Chapter 52: Tallying the Spoils!

"So it was all a misunderstanding!"

Tan Ping immediately let go of the man who had been loading the shared bicycles.

In the live stream, the viewers finally let out a collective sigh of relief.

"I really thought thieves in Chengdu had gotten so bold that they'd dare commit crimes right in front of the police!"

"Still, that guy's phrasing was way too ambiguous!"

"Right! It wasn't just Officer Tan; even if I had heard it, I would've jumped to conclusions!"

Tan Ping turned to the man and apologized, "I'm sorry, comrade! Did I hurt you just now?"

"Not at all! Not at all!" the man loading the shared electric bikes immediately waved his hands.

"Alright! Let me give you a hand!"

With that, Tan Ping grabbed the front ends of two shared electric bikes with his bare hands and hoisted them effortlessly into the air.

Seeing this, the young man's jaw dropped.

It took both of his hands just to lift one, yet Tan Ping had lifted two with absolute ease!

In the live stream, the netizens were equally astonished:

"Officer Tan, are you a human forklift?"

"That brand of shared e-bike weighs close to one hundred and sixty pounds!"

"No wonder Officer Tan took down that thief so easily. With strength like that, if he pinned me down, I wouldn't be able to budge either!"

Seeing the young man standing there in a daze, Tan Ping smiled and said, "Climb up onto the truck bed first! I'll lift them right up to you, and you can arrange them yourself."

"Oh, right! Okay!"

Hearing this, the young man quickly climbed onto the back of the truck.

After hoisting two bikes onto the truck bed, Tan Ping turned around and immediately went for the rest.

In no time at all, all twenty-something shared e-bikes at the station had been loaded onto the truck.

And after doing all that, Tan Ping only had a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead; his face wasn't even flushed, and his breathing was completely steady!

"Officer, thank you so much!"

The young man jumped down from the truck, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, drew one out, and offered it to Tan Ping.

"No thanks! I don't smoke!" Tan Ping refused instantly.

The live stream chat exploded with even more comments:

"Sisters! It's so rare to find a good man like Officer Tan—fit, handsome, and doesn't even smoke!"

"Mostly handsome and fit, right?"

"Say no more! I've already bought a train ticket to Sichuan for tonight!"

"Why does Officer Tan have to be in Sichuan? I heard that down there, you don't just have to compete with other women for a guy, you have to compete with the men too!"

At that moment, Tan Ping turned back to the camera and said, "My dear viewers! Happy times are always fleeting. Today's edition of *Tan's Traffic Commentary* ends here! See you all tomorrow, rain or shine!"

***

The viewers flooded the chat with reluctant farewells:

"Goodbye, Officer Tan! Before I knew it, I spent three whole hours watching your live stream today!"

"Seriously! I don't even watch TV dramas with this much dedication anymore!"

"This is amazing! Even scripted shows aren't as funny as Officer Tan's live stream!"

Tan Ping checked the statistics for today's broadcast.

This live stream had accumulated a total of 3.06 million views.

At its peak, the number of concurrent viewers in the room had surpassed 30,000!

And the official account had gained 260,000 new followers!

Tan Ping opened his system panel and saw that his fan value had reached 78,000.

Clearly, this single live stream had netted him a solid 60,000 fans!

These were system-verified fans of high value, completely different from ordinary casual viewers.

Tan Ping glanced at the time; it was already past nine in the evening.

"Brother Ping, my stomach is rumbling!" Li Dong, Li Yuwei's younger brother, rubbed his belly and complained.

"Well, I just received a bonus today, so let me treat you guys to dinner! What do you all feel like eating?" Tan Ping asked with a smile.

"Officer Tan, I'm fine with anything!" the cameraman Yang Wei said cheerfully.

Wang Xingyun glanced at Tan Ping and suggested, "Let's just grab something casual. Save your bonus for now; you'll have plenty of places to spend money later."

"That's right! Old Wang is right! Ah-Ping, you're not that young anymore. It's time to plan for the future—buying a apartment and finding a partner both cost a pretty penny!" Other colleagues chimed in with nods of agreement.

"How about this? There's a newly opened barbecue place near where we just were. Let's head over there and grab a bite!" Tan Ping smiled and nodded.

He knew his mentor and colleagues only had his best interests at heart.

"Yay! I love barbecue!" Li Dong cheered happily upon hearing about barbecue.

And so, as they walked over, Tan Ping started a live stream using his personal account.

"Huh? Officer Tan, why are you streaming again?" Some fans who had just followed him asked in surprise via the chat.

"It's getting late, so we're planning to grab some barbecue before heading back," Tan Ping explained with a smile.

"Is Officer Tan going to do a mukbang stream?" The viewers started chatting excitedly.

***

Soon, the group arrived at the newly opened barbecue restaurant.

"Welcome, officers!" The waiter immediately stepped forward to greet them as soon as Tan Ping and his group walked in.

After they sat down, the waiter handed over a menu.

Wang Xingyun glanced at the sign standing by the entrance and asked, "Boss, are the side dishes and rice free here?"

"That's right! You can help yourselves to whatever you'd like!" The waiter nodded.

"Oh, nice! Ah-Ping, don't rush to order yet. I'll go grab some side dishes and rice to line our stomachs!" Wang Xingyun immediately got to work.

Before long, he returned with a large bowl of potato rice for everyone, along with some fruit, cold dishes, and flat rice noodles.

"Damn! Master is a true master of budgeting!" The viewers in the live stream couldn't help praising him in the chat.

"Once you fill up on all that rice and sides, you won't have much room left for the good stuff!"

"Master is clearly trying to save money for Officer Tan!"

Sure enough, when it came time to order, Wang Xingyun stuck mostly to the discounted section of the menu. In the end, all the dishes combined came to less than a hundred yuan!

His colleague, Old Zheng, couldn't resist teasing, "Old Wang, you're saving Ah-Ping so much money—don't tell me you've got your eyes on him and want him as your son-in-law?"

"Go on with you! Ah-Ping is still a auxiliary police officer right now; his salary is low and the benefits aren't great. If we don't pinch pennies, how is he supposed to manage in the future?" Wang Xingyun laughed and scolded good-naturedly.

At that moment, the viewers in the live stream also realized the reality of the situation:

"That's right! Officer Tan is still just an auxiliary officer!"

"If I recall correctly, auxiliary officers only make three or four thousand yuan a month, right?"

"And in a megacity like Chengdu, after living expenses, you really can't save much money at all!"

"I propose that an exceptional talent like Officer Tan be promoted to a regular officer on the spot!"

"Exactly! Didn't he save those villagers last time? That's got to be worth a commendation! Then he caught two robbers, and today he took down over a dozen thieves. Surely that's enough merit to go regular?"

"Hard to say! Even with merits, auxiliary officers don't get automatically converted; they still have to pass relevant examinations!"

"True. The policy here in the capital is that auxiliary officers who win a personal second-class merit and meet the recruitment criteria can be appointed as civil staff after review and approval by the economic committee; those who win a personal first-class merit with exceptionally outstanding performance and meet the criteria can be specially recruited into the police force upon approval by the municipal human resources and social security bureau."

"A personal first-class merit just to get a special recruitment? That's way too hard! Even regular police officers find it extremely difficult to win second or first-class merits, let alone auxiliary officers who don't even have law enforcement authority!"

"Of course! Aside from earning merits, auxiliary officers can also convert to regular status by taking specialized conversion exams or the civil service exams (including national and provincial exams). But there's a catch: it requires a junior college degree or higher and at least three consecutive years of service as an auxiliary officer!"

Tan Ping had been keeping an eye on the chat. He was well aware of all this. The path to becoming a regular officer for an auxiliary was indeed arduous. Officer Rabbit Li Yuwei was already famous online and had trended multiple times, yet she was still just a fourth-level auxiliary officer, one rank below him.

Earning a promotion through merits was exceptionally difficult. However, the moment Tan Ping unlocked items related to enhancing learning capacity, passing the conversion exams would be a walk in the park!