Autumn in Yu Jiang was rainy, with continuous downpour for a week, filling the entire city’s sky with a damp, humid smell.

When He Jianqiu drove his car into Leshan Martyrs’ Cemetery, the rain was pouring heavily. The vast parking lot was empty and desolate, with no other souls in sight.

During crime scene investigations, they usually wore police-issued raincoats, which is why He Jianqiu only realized he had no umbrella in the car when he was about to get out. He had no choice but to jog quickly to the gatehouse and borrow one from the cemetery keeper.

“Captain He, next time have your wife prepare an umbrella in the car for you. We get a lot of rain here.”

The cemetery keeper had known him for a long time. Besides the umbrella, he also gave him a bottle of Er Guo Tou: “Just as you instructed, I’ve been pouring him a bottle cap’s worth regularly. This bottle is almost empty now, so Captain He, just take it all.”

“Good.”

He Jian hesitated for a moment but didn’t tell the cemetery keeper that he was already divorced. He simply held the umbrella and slowly walked up the gray-white path, not forgetting to check his WeChat along the way.

He had arranged to meet Bai Yang at 4 PM. He had taken the whole day off, so he still had time.

He Jian quickened his pace and soon found an inconspicuous square monument among the numerous gray-white tombstones. Just as the cemetery keeper had mentioned, there was a small white liquor cup placed in front of the tombstone, now filled with rainwater.

As anti-narcotics police officers, their photos rarely appeared in news media. Only in places like martyrs’ cemeteries would these fallen comrades’ photographs be clearly printed on white marble.

In the blink of an eye, He Jianqiu had been in law enforcement for ten years, and it had been just over a year and a half since he transferred from anti-narcotics to criminal investigation. Everything felt like it happened yesterday.

“We promised to retire together and go back home to drink and eat crawfish, but look at you – you went off to become an immortal early, and now you can’t even eat crawfish.”

He Jianqiu reached out and patted the damp tombstone, remembering that his junior colleague was only twenty-four when he died – in China, that would be just the age of graduating and looking for work.

That year, they worked undercover together in Phnom Penh as subordinates. He Jianqiu used the alias He Jian, while his junior colleague went by A’Xin. They were responsible for infiltrating the local drug trafficking organization, working from within to report the transaction locations to the joint task force in advance.

However, just like countless public security martyrs who silently fell on the anti-drug frontlines, A’Xin never made it back from Phnom Penh.

In the final mission, he chose to expose himself to protect his colleagues. In the end, He Jianqiu watched helplessly as he was drowned in a narrow fish tank.

Even long after he became the deputy captain of criminal investigation for Shancheng Branch, that fish tank would still appear in He Jianqiu’s dreams from time to time. A’Xin would be in the water, eyes open, looking at him, mouth opening and closing as if asking him to take him home.

Several times, He Jianqiu even dreamed of desperately lunging forward, and when the gunshot rang out, he would wake up. In his dazed state, he felt as if part of himself had died early alongside his junior colleague in that foreign land.

Because of his naturally youthful, baby-faced appearance, He Jianqiu had repeatedly played many wayward youth roles over these ten years. However, since returning from Phnom Penh, he had never used the alias He Jian again.

Until this time, when he took on a small undercover assignment in his jurisdiction.

“Speaking of which, your birthday should have been coming up that year, right? I remember your sister-in-law telling me your birthday was in autumn, when the maple leaves turn red. She said she wanted to wait for you to come back and eat cake together.”

As He Jianqiu spoke, he took out a neatly cut piece of cream cake from the bag. It had no elaborate decorations, just layers of snow-white cream.

After ten years in anti-narcotics, He Jianqiu had seen too many unclean people and affairs. What he knew to be truly flawless lives, pure as white cream, had mostly withered early in the darkness.

“Of course it has to be pure white cake! What are you thinking!”

Standing before the tombstone, He Jianqiu couldn’t help but remember not long ago, when Bai Yang had used a tone of disappointment during their phone call: “Although we cake makers are all appearance-focused, naturally loving fancy and flashy things, we still have standards. The purer something is, the more it should be paired with pure cake… the kind with only cream.”

Picturing the boss’s serious face whenever he talked about desserts, He Jianqiu couldn’t help but laugh.

Before meeting this magical pastry shop owner, he never imagined a piece of cake could have so many considerations. But when he finally listened to that speech and walked into the cake shop, wanting to choose a birthday cake for his departed friend, the one he picked was exactly this piece in his hand.

Pure white cream cake.

“I recently met a friend who said clean cake suits clean people… A’Xin, happy birthday.”

He Jianqiu celebrated his friend’s birthday in the rain. After singing the birthday song, he placed the cake in front of the grave. Soon, raindrops hit the cake, and the cream gradually melted, looking as if someone had licked off a corner.

This rain came quickly and left just as fast.

By the time he descended the mountain, the rain had stopped.

He Jianqiu went back to return the umbrella. The cemetery keeper couldn’t help but ask curiously: “Captain He, how did you suddenly have time to visit today? Weren’t you always very busy before?”

He Jianqiu smiled: “I took the day off today… there’s something at home, so I wanted to come tell him about it.”

“Something happened?”

“A major life event.”

He Jianqiu didn’t elaborate. Seeing that Bai Yang had sent three or four more urging WeChat messages, he hurriedly got in his car and headed straight for the city center.

Clearly, fate presents different challenges to each person.

Although Deputy Captain He of Shancheng Branch carried the resounding nickname “Ghost’s Bane,” having “retired once” due to work-related injuries at a young age, with impeccable work attitude and capabilities, when it came to personal emotional matters, even Ghost’s Bane rarely found himself troubled.

After the rain cleared, it was one of Yu Jiang’s rare crisp and refreshing autumn days. He Jianqiu sped all the way to Raffles City. His card held his just-issued salary, still warm, but today Captain He had already decided how to spend it all.

The sales clerk at the counter, judging by his appearance, assumed he hadn’t been working long and came up to recommend several relatively affordable couple rings. Unexpectedly, He Jianqiu waved his hand broadly and shook his head with a bitter smile: “I’m remarrying here. Don’t let it be too shabby – let me have some chance of winning… at least I can’t lose at the starting line, right?”

“You’re… you’re remarrying already?”

The sales clerk stared in disbelief, her face clearly expressing that young people nowadays really know how to play around. She looked He Jianqiu up and down several times before finally producing several blindingly flashy styles: “If it’s for remarriage… these few styles were personally selected by some wives before. After buying them, they’re all on their third child now.”

“It’s not like I’m the one giving birth. I’ll just go with whatever she wants… Right now, as long as she nods, I’ll burn incense in gratitude.”

He Jianqiu stared at the pile of diamond rings before him with a pained expression, rarely feeling so helpless.

You could say that Shancheng’s Ghost’s Bane had seen everything in the first half of his life – through wind and rain, with a nose sharper than a dog’s. Sometimes he could catch drug dealers just by smell alone. But when it came to experience in choosing rings, He Jianqiu’s knowledge probably couldn’t match that of the interns under him.

After all, the last time he got married, Lei Hong bought the ring, Lei Hong proposed, and thinking about it seriously, Shancheng’s Ghost’s Bane felt this should actually count as his “first marriage.”

“Do you see any that you like?”

The rings weren’t cheap, so the sales clerk’s attitude became increasingly enthusiastic: “You’re so handsome, your wife must be very beautiful too. Since it’s a remarriage, why don’t you tell me what your previous wedding rings looked like? I can help recommend similar but better styles.”

“Uh, before…”

He Jianqiu hesitated for a moment. He had actually considered referencing the previous wedding rings, but—

No matter how he looked at it, the wedding rings Lei Hong had bought looked exactly like two key chains.

Lei Hong’s exact words back then were: “You already agreed to my proposal, so you have to marry me anyway. Since neither of us makes much money now, let’s save some. Keep the money for living expenses later – rice, oil, salt, and contraceptives all cost money, much more important than this thing.”

Then, they wore those two key rings for ten years.

Seeing him remain silent, the sales clerk changed tactics again: “Or… you could tell me how you two met, her personality and hobbies. I can also help you consider options. After all, with so many people who’ve come to buy rings before, surely someone has similar preferences to your wife.”

“How we met, personality and hobbies…”

He Jianqiu vaguely felt this interrogation style seemed familiar, but he was running out of time. To hurry to Huangliang Yimeng and complete Bai Yang’s “grand plan,” he had to make a decision immediately.

So, Shancheng’s Ghost’s Bane thought carefully this time, and finally, he spoke seriously: “Put it this way – when I first met my wife… I called her ‘big brother.'”