Chapter 29

Yang Yuanbing stepped out of the nightclub. The night breeze blew, and his previously foggy mind suddenly cleared up quite a bit.

Han Jianyong, Yang Yuanbing’s former boss, had risen quickly through the ranks in recent years, but he had also become much more ruthless.

Yang Yuanbing remembered that about four or five years ago, on Han Jianyong’s 40th birthday, a few old subordinates had an impulsive idea and hired two women from the street to celebrate with him.

Yang Yuanbing initially thought this was completely inappropriate, but the others were all excited about it, so to avoid spoiling the mood, he reluctantly went along with it.

The women were originally there just to drink with Han Jianyong. When the others whispered in Han Jianyong’s ear that the two women could stay for the night, Han Jianyong’s face turned bright red.

Yang Yuanbing thought they were doomed, but to his surprise, after staring at everyone for a while, Han Jianyong finally managed to squeeze out a line:

“Two women is too much. I can only handle one at a time!”

It seemed like from that moment on, Han Jianyong began to change slowly. In addition to his addiction to alcohol, he began to crave women. And now, he was no longer satisfied with just one woman at a time. At least two or three women at once was his new standard, and he enjoyed it immensely.

Of course, Yang Yuanbing played along with his tastes; this was actually a great way to get closer to Han Jianyong.

After all, isn’t it said that the purest of friendships is forged by going through the same hardships, carrying the same burdens, sharing spoils, and even hiring prostitutes together? Aside from the first one, Yang Yuanbing and Han Jianyong had done everything else.

This kind of friendship could be described as rock-solid.

The “Paradise on Earth” nightclub was owned by a former inmate, and Yang Yuanbing had helped him a lot while he was in prison. Although it was a paid favor, the man was still very grateful to him.

As a result, “Paradise on Earth” became one of the regular places where Yang Yuanbing entertained his leaders, and all the leaders who had been treated there were very satisfied.

This time, Yang Yuanbing left first, not because he personally enjoyed the place, but because he felt a bit anxious.

Just now, Han Jianyong, under the influence of alcohol, had quietly instructed him to spread a rumor that Liu Jun’s incident was caused by An Xiaohai.

That was pretty low. This was an attempt to destroy An Xiaohai completely! Not only that, but it would drag his entire family down with him.

Honestly, Yang Yuanbing didn’t want to do this.

Yang Yuanbing’s life goals could be summed up in four words: “Promote and get rich.” For these four words, he was willing to do anything! But at the same time, he considered himself a man of principles with boundaries.

His philosophy was one of mutual cooperation and win-win outcomes.

Yang Yuanbing believed that moving a prisoner to another cell, or accepting some money to give a prisoner some special treatment, were things that could be overlooked. But personally targeting someone, going out of his way to harm them—this was too much.

Once he did that, if An Xiaohai figured it out, he would become his mortal enemy, the kind that would fight to the death.

Yang Yuanbing didn’t want to make an enemy of anyone.

Even a rabbit would bite when cornered.

An Xiaohai was certainly no rabbit; he was more like a vicious wolf disguised in sheep’s clothing.

In fact, from the very beginning, Yang Yuanbing had been certain that it was An Xiaohai who had injured Liu Jun. This was his intuition, and many facts had proven that his intuition was almost always right. Not to mention, An Xiaohai had a powerful force backing him up.

If Yang Yuanbing followed Han Jianyong’s orders, there would be no turning back.

What should he do? Yang Yuanbing furrowed his brows.

Though it seemed glamorous to navigate the political world, it was, in reality, very dangerous. One wrong move could result in irreversible consequences.

Yang Yuanbing had mentioned to Han Jianyong that the Municipal Party Committee had contacted him, partly to show his own influence, but also to make Han Jianyong wary of him.

Han Jianyong had surely understood the underlying message, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it. This could mean two things: either Han Jianyong was confident that nothing could touch him, or even Han Jianyong didn’t dare to disobey orders.

That was interesting.

Yang Yuanbing believed that Han Jianyong was in the latter category. He wasn’t the one personally after An Xiaohai; someone had instructed him to do so, and that was someone Han Jianyong couldn’t refuse.

After all, Yang Yuanbing had learned that Han Jianyong had no direct connection to An Xiaohai.

Yang Yuanbing got into the car, and before he knew it, he had arrived at the First Prison. He got out of the car and was about to take a stroll around the prison when a guard stopped him.

“What’s going on?”

“Director Yang, the prison block is under lockdown. A lot of people from the Municipal Anti-Drug Brigade are here. They’re investigating something and questioning some prisoners. We’ve temporarily evacuated all personnel except for the essentials. You might want to wait a bit. They should be done soon.”

“Oh, I see. I won’t wait. I had a drink and don’t feel like going back to sleep. I’ll just rest in the dorm for a bit.”

Yang Yuanbing waved his hand and walked toward the dormitory building.

The Municipal Anti-Drug Brigade had a special job, and it was normal for the prison to cooperate with them.

Recently, the Narcotics Squad had been very successful, solving two major cases—one involving drug trafficking and the other involving a robbery—both with a combined value of over a million yuan.

Yang Yuanbing didn’t want to get involved with these people, so he decided to wash his face in the dorm to sober up and wait for the Narcotics Squad to finish before deciding what to do next.

—–

An Xiaohai had memorized the duty roster for nearly half an hour, and he probably should have spent even more time, but he was beginning to struggle. Finally, he handed the roster back to Wang Tiejun.

“Got it?” Wang Tiejun asked, looking at An Xiaohai with a meaningful expression.

“Should be close enough…” An Xiaohai replied, putting on a guilty look.

“Let’s test you then.”

“Alright!” An Xiaohai nodded, glancing at Wang Tiejun.

Wang Tiejun opened the duty roster and began quizzing An Xiaohai, asking him several questions in a row. Wang Tiejun’s heart was in turmoil.

More than 80% of An Xiaohai’s answers were correct. Even when he got something wrong, his answer was very close to the right one.

Wang Tiejun knew how difficult this was. Even the best special forces personnel he had encountered wouldn’t necessarily do better than An Xiaohai.

The duty roster wasn’t long—only about ten pages. Many people who had received relevant training could get the gist of it in about half an hour.

But the problem was, this was a duty roster!

A duty roster meant An Xiaohai had to remember the names of nearly 300 officers in the First Prison and know which area they were in, and what kind of work they were doing, all in half an hour.

The content of the duty roster had no clear structure, which made it far harder to memorize than an article.

It was extremely difficult.

An Xiaohai’s performance far exceeded Wang Tiejun’s expectations.

“Too bad…” Wang Tiejun sighed inwardly.

At this point, An Xiaohai was looking more and more like the best candidate for special forces in his mind, but unfortunately, An Xiaohai already had a criminal record, so he had no chance of entering the police system.

No matter how much An Xiaohai cooperated with him in the future, he would always remain in the shadows, forever a nameless informant, at constant risk of death.

Such a shame.

An Xiaohai, on the other hand, was also feeling uneasy. Wang Tiejun quizzing him with the duty roster felt suspicious!

What exactly was this Director Wang trying to do?!