Chapter 324 - 324 292 Duck

Words : 1769 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

324: Chapter 292 Duck 324: Chapter 292 Duck Surveillance Office. To accommodate the new surveillance system’s requirements, the Surveillance Office had also moved into the new building. The new building was just a wall away from the Police Dog Squad, previously rented to a supermarket, but now taken back, freshly painted, smelling strongly of new renovations and their carcinogenic fumes. The first batch to fill the slots included four big animals, one old cop, with the remaining three being contract workers or auxiliary police. Together with the original officers of old, middle, and young generations in the Surveillance Office, the Ningtai County Criminal Police Brigade Forensic Squadron Surveillance Office now had seven people. Seven people were enough to work on cases independently, but given the complexity of the current surveillance system, even seven people were almost not enough to keep up with monitoring alone, let alone going out to catch suspects. The tens of millions just spent on the surveillance system would then be wasted. To the leaders, the former was definitely no problem—overtime could solve it. The latter, however, was truly unbearable. Huang Qiangmin entered the small surveillance building with high spirits. The building, still as spacious as a supermarket, was now being gradually filled with equipment like server rooms, taking up a lot of space. Going deeper inside, one could see several people staring intensely at the surveillance screens, while two others sat in front of computers, doing who-knows-what. Huang Qiangmin was very satisfied. Nowadays, as long as subordinates were looking at computer screens, even if they were reading novels, they were considered good colleagues. Those deserving of priority crackdowns were the sorts who stared at mobile phone screens. “Everyone’s busy,” Huang Qiangmin spoke with the air of an old leader, fully embracing his role as deputy director from the inside out. “Captain Huang.” “Huang Da.” The surveillance personnel all stood up. “Sit down, sit down. I brought Jiang Yuan over for a look. Zhuang Wei, you know him, right?” Huang Qiangmin called out for Zhuang Wei, the original bespectacled one. Although he was one of the first officers to join the detective squadron and was known for always wearing glasses, the nickname “Four Eyes” had fallen out of use. Now, Zhuang Wei was just the oldest officer wearing glasses. Upon seeing Jiang Yuan, Zhuang Wei’s four eyes shone with a combative spirit. A few months ago, in the Surveillance Office, Jiang Yuan had demonstrated exceptional ability that won over the three officers. Specifically, he took the intelligence, experience, and pride of the three men, folded them up, then folded them again, and again... Before the surveillance system was updated, Zhuang Wei and the others even felt they had little to do. The number of cases occurring in the county town was so low, the requests for surveillance footage they received in a month were less than what they used to get in three days. While work was easy, it was disturbingly idle. Now that the surveillance system had been updated, Zhuang Wei and his colleagues had work to do. If it weren’t for Jiang Yuan’s sudden appearance, he would have almost forgotten that he had sold this system with Jiang Yuan’s help. “Jiang Yuan is back. Is the case in Changyang City concluded?” Zhuang Wei felt a mix of regret and anticipation. If the lease was over, wouldn’t that mean another chance to make a sale? “Not yet. Just back for a few days of rest.” Jiang Yuan smiled, his way of greeting everyone. “Oh... I thought so. With your great performance, Changyang City would definitely not want to let you go. ‘Ningtai Jiangyuan, the raging flames’—I’ve heard about your reputation even in the county town.” “That might be because the county town is called Ningtai.” “Hahaha... No wonder you’re young, good use of internet slang.” Zhuang Wei laughed loudly for a bit, and when no one joined in, he stopped. Huang Qiangmin said, “Zhuang Wei, introduce this surveillance system to Jiang Yuan.” In his pattern of actions, Jiang Yuan felt as if he were dealing with an uncle of sorts. Zhuang Wei immediately responded and courteously gave up his seat, saying, “Doctor Jiang, please have a seat.” “No need, I’m not very familiar with this surveillance system either. You use it, and I’ll observe.” Jiang Yuan was courteously insistent. Zhuang Wei chuckled and, seeing that Jiang Yuan was adamant, pushed the chair aside and bent down to start operating the mouse. Even though the high-level surveillance system’s managers sent by the manufacturers could use various shortcuts and command lines to perform seemingly cool moves, for Zhuang Wei, the visual icons were quite enough. “Any recent cases?” Jiang Yuan asked directly. “Uh... there are some, just not many.” Zhuang Wei found it awkward to admit that he couldn’t keep up. Jiang Yuan just nodded and said, “Then let’s look at the cases. There’s no need to watch real-time surveillance, that will probably be a task for public security in the future.” Zhuang Wei uttered an “Oh,” and promptly pulled up a minor case that had happened a few days ago. In the surveillance footage, a young man in his early twenties looked left and right before stealing an electric bicycle... Yes, in cities nowadays, theft essentially means stealing electric bikes. Although some traditional thieves insist on stealing bags and especially smartphones, their numbers have dwindled. After all, a smartphone isn’t like a wallet. A wallet is also carried on the person but it isn’t under constant watch like a smartphone, which is frequently held in the hand and often pulled out for no apparent reason to check. Some might say, it’s still in the pocket a lot though, isn’t it? However, from a professional standpoint, stealing smartphones has become the last resort for traditional thieves – it earns little, fencing the goods is troublesome, and the victims increase the workload for our thief brothers, making the cost-performance ratio of smartphone theft increasingly lower. Electric bicycles are slightly better, overall difficulty is lower, and even a rookie thief can learn to pick locks violently after a mere thirty minutes of training. “Have they caught the person?” Jiang Yuan asked, watching the screen. “Caught him. A newbie, rode straight to a second-hand store to sell it, the store owner kept an eye on our cameras while asking him to leave a phone number...” Zhuang Wei explained while bringing up another video clip. In this packaged video ready for inspection, the second-hand store owner, after checking the lock and key, noticeably glanced up at the surveillance camera on the street. The high-definition camera also clearly captured the changes on the store owner’s face. It was an expression that withheld a laugh amidst a sense of helplessness, amusement, and a touch of tragic acceptance toward the torrential era. “Ordinary thieves wouldn’t act like this,” Jiang Yuan, still young, had trouble grasping the pattern. Zhuang Wei, adjusting his glasses, said with the sharp eyes of fifteen years ago, “This kind of newbie thief is a part of the new generation of internet small-time thieves. They learn thievery online, then go hands-on to try it out themselves. They usually have no connections, they just barge in.” “So this one barged in and failed?” “Yeah, he’ll need to be re-educated now, it depends on him. Some people, once they enter the system, learn a trade and come back out to continue their old ways,” Zhuang Wei said indifferently, “Others spend their whole life going in and out, get caught three or five times, and just like that, their life is over.” Having seen so much, Zhuang Wei didn’t have a shred of sympathy left for those kinds of people. Jiang Yuan sighed, “I thought that with the new surveillance system set up, no one would dare to be a thief anymore.” “How could that be possible.” Huang Qiangmin laughed, also to reassure Jiang Yuan, “These small-time thieves, they’re like the fish in a pond. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but when a new pond is dug in the village and it’s not connected to any other water source, even if the water poured in is sterilized, after a while, you will still see fish appearing in the pond.” Jiang Yuan, stunned, nodded, “It seems to be the case.” “In such cases, there’s no helping it; I’ve heard some say there could be fish eggs in the soil that can survive for many years, or that there are eggs in the water that can’t be killed even with sterilization. Anyway, no matter how clean we make the environment, such people will always appear. Once they appear, just deal with them,” Huang Qiangmin said, not wanting Jiang Yuan to think too much or to become too disappointed. Reflecting upon this, Jiang Yuan thought back to the environment of Jiang Village in the past. Jiang Village, located at the foot of Siningshan and cradled by Tai River, is the largest and most prominent village in the area, with its farmland and homes. Back then, many villagers dug fish ponds. Some ponds were for cultivating freshwater fish, some for raising clams or turtles, and others for raising ducks. And in the duck ponds, it was difficult for small fish to survive. Thinking of this, Jiang Yuan turned to Zhuang Wei and said, “Then let’s raise ducks.” “What?” Everyone was confused. Jiang Yuan then explained his theory, “We just need to actively seek out food and eat the small fish. As long as there are enough ducks that are willing to find their own food, the main thing is to have natural predators.” Zhuang Wei, catching on, pointed to his nose, “So, we are the ducks?” “You are the thieves’ natural predators,” Jiang Yuan clarified. Zhuang Wei sighed, “We are the thieves’ natural predators, the ducks.” The atmosphere in the video office became somewhat silent and eerie for a moment. After being quiet for a few seconds, Jiang Yuan said, “Let’s catch some thieves together.” “Yeah, yeah, let’s catch thieves together.” “Catch thieves, catch thieves.” Colleagues with a bit of social awareness started to actively break the awkward rhythm. Comrade Zhuang Wei, fifteen years ago a highly educated and socially anxious police officer with glasses, suddenly remembered a video he saw that day and hummed as he worked the mouse, “Let’s be ducks together, be ducks together...”

Chapter 324 - 324 292 Duck

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