Sir Niu rushed up to me and gave me a violent shove, sending me stumbling back several steps.
The colleagues beside him pulled their guns directly, cocking them with a sharp clack.
"Chu Lao Er, don't move. Put the gun down. Drop it! Do you hear me?"
I obediently tossed the shotgun to the side, squatted down with my hands behind my head, and grinned at Sir Niu.
"It has nothing to do with anyone else. I did it all on my own."
Sir Niu's face was beet red; clearly, I had pissed him off bad. He raised the butt of his pistol, ready to smash it onto my head.
Xu Rang stepped forward, gently bumping Sir Niu aside. "We all hustle in Liu Xiang Town, seeing each other day in and day out. Can't you leave us a little dignity?"
Sir Niu glared at Xu Rang, eyes bulging. Xu Rang turned his head to avoid eye contact but stood firmly in front of me, refusing to yield even half a step.
Sir Niu let out a cold, hollow laugh. "Good. Good, good, good. Just great! Chu Lao Er, you said you wanted to fix bridges and pave roads—is this how you do it?"
I shook my head, watching as Song Jiawen was fished out of the fish pond by two constables. I laughed. "I had no choice. I said I'd fix bridges and pave roads when I have money, but this bastard wanted to block me from making money and even tried to smash my rice bowl."
Song Jiawen was twitching convulsively, looking like he might keel over at any moment. Sir Niu didn't waste any more breath arguing with me. He dropped a cold command:
"Take them all away. I'll deal with you when we get to the station."
Two police officers handcuffed my hands behind my back, pushed down on my head, and stuffed me into the police car.
Watching the scenery fly by outside the window and looking at Sir Niu's grim face next to me, I suddenly felt a strong urge to laugh.
Without realizing it, I had stopped being afraid of the yamen, and I wasn't afraid of these constables in army-green uniforms anymore.
"Sir Niu, give me a smoke, will you?"
Sir Niu shot me a sideways glare. "Shut up, you wensang. It's New Year's Eve and I traveled this far to serve you, and you still want a smoke?"
Wensang was a local insult, meaning someone unwelcome or annoying.
I leaned back against the seat and laughed heartily. "Sir Niu, you pick up the Southwest dialect fast! You even know wensang. Why didn't you go back home for the New Year?"
Sir Niu turned his head away and ignored me.
On New Year's Eve in the Guizhou province of the Southwest, people start setting off firecrackers early in the morning, sometimes even at dawn, before burning paper offerings to ancestors.
So, the sound of firecrackers outside was rising and falling, and the unique smell of sulfur and burnt paper assaulted my nostrils.
I spoke lazily, "The first time I saw people wearing uniforms like yours was in '83, at a public sentencing rally. The constables were escorting my big brother to face judgment."
"I was only five then. I didn't know what it meant. Until a few days later, when my big brother had a black hood over his head, hands tied behind his back, and was marched to that empty lot outside of town."
"From that year on, I seemed to be afraid of you guys. And now that I'm in the underworld, I'm even more afraid... AH!"
Sir Niu couldn't stand my monologue anymore and drove an elbow into my stomach.
"If you don't behave, you won't be far from your own public sentencing rally."
I doubled over in pain but still grinned. "Alright then. When the time comes, Sir Niu, you be the one to pull the trigger, okay? Shoot straight. Don't aim for the heart, aim for the head. I'm afraid of pain. If one shot doesn't kill me, I'll suffer too much!"
The corner of Sir Niu's mouth twitched, and he muttered a curse under his breath: "Lunatic."
The car stopped in Liu Xiang Town for a while. Sir Niu got out. I don't know what happened, but when he got back in, his face was terrifyingly dark.
His hands rested on his knees, fists clenched so tight his knuckles cracked.
At that moment, I felt like he wanted to kill someone.
Seeing Sir Niu like that, I immediately behaved myself, not daring to ask a single question.
I was taken directly to the holding cell at the station. While every family was having their reunion dinner, I lay alone on a cold iron bench, staring blankly at the ceiling.
I knew clearly in my heart that I hadn't crippled Song Jiawen or his men; I just slashed them a few times and let them soak in the water for a few hours.
Plus, Chen Qiang had connections in Liu Xiang Town. It wouldn't be long before I got out.
I just felt a bit panicked inside. I couldn't be with my mother for New Year's Eve. She must be so worried and sad.
When it was time for the reunion dinner, Sir Niu walked in with a cold face, carrying two bowls.
I was curious. According to Chen Qiang, Sir Niu was a "second-generation official" with sky-high connections. Why would he stay in a godforsaken place like Liu Xiang Town for the New Year?
Sir Niu tossed the bowl in front of me and turned to leave.
I hurriedly shouted, "Hey, if you don't uncuff me, how am I supposed to eat?"
The food was good—pig head meat and a few spare ribs. I hadn't eaten a bite since yesterday and was starving.
Sir Niu gave an impatient grunt, took out his keys, and unlocked my handcuffs.
Ever since he got out of the car at noon, Sir Niu's expression had been off all day.
I rubbed my wrists and smiled. "Got any booze? It's New Year's, let me have a sip."
I don't know why, but usually, I have a gloomy personality, yet in front of Sir Niu, I was rarely this lively.
Maybe it was because he was about my age but lived a completely opposite life.
It always made me want to run my mouth, to say things to prick him and make him angry.
After saying that, I was prepared for a scolding, or even a beating.
But Sir Niu just stared at me for a few seconds and said flatly, "Wait."
I froze, caught off guard. This little constable, in my eyes, was an incredibly stubborn person.
Perhaps it had to do with his upbringing. In his world, things were black and white; his eyes couldn't tolerate a single grain of sand.
Even inside the Liu Xiang Town station, he was the isolated one. If not for his good father, he'd probably be stuck guarding the gate at this small station for the rest of his life.
Previously, Captain Xu and Director Wang would keep him by their side, but lately, they seemed to ignore him.
When they brought me in at noon, he didn't even greet Captain Xu or Director Wang.
The look he gave those two was filled with more disgust than when he looked at me.
Actually, I knew that with a personality like his, if he didn't have a good father, he wouldn't have it easy anywhere—whether in the government or in the underworld like me.
But then again, if he didn't have a good father, he wouldn't have developed such a stubborn personality.
In the end, it's all fate.
Sir Niu came back quickly, carrying a five-jin plastic jerrycan in his hand, which he tossed directly in front of me.
I kicked the plastic can, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Sir Niu, actually, I can't drink that much. My limit is one cup tops. If I down five jin, I'll probably die in here."
He didn't speak. He sat down on the floor, inverted his rice bowl over his dish bowl, wiped it casually, and said indifferently:
"Drink as much as you want. I'll drink the rest."
I could tell he had something on his mind today. I picked up my bowl and ate a few mouthfuls of rice. In just that short time, he had already downed a bowl of liquor.
Unexpectedly, he was even worse at drinking than I was. Before he could even swallow, he choked, and the liquor sprayed out of his nose.
I put down my bowl and patted his back to help him breathe.
He shoved me away, his eyes rimmed with red. "Chu Lao Er, I used to think you gangsters deserved to die, but today I realized some people in our station deserve to die even more."
I hurriedly covered his mouth. "Sir Niu, if you want to court death, don't drag a commoner like me down with you. Captain Xu and Director Wang are righteous officials of the station. Why are you saying things like that?"
Sir Niu threw my hand off and cursed furiously, "Those two bastards deserve to die the most! They deserve to die more than you scumbags in the underworld!"
His shove sent me sitting back onto the iron bench. For a moment, I didn't know how to respond.
Sir Niu hugged the plastic liquor can and glug, glug, glug, poured it down his throat, only to vomit most of it back up.
I walked over silently, took the can from his hands, and took a small sip.
Sir Niu sat on the ground, knees pulled up, burying his head between them. His shoulders shook as the sound of sobbing escaped him.
"Those two scumbags... I'm going to tell my dad. I'm going to have them dragged to a public sentencing rally and used for target practice. Those animals."
I didn't know what Sir Niu had found out, but it certainly wasn't anything small to make him lose his composure like this.
I didn't comfort him. I just sat beside him with the liquor can, listening to his fragmented words.
Finally, he said, "Chu Lao Er, compared to them, you are more like a human being."
"When I become a high-ranking official, I'd rather be your protective umbrella than be a protective umbrella for those bastards."
After hearing this, I said nothing. I just put my arm around his shoulders.
That year, I was about to turn eighteen, and Sir Niu wasn't yet twenty.
After he passed out, I carried him to the duty room on my back. In the whole station, it seemed like he and I were the only two living souls.
I placed him in the office, covered him with a coat, then returned to the detention cell, locked the iron door, handcuffed myself, and looked up at the ceiling in a daze.
...
There was a young widow at the east end of Liu Xiang Town. She was pretty and just thirty years old. Her husband had died working in Guangdong, leaving her a widow.
On the last day of the lunar calendar in 1995, after cooking the final reunion dinner for her child, she hanged herself.
The night before, while I was leading my men to handle business at Chen Family Shrine, a Captain named Xu and a Director named Wang, fueled by alcohol, had paid a visit to this young widow's home.
When they came out, it was noon on New Year's Eve. They happened to run into a young constable named Niu, who was escorting a hooligan named Chu back to the station.
The hooligan saw nothing from the car, but the young constable named Niu saw the disheveled young widow and her child, who was crying until he convulsed.
Right around the time of the reunion dinner, the young constable heard the news that the young widow had hanged herself.
And so, he found the detained hooligan, drank a massive amount of alcohol, and uttered the words about becoming the hooligan's protective umbrella.
This is everything that happened on the last day of the lunar year 1995.
A story of how two old, corrupt animals in the government destroyed the worldview of a young constable who had just entered the system and saw only black and white.