Binjiang Police Affairs-Chapter 419 - 296 "No Ambition

Yu Xiangqian had no idea what was on his old subordinate’s mind. Gripping the phone, he asked, "Old Wang, have you heard about the bureau asking Chen Zikun to come back and handle his resignation?"

"I’ve heard. He’s making big money at his father-in-law’s place, and I heard his father-in-law even bought him a Santana. Just let him resign if that’s what it takes. It’s not like he can’t make it outside and needs to keep any backdoors open."

"He wants to come back; he wants to come back to work at his unit."

"What? Director Yu, you’re not joking, are you?"

Yu Xiangqian looked up at his old subordinate, and said helplessly, "He’s here with me. We’ve just talked. He said he likes being a policeman, and it’s not about how much money he can make."

Wang Wenhong never expected Chen Zikun to actually want to return. He was stunned for a good while before coming back to his senses: "Director Yu, if he really wants to come back, he needs to be prepared for the worst. I’ve heard that those who come back aren’t assigned any positions and are all sent to the grassroots level."

"He’s not a child; he’s mentally prepared."

Yu Xiangqian sighed inwardly and continued, "If it were a few months earlier, this could have been manageable. He could start working again and then we’d find a way to transfer him here. But the Canal Police Department was just incorporated into our department recently, and while the waterborne police force is still overstretched, we are now seriously overstaffed."

Wang Wenhong asked in a low voice, "So what do we do? He used to be an Instructor and we can’t just let him go back to being an ordinary officer."

"Salted Fish is recruiting and expanding territory, right? Ask Director Zhang for me if there’s any chance of transferring Zikun over there."

"Zikun is a talented man, and Salted Fish does indeed need someone like him, but transferring to the Changhang Bureau might be difficult."

"What’s the difficulty?"

"The Port Authority’s office department is bloated, and the superiors are still assigning college graduates to it just like before. The city also requires the Port Authority to arrange positions for demobilized, discharged, and retired military personnel. The Port Authority is overwhelmed and keeps pushing people into the Changhang Bureau."

"Well, that does sound impossible."

A friend had made a request, and he couldn’t refuse the favor.

Moreover, Chen Zikun truly was a talent. He had worked at the Water Police Station for so many years and could be considered a stalwart of the bureau. Even if he had no particular achievements, he had put in plenty of hard work.

Wang Wenhong weighed his options and mused, "After the Linghai Police Bureau withdrew from the Yangtze River, someone needs to manage the security of the Linghai section. Our bureau set up a nominal Water Police Third Team on a Dunship to promote Jia Yongqiang to director-level, allowing him to be a commander in name only.

Director Yu, if you can work things out with the City Bureau, we could arrange for Zikun to become the Instructor for the Water Police Third Team at Bailong Port. It’s still the position of an Instructor, but it’s nothing like before."

From a real Instructor to a nominal one, and having to go to Bailong Port—there were no better options.

Seeing Chen Zikun nodding silently, dying to say something, Yu Xiangqian whispered, "Alright, I’ll give Director Dong a call in a bit; I don’t know if he’ll do us this favor."

"He will for sure; after all, everyone knows you’ll go back to the Provincial Department sooner or later. I’ll also report to Director Peng, saying that our bureau’s jurisdiction is expanding and urgently needs capable, experienced officers who are familiar with the situation. If we both push from our sides, there shouldn’t be a big problem."

"Okay, thank you."

"Director Yu, what are you saying? Besides, Zikun is also my colleague."

...

Meanwhile, Han Yu was in a meeting room on the second floor of the Dunship, welcoming the newly appointed Deputy Captain of the Port Supervision Bureau Third Team, Huang Yuanchang.

Huang Yuanchang was now the Deputy Captain, and after a couple of months when Jin Weiguo steps down, he’d be the Captain.

Considering his sister had emphasized more than once that Huang Yuanchang’s character was questionable, Han Yu was on high alert, ready to go head-to-head with Mr. Huang. But what was happening was completely different from what he had anticipated.

"Have to be on duty tonight, huh? Director Jin, we are neither the Traffic Control Center nor the Rescue Center. I think we need to change these rules; we need to consider if our comrades’ health can take it."

"There’s actually not much happening at night, just sleeping on the Dunship."

"Sleeping on a ship is never as steady as sleeping in your own bed at home."

"The main issue is that we’re too far from the city."

"It’s not like there are no cars, and besides, everyone has their own things to do. Xiang Ning, don’t you agree?"

Is he trying to win hearts or planning something else...

Han Xiangning was completely puzzled and unsure of what to say when Huang Yuanchang adjusted his glasses and asked like he was inspecting with his leaders: "By the way, how much are the finances of our team?"

Since working at Bailong Port, Jin Weiguo had seen Li Weiguo, Old Ding, and Old Zhang retire. He’d been through Li Weiguo’s retirement and Xu Sanye’s untimely death; he was ready to retire and knew well that the bureau leadership had appointed Huang Yuanchang as the Deputy Captain to prepare him for succession, so his mindset was positive, and he positioned himself properly.

Hearing Huang Yuanchang asking about the finances, he responded without hesitation: "Our team is different from the others. Because we share an office with the police, and work jointly with them, we basically face no obstacles at work, so the proportion of penalties returned is also relatively small."

"What’s the proportion?"

"Five percent."

"Only five percent!"

"It’s always been five percent."

"How much money is there now?"

"I really don’t know the exact amount," said Han Xiangning, who is in charge of internal affairs. "Han Xiangning, how much money do we still have?"

"Fourteen thousand and six hundred."

"There’s over ten thousand, that’s not bad."

Huang Yuanchang smiled, took out his pager to check the time, and said: "Director Jin, Xiangning, I have some family matters to attend to, so I’ll let Old Ge drive me back to the city first. If you guys have something to do, you can come along. I heard there might be a meeting at the bureau tomorrow. If it lasts long, I might not come over."

Han Xiangning stared blankly for a moment before asking subconsciously, "Not coming?"

"I’m here to learn from you all, not in charge of specific tasks. You know my pager number, so just page me if something comes up."

With that, Huang Yuanchang said his goodbyes to Han Yu and the others, picked up his briefcase, called his driver Old Ge, got ashore, and hopped into the jeep, driving away in a cloud of dust.

To Han Yu and Han Xiangning’s surprise, over the following half month, it was nearly impossible to catch a glimpse of the "weasel" Huang Yuanchang!

He was very enthusiastic about meetings. As long as there were meetings at the bureau, he’d actively volunteer to represent the team.

If there were no meetings at the bureau, he would find various excuses not to come, let alone to manage the team’s work.

Just yesterday morning, he even took a training notice, claimed four thousand yuan from the fleet funds, took the Bai Shen passenger liner to the East Sea, and from there, he took a train to the Capital for vocational training. It was said that he wouldn’t return for half a month.

Han Yu found it very strange as he was checking the fire pump on the boat 001 and laughed: "Ningning, this Weasel doesn’t seem hard to get along with."

Han Xiangning had felt the same oddness earlier, and after asking Sister Zhu privately yesterday, had already figured out what was going on. While leaning on the fire cannon, she chuckled: "It’s not that he’s easy to get along with; it’s that he doesn’t want to deal with us."

"What do you mean?"

"For you and me, being promoted to deputy director represents the organization’s cultivation, a sign of trust from our leaders. For him, this isn’t a promotion to director; it’s actually a disguised demotion, being exiled to the remote corner of Bailong Port. He feels underappreciated and not in the mood to engage with our affairs."

"He doesn’t like working in Bailong Port?"

"In his view, even being assigned to Binjiang was beneath him. He wanted to stay in Hanwu, or go to East Sea, or at least to Jiangcheng. Binjiang was bad enough, let alone Bailong Port."

"He wants to be transferred!"

"Everyone wants to go to big cities, to higher-level agencies, but it’s not so easy for him to get transferred."

"But he’s gone to the Capital for training. Maybe he can be transferred after he comes back."

Han Xiangning was already annoyed by the mention of training: "What training? To put it bluntly, it’s just a government-funded vacation in disguise. I don’t know about your division, but our bureau receives dozens of training or even meeting notices every day, each from a more significant source than the last, without exception requiring a fee."

Han Yu, who had never worked in an agency, was really unaware of this and asked in astonishment, "You can go just by paying?"

"The higher-ups are also focused on generating income, even the ministries are setting up companies. It’s all about making money in different ways."

"But the leaders at your bureau obviously know he’s just going for fun, why do they still let him go?"

"No matter what, the training is organized by the superiors. He has connections in the higher agencies. They called specifically to have him attend, how could the bureau not allow it? Besides, it’s using our team’s funds, not costing the bureau anything."

"Do your bureau leaders know that he’s just goofing off and isn’t serious about his work?"

"Of course, they know, but they just can’t be bothered to deal with it."

Turning her head to look at the dunship, Han Xiangning bitterly smiled and said, "I had the wrong idea about Director Tang before. It turns out that Director Tang knew about his character all along but had no way to handle him. So he just promoted him to director and kicked him to Bailong Port, thus satisfying the superiors and getting rid of him from causing trouble in the office."

Han Yu, finding it both sad and funny, asked, "What does Director Tang take our place for!"

"Sanye, we can’t take ourselves too seriously. In our bureau leaders’ eyes, our Third Team is the least important. We used to help the bureau generate revenue, but now fewer and fewer ships pass by, and we can hardly impose any fines."

Worried that his junior wouldn’t believe him, Han Xiangning pointed in the direction of Bailong Port Passenger Pier: "In the eyes of your division’s leaders, the Bailong Port Police Station is the least important. We may not be important, but without us, the North Branch Channel can’t go unattended."

Han Yu realized the situation and nodded in resignation: "It seems that in Director Peng and Political Commissioner Wang’s eyes, the Water Police Third Team is also insignificant, otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent Uncle Jia to be an unaffiliated commander here."

"Don’t be discouraged. In the leaders’ view, your fire brigade is still very important."

"How could I be discouraged? I knew all along that we were not important to the superiors. Otherwise, no one would have cared about the situation on the river before."

Han Yu laughed and added, "Weasel doesn’t like Bailong Port, which is actually quite normal. We all grew up in Bailong Port; we have many elders and friends here, and Bailong Port is like our home. But he’s different. He doesn’t know anyone, has no attachment to Bailong Port, so for him, Bailong Port is indeed a desolate and remote corner."

"Sanye, now that you said it, I suddenly feel like we are really lackluster, spending our days on the dunship like shipmen, surrounded by water on three sides and open sky above. No wonder Lin Xiaohui looks down on you."

"What does this have to do with Lin Xiaohui?"

"It’s just a comparison."

"I like being on the boat."

"Me too, I don’t feel lonely either."

"This just means ’Birds of a feather flock together.’"

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺