Ah Si still remembered the scene when he first met Xu Xingchun.

It was a rainy day, and everywhere seemed to be shrouded in a layer of fog. He came walking with a dull-toned black umbrella, his hair jet black, tall and thin, with a kind of cold, refined air about him.

It was said that originally he was filling in for someone, but that afternoon, Xu Xingchun discovered two major cases involving tens of thousands of grams at the port. Later, the leadership personally intervened and had him transfer to narcotics enforcement just like that.

Probably in the second year, the bureau received news that drug traffickers abroad had an inside informant collect and photograph all the police officers’ photos and names from the branch office’s public information board to establish a database.

Actually, they had already ferreted out the mole, but to avoid alerting the enemy, they prepared to use this to their advantage. People from the border defense department were easily exposed, so they needed to transfer people from outside. Thus, Ah Si and Xu Xingchun were selected.

The night before the mission, they signed life-and-death waivers. As night fell, Ah Si tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and went to find Xu Xingchun. They smoked together the entire night.

The two of them just silently smoked for over an hour.

Ah Si was young and hot-blooded, full of passionate ideals, and also prone to sentimentality. “Brother Chun, there are too many dark sides to this society. How does that saying go? For the world to be at peace, someone always has to bear the burden for all the lights in homes, right? After enduring a few years, things will always get better.”

“There’s no such thing as suffering ending in sweetness.” Xu Xingchun sat on the steps, staring into the distance, lost in thought. He lowered his head and smiled, his features unclear. “For me, the suffering won’t end.”

That smile was too bland, carrying a not-too-prominent sadness.

Ah Si scratched his head, seeming to understand yet not understand. But he always felt Xu Xingchun had many stories within him.

The next day, the agreed-upon delivery location was a drug manufacturing facility. That group belonged to armed militants. Special police had been deployed all around the perimeter, armed with micro submachine guns.

At the moment of exchanging the materials, the lackey noticed something was wrong in the surroundings. He raised his gun, aiming at Ah Si, wanting to eliminate both of them on the spot. That was the closest Ah Si had come to death. Fortunately, Xu Xingchun stayed calm and gave the signal in time. The sniper was instantly in position and killed the target. After the two sides exchanged fire, they successfully arrested that group of drug traffickers. Ah Si was injured as a result, but fortunately was rescued by Xu Xingchun.

In the end, this drug enforcement case became a sensational major national case. Xu Xingchun was promoted all the way to detachment captain. Ah Si had an inexplicable reverence for him.

It was just that the case involved too many people and couldn’t be completely eradicated at the roots. A few years later, something went wrong with the narcotics investigation line, nearly costing an entire team their lives. Xu Xingchun was targeted. He filed a report, and his superiors transferred him to the Shencheng Provincial Public Security Bureau.

When they met again, it was several years later.

“Time really flies.”

Ah Si sighed. “I still remember back then, whenever the shift schedule put me on checkpoint duty with you, girls would almost always come up to chat. I was so envious and jealous standing beside you, but you seemed unwilling to pay attention to anyone and never had a girlfriend. I even secretly suspected at one point that Brother Chun, you were gay and never thought about women.”

After Ah Si finished speaking, he paused, then continued teasing, “But later, I discovered something…”

“What?”

“I discovered that you would often look at a photo. Once when you were looking at your phone, I accidentally caught a glimpse. One hundred percent it was a girl, even wearing a school uniform.”

“Mm.”

Following his intuition, Ah Si bumped him with his elbow. “The one who just called you—was it her?”

Xu Xingchun nodded.

Just then, the phone rang. They looked at each other, knowing it was about to begin.

This bar looked very hidden from the outside, with a small and messy storefront, not easy to discover.

A woman leaned against the front desk, wearing revealing denim ultra-short shorts, her face painted with a thick layer of powder, coarse and dark eyeliner, heavily made up, leisurely smoking a cigarette. Seeing someone come in, she lazily lifted her eyelids.

After Xu Xingchun went in, a wave of abnormal dark fragrance hit him head-on. He calmly observed around the room. This bar had two levels, with several small doors opened on the side.

He walked slowly forward and said to that woman, “Do you have a lighter?”

“Big brother, want a late-night snack? Pig head meat.” The woman asked in a Dali dialect.

This was code language. Xu Xingchun nodded. “What do you have to drink? Red wine and white wine, both.”

Red wine and white wine were code for ice and meth. After the password was verified, someone put up a “not open for business” sign at the bar entrance, then closed the main door. The woman swayed and twisted, slowly walking out from behind the counter. “Follow me. Brother Ka is waiting for you on the second floor.”

An hour later, in the car.

“What’s the situation inside now? When can we make the arrest?” Ah Si couldn’t hold back from asking.

The person monitoring had a serious expression. “Currently nothing unusual. We need to wait. They’re being very cautious over there, asking questions. Xu Xingchun should have enough experience to handle it.”

After about a few minutes, Old Wu’s expression changed. “Received the signal, take action!”

“Is the money correct?” Xu Xingchun played with the lighter, looking at the pitch-black outside. “Can you bring out the goods now?”

A lackey finished counting the money and whispered in Brother Ka’s ear.

Brother Ka smiled and said, “Your name is Xu Feng, right? Sister Zhang said your family is in real estate. What’s your relationship with her?”

He was obviously trying to test him.

Xu Xingchun’s expression didn’t change. “What our relationship is doesn’t matter. Money is what’s most important, isn’t it?”

The lackey counting the money leaned close to Brother Ka’s ear, not knowing what he was saying. Brother Ka suddenly used eye signals to indicate to someone beside him, and threw a cigarette to Xu Xingchun. “Want to try?”

After Xu Xingchun saw this cigarette, his expression remained unchanged. He hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand to rub his nose and picked up this cigarette. He didn’t hold it steady and accidentally dropped it to the ground midway.

Everyone in the room stared at him.

He slowly attempted to bend down to pick up the cigarette on the ground.

Suddenly the door was kicked open. Brother Ka’s expression changed drastically, and he instinctively drew the gun from his holster.

The turn of events happened in an instant. Brother Ka realized he’d fallen into a trap. He wanted to run but was held tightly from behind by Xu Xingchun. Seeing no way to retreat, he pulled out a knife from his waist and stabbed downward toward Xu Xingchun’s thigh, hitting a major blood vessel. Blood instantly gushed out like a fountain.