Chapter 320: The Household Registration Police

I wonder if I can get off work on time today? Recently, the workload at the interrogation department has been very heavy, and the interrogation rooms in the basement are almost always in use. She has been seconded several times this month, and yesterday another special case was solved… but she had already worked a full night shift yesterday, so she probably won’t be asked to work overtime again today. Ever since a naturalized citizen police officer suddenly died of overwork after working continuously for three days and three nights, continuous overtime exceeding forty-eight hours has been prohibited.

Li Yongxun walked to the entrance of the canteen. There was a self-service beverage table with three insulated barrels for coffee, black tea, and “energy drink.” She took a glass cup from a plate covered with white gauze, poured a cup of “energy drink,” and drank it down. This stuff worked quickly. After drinking it, she immediately felt awake and clear-headed, enough to handle the work for the rest of the day.

Placing the cup in the rattan collection basket, Li Yongxun went to the washroom next to the canteen, cupped her hands to splash water on her face, and then looked at herself up and down in the mirror.

The girl in the mirror was wearing a black top, a black skirt, and a black round-brimmed hat with a white cord. This appearance could no longer be associated with the girl who used to wear a ruqun and a bijia. The appearance of the only daughter of a banneret of the Ming Dynasty’s Embroidered Uniform Guard was gone, with only a pair of double buns on her head remaining as a trace of the past. Every time Li Yongxun saw herself in the mirror, she had a sense of unreal fantasy.

Who am I, where am I, what am I doing…

This inexplicable question always flashed through her mind in an instant.

Although her past life was only two or three years ago, it felt like a lifetime ago. Li Yongxun even felt that she had forgotten many things.

She adjusted her hat and tucked in the hair that had fallen from her temples. There was no way to comb her hair here; she could only wait until after work.

Li Yongxun returned to the household registration office where she worked. The household registration office was a large, spacious office, which could also be called a hall. The room was densely packed with “Shengchuan XVI Data Desks” mass-produced by the Lingao furniture factory. These desks came with special shelves and small drawers for inserting forms and ledgers. Work started at seven o’clock, and the fifty or sixty household registration police officers of the National Police in the office had already begun their day’s work behind these desks.

Due to the shortage of police force, the household registration office had recently been providing “mobile personnel” who were seconded to other departments for night shifts. Therefore, most of the people in the office looked sleep-deprived, with pale faces and dark circles under their eyes. Smoking was not allowed in the room, so everyone, men and women, had a cup of steaming hot strong tea on their desks. To save time on making tea and pouring water, this place, like all the agencies of the Senate, had a dedicated person in charge. Every half an hour, a female intern would push a small cart to refill everyone’s water. If you wanted to change your tea leaves or make coffee, it was all at your convenience. If you were hungry, there were also free sweet potato jerky and sugar cubes.

The household registration office was the department in the National Police that used the most female police officers; two-thirds of the personnel were female. So when Li Yongxun walked in, no one noticed her except for the deputy chief who was sitting at the first desk and glanced at her.

She quickly returned to her seat. The desk had been cleaned, and the unfinished work was neatly stacked in the “to-do” box. She was dismayed to find that many new files had been added.

Good heavens, I want to be in the “Xingren Si” (Pedestrian Division), not be a clerk here.

In comparison, being “seconded” was much more interesting. “Sigh,” Li Yongxun picked up a sharpened pencil and sighed.

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Ever since she fell into the hands of the Australians in Macau and was brought to Lingao, she had been kept in solitary confinement in that house for the first few months. She later learned that it was called a “study class.”

After being interrogated once in the study class, no one came to see her for several months. She was just told to keep writing her self-statement. She had written this self-statement no less than twenty times. Every time she handed it in, it would be returned, with the same comment: “Too simple.”

“Then what do you want me to write?” she once complained to Ke Yun, who came to deliver the materials. “I’m just a little girl, my knowledge is limited…” she pleaded. “Please give me a clear answer, don’t just leave me hanging like this.”

“You’ve lived in this world for fifteen years, you must have seen a lot of things. No matter how big or small, write down whatever you can think of. Family matters are fine, how many dogs your family has raised is fine, being spanked by your parents as a child is also fine… as long as you remember it, you can write it all down.” Ke Yun was not moved by her complaints at all. “Only when it’s approved will there be a next step.”

So she had no choice but to continue writing her self-statement in the small room of the study class, day and night. For more than half a year, Li Yongxun had to rack her brains to write her self-statement to avoid being “left to dry” in this unknown place. In the end, she was practically making up things to say, nitpicking details.

Sometimes she felt that the “short-haired rebels” had no intention of reading her self-statement at all: how many dogs she had raised as a child, that a strongman household named Chen Dayou in the Nanjing Embroidered Uniform Guard was a relative of her family—these trivial matters were neither useful nor interesting to the “short-haired rebels”. They were just using this to wear her down. But she was completely powerless to resist. This kind of life, where her life was in the hands of others, waiting to be judged, and possibly facing a fate worse than death, was really hard to bear. Li Yongxun knew very well how miserable the situation of female prisoners who fell into the hands of a violent dictatorship was. Compared to the Ming Dynasty, the “short-haired rebels” were quite polite to female prisoners.

Although she had not been tortured or violated, even if the case was closed, her fate was extremely worrying. According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, even if she could escape death, her final fate would be nothing more than “handed over to the official matchmaker for sale” or “entering the Jiaofang Si (entertainment bureau).” If it was the former, there was still some room for maneuver. Whether she was bought as a wife or a maid, as long as she could contact her sister and brother-in-law in Guangdong, they could use money to redeem her. If she fell into the “short-haired rebels’” “Jiaofang Si”… Li Yongxun simply dared not imagine.

After being worn down like this for more than half a year, just as Li Yongxun was about to be tormented to the point of a nervous breakdown, Ke Yun came to her cell. But this time, she did not have the self-statement that was always returned in her hand.

Li Yongxun immediately realized that the Australians must have made arrangements for her. She hurried forward, put on a fawning expression, and asked with wide, sparkling eyes, “Sister, was my previous self-statement good? Can you let me go?”

But Ke Yun just said coldly, “Follow me.”

Li Yongxun followed Ke Yun with a忐忑 (tǎntè - uneasy) heart, passing through one iron gate after another back to the long-unseen lobby. She wanted to read her fate from Ke Yun’s expression, but the other party remained expressionless.

The lobby was empty, which made her feel a little relieved. If they were going to take her to be executed or “sold by the government” or “sold into the Jiaofang Si,” there would definitely be a few strong and sturdy matrons. Now that there was no one else, it probably wouldn’t be that.

Ke Yun filled out a form and handed it to the lame guard. Then the last iron gate was opened before her eyes.

“We will take you to the resettlement center later. From today on, you are granted partial freedom, but you cannot leave Lingao.”

“Thank you, sister…” Li Yongxun breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was her life safe, but her body was also preserved.

“I am Ke Yun, a probationary assistant of the Political Security Bureau. You can call me by my name. During this period, I will be responsible for supervising you. I hope you will cooperate with my work.” As she spoke, she gave a cold smile, letting the little girl know that the consequences of not cooperating would be very serious.

Li Yongxun immediately nodded like a pecking chicken and said, “I understand, I understand. I will definitely listen to sister’s words.”

Although she was full of complaints, she was also very envious: she had always wanted to be a dignified, real Embroidered Uniform Guard, to become a “public servant,” to be able to carry a brocade spring saber and stand guard for the emperor, to hold a water and fire cudgel and beat “criminal officials” at the command of “beat with intent,” or to change her identity and infiltrate the enemy camp to gather intelligence…

Although her imagination ran wild, she knew very well in her heart that this was impossible. Not to mention that she was a girl who would never have the chance to inherit the position, even her father, uncles, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers… most of them had wasted their youth in idleness and had never done any of the things she imagined.

And the girl in front of her, not much older than herself, was a proper public servant, probably a small leader. Just this air of authority was not something an ordinary person had…

Although the Australians only occupied a corner of Hainan, at least they had a situation. Ke Yun was working for them, and she was also a proper “official.” She was much better off than herself, who was brandishing a stolen Embroidered Uniform Guard plaque and no one even believed her.

While she was feeling sorry for herself, she heard Ke Yun say coldly, “You’d better not have any ideas about escaping. Otherwise, it won’t be just writing a self-statement.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Li Yongxun nodded repeatedly.

“And don’t try to write letters or send messages.” Ke Yun smiled and pointed to a tall building with scaffolding in the distance. “Do you know what that place is?”

“Please enlighten me, sister…” Li Yongxun said in a very obedient manner.

“That’s the Ziminglou, yes, the branch of the one in Guangzhou. It’s under construction, and it’s in need of lively and beautiful girls like you…”

Li Yongxun’s face changed. “Sister, I wouldn’t dare. I will definitely listen to sister’s words.”

Ke Yun smiled. This time, her smile was much more normal, no longer “with a hidden meaning.” She took Li Yongxun into a carriage and took her to the resettlement center.

The resettlement center was an inn, but it was run by the Political Security Bureau. The people living there were all targets of “monitored use.” Although these people were considered “usable,” they had considerable problems in their history, so they all had to be monitored for a period of time for evaluation, until their rating could reach the level of “monitored use.”