Chapter 322 - 322 290 Hire Someone

Words : 2103 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

322: Chapter 290: Hire Someone 322: Chapter 290: Hire Someone “Xiang Geng, show everyone how to use this surveillance system,” Uncle Three led his dog around the monitoring room, strolling casually like a middle-aged playboy. His mixed Tibetan Mastiff-Schnauzer strutted on its tiny paws, acting as proud as if it was worth a fortune. Xiang Geng was a somewhat skinny young man with slightly yellowed fingers and a faint tobacco smell on him, the unpleasant kind. Picked by Uncle Three, Xiang Geng gave a smile and sat down at the monitoring console, saying, “Since the overall system isn’t set up properly yet, I’ll switch between the cameras for you to see our surveillance range.” He began pressing buttons one by one and manipulating the joystick, showcasing the view in front of the houses in the Jiangcun Residential Area. Several middle-aged village men who came along looked very serious, saying solemnly, “We can’t mess around in the residential area anymore.” Uncle Three chuckled and said, “It’s fine. Xiang Geng is one of our own. He’s the son of my younger sister’s husband’s brother—basically, my younger sister’s nephew.” Everyone nodded with an “Oh...” their expressions relaxing slightly. Continuing, Uncle Three said, “Xiang Geng, for this system, let’s delete any unsuitable footage of our own people, not just for us few, but for other villagers as well. Can we do that?” Uncle Three looked at the others. Everyone nodded in agreement. Xiang Geng forced a smile, “That won’t be easy. Deleting footage with this system is quite a hassle and, moreover, if we delete everything, the recordings will become pointless.” He certainly didn’t dare to take on this task. Not only was it exhausting, but it would also easily lead to trouble. Uncle Three frowned, “So everything we do in our yards will be recorded.” Xiang Geng remained silent and nods. “Can any of you delete recordings?” Uncle Three looked at the other five men. They exchanged glances and shook their heads. Deleting some footage is one thing, but deleting everything is something else. To delete as soon as something comes up... these people all lived in the residential area, so might as well just turn off the surveillance. Xiang Geng said, “Uncle, didn’t you consider that you’d be caught on camera before installing the surveillance system?” Uncle Three frowned, “How could I understand such high-tech stuff?” Xiang Geng was at a loss for words. Jiang Yuan cleared his throat and said, “Uncle, what exactly are you concerned about?” Asked this question, Uncle Three frowned deeply, looked around, then whispered, “The village committee election is coming up soon...” “Let me make a suggestion,” Jiang Yuan decisively said, “Let’s adjust the direction of the surveillance system; it’s a simple task. For this central plaza right next to the activity center here, turn all the surveillance cameras around, I’ll re-adjust them...” While talking, Jiang Yuan began operating on the system directly. Some cameras were set to restrict their range, those that couldn’t be restricted, their lenses facing this way, Jiang Yuan noted down their numbers to have them removed by workers later. Xiang Geng was initially surprised, not even quite understanding what Jiang Yuan was doing. When he finally understood, Xiang Geng was astounded. It turned out Uncle Three meant that Jiang Yuan had set up this system; he had thought it was just about supervising the work with money, not the literal sense. To Xiang Geng and the others who only knew how to use the system, Jiang Yuan’s operation was like having a TV repairman suddenly come in while they were channel surfing with a remote control. They were doing entirely different things now. Having almost finished, Jiang Yuan explained the safe area boundaries to Uncle Three and the others while working. Once Uncle Three understood, he nodded with satisfaction, “Exactly, that’s what I mean. We can’t harm our own people, it’s too dangerous...” Jiang Yuan smiled and said, “I’ll have someone paint a green line later. Outside the green line are the areas covered by cameras; inside will be called the Green Zone, or the Council Zone. That way, discussions about the election and such won’t be recorded, and we can... um, eradicate unfair competition.” “Yes, exactly, the Council Circle!” Uncle Three was extremely pleased, nodding repeatedly at the others. Xiang Geng finally understood and laughed, “Uncle, is it your turn this year?” “That’s hard to say, it’s not about whose turn it is. It’s just that I plan to be more proactive this year,” Uncle Three said with a smile, then added, “Xiang Geng, you follow Jiang Yuan and learn well. He arranged and set all this up, he has a sharp mind.” “Got it,” Xiang Geng nodded promptly. He realized from Jiang Yuan’s operation that he was indeed a surveillance system expert. Moreover, Jiang Yuan belonged to the Jiang Village people and was inherently part of the village’s inner circle. While Xiang Geng might be somewhat related, at the end of the day, he was not from Jiang Village. “From now on, the six of us will work in shifts, two people per shift, monitoring and patrolling like this,” Xiang Geng explained both to Uncle Three and the others, as well as to his colleagues about the situation. This was basically the prime function of the Jiang Village Security Monitoring Room. Having heard this, Jiang Fuzhen said, “You all have some experience with surveillance, which is why we recruited you first. Later on, we will also bring a few more people from the village and then recruit others.” Jiang Fuzhen looked at the other men, saying, “When it comes down to security, you have to be brave and ready to fight. The security work in our village protects everyone’s safety, which is something we definitely can’t take lightly...” All those present nodded. Everyone was indeed wealthy and in real need of a sense of security. The next day, the video surveillance installation company sent people over to adjust the density and range of the cameras anew. After the satisfaction of the third uncle and others, the older generation of Jiang Village people, such as the eldest and second elders, came to the monitoring room again to inspect and watch the operation of the surveillance equipment, and once again encouraged the six security personnel. After that, there were dense visits and crowds of onlookers from the Jiang Village People. Once everything settled down, another three or four days passed. Jiang Yuan and Jiang Fuzhen were elected with a high number of votes as committee members of the security group in another village-wide election. Together with the third uncle, the three of them were responsible for managing and maintaining the security work in the village, including the monitoring room. Thus, the “Jiang Village Security Monitoring Room” officially got on track. To celebrate, Jiang specifically led a few people to re-screen the new surveillance footage from the past week. They discovered one case of lost items—immediately returned. They discovered two cases of electric scooter theft—even with surveillance systems in place in both Jiang Village and the county, thieves who lived off stealing couldn’t possibly just stop on a dime. If they stopped stealing, how would they make a living? Jiang Yuan sat inside the “Jiang Village Security Monitoring Room” and displayed the images of the two suspects involved in the electric scooter theft cases on the public screen. “What do we do now?” Xiang Geng, sniffing a cigarette Jiang Yuan had just tossed to him, curiously looked at the screen. He graduated from an ordinary school and later worked for a period at the Golden Shield Company in some place. He even did a stint as a security guard for a developing property—part of the job involved watching surveillance monitors. Having spent a lot of time in the monitoring room, Xiang Geng was mostly self-taught and heard that the Jiang Village People had started a new security company, so he immediately came over. He had some understanding of surveillance, but he wasn’t really clear on how to use it to catch criminals. Jiang Yuan smiled and countered, “What do you think?” “Facial recognition?” Xiang Geng ventured, looking at the faces on the public screen. Jiang Yuan smiled and replied, “That’s quite difficult. With petty crimes like these, you basically don’t need to think about it.” “Then... what about fingerprints?” Xiang Geng still understood a bit. “That’s possible too, however, the thieves in the video were wearing gloves, weren’t they?” Jiang Yuan pointed out. “Er... Then follow the surveillance to find when they touched things without gloves on?” Xiang Geng racked his brain. Jiang Yuan smiled and said, “You can try and see.” With that, Jiang Yuan sent the two images he had just taken from the public screen to the “Ningtai Theft and Robbery Group.” Xiang Geng and others enthusiastically manipulated the surveillance monitors to track the whereabouts of the two petty thieves. Jiang Yuan then asked in the group: “Any heroes recognize these two thieves? Take them down. Our Jiang Village Property Management’s surveillance caught them stealing electric scooters. We have complete surveillance, video footage, victims, and invoices for the scooters.” Responses quickly came in. South Second Ring: [I’ll ask around.] Li Jing from Team Six: [No need to ask, I know the one on the left. Jiang, send me the video and I’ll go pick him up right now.] Xiao Wang on Property Crimes: [I’ll take care of the one on the right since I’m familiar with the Jiang Village area. Jiang, is the value of the electric scooter over 3000? How long has the scooter been used?] Ningtai Jiangyuan: [The scooters are over 7000 each and have been used for about one or two years.] Xiao Wang on Property Crimes: [I was too shallow, how could Jiang Village scooters be just 3000 yuan.] South Second Ring: [Envious, I haven’t seen a thief in half a month, and to tell the truth, I kind of miss them.] Li Jing from Team Six: [That’ll be even rarer in the future, cherish the ones you catch while you can.] Wei Zhenguo from Team Six: [When I entered the industry, my master said that catching thieves is a lifelong matter. Some places might not have murder cases, others might not have arson cases, but there will always be thieves. I never thought I’d actually be done with a lifetime of catching thieves.] Jiang Yuan pursed his lips in a smile, sent the video, put away his phone, and looked towards Xiang Geng and the others. They were so dizzy from trying to find people using the surveillance cameras. “Alright, both thieves have been claimed, someone will come to catch them later. When the police come to you for the original data, just give it to them,” Jiang Yuan said without any intention of ridicule. “You can continue following the surveillance. If you can find fingerprints, that would be even better.” Understanding, Xiang Geng immediately nodded and said, “Don’t worry, we will definitely practice well.” “Good, then I’ll head back,” Jiang Yuan stood up and took a couple of steps, then remembered the tradition of Jiang Village and added, “Once the two cases are solved, everyone will get a 1000 yuan bonus. From now on, if you find and catch thieves through the surveillance, there will be a 500 yuan reward per thief.” Xiang Geng’s eyes immediately brightened. “Then I won’t be polite. If I catch another thief, should I send it to you?” “Yes, just send it to me,” Jiang Yuan noticed Xiang Geng’s high enthusiasm, which made him a bit concerned, and asked, “Are you short of money?” “Not really short, but there are lots of expenses,” Xiang Geng admitted uneasily. Jiang Yuan frowned, “Are you married? Or do you have a girlfriend? Is the spending too extravagant?” “Not really... I’m not married yet.” Xiang Geng hesitated for a moment before speaking softly, “My girlfriend’s expenses actually aren’t high, it’s just that the three of us sometimes like to compare with each other. We have to buy three of everything, otherwise they get unhappy.” Jiang Yuan was silent for a few seconds before saying, “If you’re short of money, come directly to me, and don’t bring your girlfriend into the monitoring room. None of them are allowed.”

Chapter 322 - 322 290 Hire Someone

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