Ming Han turned sideways, amusement glinting in his eyes. “You care about me that much?”
Chen Zheng met his gaze. “Staying vigilant at all times is the least I can do to live up to this uniform.”
He said it in an exceedingly calm tone, but Ming Han’s eyes darkened. A few seconds later, he sat back. “I really was banished here. But you guessed half of it right. I didn’t do anything wrong. At least, I don’t think what I did was that serious.”
Chen Zheng smiled. “I could tell.”
Ming Han perked up. “Since you’re curious, I’ll tell you about it.”
Chen Zheng pretended to be reserved. “I’m not that curious.”
“You obviously are!” Ming Han raised his brows. “You couldn’t even stop yourself from asking!”
“…”
Ming Han began telling him how he had ended up “banished.”
Members of the Mobile Unit had relatively more freedom, but they were occasionally assigned tasks that had little to do with cases, such as temporary assignments teaching students at the police academy or exchanges with local units. Ming Han had no interest whatsoever in work like that. Fortunately, every time his superiors drew up the assignments, he happened to have an urgent case on his hands, so after all his years in the Mobile Unit, he had never once taken such an assignment.
During the first half of this year, his squad solved a fairly major case. Because the investigation had dragged on for so long, everyone was exhausted to varying degrees, so instead of immediately receiving a new assignment, the entire squad was given time to recuperate at headquarters. But recuperation was not vacation, and a few “easy” jobs were handed down. Around then, Ming Han’s eyelid kept twitching. He had the ominous feeling his turn was coming.
Sure enough, the police academy needed several young but experienced officers to train third-year students, and Ming Han was chosen.
“I’m not going.” He refused to Tang Xiaoli’s face, the head of the Mobile Unit.
Tang Xiaoli’s face darkened. “This is a normal work assignment. Since when is it up to you whether you go?”
“Employment is a two-way choice. I have the right to refuse.”
Tang Xiaoli said, “What’s so bad about going there to teach? Tell me. You spend the entire year running through gunfire and danger. I’m letting you rest for half a year, and you still have complaints? Do you know how many people outside the unit would fight for this opportunity?”
“Then let them go. Am I fighting them for it?” Ming Han said.
“You brat, nothing gets through that thick skull of yours!” Tang Xiaoli roared. “You think the police academy accepts just anyone from outside to train its students? Who takes responsibility if they’re taught badly?”
“And you think I’ll teach them well? Old Tang, do I look like teacher material to you? If you’re going to make me train students, you might as well send me to train police dogs!”
Tang Xiaoli was stubborn too. When he was younger, he might even have been more unruly than Ming Han. The more Ming Han refused to go, the more determined Tang Xiaoli became to make him go. If he still refused, he could stay confined and reflect on himself. They fought over it for an entire week, and Ming Han’s answer remained unchanged: he wasn’t going.
The police academy urgently needed personnel, but Tang Xiaoli did not dare force an unwilling officer over there merely to fill the position. If something went wrong with the students, the Mobile Unit would still be responsible. In the end, they could only tell the academy that Ming Han had another assignment coming up and therefore had no “availability.”
The academy was disappointed to hear that Ming Han had other work and had no choice but to give up.
Ming Han may have escaped the task of educating the next generation, but his punishment still arrived. Tang Xiaoli slapped the table. “Didn’t you say you’d rather train police dogs? Fine, go! If you can’t train them properly, don’t come back and show your face to me!”
Ming Han picked up the transfer order and took a look. Well, would you look at that. Zhuquan City Police Dog Breeding Center.
“Tsk.” He folded up the transfer order, looking remarkably accepting of the situation.
His captain, Cao Qiong, was furious on his behalf. “You can still laugh? The organization spent all these years training you so you could go raise dogs?”
“Captain Cao, listen to yourself. Those are police dogs. They’re our comrades-in-arms.” Ming Han said flippantly, “What, you look down on them? Your ideological awareness needs work.”
“You!” Cao Qiong was thoroughly fed up. “All right, stop screwing around. Old Tang just wants to teach you a lesson. He cares about you that much. You think he’d really send you off to Zhuquan? Go apologize to him right now. Be honest. Be sincere. You think he won’t forgive you? And now you don’t even have to go to the academy anymore. Stop fighting with Old Tang!”
Ming Han put away his joking manner. “This isn’t about whether I’m fighting with him. I disobeyed an order, so I deserve to be punished. If I get away with that, what are other people supposed to say about me? About Old Tang? About the Mobile Unit?”
Stars nearly burst before Cao Qiong’s eyes. “Now you know how to be sensible? What the fuck were you doing earlier?”
“I just don’t want to go to the police academy.”
Cao Qiong sided with his own subordinate. “Then tell me. Why don’t you want to go?”
“I already told Old Tang. I’m not cut out to train students. I don’t have that kind of patience, and I don’t have whatever quality it is that makes people instinctively willing to follow me.” Ming Han spoke seriously. “So if I went, I’d be wasting my own time and the students’.”
Cao Qiong rarely saw him looking so earnest and stared for a moment. Then he realized Ming Han was weaving lofty nonsense to fool him and smacked him hard on the back. “What the hell are you talking about, ‘qualities’? The police academy is full of green kids who haven’t seen anything yet. You’re one of the Mobile Unit’s core members. Forget all the achievements you’ve racked up over the years. Your presence alone could flatten them! The moment they heard who you were, you think they wouldn’t follow you? Why do you think the academy specifically asked for you? You think they can’t tell who their best choice is?”
Ming Han shook his head and uttered two words. “So shallow.”
Cao Qiong nearly spat blood.
“Whether kids genuinely want to follow someone doesn’t have much to do with that person’s reputation, or even necessarily their ability.” Ming Han rubbed the bridge of his nose as though thinking of some point of reference. “He only has to stand there and calmly introduce himself, and everyone quiets down and wants to follow him. I’m not him. I can’t do that. So I’d rather not go ruin a bunch of students.”
Cao Qiong was thoroughly confused. “Who are you talking about?”
Ming Han waved and headed for the door. “No one.”
“Get back here!” Cao Qiong hurled a folder toward the doorway. “Making up nonsense to fool me again, talking like you’ve actually seen it yourself!”
And so Tang Xiaoli failed to scold him back into line, Cao Qiong failed to persuade him back, and Ming Han packed his things. In the blink of an eye, one of the Mobile Unit’s elite had transformed into a professional shoveler of police-dog shit.
After hearing the story, Chen Zheng fell silent too. He thought for a moment. “You mean Han Province Police Academy in Tongzhou City?”
Han Province was large and home to many renowned universities, including Han Province Police Academy. Unlike most of the province’s highly ranked universities, however, the academy was not in the provincial capital, Luocheng, but in the industrial powerhouse of Tongzhou City. The temperament of the entire academy resembled that of Tongzhou itself: tough, decisive, iron-blooded.
Ming Han nodded. “Yeah. That one.”
Perhaps Chen Zheng had spent too many years in leadership positions. His thinking was similar to Tang Xiaoli’s and Cao Qiong’s, and he too felt Ming Han should have gone. It was a shortcut toward higher things, and passing practical experience on to students about to enter frontline work was also part of the responsibility borne by elite officers. It was undoubtedly beneficial to both sides. If one of his own people had refused for the same reason, Chen Zheng probably would have banished him somewhere to reflect too.
But ultimately, Chen Zheng was not part of the Mobile Unit, so he swallowed the lofty lecture sitting on the tip of his tongue and said only, “I taught students at the police academy once too. I was probably in a situation similar to yours at the time.”
The corners of Ming Han’s lips curled up. “Oh? When?”
Chen Zheng thought for a while. He clearly no longer remembered precisely. “Nine or ten years ago, I think. I stayed a little over three months.”
That period was nothing particularly significant in Chen Zheng’s police career. Looking back, it seemed only a minor interlude. But much of the reason he understood Tang Xiaoli and Cao Qiong was that he himself had benefited from being sent to the academy for experience. He knew perfectly well that they were thinking of Ming Han’s future, just as his own direct superior, Huo Pingfeng, had done for him back then.
Chen Zheng had still been very young but was already distinguishing himself at the municipal bureau. Success brought him more than praise. It brought even more voices of doubt. The brighter he shone, the heavier the responsibilities placed on him, the more missions he was assigned, and the more eyes watched him from every direction. Most of those gazes were scrutinizing, waiting to see when he would finally stumble.
Chen Zheng knew this perfectly well. He completed every assignment flawlessly and never gave the people waiting for him to fall what they wanted.
Even so, his age and lack of experience became convenient targets. For a period of time, rumors swept through the bureau that his smooth career was due entirely to his connections and family background, that his position exceeded his merit.
No matter how composed he was, hearing provocations like that again and again inevitably irritated him and began interfering with his work. The people waiting to see him embarrass himself had been waiting for exactly that moment. He came within a hair of confronting them head-on.
Huo Pingfeng called him into his office and said pleasantly, “Xiao Chen, I have an assignment for you.”
When Chen Zheng learned that his new assignment involved temporarily leaving the municipal bureau to teach at Han Province Police Academy, his eyes turned red with anger. What hot-blooded young criminal investigator did not want to remain on the front line? He had been doing perfectly well there and had not made a single mistake, yet suddenly he was being thrown somewhere to babysit students. Obviously someone was targeting him!
That was exactly what he thought at the time.
“Why? Which one of my assignments did I fail to complete?” he asked Huo Pingfeng, suppressing his anger. He restrained himself desperately, but looking back later, even he found the challenge embarrassing. “Or did someone pressure you? Do you have to deal with me? You know those are only rumors! I’m capable of staying with the detachment!”
Huo Pingfeng did not take offense. He remained mild. “Xiao Chen, you young people are always too straightforward. Sometimes knowing when to step out of the spotlight, retreating in order to advance, is something worth learning too. You know people are targeting you. If you stay with the detachment and keep fighting them head-on, what good does that do? You can’t concentrate on cases, and they spend every day watching you. The losses outweigh the gains.”
Chen Zheng could not hear a word of it. “But I didn’t do anything wrong! Why should I be the one to back down?”
Huo Pingfeng stared at him in silence for a long time. “Because one day, you’re going to be the one carrying the weight.”
Chen Zheng never received a clearer answer from Huo Pingfeng that day, while the date of his transfer drew steadily closer. He briefly considered going to his uncle, Lu Hejing, and demanding an explanation, but ultimately restrained himself. This was his own predicament. If Chen Zheng could not resolve it by relying on himself, then how was he any different from the man described in those rumors?
When he left the municipal bureau, it was difficult to suppress his resentment. Huo Pingfeng came to see him off, and Chen Zheng could not even force himself to look pleasant. Huo Pingfeng laughed and told him to work hard. A man going off to be a teacher could not keep wearing a dark expression at everyone. Chen Zheng paid no attention. Yet strangely enough, the moment he walked through the gates of the police academy and saw those young, high-spirited faces, he abruptly calmed down. Grievance and anger sank to the very bottom, supporting something else that rose above them: responsibility.
At the police academy, Chen Zheng clearly understood his own responsibility for the first time.
Back then, cooperation between the police academy and local police departments was not as frequent as it was now. Chen Zheng’s arrival was a stone thrown into a lake, raising enormous ripples. Compared with listening to academic instructors lecture, the students preferred listening to him ramble about real work. Whether he led practical exercises or case analyses, the room was always packed.
During his second month at the academy, Huo Pingfeng called and asked how he was adapting. Chen Zheng said, “Captain Huo, I understand why you sent me here now.”
Huo Pingfeng chuckled. “Oh?”
“Thank you.”
Temporarily leaving the municipal bureau had not only taken Chen Zheng away from conflict and doubt when he was lost, it had also given him another stage on which to prove himself. Time and perspective settled during this experience of being “banished.” Reviewing solved cases with his students even gave him new insights. All of these became bricks paving the road toward his future.
Huo Pingfeng burst into laughter. “No need to be so polite with me.”
Chen Zheng promised the students that he would take them on field placements during summer vacation, but after three months of teaching, he was recalled to the municipal bureau. A serial murder case spanning multiple cities was waiting for him. On the day he left the police academy, the students came to see him off and shouted, “Teacher Chen, after you solve the case, are you coming back to take us?”
The answer burst from him immediately. “As soon as I can!”
But Chen Zheng knew perfectly well that even if the case was solved at lightning speed, he was unlikely to return. Three months had already been long enough. The voices of discontent had faded. If he returned to the bureau and distinguished himself again, those prejudices would inevitably be crushed.
Half a month later, the real killer was arrested. Chen Zheng played a crucial role and personally fastened the handcuffs around the murderer’s wrists. Just as he had expected, praise drowned out the dissatisfaction surrounding him, and he truly became one of the municipal bureau’s indispensable young pillars.
It was only July, and the police academy’s summer placements had just begun. Chen Zheng considered going back to visit the students, but Huo Pingfeng smiled like a Maitreya Buddha. “Don’t look backward. Your road is ahead of you.”
That formally ended Chen Zheng’s work at the academy. The academy’s feedback erased the last remaining voices criticizing him. Every student evaluation was positive. Their only complaint was: “Teacher Chen said he’d come back. Why didn’t he come back? Scumbag!”
Those three months were like a distant wave decorating his career. Most of the time, Chen Zheng never thought about them at all, and the students’ faces had long since grown indistinct. Yet on the rare occasions when he remembered, the particular passion of youth always made him smile from the heart. Thinking about Ming Han’s choice now only made him feel more regretful.
Ming Han said, “Only three months? What can you teach in three months?”
“A lot.” Chen Zheng listed several things. Halfway through, he noticed something odd in Ming Han’s tone. “Why do you sound so dissatisfied?”
“Do I?” Ming Han’s face was all clear skies, hiding nothing.
Maybe I imagined it, Chen Zheng thought.
“For temporary academy assignments like yours, aren’t you supposed to take the students on field placements?” Ming Han asked. “Did you?”
“No.”
“Then you were derelict in your duty.” Ming Han delivered the verdict arbitrarily.
Chen Zheng opened his mouth to argue, but the image of the students seeing him off suddenly rose in his mind. He had… perhaps genuinely let them down.
Ming Han asked, “Why?”
Chen Zheng had been distracted. “Hm?”
“Why didn’t you take them?”
Chen Zheng did not intend to explain in detail. Instead, he asked, “If you know that temporary instructors are supposed to take students on field placements, that means you researched the assignment. And you still claim you weren’t interested?”
Ming Han stalled for a split second. “It’s precisely because I researched it that I couldn’t be bothered going. I told you, I don’t like noisy humans. Especially college boys. You have no idea how much energy they have. And they stink! I’d rather come here and serve dogs.”
Chen Zheng laughed. They had talked for so long about Han Province Police Academy, yet he still had not asked where Ming Han went to university. “Where did you study?”
Something flashed through Ming Han’s eyes, but Chen Zheng was not looking at him and naturally missed it. Only when Ming Han remained silent did Chen Zheng turn his head. By then, Ming Han had already recovered his careless expression.
“I thought you knew,” Ming Han said with a smile.
“What am I, a fortune-teller?”
“Han Province Police Academy specifically wanted me to teach. I thought you’d assume I graduated from there.”
Chen Zheng made a small sound. “That would be possible.” After a pause, he added, “But I don’t think where you graduated from has much to do with it. I didn’t graduate from there either.”
As he spoke, Chen Zheng looked Ming Han over again, as if deciding whether Ming Han might have studied at Han Province Police Academy. Judging by their ages, if Ming Han had been a student there, they might have crossed paths. Ming Han might even have attended one of his classes, though Chen Zheng had no memory of him.
“I didn’t either,” Ming Han said after their gazes briefly met.
Chen Zheng found that more reasonable. Otherwise, it would have been awkward if he simply could not remember him. “Then where did you study?”
“Me?” Ming Han laced his hands behind his head. “Lanshangou Police School.”
Chen Zheng stared. Where the hell was that? Why did it sound like some diploma mill?
“Hey, don’t look it up,” Ming Han said. “It was a diploma mill. Doesn’t even exist anymore. My educational background has always been a sore spot.”
Chen Zheng was dubious. On the one hand, Ming Han hardly seemed like someone burdened by any sore spot. On the other, he really did not resemble someone molded by a conventional academy.
“What about you?” Ming Han interrupted his thoughts.
“Me?” Chen Zheng said. “I went to Public Security University…”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk! Showing off now!” Ming Han dramatically spread his hands. “Yeah, yeah, we get it. Top student from Public Security University looking down on a street punk from a diploma mill.”
Chen Zheng was speechless. “Weren’t you the one who asked me where I studied?”
Ming Han squeezed out tears that did not exist. “Teacher Chen, what I mean is, I’ve already confessed why I was ‘banished’ to Zhuquan to shovel shit. Shouldn’t you confess why you transferred to the psychology institute?”
The corners of Chen Zheng’s lips gradually lowered. After a moment, he said, “The institute is pretty good. The workload isn’t heavy, and if cases from other cities haven’t been handled properly, we can serve as a final checkpoint. Look at what happened in Yafu City…”
“Hey, hey, hey! Stop!” Seeing that Chen Zheng was about to launch into a speech, Ming Han hurriedly made a time-out gesture. “I’ve been this sincere, and you’re still feeding me the official line?”
Yet Chen Zheng actually continued. “Same with your assignment this time. If the institute weren’t relatively idle, could I have helped you out and gotten the case solved so quickly, giving Beiye Sub-bureau and your Mobile Unit a satisfactory outcome?”
Ming Han: “…”
Chen Zheng finished speaking and took a sip of coffee.
Ming Han tried to grab his cropped hair, which was too short to grasp, and said helplessly, “Bro, who exactly was helping whom? You helping me or me helping you?”
Chen Zheng did not change expression. “Does it matter? Either way, we solved the case. Where are you going? I’ll drive you.”
“You’re really taking me?” Ming Han said. “The police dog center is pretty far.”
“You’re already sitting in my car. Why bother pretending to be polite now?”
“I bought you coffee, didn’t I?”
Traffic was smooth all the way. Chen Zheng stopped outside the police dog center. Ming Han said, “Since you’re already here, don’t you want to go pet some dogs?”
“Do your police-dog teammates know you treat them like pet dogs?”
“Don’t be so serious, Bro.” Ming Han had already unfastened his seat belt but made no move to get out. “You’re wound too tight. But really… Han Qu is already in the past.”
The instant he heard that name, Chen Zheng’s body went rigid. Several seconds later, he turned to his right. A trace of surprise he had failed to conceal remained in his eyes.
Ming Han raised both hands. “Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. I heard some things about what happened in Luocheng through the Mobile Unit.”
Chen Zheng’s tightly clenched fingers gradually relaxed, and his expression returned to normal. “It’s fine. It isn’t exactly a secret.”
“Han Qu was the one who made the mistake. Why are you blaming yourself?” A faint vein surfaced at Ming Han’s temple, yet no emotion could be heard in his voice. “You’re separate people.”
Chen Zheng did not answer.
Ming Han said, “Unless the two of you had some special relationship.”
“He was a close friend.” After saying it, Chen Zheng seemed to feel that even close friend was not enough to describe his relationship with Han Qu. “We were brothers.”
Ming Han studied Chen Zheng’s profile, his brows drawing together. But when he spoke, his expression had turned easy again. “That still has nothing to do with you. We stopped punishing nine generations of someone’s family a long time ago. Besides, you weren’t even brothers by blood.”
Chen Zheng gave a faint smile. “Not noticing his problem sooner was my responsibility.”
Ming Han sounded faintly impatient. “How does that become your responsibility?”
Chen Zheng was immersed in what had happened back then and did not notice Ming Han’s reaction. “I was captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment. If I stood in that position, I was supposed to see what my people couldn’t. I was supposed to shoulder more responsibility. For someone else, misjudging a person might be only a mistake. For me, it was failure.”
The car was silent for several minutes before Ming Han said, “You people…”
He did not finish. Chen Zheng waited a moment, then turned toward him again. “What about us?”
“You people have had smooth sailing since the day you were born. You’ve never suffered a real setback, so you grab things that were never your responsibility and pile them on your own shoulders. Aren’t you tired?” Ming Han said. “Someone like me, who’s been through plenty of setbacks, doesn’t give a damn. Your brother is your brother. You’re you. You’re not his dad.”
It should have been a heavy conversation, but perhaps Ming Han’s voice was too loud and his attitude too cocky. Chen Zheng actually felt like laughing.
Ming Han’s gaze dropped to the corner of his mouth. “Bro, look at you. I’ve already talked you into smiling. What are you still holding yourself so tight for?”
Chen Zheng ultimately did not laugh. “What are you acting so wise for now? Fine. Tell me what setbacks you’ve been through, since you’re sitting there so brazenly giving me a lesson.”
Ming Han waved both hands. “You’ve already tricked enough out of me today. Not telling you anything else. I’m off to shovel shit.” With that, he pushed open the car door.
Chen Zheng thought he was leaving, but Ming Han stopped halfway through closing the door. Suddenly, he bent down and said, “Bro, how about you take me as a brother? I’ve called you Bro so many times already.”
Chen Zheng instinctively said, “No…”
Ming Han ignored his refusal and simply drowned him out with a louder voice. “Being my brother comes with tons of benefits. You can use the Mobile Unit’s resources whenever you want. You accidentally found out just now that Old Tang and Old Cao might be fierce, but they’ve got nothing bad to say about me. And I’m a reliable brother. I definitely won’t screw up and make you take the blame.”
Without waiting for Chen Zheng to react, Ming Han slammed the car door shut with a bang.
For a very long time, the word brother had seemed embedded in Chen Zheng’s nerves and blood. Whenever he thought of it, negative emotions surged like a raging sea. Yet this time, it was as though an invisible wind had passed over that boiling ocean and calmed it.
After a moment, Chen Zheng abruptly pushed open the door, intending to call Ming Han back. Ming Han was already far away. Perhaps he heard the car door open, because he raised his right hand and waved with easy confidence.
At that moment, Chen Zheng remembered the boys from the police academy. Arrogant. Cocky. And yet when he left, every one of them had shouted louder than the next, hoping he would come back.