Knowing that Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin had resorted to robbery simply because they had run out of money for food and were too afraid to call their parents, Zhou Weimin was both angry and amused.
“You two little idiots,” he scolded. “You were too scared to tell your parents you had no money, but you had the guts to go rob someone? You really are a pair of fools.”
Afterward, Zhou Weimin contacted the boys' homeroom teacher.
Once the teacher arrived, Zhou Weimin, Zhang Haiyang, and the others subjected Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin to a lengthy and stern lecture.
Only after the educational session ended did the two boys lead Luo Fei and the officers to the locations where they had discarded the stolen items.
The handbag and lipstick were quickly recovered from a mulberry field.
The phone, however, proved much harder to find.
Liu Cheng insisted he had thrown it into the field but could no longer remember exactly where.
In the end, Luo Fei picked up a stone roughly the same weight as the phone and had Liu Cheng reenact the throwing motion from the original location.
Using the reconstructed trajectory, they finally located the missing device.
Unfortunately, although the phone was found, it had landed directly on a rock and shattered upon impact.
It was a brand-new iPhone.
There was no chance of repairing it.
By the time they returned to the police station with the recovered items, it was already two in the morning.
Since it was so late, they decided not to contact Ms. Zhou to claim her belongings until the next day.
As for Liu Cheng and Zhu Bin, their homeroom teacher escorted them back to school.
Both boys were under sixteen years old, and because the robbery had not resulted in particularly serious consequences, their actions did not meet the threshold for criminal prosecution.
The primary response would be supervision and disciplinary education.
By the time Luo Fei finally returned home, it was already three in the morning.
He had spent the entire day moving house and then spent most of the night chasing down robbery suspects.
An ordinary person would have been completely exhausted.
But after fusing with the Gorilla Strength Gene, Luo Fei's physical condition was far beyond that of a normal person.
He didn't feel tired at all.
Originally, he intended to go straight to bed.
Yet despite lying there for quite some time, he felt no drowsiness whatsoever.
Finally, he gave up trying to sleep.
Getting out of bed, he picked up a book and began reading.
Surrounded by the gentle chirping of insects outside the window, Luo Fei found that studying in the stillness of the late-night hours was surprisingly productive.
The next day was Sunday.
Technically, Luo Fei could have rested at home.
However, he couldn't stop thinking about yesterday's case.
As a result, he got up shortly after seven in the morning.
When Wu Yan saw him preparing to leave for work so early, she cooked breakfast while simultaneously scolding and worrying about him.
After all, she knew he hadn't returned home until three o'clock that morning.
Luo Fei arrived at the station precisely at 7:30 a.m.
As usual, he was the first one there.
By 8:30, he had already spent an entire hour memorizing sections from Law of Evidence before anyone else arrived.
Finally, Zhang Haiyang and Liu Haiquan entered the office together.
Both men had dark circles under their eyes.
They yawned constantly and looked half asleep.
“Luo Fei,” Liu Haiquan said, “when you're working weekends or on duty shifts, you can come in a little later than usual. You don't have to arrive this early.”
He assumed Luo Fei simply didn't know the schedule.
Zhang Haiyang shot him a glance.
“You talk too much.”
“What did I do?” Liu Haiquan protested innocently.
“I was just trying to help.”
At 8:40, Zhou Weimin finally arrived.
“Honestly, I don't know what happened,” he grumbled as he walked into the office.
“I set my alarm, but it never went off. I overslept.”
He shook his head helplessly.
“I'm getting old. My energy isn't what it used to be. One late night and I'm completely wiped out. You really can't fight age.”
Whether he was explaining himself to the others or simply complaining aloud, no one could tell.
Then he noticed Luo Fei sitting there reading, looking refreshed and energetic.
Zhou Weimin sighed.
“Being young is nice.”
“Unlimited energy.”
Only four people were working at the station that day:
Zhou Weimin, Zhang Haiyang, Liu Haiquan, and Luo Fei.
Zhang Haiyang and Liu Haiquan were scheduled for duty.
Zhou Weimin had come because, as the station chief, it wouldn't look right for him to skip a major case.
As for Luo Fei, he simply wanted to be there.
There wasn't much to do at home anyway.
Besides, he still cared about yesterday's robbery case.
At nine o'clock, the victim, Zhou Yue—the female teacher from No. 1 High School—arrived to claim her belongings.
Zhou Weimin explained the entire situation.
He informed her that the robbers were vocational school students and described how the case had been handled, including the disciplinary measures taken against the boys.
At first, Zhou Yue listened quietly.
But the moment she heard that her phone had been destroyed—and saw the mangled remains of her iPhone that Luo Fei placed on the desk—her expression immediately changed.
“No,” she said firmly.
“Either they compensate me ten thousand yuan, or they buy me an identical phone.”
Her demand was perfectly reasonable.
In fact, the officers had expected this outcome from the beginning.
The fact that Zhou Yue had chosen not to aggressively pursue the robbery charges was already quite generous.
Expecting her to also forgive the loss of an expensive new iPhone was unrealistic.
Unless she were some kind of living Bodhisattva.
Liu Haiquan immediately called the parents of both boys and relayed Zhou Yue's demands.
The parents had already been terrified after receiving calls from the school and police station the previous night.
When they learned that their sons had committed robbery, they had nearly fainted from shock.
They worked tirelessly away from home precisely for the sake of their children.
If something happened to their kids, then what was the point of earning money at all?
Fortunately, they later learned that because the boys were underage and did not meet the threshold for criminal prosecution, they would not be sent to jail.
The parents had felt immensely relieved.
As for the ten-thousand-yuan compensation?
Compared to the possibility of their children becoming criminals, that amount was insignificant.
They agreed immediately and even offered to transfer the money right away.
Under the supervision of Luo Fei and the other officers, the parents transferred 10,000 yuan to Zhou Yue as compensation for the damaged phone.
With that, the case was officially resolved.
“Fortunately, Zhou Yue is a teacher and a reasonable person,” Zhou Weimin said after she left.
“If it had been someone else—someone unreasonable—we might have been stuck dealing with this case for months.”
“Tell me about it,” Liu Haiquan agreed with a nod.
“Remember the Zhang Wenying robbery case from two years ago? That one nearly drove us crazy.”
Seeing Luo Fei's curious expression, Zhang Haiyang explained.
“It was also a robbery case.”
“The robber was named Liu Donglai, and the victim was Zhang Wenying.”
“We arrested Liu Donglai, and he was sentenced to six months in prison.”
“We thought that would be the end of it.”
He sighed.
“But a few days later, Zhang Wenying came to the station claiming that the robbery had caused severe emotional trauma.”
“She demanded one million yuan in compensation for mental distress.”
Luo Fei blinked.
“One million?”
“Exactly,” Zhang Haiyang said helplessly.
“Neither side could agree on compensation, so they kept coming back to the station every few days.”
“It dragged on endlessly.”
“By the end, everyone at the station was exhausted.”
Liu Haiquan chuckled bitterly.
“Eventually, we got so used to seeing Zhang Wenying that we'd start getting nervous the moment she walked through the door.”
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