Hongcheng City is a small city in the eastern part of China. The police station located on Zigu Road is a small unit with a staff of six. It has a chief, a political instructor, three case-handling police officers, and one resident registration officer. With insufficient manpower, they've also hired three off-duty auxiliary police officers.

　　As a case-handling police officer, my job carries a certain degree of danger, but it also offers relatively more freedom. As long as I can come up with some lame excuse about going on patrol somewhere, the leaders mostly turn a blind eye and don't ask questions.

　　"Jay, where are you?"

　　I heard Ah Jing's voice on the phone. Just from the sound, I could tell he was drunk again.

　　A month ago, Ah Jing broke up with his girlfriend of three years, Lily, and since then, he's often been drunk. As his only close buddy in this city, I couldn't just ignore him. I called my girlfriend back, and then, abusing my authority a bit, I drove the police car to this restaurant located on Yanjiang Road.

　　At this moment, Ah Jing was clearly drunk. There were five or six empty beer bottles on the table, and he was still asking for more.

　　"Ah Jing, you can't drink anymore!" I roughly stopped him.

　　"Jay, let me drink. If I don't, my heart aches." Ah Jing said, tears already starting to form on his face. "Jay, why is life so unfair? Some people live like they're in heaven, while others are in hell."

　　Ah Jing was a program host at a local TV station. He had been working as a host for three years, always just earning a basic salary of a little over two thousand yuan, with rare opportunities to host large-scale programs.

　　With low income and having just gone through a breakup, Ah Jing was in a really bad mood. This was already the third time I'd seen him drunk recently. Yet, he always remembered to call me. Sometimes I think he's not really drunk; he just wants someone to talk to. Drunk but lucid, that's probably the kind of person he is.

　　"You have a stable income, which is already good. Look at the streets; how many college graduates are running around looking for jobs everywhere? And how many migrant workers are earning meager wages every day, with the possibility of being cheated by unscrupulous contractors?" I tried to console Ah Jing.

　　Ah Jing shook his head and said, "To be a person, you either live a glorious life or you don't live at all. I don't blame Lily for leaving me. I really don't. I just blame myself. Why am I so poor? Why don't I have money? Why can't I let her live the life of the rich?"

　　Ah Jing was about to pour more beer into his glass, but I snatched the bottle away and said, "Your idea isn't wrong, but there are six or seven billion people on Earth. That means the vast majority are destined to be ordinary. It's like building a pyramid; the higher up you go towards the peak, the fewer stones you need."

　　"So, I'm going to strive to be one of those stones at the peak!" Ah Jing looked at me, his eyes shining. He didn't look like a drunk at all.

　　"But I must warn you, a gentleman loves wealth but acquires it through legitimate means. You must never do anything illegal!"

　　"Whoosh!"

　　Ah Jing fell asleep on the table. I didn't know if he had heard me or not. I stared out the window at the vehicles passing by from time to time, lost in thought.

　　Yanjiang Road is a main thoroughfare in Hongcheng City.

　　To the south of Yanjiang Road lies the mighty Gan River. As a tributary of the Yangtze River, the Gan River winds its way around Hongcheng City, bestowing upon it the reputation of a "water town in southern China."

　　On the north side of Yanjiang Road is a bustling commercial street. Even though it's the dead of night, vehicles still come and go in a constant stream.

　　At this moment, a Passat car pulls over by the roadside. From where I'm standing, I can clearly see a balding man in his fifties or sixties get out of the car. He turns his back to a tree and takes a leak. Then, he gets back into the car.

　　As he gets in, this bald man glances in my direction, either intentionally or unintentionally, and even gives me a weird grin. It sends a chill down my spine, even though I'm a people's policeman.

　　The streetlights are bright, and my eyesight is excellent. I can clearly see a copper-coin-sized blue mark beside the man's rum-blotched nose. Because of this mark, I have a vivid impression of this man, including his bald head and even his height and build.

　　Ah Jing is in a deep sleep and can't be woken up no matter how hard I try. So, I have to support him out of the tavern and prepare to send him home.

　　To save money, Ah Jing rents a cheap room. I've been here a few times. Although the room is small, it's very tidy. Basically, it's Ah Jing who does the cleaning. Lily was really lucky to be with him.

　　But people have different values. Lily, for the sake of money, would rather marry a man over a dozen years older than herself. Although that man is old, he can provide her with a comfortable life. She doesn't have to do anything and can live a worry-free life, and she can even bring her younger siblings from her hometown to the city.

　　Without love, Ah Jing loses the motivation to do housework. The small room is no better than a dog kennel. I get Ah Jing onto the bed, and he starts to vomit. Under such circumstances, I naturally can't just leave him.

　　By the time I've cleaned up the entire room, it's almost dawn. I'm exhausted and collapse onto the bed beside Ah Jing, falling asleep. For some reason, I dream of that bald man with the rum-blotched nose and the blue mark beside it. He keeps grinning at me, over and over again. Then, one of his eyeballs falls out, and his face becomes as if it's been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, a grotesque and terrifying sight.

　　"Ahh!" I scream and wake up, only to see Ah Jing poking his head out from the kitchen.

　　"What's wrong?" Ah Jing takes a look at me.

　　"I had a nightmare!" I say, still shaken.

　　"Have you ever executed someone?" There's a hint of mockery in Ah Jing's words.

　　Hearing the sound of cooking, I get out of bed and wash up briefly. Ah Jing has already put breakfast on the table - a big bowl of fried rice with eggs.

　　"Why didn't you cook porridge?" I shovel a couple of mouthfuls into my mouth, really not used to eating such hard food for breakfast.

　　"There's a bowl of leftover rice in the fridge. We can't let it go to waste!" Ah Jing doesn't even look up as he says this while shoveling rice into his mouth.

　　I look at Ah Jing and really admire him. He was dead drunk the night before, but he's fine after waking up. If it were me, I'd definitely have a terrible headache.

　　"Tell me, what kind of dream did you have last night? You still look like you're sweating cold sweat." After finishing his bowl of fried rice, Ah Jing stares at me and asks.

　　"It's just water." I wipe my face and say. Of course, I can't let Ah Jing know that I'm still scared to this day. After all, I'm a brave people's policeman.

　　"I'm leaving. You eat this bowl of rice. We can't waste it!" I push the bowl of fried rice in front of me to Ah Jing.

　　"Get lost!" Ah Jing curses at me.

　　However, as I walk out the door, I can clearly hear the sound of him shoveling rice into his mouth. We really can't afford to waste food.