I fished a cigarette out of my pocket and lit it, in no rush to tell Sir Niu whether I was willing or not.
Sir Niu didn't rush me either.
Across the 9.6 million square kilometers under the sickle and hammer, organized crime might get swept up once every few years or a decade.
But drugs—those get swept every day, every hour.
You can touch anything else and still have room to maneuver, but you absolutely cannot touch that stuff.
You always hear reports about some high official in the government being a "protective umbrella" for criminal gangs, but have you ever heard of anyone daring to be a protective umbrella for drug traffickers?
For eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, entrapment isn't allowed. But for this stuff, the yamen can absolutely use entrapment.
Those few scant pages in the history books have made every son and daughter of Huaxia loathe this stuff to the bone.
Risk has always been linked to reward. In a country with conditions like this, the profits from drug trafficking are terrifyingly high.
So, people who dare to deal drugs under the sickle and hammer can hardly be considered human anymore. Their savagery and cunning are beyond what ordinary people can imagine.
The ash fell from my cigarette. I took out a second one and held it in my mouth without lighting it.
"Sir Niu, doesn't your department have special agents? Why do you need me to get close to a drug trafficker for you?"
Sir Niu shook his head seriously. "Not a drug trafficker. Just someone connected to a drug trafficker."
"As for why I'm looking for you, it's because both you and I are fresh faces in Lincang City."
I let out a cold laugh and spat out the unlit cigarette.
"Sir Niu, at a time like this, can't you tell me the truth? It's not an exaggeration to call you a Crown Prince in Guizhou. There aren't ten thousand people wanting to help you, but there are at least eight thousand. Why does it have to be me?"
"Don't tell me it's because your old man doesn't know you're in Narcotics, so you don't have any connections and can't find anyone else."
This was the first time I had spoken so aggressively in front of Sir Niu.
Before, I only dared to tease him sarcastically; I never dared to question him like this.
If he wanted to finish me off, it would only take one sentence.
Sir Niu stared at me for a few seconds, then rubbed the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache.
From the briefcase he carried, he took out a file folder and handed it to me.
"You can read, right? If you can read, look at it yourself."
I chuckled. "Can't read a word. If a carrying pole falls over, I wouldn't even know it's the character for 'one'."
Despite saying that, I obediently took the file folder from his hand and started reading.
Inside were the profiles and photos of two people. The blurry photo of the first person made me pause slightly.
The person in the photo looked sixty or seventy percent like me. In the name column, the three characters "Chu Jianghai" were clearly written.
My own big brother, Chu Jianghai.
My brother's file was very brief. It listed the major crimes he committed after joining the underworld—grievous bodily harm, causing disability, and so on—until he finally ate a bullet during the Crackdown of '83.
After reading my brother's file, I silently looked at the second person's.
Jiang Qingbo, native of Liu Xiang Town, Qianyang, Guizhou. Born in 1960. After serving his sentence in Qianyang No. 2 Prison in 1989, he came to Lincang City, Diannan, and organized multiple criminal activities with underworld characteristics...
After I finished reading these two files, Sir Niu took my cigarette pack from my pocket and lit one for himself.
"Lately, the pressure's been high, so I've learned to smoke too."
Ignoring his useless comment, I asked directly, "Is this Jiang Qingbo the person you want me to get close to? Is he connected to my brother?"
Sir Niu nodded. "Yeah. How many social figures from Liu Xiang Town in the eighties didn't have a connection with your brother?"
"Anyone who hustled in that era and is still out now either got handled by your brother back then and was too scared to go back, settling down elsewhere, or they followed your brother and just got out after serving time from the '83 Crackdown."
"This Jiang Qingbo is naturally the latter."
I gave a bitter smile. "Sir Niu, do you know what you're asking me to do?"
"You're asking me to be a mole for you, to handle one of my brother's old brothers."
Sir Niu let out a very disdainful sneer. "Shanhe, don't act with me. I respect you because you never act. Unlike other gangsters who talk about loyalty and brotherhood but do all kinds of dirty shit behind people's backs."
"You know you're not a good person. You're a hooligan in the underworld."
I couldn't help but smile bitterly. Indeed, I never felt that I joined the underworld for brotherhood or jianghu loyalty.
I joined because I wanted money and status.
Sir Niu took Jiang Qingbo's file from my hand and said softly, "Shanhe, you gangsters have your rivals and factions, but inside the government, it's even worse. It's even scarier than your underworld."
"My old man has two years left before he has to step back to the second line. If I don't get some solid achievements in these two years, I'll have to wait it out. Wait until I have enough seniority for the people my old man promoted to take care of me, and hope the people who opposed my old man don't screw me over. Only then might I have a chance to rise."
Sir Niu's long speech was very convoluted. If I hadn't almost finished high school, I probably wouldn't have understood it.
"So, you've set your sights on the drug trafficker connected to Jiang Qingbo?"
A flash of excitement passed through Sir Niu's eyes. "Right, Shanhe. As long as I take him down, with this on my record, plus my old man still holding real power in the number two spot for these two years, with a little maneuvering, I'll rise straight to the clouds."
"The first day I came to Lincang, I heard this Jiang Qingbo speaking with a Liu Xiang Town accent. After asking around at the station, I found out he was involved with a drug trafficker. Later, when I pulled his file, I discovered that before '83, he followed your brother."
"Shanhe, don't you think this is an opportunity given to me by Heaven?"
My mouth tasted bitter. Yes, everything was so coincidental, falling into place so naturally.
But this opportunity of yours requires me to risk my life!
Approaching Jiang Qingbo would be much easier for me than for a special agent from the yamen, and he wouldn't suspect me.
Just like if Xu Rang's own little brother couldn't stay in our hometown after Xu Rang died and came to follow me, I wouldn't think twice about it.
Jiang Qingbo wouldn't think twice, but what about the drug trafficker connected to him?
Anyone who dares to deal with that stuff possesses a mind far beyond that of a hooligan like me.
Moreover, if I reveal a flaw in front of a society Big Brother, the worst he'd do is teach me a lesson, maybe cut my tendons, but he definitely wouldn't kill me.
Society Big Brothers live in the sunlight; they are still human. They absolutely wouldn't dare offend the yamen to the point of no return.
If the yamen wants to handle a society Big Brother, he'll only try to use connections in the government or give up everything and run.
He would absolutely never dare to fight the government head-on.
But drug traffickers are different. Drug traffickers are things that don't even count as animals.
If a drug trafficker finds out I'm connected to Sir Niu, I can start preparing to go underground and catch up with Liu Zi.
Sir Niu regained his composure and looked at me very seriously. "Shanhe, I haven't told anyone in the department that I'm going to handle him. Only you and I know about this. You are absolutely safe."
"If you're really afraid, you can just follow him for a while, just hustle normally. If you find clues, find them. If you don't, I won't blame you."
I won't blame you, but I won't ask you for help again, and I certainly won't help you.
I stared at Jiang Qingbo's photo, lost in thought. A moment later, I softly spat out a sentence.
"I'll do it. Let's go to Lincang."
If you want a protective umbrella to shield you from the rain, you have to grip the handle tight.
Whether my relationship with Sir Niu could be stabilized depended on whether I did this for him, and whether I did it beautifully.
Once you enter the jianghu, your life is thin.
It's just one life, anyway. I'm doing it!