While he was still mulling things over, Yu Minen also saw Lin Chuan being restrained by a police officer. He couldn't help but frown, hurried a couple of steps, and ca up to Lin Chuan!
"Let him go first!" Yu Minen said to the young officer holding Lin Chuan down, then turned to Lin Chuan and asked in puzzlent, "What are you doing here?"
Lin Chuan rotated his arm that had been twisted sore by the cop, glanced back at that officer—if they weren't police, he figured he would've already taken a swing at them—then looked back at Yu Minen, smiled, and answered breezily, "Shouldn't you be asking whether I'm here looking for a hooker or here to be a gigolo?"
Yu Minen could hear the dissatisfaction in Lin Chuan's tone, but he didn't get angry. If his own business got disrupted for no reason, he'd lose his temper too.
In fact, Yu Minen had already pegged what kind of person Lin Chuan was yesterday, and Lin Chuan had indirectly helped him get rid of a big cancer in their precinct. Most importantly, there was that whole layer of his daughter's relationship with him.
Although Yu Minen still couldn't be sure whether his daughter and this young man in front of him were actually a couple, no matter what, he was the one in the wrong first!
"Oh, heh, then tell , what exactly are you here for?" Yu Minen pulled over a chair and sat down, asking with great interest!
Lin Chuan froze for a second. He hadn't expected Yu Minen not to get mad, and the fire in his chest slowly died down. He stopped being cryptic and said calmly, "Director Yu, I'm a masseur at this massage shop. May I ask why you all suddenly ca to our place?"
"Didn't I just say it? We got a report from the public saying you've got a prostitution ring here. We were planning a surprise raid on you. Didn't expect to run into you here!" Yu Minen gave a faint smile. At this point he was pretty sure this whole thing was a misunderstanding.
"We really got frad. You can't go wronging innocent people. I saw this massage place was doing an eighty-percent-off deal today, so I ca in to wait for a massage. I even thought the masseuse would be so pretty woman, but who knew they'd send a big dude to work on . I already didn't really want it, and then you guys show up to do an anti-vice raid. How can I be this damn unlucky!" One of the n got more miserable the more he talked. He was really regretting being greedy for a bargain and walking into this massage parlor!
"Is what he said true?" Yu Minen asked the other three. The other three, either from fear or a guilty conscience, were trembling all over, stamring so badly that after rambling for ages they still couldn't get a coherent sentence out.
Yu Minen lost his patience, waved his hand, and said to one of the officers, "Go check their IDs. If there's nothing wrong, let them go!"
"You're the boss here? Then please take out your licenses and permits so we can have a look, okay?" Yu Minen said with a smile. After all, he wasn't from the Administration for Industry and Comrce, and especially since this case was almost certainly a wild goose chase, he had to be a little polite when checking other people's paperwork.
Lin Chuan didn't say anything. He took out all the various licenses one by one, then pulled his own ID card out of his wallet in his pants pocket as well, laid all the docunts on the table, and let them inspect them!
To be honest, Yu Minen asking to see the docunts was just for show. Not finding any prostitution ring was already embarrassing enough; now he could only salvage whatever dignity he could by going through the motions!
You little punk are doing this on purpose just to make things hard for . Looks like I really need to think carefully about you and our Xiao Hui! Yu Minen cursed Lin Chuan silently in his heart, then cut the nonsense, picked up the docunts, glanced through them a couple of tis, and handed them back to Lin Chuan.
"No problem. All right, looks like this was just a misunderstanding. We rushed in to search without getting the facts straight—that's our dereliction of duty. But please do keep an eye on things and supervise us. Wherever you find this kind of activity, you must call the public security bureau right away!" After composing himself for a mont, Yu Minen rattled this off fluently!
"Officer, if we're in the clear, can we leave now?" That man slowly stood up, bent at the waist, and asked cautiously!
"I already said it's a misunderstanding. Heh, you guys… do as you like!" Yu Minen still wore a smile, but inside it felt like soone had stabbed him hard with a knife. He hated that false informant to the core!
The few custors who'd been about to get massages all acted like they'd been granted amnesty, every one of them scared out of their wits as they headed for the massage parlor's front door!
Right now, both Lin Chuan and Du Jinglan's faces had turned dark and frightening. It hadn't been easy for the massage parlor to get a few custors today, and this sudden raid had scared them all away. Wasn't this basically forcing them onto a dead end!
"Hold on a minute!" Seeing the looks on the pair's faces, sothing seed to occur to Yu Minen. He suddenly shouted toward the few n who hadn't yet walked out the door.
The n had just reached the entrance of the massage parlor, and one of them hadn't even touched the door yet when Yu Minen's shout scared him back a step. In an instant, all their hearts jumped into their throats, terrified that the cops had discovered sothing and were going to lock them up!
"Officer, is there… sothing else?" One of the n mustered up his courage, turned around, and asked in a low voice!
"Heh, nothing much. I just wanted to ask—none of you are done with your massages yet, right? How co you're leaving if you're not finished? You finally made the trip; it's not too late to go after you're done…" Yu Minen said with a smile, pointing toward the massage rooms off to the side as he spoke.
"Director Yu, I'm already done. If there's nothing else, I'll be going first!" The man who had just co out of Du Jinglan's massage room said that, pushed the door open, and bolted outside!
"Uh, I just rembered there's sothing really urgent I have to deal with, so I'll get going too!" Another man hurriedly made up an excuse, then took off running into the distance!
The others also snapped back to their senses, each tossing out so excuse. Without waiting for anyone to respond, they pushed the door open and quickly left the massage parlor!
"I can't hide from you people fast enough, let alone stand here waiting for a massage!" Lin Chuan shot Yu Minen a disdainful look, thinking to himself.
At so point, a crowd had slowly gathered outside to watch the spectacle. Everyone was pointing and gesturing as they discussed it; passersby and bored onlookers all ca over to join the crowd.
People were really puzzled. What on earth was going on with this tiny massage parlor? In the last two days, if it wasn't custors deliberately causing trouble, it was people from the Industrial and Comrcial Bureau coming to shut them down. And now even the police station had co to search the place. Did the people here offend so big shot or what!
Seeing those few people all leave, Yu Minen felt guilty. He stole an embarrassed glance at Lin Chuan, then waved his hand at his subordinates and said weakly, "Alright, looks like this really was a misunderstanding. Let's not keep holding up their business here. Clear out, hurry!"
The group of officers all ekly walked out of the massage parlor, each of them feeling awful. The relationship between the police and the public was already tense; after this ss, it was only going to get more strained. But they did have one shared thought: they all hated that guy who made the false report earlier!
"Young man, co over here a sec!" Seeing that his people had all left the massage parlor, Yu Minen smiled and beckoned to Lin Chuan, who was standing off to the side!
Lin Chuan had no idea why this old guy suddenly wanted to talk to him. He hesitated for a mont, then slowly walked over and said flatly, "What is it? If there's nothing, we still have a business to run here."
"Heh." Yu Minen heard the provocation in Lin Chuan's tone and gave an awkward laugh. He suddenly reached out and put a hand on Lin Chuan's shoulder, then lowered his voice and asked, "Young man, your na's Lin Chuan, right? Where's your hotown? How long have you been working here as a masseur?"
Lin Chuan was taken aback. He couldn't figure out why the director of a police station had suddenly beco interested in the background of a little nobody like him. He glanced at Yu Minen warily and quietly asked, "Why are you asking that?"
Yu Minen also knew that bluntly prying into soone's background like this was a bit rude. But as soon as he thought of how his wife had been grilling him nonstop last night, he mustered his courage again, scratched his head awkwardly, glanced around, and lowered his voice: "Let ask you, that girl who ca to the station with you yesterday to file a report—what's your relationship with her exactly? Is she your girlfriend?"
"Huh?" Lin Chuan was stunned again, thinking, "You're already this old and instead of properly managing public security in your jurisdiction, you co over here to poke into my private life? You really have nothing better to do!"
He shot Yu Minen an annoyed look and was just about to say sothing sarcastic to get him to hurry up and leave the massage parlor, but just as the words reached his lips, Lin Chuan suddenly seed to think of sothing and forcibly swallowed them back down!
"Wait a minute, I call him Director Yu, so of course his surna is Yu. And Yu Xiaohui's surna is also Yu. He's this interested in my relationship with Yu Xiaohui—could it be that he's Yu Xiaohui's…?"
With that thought, Lin Chuan suddenly saw the light. He lifted his head and carefully studied Yu Minen's face. And what do you know, once he made the association, there really was a bit of resemblance there. No, to be precise, Yu Xiaohui really did look a bit like him!
"Don't ask first. You tell : why are you so interested in my background, and what's your relationship with that girl? Why are you so concerned about what's going on between us?" After sizing up Yu Minen for a good while and quietly confirming that this guy definitely had sothing to do with Yu Xiaohui, Lin Chuan still wasn't sure if they were father and daughter. Before Yu Minen could speak, he imdiately shot back with his own questions!
Yu Minen hadn't expected to be hoisted by his own petard. He pondered for a mont, then smiled and said, "Since you asked like that, I won't hide it from you."
He deliberately paused. Seeing that Lin Chuan was still calmly listening, he went on, "Actually, Xiao Hui and I are neighbors."
"What?" The word slipped out of Lin Chuan's mouth. As soon as he blurted it, he hurriedly looked away in embarrassnt. When he saw Du Jinglan staring at him like he was so alien, Lin Chuan only gave a slight nod, then turned back to look at Yu Minen.
"You're really just her neighbor?" Lin Chuan asked again. When he'd first noticed that Yu Minen and Yu Xiaohui looked sowhat alike, he'd suspected that he might be Yu Xiaohui's father, or an uncle or sothing—at the very least a relative from the sa clan. He hadn't expected them to turn out to be just ordinary neighbors!
Yu Minen lightly patted Lin Chuan's shoulder and smiled as he said, "What? You don't believe , kid?"
"No, I'm just a little curious, that's all." Lin Chuan quickly shook his head. What was there for him to doubt? Even if they really were father and daughter, it still wouldn't have anything to do with him.
"Don't be fooled just because we both share the surna Yu—we really are just ordinary neighbors. Since we all have the surna Yu, and in this big city none of us have any relatives to rely on, our families just ended up pretty close." Yu Minen said in a mild tone, "Her parents are both ordinary office workers, and she's their only daughter, so they treasure her like a jewel. When we're together, her parents are always in my ear asking to help keep an eye on their daughter for them."
Of course Lin Chuan understood what he ant, but he had no idea why Yu Minen was telling him all this. Did he look like so kind of bad guy? So he asked curiously, "I don't want to hear all that. What's your point in telling this?"
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