The Police Station

Lücheng lay south of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway, with the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal running straight through the ancient town. Blessed with convenient transport and a flourishing economy, Lücheng, though merely a town, served as a crucial thoroughfare between the north and the south. Lücheng Police Station was located at Xuban Bridge, right beside the Lücheng Railway Station. A pole stood outside the entrance of the station, bearing a storm lantern. Looking on from a distance, Fang Jibai observed that the sentry on duty was completely exposed in the lantern light—a textbook scenario of standing brightly in the open while an enemy remained hidden in the dark. "Who goes there? Halt!" Spying a silhouette approaching from afar, the sentry shouted sharply. "Tang Yan, it's me." ... "Who?" Fang Jibai took a few paces forward, his figure stepping into the lantern's glow. "Oh, Fourth Brother! You gave me a fright," Tang Yan said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Third Sister is getting married tomorrow. How do you have the time to come out here, Fourth Brother?" "Is Xiao Qi at the station?" Fang Jibai tossed a cigarette to Tang Yan. Just as Fang placed one between his own lips and went to light it, Tang Yan cradled his rifle under one arm, hurried over, and took the initiative to strike a match to light it for him. "He's here. You know how it is, Fourth Brother—Section Leader Chen lives at the station." "All right, I'll go see Xiao Qi." Fang Jibai thrust the remaining half-pack of cigarettes into Tang Yan's hand, walked straight up to the door, and knocked. "Xiao Qi, it's me. Open up." "Of course I know it's you," Chen Xiuqi grumbled as he pulled on his black police uniform tunic. "These days, who doesn't call me Section Leader Chen, Officer Chen, or Chief Chen? You're the only one who keeps hollering 'Xiao Qi, Xiao Qi'!" "Well, how about we go by family seniority, then? I could reluctantly bring myself to call you my eldest nephew," Fang Jibai offered after a moment's thought, teasingly obliging. Even though Chen Xiuqi was five years his senior, there was no helping it—Fang held the higher generational standing. "Just stick with Xiao Qi," Chen Xiuqi sighed. ... "Little Fourth." Chen Xiuqi offered a cigarette to Fang Jibai. "Your Third Sister is being married off tomorrow, so things must be hectic at home right now. How do you have time to wander around?" "I'm here to bring you some merit." Fang Jibai held the cigarette in his hand, glanced at Chen Xiuqi, and said. "What? Are you Red Party? Come to confess and surrender?" Chen Xiuqi's face lit up. "I dream of catching Red Party members these days—the more, the better." "You look more like Red Party to me. The roots of your Chen family aren't clean to begin with," Fang Jibai retorted with a sarcastic side-glance. "Keep talking like that and I'll really get mad at you!" Chen Xiuqi protested anxiously, raising his voice. "All right, all right, I won't say it. I won't," Fang Jibai laughed heartily. Chen Xiuqi had a clan uncle named Chen Pengju. Chen Pengju had been a teacher at the Lücheng Higher Primary School Jiangjun Temple Branch, as well as a close friend and colleague of Fang's eldest brother, Fang Jiwei. Back then, inspired by the May Fourth Movement, Chen Pengju had thrown himself actively into the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal revolutionary campaigns. Recommended by Dai Tingfu, Chen Pengju joined the Red Party in the fifteenth year of the Republic, later serving as a member of the Red Party Danyang County Committee and a branch secretary. Following the failure of the Great Revolution, Chen Pengju rallied revolutionary stalwarts to organize an armed struggle and attacked the Lücheng Police Station—yes, the very building where Chen Xiuqi now slept. Chen Pengju successfully took the police station, seized weapons and ammunition, and led his force up Mount Mao to wage guerrilla warfare. In the eighteenth year of the Republic, Chen Pengju served as an official of the Red Party in Danyang County, frequently organizing revolutionary activities across Erling, Lingkou, and Zheliu. In June of that year, a landlord tipped off the police. Chen Pengju was surrounded by a swarm of policemen and gravely wounded in the ensuing shootout. Facing the closing ring of enemies, he cried out, "I die for the red cause and the toiling masses, with no regrets!" He met a heroic death in the end, at the age of twenty-nine. Precisely because his clan uncle Chen Pengju had been a Danyang Red Party bandit chief, Chen Xiuqi—a top graduate of the J-Province Provincial Police Academy—had languished in this little outpost of Lücheng Police Station for seven long years. By all appearances, he seemed doomed to spend the rest of his days trapped in this small-town station. Chen Xiuqi's greatest desire was to catch Red Party operatives with his own hands, washing away the shame Chen Pengju had brought upon the family. ... "Don't grumble about it," Fang Jibai consoled him. "With your family producing a Danyang Red bandit chief like Chen Pengju, the fact that you were even permitted into the Lücheng Police Station after graduating from the police academy is already the Party-State showing leniency to relatives of red bandits." He clicked his tongue and added, "Back in the Qing dynasty, this would have been high treason—they might have exterminated your entire nine relations." "I'm truly going to get angry," Chen Xiuqi said, his face darkening. "Truly angry?" Fang Jibai glanced at him and said flatly, "There seems to be a Japanese spy in Lücheng..." Before the words had even finished settling, Chen Xiuqi's eyes lit up. Fang Jibai held the cigarette between his lips. "Hey, where are my matches?" "Allow me, allow me!" Chen Xiuqi sprang up with eager attentiveness, grabbed the matchbox before Fang Jibai, struck a match, and leaned forward with a slight bow to light Fang's cigarette. "Fourth Brother, are you thirsty? Hungry? I still have a box of pastries over there—pear-paste filling!" "Xiao Qi." Fang Jibai drooped his eyelids languidly. "Just a moment ago, someone was calling me Little Fourth..." "Which bastard dared show disrespect to Fourth Brother?" Chen Xiuqi fumed with righteous indignation. "If I find out who it was, I'll chop off his cock and feed it to the dogs!" Fang Jibai froze around his cigarette, staring at Chen Xiuqi in utter disbelief. "Fourth Brother." Chen Xiuqi rubbed his hands together. "About that Japanese spy..." "Come closer," Fang Jibai sighed. "Right away, right away." ... After learning from Xiwa that there might be Japanese agents in town, Fang Jibai had faced two choices. One was to investigate secretly on his own. Given his reputation and standing in town, there were plenty of men willing to do his bidding. The other choice was to report the matter upward and blow the whistle to the police station. Fang Jibai had hardly hesitated before decisively choosing the latter. Whether as a decision made by an undercover operative drawing on extensive covert experience, or in his capacity as a police sergeant of the Nationalist Government's Nanjing Police Bureau Jiangjun Temple Police Station, or as a cadet soldier of the Central Military Academy Police Supplementary Class, he had to possess such political awareness and make the proper choice. Absolute secrecy was impossible in matters like this. He did not expect a mere half-grown boy like Xiwa to keep the secret completely airtight. Although he had taken precautions—giving Xiwa a single piece of fruit candy, knowing the boy had only this one and would fear having it snatched away or being forced to share it, so he wouldn't boast about it, since boasting would lead to questions about why Fourth Grandpa had given him candy, thereby minimizing the chance that Xiwa would blab—even adults let things slip unintentionally, let alone a half-grown child. And once word got out, failing to report and whistle-blow to the police in a timely manner would constitute a severe mistake given his current official identity. Why didn't you report it? Excuses like wanting to investigate privately on his own to claim the merit would never hold water. As a policeman and a cadet soldier of the Central Military Academy, discipline always came first. Failing to actively report discovered enemy activity was inherently suspect. That issue alone was enough to invite investigations and endless trouble. In the eyes of law enforcement, what kind of person refuses to go to the police? Someone with something to hide, nine times out of ten! That was their institutional mindset. As an undercover operative facing situations in the field, one sometimes needed to forget one's identity as a spy and consider problems strictly from the perspective of one's legitimate, official standing. "Section Leader, let's just charge right in and pin Feng the Third down in bed!" Tang Yan urged impatiently. "Charge, charge, charge—all you know is charging!" Chen Xiuqi swatted Tang Yan's police cap, scolding, "You just want to get an eyeful of the Right Widow's body and charge at her, you damn fool!"