“…But I think I did something righteous.”

…Maybe he didn’t have the chance to kill me yet, but Zhou Shaobo beat him to it, turning him into a sieve.

I lowered my eyes and finished reading the confession letter. My hands were trembling.

I didn’t vomit when I saw his body, but this time, I rushed to the bathroom and threw up violently.

My partner, just coming out of the bathroom, looked at me in surprise. I shouldn’t have lost my composure like that. But my heart felt as if it was being twisted, hurting deeply.

So much that my stomach churned, and a wave of nausea hit my head.

Why?

Why didn’t he believe me? Why did he think I did something wrong? Why did he think I would betray him? I didn’t. I really didn’t.

What else did they want me to do?

Just assuming I was a bad person, putting that heavy crown on my head, ready to strike me with a sword of judgment.

That bastard didn’t know anything.

He didn’t know the price I paid for my sense of justice.

The bad guys thought I was a traitor. The good guys didn’t accept me either.

I was never accepted by this world, and it’s always been like that.

I looked at myself in the mirror, my eyes bloodshot.

Suddenly, I punched the mirror hard, blood pouring out.

I hated the monster in the mirror. I lived in so much pain, but no one could save me.

Everyone has redemption—except for me.

Everyone has a way home—except for me.

---

Zhou Shaobo sent a video to the police station.

The content was simple.

A little girl was tied to a chair—it was Wang Jingchang’s niece.

His demand was me.

He wanted me to go alone to the location he sent to the police.

I could bring a gun, a locator, any recording equipment—but no one could be around me, no police within ten miles. Otherwise, he’d kill her.

“You’re not going.”

“He just wants you dead.”

After reading his demands, the chief stood in front of me.

“We’ve already lost one comrade. I won’t let another…”

I chuckled.

It was obviously a trap.

Just exchanging my life for the girl’s.

“But, Chief,” I said, looking at this man, whose head was now completely gray.

Just a few days ago, only his temples had a bit of white.

“My broken life…”

I squeezed out the most comforting smile of my life.

“What good is it anyway?”

Might as well head to the afterlife.

Find Wang Jingchang.

Give him a good beating.

And tell him—I didn’t betray anyone.

---

“This is your familiar Type 54 pistol.”

“Zhou Shaobo is a high-profile criminal. Ensure the hostage’s safety, and shoot him on sight.”

“Got a signal on the earpiece? Keep in touch once you enter the building.”

In the car, my partner tapped the earpiece he was wearing. I nodded.

The atmosphere was unusually somber.

Even though nothing had happened yet, everyone’s faces looked like they were attending my funeral.

Well, to be honest, before I left, the chief had already asked me to write my will.

I dipped the ink brush onto the blank paper and wrote two letters.

“sb.”

If anyone asked, and I managed to come back, I’d say it stood for “sweet baby.”

If I died, they could think I was just an idiot.

It was fine. Really.

I even had the mood to take a nap in the car.

But in my dreams, I saw my old man.

He sat on his gravestone, pulling my hair.

“Kid, why are you in such a hurry to see me?”

“Did you forget what you promised your dad?”

He…

He was the one who raised me.

The one whose badge I inherited.

---

After Zhou Shaobo helped me escape the orphanage, I wandered the streets for a long time.

At that time, I was around eleven or twelve, uneducated, and the only thing I knew how to do was steal.

If I saw something I wanted, I took it. After stealing, I ran. If I couldn’t run fast enough, I’d get beaten.

I met my old man in an alley. I broke one of his legs and stole 140 yuan from him.

I didn’t know then that he had just finished a mission and hadn’t fully recovered.

Nor did I know…

He was the head of the Public Security Bureau at the time.

The day after I robbed him, I got caught.

Thrown into a luxury jail, better than anything I’d ever experienced.

The man, dressed simply, limped to visit me.

His first words were:

“I heard you don’t have any parents?”

He didn’t know that was my sore spot, so I grabbed the bars and yelled at him:

“So what if I don’t have parents?”

“Unlike you, you son of a bitch, your kid’s a bastard too.”

He smiled at me and nodded.

“Not bad.”

What’s ‘not bad’?!

Then, I saw him pull out a document through the bars.

“Your adoption papers.”

“I pulled some strings; your consent wasn’t needed.”

“From now on, I’m your dad, you little bastard.”

“…”

---

My old man never thought about teaching me in any normal way.

When I stayed overnight at an internet café, he shoved a cigarette into my mouth, told me to get up, and said I sucked at video games.

When I got into fights at school, he’d ask if I bullied anyone weaker. I told him I beat up the older kids who collected protection fees. He said, “Good job, son.”

After parent-teacher meetings, he’d get mad at my poor grades, then ask a second later if I wanted roast duck from Quanjude.

He was a laid-back person, so much so that people often overlooked what he carried on his shoulders.

I always thought he was just an ordinary dad.

Later, his head was delivered to our doorstep.

The criminals had put a bounty on his head—1 billion USD.

He was the highest-priced cop in the world.

One day, the brightest star in the sky was taken down.

That was the greatest honor for him.

He was never ordinary.

I never thought about grand ideals like serving the country.

But I did want to be like him.

To stand where he stood.

---

The location Zhou Shaobo gave was an old, abandoned building.

The kind even satellite positioning would struggle to find.

But I was intimately familiar with the place.

Because it was the old site of the orphanage where Zhou Shaobo and I used to stay.