“Are you sober? If you are, just rush with me. Have you seen the business car in front? We must rush there to hide ourselves. The fuel tank of this car has begun to leak petrol, and it will explode at any time. If we keep staying here, we’ll die. As long as we rush over there and insist on five minutes, the reinforcements will arrived and we will be safe then.”

Zhao Gang showed the professionalism of the captain of criminal police team, saying in a cold voice with his face darkening.

“I, I rush, I rush!”

Monkey who had been sober also realized that the current situation was very dangerous. If he ran, there was a trace of hope for living. Otherwise, he would definitely die.

At the crucial moment of life and death, the ferocity in his bones was provoked. He immediately climbed up, bent over and nodded. He said with ferocity in his eyes, “Let’s go!”

“One, two, three, run!”

Zhao Gang bent over and counted. As he finished his words, he held Li Wenwen and rushed out like an arrow leaving the bow.

Since it was related to his own life, Monkey did not hold him back, and even ran a bit faster than Zhao Gang.

“Bang bang bang!” A series of bullets hit the ground and created craters behind them.

“Boom.” With a earsplitting explosive sound, the Toyota Prado was finally detonated by stray bullets. Zhao Gang and Monkey were tossed by the huge explosive waves, and fell heavily on the ground.

Zhao Gang only felt something sweet in his throat, and a mouthful of blood spurted out from his throat. He sank down on the ground and felt as if all his limbs were out of joint, while holding Li Wenwen against the side of his body in an iron grasp.

Monkey lay prone on the ground, and it was unknown whether he was alive or not. Zhao Gang pulled himself together and shook Monkey, “How are you? Are you all right?”

Monkey got up with his face covered with dirt and ringing in his ears, but he showed a smile of a lucky survivor and shouted, “What do you say? Hey, we are alive. We are alive.”

Zhao Gang only saw he talking, but could not hear what he was saying, because there was loud ringing in his ears. He shook his head, pointed at his ears and shouted, “I can’t hear you.”

“What are you saying?” Monkey shouted with his head aslant. Suddenly he uttered a heartrending cry with his hands on his hip.

It turned out that they had just been thrown to the front of the business car by the explosive waves. Zhao Gang and Li Wenwen were okay, because their entire bodies were hidden by the car.

Monkey was unlucky, because half of his butt was exposed and shot by the sniper. He cried out with pain.

Zhao Gang immediately hauled the handcuff, and dragged him behind the car by force. Seeing that he was just shot in the butt, Zhao Gang felt relieved.

Monkey looked at his wrist which had been stripped of his skin by a handcuff and revealed white bones. He sincerely said to a policeman for the first time in his life, “Thank you, you are a good policeman.”

Zhao Gangyu opened his eyes wide and looked at him blankly. He pointed at his ears and shook his head, indicating that he could not hear.

Monkey showed a sincere smile, and pulled out a crumpled pack of Ninghai cigarettes from his pocket. He took out a cigarette, lit it up and handed it to Zhao Gang.

Zhao Gang held Li Wenwen in his arms and leant against a wheel with blood on the corner of his mouth. He reached out to take the cigarette and took a long drag.

Monkey slowly sat next to Zhao Gang with his butt sideways. He lit up a cigarette with a grimace and chuckled, “I didn’t expect that I could sit next to the captain of the criminal police team and smoke together.”

Zhao Gang couldn’t hear what he was saying. Everything was getting darker in front of him, and he could just see stars. He felt sharp pain as if his viscera had translocated. He spit out a drag and said to himself, “I don’t know if I can stay alive this time. Anyway I’ve tried my best.”

“Bang bang bang!” The bullets constantly hit on the business car, but neither of them paid attention to that. They had done everything they could, and could just wait for their fate.

Monkey said after enjoying a drag, “If I can survive this time, I will never steal again and be a good person. I used to hate the police. But now, I have to say that you are a good person, and I admire you.”

With calm eyes, Zhao Gang slowly spit out a smoke ring. He looked a little regretted and said, “I am thirty years old now. I have dated three girlfriends. They either thought I was poor or my job was not guaranteed. I am still a bachelor now, but it may be a good thing. Since I can’t provide them a stable family, I should not implicate them in my miserable life, lest they would mourn for me if I die. It’s also a good thing. It’s just that as the only son for three generations of our Zhao Family, I don’t know how to tell my parents that I don’t have any descendants after I die. Oh.”

“I grew up in a poor family. I have never gone to school and look a little ugly without any professional skill. I have always idled about in the society. Afterwards I met an experienced thief. He taught me the trick of stealing things with one hand because of my steady and speedy hands. I am a person with no great ambitions, so I have earned my living by theft since then.”

Monkey mocked himself with a bitter smile, “I had never intended to be a good person in my life. However, I didn’t expect that I met a female college student who was kidnapped by a human trafficker from Ninghai to my hometown. It was a trafficking group with a great power in my hometown. As just a thief, I couldn’t afford to offend them. However, I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I couldn’t bear to see a girl screwed by them, so I reported them to the Public Security Bureau and saved the girl. Unfortunately, it was still too late. The girl had been screwed by them, and cried desperately like a tearful person. She was not willing to go back to Ninghai, because she was afraid of gossip and too ashamed to meet others.”

Monkey’s eyes turned red, and he said with sobs, “I really like her. It was the first time and the only time in my life that I’ve fallen in love with a girl. Although she had been screwed, I didn’t mind that. I asked her to marry me. I didn’t think that she liked me, and knew that I didn’t deserve her. Nevertheless, I got up the nerve to ask her to give me a chance to take care of her for a lifetime. To be honest, it was a terrible confession. I didn’t think that she would promise to marry me. I just wanted to make her know that even if she had been screwed, there was someone who liked her. I just wanted to encourage her to live.”

Monkey cried with a happy smile on his face, “I didn’t expect that she really married me. We had been a happy couple for three years and had a daughter. The three years were the happiest three years I have ever had. However, I was incapable of supporting my family. Stealing was my only skill. In order to support my family, I stopped stealing and went to work, but how much could I earn from my work? In our small county, even if I worked tirelessly, I could only earn a little more than 1,000 yuan per month. I had to support her and our child. I couldn’t do that with a meagre salary.”

Zhao Gang did not look at him, and said to himself, “My parents are both criminal policemen who died in the fight with criminals. I have been determined to be a good policeman since I was a child. I was the top student in the police school and won the first place every year, but so what? After I graduated, I became a policeman. With no background and experience, I started my career from a small police officer. I began to work at the age of twenty and have cracked numerous large cases and crucial cases. I have received a commendation from the Ministry of Public Security. I was promoted into current position in three years. I have worked hard, been disinterested, refused invitations for dinner and been unmoved by personal appeals, which made me offend many people. I’m thirty years old now, but still stay in this position. My previous sharpness has been smoothed by the realistic society. They all said that I am so silly, because those in lower positions than mine have cars and houses, but I got nothing, even fail to get marry!”

“I loved her and wanted to give her a good living condition, so I couldn’t help but continue to steal. Unexpectedly when I went home happily with the money stolen from others, she let loose a stream of abuse against me and said that I didn’t know what she wanted. Yeah, I really didn’t know what she wanted. As a college student who was so beautiful, she married me who was just a thief, and wore patched clothes all day and lived a miserable life with me. I was sorry for her. I was useless. But I just wanted provide her a better life, was I wrong?”

Monkey said with tears on his face, “That was our first quarrel, and the only quarrel. I compromised. On that day, I went to the the home of the owner of the money with her and returned the money to him. I didn’t expect that they reported the case to the police. She knelt down and pleaded piteously, but it didn’t work at all. Because I admitted my mistake with good attitude, I had been detained for 15 days. She said that she hoped that I could be a dignified person. In order to reduce the burden on the family, she also intended to go to work and leave our child to the neighbors for care. I promised her. However, the manager of that company was a beast. On that night, he asked her to work overtime and intended to rape her. Fortunately, I arrived in time to hit the bastard’s head and rescue her, but I got caught by the police again. The director of the police station was the brother-in-law of the manager. I was almost beaten to death in the police station. After three months in the prison, I was released.”

With perseverance on his face, Zhao Gang said, “I have also lost my mind. I didn’t know why I worked as a policeman. After ten years of police work, I even can’t afford to buy a house in Ninghai, and don’t have a home. But after thinking for a long time, I don’t regret it. I am a policeman. I like to solve crimes, like to catch thieves, like to catch the bad guys by hand, and enjoy the sense of accomplishment of bringing them to justice. Besides, I can only work as a policeman. Except that, what else can I do…”

“But I didn’t expect that she had been screwed by the beast for three months in order to save me. When I was released, she had already gone away with our child, leaving only a letter to me. In the letter, she said that she had already been defiled and could never deserve me. She asked me to stop looking for her, and she wanted to forget this nightmare and started a new life. I looked around for her like crazy, but I failed to find her. Finally I castrated the beast in the middle of a night, and then came to Ninghai. Ninghai is her hometown, so I believed she will definitely come back here.”

Monkey choked with sobs, “In this way, year after year, I became a thief again and supported myself by theft. After three years, I finally found her, but when I found her, she had become someone else’s wife. They lived a good life. The man was very rich, and was very kind to her and our child. She did not find me. I hid in the darkness, watching her gently tidy her husband’s collar, send him out to work and send our child out to school. My heart hurt, but I thought it was also a good thing. At least the man could provide her a good life which I couldn’t provide and made her forget everything in the past. Someone like me and she came from different worlds, and I didn’t deserve a goddess like her. So I’ve never gone there to see her since then, and did not leave Ninghai. I continued living a humble life that was suitable for someone like me. I lived like a rat in the underpass. I could often peek at them, and I felt satisfied when I saw they were living a good life.”

“I am a policeman. If I catch a thief, I can win a merit, but I may not be able to get a promotion. In fact, I could live a good life if I turn a blind eye to many things. But the sort of life is not what I want, and I will feel guilty. Indulgence of criminals is a sort of crime. If every police officer is not responsible, what will this society become? Therefore, I want to be a responsible policeman with a clear conscience. ”

Under the threat of sniper rifles, a policeman and a thief talked to themselves, while neither of them could hear each other. They said what they had hidden in their hearts as if they were telling the last words.