My name is Li Shangwu.

I lied.

On May 22, 2010, my colleague and I received an assignment to stake out a fraud suspect.

This fraud suspect’s name was Zhang Huanan.

He was an extremely cunning person with multiple prior convictions.

What made things even more troublesome was that Zhang Huanan possessed exceptionally advanced counter-surveillance awareness. He had escaped police encirclement several times. In this latest fraud case, Zhang Huanan was also quickly listed as one of the key suspects, requiring my colleague and me to maintain surveillance day and night.

“Team Leader Li, want one?”

Little Liu pulled out my favorite Cordyceps cigarettes from his chest. He wasn’t a wealthy person, yet he always carried cigarettes that cost over fifty yuan. He usually didn’t smoke them himself, but would constantly offer me one.

“Little Liu, how much do you make per month?”

I didn’t take that cigarette. Instead, I pulled out Red General from my own pocket—eight yuan a pack, cheap and strong.

“Two thousand seven hundred,” Little Liu said. “Team Leader Li, don’t you already know?”

“You make two thousand seven hundred a month and smoke Cordyceps?” I put a General in my mouth, and Little Liu quickly offered his lighter.

“Team Leader Li, what are you saying…” Little Liu hurriedly smiled ingratiatingly. “How could I bear to smoke Cordyceps? I keep them for you…”

I shook my head helplessly and said to him, “We’re criminal police. Whoever can crack cases is the one who’s capable. Stop learning those workplace tactics.”

“Yes, yes, yes… Team Leader Li, you’re right.” Little Liu put the Cordyceps cigarettes back in his chest and pulled out a pack of six-yuan Changbai Mountain cigarettes. “Aren’t I learning how to work cases from you?”

To be honest, Little Liu was very clever and had good comprehension. Supposedly, he had always been at the top of his class in police academy, but I didn’t know how his parents had raised him. At such a young age, he had somehow learned all these greasy bureaucratic tricks. As soon as he joined the police force, he gave us veterans endless headaches.

“Team Leader Li, do you think we can actually stake out this Zhang Huanan?”

“Well…” I pondered briefly. “Why worry about that? The higher-ups told us to stake out here, so we just follow orders.”

We parked the car across the street from Zhang Huanan’s home, concentrating fully on watching the only entrance and exit.

This type of stakeout usually involved two-person teams so one person could rest and switch shifts. But we didn’t know how long we’d have to stake out here. This unknown torment would invisibly increase our cigarette cravings.

“I should have brought a pair of shorts…” Little Liu said.

“What for? Are you planning to change your shorts here, kid?”

“Haha!” Little Liu laughed carelessly. “Just kidding, Team Leader Li. Want another one?”

We smoked one cigarette after another in this enclosed space. Since we didn’t dare open the car windows, the interior quickly became shrouded in hazy smoke.

Little Liu turned on the air conditioning to ventilate every so often; otherwise, in this environment, the probability of lung cancer approached one hundred percent.

A full day passed, and neither of us had closed our eyes.

Due to my frequent all-nighters, I felt I could still hold on, but Little Liu was already drowsy.

“You rest for a while,” I said. “I’ll keep watch by myself.”

“Team Leader Li… would that be okay… You haven’t rested yet, how can I sleep first…” Though he was being stubborn with his words, his eyelids were already fighting each other.

“It’s fine. Go to sleep. I’ll call you tonight.”

“Then, then alright… I’ll just doze for half an hour…”

In less than twenty seconds, Little Liu’s snoring started up. It seemed the kid was exhausted.

After confirming he was sound asleep, I slowly pulled out my phone from my pocket and looked at the unread messages.

Of the four text messages, three were from Xuanxuan.

“Dad, are you coming home for dinner tonight?”

“Dad, Grandma said you’ve been out on a mission these past two days. You need to stay safe!”

“Dad, there’s a parent-teacher conference next Friday afternoon. Can you come back then?”

I frowned slightly, but still sent Xuanxuan a reply.

“I’ll be home in a couple days. Make sure you eat well.”

After sending it, I opened the fourth unread message.

That unknown number had sent just three words: “Still staking out?”

I glanced again at Little Liu sleeping soundly beside me, then shifted my body to the other side and quickly replied: “Stop fucking around. Stay hidden.”

After doing all this, I put away my phone, then slowly reclined my seat, preparing to doze off for a bit myself.

The team’s newly purchased car was actually quite high-end. This seat was electric and would recline slowly, not suddenly dropping back like the old cars that would make people throw out their backs.

As for staking out Zhang Huanan…

Don’t be ridiculous. With me here, he would never appear.

I don’t know how much time passed when I was suddenly jolted awake by violent shaking.

I opened my eyes in a panic to find Little Liu looking at me with a tense expression. “Team Leader Li!! How did you fall asleep too?!”

“Huh?” I was a bit confused having just woken up. It took me a while to understand what had happened. “Oh… you’re awake?”

“This is bad! Team Leader Li, we both fell asleep. What if that Zhang Huanan kid showed up?”

“It’s fine. He can’t escape,” I rubbed my eyes and returned the seat to its original position.

“Can’t escape?”

“Oh… I mean I just fell asleep recently. It shouldn’t be such a coincidence…”

“Sigh…” Little Liu still looked very uneasy. He forcefully slapped his own cheeks and said, “I told you I shouldn’t have slept. This is terrible. Making a mistake on my first mission.”

“It’s fine, kid.” I patted his shoulder. “If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility.”

Strangely enough, from that moment on, Little Liu seemed to be injected with adrenaline. He stayed awake for two consecutive days.

I slept several times in between, but every time I woke up, I could see Little Liu staring intently at the residential building across the street.

“Are you trying to die of exhaustion, kid?” I asked with some concern. “I’m awake now. You sleep for a while.”

“No.” Little Liu had very heavy dark circles under his eyes, and his whole person looked somewhat haggard. “Team Leader Li, no matter what this time, I won’t rest. I must wait until Zhang Huanan appears.”

Just then, my phone rang in my pocket.

Even though it was a Nokia 6300, its battery was now nearly depleted.

I opened my phone and saw that Zhang Huanan kid had actually sent me another text message.

I subtly turned my body to the side, wanting to see what he had sent, but Little Liu suddenly asked from behind me, “Orders from the team?”

“Oh, no.” I smiled and held my phone, dodging to the side.

“Not from the team? Then who sent it?” He stared blankly at the phone in my hand.

I knew that ordinary people wouldn’t ask such an impolite question. Little Liu was now somewhat dazed due to prolonged lack of sleep.

Seeing his condition, a plan immediately formed in my mind.

I reached into my pocket, moved the cigarettes from the cigarette box into my pocket, then pulled out the empty cigarette box and waved it in front of him.

“Little Liu, go buy a pack of cigarettes.”

“Buy cigarettes? There’s no convenience store nearby,” he said, stunned.

“But I don’t have a single cigarette left.” I tucked both the cigarette box and phone into my chest and said to him, “If there’s nothing nearby, go somewhere farther. Without cigarettes for such a long all-nighter won’t work. Plus, the bottled water and bread in the car are almost gone too. If it’s convenient, buy some of those as well.”

He stared blankly and thought for a moment, then nodded and said, “Alright, Team Leader Li. I’ll be right back.”