Binjiang Police Affairs
Chapter 63 - 59: Something Fishy

Chapter 63: Chapter 59: Something Fishy

In a small alley on the south side of Qingnian Middle Road, a short suspect was talking to two men who had just come off a public bus.

At the entrance of the alley, there was a newsstand, where another suspect wearing glasses pretended to flip through newspapers, occasionally glancing into the alley.

Aren’t they supposed to be looking for foreign sailors to exchange foreign exchange certificates? What are they doing hiding in the alley with those two who came by bus...

Deputy Director Zhou found it more and more strange the more he thought about it.

Old Liu was also in a fog, and couldn’t help asking, "Director Jiang has gone to the pier, and Salted Fish is alone at the Sailor Club, should I go take a look?"

Deputy Director Zhou grabbed him, "Wait, the fat one is coming out."

Old Liu looked carefully and suddenly saw the short suspect walking out of the alley, looking around sneakily. The suspect with glasses bought two newspapers and went up to him, handing over the bulging briefcase to the short one.

The short suspect took the bag and walked back into the alley.

The suspect with glasses didn’t follow him in but stood at the entrance of the alley and started reading the newspaper again, but it was clear that he was acting as a lookout.

Deputy Director Zhou looked up at a residential building across the street and raised his walkie-talkie: "Staff Xiao, please respond if you receive this."

"Received, please speak."

"Have you found a shooting spot? Can you capture them?"

"Just found one, I see them now, and I’m about to take pictures." Staff Xiao, carrying heavy photography equipment, had taken a big detour to finally find a shooting angle, panting with exertion.

Deputy Director Zhou finally breathed a sigh of relief, held the walkie-talkie and said, "We can’t see clearly from here, you have a good view over there, and your camera is like a telescope that can see far. Now you need to take pictures and also help us keep surveillance."

Taking pictures required both hands, holding the walkie-talkie required a hand, but a person only had two hands...

Staff Xiao muttered to himself, quickly took out a handkerchief and placed it on the concrete window sill grid in the corridor, then opened the bag, took out the camera, mounted the telephoto lens, and rested the lens on the handkerchief-cushioned window grid, adjusting the focus and aperture toward the distant target.

The scene in the viewfinder became clearer.

Staff Xiao was shocked, hurriedly pressed the shutter, taking three consecutive photos, and picked up the walkie-talkie: "Chief Zhou, they’re counting money, bundle after bundle, so much money!"

"Who’s counting?"

"They all are!"

They’re all counting money—it doesn’t sound like a transaction but more like dividing loot.

Deputy Director Zhou was puzzled, put down the walkie-talkie, and pondered: "So much money, all counting... There’s definitely something wrong, otherwise they wouldn’t act so secretly."

Old Liu also felt something was off and was about to speak when Zhang Junyan’s voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Chief Zhou, Old Liu, I heard what Staff Xiao said, counting two more that just popped up, there are five suspects now. We few definitely can’t watch over all of them, the plan needs adjusting!"

"Director Zhang, are you saying to arrest them?"

"Don’t move the three from East Sea for now. These two that just came out can’t be let go! You continue watching the three from East Sea, Xiao Liu has just come back from the bus station; these two that just popped up will be handled by me and Xiao Liu."

Deputy Director Zhou was about to remind him to wait for the two groups of suspects to walk away before arresting them when Little Salted Fish’s call came through the walkie-talkie.

"Director Zhang, Director Zhang, the captain and the sailors who arrived early are checking out and getting on the bus. That woman has been getting quite familiar with them these past two days and is seeing them off to the bus!"

"Are they going to the pier to board the ship?"

"Yes, the car was called by the Ship Agency; the Ship Agency especially arranged a translator to send them off."

"Anything else?"

"I find this matter a bit strange."

Zhang Junyan asked, "What’s strange about it?"

Sister was outside keeping watch, so Han Yu didn’t need to worry about being seen or heard; he explained over the walkie-talkie, "I just asked my sister, she says that sailors getting off the ship wouldn’t exchange a lot of foreign exchange certificates. Sailors about to board are here to earn money; they don’t have much money to begin with, even less to exchange.

Moreover, if they exchange too much and can’t spend it all on shore, and if they don’t have enough time to exchange it back into US dollars when they leave, bringing those certificates back would be just a stack of waste paper."

Deputy Director Zhou lifted the walkie-talkie: "Director Zhang, I also think that it’s not as simple as just finding foreign sailors to exchange foreign exchange certificates."

Zhang Junyan frowned deeply and asked, "What could they be doing?"

Deputy Director Zhou couldn’t come up with an explanation for the moment and could only suggest, "Director Zhang, they have to go through a Border Inspection check before boarding the ship, why not report to Director Chen quickly and ask him to contact Border Inspection and ask them to check more carefully?"

"It’s too late to find Director Chen; Director Jiang is over there, I’ll contact Director Jiang."

"That works too."

Deputy Director Zhou had just finished speaking when he heard Staff Xiao in the walkie-talkie say, "Director Zhang, Chief Zhou, they’ve finished counting and are now exchanging money."

"Exchanging money?"

"They’re really exchanging money, really swapping!"

Money for money, exchanging back and forth, what’s there to exchange? Could it be an operation of trading counterfeit money...

Zhang Junyan couldn’t come up with a better strategy for the moment and asked Staff Xiao to hurry and go meet Chief Zhou and Old Liu, while he discussed how to arrest the two suspects who had suddenly appeared with Xiao Liu, who was hastily returning.

...

Sailor Club.

The female suspect sent off the foreign sailors and returned to her room upstairs.

Han Yu felt more and more uneasy. She wanted to make a phone call to Director Xu because he and the Instructor had both instructed that if an emergency arose, they should promptly report to the station.

However, it was easy for calls to come into the guest room phone, but hard to dial out.

To make an outside call, she would have to go through the switchboard, where they would keep track of the charges, to be settled along with the room fee upon checkout.

Since starting her job, Han Ning had only ever taken calls at work and had never had to dial out from there. Seeing her brother’s anxious expression, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and get through to the switchboard, speaking kindly to the colleague on duty.

Perhaps because it was her first time asking for a favor, the colleague was quite accommodating and quickly connected her.

Luckily, Director Xu was in the station. Knowing it wasn’t easy to make the call, Han Yu hastened to report on the few suspicious points she had just discovered.

Xu Sanye, having understood the situation, analyzed, "They have been to Binjiang before and should know they can’t get much in the way of Foreign Exchange Certificates from disembarked foreign sailors, yet they came anyway."

"Yes," Han Yu confirmed with certainty.

Xu Sanye thought for a moment, then added, "But they also asked if your sister had any Foreign Exchange Certificates, which suggests what? It suggests they do need them."

"But what use is their need if they can’t get them?"

"What were the two men doing?"

"I heard over the intercom that the two suspects are exchanging money with two people who came out of nowhere; they exchanged quite a lot of money."

"Could it be possible they were converting to Foreign Exchange Certificates?"

"Staff Xiao couldn’t see clearly, but it’s highly likely. The Foreign Exchange Certificates are also printed by the People’s Bank and look quite similar to regular money, even the denominations are the same."

"Have you seen them?"

"I’ve seen them a few times. Foreigners need to use Foreign Exchange Certificates when they stay, eat, or shop at the Sailor Club."

"If what they exchanged earlier was Foreign Exchange Certificates, it would mean that we got the primary and secondary elements mixed up before. They came to purchase Foreign Exchange Certificates, but mainly to find the person who had just exchanged them. As for the foreign sailors disembarking at the port, they just take as many as they can get."

"But that woman seems to have more than ordinary relations with foreigners, I’m certain she’s discussing something with the foreign sailors."

For the moment, Xu Sanye couldn’t come up with an explanation and muttered, "They say you don’t fight a battle without assurance, and this time we were somewhat blind. It’s not that we didn’t do good preliminary investigation and research; it’s that we didn’t do any at all.

But having tracked down those two from East Sea means our luck hasn’t been too bad. We’ve come this far in our investigation; even if it’s a pot of half-cooked rice, we have to swallow it."

First came a bout of self-criticism, then a spout of the obvious...

Making this call was too difficult, and Han Yu dared not rack up too much of the colleague’s phone bill, pressing, "Director Xu, how do you suggest we eat this half-cooked rice?"

"At the end of the day, we’re still ignorant about financial matters. For now, follow the commands of Old Zhang and Jiang Feijun and take their lead. I’ll call a knowledgeable friend and figure out what this Foreign Exchange Certificate thing is all about."

"Who is Jiang Feijun?"

"It’s Director Jiang, whom you just mentioned. But I can call him that, you can’t; otherwise, it’s disrespectful."

"..."

Director Jiang is actually "Jiang Feijun," and Han Yu was momentarily stunned.

She had always thought her own nickname wasn’t very nice, but Director Jiang’s was even worse.

However, compared to the Instructor and Director Wang’s nicknames, "Jiang Feijun" offered a bit more of a commanding air than "wall grass" and "Wang Xiazhi" did, and at least it had a ring of authority.

Although the Sailor Club wasn’t very well-known, and many Binjiang people might not even be aware of it, those who stayed there were either leaders or foreign guests.

Manager Wang saw Little Salted Fish running around in an old jacket, which severely affected the image of the club.

At the same time, he was well aware that Han Ning had been very tired these days and indeed needed someone to help with the work; he couldn’t bear to send Little Salted Fish away.

Thus, he called Han Ning, asking her to find a uniform for Han Yu to put on.

In the office, she wore a women’s uniform, and now here she had to wear her sister’s work clothes...

As Han Yu was starting to feel a bit down, the two suspects came back.

There was no time to hide, and now there was no need to hide, so she straightforwardly greeted them in a polite manner.

The taller suspect pulled out a key and asked curiously, "Little rascal, are you new here?"

"Little rascal" is an affectionate way East Sea people refer to children and carries a positive connotation; it would be ungrateful not to appreciate it.

If they had called him a "rascal" or "little rascal," there would be no need to be polite.

With a touch of shyness and respect, Han Yu said, "Yes, what do you need?"

"The water this morning wasn’t hot; couldn’t make tea, fetch me two bottles of hot water."

"Alright, please go back to your room, and I’ll bring it over."

Han Yu ran into the water room, grabbed two thermoses and delivered them to room 216. Just as she was about to take away the morning’s water bottles, the tall suspect grinned and asked, "Little rascal, how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Working at sixteen, you must be substituting for someone."

"Not substituting; I’m here to help my sister."

With so many acquaintances downstairs, she couldn’t just make things up; otherwise, she’d be easily called out, so Han Yu could only tell the truth.