Guangzhou. After being released from the detention center, she didn't even have a place to live. Finally, she was taken in by the Benevolence Society and assigned to a civilian production cooperative under the charity hall, specializing in garment production, which also provided simple room and board.

(End of Chapter)