"Wang Yan, what am I supposed to say about you? You're already in your twenties, practically thirty—how can you still act so recklessly? If you really wanted to deal with someone, I don't believe you had no other methods. I know a little about what you did over in Forest County. Why did you come back to Jingcheng only to cause trouble? If word gets out, how bad will the impact be?"
Faced with his superior's criticism, Wang Yan cheerfully offered him a cigarette.
"Leader, this has nothing to do with my age. If there's any connection at all, it's that if I were sixty today, there probably wouldn't have been any trouble.
"I was fairly well-behaved over in Forest County because no one there pointed at me and cursed me out. They made things difficult for me within the rules, so I paid them back within the rules. Give and take, you know.
"Honestly, Leader, not many people have dared point at me and curse me out over the years. I only knocked out half his teeth instead of breaking his arms and legs. That was precisely a sign of my maturity."
Wang Yan went on with a grin. "Leader, there's no reasoning with people like that. There's no awareness in their heads, no ideological consciousness to speak of. It's like playing the lute to a cow—there's simply no way to have a conversation. I mentioned this kind of person before in Thought and Development: don't even think about reasoning with them. A fist is the greatest reason. You have to crush them before they can raise their heads, so they don't become a menace later.
"Not only am I going to hit him, I'm also going to report him to the organization under my real name. This person,