The Reprimand

At the border defense station, the former personnel department office had been converted into the special investigation team's temporary office. Lin Zhiyan opened the case file on the Lincheng fugitive, and the first thing that met her eyes was a rather familiar name. [Report on Comrade Lu Zhao's Lawful Use of Weapons to Shoot Dead the Fugitive Tian Er] [Fangnan City Ant Ridge Border Defense Station, May 25, 3242. Our unit received a report that wanted fugitive Tian Er had appeared in the mountains behind Ant Ridge. Border officers Lu Zhao and Liu Qiang encountered him during a mountain patrol and, with confirmation from the alert center, shot the fugitive dead.] "Bring me this Lu Zhao's file." The assistant fetched it. Lin Zhiyan opened it, and her eyes locked at once onto the education entry. [Outstanding Graduate of the Psychic Discipline, Dijing University, Class of '34] She stared at it for a long while, and couldn't help murmuring, "So it really is him." Beside her, the assistant glanced at Lu Zhao's credentials with a flicker of surprise. "How does an outstanding graduate of Dijing end up doing border defense here — as nothing more than a platoon leader?" The Federation ran an elite-education system in life-force development, and Dijing was that field's highest hall; every student there was one of heaven's favorites. Its baseline requirement of at least twenty points of life force at age eighteen alone turned away 98% of examinees. Nearly everyone who graduated from there went on to rise into the ranks of management. Of the Hall of Martial Virtue's twelve seats today, half the Martial Marquises were Dijing graduates — and so was the current Chief Heavenly Marquis. "You know him, Team Leader?" "I know him. Whether he knows me is another matter. He was quite the famous name back then." Lin Zhiyan had seen Lu Zhao in person more than once. He moved through campus like a spotlight — wherever he went, eyes followed. Striking looks, humble origins, a truly ugly nickname — and in the end, on sheer effort, he had climbed to twelfth in his year and first in the psychic discipline. The story was so inspirational that teachers were still holding him up as a model to this day. Lin Zhiyan had enrolled two years after him, which meant that from her first day she was watching the legend at his height. He always walked alone, always sat in the farthest corner of the cafeteria, his tray holding nothing but bland life supplement and synthetic protein blocks. And yet he always drew attention — for his looks as much as his ability. The memory that stayed with her most: Lu Zhao standing at the lectern, subbing in for a class of first-year students, lecturing on Fine Psychic Field Manipulation. Over a hundred floating steel beads traced complex topological structures through the air, each trajectory accurate to the millimeter. With calculation and control beyond compare, he left the psychic prodigies gathered from every corner of the country in dead silence. It was also the school's way of showing them who ruled here — knocking the swagger out of the new students. There had been a time when Lin Zhiyan set him as the mark to beat; in the end she never managed to challenge his hold on first place. She had assumed Lu Zhao must have gone into some classified unit. She had never imagined he'd be holed up in a place like this. Lin Zhiyan gave her orders. "In a bit, look into something for me: how a Dijing honors graduate ended up here." "And get Lü Jinshan in here for me right now." ——— A few minutes later, Lü Jinshan hurried in. Before he had even found his footing, Lin Zhiyan's icy voice, wrapped in psychic power, came down on his head. "The file stated clearly that the criminal might be hiding an object. The internal bulletins on the fugitive even raised the matter of the Fate Bone. Why wasn't a mountain search ordered on the spot?" "Well — there was heavy rain at the time..." Lü Jinshan's sweat poured like rain, yet all he dared do was keep his head down. In theory, as the locality's chief administrative officer, he need not bow his head even to someone outranking him. In practice, his authority covered only the Ant Ridge area, while hers radiated across the entire Nanhai West Circuit. And Lin Zhiyan's background was nothing ordinary either: throughout all Nanhai, families more illustrious than hers could be counted on one hand. "Enough! I'm not here for a weather report. Would the rain have killed you? Even after it stopped, you still didn't go looking. How long has it been now? Three whole days! What are you waiting for — for the thing to grow legs and walk into your office by itself?" Lin Zhiyan slapped the file down on the desk and said coldly, from on high, "Lü Jinshan, this is more than an oversight. This is dereliction of duty." "Within three days, you will find that thing for me." Dereliction of duty struck his heart like a sledgehammer, draining the last of the color from his already wretched face. He scrambled out of the office, and on the way ran smack into the pair of Lu Zhao and Liu Qiang, just returned. His temper flared at once, and he stalked over, face full of fire. So he couldn't touch the special investigation team — did that mean he couldn't handle the two of them? Lu Zhao and Liu Qiang had barely rolled back into the border defense station. The car had not even fully stopped when Liu Qiang spotted Lü Jinshan storming toward them in the rearview mirror. "Brother Lu, the station chief is here." Lu Zhao didn't so much as lift his eyelids, his tone as flat as if he were discussing the weather. "Act like you don't see him. Drive around to the east parking lot." "Huh? Is that... really okay?" Liu Qiang hesitated — but the boss right in front of you beats the official far away — and he promptly hit the gas, shooting off in a streak of smoke. Faintly, Lü Jinshan's roar carried after them. "Lu Zhao! Liu Qiang!" The car stopped in the east parking lot. Lu Zhao had just climbed out and was reaching for a cigarette when he saw, in the rearview mirror, Lü Jinshan bearing down on them — wheezing for breath, his face twisted into a vicious scowl. Middle-aged spread had caught up with him, but life-force development still guaranteed his baseline conditioning. "Did he swallow gunpowder today?" Liu Qiang had spotted him too, and his expression turned to alarm. "Brother Lu, what do we do now?" He turned his head — the front passenger seat beside him held no trace of Lu Zhao at all. ... Over the matter of holding back Lu Zhao's promotion, the two of them had long since torn away every pretense of civility. So long as Lu Zhao never openly crossed him and handed him a handle, Lü Jinshan could do essentially nothing to him. For instance, when Lü Jinshan gathered everyone for his usual lectures, Lu Zhao was mostly absent. So Lü had once tried a very military solution: when Lu Zhao didn't show, punish the others, hoping to isolate him that way. It only made everyone think he was a dumbass. Lü Jinshan charged right up, chest heaving, spit nearly spraying into Liu Qiang's face. "You and Lu Zhao, you damn well dared to run out on me? The world has turned upside down!" Liu Qiang wanted to run too, but he wasn't Lu Zhao; he didn't dare offend Lü Jinshan too deeply, and could only brace himself where he stood. As expected, he was chewed out without mercy. After a solid half hour of it, Lü Jinshan finally wore himself out and asked, "The day you and Lu Zhao killed that fugitive — did you see him carrying anything?" "Nothing at all," Liu Qiang answered. "Really nothing?" Suspicion showed on Lü Jinshan's face — then it changed all at once, and he said with earnest gravity, "Liu Qiang, this case is no small matter. If you have any information that could help crack it, I'll have you made permanent next month." If this went badly he would take criticism from his superiors, and at worst receive a formal disciplinary action — one that would hang over his promotion two years from now. That was something Lü Jinshan could not accept under any circumstances. He had to shove the blame onto someone else. Lu Zhao was the perfect target: no one would stand up for him. Besides, the kid had been taking him less and less seriously of late. In an act of great mercy, Lü had relented and agreed to transfer Lu Zhao to a retired cadres' rest home — and Lu Zhao had defied the order outright. Lü Jinshan had also heard Zhang Like's lobbying: that it was all "preparation for the coming rainy season — no changing commanders on the eve of battle." It was all bullshit. Lu Zhao plainly didn't want to leave a frontline post where he could earn battle merit; he meant to use those merits as leverage for himself. Liu Qiang shook his head again and again. "Think carefully. Is there any detail you might have missed? Anything unusual Lu Zhao did, for instance?" Just as expected, Liu Qiang thought to himself. Round and round it went, and in the end it was still about pinning the blame on Lu Zhao. He answered without a moment's hesitation: "I was with Brother Lu the whole time. We can vouch for each other." Several rounds of questioning got him nowhere, and Lü Jinshan could only stomp off in a huff. Liu Qiang let out a long breath, then hurriedly used his phone to tip Lu Zhao off. And while he was at it, to get their stories straight — so that nothing slipped if he was hauled in for questioning later.