Chen Zheng had been in Zhuquan City for almost a year, yet he had never been to this alley. It looked shabby and run-down, but there were plenty of customers. Ming Han greeted the staff like an old regular, rattled off an order, then handed Chen Zheng the menu. Chen Zheng looked it over, decided they had enough, and added nothing. “Earlier, you said…”
Ming Han said, “Bro, we’re eating. You still want to talk about work?”
Chen Zheng nodded. Fair enough. Their part of the investigation was already over. Hao Le was a member of Heaven-Measuring Ruler, Mr. Jin’s identity remained shrouded in mystery, and Han Qu might have countless ties to Heaven-Measuring Ruler. But so what? They were not in a position to investigate Heaven-Measuring Ruler right now.
The hotpot broth arrived quickly, and the dishes followed just as fast. Although the restaurant was packed and every table kept adding orders, the owner still managed everything in perfect order. Ming Han brought over two dishes of dipping sauce. Chen Zheng tried a slice of kidney. Maybe it really was delicious, or maybe the food simply comforted his empty stomach, but the restlessness pressing at the bottom of his heart eased for the moment. “This is good.”
Ming Han smiled. “Right? A place this hard to find, tucked away in an old alley, and still this crowded? It has to be special.”
Chen Zheng chatted idly with him. “How did you find it?”
Ming Han turned mysterious. “Can’t tell you.”
Chen Zheng was curious. “What’s so secret about that?”
“If you knew, you’d start finding places yourself from now on,” Ming Han said. “Then I wouldn’t be able to surprise you anymore.”
Chen Zheng picked up a piece of lamb, put it in his bowl, and mixed it with the dipping sauce. He was not particularly interested in food. If someone brought him to a place that was delicious but hard to find, he would happily try it while he was there. If no one brought him, he certainly could not be bothered hunting it down himself. Worst case, he simply would not eat there. So Ming Han’s premise did not hold at all.
When a little less than half the food remained, Ming Han put down his chopsticks. “Bro, remember when I said I hoped that one day you’d open your heart to me?”
Chen Zheng’s hand paused. Of course he remembered. Ming Han had said it not long after arriving, but back then, Ming Han had only been someone a little unusual to him. No matter how close he came, Chen Zheng had never considered telling him what had happened in Luocheng.
And yet earlier, in the car, he had simply told him, as naturally as that. Ming Han had listened just as calmly. Chen Zheng spoke, and Ming Han listened, never asking anything that would embarrass him. When Chen Zheng sank too deeply into his memories, Ming Han reminded him that enough was enough and dragged him here to try this delicious meal hidden in an alley.
“I won’t betray you. Whether there are extenuating circumstances or not, whether it’s really betrayal or there’s something else behind it.” Ming Han flashed a bright smile. “Next time you feel like talking, put me first in line.”
Looking at that smile, Chen Zheng could not help letting the corners of his own mouth curve upward. “Is that supposed to be some great assignment?”
Ming Han shrugged. “It’s exactly my kind of thing.”
Chen Zheng went home and slept well. The next day, he interrogated Hao Le again. Because of that unsupported thought in his mind, Chen Zheng showed Hao Le a photograph of Han Qu. Hao Le asked blankly, “Who’s this?”
Chen Zheng said, “Look carefully. Have you ever seen him?”
Hao Le said with certainty, “No. Who is he?”
Chen Zheng frowned. “Someone who might be connected to the Mr. Jin you mentioned.”
At the words Mr. Jin, Hao Le’s back went rigid on reflex, as though that omnipotent man were watching him.
Chen Zheng asked, “How many different Mr. Jins have you met altogether?”
Hao Le looked deeply uncomfortable. “At least… at least three. Mr. Jin is only a designation, like a messenger for certain important people higher up. Someone like me could never get anywhere near the core. Being able to deal with a Mr. Jin at all was already something.”
The more Chen Zheng asked, the more he understood why Heaven-Measuring Ruler had never considered rescuing Hao Le and his subordinates once they were at risk of exposure. Even someone like Hao Le, who had been carefully cultivated, was only scraps at the edge of the organization, disposable at any time.
At this point, the Zhuquan police had done everything they could. Beiye Sub-bureau finished organizing the case files, which would soon be sent to Luocheng along with Hao Le and the other arrested suspects. Chen Zheng returned to the institute. Xu Chuan eagerly asked about the case, but Chen Zheng had little enthusiasm and drifted off halfway through telling him about it.
“Director Chen, I have a feeling.” Xu Chuan was young, yet spoke with the air of a seasoned veteran. “Our institute isn’t going to be able to keep you much longer.”
Chen Zheng came back to himself. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
“It’s not nonsense.” Xu Chuan scratched the back of his head. “Even right now, your heart isn’t really at the institute. Open parenthesis, I’m not criticizing you, close parenthesis.”
Chen Zheng smiled. “We’re talking face-to-face. You don’t have to patch every sentence like you’re chatting with people online, do you?”
Xu Chuan widened his eyes. “Director Chen, you even know what ‘patching’ means?”
Chen Zheng was speechless. “What do you think I am, some old cadre who spends all day drinking tea and reading the newspaper without knowing anything happening outside?”
Xu Chuan laughed for a while, then grew serious. “I don’t know how far this case reaches, but someone like Captain Kong, who insists on doing everything himself, was willing to transfer the case to Luocheng. That means it’s definitely beyond what Zhuquan City can handle. Director Chen, if you want to go, then go. We’re here in Zhuquan City. Besides, you wouldn’t only be going for yourself. You’d be helping eliminate the danger sooner!”
Xu Chuan was like a blazing sun that never tired. The moment he finished encouraging Chen Zheng, he was called out on fieldwork. Chen Zheng sat alone for a while and thought about why he had left Luocheng and why he had come here. At the root of it, his psychological problems had grown severe enough back then to interfere with his work. The knot in his heart was still there now, but he seemed to have found a way to untie it.
Before going to Luocheng, there were some procedures to complete, along with loose ends to tie up at both the institute and Beicheng Sub-bureau. Chen Zheng used the time to go see Lü Ou.
Lü Ou had almost fully recovered physically and was in good spirits, but when he mentioned his missing mother, Xu Hetang, a melancholy far beyond his age appeared in his eyes again. “I’ve been thinking about it over and over these past few days, and that blurry feeling seems clearer now. Officer Chen, my mom has been gone for so long, but I never once dreamed about her. Don’t people say that what you think about during the day becomes what you dream about at night? I missed her so much and still never dreamed of her, so that rule obviously doesn’t apply to me, right? Which means when I did dream about her, it wasn’t because I was thinking about her. She really came.”
The unidentified footprint in the tattoo shop pointed toward Xu Hetang, but as a police officer, Chen Zheng could not carelessly give the boy in front of him hope. “Captain Kong and I will keep investigating.”
Lü Ou brightened. “I’ll keep investigating too!”
Chen Zheng smiled and patted his head. “You’ll be taking the college entrance exam next year. A student should still focus on studying. Stop obsessing over being a campus detective.”
Lü Ou protested, “Campus detectives can make something of themselves too.”
“Hm?” Chen Zheng did not quite understand. How had this suddenly become about making something of himself?
Lü Ou said, “Ming Han is my goal!”
Chen Zheng said, “If he’s your goal, shouldn’t you work even harder? He went to school, took his exams properly, and only then became a police officer.”
Lü Ou cut in, “But he used to be a campus detective too!”
Chen Zheng raised an eyebrow. “Hm?”
“He told me himself. When he was in middle school, he was the famous campus detective at his school. He even helped some rookie intern who came to investigate a case solve it, and that was what put him on the path to becoming a police officer. I helped you guys solve a case too, didn’t I? And my case was way bigger than his back then, so I’m definitely going to turn out even more accomplished than him.”
“That logic of yours…” Chen Zheng suddenly became extremely curious about Ming Han’s days as a campus detective. Back when Ming Han had told him Lü Ou was a campus detective, every bit of disdain had been written on his face. Chen Zheng had assumed Ming Han looked down on children playing at this kind of thing, only to discover Ming Han himself had once been a campus detective.
What was that supposed to be? I grew up, so now I look down on my younger self?
“Did he tell you what kind of case he investigated?” Chen Zheng remembered that he still did not know where Ming Han had gone to school and added, “Where did he attend middle school?”
“Nanshan City, but he didn’t say which school. That case…”
Chen Zheng’s pupils contracted almost imperceptibly. In his memory, a blurry little figure not even a meter and a half tall slowly emerged from the fog, growing taller and stronger until, by the time he stood in front of Chen Zheng, he was already quite a bit taller than him, no longer the little radish with the pageboy haircut from back then.
That child had actually been Ming Han?
And Ming Han called him a rookie intern?
Lü Ou embellished the story he had heard from Ming Han with gusto. Since Ming Han had been the previous storyteller, naturally Ming Han was the protagonist. Lü Ou put himself in Ming Han’s shoes and practically turned him into Sherlock Holmes, while the police became a collection of mediocre fools whose only purpose was to make Ming Han look brilliant.
By the time Chen Zheng had listened for a while, he could not help laughing. “Ming Han told you that much?”
Lü Ou looked a little embarrassed. He said that while he had been in the hospital recently, both his body and his mood had been in bad shape. Thinking about his mother, who had vanished and then suddenly appeared again, only made him more miserable. Ming Han had visited him once and told him about his own days as a campus detective. “I know he was trying to encourage me. I misjudged him before. He’s actually pretty nice.”
After leaving Lü Ou’s home, Chen Zheng felt an urge to catch Ming Han and “interrogate” him, but because of orders from the Mobile Unit, Ming Han had already returned to Luocheng ahead of him.
Even after leaving, though, Ming Han still managed to “find work” for him. He called and said he had bought shoes for his darlings at the police dog center. They had just arrived, and he had not had time to pick them up.
Chen Zheng sighed. Apparently he would have to make a trip.
He picked up the package from the parcel station, and the moment he opened it, he laughed. It was full of tiny shoes in all kinds of styles, ridiculously cute. Ming Han really was an unqualified dog trainer. When he had first arrived, he had gone to the police dog center every few days, but lately he had barely visited at all. Only after leaving did he suddenly remember to send the police dogs gifts.
Police dogs recognized people. Perhaps they smelled traces of their “big brother” on Chen Zheng, because every one of them came running over with tails wagging. The supervisor who had introduced Chen Zheng and Ming Han the last time walked over smiling. Chen Zheng pointed to the shoes in the bag. “Ming Han asked me to bring these over. Can they wear them for a bit?”
The supervisor looked delighted. “Sure! But only for fun for a little while. They still have to train with bare paws.”
Chen Zheng said, “No problem. They only need to wear them long enough for Ming Han to see.”
Chen Zheng sat down on the grass. The police dogs crowded around curiously, sniffing and nudging his hands. He took the opportunity to catch the most enthusiastic one and slipped the shoes onto its paws. The dog apparently thought he was giving it a scratch and happily rolled over to show its belly. Only after all four shoes were on did it realize its feet no longer felt like its own.
Awo? Awooo?
The imposing German Shepherd, now wearing little pink floral shoes, somehow could not put all four paws on the ground at once. It lifted one side, then the other, as if being shocked by electricity, while Chen Zheng laughed and took pictures. The other police dogs crowded around too, entirely unaware of the danger as they nudged Chen Zheng’s hands. Chen Zheng put the remaining shoes on them, and in an instant, a whole squad of “idiot” comrades had sprouted across the lawn.
The supervisor doubled over laughing. “You guys really know how to have fun!”
Before long, the police dogs finally adjusted and went racing happily across the grass. Once they had played enough, Chen Zheng and the supervisor took the little shoes off together. The supervisor put them away, grinning. “Thank Ming Han for me. I’ll put them on them often from now on!”
The trip left Chen Zheng feeling thoroughly relaxed.
Two days later, Chen Zheng drove to Luocheng with the Zhuquan City detectives. The car door opened, and the cold air swiftly condensed around him into an invisible cocoon. Looking at streets that had once been more familiar than anything, Chen Zheng lost himself for a moment. When he left last year, he had thought he would never return here because of work.
A heavy hand slapped his shoulder. Chen Zheng turned and saw Kong Bing frowning at him. “Feeling timid now that you’re back home, Captain Chen?”
Back then, being called Captain Chen by Kong Bing had sounded sarcastic. Hearing it now, it was only a joke between teammates. Chen Zheng slapped him back without mercy. “Yeah. That’s what happens to cultured people like us.”
Kong Bing clicked his tongue. “Who are you calling uncultured?”
Hao Le’s case was being transferred directly to the Provincial Public Security Department and had little to do with the Luocheng Municipal Public Security Bureau, but as soon as Chen Zheng arrived at the Provincial Department, he still ran into plenty of familiar faces.
“Xiao Chen, you’re back.” Huo Pingfeng, deputy director of the municipal bureau and Chen Zheng’s direct superior, was the man who had signed off on Chen Zheng’s transfer to Zhuquan City the year before.
Huo Pingfeng was in his fifties and had long since stepped away from frontline investigation. Much of the stubborn sharpness of an old-school criminal investigator had faded from him, and now he simply looked like an amiable middle-aged man. The last time he had failed to hold his temper had been when Chen Zheng was about to leave for the institute.
Chen Zheng could not help feeling conflicted. Huo Pingfeng had promoted him and looked after him many times, yet in the end Chen Zheng had still disappointed this director who was both mentor and friend.
“Director Huo, long time no see. Have you been well?” Chen Zheng greeted him seriously and politely, feeling a trace of awkwardness. He had always been excellent at dealing with his superiors. Why, now that he was back, did even a simple greeting come out so stiffly?
Huo Pingfeng looked at him for a moment, a hint of scrutiny in his gaze. Just as Chen Zheng was trying to think of something else to say, Huo Pingfeng suddenly smiled. “You went to Zhuquan City and somehow learned to live a little more easily.”
Chen Zheng froze. More easily? Had he?
Huo Pingfeng sighed, sounding unexpectedly relieved. “Xiao Chen, you used to keep yourself wound too tight. You wanted to cover every angle. When you were seeing a doctor last year, I reflected on whether I had set a bad example for all of you. But there’s actually no easy answer to that question. Do you know why?”
Chen Zheng had not expected Huo Pingfeng to start speaking heart-to-heart with him the moment he returned, much less had time to think about the question thrown at him so abruptly.
Huo Pingfeng was not really testing him. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, “Because this position inherently requires the person sitting in it to stay tense every moment. You can’t collapse, and neither can I.” Then his tone shifted and he became genial again. “Looks like your time in Zhuquan City wasn’t wasted. Since you’re back, regroup and get back in the fight.”
“I…” Chen Zheng said, “Director Huo, I’m not planning to come back yet.”
There was no surprise on Huo Pingfeng’s face. He only looked at him calmly.
“This case in Zhuquan City is connected to Heaven-Measuring Ruler. As someone who participated in the investigation, I want to learn more about the organization,” Chen Zheng said. “The clues Zhuquan City has may also help with whatever the Provincial Department plans to do next.”
After listening, Huo Pingfeng smiled. “That’s good enough.”
Chen Zheng said, “Good?”
Huo Pingfeng said, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to come back. We can try working together first.”
“Bro, why didn’t you tell me you were here?” Ming Han’s voice cut in. Chen Zheng and Huo Pingfeng turned at the same time. Huo Pingfeng said, “Already got yourself a little brother, have you?”
Ming Han said, “Director Huo.”
Huo Pingfeng smiled and nodded. “You two talk. Come to the conference room in a bit.”
Chen Zheng noticed another man standing behind Ming Han, an unfamiliar face he had never seen before, probably one of the Mobile Unit’s leaders. Huo Pingfeng walked over and exchanged a few words with the man. Chen Zheng could not hear what they were saying. All he could hear was Ming Han beside him. “Sit with our Mobile Unit later.”
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “I should sit with Captain Kong and the others.”
“No way.” Maybe returning to his own turf had made Ming Han stand a little straighter. “We haven’t seen each other in so long. You have to sit next to me.”
Chen Zheng laughed. “It’s only been a few days. You want us together so we can whisper during the meeting?”
“You’re attending a serious meeting and already planning to whisper?” The unfamiliar man walked over. “And this is?”
“Our boss, Old Tang.” Ming Han did not rein himself in even slightly in front of his superior, which suggested the Mobile Unit’s “workplace discipline” could use some improvement.
“You can’t even introduce me properly by name?” Old Tang held out a hand to Chen Zheng. “Tang Xiaoli. The Mobile Unit handles unusual assignments, so I don’t spend much time in Luocheng. There are plenty of things here I’m not familiar with. I hope Captain Chen will help me out.”
Chen Zheng took the offered hand. “You’re too polite, Captain Tang.”
Tang Xiaoli’s palm was rough, and the gun callus was especially obvious. The instant Chen Zheng shook his hand, he knew this was a man who had spent years carrying out important operations. Yet Tang Xiaoli kept his presence remarkably restrained. Wearing the same uniform as everyone else at the Provincial Department, he looked almost like an ordinary desk officer.
Special units were full of unusual people, so Chen Zheng was not surprised that Ming Han’s superior was like this. After a few pleasantries, Ming Han promptly “sent” Tang Xiaoli away. Watching Tang Xiaoli’s back, Chen Zheng said, “He doesn’t look like someone who’d throw you into a police dog center.”
Ming Han immediately complained, “Don’t be fooled by how pleasant Old Tang usually looks. When he gets angry, he’s a complete tyrant! Said I had no respect for organization or discipline and absolutely had to go learn obedience from the police dogs!”
Chen Zheng laughed. Ever since learning that the campus detective from Nanshan City had been Ming Han, he could not look at Ming Han without thinking of that short little kid with the pageboy haircut. Such a cute child. How had even his hair grown so prickly when he got older?
Chen Zheng wanted to ask about the campus-detective business and was very curious to see Ming Han’s reaction, but this was obviously not the time. An actual desk officer came over to call them in, saying the meeting was about to begin.
Chen Zheng had been to the Provincial Department’s conference room many times. Reaching the doorway, he instinctively started to head left. In the past, when he attended as captain of the municipal bureau’s Criminal Investigation Detachment, he had almost always sat on the left. Ming Han, however, grabbed his wrist. “We agreed you’re sitting with us.”
The Mobile Unit’s seats were on the right, with Tang Xiaoli in the front row. When Tang Xiaoli saw Chen Zheng, he gave him a friendly wave.
Chen Zheng followed Ming Han over. Only as he sat down did he catch the look shooting at him from the left. Kong Bing glared as if to say: Your official posting is still in Zhuquan City!
Chen Zheng lowered his head and smiled. These little interruptions eased some of the unease he felt at returning to the Provincial Department. He had hidden it well throughout the journey, appearing calm and emotionally steady, but he knew perfectly well that he was nowhere near as composed as he looked. This was once the place where he had shone brightest. Yet because of his close relationship with Han Qu, it was also where he had been questioned again and again.
The conference room gradually filled and quieted down, and the turmoil inside him slowly receded like a tide. He looked toward the front and took a deep breath.
Everything in the past was still there. It might even come surging back. And he had returned precisely to face whatever was about to return.
The focus of the meeting was Heaven-Measuring Ruler. As the officer in charge of Hao Le’s case, Kong Bing gave a detailed account of the Zhuquan police investigation from beginning to end. Chen Zheng knew every detail. While Kong Bing spoke, his attention was not on him, but on the senior officials of the Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Mobile Unit, on Tang Xiaoli, and on Yu Xingzhong, director of the Provincial Department’s Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Clearly, neither of them was surprised that Heaven-Measuring Ruler had developed this far within Han Province. They had to possess far more intelligence than local criminal investigators did.
Chen Zheng was not familiar with Yu Xingzhong. The previous director of the Provincial Department’s Criminal Investigation Bureau had been his maternal uncle, Lu Hejing. Although they all worked in criminal investigation, Chen Zheng had not dealt much with the bureau while he was at the Luocheng Municipal Public Security Bureau. He had barely been “familiar” with Lu Hejing, let alone Yu Xingzhong.
Thinking of Lu Hejing, he instinctively scanned the attendees but did not see him. Ever since stepping back from frontline duties, Lu Hejing had practically disappeared. To this day, Chen Zheng still did not know why he had stepped back.
After Kong Bing finished his report, Yu Xingzhong acknowledged the effort Zhuquan City had put into the series of cases, then said, “We did receive some intelligence about Heaven-Measuring Ruler earlier, but it was fragmentary. We knew it had begun operating in Han Province long ago, yet it was difficult to determine exactly what it was doing or what its objectives were. Only when something happens, as it did in your case, and we manage to arrest people can we clarify the details. That information imbalance is our disadvantage. But whatever else, we’ve finally caught hold of one corner it exposed. Next, Captain Tang will brief us on what we already know about Heaven-Measuring Ruler.”
Chen Zheng could not help straightening his back. His heart pounded violently in his chest, as though trying to knock open the tightly closed door in front of him.
Tang Xiaoli stood and shed the joking manner he had used with his subordinate earlier. “Reliable intelligence shows that Heaven-Measuring Ruler is a criminal organization that originated in Country K. Its earliest activities can be traced back twenty years. As everyone knows, cults are widespread in Country K. Heaven-Measuring Ruler originally began as a cult that recruited followers and collected offerings from them.”
At the word cult, Chen Zheng’s fingers tightened instantly. Qiusai had also been a cult. After gaining a large number of followers, it had gradually transformed into a terrorist organization. Looking at it now, Qiusai seemed somewhat like an incompletely developed Heaven-Measuring Ruler, an embryonic version of it.
Tang Xiaoli continued. Heaven-Measuring Ruler had grown step by step on the money it collected. There was no conclusive evidence, but several serial murder cases in Country K more than ten years ago might have been connected to the organization, and all of the victims had been followers who donated the most money. Afterward, Heaven-Measuring Ruler transformed into a criminal organization engaged in smuggling, drug trafficking, and assassination, with members spread across the world.
Because Heaven-Measuring Ruler had not been especially active domestically, the police had found very few clues. For years, they had known only that the organization was infiltrating the country, while remaining unable to determine what its next move would be.
The cases in Zhuquan City showed that Heaven-Measuring Ruler had already put down very deep roots domestically. It simply had not launched operations on a large scale yet.
Chen Zheng suddenly said, “Heaven-Measuring Ruler expanded here from Country K. Over the past several years, then, it must have had more than one local proxy who understood conditions on the ground.”
Tang Xiaoli looked at Chen Zheng and was silent for a moment. “Yes. According to the intelligence we have, the Heaven-Measuring Ruler currently active in Han Province actually has little connection left to the organization in Country K. It’s another poisonous strain that grew out of the Country K Heaven-Measuring Ruler.”
Chen Zheng could not stop himself from thinking of Han Qu. When Han Qu’s “body” disappeared back then, the only explanation was that a third-party force had gotten to him before the police arrived and taken him away.
A sudden chill ran through Chen Zheng. If the Mobile Unit had known about Heaven-Measuring Ruler all along, then why had the Provincial Department only reacted now, after Heaven-Measuring Ruler had already committed crimes in Zhuquan and one of its own members had spoken the organization’s name aloud?
Was that normal? Of course not.
Chen Zheng frowned, his gaze on Tang Xiaoli growing increasingly searching. Then, as he shifted his eyes, he suddenly noticed Yu Xingzhong watching him too.
Officially, the meeting was meant to review Hao Le’s case and exchange what each side knew about Heaven-Measuring Ruler. But with so many people present, some intelligence was never going to be discussed openly, and the Provincial Department had concerns of its own. In the end, the information Kong Bing’s side received was broad and general. Even so, Kong Bing and the others were extremely excited.
Chen Zheng, however, remained deep in thought. After the meeting, Ming Han followed behind him. “Bro, why are you frowning again?”
Chen Zheng had not yet sorted out what was in his mind, and this was not the time to lay everything bare. But when he turned and saw Ming Han’s eyes in the sunset, his reservations dissolved into the golden light.
“I think Captain Tang and Director Yu are hiding something very important.”