Jiang Ling, of course, had no idea that she had become the target of Li Jun’s resentment just because her life was going well.

She had wanted to eat mapo tofu but couldn’t find beef, so she settled for a small piece of pork instead.

To ease Song Guanshu’s suspicions, Jiang Ling was especially attentive while helping out with dinner that night.

As Song Guanshu cut the tofu into cubes, she swiftly handed over the plate.

Once the wok was hot, she added oil and poured in the red chili bean paste she had asked someone to buy. After slowly stirring it over low heat until the red oil separated, she added minced pork and chili powder, then poured in enough water to cover the tofu. It was left to simmer gently, and finally, she added a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. A plate of fragrant, steaming mapo tofu was ready to be served.

By the end of the meal prep, while Song Guanshu, the head chef, seemed just fine, Jiang Ling was already panting from exhaustion.

There had been a vendor selling pancakes near the meat stall, and to save trouble, she had bought two pieces. The weather wasn’t cold, so there was no need to reheat them in the wok.

Every time Song Guanshu finished cooking, he always wiped down the stove and wok thoroughly before sitting down to eat.

After setting the table, Jiang Ling didn’t sit by the table as she usually did, waiting to eat. Instead, she ran over to the stove and handed him the tools he needed at just the right moment.

“Today I realized how exhausting it is for you to cook every day,” she continued to praise him. “With how amazing you are, how could Xie Lang possibly compare?”

“Sweet talker,” Song Guanshu said.

After tidying up the stove, he vigorously scrubbed the grease off his hands with soap. Only once his hands were clean did he sit down to eat.

The mapo tofu was both numbing and spicy. To cool the heat, Jiang Ling ended up eating two pancakes in a row.

After the meal, she said with slight dissatisfaction, “Next time we shouldn’t take the easy route. Mapo tofu and rice are the perfect pair.”

Song Guanshu glanced at her but didn’t say anything. He quietly carried the water she needed for her bath into the room.

“That’s enough, that’s enough. I’m not using shampoo—just rinsing my hair with plain water. Two basins are plenty.”

Ever since she had used that foul-smelling shampoo last time, Jiang Ling had developed a psychological aversion to the shampoo produced by the Daily Chemical Factory. She would rather rinse with plain water than use it again.

According to Song Guanshu, the reason the shampoo had a strange smell was because it had been made with substandard raw materials.

As someone working in the Accounting Section, Jiang Ling often had to review and approve the raw material purchase orders submitted by the Purchasing Section. She knew very well that the factory was using the best domestically available materials at present.

As for which part of the process had gone wrong—how the best raw materials had turned into inferior ones—Jiang Ling had no idea.

But she had begun to doubt the products her own factory was producing.

It was like when you spotted a single cockroach at home; chances were, countless others were already hiding in the dark.

By the same logic, if she had found a quality issue with the shampoo the factory produced, it was very possible that other products had similar problems too.

She had no interest in using these suspicious items on herself. A foul smell was the least of her worries—what if it caused hair loss after use?

Jiang Ling had been losing a lot of hair every day. She hadn’t been able to figure out the reason before, but now she suspected it was a side effect of the shampoo. Before making the bed each day, Song Guanshu would pick up the strands of hair she had unknowingly shed on the kang bed, gathering them up with obvious distaste and tossing them into the trash.

After her bath, she lay down on the kang and calculated her wages. In another month, she would have saved enough to buy a radio from the black market.

Almost all the household expenses were covered by Song Guanshu. Jiang Ling only bought groceries occasionally, so she was able to save most of her monthly salary.

Lying there, she waited for sleep to come, but she noticed that Song Guanshu hadn’t gotten on the kang, nor was he reading as usual. He was sitting at the table, doing something she couldn’t make out.

Wearing her light summer sleepwear, Jiang Ling jumped down from the kang and went over to him.

As she got closer, she grew even more puzzled. There were jars and bottles scattered all over the table. “What’s all this?”

Song Guanshu didn’t answer. “Go to bed first. I’ll be done soon.”

Since he didn’t want to say, Jiang Ling didn’t press further. The villain always had a lot of secrets—he was probably scheming something again.

“Once you’re done, go to bed early. We still have to get up for work tomorrow.”

After saying that, she found herself really missing the two-day weekend system from the future. Tomorrow was Friday, but for her, it might as well have been just another Thursday.

Song Guanshu gave a low reply, “Alright.”

The next morning, Jiang Ling struggled to climb out of bed from the kang.

She had no idea when Song Guanshu had come to bed the night before. When she fell asleep, he had still been busy.

He really was worthy of being a villain—going to bed later than her, yet still managing to wake up earlier.

Jiang Ling had a piece of sponge cake in her mouth as she spoke. “There’s a breakfast stall that just opened on the street behind our house. You work hard preparing breakfast every morning, so take a break tomorrow—we can go get some soy milk and fried dough sticks instead.” In truth, she was just craving soy milk and youtiao.

“Alright.”

At the same time, in an old tube-shaped apartment building in Beicheng, a delicate and pretty girl got out of bed.

Tong Wanyue stared in disbelief at everything around her—the cramped room, the familiar and outdated layout. This was her home from many years ago.

Exactly how many years ago, she could no longer remember clearly.

She got out of bed and ran straight to the mirror. Hanging beside the mirror was a calendar.

1983. This was her second year on the job.

Back then, she was still just an ordinary junior officer. Many years later, her husband, Xie Lang, would become a prominent figure in the field, while she, until the day she retired, remained a humble grassroots worker.

Although, because her husband was Xie Lang, even the bureau leaders didn’t dare to treat her lightly, and by all accounts she should have been content—her husband held a high position and had always treated her the same, and their children were obedient and sensible.

Many people envied her smooth-sailing life, but Tong Wanyue herself was not satisfied. Things weren’t supposed to turn out like this. When she had first entered the field, she too had harbored ambition, had once dreamed of upholding justice.

So how had it all changed?

After she got married and became pregnant, she had to take care of the child and take care of Xie Lang.

Society, her family, even she herself believed that a husband and child should come first. And so, little by little, she was transferred from the frontlines to a logistics post.

She had been like a frog slowly being boiled alive in warm water. By the time she realized it, she was already at retirement age.

Her husband Xie Lang, on the other hand, had spent his life solving countless major and high-profile cases, achieving both personal and social fulfillment.

But what about her? She had worked hard her entire life, yet when people mentioned her, all they said was, “That’s Xie Lang’s wife.”

She had once been a key talent cultivated by the public security force.

Her father had been a very famous painter, but during that turbulent decade, both her parents had passed away.

Still, the influence they left her was etched into her bones. Though her painting skills couldn’t compare to her parents’, she was exceptional at sketching profiles.

Tong Wanyue had experienced the internet age. She used to think that reincarnation and time travel were just fairy tales. But when it happened to her, she realized it was real.

Yet there was little time for sentimental reflection. When she saw the date, she remembered a major late-night armed family massacre that had occurred in Beicheng in her past life.

The killer was originally from neighboring Hucheng. After murdering a public security officer there and stealing his gun, he robbed a savings bank. He fled to Beicheng and, after getting into a conflict with the victims, snuck into their home at night and killed all seven members of the family. He escaped again after the murders.

The public security bureaus of the two cities worked together on the case for two years before finally capturing the murderer and bringing him to justice.

Tong Wanyue clenched her fists. Now that she had the memories of her past life, she couldn’t let that poor family of seven be slaughtered again.

She changed her clothes and headed to the bureau for work.

Tong Wanyue could no longer recall the killer’s real name, but once she picked up a pen, she could sketch his face clearly.

She went to her superior and handed over the portrait. “I’ve recently been reading reports from Hucheng about the case involving the murder of a public security officer, the stolen firearm, and the robbery at the savings bank. Based on the survivor’s description in the reports, I drew this profile sketch of the suspect.”

Her superior was someone who valued results and took her work seriously. She accepted the sketch with a nod. “I’ll send this profile to the team in Hucheng for confirmation.”

“Young people should be diligent and motivated like you.”

As the date of the family massacre drew closer, Tong Wanyue grew increasingly anxious. She couldn’t afford to beat around the bush. “Also, I have another thought. Beicheng is very close to Hucheng. Isn’t it possible that the suspect fled here? If he did, he’s extremely dangerous and poses a serious threat to the lives and property of our citizens. I suggest the bureau organize night patrols, especially in areas with poor security and disorder.”

Upon hearing her suggestion, her superior didn’t immediately agree.

Whether the suspect had escaped to Beicheng was still just speculation.

If they mobilized dozens of people in the bureau to patrol at night based on nothing but Tong Wanyue’s guess—well, if they actually found someone, that would be fine. But what if they didn’t? Everyone would have gone through all that effort for nothing.

It would seem like overkill.

“Wanyue, head back for now. I’ll think it over.” She shook the sketch in her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure this profile sketch is followed up quickly. If Hucheng confirms your drawing is accurate, then you’ll have made a big contribution. And we at the Beicheng public security will share in that credit thanks to you.”

Tong Wanyue left the director’s office with a sense of reluctance.

Before the end of the workday, she was called in again. “I used the fax machine to send the profile sketch to Hucheng. They had the survivor confirm it, and they said it’s exactly like the suspect! Hucheng has already started using the sketch to search for him. I believe they’ll be able to catch the suspect very soon,” said Director Zou, visibly excited.

“Wanyue, you’ve made a real contribution. Bringing you into the force back then was the right decision. What they in Hucheng couldn’t manage, we in Beicheng accomplished. You did an excellent job on this.”

Though it had gone exactly as she expected, Tong Wanyue wasn’t particularly thrilled. She repeated the request she had made earlier that morning.

Given that she had just made a significant contribution, Director Zou gave it some thought before saying, “Lately, Beicheng’s night security hasn’t been great. I’ll talk to the other bureau leaders and see if we can coordinate night patrols across bureaus and focus on cleaning up public order issues. Just look at that steel factory ghost-revenge case from the other day—it stirred up the whole city. A female ghost seeking revenge? More like gang fights between street punks at night. After all, Beicheng is the provincial capital. Public security is no small matter.”

Director Zou still had superiors above her, so she needed to report and discuss it with them.

Ghost seeking revenge? That was an unfamiliar name. Tong Wanyue couldn’t recall hearing of such a case in her previous life.

Had she forgotten it? Or had it never happened in her past life?

“Thank you, Director. But could we move on this a little faster?”

Though Director Zou was in a difficult position herself, she still tried to reassure her. “Wanyue, I know you care about the work, but don’t rush. I’ll see what I can do.”

After persuading Tong Wanyue to leave, Director Zou went to the office of the higher-ups at the bureau.

She couldn’t say it was just a suggestion from a low-level officer. Instead, she said, “One of our officers managed to sketch the suspect’s profile before Hucheng even moved. This completely outshines them. If the suspect really did escape to Beicheng, and we catch him before they do, not only will it be a major achievement, but Hucheng will lose both face and credit.”

The bureau leadership did seriously consider the feasibility of the plan but hesitated. “After all, we don’t have any concrete evidence that he fled to Beicheng. If we stir up such a big operation and the suspect isn’t even here, we’ll become a laughingstock among our fellow bureaus.”

Director Zou had already prepared her reasoning and was just waiting for approval.

She repeated what she had told Tong Wanyue earlier: they weren’t launching an operation to hunt down Hucheng’s violent fugitive specifically—they were organizing a night patrol to clean up public order, and in the process, would screen for any suspicious individuals.

The bureau head pointed at her from across the room. “You, you… always full of sly tricks.”

They shared a knowing smile.

The next morning, Tong Wanyue received the night patrol assignment.

The team leader told her, “You’re a woman, so normally we’d have you stay back at the station. But Director Zou specifically said you’re to go out with us.”

Tong Wanyue nodded eagerly. “I’m willing to go on patrol with everyone. I personally requested this from Director Zou.” Though there was a high chance of danger, she couldn’t rest easy leaving it to her colleagues alone.

The team leader gave her a strange look. Someone volunteering for this kind of assignment? What normal person would willingly give up sleep to patrol all night?

Tong Wanyue spoke to the team leader, “The suspect is extremely violent and has multiple lives on his hands. During the patrols, everyone must be extra cautious.”

She hoped to protect that innocent family of seven and didn’t want any colleagues to shed blood or lose their lives because of this.

Public security officers from various substations and precincts were being called in for night patrol duty. As a rookie in the force, Xie Lang naturally ended up with this kind of exhausting, thankless task.

The public security bureau distributed the suspect’s profile sketch and instructed officers to keep an eye out for this individual during their patrols.

As soon as he saw the sketch, Xie Lang immediately thought of the middle-aged man who had once appeared at Jiang Ling’s doorstep.

He went to his superior to inquire about the case, asking what this man had done. When he heard that the suspect was responsible for a series of murders,

Xie Lang cursed under his breath.