Binjiang Police Affairs
Chapter 66 - 62: It’s only when one needs to use knowledge that one realizes how little they have

Chapter 66: Chapter 62: It’s only when one needs to use knowledge that one realizes how little they have

At 8:29 in the evening, captains and crew members on rotation leave come via the ship agency’s vehicle to check in.

After having dinner on board, photocopies of their passports, seaman’s certificates, and other documents had been sent over by the translator from the ship agency earlier, so the check-in process went very quickly.

Having drifted at sea for eight or nine months, they were not inclined to just go to sleep once on shore.

The captain took his luggage to his room and then earnestly asked the translator from the ship agency to accompany him for a walk, seemingly to buy some Chinese gifts for his family.

But Binjiang was not East Sea; the streets became empty as night fell, and most shops were closed.

The German captain was very disappointed and could only choose some gifts from the small store in the Sailor Club and bought a bottle of beer to stroll with alone.

Han Yu initially thought that the three suspects would approach the captain, but surprisingly, they turned to the Indian sailors.

The crew members coming aboard for rotation must have told them something, and when Shen Rulan briefly spoke to them in English in the corridor, they seemed to have an epiphany and warmly invited Shen Rulan and Zhang Asheng into room 220.

Clearly worried about something, Ye Xingguo did not follow them in but stopped by the doorway to the duty office, casually chatting with his little fellow townsman Han Yu while keeping a lookout.

Han Yu responded intermittently while secretly anxious within.

Not sure if the Indians naturally spoke loudly or if it was a habit formed on board, their voices carried clearly enough to be heard at the duty office door.

But with his poor English, except for "yes" and "no," he couldn’t understand a word they said.

Faced with this situation, Han Yu truly felt the frustration of lacking knowledge when it’s needed most.

Han Ning, meanwhile, was frazzled by the loud voices as several guests on the same floor complained about the noise, and she had to go explain that these foreign guests were only staying for one night and would leave early in the morning.

Realizing that this wouldn’t work, Ye Xingguo proactively went to remind Zhang Asheng and his partner.

Just as Han Yu was preparing to use the walkie-talkie to ask Director Zhang if they could bring someone who understood foreign languages to listen in on their conversation, Ye Xingguo returned, taking out twenty yuan from his pocket.

"Manager Ye, what’s this for?"

"Help me buy some drinks."

"What do you need so much money for drinks for? That’s too much."

"Buy a few extra bottles, and see if there are any snacks like peanuts as well."

Han Yu took the money and asked, looking at room 220, "To invite those foreign guests for a drink?"

Ye Xingguo smiled and said, "At home you rely on your parents, abroad you rely on friends; foreign friends are no exception."

Looking at the money in his hand, Han Yu asked, "It’s late, snacks may be hard to come by, how about I buy some marinated dishes instead?"

"Forget the marinated dishes, they are vegetarians; they neither smoke nor drink."

"Foreigners don’t eat meat?"

"They are Indians, go buy quickly, the rest is for your trouble."

"Alright, I’ll go find a bag inside, otherwise it won’t be easy to carry back."

Han Yu went into the duty office, found a cloth bag, and with his back to Ye Xingguo who was keeping watch outside, stealthily slipped the walkie-talkie into it.

Han Ning knew that once her brother went downstairs everything depended on her; she smiled and nodded at him.

Han Yu exchanged a glance with his sister, picked up the bag, and ran downstairs.

The Sailor Club had a small store; the shop assistant, seeing the foreign guests had no intention of shopping, had already locked up the counter and gone home.

Han Yu had no choice but to look for another small store; as he ran to the crossroads, Old Liu emerged from nowhere and walking ahead, asked without facing him, "Little Salted Fish, why have you come down?"

"Ye Xingguo asked me to help him buy drinks; they want to treat the Indian sailors to drinks and snacks."

"What are they doing?"

"Zhang and Shen went into room 220, talking with those Indian guys. Their voices are loud, but they are speaking English, and I can’t understand a word."

"Got it, I’ll report to Director Zhang right now."

"Better find someone who can understand."

"It’s so late; where to find someone?"

"Okay, I’ll go buy the drinks first."

Worried that the walkie-talkie would be discovered upon returning, Han Yu looked back, and decided to hand the walkie-talkie over to Old Liu.

There was a privately-owned small store nearby, but because the weather had cooled, the shop didn’t stock many drinks, with only local orange soda and Jianlibao on the shelves.

Serving foreign guests, bottled orange soda seemed a bit low class.

Han Yu simply chose ten cans of Jianlibao, at one yuan seventy each, totaling seventeen yuan. He also bought a few bags of fish-skin peanuts; the whole twenty yuan was spent, not a penny left, and there was no money for running errands.

Returning to the second floor of the Sailor Club, he handed the drinks and snacks to Ye Xingguo; the discussion in room 220 was still audible.

Seeing Ye joining in, Han Ning whispered, "San’er, what are they talking about?"

"I don’t know."

"After you left, Zhang Asheng went back to his room."

"What did he go back for?"

"I went back to my room to get a calculator. Just now, when I used the excuse of delivering fruit, I saw them doing calculations with a calculator and also jotting down notes on paper."

"Are the Indians also calculating?"

"Yeah," Han Ning straightened his work uniform and continued, "They were calculating and haggling at the same time. Mrs. Shen, she’s tough—not only can she speak a foreign language, she was also seen rolling up her sleeves and arguing with a few foreigners."

"Arguing?" Han Yu asked in surprise.

Han Ning smiled and said, "Didn’t you hear? They’ve started arguing again."

The noise coming from room 220 was getting louder. It was rare to see such blatant illegal and criminal activity, relying on the fact that others didn’t understand the foreign language...

Thinking of the marine engineering self-study exams that required learning marine English, Han Yu felt it was necessary to study earnestly.

If all else fails, buy a tape recorder and some English language tapes to practice listening carefully, otherwise, the next time a situation like this arose, there’d be trouble.

It was evident that Manager Ye was very nervous.

He didn’t come over again, but he alternated between smoking at the end of the corridor by the public restroom and reminding the people in room 220 to keep their voices down.

The foreign guests weren’t resting, so the staff couldn’t slack off and sleep soundly.

It wasn’t until almost 10:30 that Zhang Asheng and Shen Rulan seemed to have come to an agreement with the Indians, as they left room 220 with smiles on their faces.

The Indians who had been discussing with them earlier followed out and stood chatting in the hallway for a few minutes.

One moment they were raising their arms and pointing at their watches, as if setting a time. The next moment they were shaking hands with Mr. and Mrs. Zhang, seemingly pleased with their discussion.

"Xiao Han, our room’s alarm clock isn’t working well, can you remind us at seven o’clock tomorrow morning?"

"Manager Ye, do you mean to wake you up at seven?"

"Hmm, things are almost settled, we should head back tomorrow."

"Don’t worry, I’ll wake up the foreign guests at seven as well, I’ll do it all at once."

"Okay, thank you."

Everyone returned to their own rooms, and the world finally quieted down.

Han Yu was about to go downstairs to report the situation to Old Liu when Director Zhang had already called the duty room.

After a few questions from Director Zhang, he was told to rush downstairs for a meeting with Old Liu and Xiao Liu at the police bureau. As for the guest rooms, he should ask his sister to keep an eye on things for a while.

Taking the Volga sedan driven by Liu Guixiang, he arrived at the Binjiang Port Police Station, entered the conference room on the west side of the first floor, and was surprised to find not only Director Zhang, Director Jiang, and Chief Zhou had returned, but there were also two leaders wearing "Makuni" present.

On the conference table, there was a reel-to-reel tape recorder, like those used by broadcasting stations.

"Director Chen, this is Yanjiang Police Station officer Salted Fish."

"So, you’re Little Salted Fish, huh? Been watching since noon, are you tired?"

"Reporting to the leader, not tired."

"Salted Fish, this is our Director Chen."

"Hello, Director Chen!"

"They say your sister and brother-in-law both work at the Port Authority, it’s like you’re at home here, don’t be nervous, sit down first."

"Thank you, Director Chen."

Director Chen, in his fifties, clean and well-presented with a kindly face, seemed amiable.

While Han Yu was thinking he didn’t quite look like a police chief, Director Chen smiled and asked, "Junyan, is everyone here?"

"Everyone’s here."

"Then let’s begin."

"Yes."

Zhang Junyan picked up a stack of photos that Staff Xiao had developed in the afternoon and handed them to Director Chen one by one, reporting on the work as if enumerating precious possessions.

Starting from when Han Yu inadvertently encountered three suspects at the Sailor Club, continuing up to the arrest of two suspects who violated foreign exchange regulations.

"This is Shi Xiantang, who has overseas connections. He has an uncle who fled to Taiwan on the eve of the Liberation and then moved to the United States from Taiwan. Last March, his uncle came back to China to look for relatives. Seeing that his family’s conditions were not very good, he gave him five thousand Foreign Exchange Certificates."

"Originally, he was to use it to build a house and buy some household appliances from the Friendship Store, but he didn’t want to spend it. He only took out five thousand, and exchanged it four times with Mao Xuebin, who was caught this afternoon, at a rate of 1.2 to get six thousand RMB, and he repaired his house."

Zhang Junyan took a pause, then continued, "But Foreign Exchange Certificates are not RMB; it’s not easy to take directly to save, and exchanging it at the People’s Bank one-to-one for RMB to save is even less worthwhile. Also, exchanging them one-to-one point two with others will seldom give you so much at once.

If he were to exchange in several instances as before, he felt it too risky. So, led astray by Mao Xuebin, he agreed to a one-time exchange with Ye Xingguo and Zhang Asheng, whom we had previously identified.

Because of the recent price increase, he thought it not worthwhile to exchange at one-to-one point two and haggled in the alley this afternoon; finally, the exchange was at one-to-one point two five."

According to the regulations of the People’s Bank, one Foreign Exchange Certificate is equal to one RMB.

Director Chen casually picked up a calculator, calculated quickly, and looked up to ask, "So he used forty-five thousand Foreign Exchange Certificates to exchange with Ye and Zhang for fifty-six thousand two hundred fifty RMB?"

"He didn’t get that much, because Mao Xuebin, the middleman, also wanted a cut. In the end, both buyers and sellers gave five hundred to Mao Xuebin as a commission."

"He took home fifty-five thousand seven hundred fifty."

"Yes."

Zhang Junyan sat back down and turned to say, "Director Jiang, the dock is under your watch, you report the situation to Director Chen."