Chapter 565: Good Citizen
Chapter 565: Good Citizen
Not only was the route 23 bus shabby like a freshly unearthed ancient carriage, but there was only one bus every two hours.
Fortunately, there was a stop for bus route 23 not far from the class leader’s house. We were able to catch the 1:30 bus right after lunch.
There were only a few passengers on the bus. The class leader wiped the dust off the armrest of a seat with a handkerchief, then turned to look at Shu Zhe and me in the back row.
“What are you two whispering about, you guys aren’t allowed to collude.”
The truth was I reprimanding Shu Zhe for selling out his sister. I threatened him that if it happens again, I would tell his school and class to Fan Chuan, the trap lover, and Tang Jiang, who mistook Shu Zhe for an actual girl. That way they would come over to offer flowers and propose marriage during class, embarrassing Shu Zhe in front of his teachers and classmates.
The class leader obviously wasn’t easily convinced that Shu Zhe cross dressed because he was so enthusiastic about donating to a charity.
“Even if it was because of charity, the logic really makes no sense. But let’s determine first whether there really is this special education school or not.”
“Of course there really is.” I laughed, “I just called their principal, didn’t you hear it too?”
The class leader narrowed both her eyes with doubt.
“It was a young voice and didn’t sound like a principal. Who knows if it was your friend deliberately trying to deceive me?”
By normal school standards, the special education school’s principal was indeed too young. It’s no wonder the class leader was suspicious.
It seems this special education school was established as a charity from the start. It’s funds management were all transparent which meant you couldn’t skim any money off the top. All qualified senior educators refused to become the principal, so finally a young man who loves his job took up this responsibility.
Seeing the buildings getting lower and lower and the spacing between buildings getting farther and farther, Shu Zhe exclaimed: “We’re almost out of the city, the school is so far away.”
“We haven’t left yet.” The class leader corrected him, “Yi Ning district has been under the jurisdiction of Dong Shan city for over two years now, so we’re currently in Yi Ning District.”
“What’s the difference.” Shu Zhe said, “It’s still underdeveloped to the point where this isn’t even a KFC or McDonald’s… look, there are wheat fields, there’s even cattle.”
What’s wrong with cattle? You’re a weakling whose combat power is less than that of a chicken, how dare you look down on cattle. Besides, this is a real cattle, it’s not the odd mixture of meat when you go to eat a burger at McDonald’s. It probably has the nutrients equivalent to 100 million beef burgers from McDonald’s.
“It’s…” to my surprise, the class leader looked towards the cattle as if it was her first time seeing one.
No way. Braised beef is one of the class leader’s signature dishes, but she’s never even seen cattle before?
“Someone’s growing marijuana behind the cornfield.” The class leader shouted angrily and pointed at a place far behind the cattle.
Huh, really? I’m surprised you even recognize what the marijuana plant looks like. I looked in the direction she was pointing, but I couldn’t see anything other than an older man wearing a vest along with a dog.
“I have to let the police know.” The class leader took out her cell phone and took a picture outside the window to record the location. Then she opened a map app to try and pinpoint the location, but the signal was off ever since we entered Yi Ning district, so it didn’t work.
“Forget it.” I wasn’t as responsible as the class leader, “Maybe the old man planted it to smoke himself…”
“Smoke himself?” The class leader snorted, “I clearly saw a whole acre of land used to grow marijuana, which would yield at least a hundred kilograms. According to Article 351 of the Criminal Code, all illegal cultivation of opium, marijuana and other drugs, needs to eradicated.”
“That’s a big deal, let’s call the police.” Shu Zhe said excitedly, he was hoping it would divert his sister’s attention.
I still wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, “Uh… even if he grows a lot of marijuana, it does not necessarily mean he’s selling it. Maybe he’s also letting his dog smoke some of it.”
“What, he’s letting the dog take drugs?”
Obviously my words had a counter effect on the class leader. It might have been possible to make the class leader temporarily turn a blind eye on the marijuana, but if there was a dog being poisoned by its owner, then the class leader could no longer sit still.
“There have been cases of black bears who were addicted to cigarettes, so it’s possible for dogs to be addicted to drugs…”
“Sister, let’s get off and go save that poor dog.”
“Anyway, with brother Ye Lin here, we don’t need to be afraid even if it ends in a fight.”
Hey hey, do you even have a conscience? What if he was actually a martial arts master, or what if his sons were here and I ended up being pummeled?
I, like Shu Zhe, also felt we were in a rural area, but I didn’t look down on the people here. Rather, I thought they were all combatants and needed to be taken seriously.
I already told the principal we would visit and didn’t want to go back on my word, so I fished out the phone number of Officer Ma (which he had given me so I could surrender) from my phone and called him.
“Hello, Officer Ma? Can you tell who I am?”
Officer Ma laughed twice which didn’t make him seem like a police office.
“Hmmmm, Ye Lin, I can recognize your voice even if you were burned to ashes…”
I don’t think a voice can turn into ashes. Officer Ma, how did you learn physics, do you want me to give you a refresher course?
“Officer Ma, stop joking around, I wanted to tell you that there’s an acre of marijuana growing in Yi Ning District…”
“Are there more than 500 plants?” Officer Ma asked excitedly, “If there’s more than 500 plants, then you will be imprisoned. Since you have surrendered, you will get a lighter sentence…”
“I was reporting that someone else was growing marijuana, not me.”
“Wh-what.” I could almost see the shock on Officer Ma’s face.
“You’re reporting someone else, so you…”
How about it, did you finally realize that I am a good law-abiding teenager?
“Ye Lin, so you…” Officer Ma’s trembling voice continued on, “…so you finally betrayed your accomplice.”
What do you mean betrayed my accomplice? The old man and the dog aren’t my accomplices! Can you stop always automatically assuming I’m a criminal?
Last time, Officer Ma came to investigate a case in 28 Middle, which ended up with the two of us spreading condoms all over Gong Cai Cai. That’s why the class leader knew about his existence.
“There aren’t more than 500 plants.” The class leader reminded me, “I estimate there’s only about 200 plants, it’s fine to just forcibly remove them… but it’s better to do a drug test on that dog too….”
It’s all because of what I said, now the class leader is always thinking about the dog that may be “drugged”.
“Um…” I hesitantly asked Officer Ma, “Since you’ve been a narcotics police officer for so long, have you seen cases of drug use in dogs.”
“Yes, there was a drug dealer who fed their watchdogs methamphetamine, it made the dogs especially psychotic. Right when our drug squad just arrived, those dogs came lunging at us like they had rabies. Their bodies were already shriveled and dried up, but they were still difficult to deal with…. huh, why do you ask?”
“No reason, just curious.” I recalled the dog I just saw by the old man.
It seemed to be a mutt.
And fat as hell.
There was no way it was fed drugs.
“Anyway, Officer Ma, you can take the route 23 bus from the city. If you sit on the left side of the bus, it will take less than 40 minutes to see the old man with his dog from outside the window…”
Wait no, the old man and the dog were moving. China is also a large place, so there are old men with dogs everywhere, right?
“Well… it’s is a large field of marijuana right behind the cornfield. We also took a picture and will send it to you later, it’s up to you if you want to deal with it or not.”
I told the class leader the phone number of Officer Ma and let her send the photo from her phone.
“It… really is marijuana…” after receiving the photo, Officer Ma muttered, “But why was the picture sent from another phone, weren’t you the one who discovered it?”
“Oh, actually it was our class leader who found it. She was too responsible and had to tell the police, so…”
“No wonder, I already knew you weren’t a good person.” Officer Ma commented, “Please thank your class leader for me. She assisted the drug enforcement team and made contributions to the drug-free environment in Dong Shan city, I hope there are more and more citizens like her so criminals like you will have nowhere to escape… “
I don’t care if you praise class leader, but why did you have to insult me. If you think about it, why would a ‘good citizen’ like the class leader hang out with a ‘criminal’ like me?
But since the class leader wanted to join the police in the future. She was glad to be praised by them. I can see the slight joy in her eyes and her mood has become much better.
At this point, the bus stopped next to the dirt road. The only passenger who boarded was an older woman carrying a bag of eggs.
She carefully sat down on the right side of the bus lining symmetrically on the same row as us.
At first she didn’t say anything, but just held the eggs in her arms like it was her child.
Later, when she heard us mention the “special education school” appear several times in our conversation, it triggered her curiosity.
“Hey, are you students planning to go to that ‘children’s center’?”
The special education school in Dong Shan City was also called “Dong Shan City Children’s Center”. I remember both signs were hanging in front of the school.