Looking at the others who were eating, all wolfing down their food with distorted expressions…
Indeed, girls and boys are just different.
“Brother Yue, we cracked the case in less than four hours this time!” Liu Jiaming, having almost finished his meal and cleaned off a plate of fish balls, wiped his mouth and took a sip of soup before smiling at Fang Zhenyue to curry favor:
“Shouldn’t this earn us some major credit? Everyone should get the Pioneer Award this month, right?”
“It’s not like it was a stranger’s murder case; what’s so difficult about solving it quickly? We’ve had cases before where we knew who the murderer was as soon as we stepped onto the crime scene. Should we award a grand prize for each one? Do you think being a detective in the Major Crime Unit is that easy? Is money falling from the sky?” Fang Zhenyue scolded, but seeing Liu Jiaming about to make a fuss, he quickly waved his hand and said:
“However, I will make a request in the report. After all, the criminal was cunning this time, and our discovery of the ‘microphone cover’ as key evidence was quite remarkable. The Forensic Department even mentioned it in their report, noting that this crucial piece of evidence was overlooked by their scene investigation. That’s a significant accomplishment indeed.”
“Nowadays, everyone talks about forensic science, always giving credit to the Forensic Department or the Medical Examiner’s Office. What about this time? What can they say now? The crucial evidence was pointed out by our detectives,” Lin Wangjiu grumbled with rising indignation, “Otherwise, what are we? Just errand runners?”
“This time our Major Crime Unit is in the spotlight. This morning, Guangming even told me that we are stealing their Forensic Department’s job, haha.” Gary couldn’t help but laugh as well, feeling immensely satisfied with how the case was resolved.
They had truly vindicated themselves in front of all the scientific departments.
Today, walking through the police station, even the Forensic Department had to treat him with a bit more respect.
It felt awesome.
“Using deduction to solve cases, who else could it rely on?” Lin Wangjiu saw the younger officers getting overly excited and couldn’t resist cooling them down a bit, “If it weren’t for Sir Fang guiding you step by step, what could those wooden heads of yours come up with?”
“Everyone is also growing,” Fang Zhenyue, pleased to be praised, added a few gracious words, “Moreover, the investigative process for this case showed remarkable progress from Eleven. You haven’t been skimping on your reading after work, right? The Forensic Department’s research on footprint evidence, and thinking of the microphone cover, that was quite impressive. It’s like sucking sugarcane, it gets better as you go~”
“Even when a fairy farts, it’s extraordinary!” Lin Wangjiu joined in with a witty remark.
Everyone burst into laughter. Suddenly, Yi Jiajun raised his arm and turned towards the kitchen, shouting to Yi Jiadong:
“Big brother, big brother, big sister got praised! Officer Fang said she learns like a mute, absolutely no problem at all!”
The laughter roared again:
“Hahaha…”
“Haha…”
“Hahaha…”
At the round table, the group was in stitches. Yi Jiadong wiped his hands and came out, serving everyone a cup of coffee and chuckling:
“The Yis are all hardworking.’
“Try this new blend I’ve made—coffee mixed with milk tea Yi’s Iced Delight. Replaced the tea with coffee, and it tastes really good too. Try it, try it.”
“Big brother should be praised too,” Jiajun lowered his arm, tilting his head and resting his chin on his hand as he looked at his older siblings.
“Of course,” replied Yi Jiadong with a sly grin. “When you scored full marks, weren’t you always chasing after me for compliments?”
“Big brother is so impressive!” Yi Jiayi took a sip of the coffee, unable to contain her mirth, “It tastes so good!”
“Wow, this is really good. I’ll be drinking this from now on!”
“Yeah, looks like the milk tea Yi’s Iced Delight is going to fall out of favor.”
Sitting opposite at the round table, Sanfu enjoyed the delicious meal and the tasty coffee, but his heart was somewhat mixed.
When did it start? It seemed like just a second ago, the young policewoman was still seen as a lucky mascot, and the next second, she became a prominent, eye-catching newcomer.
After the meal, Fang Zhenyue boldly declared he would treat everyone.
“How could we always let Officer Fang treat?” Lin Wangjiu waved his hand, “Let’s go Dutch.”
“Yeah, Brother Yue’s salary is all spent treating us to eat and drink,” Liu Jiaming grabbed Fang Zhenyue’s hand holding the wallet, glancing at his expensive BV wallet. Just this wallet alone was worth more than all the cash in his pockets.
“Yeah, let’s split it, Brother Yue.”
“No worries, this meal is on me. The case went smoothly yesterday, and everyone has been really busy lately, don’t try to save me money. That’s settled then, no more talking, let’s head back to the station.”
Fang Zhenyue waved off everyone’s protests, paid Yi Jiadong, and while waiting for the change, he playfully ruffled Yi Jiajun’s hair, enjoying the feel.
…
In the afternoon, when Jiayi returned to the station, she was supposed to join everyone in organizing evidence reports. Before her hands even touched the files, Fang Zhenyue grabbed her by the back of the neck and ushered her out of the office.
“Go for shooting practice. Hurry up and get your firearm license. It doesn’t look good for a major case squad detective to be unassigned a firearm,” Fang Zhenyue chided, patting the young policewoman’s back and frowning in urge.
This was only because it was Jiayi; if it were Liu Jiaming and the others, he would have kicked them into action already, forcing them to get armed within a week due to their lack of enthusiasm.
Although Jiayi had thoroughly studied the police firearm, the SIG P250 DCc, .38 caliber revolver… studying was one thing, but actually handling the gun was still somewhat frightening.
Being a girl raised on the mainland, she had a natural fear of firearms, always feeling they were dangerous and uncertain whether she could control them.
She sighed. Working in the major case squad wasn’t just about sitting in the office and identifying murderers.
Catching criminals was a critical responsibility of a detective, and being unarmed significantly reduced her effectiveness, a gap that needed to be filled.
With this in mind, she spirited herself up, stood tall, and walked out full of energy.
Standing at the door of Team B’s office, Fang Zhenyue watched the young policewoman walk out slackly and transform into a confident stride, and he couldn’t help but smile.
It felt like sending a child to kindergarten for the first time, worried about her adapting and yet fearful she wouldn’t excel.
Tsk, complicated.
With a gentle smile returning to the major cases team, Fang Zhenyue instantly became stern, clapped his hands sharply, and commanded:
“Speed up! Get those documents sorted quickly, don’t slack off! Move, move, move!”
The office erupted into chaos, with the poor boys bustling about like donkeys.
…
After a series of dry firing (without bullets) practices, Jiayi was finally ready to fire her first live round.
Left foot forward, right foot back, left leg slightly bent, pushing off the ground with the right foot.
Facing the shooting target sideways, she extended her right arm, slightly bent her elbow, and kept her left arm bent. She pushed forward with her right hand and pulled back with her left, achieving a push-pull grip.
She was careful about the bending of her arms, ensuring her left hand didn’t press down on her right thumb… otherwise, it would cause muzzle flip and potentially injure her wrist…
Before firing, Jiayi stood at the shooting position, her mind filled with the research she had studied earlier. She murmured to herself, constantly correcting her stance and checking for any potential errors.
Fortunately, having graduated not long ago, the muscle memory from diligently practicing shooting was still with her. Once she stood there, she didn’t feel very unfamiliar.
Now that her theoretical knowledge was also in place and she had calibrated her muscle memory, she felt that perhaps she wasn’t entirely incompetent.
Although the young policewoman was extremely nervous, her instructor Alison, standing not far away, was very pleased with her. She was attractive, spoke softly and politely, wore her protective gear correctly, didn’t shoot rashly, and constantly checked her own status, which made her so endearing that it touched one’s heart and made one want to protect her!
Jiayi was fully prepared and finally ready to fire her first shot.
She took a deep breath, felt the muscles and strength in her palms, wrists, arms, shoulders, back, and legs. She tested her dominant eye, aimed, stabilized the muzzle, paid attention to the finger mantra ‘only 9 not 1’, and slowly pulled the trigger—
After a smooth, effortless motion, her finger finally felt a significant resistance. The trigger was about to activate the hammer to fire the bullet. She held her breath, exerted even force!
“Bang!” The bullet shot out, swiftly piercing through the air and puncturing the target with a pop.
The coach stared for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter, clapping his hands loudly.
Meanwhile, Jiayi hadn’t yet had the chance to check her score. She still followed the shooting rules, her index finger resting on the trigger, moving slowly with the reset force of the trigger until she heard the clear click of the trigger resetting. Only then did she breathe again and relax her finger.
It was only then that she finally had a chance to look up and see what score she had hit.
Everyone who came to Alison for shooting practice was an armed officer. Those in this line of work, full of male hormones, whether male or female officers, had an aggressive vigor about them. Even those who seemed good-tempered were undoubtedly stubborn.
It wasn’t that they were necessarily difficult to get along with, but they certainly weren’t particularly docile. They either hated wearing protective gear or were wildly arrogant and disobedient.
Having worked here for so many years, Alison had never encountered a student as serious, humble, and orderly as Jiayi, who never messed around.
Watching the young policewoman perform the trigger reset so diligently, his admiration for her peaked. When her eyes sought guidance and feedback, his words of praise poured out freely.
The commotion was inevitably a bit loud, attracting the attention of many, prompting curious inquiries:
“Applying for a firearm?”
“Coming to fire the first shot?”
“What score did you hit?”