Chapter 12

Zhu Shishou followed Yang Chen into the police station with an indifferent look on his face.

The Zhu family turned out to be even more influential than Yang Chen had initially guessed, as the phone in the duty room rang almost immediately after the two of them arrived at the police station.

The young police officer who had brought them in received the call and then, with a peculiar expression, led them to the chief's office. He even had an auxiliary police officer bring in two cups of hot water, turned on the air conditioning, and provided a few newspapers for their entertainment.

Not long after, a middle-aged man in his forties, slightly overweight, pushed the door open and entered. Without even wiping the sweat from his face, he asked with a smile, "May I ask which of you is Mr. Zhu?"

"I am," Zhu Shishou said indifferently, standing up from the sofa.

"Mr. Zhu, hello... I am Chief Zhou Yongmin of the police station. I am truly sorry... The new officer who brought you in is not very experienced and brought you here without fully understanding the situation..."

In reality, Zhou Yongmin was extremely annoyed, but on the surface, he wore an apologetic expression, holding Zhu Shishou's hand, which was even fatter than his own, and repeatedly expressing his apologies.

Before coming in, he had already learned the details of the incident. Good grief, two people against six, and they even sent three of them to the hospital for stitches...

This kind of fight could be either a minor or a major issue.

In a typical case, both parties would be reprimanded, and the one who caused the trouble would have to pay compensation or face administrative detention. If someone was seriously injured, they might even face jail time.

Having spent most of his life in the grassroots, Zhou Yongmin naturally knew that Yang Chen and Zhu Shishou were the ones primarily responsible in this incident.

But there was nothing he could do... A leader from the city had given an order, and a leader from the district had called him. After receiving the call, he didn't dare to delay and rushed back from a nightclub.

After a series of apologies, Zhou Yongmin said, "Rest assured, we will handle this matter strictly. In fact, our city, Jinzhou, has one of the best public security environments in the entire Nanhu Province... I hope Mr. Zhu won't hold any grudges over this..."

"No problem, now that everything is clear, it's fine," Zhu Shishou stretched lazily and asked, "Can we leave now?"

"Of course, of course..." Zhou Yongmin felt relieved, his smile becoming more genuine.

Zhu Shishou nodded and called out to Yang Chen, who was still reading the newspaper, "It's all good, let's go."

"Okay," Yang Chen put down the newspaper, yawned, and stood up, "Where are you planning to stay tonight?"

"Do you have an extra room at your place?"

"Don't even think about it. I'm currently sharing a place with someone else, and there's only a small 1.2-meter bed. It won't fit you, fatty..."

"Sharing? Male or female?"

"Female."

"Is she pretty?"

"Pretty enough... What do you want?"

"Hehe, nothing, just curious..."

After seeing Yang Chen and Zhu Shishou out of the police station, Zhou Yongmin's face turned dark, and he turned to scold the young police officer, "If you want to eat late-night snacks, go eat them somewhere else. Why did you bring people back to the station? What a mess!"

"But Chief..." The young police officer looked aggrieved, wanting to explain.

However, Zhou Yongmin waved his hand and said with a sour expression, "No buts. In the future, stay out of other people's business when you're not on duty! Being so impulsive at your age is not a good thing... Do you know who that fatty is?"

"Who is he?" Although scolded, the young police officer was still very curious about Yang Chen and Zhu Shishou's background.

"He is the son of the person in charge of a key investment project in the city!" Zhou Yongmin said sternly, "This project is highly valued by Secretary Wang and is the largest new project in our Xibu District this year..."

"But we are the police. What does the city's investment project have to do with us?"

"Stupid! If nothing happens, it's fine, but what if something does?" Zhou Yongmin glared at him, "Who will take the responsibility? You, a young police officer, can be easily disciplined by a single word from them?"

"..." The young police officer felt a cold sweat break out, then muttered disdainfully, "Damn, rich people are all bad apples..."

"Right," Zhou Yongmin paused and asked, "What about the other six people involved in the fight?"

"Three with minor injuries are still in the duty room, and the other three with more serious injuries were taken to the hospital by Old Yang for bandaging..."

"I've seen their records. They are all small-time hooligans with a long list of offenses. When we handle this, be strict and detain all six of them for a few days," Zhou Yongmin waved his hand and instructed, "In the future, be smarter when handling things. I can't always protect you..."

"Yes, yes, thank you for your concern and care, Chief Zhou..."

"Let's leave it at that for now." Zhou Yongmin nodded, yawned, and turned to leave.

The young police officer twisted his mouth at Zhou Yongmin's back, thinking, "Protect us? Don't kid yourself... Everyone knows your reputation, Zhou Bapi! If this had escalated, you would have been the first to discipline me."

...

Although Zhu Shishou appeared calm and in control at the police station, once they were outside, his tendency to show off resurfaced.

Seeing that Yang Chen didn't intend to ask anything, he asked, "Aren't you curious about what happened just now?"

"What's there to be curious about? Why should I be curious?" It was almost 1:30 AM, and Yang Chen, feeling sleepy, yawned and had no interest in such trivial matters.

But Zhu Shishou didn't care whether Yang Chen was interested or not and started boasting, "This is because my family plans to invest 370 million yuan to build a large factory in Jinzhou. This is a significant investment project in a small place like Jinzhou, so I sent a text message to the person in charge of negotiating with the Jinzhou government. Thus..."

Yang Chen didn't really pay much attention to the hundreds of words Zhu Shishou spoke.

Only after Zhu Shishou finished boasting did Yang Chen ask thoughtfully, "I forgot to ask, what does your family do?"

Hearing this, Zhu Shishou, who was still basking in the glory, laughed and said, "My family? We do everything. We do whatever is profitable—real estate, metallurgy, chemicals, machinery, pharmaceuticals, and more. We have about twenty factories across the country, and our assets are around 40 billion yuan..."

He looked at Yang Chen expectantly, hoping to see a look of shock on his face.

But Zhu Shishou was destined to be disappointed. After hearing his words, Yang Chen only nodded and said, "Oh," without any further reaction.

This made Zhu Shishou feel like he had thrown a punch and hit air... It was like when he was about to climax, his mother suddenly burst in with a feather duster...

"Hey, don't you want to say something?"

"Um," Yang Chen nodded and turned to him seriously, "I have a project with an investment of about 300 million yuan. Ask your family's elders if they are interested in collaborating..."

"I..." Zhu Shishou opened his mouth but could only laugh bitterly.

He realized that trying to satisfy his vanity from Yang Chen was impossible... How could this guy, who had left school for just two years, have changed so much?

Throughout the day, Zhu Shishou found that Yang Chen sometimes acted like an old man of a hundred years, a bit... well, how to put it, a bit prematurely aged...

In short, it was boring, really boring!