The handcuffs were brought by Xu Mo during his cross-jurisdiction arrest mission. During this operation, Xu Mo, Chen Ke, and Li Chen each carried a pair of handcuffs to prevent accidents.
Chen Ke's pair was used right away, but Xu Mo's was still stored in his system space, and it unexpectedly came in handy now.
Li Yunfei took the handcuffs from Xu Mo: "Thanks, I didn't bring mine. I'll borrow yours for now and return them when we get back to the station."
"No need to be so formal," Xu Mo smiled.
While the two were chatting pleasantly, the middle-aged woman nearby started to panic.
The moment she saw the handcuffs, she sensed trouble. When she overheard the conversation between Xu Mo and Li Yunfei and realized they were police officers, she immediately scrambled to her feet without saying a word and turned to run.
After all, who would stick around after attempting to scam police officers? Scamming ordinary people might get you money, but trying to scam police officers would only get you a shiny pair of handcuffs!
"Stop!" Li Yunfei shouted and gave chase.
The middle-aged woman naturally couldn't match a young person's stamina and was caught after just a few steps.
Li Yunfei promptly took out the handcuffs Xu Mo had given him, cuffed the woman's hands, and escorted her back to the car.
"Sorry you had to see that," Li Yunfei scratched his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed. "In small towns like this, legal awareness isn't quite up to par."
Chen Ke could only respond with a bitter smile without commenting further, thinking to himself that this was just a simple scam attempt, nothing major. His jurisdiction dealt with murder cases daily!
If they were comparing legal awareness, wouldn't that make his area even worse than this so-called small town Li Yunfei was referring to?
"I'll take her to the station first and let my colleagues educate her. We can go eat afterward, though it might take some time. Sorry about this..." Li Yunfei continued.
"It's fine, we understand!" Xu Mo and Chen Ke said in unison.
"You have successfully arrested the scamming middle-aged woman. Reward: 100,000 yuan in cash," a prompt sounded in Xu Mo's mind.
Simultaneously, 100,000 yuan in cash appeared in his system space.
I just handed over some handcuffs, does that really count as making an arrest? Xu Mo was slightly puzzled.
Of course, Xu Mo didn't dwell on this point. A reward was a reward, and he wasn't about to turn it down now that it was given.
The reward was a bit small this time... but understandable, considering they'd only caught a scammer, not some major criminal. In terms of difficulty, it couldn't compare to catching murderers, so the modest reward made sense.
Li Yunfei took a detour to drop the scamming woman off at the police station, leaving her with his on-duty colleagues to handle. He also introduced Xu Mo and Chen Ke to his colleagues before heading to the restaurant.
Xincheng Restaurant.
Private Room 218.
Li Yunfei pushed open the door, with Xu Mo and Chen Ke following behind.
"We caught a scammer on the way here and had to take her to the station, which caused some delay," Li Yunfei explained as they entered.
"Well, that doesn't matter - being late means you have to pay a penalty, drink three bottles!" one officer teased.
After a pause, he turned to Xu Mo and Chen Ke with a smile: "Oh, you two don't need to drink any penalties, you're our guests. He'll drink them himself."
Upon hearing about the three-bottle penalty, Li Yunfei immediately deflated.
"Come on... how am I supposed to eat after drinking three bottles? Can we make it three cups? Or better yet, just one bottle? Three is too much, and besides, I was late because of official business, not on purpose."
"Brother Li, your alcohol tolerance is quite poor if you can't handle three bottles of beer. You need to practice!" Chen Ke patted Li Yunfei's shoulder.
If he couldn't even handle three bottles, he belonged at the kids' table!
However, Chen Ke was dumbfounded the next moment.
"Brother Chen, you've got it wrong. We don't drink alcohol - we've got night shift at the station later. How could we work after drinking? We drink this." As he spoke, the officer lifted a case of mineral water from under the table, opened it, and tossed three bottles to Li Yunfei.
Xu Mo: "..."
Chen Ke: "..."
So all this time, they were talking about drinking water, not alcohol. No wonder Li Yunfei said he couldn't drink it all - drinking three bottles of mineral water at once would be challenging for anyone...
Xu Mo also patted Li Yunfei's shoulder, giving him a "good luck with that" look.
"Come on, have a seat," the officer warmly invited Xu Mo and Chen Ke to sit down.
Li Yunfei glumly picked up the mineral water and started drinking.
During this time, an officer sitting next to them asked.
"We can't drink alcohol because we have to go to the station later, but would you two like some? I can ask the server to bring some."
"I can't drink," Chen Ke shook his head. "I'm still hospitalized, so I'll just have water with you all."
"If no one else is drinking, I'll pass too. Water for me as well," Xu Mo also declined.
By this time, Li Yunfei had already finished two bottles of water. He wiped his mouth and picked up the third bottle with a sigh, needing a moment before he could continue.
"Forget it, if you really can't drink anymore, just stop!" someone called out.
As the saying goes, even a tough guy can't resist peer pressure.
Hearing this, Li Yunfei's competitive spirit instantly flared up. Can't drink anymore? Who says I can't drink anymore? Who are you looking down on? Huh?
"Damn... I can't drink? What a joke!" With that, he didn't even pause to catch his breath, unscrewed the cap, and downed the entire bottle in one go.
"Impressive! I'll go call the server to bring our food."
During the meal, almost all conversation centered around Xu Mo, particularly his case-solving experiences.
The officers asked questions, Xu Mo answered, and Chen Ke occasionally chimed in.
Since everyone was drinking water rather than alcohol, and quite a lot of it at that, people kept getting up to use the bathroom throughout the meal. Li Yunfei made the most trips, having drunk the most water.
By the middle of the meal, Xu Mo was also feeling a bit bloated and stood up to use the bathroom.
"Are you heading to the bathroom? I'll join you," Li Yunfei said, getting up as well when he saw Xu Mo rise.
In the bathroom.
While relieving themselves, they overheard a conversation from the stalls behind them.
"Brother Hai, you must be doing well lately. I see you're wearing a gold chain now."
"Haha, it's nothing much, just made a bit of money... about 4 million or so."
"Damn? 4 million? How did you make that? Can you help a brother out?"
"What are you talking about? We're brothers, what do you mean 'help out'? I'll just tell you how to make it, and you can follow along. This method... it makes money really fast, made over 4 million in just a week, like a fucking money printer. But you need some startup capital to do this, about 200,000..."
Hearing this, Xu Mo and Li Yunfei exchanged glances.
Something was definitely suspicious!