Constable: I Catch Myself

"Hello, police officer... I want to report a crime!"

"There are a bunch of shady-looking thieves hovering outside the gate of our community. I've been watching them for a long time now. They look shady, clearly not up to any good!"

"The address, the address is Wanhui City Community. Please come quickly, it's almost completely dark now. I suspect they're about to make their move!"

"..."

"Okay okay, please send someone here quickly. I'm very nervous..."

It's worth mentioning that Gatekeeper Grandpa spoke in a hushed voice the whole time he was on the call.

Even though the guard booth was quite far from the 'shady' people outside the gate, he was still afraid something might go wrong.

After all, he was getting on in years and wasn't confident he could beat those young men in a fight.

After finishing the call and putting down the phone,

Gatekeeper Grandpa watched the car at the gate intently.

Unconsciously, his grip on the rubber baton had tightened.

Even slight perspiration had begun beading on his palms.

To tell the truth, this was possibly the most serious incident he had encountered since becoming a gatekeeper!

However, just as Gatekeeper Grandpa was feeling nervous,

the phone of one of the young men in the car parked outside Wanhui City Community gate rang.

This group of young men were actually undercover police officers arranged by Han Fei to stake out the place.

Seeing the phone number, the young man picked up without a second thought.

"Hello... what? There are bad guys outside Wanhui City gate? And they keep peering shadily at the entrance?"

"I don't see anyone like that. There are hardly any cars here, and they all seem to be empty. Let me go take a look." The officer on the other end of the line urged:

"It's a white Chevy parked on the curb just to the right of the main gate entrance."

The young man was confused.

A white family car?

Parked on the curb just to the right of the main gate?

This...

There were only a handful of white cars outside the community gate, he could count them on one hand.

And as for cars parked on the curb just to the right of the main gate entrance,

there was only one.

Theirs.

At that moment, the young man had only one thought.

I'm the bad guy!? And I look shady!??

"Did you see them? You're right there, so go take care of it. We won't send anyone else since the gatekeeper just reported it to us.", the officer on the phone urged.

"I... alright, got it. I'll handle it.", the young man said before hanging up.

His mood instantly soured.

He was a cop, yet the gatekeeper mistook him for a crook?

And even described him as shady!

Who's shady!?

After hanging up, the young man felt he really needed to go explain things to the gatekeeper.

He was a good guy, not a bad guy, and he certainly wasn't shady!

"What's going on?", the other officers asked.

"...The gatekeeper called the cops saying there were bad guys here."

"Bad guys? Where?"

"He meant us! He said we looked shady.", the young man said with a wry smile.

After a pause, he continued: "I'll go explain things to the old man."

With that, he got out of the car and headed towards the guard booth, forcing a smile to try and look more friendly.

...

Ever since making the call, Gatekeeper Grandpa had been in a state of high anxiety.

He was afraid those crooks in the car might suddenly make a move before the police arrived.

He kept his eyes locked on the car, watching those people closely.

Sure enough, his worst fears came true.

One of the men got out of the car and headed straight for the guard booth!

Gatekeeper Grandpa's grip on the rubber baton tightened involuntarily.

He thought to himself, this guy must have heard me calling the cops and came to teach me a lesson first!

And the worst part was... the punk walking towards him had a huge grin on his face!

That kind of smile looked utterly sinister, nothing good could come of it!

It was only natural to feel nervous in this situation.

Gatekeeper Grandpa's breathing even quickened sharply.

Suddenly, he threw open the door of the guard booth and rushed out, rubber baton in hand.

Hitting him was out of the question.

He didn't think he could overpower a fit young man either.

But scaring him a bit should do the trick, Grandpa figured.

Gatekeeper Grandpa stood at the entrance, brandishing the baton threateningly at the young man.

"Stay right there! Don't come any closer or I won't be polite, I'm warning you!"

After a brief pause, Grandpa felt that wasn't enough, so he decided to scare him with the police.

After all, what crook isn't afraid of cops?

"I already called the cops, I'm telling you! They'll be here any minute! If you don't scram now, they'll haul you away when they get here!"

The young man walking towards the guard booth stopped in his tracks.

The smile on his face also froze.

Cops arriving any minute?

To arrest who?

Him!?

He was the cop!

And what's more... his colleague had just said very clearly on the phone.

Since he was right there, it was up to him to resolve this. No additional officers would be dispatched.

Was he supposed to arrest himself?

That's insane!

Seeing the 'crook' stop approaching and halt in his tracks,

Gatekeeper Grandpa heaved a sigh of relief.

He thought to himself, the police name still works wonders after all. Just mentioning them was enough to stop the crook dead in his tracks.

Seeing the gatekeeper's state, the officer knew he was very anxious.

So he didn't try to move closer, opting to explain first instead.

"Grandpa, you've got it all wrong. I'm not a bad guy, I'm a cop. I know you called the police too. I came over to explain things because I heard you reported it, you don't need to be afraid."

As he spoke, he took out his badge and showed it to the old man from a distance.

From so far away, and with his poor eyesight, Gatekeeper Grandpa squinted at the thing the 'crook' had taken out.

It did look... a lot like the police badges he'd seen today.

Could this really be a cop?

Gatekeeper Grandpa still wasn't entirely convinced.

The officer continued explaining in a low voice: "It's just a misunderstanding, Grandpa. I'm not in uniform because we're here on a covert op. Can't be too conspicuous, you know. There might be bad guys in your complex, we're staking out the entrance to catch them!"

Hearing this, Gatekeeper Grandpa suddenly recalled the officer from this morning.

At the time, that officer wasn't in uniform either, and had asked about a resident of the complex. It seemed he was also here on duty.

Looked at that way, it did seem reasonable!

Maybe these people really were cops after all.

Gatekeeper Grandpa relaxed completely.

"Why didn't you say so earlier, you gave this old fella quite a fright..."

Then he casually asked:

"What case are you cops working on recently? Is it serious? Are we in any danger here?"

"Nothing major, you can rest assured Grandpa, there's no danger.", the officer said with a smile.

But Grandpa didn't believe his words one bit.

"No danger? Then why are cops coming around one after another? You're trying to fool me? Don't forget, I was the one who let your colleague in when he came this afternoon. Four women and one man, right?"