Chapter 13: The Water Flows, Yet the Canal Remains Unfinished (Part 9)

The air inside the room was thick with tension, heavy enough to choke on. Hou Weidong, the very person at the center of the storm, suddenly felt like an outsider looking in. He watched the police station chief, Wang Bo, with a cold resolve. He had made up his mind: if Wang Bo and Luo Jinhao came to blows, he wouldn’t intervene. He wanted to see that bastard get a taste of his own medicine.

However, his plan quickly fell through. Although the two men were locked in a standoff, neither showed any intention of throwing a punch.

Luo Jinhao had small eyes set in a round face, a combination that usually gave him an approachable, gentle appearance. But when angry, those small eyes became sharp and piercing, his gaze aggressive and unforgiving. He let out a cold sneer. "Do you really think I don’t know what you mean? Last month, who went to the bureau to file a false complaint against me? Don’t pretend you’re innocent, Wang Bo. I know exactly what kind of weeds are growing in your garden."

Wujin Police Station was an urban precinct with twenty-four officers, but only four or five of them possessed real investigative skills. In terms of professional competence, Station Chief Deng Jiachun ranked first, and Luo Jinhao held the second spot. Wang Bo’s abilities were decent enough, but his heart wasn’t in the work. Under the station’s target management system, Wang Bo’s performance metrics hovered in the mediocre middle—neither high nor low.

Luo Jinhao and Wang Bo had originally gotten along well, but their relationship had suddenly soured earlier this year due to a specific incident.

On that day, Wang Bo was on duty. Luo Jinhao’s informant had provided a reliable tip: "The gambling den that had disappeared for a while has reappeared." After reporting this to Station Chief Deng Jiachun with solemn assurance, Luo Jinhao followed protocol and informed the deputy chief on duty, Wang Bo, before initiating the raid. To their surprise, they arrived at an empty scene.

This failure had cost Luo Jinhao significant face in front of Deng Jiachun.

Luo Jinhao’s intelligence had been reliable, so he was puzzled. Using his position, he quietly traced Wang Bo’s phone number. Just before the operation, Wang Bo had made a call from his mobile phone to another number. The owner of that other phone was one of the known backers of the gambling ring.

The matter eventually fizzled out without a formal conclusion, but Luo Jinhao had mentally blacklisted Wang Bo. Later, the telecommunications department inadvertently revealed to Wang Bo that his calls had been traced. Their relationship plummeted from that point on. Today’s confrontation was merely the eruption of half a year’s accumulated suspicion and conflict.

Wang Bo’s uncle had once been a figure of moderate influence in the Shazhou Municipal Government. After reaching the mandatory retirement age, he had moved to the People’s Congress as a deputy director. Wang Bo owed his position as deputy station chief largely to his uncle’s influence. Over the years, Wang Bo had indeed committed his share of disciplinary violations. Seeing Luo Jinhao’s confident, unafraid demeanor, and remembering the phone tracing incident from earlier in the year, Wang Bo felt a twinge of guilt. Yet, unwilling to lose face, he shouted with veins bulging in his neck: "Make yourself clear today. What 'weeds' am I hiding? If you can’t explain it, I won’t let this go."

Neither man was willing to back down. They pounded the table heavily, the wood groaning under the impact, seeming ready to collapse.

Staff members at the bus station, hearing the shouting from the police office, gathered at the doorway. They watched with schadenfreude, no one stepping in to mediate.

Hunchback, a civil patrol officer, heard the commotion and peeked out the window. He then quietly slipped outside to a public phone booth and called Station Chief Deng Jiachun. Hunchback was Deng Jiachun’s cousin, a rural veteran who had joined the Wujin Police Station as a civil patrol officer after his discharge.

Station Chief Deng Jiachun was preparing to attend a meeting at the bureau when he received the call. Although Hunchback spoke in vague terms, Deng understood the situation perfectly. With a grim expression, he dialed the bus station police office. The phone rang abruptly, startling Luo Jinhao and Wang Bo, who were locked in their staring contest. Both turned toward the ringing phone. Luo Jinhao, being closer, picked it up.

"Put Wang Bo on the phone."

Deng Jiachun was short, standing only about one meter sixty-five, but his voice was like a bronze gong, vibrating against Luo Jinhao’s eardrums. Luo placed the phone on the table and said coldly to Wang Bo, "It’s for you."

"Damn it, Wang Bo! What is this, a holiday? You’re still causing trouble in the police office? Have you lost your mind? Return to the station immediately. Don’t embarrass us at the bus station."

Deng Jiachun cursed Wang Bo out over the phone. The Wujin Police Station was currently striving to be named an Advanced Police Station in Shazhou City. The Municipal Party Committee member, Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and the Vice Mayor in charge were scheduled to inspect the station on July 3rd. At such a critical moment, two officers engaging in an internal squabble made Deng Jiachun furious.

Wang Bo straightened up, the alcohol completely leaving his system. He replied respectfully, "Chief, I’ll return immediately."

"Wang Bo, clean up the area around the station. Tell them not to go overboard. I’m putting this on the table: if they provoke me, I’ll turn their world upside down." Deng Jiachun paused on the other end of the line, his tone softening slightly. "Wang Bo, notify all officers. There’s a meeting at the station tonight at seven o’clock. No drinking allowed."

Wang Bo took the phone, his face flushing red and pale in turns. He was a tall man, one meter eighty-five, but in the presence of his one-meter-sixty-five chief, Deng Jiachun, he had no authority. Even over the phone, he maintained a respectful attitude. After hanging up, Wang Bo threw the glue stick he was holding onto the table, glared fiercely at Hou Weidong, and said as he walked away, "Everyone back to the station. The chief wants a meeting at seven tonight."

After Wang Bo left, Luo Jinhao showed a hint of disdain and muttered quietly, "Trash."

Seeing that Luo Jinhao had argued with the station chief on his behalf, Hou Weidong felt deeply apologetic and grateful. He said sincerely, "Senior Brother Luo, I’ve caused you trouble."

Luo Jinhao waved it off with an indifferent expression. "It’s nothing. If I still had the temperament I had when I first graduated, I would have fought him already."

Hou Weidong asked curiously, "Have you been at the police station since graduation, Senior Brother?"

Luo Jinhao shook his head. "After graduation, I was assigned to the Municipal Bureau, in the Legal Affairs Section. It’s the department that handles legal reviews for the bureau, and it’s also a place that produces talent. Back then, I was young and arrogant. I wasn’t polite to the officers handling cases below me. I thought I was right about everything. I don’t know how many people I offended. Eventually, they transferred me directly from the Legal Affairs Section to a police station, euphemistically calling it 'grassroots training.' I’ve been here for three years now."

"By the way, where were you assigned?"

"Before graduation, I took the selection exam for party and government cadres in Yiyang County. I passed. I’m currently waiting for my assignment."

"Party and government cadre. Work hard. You have more prospects than your senior brother." Luo Jinhao spoke with the tone of someone who had been through it all. "When I graduated, I thought I was the chosen one. After mixing it up in society for a few years, I realized I was nothing special. Let me give you a piece of advice: never take it upon yourself to save the world. Never think that everyone else is drunk while you alone are sober. If you think that way, you’re either a saint or a fool. This is a realistic society. Doing your job honestly is already an achievement. Don’t overthink other things."

Hou Weidong listened carefully. Luo Jinhao was a senior figure in the campus discipline patrol and had been a prominent figure in his day. Now, there was a faint sense of injustice and some desolation in his words, which touched Hou Weidong deeply.

"Hey, why am I talking so much today? Never mind, let’s drop it." Luo Jinhao looked up at the wall clock. "It’s time. Go catch your bus. One last thing: keep your head clear after you start working. The complexity of today’s society is sometimes unimaginable."

Thanking Luo Jinhao, Hou Weidong boarded the bus.

The bus slowly pulled out of the Shazhou Bus Station. Hou Weidong stared tightly at the window, fantasizing that Xiaojia’s figure would suddenly appear on the street, smiling at him. Naturally, he was disappointed. The streets were crowded with people, but his beloved was hidden deep within the sea of humanity. As the bus moved, the distance between them grew further and further.

When Shazhou City completely disappeared into the sunlight, a familiar line of poetry jumped unreasonably from the depths of his heart: "It is hard to meet, and hard to part; the east wind is weak, and the flowers are withering." Hou Weidong felt a hollow emptiness in his chest, with nowhere for his emotions to land.