<h4>Chapter 617: Chapter 561: Breaking Through the Ceiling</h4><h4></h4>


    "These past few days, I’ve been working overtime until 10 or 11 at night. Us police officers, we don’t mind working overtime, but overtime should be worthwhile, right? Not just working overtime for the sake of it. Even the cattle back in the vige are only worked this hard during the nting season."


    "For a day or two, it’s all trivial tasks, nothing pressing. When a mall holds an event, they even dispatch us to be there. To the uninitiated, we might as well be there to tear the ce down. Is this how police resources should be used?"


    "Moreover, no tasks are assigned during work hours; they wait until it’s time to knock off to assign work. Now, they don’t even go through Director Huang. He just created a WeChat group and allocates tasks directly. You don’t work overtime? Fine, but it counts as leave, and they dock your pay by the day. Everyone relies on their paycheck to live; who can bear this!"


    Wu Junhao grew more and more irate as he spoke, grabbing a skewer, wolfing down two in one bite, then guzzled half a bottle of beer with grunts and gulps.


    "Don’t get too upset," Jiang Yuan offered, pouring him more beer.


    He was a little embarrassed. Chai Tong’s actual target, ostensibly Huang Qiangmin, was actually after Jiang Yuan. To be more precise, Chai Tong wanted the tax collection rights that Jiang Yuan had.


    It was Jiang Yuan’s leave of absence that had led to Wu Junhao bing Chai Tong’s new target.


    However, the problem wasn’t caused by Jiang Yuan. Above him was Huang Qiangmin, who was in charge of resource allocation; it wasn’t Jiang Yuan’s ce to stand in the line of fire.


    Mu Zhiyang picked out two raw skewers, hung them over the grill, and after fanning the mes, said, "Your concern is understandable, Captain Wu. They are the directors after all, andtely, we really have had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with the tasks we’re given."


    "I know, Huang Da... erm, Director Huang also mentioned to me, they’re just trying to provoke me," Wu Junhao sighed. "Eventually, they’ll have their way with me, manipting me as they please. But it feels like they’re already doing it now."


    "True," Jiang Yuan nodded, grabbed a piece of meat skewer, gently chewed the meat off it with his teeth, and then crunched it with his mrs.


    The slightly lean meat released more juice, a savory taste with a hint of sweetness.


    After finishing a skewer of meat, Jiang Yuan added, "What I’m best at is solving cases. If there’s a need in that aspect, I can be of help."


    Wu Junhao nodded silently, "I can hold on for a little while longer. I’ll see how it goes. If it really doesn’t work out, I might have to ck off."


    cking off isn’t that easy, especially when tasks are pressed down; they are usually assigned to the squad as a whole. If one person cks off, the other colleagues in the unit have to take on more work...


    In the following days, the atmosphere in the office was somewhat peculiar, but Chai Tong made no further adjustments. Apart from continuously pressuring Wu Junhao, the situation seemed to have eased somewhat.


    Jiang Yuan took a week off and returned to the Criminal Police Team to report back from leave.


    He had made some preparations but, unexpectedly, Director Chai didn’t show up all day.


    It wasn’t until it was nearly time to clock out that Huang Qiangmin strolled up.


    "Jiang Yuan." Huang Qiangmin only knocked on the door after entering the office, then promptly closed it behind him.


    "Would you like some tea?" Jiang Yuan had a tea set on his desk, savoring the luxury of one cup of tea per office day.


    "The tea is good," Huang Qiangmin acknowledged after taking a sip, then added, "Your pay won’t beplete this month."


    Jiang Yuan responded with an "Oh," then realizing what it meant, asked, "Is the entire squad’s pay going to be iplete?"


    "Wu Junhao has been taking leavetely as well, and Director Chai has piled on so much work," Huang Qiangmin didn’t borate much but went on to exin the consequences, "Quite a bit is going to be docked. Wu Junhao relies on his sry to feed his family; a lot of people in our squad are like that. After this month, there will be some who get an earful from their wives."


    Those referred to as the sried ss are those who live off their wages. Police officers are no exception. Many have probably budgeted their sries well in advance, so any sudden shortfall would definitely hurt.


    Jiang Yuan may have money but he couldn’t subsidize people like Wu Junhao.


    Jiang Yuan then inquired, "So, what do we do?"


    Huang Qiangmin also felt somewhat helpless as he spoke, "Really, if there’s an issue,e at me. No matter what, it’s fine. I didn’t expect Chai Tong would cling so relentlessly to Wu Junhao. If this continues, looking back onmendations and awards, distinguishing the outstanding performances, none will fall to the first squad..."


    In the workce, someone wealthy like Jiang Yuan, as long as he is indifferent and desireless, even if he cks off, the leaders are powerless against him.


    Faced with someone soft oveing the hard, they could even frustrate and annoy the leaders.


    On the other hand, men of steel like Wu Junhao, who are the economic pirs and heads of their families, and who dare to struggle and get things done at work, assigning them mindless repetitivebor or seeking out their shorings to give them work they’re not good at, like decorative arts, is not just unpleasant, it also causes them actual difficulties.


    For young people with mortgages or children, a sudden cut in household ie brings immediate pressure.


    Take away all those little rewards and opportunities for recognition, and their prospects at work be worrisome.


    Among Huang Qiangmin’s former subordinates, Wu Junhao was the most straightforward, the toughest, but also the most fragile.


    "Director Chai has a pretty urate eye." Jiang Yuan believed he must have been experienced.


    Huang Qiangmin took a sip of his tea and said, "If you ask me what to do, I really have no good solution. Going to the higher-ups... that’s difficult, it’s not just Wu Junhao’s issue, the first squad all faces simr difficulties. Plus, carrying on this way isn’t a solution... For the moment... I’m considering, is there a way to give Wu Junhao and his team a case?"


    "In Captain Wu’s name?" Knowing why Huang Qiangmin put it so tactfully, Jiang Yuan couldn’t help butugh and said, "That shouldn’t be a problem. We handle cases for other ces too, so why not for Captain Wu? What kind of case?"


    "The case needs to be impactful, the kind that upper management notices. Also, it can’t be too small; it has to be big enough for the full squad to be deployed. I’ll work on it, try to get through this year." Huang Qiangmin pursed his lips, prepared to struggle, but he had not anticipated Director Chai would target the first squad.


    The first squad was indeed Huang Qiangmin’s favored team. During his time in the criminal investigation department, the first squad had been the core attack team and had indeed yed no small part. In any case, Huang Qiangmin needed to consider their feelings.


    Jiang Yuan agreed immediately, "I’ll start looking at cases, try to find one that’s fairly certain."


    "Right, that’s very important," Huang Qiangmin said, reassured yet still apprehensive.


    Speaking of reassurance, he had followed Jiang Yuan and witnessed too many miracles, but on his apprehensions, after so many years as a police officer, Huang Qiangmin knew that some cases are unsolvable, truly a matter of chance, or simply tooplex.


    Typical examples include the Kennedy assassination. There’s so much evidence it could fill ab, but what’s the conclusion? There are plenty of conclusions, buting up with one that convinces everyone is nearly impossible, a case structurally difficult to conclude.


    In China too, there are simr cases, like the assassination of Song Jiaoren. There’s plenty of evidence, the murderer was caught, but who masterminded it became unknowable after the assassin was silenced.


    It’s not that political assassination cases areplex by nature; it’s because the investigation process and evidence for such cases are more public and transparent, highlighting theplexity.


    All in all, no matter the size of the case, to do it perfectly, without fault, is far from easy. So-called irond cases are either a high-levelmendation or just a derived adjective.


    After seeing off Huang Qiangmin, Jiang Yuan turned on hisputer and started looking through cases.


    ording to Huang Qiangmin’s intentions, he should find an influential case to counteract Director Chai’s offensive, where the difficulty of the case was also a consideration.


    Yet, Jiang Yuan had additional thoughts on the matter.


    After all, Huang Qiangmin’s understanding of Jiang Yuan might still be based on the Jiang Yuan from a few months ago, or to say, the amazing skills he couldprehend, up to Level 4 or at most Level 5, were his limit. But now, not only did Jiang Yuan master several Level 6 skills, he could also temporarily enhance their levels.


    In other words, Jiang Yuan’s skill level had actually broken through the ceiling.


    From this perspective, he could theoretically break through the limitations of any case with a technical breakthrough.


    Jiang Yuan even recently acquired a first-ss merit and could now choose a Level 6 skill on the spot.


    Therefore, Jiang Yuan could be very selective about cases.