Chapter 7: Where did you learn to pick locks?
This time, Chief Wu genuinely felt that something was off.
He had seen it clearly. The piece of wire in Jiang Xia’s hand was about two millimeters thick. The local supply and marketing cooperative didn’t carry that kind of wire—it was the sort of thing you had to get from a factory or a specialty shop.
Who would go to the trouble of finding something like that, then carry it around every day?
It wasn’t normal.
Chief Wu felt he needed to get to the bottom of it.
Damn that system!
Under Chief Wu’s scrutinizing gaze, Jiang Xia silently cursed the system.
Before this, she had never carried a piece of wire around—she wouldn’t even have thought of it.
Who thinks about things they never need?
But ever since the system had forcibly bestowed Master-Level Theft Skills upon her, she constantly felt as though something was missing from her hands.
It made sense. To reach a master level in thievery, you’d normally need ten or twenty years of practice. The muscle memory ingrained in your hands would be second nature. If the very tool you relied on wasn’t with you, of course it would feel strange.
So Jiang Xia hadn’t been able to resist. She’d deliberately found a piece of wire, wrapped it around her bracelet, and every now and then she’d absentmindedly fiddle with it, satisfying the itch in her fingers.
But after carrying it for so long, her brain had gradually accepted it as perfectly normal.
That was why, just now, all she’d been thinking about was slowing down enough to avoid suspicion. She had completely forgotten that normal people didn’t carry a piece of wire around with them for no reason.
Chief Wu was still waiting for an answer.
Jiang Xia felt a chill creep down her back as her mind raced. She glanced at Chief Wu, then at the wire, before suddenly putting on an expression of realization.
“Oh! Back when I was in school, I accidentally lost the key to my locker. I didn’t want to spend money on a replacement, and I happened to be learning lock-picking at the time. So I kept a piece of wire on me and used it whenever I needed to open my locker.”
“So that’s what it was.”
Chief Wu mulled over her explanation for a moment, then nodded. Satisfied, he withdrew his gaze, reached out, and pushed the door open.
Jiang Xia let out a silent sigh of relief.
Thank goodness… I managed to bluff my way through.
She quickly followed him inside.
The archive room was lined with wooden shelves packed full of household registration files for the district.
A faint, pleasant scent of paper filled the room.
“When you’re a student, you’ve got to be careful with your money. Locks aren’t cheap either. If you know how to open one, you might as well make do with it. It’s not easy for adults to earn money, so if I can save my family a little, I will.”
As Chief Wu walked toward the last row of shelves, he casually asked, as if making small talk,
“That reminds me—where did you learn lock-picking? Didn’t your roommates find it odd? Weren’t they talking behind your back?”
The moment Jiang Xia heard the question, the relief she’d just felt vanished.
Damn it. I didn’t fool him after all.
He’s still testing me.
The question sounded casual, but it concealed a huge trap.
There was no internet these days. You couldn’t just search your phone whenever you wanted to learn something.
If someone knew how to pick locks, they had to have learned it from someone.
So who had taught her?
“I picked it up here and there from different people, and figured the rest out on my own. It’s actually pretty simple—as long as you understand a bit of mechanical engineering.”
Chief Wu was a veteran police officer. His generation might not excel at everything, but interrogation was second nature to them. Jiang Xia didn’t dare fabricate a detailed story. After giving a deliberately vague answer, she immediately steered the conversation elsewhere.
“When I was in school, I spent a lot of time reading in the library. There’s a branch of criminal investigation called criminal behavior analysis. It studies how different types of offenders behave. When a case comes up, investigators can use the traces left behind to infer the kind of person they’re looking for.”
As she spoke, the system’s earlier reward came back to mind, and inspiration suddenly struck.
Isn’t this the perfect loophole?
As long as she established herself as someone who specialized in studying criminal behavior, she could explain why she possessed all these criminal skills.
Better yet, she could openly grind the system’s experience by “committing crimes” right under the noses of her colleagues and superiors, using the skill points she earned to improve her investigative abilities.
This is like Qin Shi Huang grabbing a live wire—I’m hitting the jackpot!
The more Jiang Xia thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Suppressing her excitement, she said in a natural tone,
“I’ve always been interested in that field, so I study it whenever I have free time.”
“Criminal behavior analysis?”
Chief Wu repeated the term.
He was only half convinced.
Studying criminal behavior to solve cases… it did sound somewhat reasonable.
But wasn’t it enough just to understand the differences in theory?
Why actually practice it—and carry lock-picking tools around every day?
Even if she really had only been opening her dormitory locker, it still seemed excessive.
Standing before the last row of wooden shelves, Chief Wu took down three neatly folded police uniforms along with a peaked cap. Turning around, he handed them to Jiang Xia.
Speaking earnestly, he said,
“We’re community police officers. Most of what we deal with are everyday neighborhood disputes and trivial matters. We don’t come across many criminal cases. So from now on, you’d better stop studying that… criminal behavior stuff.”
Jiang Xia blinked.
“Huh?”
I just found a way to farm the system’s experience points! How can my plan die before I’ve even had a chance to try it?
“‘Huh’ what?” Chief Wu continued. “And throw away that piece of wire too. A community police officer who knows how to pick locks? That won’t sound good if word gets out.”
Jiang Xia understood what he meant.
The ability was simply too suspicious.
Forget the public—even if only her coworkers knew about it, if something ever went missing at the station, there was a good chance she’d become the first suspect.
That was just human nature, and Jiang Xia understood it.
Still, perceptions could change. Locksmiths unlocked locks every day, and no one suspected them of being thieves.
If she could earn the support of her superiors, build a track record, and gain recognition within the profession, then what she was doing would naturally come to be seen as legitimate.
Having finally found a reasonable way to exploit the system’s loophole, Jiang Xia was unwilling to let it fail at the very first step. So she tried one more time.
“Chief Wu, I know this kind of research sounds dangerous, but it really is a legitimate field of study. I’ve heard there’s even a dedicated research team in the capital working on it, and there are books written about it. It’s definitely aboveboard. Please let me keep studying it.”
Is that really the issue? Whether it’s legitimate or not?
The problem was that other people studied it without putting it into practice.
She, on the other hand, had gone straight from research to hands-on application. Who knew when she’d decide to “practice” something next?
She should’ve been a promising detective… so why is she such a headache?
“All the more reason not to mess around with it yourself if there are already people specializing in that kind of research.”
Chief Wu was starting to feel mentally exhausted. Seeing that Jiang Xia still refused to give up, he became even more resolute.
“That’s final. We’re not discussing this again.”
“Come on. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
He had made up his mind.
He was going to mentor Jiang Xia personally.
He had to straighten this girl out.
Well, there was no convincing Chief Wu now.
Jiang Xia wasn’t upset, though.
Getting ten experience points out of nowhere today was already an unexpected bonus. She wasn’t in a hurry to exploit the system’s loophole and level up.
She could take her time.
Give me enough time, and sooner or later Chief Wu will come around.
Cradling her new police uniform in her arms, Jiang Xia confidently followed him out.
Inside the office, all of the officers from Zhouying Police Station worked in the same room. Today, only Sister Chen and Xiao Liu were absent, having gone out to verify household registration records. The rest of the community officers were already there.
Pointing to each person in turn, Chief Wu began the introductions.
“You’ve already met Hu Wei and Lu Fusheng yesterday, so no need to introduce them again. This is Deputy Chief Xu. If I’m not at the station and you run into something you can’t handle, go to him. This is Old Wang, Wang Xuguang. And this is Shen Huoda…”
“Hello, Chief Xu!”
“Hello, Brother Wang!”
“Hello, Brother Shen!”
…
Jiang Xia greeted each of them cheerfully.
“So we’ve got ourselves an outstanding new recruit!”
Once the introductions were finished, Deputy Chief Xu smiled and asked,
“Xiao Jiang, do you have a boyfriend yet?”
“My older sister doesn’t have one either.”
Jiang Xia answered openly, “I’m still young. I’d like to focus on work for a few years and settle down before thinking about dating.”
Deputy Chief Xu shook his head with a chuckle.
“Well, there goes my plan. I was thinking of introducing you to my nephew, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Enough about your nephew.”
Chief Wu pointed to a desk piled high with files.
“Come on, Xiao Jiang. This will be your seat.”
Jiang Xia turned to look.
The desk Chief Wu had assigned her was in an excellent location—right beside his own, with Deputy Chief Xu seated directly across from her.
The sight made Jiang Xia feel like her soul had left her body.
Great… I’m surrounded by the station’s top brass on both sides.
With both station chiefs sitting beside her, how was she supposed to slack off in the future?
“Chief Wu, isn’t this seat a little… inappropriate for me?”
Jiang Xia tried to decline.
“I noticed there’s an empty desk across from Brother Hu…”
“No need. You’ll sit next to me.” Chief Wu said firmly, “I’ll be mentoring you from now on. This way it’ll be more convenient.”
“Xiao Jiang, Chief Wu really thinks highly of you.”
Deputy Chief Xu smiled encouragingly.
“He’s taking you on as his apprentice right away! Make sure you work hard.”
Keeping a polite smile on her face, Jiang Xia glanced at the unmistakable envy written all over Hu Wei’s face, then at the unwavering determination in Chief Wu’s eyes.
Instead of feeling honored by her superiors’ recognition, all she felt was overwhelming pressure.
Oh no… Chief Wu is absolutely determined to keep me from doing any more “research.”