Mission

Chen Shaojie assigned everyone their duties for the mission. Although Zhong Chaofeng and Lin Yongxin were unhappy, neither dared to say so to his face.

The group did not linger in the teahouse. They soon set off.

The area they needed to inspect today was Mingxiang Village, an urban village near the teahouse.

The village was small, with only a few hundred households and three roads leading in.

Before long, the group arrived at the northern entrance to Mingxiang Village.

There were very few pedestrians at the entrance by then. Most villagers who worked away from home during the day had returned before dark.

Looking down the lane from the entrance, they could see lights on in every home.

"Lin Yongxin, same rules. Whoever guesses right picks first."

Zhong Chaofeng took a coin from his pocket and made the suggestion.

The lane ran all the way to the center of the village. Everyone had a different opinion on which end was safer, so they usually settled it with a coin toss.

"Sure, toss it. I'll call heads."

Lin Yongxin spoke casually. His odds were the same either way.

With Lin Yongxin's agreement, Zhong Chaofeng flipped the coin into the air and caught it before it hit the ground.

He opened his hand to reveal tails in his palm and smiled.

"Tails. Looks like I'm in luck."

Lin Yongxin showed no disappointment. He usually preferred guarding the outer entrance and felt it was safer there.

"Consultant Chen, I'll go guard the entrance at the other end of the village."

Zhong Chaofeng let Chen Yiming know, then headed into the village.

"Let's get started too."

Chen Yiming patted Chen Shaojie on the shoulder, urging him into action.

He still had a part-time shift at the Libei Martial Arts Training Center that evening and hoped they could finish the inspections as quickly as possible.

"Okay, cousin."

Chen Shaojie led the way to the first house. He banged on its iron gate and shouted,

"Open up! City Patrol, here to check your household registration!"

"Coming! Just a moment."

A middle-aged man answered, followed by footsteps drawing closer.

Clang!

The bolt on the iron gate slid back, and a middle-aged man appeared before the three of them.

He wore a shabby jacket and faded jeans. Both were coated in a conspicuous layer of dust.

"You're here to check our registration, right? It's cold outside. Please come in."

The man respectfully invited Chen Yiming, Chen Shaojie, and He Chunping inside.

The villagers had already been notified that City Patrol officers would be visiting homes to check household registrations and arrest people whose identities could not be verified.

The family was eating dinner.

At the table sat the man's parents, his wife, and their three children.

The oldest child was a girl of fourteen or fifteen. The younger two were boys of about seven or eight who had only just started school.

At the sight of three strangers, the children grew shy and all hid beside their mother.

"We've got all our documents ready."

The man seated the three visitors on the sofa, then bent down to retrieve a plastic bag from beneath the coffee table. He took out their ID cards and household register and laid them on the table.

Chen Shaojie picked up an ID card, looked at the photo, then at the man to confirm they matched.

He checked each family member's ID card in the same way.

Finally, he checked whether the information and address in the household register matched exactly.

Once that was done, Chen Shaojie got up and walked through every room to make sure the family was not hiding anyone whose identity could not be verified.

That completed the inspection of the household.

The three did not linger. They went out and moved on to the next house.

They inspected ten households in a row without finding anyone whose identity could not be verified.

"Cousin, I underestimated this. Word of the City Patrol's registration checks has spread across the city. Our targets have probably heard and gone into hiding. Sorry I dragged you out here and wasted so much of your time."

Chen Shaojie realized things were not going as he had expected and apologized to Chen Yiming.

"Looks that way. The reward money clearly won't be easy to earn. Otherwise, why would the City Patrol relax its restrictions and allow outside help?"

Chen Yiming nodded, his voice grave.

People whose identities could not be verified were the group's targets. The City Patrol paid rewards according to how many they captured.

The more they caught, the more they earned. If they caught no one, they would have worked for nothing.

"Starting with the next house, you don't need to come in with me. I'll call if anything happens. You'll be close by, so it should be fine."

The more Chen Shaojie thought about it, the more he regretted dragging his cousin into this. Frustrated with himself, he made the suggestion.

Without waiting for Chen Yiming to reply, he added,

"He Chunping, stay with my cousin and keep him company. I can handle the inspections alone."

As they spoke, the three reached the next house.

Chen Shaojie knocked on the door, said a word to Chen Yiming, and went in alone.

It had grown dark. The temperature dropped fast on winter nights, and He Chunping stamped her feet now and then, tucked her hands into her pockets, and breathed out little clouds of white vapor.

"Consultant Chen, you're so young. Could you tell me how you train?"

When Chen Yiming did not start a conversation, He Chunping found a topic herself. She would be relying on him during the rest of the mission.

"Uh... I just kept practicing until I got it."

Chen Yiming gave an awkward, evasive answer.

He never knew how to answer when people asked him how he trained. He could hardly say he relied on a system to boost his talent. Besides, his answer fit what others had seen.

"You geniuses always make the rest of us jealous. You learn things so easily. I took martial arts school entrance tests more than ten times and never passed once."

He Chunping bit her lip and spoke about her past, her face reddening.

She was putting herself out there now, saying whatever came to mind to keep the conversation going.

"I see. I passed on my first try, so I don't have much experience with the tests. I honestly wouldn't know how to help you."

Chen Yiming was not much good at conversation. He could only say what he thought.

"..."

He Chunping felt as though she had taken a devastating blow.

"Okay, then. Could you tell me what life at a martial arts school is like?"

She decided not to take issue with Chen Yiming's bluntness and tried another topic.

"There's not much to tell. A group of people trains in the same place every day, doing the same things without the slightest change."

Chen Yiming answered plainly.

"Oh. I guess there really isn't much to tell."

He Chunping could not find a way to keep that topic going either.

So they passed the time with bits of scattered conversation.