Binjiang Police Affairs
Chapter 62 - 58 I Thought It Was Simpler Before

Chapter 62: Chapter 58 I Thought It Was Simpler Before

Miss Shen might be engaged in illegal criminal activities, and those two men are no good either...

Han Ning was shocked and unsure when Director Jiang of the Criminal Investigation Department from the Binjiang Port Police Station arrived with a briefcase.

Director Jiang was worried about being overheard by guests in the next room and even more concerned about running into acquaintances.

He entered the room, showed his work ID, and nodded solemnly at Han Ning. He then took a walkie-talkie out of the briefcase, handed it to Han Yu without saying a word, and turned to leave.

Han Ning realized that her brother wasn’t joking and asked anxiously, "San’er, how should I cooperate with you?"

"Just act normal, as if nothing has happened. Pretend you don’t know anything and don’t let them see through you."

"Is that it?"

Han Yu turned the volume of the walkie-talkie down to the lowest and smiled, "When I report to my superiors with the walkie-talkie, help me keep an eye out so no one sees or hears."

Han Ning nodded, "Okay."

Han Yu peered outside and then added, "Also, I can’t leave tonight. I have to stay here. We need to figure out what to tell them."

"There’s nothing difficult to say about that. They all treat you like a kid anyway. Just say you know I can’t handle a 24-hour shift alone, so you came over to help me work."

"Manager Wang, Director Jiang, Sister Wu, do they know I’m with the police?"

"They don’t know."

"You’ve never told them?"

It was a bit hurtful to the pride of her brother, but not clarifying could certainly cause him to worry about his identity being exposed.

With some embarrassment, Han Ning explained, "It’s mainly because your job assignment wasn’t very ideal. Others who graduated from the Shipping School were either assigned to the Port Authority, Port Supervision Bureau, or ship agencies, or at least to the Transportation Bureau."

So the reason sister didn’t tell others was to avoid being laughed at...

Han Yu felt a bit dejected, wondering if being in the police was something to be ashamed of?

But then again, for the staff in the Port and Navigation System, only jobs within the system are considered good jobs.

Moreover, the Sailor Club is not far from Binjiang Shipping School, and everyone knows it’s a good school. Many of the good captains and chief engineers on the river, a lot of port management personnel, and many leaders of the transportation system are graduates of the Shipping School.

The enrolment score is very high, with a maximum of two recruits per county, and many counties have no recruitment quota.

For someone who was admitted on their own merits and then assigned to the Police Bureau, even dispatched to a remote place like Bailong Port, it indeed didn’t seem worth bragging about.

At this thought, Han Yu couldn’t help but feel mixed emotions.

Worried that her brother would be upset, Han Ning quickly changed the topic, "San’er, without you mentioning it, I wouldn’t have noticed, but now you’ve brought it up, that Shen Rulan really might be problematic."

"What problems?" Han Yu quickly took a notebook out of his pocket.

Han Ning, with furrowed brows, said, "Like Xu Xiaolan, she speaks foreign languages and quickly tried to get acquainted with those foreigners living downstairs. The day before yesterday, she went shopping with a foreign captain, and yesterday she even helped those foreigners buy a lot of stuff."

This information is important!

Han Yu quickly noted it down and followed up with a question, "Does she know those foreigners staying downstairs from before?"

"She shouldn’t."

"How do you know?"

"Those few foreigners downstairs were arranged by the Ship Agency, who were worried about language barriers, they especially arranged a translator for them. That translator and Xu Xiaolan are classmates, and during lunch yesterday, Xu Xiaolan said that it was the first time for those foreigners to come to our China."

"Sister, think again, do those three have anything else suspicious about them?"

"That one with glasses tried to cozy up to me when he first arrived, claiming he was the Deputy Manager of some international economic and technical cooperation company from East Sea. He asked me where I was from, even claiming his hometown was also Linghai."

"What happened after that?"

"After that, he said that foreign sailors staying here needed to use Foreign Exchange Certificates, and that they needed them to shop downstairs as well. He asked if I had exchanged any with foreigners."

"How did you respond to him?"

"I told the truth, that our leaders forbid us from exchanging with foreigners, as we’d lose our jobs if we were caught. Besides, those foreigners are supposed to exchange for Foreign Exchange Certificates when they come ashore, but they won’t exchange a lot. They just swap enough to cover accommodation and maybe buy some cigarettes, alcohol, and daily necessities. They won’t go out and buy other stuff."

Worried that her brother wouldn’t believe her, Han Ning emphasized, "The things in those shops out there are not admired by them!"

With what her sister said, Han Yu suddenly realized he had thought too simply before.

Imported goods are better than domestic ones, and it is cheaper to buy abroad than in China. It wouldn’t make sense for them to come to China to buy.

Moreover, most of the foreigners who come to Binjiang are sailors docking at the port.

Sailing is tough, being away from home for at least six or seven months. No one would do it if it weren’t for their family.

These sailors come to Binjiang for work, not tourism, and it’s unlikely they would spend a lot of money buying Chinese handicrafts that aren’t available in their own country.

After pondering for a moment, Han Yu asked quietly, "Sister, generally, how much in Foreign Exchange Certificates would international sailors exchange when they come ashore?"

"That depends on whether their accommodation and food are arranged by the Ship Agency. If so, they would exchange at most three to five hundred, just enough for pocket money. What would they need so many for? They wouldn’t be able to use them in their own country. Although one can exchange them back into US Dollars when leaving the country, bank and agency personnel aren’t working every day."

"Once they leave, they might never come back to China again."

"Yes, so those foreigners are very careful with their exchanges. Despite earning more, they are just as frugal, and know how to budget."

Binjiang, due to its shallow waterway and insufficiently deep berths, despite being a coastal open city, doesn’t have large foreign vessels coming to port, nor are they numerous.

On average, only one or two vessels a month.

Calculating with twenty sailors per foreign vessel, one visit to the port and shore might result in the exchange of at most ten thousand Foreign Exchange Certificates.

Moreover, due to the scarcity of deep-water berths, some foreign vessels don’t dock at the pier, but anchor far away from the pier, with goods being loaded and unloaded through lighterage.

Many captains and crew members find it bothersome to commute back and forth by shuttle boat; even though they’ve entered the country, they wouldn’t go ashore. After all, the ship has everything, or they could simply entrust the ship agency to purchase what’s needed, bypassing the need to exchange any Foreign Exchange Certificates.

This is equivalent to a fifty percent reduction, meaning each foreign vessel that comes to the port would only exchange five thousand RMB worth of Foreign Exchange Certificates, just enough to purchase an imported color TV with a slightly larger screen!

Furthermore, exchanging Foreign Exchange Certificates requires RMB, it’s not a profitless trade.

If it’s just about exchanging Foreign Exchange Certificates with foreign sailors and then reselling them, those three East Sea people who’ve come from afar wouldn’t profit but could even suffer losses, after all, there are travel costs and accommodation expenses...

Han Yu was feeling that something about this wasn’t quite right when static came through the walkie-talkie.

"Salted Fish, Salted Fish, please respond if you receive."

"Received."

"The woman has gone back, one person went back."

"Understood."

This kind of communication won’t do; sooner or later, the guests will notice.

Just as Han Ning was about to send his brother to the duty room, the phone in the duty room rang again; he simply tugged his brother’s sleeve and they both went over.

"I’m from the housekeeping department... Okay, I’ll come down right away."

"Sister, what’s going on?"

"A few sailors downstairs are checking out, Sister Wu can’t manage alone, she asked me to go down and help inspect the rooms."

Han Yu hid the walkie-talkie and waited three to four minutes. Seeing that the female suspect had not come back up, he quickly took the duty room’s keys and went downstairs.

...

In the lobby, several foreigners laden with large and small bags were waiting for the room inspection result in front of the reception desk.

The female translator from the ship agency arrived and was reminding them in English not to leave anything behind.

The woman surnamed Shen indeed seemed very familiar with these foreign sailors, standing in front of the bar and chatting joyously with two very dark-skinned sailors who weren’t African American.

Han Yu was watching intently when a light tap came on his shoulder.

Turning around, it was Sister Wang, the manager from the Sailor Club.

"Sister Wang, good to see you, that outfit looks really good and fashionable."

"Slick talker, who did you learn that from?"

"There’s no slick talk, I mean it."

Kids don’t tell lies; it seems this suit looks quite striking, those tens of RMB weren’t wasted.

Manager Wang was pleased and, looking up at the sailors, asked with a smile, "San’er, you guys learn English at school too. With your good academic performance, your English must be alright, can you understand what they’re saying?"

Han Yu replied with a wry smile, "I’ve studied it but I can’t understand a word of what they’re saying."

"How have you been studying then, not even as good as your sister? Your sister can even say hello, good morning, bye-bye, thank you!"

"I... I can write a little, and can understand a little when I read, just can’t understand the spoken language, and can’t really speak it."

"Going round and round, you’re learning mute English!"

"Sister Wang, I’m studying Water Transport Management, not foreign languages."

Manager Wang teased, "When will you graduate, and who do you plan to manage after graduation?"

Han Yu scratched his head, saying with an embarrassed look, "I’ve already graduated, got assigned back to Linghai, now working at the Four Factory Town water conservancy station."

"Where is Four Factory Town?"

"Not far from Bailong Port."

"You studied shipping, why go to the water conservancy station, it’s part of the water conservancy system!" Realizing further questioning might hurt the boy’s pride, Manager Wang quickly changed the topic: "Off from work today?"

Han Yu chuckled, "I’m resting these days, my sister has to work overtime for the next few days, a shift that goes day and night. Since I’m idle anyway, I came to help her out and keep her company."

Manager Wang could almost be certain, he looked too young, his leaders probably don’t bother with him nine times out of ten, and he could take this shift if he wanted or skip it if he didn’t.

She looked involuntarily back towards the guest rooms and said with a laugh, "You know how to care for your sister, it shows she didn’t raise you for nothing when you were young."

Just as Han Yu didn’t know how to continue the conversation, a minivan slowly pulled up to the entrance.

Several foreign sailors, with the wave from the ship agency translator, started to stuff their luggage into the car.

It was obvious without asking that the minivan was there to take them to the pier to board their ship. The woman surnamed Shen was still whispering intimately with a dark-skinned South Asian sailor.

The South Asian sailor nodded, then leaned closer to her ear to say a few words before finally picking up his luggage and hopping into the minivan.

Manager Wang saw this as well, and very directly judged Shen Rulan to have dubious morals, perhaps even intending to use the foreign sailors to go abroad, murmuring disdainfully, "The way people are nowadays... how they’ve all changed..."