CHAPTER 678: POLICE BLUNDER AND PATIENT

"I’m sorry, Governor. I know I fucked up."

Seeing Li Zhen already apologizing before he could say anything, Xiaoyun took a seat before looking back at him with an intrigued look.

"What happened? I want to hear the full story from you, from start to finish."

"Last night, when we got the phone call from the deputy governor, we immediately sent out two patrol cars to find the bandit’s hideout.

We were able to locate them in an abandoned village near the hills of the main road, so we formulated a plan in the morning to attack them.

The initial plan was to send ten policemen to deal with this. I thought since they only had muskets, police armed with pistols would be enough."

Li Zhen paused for a second, then continued as a frown appeared on his face.

"But I couldn’t be more wrong... Before we attack, we gave them one last chance to surrender through the megaphone."

"You told them you were coming after them?" Xiaoyun questioned before letting Li Zhen go any further with the story.

"I thought they would just surrender. We have them surrounded in all angles. Who in their right mind fights back against police with guns right outside their doors?"

Xiaoyun fell into silence as Li Zhen’s reasoning made sense. But knowing what had happened afterward told him this reasoning was wrong.

"They refused to surrender and started shooting out with their muskets... Those bullets manage to penetrate straight through our cop cars."

"Really? Muskets?"

"Yes... They modified their musket with hand-crafted rifling. After one of our men got injured by it, the head police immediately called for a retreat."

"They didn’t get away, though, right?" Xiaoyun questioned.

Li Zhen shook his head as his face looked to be filled with regret. His voice was getting weaker as he continued.

"I immediately sent in the Armed police to intervene, and they managed to bring all five suspects to surrender when they arrived."

The room fell into silence as Li Zhen looked towards the ground in embrassment. He knew the mistake he had made was too apparent to ignore.

"Why didn’t you send in the Armed Police Force in the first place?" Xiaoyun questioned, his mind still unable to understand the reasoning behind it.

"I... I underestimated the bandits. Sorry, Governor."

"You shouldn’t say sorry to me. You should say sorry to those police officers who trusted you in your threat analysis."

Li Zhen sat in silence as he remained looking towards the ground, not daring to look up as Xiaoyun continued.

"You and everyone who’s related in the process of approving this plan, write a reflection on what went wrong and send it to me and the entire police department."

"Yes, sir!"

"And you’d better pray that the police officer gets out of critical condition... Or else you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do to the press."

---

When Xiaoyun walked out of the police department, his mind was a little annoyed. It wasn’t because of the tragedy that happened under Li Zhen.

Rather, he started to realize how much he lacked talented people.

Li Zhen was more than qualified to be a police officer. But nowhere near qualified to be the head of the police department as the Commissioner First Class.

There was no one else he could pick from that could replace his job, meaning he didn’t have an actual way to punish Li Zhen without impacting the police department.

"Surely it’s just a one-time mistake... Just a learning experience for him." Xiaoyun murmured to himself as he started up the car.

As he drove towards the administrative building, he suddenly took a right turn towards the hospital as an idea popped into his mind.

After parking in another hospital’s parking lot for the second time today, he quickly exited the car before walking towards the entrance.

The moment he stepped in, he could notice everyone’s eyes looking towards him.

"Ahem, can I ask if the police officer who’s injured is out of the hospital yet?" Xiaoyun asked as he walked up to the front desk nurse.

"N-No, he’s still in the hospital. D-Do you want me to bring you to him?" The front desk nurse nervously asked back.

"Is he out of critical condition yet?"

"Um. Let me check... Yeling! Can you check if patient #367 is out of the emergency room yet?"

As a nurse behind the counter quickly walked away down the hall, Xiaoyun waited at the side to let others ask questions.

After waiting for five minutes, the nurse finally came back with the news as she whispered it to the front-desk nurse.

"Mr.Governor, the police were just out of critical condition a few minutes ago. Do you want ot see him?"

"Is he awake?"

As the front-desk nurse nodded her head, Xiaoyun quickly accepted the offer, following the other nurse down the hall.

"Mr.Governor, I-I’m a b-big fan of yours... You were so brave when you said that out loud on the TV."

The nurse quietly whispered as the two of them got into an elevator, waiting for it to go up as she pressed a button.

"Thank you."

XIaoyun awkwardly scratched his head as he didn’t know how to respond to her sudden affection towards him.

"E-Everyone in the hospital is a fan of you, too."

"That’s nice to hear."

As the elevator came to a stop, they quickly exited before walking down another long hallway, before coming to a stop once again.

"This is the patient’s room. S-Sorry if I-I was bothering you with the small talk."

"Don’t say that. You didn’t bother me at all... I’m happy to hear people in the hospital are big fans of me."

Before he could say more, the nurse quickly walked away, saying she needed to go back to work as she left Xiaoyun by the door.

"Why did she run away like that?"

Not thinking about it any further, Xiaoyun turned around and opened the door, only to see a middle-aged man sitting on the bed with bandages all over his chest.

"Hello——"

"Governor!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, no need to get up. You’re injured. Just relax on the bed... I came here to see if you’re fine."

"I’m fine, sir."

The police officer answered as he leaned back down onto the bed, his face looking all excited rather than sleepy.

"That’s good to hear... Now, do you want anything I can help you with? I’ll try to fulfill whatever wish you want."

"Are you sure, sir?" The police officer nervously asked as his face suddenly changed as if he had some outlandish wish.

"I’ll try my best to fulfill it."

After a few seconds of silence, the police officer finally gave out his answer.

"I-I want a car."

"Just a car? Nothing else? Any specific car you wanted?" Xiaoyun asked, his face looking a little surprised by the wish he had made.

"A-Any car is fine. N-Not a police car though—Ahem, ahem, I want a car that I can drive while off-duty."

Xiaoyun thought about it for a second, then nodded in agreement.

"You’ll see your car by your place when you’re out of the hospital... If that’s all you wanted, I’m going to leave for you to rest."

"Thank you, sir."

Watching the police officer closing his eyes and almost instantly falling asleep, Xiaoyun quietly left the room and closed the door.

Outside the room, he took out his phone before dialing Houqin’s number as he headed towards the elevator.

By the time he was done with the phone call, he was all the way back inside Yuqi’s car as he began driving it back to the administrative building.

---

Fortunately, the car didn’t break down, allowing Xiaoyun to drive all the way to the parking lot before entering the building.

Just as he entered the empty elevator and pressed for the top floor, Xiaoyun was a little surprised to see Li Fa walking straight towards him.

"Hey, what made you come here today?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, holding the elevator door for him.

"Governor, you never told me that the marriage law is changing." Li Fa questioned with a hint of anger in his voice as the elevator began to go up.

"What? I didn’t change anything."

"Then what do you mean when you said that on the TV? Letting judges decide if polygamy should be allowed?"

"Oh that... Well, it isn’t technically changing the law. You know, just case by case exceptions."

"How are we supposed to determine the case-by-case? There is no way for us to determine if there’s any abuse in the relationship or anything."

As the elevator came to a stop, Xiaoyun’s mind was struggling to come up with an answer, as he didn’t expect Li Fa to ask him that.

"Let’s talk inside my office. I’ll give you a satisfactory answer to your question."

Li Fa quickly followed Xiaoyun out of the elevator as they began heading towards ’Xiaoyun’s’ office, which in reality was just Yuqi’s office.

"Hey, welcome back... Oh, hey, Li Fa. What brought you here today?"

"Good afternoon, Mrs.Yuqi... Mr.Governor can explain it."