Chapter 2464 - A Strange Case

Actually, just when Chen Lin was worrying about his chrysanthemum (anus) in the detention room, Chen Ding, Wu Yijun, and Chen Xiaobing arrived at Bopu Police Station and reported the news of Chen Lin's disappearance.

Chen Lin's absence from the banquet already surprised Chen Ding: this nephew always knew propriety and was definitely not a scattered person. He would absolutely not be absent from such an important banquet without reason.

Not appearing meant something likely happened. Chen Ding sat on pins and needles during the banquet. As soon as the banquet ended, he spoke with Chen Xiaobing, and the three rushed to Jasmine Hotel together. Knowing he went out in the afternoon and hadn't returned yet.

Now the matter became serious. Chen Xiaobing suggested calling the police immediately, so the three came to the police station to report.

It was also Chen Lin's bad luck. When they came to report, the shift just changed to night duty personnel. No one knew such a person was still locked in the temporary detention room. Thus, Chen Lin was registered in the missing persons book and also on the "Public Security Temporary Detention Personnel Roster" on the same day.

Wait until noon the next day, Chen Ding received the notification and hurriedly notified Chen Xiaobing. The two rushed to the police station, only then bailing Chen Lin out.

"I can release the person, only the processing time limit hasn't passed yet. What if this girl comes to ask again?" The duty policeman asked.

"If she comes to ask, just notify me. I will arrange for him to come over to handle it. My contact information is written on top." Chen Xiaobing said, "But I think she won't come." He looked at his watch, "It's two o'clock in the afternoon now. If she really wanted to handle it, she would have come early."

"That's true." The policeman nodded. Actually, he wasn't clear about Chen Xiaobing's rank, but seeing the visitor wearing crisp "Cadre Suit," hanging a fountain pen on his chest, and wearing a watch, he looked like a "Big Shot" in bearing. He dared not neglect in words and deeds. Since someone came forward to bail, it wasn't a violation, so he processed the bail procedures immediately. He also called someone to take out the detained items.

"These are all temporarily seized items; you can check against the list."

Chen Lin was still in shock, only thinking of running away. How could he care about "checking"? He agreed indiscriminately and urged his uncle to leave quickly.

"What's the rush?" Third Uncle said, "You verify it for a bit."

As soon as Chen Xiaobing arrived here, the police were very respectful to him, so Chen Ding realized this young man was a "Big Figure." His nephew just arrived in Lingao and was framed, suffering imprisonment for nothing. He had to make up for it a little through Chen Xiaobing.

After checking, the three left the police station. Outside, seeing the blue sky and white clouds, Chen Lin exhaled a breath, feeling his three souls and six spirits return.

"You missed the banquet last night. Today your Uncle Wu set up a feast for you, saying to wash away your bad luck."

The place for the feast was in a restaurant in Bopu. The owner of this restaurant was a salt worker from Macun in the past. He worked as a chef under Australians for a few years, now resigned to open a shop, specializing in various seafood. Wu Yijun set the banquet here not because he coveted his "live seafood," but because this place opened recently, guests were relatively few, and it was convenient to talk in the private room.

He worried for half a day about Chen Lin's disappearance, strongly suspecting the opponent he provoked in Nansha set a trap. He knew a thing or two about the situation in Nansha, knowing this child's second uncle was a local ruffian and had attached himself to an Elder. Plus Chen Ding was attacked inexplicably in Guangzhou; all made him vaguely feel some conspiracy.

But on second thought, this was Lingao. No matter how bold Chen Xuan was, he wouldn't dare to run wild in Lingao. Besides, Chen Lin came to Lingao essentially to do things for him. If he really wanted to deal with this nephew, Nansha was ten thousand times more convenient than here.

Suspicion aside, yesterday's banquet yielded plenty. Amidst drinking and chatting, he not only deepened feelings with many Guangzhou local bigwigs but also met many Elders and responsible senior naturalized cadres. These people were all "Gods of Wealth." Especially hearing he invested in "cotton spinning," it could be seen that Elders all had approving looks.

"How was it? Did you suffer?" Seeing Chen Lin enter, Wu Yijun patted his shoulder directly and asked with a smile—this was also Australian etiquette.

"Many thanks for Uncle's concern. Just locked up for a night, trembling with fear. Fortunately, didn't suffer flesh wounds."

"It's good that you're fine!" Wu Yijun stood up to propose a toast, "I know your character; you would never do such a thing! Let's drain this cup of wine to get rid of bad luck!"

Chen Lin drank the wine, and everyone sat down. Chen Ding said, "This matter is very strange. You are my own nephew; I know your character best. You won't do this lowdown thing..."

Chen Xiaobing interjected: "Correct, this matter indeed has problems."

"Look, Comrade Chen also trusts your character."

"That's not it—" Chen Xiaobing blurted out, immediately feeling it wasn't quite appropriate to say so, and hurriedly said: "This matter not being processed on the same day means there is a problem. Not coming until today makes it even more suspicious—even if she really had something urgent and couldn't come, she would entrust someone else to come."

Seeing everyone casting their gazes at him, Chen Xiaobing said unhurriedly: "Gentlemen, think about it. For such case of molesting women on the street, it cannot be convicted solely by the victim's accusation at the time; there must be collateral evidence. It was easy to find witnesses if processed at that time. By today, finding collateral evidence is already not easy. Dragging it for another day or two, where to find witnesses! This woman was not seriously injured; why did she evade when it could be processed on the same day? And hasn't appeared until this afternoon today?"

"That is indeed the logic!" Wu Yijun nodded, "Comrade Chen speaks correctly."

"I became suspicious as soon as the news reached me. Later when processing procedures, I found a comrade in the station and inspected the records. I saw the name and address left by that woman. One look and I realized it was wrong—the address is fake."

"Fake?"

"Correct," Chen Xiaobing said, "The address she left is exactly the site of the Light Industry Demonstration Park Phase II which is about to start construction. Demolition was just completed ten days ago. Although the names of several villages haven't been formally announced for cancellation yet, there hasn't been a single resident household there for long! For such an important matter, she actually left a fake address."

"But what is her purpose in framing Lin'er?" Chen Ding was very confused, "Except for making Lin'er stay in jail for a night..."

"This, I don't know either." Chen Xiaobing shook his head, "I wonder if you have any enemies?"

"Enemies naturally exist. But no one has such boldness, right?"

Chen Xiaobing also felt strangeness. Obviously, this matter was unlikely done by an outsider. It must be done by local residents familiar with Lingao. What was the motive for doing this?

Chen Xiaobing had always received "vigilance" education. These questions immediately aroused his high vigilance. He immediately associated it with the possibility of "Great Ming spies" or "lurking enemies." He decided to report this situation to the Political Security Bureau in the afternoon.

Chen Lin's heart moved at this moment, but thinking again, it seemed unlikely. Since this matter had passed, there was no need to cause extra complications.

Chen Ding asked: "It's just that we only 'bailed' him out now; the case hasn't been closed."

"As long as she doesn't appear after six o'clock this evening, this case will automatically terminate." Chen Xiaobing said, "It's almost four o'clock now; you elders rest assured."

Hearing him say this, everyone at the table felt relieved. Chen Lin felt somewhat regretful about missing the banquet yesterday. The two uncles recounted the scenes at the banquet one by one, making him repeatedly say he had "no luck."

"What's important about a meal," Wu Yijun said, "Next, we are arranged to visit the industrial park. This is the good opportunity to broaden horizons!"

At the same time, in the textile factory within the Lingao Light Industry Park, two Elders, Li Shan and Zou Biao, were leading naturalized citizens to do the final inspection to avoid safety problems tomorrow.

Strictly speaking, neither of these two touched the side of textiles; both were from mechanical backgrounds. Although Mo Xiaoan, Minister of Light Industry responsible for the textile industry, placed high hopes on light textile promotion, he himself was unfamiliar with light textiles and machinery, and held a bunch of errands concurrently. So the matter of the textile industry had to find someone else.

Thus, Zou Biao, who was a mechanical engineer and had developed textile machine plans like the "Song Silk Machine" and "Old Silk Machine," became the person in charge of the light textile department.

However, mechanical manufacturing was one thing, and engaging in textile industry was another. The textile industry was a very market-heavy industry. The manufactured goods were not mainly facing production enterprises like heavy industry, but more facing countless consumers. Even products sold to garment factories were actually influenced by the weather vane of consumer preference.

Consumer consumption was not completely rational, nor singular. Light industry production mostly needed to cater to market tastes. If relying solely on state will for production, not only would it require a large number of management cadres, but it would also be difficult to cope when facing market fluctuations. This was also why the textile industry was the first to marketize after the Reform and Opening Up. Old state-owned factories, accustomed to command-mode production, found it hard to keep up with the rhythm when facing the wave of marketization, and were eventually eliminated.

If balance between production and sales couldn't be achieved, the textile industry would be unsustainable.

Lingao's state-owned weaving factory was currently in a dilemma. Although the Senate was not interested in developing the textile industry, to satisfy internal use and production of special fabrics, this largest cotton textile demonstration enterprise under the Senate was built during the First Five-Year Plan. It was mainly used to produce various special-need fabrics that no one else in this timeline could produce yet, and also produced some civilian cloth.

However, after a few years, after the woven cloth satisfied internal use, the development of the cotton textile industry seemed to stagnate. Australian cloth didn't seem as best-selling as Songjiang cloth either. Coupled with the estimation of the cotton textile industry by the Development Conference during the First Five-Year Plan, it became normal that machines couldn't compete with home-woven cloth. After all, the Senate didn't place much hope on this piece either, as long as it could stably produce various "special fabrics." Civilian cloth completely became an insignificant supporting role. Zou Biao thought the light industry department was willing to continue producing these cloths purely to ensure the mechanical industry mouth could maintain textile machinery capacity.

(End of Chapter)