At this moment, Liu Baocheng’s daughter burst out from her room and saw her father standing in the living room with a strange look on his face. She couldn’t help but feel puzzled: "Dad, why are you standing here? Aren’t you going to the station today?"

Upon seeing his daughter, Liu Baocheng’s expression softened a bit, and he smiled: "I am going, I’ll leave in a bit. What plans do you have today?"

The little girl pouted and gave Liu Baocheng a sidelong glance, saying: "I just told you yesterday, how could you forget? Today’s my good friend’s birthday. Her family is throwing her a party, and I’m going to her birthday banquet later. If you don’t have anything urgent, could you drive me there?"

"No problem." Liu Baocheng agreed without much thought. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he turned to ask his daughter, "What’s that classmate’s name again?"

"Xie Sha, she’s been to our house. Did you forget? Her dad was the one who gave a speech on behalf of the parents at our last parent-teacher meeting." The little girl was quite dissatisfied with her father’s indifferent attitude, and couldn’t help but pout her lips.

A flash of clarity suddenly hit Liu Baocheng’s mind. Instantly realizing something, he quickly turned around and eagerly asked:

"Is her dad that director of the power bureau, Xie Chengting?!"

The Liu family’s little girl pursed her lips and thought for a few seconds, then said rather unsurely, "I think so, but I’m not too sure. But I heard Xie Sha mention that her dad seems to be with the power bureau. Dad, why are you asking?"

Liu Baocheng’s expression turned ashen for a moment. After a brief silence, he suddenly took out his phone and called a junior officer under him: "Xiao Zhu, are you at the wharf now? What’s the situation over there? Tell me everything in detail."

It was unclear what was said on the other end of the line, but Liu Baocheng’s face instantly turned deathly pale, his eyes grew increasingly dark, and finally filled with rage, his entire body trembled uncontrollably.

He finally understood what Xie Chengting meant when he called earlier, saying that as a mere local police station chief, he couldn’t handle it. Over ten million, even selling him wouldn’t be worth that much. Jiang Weide was clearly using him as a pawn. If he really did it, he was afraid his position as chief would be finished!

With this realization, Liu Baocheng immediately made a decision, saying to the junior officer on the phone:

"Xiao Zhu, investigate this as you should. I’ll call higher-ups to send a task force down for this case. We can’t handle this; let the higher-ups deal with it! Until then, just keep that Jiang guy steady and let the power bureau handle the other matters. Don’t get involved!"

After saying that, Liu Baocheng hung up the phone. He then urgently called higher-ups to report the situation at the Fish Market Wharf. The other side felt something was suspicious upon hearing this and immediately decided to investigate personally.

Even the director was coming down. Liu Baocheng couldn’t afford any delay. He didn’t even have time to drive his daughter to the birthday party. He turned around, his expression heavy as he said to his daughter:

"Xiao Jing, it’s best you take a taxi to the birthday party. Dad has an emergency, something very urgent, and I must handle it right away. I’ll personally pick you up from the Xie Family after I’m done, alright?"

The Liu family’s little girl was somewhat displeased but understood that her father’s work was more important than attending a classmate’s birthday party. So, although unhappy, she just pursed her lips and reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Without delay, Liu Baocheng grabbed his car keys and ran outside. By the time he arrived at the Fish Market Wharf, officials from the police bureau were already there, including Director Chang Linjun, who was on-site inspecting with several electricians.

Upon seeing Liu Baocheng, several junior officers seemed a bit at a loss and hurried over, giving him a cautious glance: "Chief Liu."

Liu Baocheng waved his hand, saying: "It’s alright, I was the one who notified Director Chang to bring people over. Let them investigate this case. Where is Jiang Weide?"

Xiao Zhu pointed to the cold storage area: "After Director Chang arrived, he talked with the Jiang guy for a bit, then had two detectives take him into the office inside. They’re probably reviewing the cold storage’s transaction records."

Liu Baocheng nodded and didn’t say much, but instructed a few subordinates to keep an eye on the site and act smartly.

With the detectives joining in, the investigation speed increased significantly. Jiang Weide likely realized that things were getting out of his control and panicked a bit. He picked up his phone to call his patron, but with so many people watching, he hesitated. He could only pull out his phone to send a text to his wife, hoping she would quickly contact his father-in-law.

The feedback from the power bureau also came back, recording that the cold storage had consumed over 13.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in a month. Moreover, the electricity indeed came from the cold storage’s dedicated cables, with no leakage or other line faults, and the meter was intact, proving that this electricity was consumed by the cold storage.

The criminal investigation department reviewed all surveillance of the cold storage from last night until shortly after 4 a.m., according to the power bureau’s feedback, during the hours when power consumption peaked and fluctuated most distinctly. If there were any anomalies, it should be during this timeframe.

However, no matter how they reviewed the footage, enlarging each frame to watch, they couldn’t find any anomalies. The distribution box hadn’t been tampered with, and everything inside the cold storage appeared normal. The only slightly odd thing was a tiny scratch on the exterior of the cable near the distribution box, but it was nearly invisible unless observed closely. Soon, detectives concluded it was unrelated to the case.

Meanwhile, another team of officers investigated the financial records of the cold storage and found significant issues. Not only were the cables and meters fishy, but they also discovered a hidden line on the side wall of the cold storage that wasn’t connected via power bureau-provided meters!

No one knew how last night’s over ten million kilowatt-hours were consumed, but it’s undeniable that Jiang Weide’s cold storage had definitely been stealing electricity, leaving him no room for denial!

In fact, power disputes frequently occur between the power bureau, some factories, and regular citizens, especially in rural or remote areas where electricity theft is not uncommon. Despite such frequent occurrences, the power bureau feels helpless but can only catch them in the act due to a lack of evidence.

However, this time, Jiang Weide had brought it upon himself, with over 13 million kilowatt-hours mysteriously disappearing overnight. No matter how much Jiang Weide tried to deny or argue, the power bureau was not about to swallow this loss quietly.