Sir Niu's influence wasn't just big; or rather, the influence of his old man back home wasn't just big.
After realizing how deep the water was behind Jiang Qingbo, he didn't waste any time in Lincang.
Instead, he went straight to the Provincial Department in Diannan. Under the operation of the Provincial Department, the Armed Constabulary General Corps and the Diannan Anti-Narcotics General Corps took over the case directly.
The Lincang yamen remained calm and quiet. Jiang Qingbo didn't catch wind of anything because the people handling him came from Kuncheng, the provincial capital of Diannan.
By now, Wentong Tea Tower was probably already surrounded. Jiang Qingbo and his friends from the interior—none of them would be able to run.
But none of this had anything to do with me. After my arrest, I didn't stay in Lincang. The vehicle transporting us went straight to Kuncheng.
I stayed in a detention center in Kuncheng for over two months.
During that time, no one came to interrogate me, nor did anyone let me out. However, I wasn't anxious; I knew this was Sir Niu's arrangement.
As I said earlier, Sir Niu was born to be a constable; he could arrange everything down to the smallest detail.
The food I ate was good, and I stayed in a single cell. The guards treated me as if I didn't exist, delivering meals twice a day and even tossing me a pack of cigarettes with the food.
Aside from the lack of freedom, it was much more comfortable than living in fear on the outside.
From the moment I subdued Xu Biao, the direction of things was completely beyond my influence. I wasn't even allowed to know what was happening.
This leisurely life lasted until the end of May 1996.
Sir Niu came.
I didn't notice his arrival at first. The day before, I had asked a guard for a copy of Liang Yusheng's newly published The Pride of the Martial World, and I was reading it with great relish.
Since I started hustling in the underworld, I rarely read books. Reading martial arts novels now, I always felt they lacked the flavor they used to have.
"Shanhe, stop reading."
I looked up. Sir Niu looked radiant, standing outside the iron bars, looking at me with a smile.
Judging by his complexion, I guessed the matter had gone smoothly.
I closed the book and walked up to him. "Why haven't you let me out all this time? Coming only now... if you were busy, couldn't you have sent a message and let me go back to Guizhou first?"
Sir Niu unlocked the door as he spoke. "I was worried about you. I was afraid that if there were any fish that slipped through the net and knew you were the one who pointed them out, you'd never sleep a sound sleep again in your life."
I laughed heartily, walked out of the cell I had inhabited for over two months, and stretched my back.
"Looking at you, is the big case closed?"
Sir Niu nodded excitedly, but then immediately shook his head. "The implications are too big. I've already been transferred to the Provincial Department. This case still needs some time, but it has nothing to do with you anymore. I assume you don't want to know about it either."
You thought right. If it weren't for the sake of latching onto you, the Crown Prince, I would have gone to Guangdong to screw bolts on an assembly line for a few months rather than come to Diannan to mix in this mess.
Sir Niu led me out of the detention center. This was my first time in Kuncheng; I was completely clueless about the place.
Sir Niu smiled. "Shanhe, come with me first. I have something to give you."
Looking at Sir Niu's police car, I joked, "You aren't giving me a few years of fixed-term imprisonment, are you?"
Sir Niu laughed loudly, but after laughing, his expression became somewhat downcast.
"If it were a year ago, I definitely would have handled you too. But not now. Now, we are friends."
"This world isn't clearly black and white. At the junction of black and white, there is gray. Shanhe, I am white. I hope in this life you won't be too thoroughly black. Just be a gray. That way, we can always be friends."
I opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat, speaking softly, "I don't dare hope to be friends. I just hope that one day, when you sit very high up, you won't forget that in '96, someone took thirteen cuts and strapped a body full of explosives for your meteoric rise."
"I won't trouble you with every little thing. Favors are like water; the more you use them, the thinner they get. If you keep using them, affection eventually turns to enmity. I just hope you'll lift a hand when it's necessary."
Sir Niu drove, his gaze becoming distant.
"Shanhe, as long as you don't do things that touch my bottom line, I can tolerate you."
I lit a cigarette. Just as I took a drag, I heard Sir Niu say, "Give me one too."
After Sir Niu took the cigarette, I don't know what crossed his mind, but he pulled the car over to the side of the road and took off his uniform.
The two of us leaned against the hood, puffing smoke into the clouds together.
"Shanhe, my bottom line isn't that high anymore. And I have a premonition that as my position gets higher, my bottom line will get lower and lower."
"Just like back in Liu Xiang Town, I couldn't stand that you were a hooligan in the underworld and thought of ways to bring you to justice."
"But now? Now we're here with our arms around each other's shoulders, smoking. What's the difference between us and Chen Qiang or Captain Xu?"
I smoked and didn't speak. Sir Niu was changing, and so was I. For many things, until the very end, you never know what the result will be.
Maybe today we can smoke together, but if handling me tomorrow would shoot Sir Niu straight to the position of Provincial Party Secretary, I guessed he wouldn't hesitate for a second.
Sir Niu stepped on the cigarette butt, grinding it repeatedly into the ground.
"I've been in the officialdom for almost two years, and I've understood one truth: as long as you want to climb up, you will absolutely have no friends in the government, only rivals."
"Shanhe, just like what I told you at the beginning of the year: among all the scumbags I know, you're the one who isn't crumbled too finely. And you opened a channel for my promotion. So, I treat you as a friend."
"My only friend."
"Whether you hustle in society or handle people in the future, I hope you consider things carefully and don't harm yourself. I don't want the day to come when I have to personally handle my only friend."
My heart sank, and I reached out to pat Sir Niu's shoulder.
"Alright, why think so far ahead? I'm just a small-time hooligan right now. Maybe one day I'll get handled so bad I'll be scared straight, afraid to hustle, and choose to farm or sell vegetables. Then you'll have to take extra care of me."
Sir Niu shook his head, ignoring my attempt to change the subject, and said very seriously, "No. You have a ruthlessness in your bones. Ruthless to yourself, and ruthless to others."
"Either you hustle your way to the top, or you hustle until your head falls off. There is no such thing as being 'scared straight' for you."
I didn't answer. I just lit another cigarette for Sir Niu.
"Where are we going now? Are you arranging a car to send me back to Guizhou?"
Sir Niu smiled mysteriously. "Didn't I say I have something to give you? No rush to go back to Guizhou. We're going to a prison first."
I pretended to be panicked. "Aiyah, you just said you wanted to be friends, and now you're sending me to prison? What, really giving me a few years?"
Sir Niu got back in the car and cursed with a laugh, "I'll give you a life sentence, you son of a bitch. Get in the car and stop farting."
This was the first time, and the last time, I sat in a police car without wearing handcuffs.
Don't mention it—the feeling really was different.