Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Big Brother, Are You Serious About This Jianbing Guozi…

“You kid, still want three pancakes? How about you just eat yourself to death?”

As the deputy director, Wang Changhai usually had some opinions about Xiao Song.

In public security, everyone has to start from the grassroots level.

Their leaders, even higher up, like the bureau chief, all started at the grassroots, crawling and struggling, working their way up from being regular police officers.

You think studying finance makes you special? Other stations also have people who studied finance or law, but they all start humbly as police officers, don’t they?

“You say your stomach hurts and only drink porridge, looking down on the cook hired by our grassroots police station, huh? Let me tell you, you might not even get to eat this cook even if you pay for it. Before, you asked a runner to buy lion’s head meatballs from Chen’s restaurant… But Uncle Chen’s cooking isn’t even half as good as what Ranran makes!”

Song Yifan thought the deputy director was definitely exaggerating. But he wasn’t so low on social skills to argue with that.

After a mouthful of millet porridge, Song Yifan’s arrogance softened a bit.

Brother Hao nearby also came over.

After staying up all night together, drinking porridge and eating good food in the morning — is there a better time to step down from your high horse?

“Don’t feel too bad. You know Liu Shihan in our station, right? The one who stayed last night on duty, guarding the place? She’s actually a graduate student from Renmin University!”

Song Yifan was surprised.

He really didn’t know the education levels of people at the station. He subconsciously felt that, as a graduate from a 211 university, being assigned to such a small police station was somewhat underutilizing his talents.

He remembered a previous police case, where a kid called the police asking them to arrest his parents. He thought it was just a child’s prank and didn’t want to go, but Liu Shihan patiently handled the call.

“That’s right, it was Liu Shihan who spent two hours talking with that six-year-old brat yesterday,” Wang Changhai said, noticing what Song Yifan was thinking. “What, you think her education isn’t higher than yours? Look at when she’s ever been arrogant?”

He gave a slightly disdainful glance at Song Yifan’s small frame: “That girl looks even sturdier than you!”

Just then, Chen Ran’s three pocket pancakes were ready. Wang Changhai grabbed the plate and handed it to Song Yifan: “Eat! Eat all three, try to get a bit stronger! We didn’t dare to tell you to slam the door — you’d probably break a bone!”

Song Yifan’s face reddened with embarrassment.

He lowered his head, using the act of eating to avoid the awkward situation.

He bit into the crispy pancake; the shell cracked lightly against his teeth. The soft inner layer had absorbed the braised pork’s sauce, emitting a strange fragrance.

Delicious!

Song Yifan was somewhat surprised — this young cook’s skills exceeded his expectations.

Seeing the brat take a bite and then look surprised while eyeing the cook, Wang Changhai joked: “What’s the matter? You think a new small police station like ours can’t have such a good cook?”

Song Yifan thought so in his heart but didn’t dare say it aloud. Instead, he took another big bite of the pancake to dodge the question.

The large mouthful chewed in his mouth first tasted not the outer crust, but the rich aroma of the braised meat.

Taking a fierce bite, the juicy meat flavor reached his taste buds even before the crispy pancake did, accompanied by the tender, melt-in-the-mouth pork skin.

Then came the full wheat fragrance of the pancake.

After chewing the crust a couple of times, the springy braised pork meat finally hit his taste buds.

The most remarkable thing was that the pork skin was almost fully stewed to softness, while the lean meat inside remained surprisingly elastic. When chewing hard, you could even feel your teeth bounce back!For the first time, Song Yifan felt that the word “springy” was so fitting.

Swallowing a mouthful of this full-calorie bomb, he felt his entire hungry stomach seemingly revived!

At this moment, he took another sip of the rich millet porridge.

Brother Hao laughed and scolded, “You kid! Still holding that porridge bowl, what are you doing? Sit down and eat!”

Only then did Song Yifan realize he was holding porridge in one hand and the rolled pancake in the other, and the deputy director was still holding the plate for him!

“Lost in eating, huh?”

He smiled awkwardly, quickly placed the rolled pancake back on the plate, then took the plate and set it on the table.

The police station’s canteen had two large round tables. Since there weren’t many people, that was enough. Now everyone was sitting around, feeling full and comfortable, and a group started discussing the case.

Chen Ran couldn’t help but eavesdrop.

Although she was just a temp, a temp is still an employee! Eavesdropping a little was nothing, plus she really cared about the progress of the case.

“...Yeah, they definitely went to find She Pi. That guy was living comfortably in the city, suddenly rented a shack near the construction site here—there must be a problem.”

“Right, this time we have to catch him in the act! No matter how many years, let him get a heavier sentence!”

“But according to the information from Dong’an City, the children are probably still on the way here... We have to keep a close watch!”

After listening for a while, Chen Ran finally understood the whole case.

Three children were abducted in Dong’an City. The police had been tracing their whereabouts but found nothing. However, through intelligence, they learned that the traffickers might hand the children over to “She Pi.”

“She Pi” is a nickname. This man was once arrested for child trafficking but someone took the blame, so he was released quickly. He has established trafficking channels. If caught in the act this time, not only could they rescue those three children, but also possibly rescue more through follow-up investigations.

However, She Pi’s current residence is in the jurisdiction of the Qiaotou Road police station.

There are many construction sites here, and even a vocational college with a large transient population. Also, due to poor infrastructure, there are very few surveillance cameras.

To catch She Pi, they had to rely on manual deployment.

Wang Changhai was now assigning the task of manual deployment.

“Our station has few people, so this time everyone goes out! Even though it’s the weekend, everyone needs to work hard—it’s a special period.”

Liu Shihan had also gotten up. She had already changed into her uniform and happened to hear the deputy director’s words as she came in.

“Director! I’ll go too!”

“Then who will watch the station?”

“Director,” Brother Hao said matter-of-factly, “if we can’t catch She Pi this time, I won’t have the face to wear this uniform anymore!”

Wang Changhai hesitated: “We can’t just let the director be a figurehead in the station…”

The director was older, had high blood pressure, stayed up all night with them, but had to hurry home to take medicine. A man in his fifties can’t stay up all night without rest.

After some discussion, they decided to leave one person with the director on duty and send the rest out.

But She Pi lived in a shack built by several migrant workers. It would be very difficult to set up surveillance there.

The police discussed it and concluded that the only thing that wouldn’t attract attention around there was a small food stall. At the construction site’s entrance, no other business could operate.Everyone leveraged their connections. Wang Changhai borrowed two tricycles from the reemployment center—one to sell jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes), the other to sell near-expiry drinks bought wholesale from a supermarket.

Chen Ran also helped prepare the batter for the jianbing guozi and watched as several police officers marched out proudly.

Before leaving, she thoughtfully asked, “Should I bring you some rolled pancakes?”

“Bring what? We’re all going to sell jianbing guozi. If you eat rolled pancakes now, won’t you blow your cover? Make your own and eat it yourself!”

Chen Ran had a vague, ominous feeling.

However, she was just a temporary kitchen worker and didn’t need to worry about this for now.

At noon, only one duty police officer and the director were on duty. She steamed some rice, stir-fried two vegetable dishes, and sliced some pork knuckle and braised bean curd skin for a plate.

When the director arrived, he saw Chen Ran had set the dishes nicely—two vegetables, one meat, and a soup.

“Not bad. Just the three of us eating, so no waste. Young comrade, your cooking skills are pretty good.”

Chen Ran felt awkward eating at the same table as the director. Though she wasn’t socially anxious, she wasn’t a social butterfly either. With more people it would be easier, but now it was just her and a police officer eating across from the police station director—she really couldn’t handle it.

Of course, telling the director she was going to eat first wasn’t appropriate either, so she made an excuse.

“Director, I just moved in yesterday, still need to tidy up the dormitory, I’ll eat and tidy up later.”

Director Gao, experienced and sharp, guessed the young girl was a little nervous. He smiled, “You can’t tidy up on an empty stomach. Take some food to the dorm and eat there.”

Chen Ran felt a bit embarrassed but it would be even worse to say she didn’t need to tidy up.

She quickly packed some food into a lunch box and even specially added a braised egg for the director.

Director Gao took the braised egg, nodded approvingly, “Bribing the boss!”

Another duty officer, Xiao Li, came in and laughed.

“Boss Gao, stop teasing the young girl!”

The Qiaotou Road police station was small and usually had a relaxed atmosphere. The two laughed watching Chen Ran quickly escape with her lunch box.

Director Gao bit into the braised egg, “You know, this young girl’s cooking is really good! Where did Wang Changhai dig her up from?”

He took a bite, then picked up some shiitake mushrooms with greens, continuing to praise, “Delicious, try this!”

The two ate happily. Although today’s dishes weren’t top-tier recipes, Chen Ran’s own A-level seasoning skills made the other dishes quite good.

While eating, Director Gao suddenly heard a weak knocking at the door.

“Is... is anyone there...?”

His instincts as a veteran officer made him jump up and rush to the door.

Outside the police station’s glass door sat a messy-haired young girl, holding her head, looking dizzy.

“What’s wrong?”

Officer Xiao Li also ran out. Together they helped the girl up.

“She looks young, like a college student.”The two helped the young girl up and seated her. Director Gao keenly noticed that the girl seemed a bit anxious and guilty.

“What’s wrong? Where do you feel unwell?”

“I feel a bit... weak,” the girl lowered her head, sweat covering her forehead. “And a bit dizzy…”

Seeing the girl was somewhat plump, Director Gao thought of his own daughter who was always dieting and instinctively asked, “Haven’t eaten?”

Xiao Li, recalling the girl’s guilty look earlier, agreed, “Most likely low blood sugar from dieting!”

“Little sister, what’s your name?” Director Gao asked while gently helping her toward the canteen. “Girls these days only know dieting. Sooner or later, you’ll mess up your health! Being chubby is so much better!”

The girl weakly followed Director Gao’s hand and sat down beside the dining table.

“My name is Zhu Chenchen…”

Right after saying her name, she regretted it.

How could she have said her real name!

Zhu Chenchen’s father came to the construction site to handle some matters today. Bored at home, she tagged along.

Then, she saw this Qiaotou Road police station!

This was where Sister Ranran was working now!

She had overeaten last night, causing stomach bloating and acid reflux all night, so she hadn’t eaten anything this morning. Running all the way over was the main reason her face looked so pale.

She had only intended to come in to see Sister Ranran, but upon opening the door, she immediately smelled the familiar aroma of cooked food.

When the chubby policeman asked if she had low blood sugar, a little devil quickly formed in Zhu Chenchen’s heart:

Low blood sugar → need to replenish sugar → the police station is eating → she could eat Sister Ranran’s food again!

Though she really hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, so it wasn’t exactly a lie… right?

Feeling a bit guilty, Zhu Chenchen was helped to the dining table. She quickly glanced around but didn’t see Chen Ran anywhere.

She felt a little relieved.

“Wait here, I’ll get you some rice!”

Director Gao rushed into the kitchen. While firmly packing rice into a small bowl, he muttered about the girl.

“Why diet? Being healthy is much better. Why must you be as skinny as a stick?”

He placed the tightly packed bowl of rice in front of Zhu Chenchen and handed her a pair of chopsticks.

However, Director Gao felt something was off.

The girl had seemed weak just now, but once she held the chopsticks, she looked like a little wolf.

He watched as Zhu Chenchen lifted her chopsticks, and her first move was straight for the pork knuckle in the center of the table!

It wasn’t that Zhu Chenchen didn’t want to hide it—she simply couldn’t control herself.

Having been fed by Sister Ranran every day at the kindergarten, she really couldn’t accept this sudden drop in quality.

Besides, Sister Ranran had never made such delicious pork knuckle at the Qimingxing Kindergarten.The police at the station are so lucky!

Zhu Chenchen’s chopsticks were getting closer and closer to the pork knuckle, but just as she was about to pick some up, someone suddenly slapped them away.

It was Officer Xiao Li, who had just run off and now returned!

He was out of breath, holding chocolate he’d brought from the dormitory, and stuffed it into Zhu Chenchen’s mouth.

“Director, low blood sugar means no meat! You have to replenish a lot of sugar. Eating meat and rice won’t fix it. Little girl, don’t faint on us!”

Xiao Li seemed to know a lot about low blood sugar patients. He shoved a piece of chocolate into Zhu Chenchen’s mouth, gave her some water, then fed her another piece.

Zhu Chenchen struggled to swallow the hazelnut chocolate, was given water, then had a White Rabbit milk candy shoved in as well.

Xiao Li kept explaining the dangers of low blood sugar: “If you have low blood sugar, you must replenish sugar immediately! And don’t choose sugar-free stuff. If you really don’t have sugar, drinks are okay too. Eating food takes longer to raise blood sugar.”

“If low blood sugar isn’t handled well, it can cause brain hypoxia and lifelong damage!”

Director Gao listened humbly to Xiao Li’s advice, and together they fed Zhu Chenchen five pieces of candy.

“Must be so hungry with low blood sugar, probably missed so many meals…” Xiao Li comforted the teary-eyed Zhu Chenchen, “Little girl, let’s sit over there and rest a bit. Don’t rush to eat yet; this pork knuckle is too greasy, might upset your stomach.”

Director Gao slapped his head: “You’re right! Any more candy? Let’s put a few more in her pocket.”

“No more. These few were grabbed from Chen Ran’s dormitory. She said she’ll look for more and bring them over if she finds any.”

“Alright, later the station will buy more candy to keep in the lobby. Not just for low blood sugar folks, but also to coax kids a bit.”

Zhu Chenchen didn’t hear the rest clearly; she only heard that Sister Ran was coming soon.

Just now, Zhu Chenchen’s eyes were teary from not getting pork knuckle, but now she struggled.

“Don’t make a fuss! Sit a bit longer. Wait till you’re not dizzy or confused before leaving! What if you have low blood sugar halfway home? Nonsense, this area is all construction sites; not even a supermarket nearby.”

Xiao Li pressed Zhu Chenchen down in the chair seriously, making her sit properly.

But the girl’s expression… looked like she’d just wrecked a home.

While he was puzzled, a light hum came from behind.

“Zhu Chenchen!”

The girl, who had been weak, dizzy, and guilty moments ago, suddenly perked up and stood from the chair.

Chen Ran looked at Zhu Chenchen’s expression and couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time.

She had just transferred from Qimingxing Kindergarten yesterday, and now Zhu Chenchen had tracked her all the way here?

And with low blood sugar?

In the past month, Chen Ran had fed Zhu Chenchen so much she’d gained ten jin (about 5 kg). No exaggeration—she wouldn’t get low blood sugar even if she skipped two days of meals!

Zhu Chenchen instinctively moved closer, grabbing Chen Ran’s sleeves with both hands, ready to act spoiled.

“Sister Ranran, I didn’t mean to… I just ate too much yesterday and upset my stomach…”

Hmm… that sounded about right.

Chen Ran glared at her: “This is a police station!”Director Gao figured it out—this little girl wasn’t really hypoglycemic; she was just trying to scam a free meal?

But after just tasting the food, with such superb cooking skills, it was indeed hard to blame her.

The girl was being mischievous, but Director Gao wasn’t angry; still, she needed some teaching.

He put on a serious face: “Little girl, you’re making a false report and wasting police resources. That counts as disturbing public order and can get you detained!”

Although Zhu Chenchen was bold, in front of the police she was still a naive and foolish female college student.

Hearing this, she felt her legs weaken.

“I... I won’t dare to do it again…”

Xiao Li was also no-nonsense. He really thought the girl was about to faint earlier, and had run over in a rush, still catching his breath now!

“Not only detention, but also a fine! There are only two of us left at the station, and we were busy with you just now. What if something else happened? Don’t you think it’d cause trouble?”

Zhu Chenchen, who had been holding back tears earlier, now truly started crying.

Chen Ran pinched her chubby face sharply: “What were you thinking? It’s one thing to work in the kindergarten kitchen for some food, but you dare barge into the police station too? If you don’t change your temper, sooner or later you’ll get into serious trouble!”

Director Gao’s own daughter was about the same age and build as this little chubby girl, so he felt a bit soft inside.

Seeing Zhu Chenchen cry, he cleared his throat and said: “Our police station definitely can’t let outsiders in casually. You need to be careful next time.”

“But… since you’re Chen Ran’s little sister, you’re kind of family,” he pointed to the firmly packed bowl of rice on the table, “You really haven’t eaten because your stomach’s upset, so you’re not completely lying. Can you finish this bowl of rice without wasting it? If you don’t waste it, we won’t pursue the matter this time.”

Halfway through crying, Zhu Chenchen heard this and was surprised, mouth opening with tears still on her face.

Chen Ran, frustrated at her, patted her: “Go eat, but there won’t be a next time!”

Even after five pieces of candy, a small bowl of rice was nothing major for Zhu Chenchen. But Chen Ran firmly refused to let her have a second bowl, personally escorting Zhu Chenchen back to Zhu’s father’s car.

She was going to report this!

Zhu’s father worked at the notary office and was naturally no legal ignoramus. He reached out and gave his usually pampered daughter a slap.

“You have some nerve! Even though Director Gao is known to be kind, normally you’d be scolded or even detained for this!”

Watching Zhu’s father scold his daughter, Chen Ran finally felt at ease and returned to the police station.

There was still some time before dinner. She took out her phone, ready to scroll through short videos. As usual, she browsed videos of cats and dogs she followed, then opened the local channel.

The first video to appear was actually someone she knew?

The background audio of the short video was clearly a few young students.

In the video, Brother Hao was trembling as he held a bamboo dragonfly toy, trying hard to spread the pancake batter evenly on the griddle, while several students cheered him on from outside.

“Here, here, drip more batter! There’s a hole there!”

“Ah, too much, scrape it off!”

“Oops, it’s sticking!”

The group laughed and pointed outside the screen; Brother Hao’s hands shook even more!

Finally managing to spread the pancake, whether the shape was round or not didn’t matter—the whole pancake was already so thick it no longer looked like a pancake.Brother Hao was sweating profusely, forcing a smile to keep up appearances: “Everyone cut me some slack, it’s our first day selling… how about I charge you half price for this pancake?”

Offscreen voices joked and teased: “Is it the first day selling or the first day undercover?”

“The sausage is too far away, hurry and pass it to the police… uncle!”

“…Uncle, do you always flip it with your bare hands?”

Brother Hao’s voice sounded calm, but his grimacing face revealed his inner pain: “I’m wearing gloves, it’s okay kid, clean! Wearing gloves.”

“Sn… snh…”

After struggling to make a crooked and twisted jianbing guozi, he felt sorry for the crowd and stuffed in two big slices of tenderloin: “Three yuan is fine! Just three yuan!”

The person filming still gave him ten yuan and laughed as they ran off.

Chen Ran was holding back laughter so hard!

She scrolled to the next video, which was also!

But this time the pancake chef was Song Yifan.

Maybe learning from the last lesson, the batter looked more diluted than before.

Song Yifan carefully poured on the batter, then confidently scraped it.

—But he scraped it all away! Revealing the black iron griddle!

The batter was too watery and hadn’t even solidified!

He panicked and desperately kept scraping, no longer spinning the scraper but shaking it left and right.

The filmer asked, “Master, how many years have you been doing this?”

Song Yifan calmly replied, “Several years.”

The filmer cunningly zoomed in on his ear—the face was hidden by a mask, but the ears were bright red.

After scraping for a long time, all the batter stuck to the scraper; the griddle looked shiny and clean.

Song Yifan cleared his throat loudly, trying to divert attention: “Um, let me clean the pan first, then we’ll try again!”

Brother Hao was nearly breaking down beside him, and the filmer was laughing so hard they couldn’t hold the phone steady.

Chen Ran finally couldn’t hold back her laughter. Afraid Xiao Li in the hall would hear, she rushed out of the kitchen into the courtyard and laughed out loud.

She was going to die laughing, hahaha!

At dinner that night, the undercover police who failed on their first day gave solemn critiques and self-criticisms.

“Didn’t you watch the videos from the Employment Guidance Center? Didn’t they say you’d learned it?”

Brother Hao, older and less thin-skinned than Song Yifan, said: “We did learn it… but it’s nerve-wracking with customers watching!”

“I think the problem is with the tools! That scraper really sticks. I’m planning to try my non-stick spatula from home tonight…”

“Let’s practice again later!”

Song Yifan quietly protested: “I don’t think practicing for a day or two will help. Maybe we should just pretend to be a couple passing by? No need to actually set up a stall.”“Pretend to be a couple? What couple walks around a construction site? Are you crazy? Besides, we only have Shihan as a woman in the station. So what, who’s going to dress as a woman?”

“Or pretend to be students? Isn’t there a college nearby?”

“Students don’t just wander around all day, don’t they have classes? Look at those students—when do they have time to wander during the day? Besides, do you even look like students?”

Chen Ran couldn’t hold back her laughter again!

There were many people in the evening, and after the little episode at noon, she felt comfortable enough to sit at the same table with the director to eat.

But laughing out loud face-to-face still felt inappropriate, so Chen Ran pretended to pick something up, bowed her head under the table, and laughed uncontrollably.

On top of the table, everyone saw Comrade Chen Ran’s back shaking violently—her cooking skills aside, people worried she might laugh herself onto the floor.

Wang Changhai helplessly patted Chen Ran: “Alright, Ranran, sit up and laugh properly.”

Chen Ran really couldn’t hold it anymore. She straightened up and laughed out loud.

Everyone at the table was very helpless, looked at each other, and burst out laughing together.

Liu Shihan’s eyes suddenly lit up: “We can’t do it, but there’s still Xiao Ran. How about letting Xiao Ran run this little stall?”

Wang Changhai made a decision: “Okay! Anyway, most of the main staff are out on deployment now, and there’s hardly anyone at the station eating…”

His gaze landed on Director Gao, who was destined to stay at the station.

Director Gao pretended to be angry, frowning: “Alright, you damn kids, dragging the cooks out undercover, leaving me, the director, eating instant noodles at the station, huh?”

Chen Ran was about to say something but saw Director Gao smile: “Fine! Let you all know just how deeply skilled I am at cooking instant noodles after all these years!”

He waved his hand sharply: “Ranran, go with them tomorrow. I’ll apply to get you an extra assistant police salary! Let those people filming the videos see that our undercover work has real skill!”