Chapter 17: Case Closed

“You two foolish kids! Too scared to tell your parents you didn’t have money for food, yet bold enough to commit robbery? You really are naive,” Zhou Weimin scolded, his voice laced with both anger and amusement, after learning that Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin resorted to robbery because they were too afraid to ask their families for help.

Zhou Weimin called their homeroom teacher. Once the teacher arrived, Zhou Weimin, Zhang Haiyang and the teacher gave Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin a stern lecture.

After reprimanding them, Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin led Luo Fei and his team to retrieve the stolen phone and bag.

In the mulberry field, they quickly found the bag and lipstick, but the phone was nowhere to be seen. Liu Cheng admitted he had thrown the phone into the field but could not remember the exact spot. Finally, Luo Fei, using a stone about the same weight as the phone, had Liu Cheng reenact the throw. This method helped them locate the phone.

However, the phone was found damaged, having landed on a rock. It was a new and expensive iPhone, now completely unusable.

By the time Luo Fei and his team returned to the police station with the recovered items, it was already 2 a.m. Considering the late hour, they decided not to bother Ms. Zhou to come to the station to reclaim her belongings.

Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin were taken back to school by their homeroom teacher. Since both were under 16 and the robbery was not severe, it did not constitute a criminal offence, but they would be placed under disciplinary supervision.

Luo Fei arrived home at 3 a.m.

After spending the entire day moving and dealing with the incident in the evening, an ordinary person would surely be exhausted. However, Luo Fei’s enhanced physical abilities, stemming from his fusion with gorilla strength genes, rendered him utterly unaffected by any fatigue.

Despite intending to go to sleep, Luo Fei found himself unusually energetic. Despite lying in bed for a while, he could not feel a trace of drowsiness. Eventually, he gave up and decided to get up to read. Surprisingly, with the background chorus of insects outside the window, Luo Fei found the deep silence of the night remarkably conducive to study.

The next day was Sunday, and Luo Fei could have rested at home, but his mind was preoccupied with the case from the previous day, so he got up early at around 7 a.m.

Seeing Luo Fei up so early and getting ready for work, Wu Yan scolded him for not resting properly at home while also feeling sorry for him. She knew he had only returned home at 3 a.m. the previous night.

Luo Fei arrived promptly at 7:30 a.m., the first one at the office.

By 8:30 a.m., having spent an hour reviewing “Evidence Law,” Mentor Zhang Haiyang and Liu Haiquan finally stumbled into the police station—sporting dark circles and yawning—clearly not fully awake.

“Luo Fei, on weekends and during duty shifts, you can come in a bit later than usual,” Liu Haiquan remarked upon seeing Luo Fei so early, assuming he was not aware of this.

Zhang Haiyang glanced at Liu Haiquan. “Keep your comments to yourself.”

“What’s wrong with that? I’m just being kind,” Liu Haiquan protested innocently.

At 8:40 a.m., Chief Zhou Weimin finally arrived, slightly late.

“Goodness, my alarm didn’t go off, and I overslept. I only stayed up a bit last night, and now I’m just out of it. Age catches up with you, you know?” Zhou Weimin muttered to himself as he entered the office, unsure if he was explaining to himself or to Luo Fei and the others.

Seeing Luo Fei engrossed in his book with such vigour, Zhou Weimin could not help but admire, “Ah, the young! So full of energy.”

Today, the police station was staffed with just a few of them: Zhou Weimin, Zhang Haiyang, Liu Haiquan, and Luo Fei.

Zhang Haiyang and Liu Haiquan were scheduled for duty, Zhou Weimin had to be here because of yesterday’s case, and Luo Fei came in voluntarily—there was nothing urgent back home, and he kept thinking about yesterday’s case.

At 9 a.m., Ms. Zhou Yue from Yizhong High School arrived at the station to reclaim her belongings.

Zhou Weimin briefed her on the situation, explaining that the perpetrators were two vocational school students. He also explained the reasons behind their actions and informed her about the disciplinary measures taken against them.

Initially, Zhou Yue remained silent. However, when she heard from Zhou Weimin that her phone was shattered and saw the mangled iPhone Luo Fei presented, she immediately spoke up.

Zhou Yue demanded either 10,000 RMB in compensation or a replacement phone of the same model.

Her request was reasonable, given the circumstances; Luo Fei and his team had anticipated this outcome. Zhou Yue had already shown considerable leniency by not pursuing the robbery charges against the two students. Asking her to further forgo compensation for the iPhone was unlikely to succeed unless she was Guanyin^[1]TL’s note: Guanyin is also known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion or Goddess of Mercy..

Liu Haiquan then called the parents of the two students right there and then, and conveyed Zhou Yue’s demand.

The parents had received calls from the homeroom teacher and the police station the previous night, learning with shock that their children had been involved in the robbery. They were deeply frightened; after working so hard, all for their children’s sake, the thought of their children getting into trouble terrified them. Upon learning that, due to their young age, their actions did not constitute a crime punishable by imprisonment, both sets of parents were immensely relieved.

As for the demand to compensate the victim with 10,000 RMB, compared to the gravity of their children’s robbery, this sum was trivial. They readily agreed to transfer the money.

Later, at the police station and in the presence of Luo Fei and his team as witnesses, the parents of the two children transferred 10,000 RMB to Zhou Yue as compensation for the phone.

With this, the case was officially closed.

“Thank goodness Zhou Yue is a reasonable teacher. If it were someone else causing trouble, who knows how long this case would drag on?” Zhou Weimin remarked after Zhou Yue had left.

“Exactly. Remember the Zhang Wenying purse-snatching case from two years ago? That was a nightmare.” Liu Haiquan nodded in agreement.

Seeing Luo Fei’s puzzled expression, Zhang Haiyang explained, “That was also a robbery case. The perpetrator was Liu Donglai, and the victim was Zhang Wenying. We caught Liu Donglai, and he was sentenced to six months for robbery. We thought the case was settled, but a few days later, Zhang Wenying claimed emotional distress, demanding Liu Donglai compensate her with 1 million RMB.”

“After that, negotiations over compensation dragged on endlessly. Every few days, they were at the police station, giving us headaches. Eventually, everyone dreaded seeing Zhang Wenying,” Zhang Haiyang concluded.

(End of Chapter)