Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Renovation Right After Arrival

In the dormitory.

Qin Yu squinted at Lao San and the others in front of him, responding simply: “I heard what you said, but this isn’t my job, I can’t do it.”

“What’s the deal, you got some big-shot relative in the department?” Lao San grinned and reached out to grab Qin Yu by the collar: “You just got here and you’re already trying to climb over people, you think you’re something?”

“Don’t touch me.”

“Ha, what are you, a cactus? I’m touching you right now, so what?” Lao San was also built solid. He raised his right arm and threw a short punch straight at the side of Qin Yu’s head.

Qin Yu stepped sideways and pulled back, both hands snapping onto Lao San’s wrist with a loud clap, his right leg sweeping out in a short arc.

“Bang, crash!”

A deafening sound rang out, and Lao San was sent flying onto the bed with a whoosh, his head slamming straight into the iron railing.

“Beat him!”

Lao San shouted, clutching his head.

Qin Yu bent down, leaned his upper body into the lower bunk, grabbed Lao San’s collar with his left hand, and instantly raised his right knee, driving it straight toward Lao San’s temple.

“Bang!”

Lao San’s head snapped back from the impact, and the back of his skull slammed into the wall with a thud: “Beat him to death, anything that happens is on me,”

The words had barely fallen when everyone rushed in at once. Qin Yu moved nimbly, slipping out from inside the bunk, retreating two steps in a row, pressing his back into the dead corner between the windowsill and the bed frame, his body slightly crouched.

Lao San got up, yanked a telescoping baton off the wall, and walked toward Qin Yu step by step, muttering under his breath: “You little punk thinks you can walk in and start flipping the place on day one…”

Just then, the half-closed door was pushed open, and a woman in a light green police uniform bellowed at the top of her lungs: “What’s going on?!”

Everyone turned around at once.

Lao San froze, wiped the blood from his forehead, and immediately smiled: “Sister Wen.”

“I could hear you lot making noise from the hallway. What are you doing, trying to kill someone?!” The woman looked to be in her early thirties, a bit on the short side, but quite pretty, with a delicate oval face and big eyes that gave her a fresh, lively look.

“It’s nothing, a new kid just arrived, we’re just having a chat.” Lao San grinned and shot back.

The woman swept her eyes across the room, looked at Lao San with a hint of irritation, and spat: “Why are you so overbearing? Did he offend you the moment he walked in?”

“No, I asked him to take a shift, he refused, and then he started mouthing off.” Lao San put the baton down and grinned as he explained.

“How many times have I caught you lot playing cards while on duty?” Sister Wen shot Lao San a look and warned him impatiently: “Make any more noise, and don’t think I won’t put it in my little notebook.”

“Got it, Sister Wen.” Lao San nodded repeatedly.

Sister Wen couldn’t be bothered to step inside, and just called out to Qin Yu from the doorway: “You’re the new one?”

“Yes.” Qin Yu nodded.

“Why haven’t you gone to pick up your uniform?”

“I went just now, but there was no one there.” Qin Yu replied with a dopey look.

Sister Wen’s eyes went wide: “Bullshit, I’ve been in the office the whole time.”

Qin Yu paused: “Oh, I must not have found it then.”

“Come with me to get your uniform.” Sister Wen tossed out the words, turned, and walked away.

“Alright.” Qin Yu nodded right away, bent down to grab his luggage, and headed out, calling over to Qi Lin as he went: “Come with me for a bit.”

Qi Lin had no idea how to face Lao San at that moment, so the moment he heard this, he followed right along.

Back in the dormitory, Lao San sat up and rubbed the big lump on the back of his head, then spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto the floor: “That bastard’s got some moves, hits pretty dirty too.”

“You alright, Third Brother?”

Lao San said nothing, lowered his head, pulled out his phone, and dialed a number: “Hey, you in the office? Nothing, just asking, that Qin Yu who got filed into our team today, does he have any connections up top?… He doesn’t? You sure? Alright, got it.”

……

In the hallway.

Sister Wen turned to Qin Yu with her hands behind her back and asked: “You got someone backing you up top?”

Qin Yu paused: “No, I don’t.”

“Then keep your head down. It’s complicated around here.” Sister Wen warned him with a cool face but a warm heart: “Don’t butt heads with them all the time, doing a bit more work won’t kill you.”

“Thanks, Sister Wen.” Qin Yu nodded.

Sister Wen said nothing more, led Qin Yu to the first-floor storage room, picked out a standard police uniform and a tactical uniform for him, along with a pair of handcuffs and a baton, then swept off.

In the first-floor lobby, Qi Lin glanced down at his watch and said: “I’ve got to go deliver some documents in a bit, so I won’t keep you company. Go back and say something soft, stop stirring things up with them. That Lao San has a squad leader backing him up top. You make an enemy of him, and there’s nothing good waiting for you down the road.”

“Ha, alright, I got it.” Qin Yu smiled and nodded: “If you’re free tonight, let’s grab dinner together.”

“Sure, if I’m free I’ll come find you.” Qi Lin agreed readily.

The two exchanged a few words, and Qin Yu carried his things back to the dormitory. But by then Lao San and the others had already left. Only two people remained in the room, and after giving Qin Yu a cold glance, they went back to chatting on their bunks.

Qin Yu scanned the two of them, walked back to his bunk without a care in the world, and tidily sorted through his belongings, not giving those two the slightest bit of attention.

……

Time slipped by to around seven in the evening. Qin Yu finished getting his things in order, and seeing that Qi Lin still hadn’t come to find him, he decided to head out alone for a walk, get familiar with the surroundings, and grab some dinner while he was at it.

Qin Yu swung himself off the bunk, pulled a waist bag from under his pillow, strapped it on, and headed out.

“Oh, sorry about that.”

Qin Yu had barely stepped out the door when he ran straight into Qi Lin hurrying over. The two looked at each other in surprise, and Qi Lin immediately explained: “There was a last-minute meeting, I’m late. Were you just about to…”

“I thought you weren’t coming, I was just about to head out for a walk and grab something to eat.” Qin Yu smiled and waved him over: “Come on, let’s go out and eat together.”

“I’ve got a friend, and we actually need to talk about something today. Is that alright with you, if we all go together?” Qi Lin asked.

“Sure.” Qin Yu paused for a moment and replied: “Doesn’t matter to me, let’s all go.”

“Alright.”

After a brief exchange, the two headed downstairs together and met another young guy at the entrance of the dormitory building.

Qi Lin’s friend was named Li Fugui, nicknamed Lao Mao. According to the old-timers inside the police department, he had some kind of connection to Commissioner Li, but the two of them rarely interacted in day-to-day life, so exactly what their relationship was remained unclear even to those on the fringes. On top of that, this guy was pretty out there in his usual behavior. The most outrageous thing he’d ever done was get blind drunk and openly solicit prostitutes at his duty post, and he’d even insisted on holding open auditions for it, which got him caught by the inspection team. Yet in the end, he, the one who’d organized the whole thing, only received a demerit and a half-month administrative suspension. Meanwhile, two colleagues who’d never gotten along with him ended up taking the fall, getting pushed out and stripped of their uniforms.

Despite the slightly rustic ring to his nickname, Lao Mao was genuinely good-looking. If Qin Yu had the kind of face that was rugged and sharp, with a spirited energy between his brows, then Lao Mao was the roguishly handsome type, a bit like the once-popular Zhang Yishan.

The three met up, and Qi Lin gave a brief introduction: “This is Lao Mao, a friend who’s looked out for me a lot. And this is Qin Yu, a new probationary officer who just joined our team.”

“Heard you got into it with Lao San and his crew the moment you arrived?” Lao Mao stood with one hand in his pocket, a sly grin on his face: “Got a bit of a temper, huh?”

“Not really, we just had a few words.” Qin Yu got the sense that Lao Mao had a bit of an unfiltered personality, and gave a vague reply.

“I can’t stand them either, if they’ve got it coming, give it to them.” Lao Mao sneered: “Everyone on Team One is rotten, always pulling useless crap.”

Qin Yu was at a loss for words hearing that, and turned to look at Qi Lin, who scratched his head and explained: “That’s just how Lao Mao is, says whatever’s on his mind.”

“Where are we eating?” Lao Mao asked.

“I just got here, I have no idea what’s good around here.” Qin Yu said quietly: “You two lead the way.”

“Who’s paying?” Lao Mao blinked with a crafty little look in his eyes and asked softly.

“I’ll pay, haha.” Qin Yu smiled.

“Oh, you’re paying…” Lao Mao waved his hand grandly: “Let’s go to Er Jie’s place then.”

“Skip it, it’s pretty pricey.” Qi Lin tried to talk him out of it.

“It’s coming out of your pocket?” Lao Mao shot back with a sideways glance.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ve still got a few coins on me, more than enough for dinner.” Qin Yu was actually a little pained inside, because in this day and age material goods were extremely scarce, especially vegetables and grain that required large amounts of land to grow, which had become genuine luxuries. The people in the unplanned zones, left without anyone looking after them, had to risk their lives just to scrape together a ration of food. So eating out at a restaurant was something most poor people might not do even once a year. Qin Yu felt the pinch, but he also understood that coming in as a newcomer, he’d need to make some friends, and certain social expenses were unavoidable, especially now that he had a steady job.

After the three of them settled on where to go, they walked about 2 kilometers along the road and found a restaurant called the Little Tavern.

Qin Yu stood by the roadside, took a look at the restaurant’s storefront, and unconsciously touched his waist bag, feeling another pang of reluctance.

“Let’s go.” Lao Mao called out and started up the steps.

“Vroom!”

Just then, a deafening engine roar suddenly erupted from the roadside, and an old, beat-up SUV pulled up right in front of the entrance.

The three turned at the sound, and Lao Mao stared in disbelief: “What kind of family is this, driving a gasoline car?”

At this point in time, gasoline-powered vehicles had become an extremely rare mode of transport. Most of the land had turned into uninhabited zones, either frozen over or laced with lethal radiation, leaving oil fields untapped and petroleum an incredibly scarce resource, which was exactly why Lao Mao was so stunned.

After the SUV pulled up to the curb, four men and a young woman got out and walked toward the restaurant.

“Come on, let’s go in.” Qin Yu had seen a thing or two in the unplanned zones, and after taking only a couple of glances at the gasoline car, he turned and headed for the restaurant’s front entrance. But Lao Mao stood rooted to the spot, eyes locked on the young woman in the middle of the four men, and said with a grin: “Gorgeous, good-looking, beautiful!”

Qin Yu heard this, turned back, took one look at Lao Mao’s lecherous expression, and shook his head helplessly: “Come on, she came here with guys.”

In the middle of the four men, the young woman blinked her pretty big eyes, glanced around, then lowered her head and said: “I need to use the restroom.”

“Don’t try anything, keep moving.” A short, middle-aged man lowered his head and snapped at her, his accent stiff, with a hint of Japanese.

“Buzz buzz!”

At the same time, Qi Lin’s phone buzzed twice in his pocket. He pulled it out, glanced down at the message, and then looked up at Qin Yu walking ahead of him with a complicated expression.