The day after everything ended, the suburban police station in Binhai City received a commendation from the provincial authorities, winning a collective Second-Class Merit. Qi Tongwei was awarded a First-Class Combat Hero medal and an individual First-Class Merit, instantly becoming a heavily sought-after figure in the Handong police force.
At the same time, Qi Tongwei received a promotion and a raise, jumping from the section level to a deputy-division-level detachment leader, with the rank of Second-Class Superintendent. His salary rose to over two thousand, and this time, no one dared to suppress him. One had to understand that a deputy-division-level post was equivalent to the modest setup of a district police bureau chief; many district bureau chiefs still held only deputy-division ranks. Qi Tongwei's promotion speed could truly be described as riding a rocket.
The commendation ceremony was held in the morning and concluded before the afternoon. Qi Tongwei himself barely showed his face and did not accept any interviews; Station Chief Zhang handled the reporters. In the afternoon, Qi Tongwei attended the funeral of the fallen officers. Although they had reaped a rich harvest this time, wiping out the largest drug den in the Binhai City suburbs, the officers who died for the cause numbered over ten. Among them, Li Hongqi and more than twenty others were heavily wounded, and to this day, five people were still in intensive care, not yet out of mortal danger.
A pyrrhic victory! For the suburban police station, this was nothing short of a pyrrhic victory. Had it not been for Qi Tongwei's ultimate display of might at the end, the casualties would have been even greater, and victory would have been utterly impossible.
That evening, when Qi Tongwei returned to the police station, all the officers involuntarily stood up, saluting or bowing to Qi Tongwei, the First-Class Combat Hero. To this, Qi Tongwei remained entirely calm, diving straight back into the work of interrogating the drug dealers.
"Team Leader Qi!"
Now that Li Hongqi was heavily wounded and hospitalized, most of the station's affairs were handled by Qi Tongwei, who had taken over Li Hongqi's duties. No one had any objections, nor did anyone treat Qi Tongwei as a mere youngster anymore. This was the power of prestige—earned through Qi Tongwei risking his life!
"Sit."
Qi Tongwei motioned for the officer outside the interrogation room to take a seat, and began flipping through the documents on the table.
"How are the interrogations going?"
"Team Leader Qi, they only admitted to their own crimes and didn't grass out their uplines. Those bar girls don't know much either. What do you think?"
Qi Tongwei said nothing; this was within his expectations. At that moment, an officer brought Yan Xiaoyou into the interrogation room. Seeing this, Qi Tongwei put down the documents and said, "I'll question her."
Yan Xiaoyou was not a criminal, but a witness, and this questioning was merely routine. Dropping those words, Qi Tongwei pushed open the door to the interrogation room and motioned for the two officers to step outside.
Seeing Qi Tongwei enter, Yan Xiaoyou's pretty eyes lit up, clearly revealing an expression of adoration.
"Don't be afraid. This is just a routine questioning. Just tell the truth!"
"Mm-hmm."
Qi Tongwei sat opposite Yan Xiaoyou and roughly skimmed through her file. When he saw her college entrance examination score, he froze on the spot.
How much?
715 points?
Qi Tongwei was truly shocked. The maximum score for the college entrance exam was 750, and Yan Xiaoyou scored 715? Back in his day, he had only scored a little over six hundred! With a score like that, how on earth did Yan Xiaoyou end up working as a bar girl?
Qi Tongwei suddenly realized that he didn't seem to understand the girl before him very well, so he pondered for a moment and asked, "Xiaoyou, why did you go to work at that KTV?"
"To earn tuition fees!"
"Where is your family?"
Yan Xiaoyou could not help lowering her head, saying with a sorrowful tone, "I... only have a grandmother back in my hometown... I want to go to school, but I have no money! So I thought about working to make money and paying my tuition first!"
So that was how it was! Qi Tongwei thought for a moment, and a plan suddenly formed in his mind.
"Xiaoyou, which university did you apply for?"
"Binhai Construction Engineering University..."
"A tier-three university? No wait, with your score, you applied for a tier-three university?"
"Brother Tongwei, tier-three universities have scholarships and subsidies. I only need to pay another five thousand yuan, and I can attend!"
Qi Tongwei said nothing. He put down the documents and asked with a smile, "Xiaoyou, would you like to go to Handong University?"
Hearing this, Yan Xiaoyou was instantly stunned. Hesitating anxiously, she lowered her voice and said, "I'd like to... but I don't have the money!"
Handong University was not a place just anyone could attend; without connections, the tuition fees were extremely expensive.
"I'll sponsor you, and by the way, I'll arrange a recommended student status for you. Would you like to go? That's my alma mater!"
"Mm-hmm, I'm willing!"
[Ding! Successfully altered Yan Xiaoyou's established destiny, rewarded with ten points of Qi Luck!]
It worked! Qi Tongwei looked at the overjoyed girl in front of him and nodded with satisfaction.
Just as the two of them were chatting, the station chief outside the interrogation room was frowning as he watched everything.
"Tongwei, I'm the station chief. Talk about these personal matters on your own time, the real business is what matters!"
The station chief's voice suddenly came through Qi Tongwei's earpiece. This gave him a start, causing him to wonder if something else had happened. Afterwards, he stopped chatting idly with Yan Xiaoyou, asked all the necessary questions, and concluded the questioning.
Through the questioning, Qi Tongwei learned Yan Xiaoyou's specific situation. She had only been working at that KTV for a week, during which she had only accompanied a customer to drink once and had done nothing out of line. Later on, because of her exquisite beauty and natural grace, she caught Ma Yang's eye, who intended to inject her with drugs to keep her under control. Yan Xiaoyou resolutely refused, escaping four consecutive times, only to be caught back each time. It wasn't until her fifth escape that she had the good fortune to run into Qi Tongwei.
At the entrance of the interrogation room.
Qi Tongwei noticed that Yan Xiaoyou was still wearing the jacket he had originally given her, and could not help asking, "You're a young woman, why do you keep wearing my jacket every day?"
Yan Xiaoyou quickly stepped back two paces and guarded the clothing on her body. "This is mine!"
"I wasn't planning on snatching it back... Fine, keep wearing it! Tomorrow I'll take you to buy some new clothes!"
"Mm-hmm."
After sending Yan Xiaoyou off, Qi Tongwei came to the room outside the interrogation area and saw the station chief, whose face carried a trace of indignation.
"What's wrong, Station Chief?"
Hearing Qi Tongwei's voice, a smile appeared on the station chief's face. "Those drug dealers are all as stubborn as mules! None of our veteran criminal investigators can crack their mouths!"
In reality, the interrogation of Ma Yang and the others had already begun during the day. A group of experienced veteran criminal investigators at the station had exhausted all their methods without getting the intelligence they wanted, which made the station chief extremely anxious.
Hearing this, Qi Tongwei didn't think it was a big deal and said indifferently, "Then we'll just interrogate them slowly, we have plenty of time."
"We don't have time!"
Qi Tongwei was momentarily stunned, not quite understanding what the station chief meant by those words. Seeing this, Station Chief Zhang helplessly explained to him, "Little Qi, it's like this. Because of our ineffective interrogation, the Municipal Bureau issued a document telling us to hand Ma Yang and the others over tomorrow morning!"
What did that mean? Were they coming to snatch the credit?