ryethenovel Chapter 5 Onboarding, The Scarecrow Case
Chapter 5 Onboarding, The Scarecrow Case
July 15th, 8:00 AM.
Wu Song rode a red Wuyang Honda 125 motorcycle, which he had just bought two days ago, to the Municipal Bureau. With his admission notice, he walked smoothly into the Personnel Section of the Municipal Bureau.
"Report!"
"Come in."
"Trainee police officer Wu Song reports for duty."
"You are Wu Song?" Inside was a middle-aged man with two poles on his shoulders. Upon hearing the name Wu Song, he, who was reading documents, suddenly raised his head and looked Wu Song up and down.
"Wu Song, you really live up to your name, you're strong enough. No wonder you were able to kill four highway robbers and capture another one all by yourself. Good lad, keep up the good work! By the way, do you have any ideas about where in the police force you want to join?"
"Wherever I am, I am serving the people, and I will obey the arrangements of my superiors."
"Well, the bureau is planning to put you in the Third Squadron of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the North City Branch. Are you willing?"
"Obey orders!" Wu Song brought his feet together, and with his upper arm leading his forearm, he raised his hand in a salute with a "snap".
"Um!"
Liang Gang stood up, took out a file folder, and handed it to Wu Song. "Inside is your dispatch certificate and your identification shoulder insignia. That's where your father worked. Your father's police badge number will also be reinstated. Keep up the good work!"
"Rest assured, sir, I will certainly live up to your expectations!"
"Hurry up and go. The Eighth Squad has transferred a few people and is short-staffed. There might be a case when you get there."
"Yes, sir. Goodbye, sir!"
……
Wu Song got back on his red motorcycle and sputtered all the way to the North City Branch.
Wu Song knew this place better than his own home.
They arrived at the Third Squadron's office with practiced ease.
The room was filled with smoke, as if there was a thick barrier between it and the corridor.
Wu Song saw Xu Bin smoking from the doorway, knocked, stood at attention, and said, "Reporting! Trainee officer Wu Song reporting for duty!"
"Oh, Xiao Song's here!" Xu Bin turned around, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and walked over with a smile. He took the file folder and casually pointed to a workstation in a corner. "Xiao Song, that's your workstation from now on. Perfect timing, everyone from the Third Squadron is here today, let me introduce you!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone, lift your heads! The new guy has arrived. This is the one I told you about, my master's son, Wu Song!"
"I'm new here, so I hope everyone will take good care of me!" Wu Song said with a smile, cupping his hands in greeting.
"Haha! We definitely have to spar sometime!" Jiang Yang, whom I'd chatted with before, raised his hand in greeting. "Remember me?"
"Brother Jiang Yang".
"Why!"
"Let me introduce you to the others! From now on, we're comrades-in-arms!" Xu Bin pointed to a slightly chubby middle-aged man with a somewhat comical face. "Our deputy captain of the Major Crimes Unit, Cao Dahua, is the best guy in the unit. His wife is Deputy Director Gong from the East City Branch!"
"Hey, hey, hey, don't go around telling everyone about this little thing. The whole precinct is about to find out."
"I don't need to promote it; everyone in the entire branch knows!" Xu Bin continued.
"I won't introduce Jiang Yang to you. This is Ma Dazhi!" He was a kind-looking man in his forties with a warm smile. "He has a big mole on his chest and cooks exceptionally well, better than most chefs. I'll let you try it sometime. In a word, it's amazing!"
"Lin Wenshu loves reading detective novels and watching detective movies. His catchphrase is, 'If you've read a thousand detective novels, there's no case you can't solve.'"
"Ma Xiaowu, my apprentice, came five years earlier than you, actually only one year older than you, and he studied at the police academy!" This was the young man who was next to Xu Bin a few days ago.
"She, Liu Shutong, is a newcomer like you, and she's also my apprentice."
"You must be Wu Song, the one who killed four highway robbers a few days ago. We're all newcomers, so please take care of me in the future." Liu Shutong was a young man who seemed a bit introverted. She was quite good-looking, with delicate features and a girl-next-door vibe.
In short, the first impression she gives is that she seems somewhat unsuitable for fieldwork.
"It's me!" Wu Song smiled, then turned to Xu Bin. "Captain Xu, do I have a master?"
"What's with the 'master' thing!" Cao Dahua slammed his hand on the table. "Captain Xu, why don't you just be his master?"
"No, no, my master is his father, and I'm his master too, wouldn't that mess up the generational hierarchy?"
"It's alright, everyone can do their own thing, it's not chaotic!" Ma Dazhi said with a smile.
"That's right, you call him your apprentice, and he calls you Brother Bin, isn't that fine?" Cao Dahua said.
"You're the one jumping around the most!" Xu Bin pointed at Cao Dahua. "Alright, you'll be Wu Song's master from now on. I'm the captain with two disciples, so you, as the vice-captain, should at least have one, right?"
"Hey, if I'm his master, and you call his dad 'master,' does that make him a generation older than you?"
"So what if you're older? You're a few years older than me anyway, that's fine!"
"Alright! A rank can really crush you!" Cao Dahua beckoned to Wu Song, "Come here, apprentice, our workstations are next to each other!"
"Master!"
Wu Song called out, then continued, "As you all know, I received a bounty a few days ago. Being new here, I'll need your help a lot in the future. So, I'd like to treat you all to a meal tonight, which will also serve as my apprenticeship banquet with my master. I hope you'll all do me the honor of joining me!"
"no problem!"
"Then we'll be taking advantage of you!"
"You're too kind, apprentice!"
……
night.
Wu Song didn't choose an expensive restaurant to avoid making everyone uncomfortable. Instead, he chose a moderately priced restaurant near the branch office, booked a private room, and ordered a table full of food.
Eight officers from the Major Crimes Team 3 of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Chengbei Branch gathered together.
The relationship quickly blossomed during the dinner party.
While eating...
It started raining outside, and the raindrops pattered on the roof.
The sound of raindrops grew louder and more rapid.
Wu Song keenly noticed that, apart from himself and Liu Shutong, everyone else seemed to have a gloomy look on their faces, and Xu Bin and his master Cao Dahua's brows were even more tightly furrowed.
"Brother Bin, Master, what's wrong?" Wu Song asked, puzzled. "You two seem to have something on your minds!"
"It's raining again! It's raining again!"
"What's going on?" Liu Shutong blinked curiously.
"The Scarecrow Case." Ma Dazhi glanced at the two of them and explained, "It's normal that you don't know since you're new to the branch office. This summer, two identical murder cases occurred in our North City District. The victims were both strangled and then tied up in farmland in the suburbs, arranged in the shape of scarecrows."
Because each murder occurred on a rainy night, the rain washed away many traces, and no valuable clues were found.
The identities of the two victims were easy to ascertain; they were both employees of the Gaotan Steel Plant in the North District of our city. However, after thoroughly investigating the relationships between these two victims, no one was found to be a prime suspect, and the case was simply shelved.
"It sounds like the rain is pretty heavy, isn't it?" Xu Bin rubbed his temples, as if murmuring, as if asking, "Do you think the killer will strike again tonight?"
"Hard to say."
"Possibly!" Lin Wenshu pushed up his glasses. "This murderer is very much like a serial killer from a detective novel. People like that probably won't stop until they're caught. They enjoy the feeling of killing someone and getting away with it."
"Stop talking!" Xu Bin raised his hand to interrupt the others, and stood up abruptly. "The murderer always commits crimes in the jurisdiction of our North City Branch, which has caused panic throughout the entire steel plant."
I absolutely cannot allow a third case like this to happen.
"Everyone's full, right? Now that you're done eating, let's head back to the station. I'll assign patrol areas. We won't be sleeping tonight."