Chen Shi returned home in a trance. Tao Yueyue had not gone to sleep yet. She was using Premiere on her computer. Chen Shi asked her what she was doing. She said, "Making a small video for a speech. Small environmental protection experts. It’s a boring activity at school."

Chen Shi glanced at her and smiled. "You’re doing so well. Wouldn’t this make the other children’s unpresentable?"

"They can learn it too!" Tao Yueyue stared at the screen intently, adjusting the sound source.

Chen Shi took out some alcohol from the cupboard, poured a glass, and drank half of it in one go. The hot alcohol burned his esophagus and his brain immediately had a paralyzing pleasure. If he didn’t drink a glass, he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

Sometimes, he needed alcohol to slow down his brain, and he unconsciously became infected with the habit of drinking.

After sitting silently on the sofa for a while, Chen Shi took out a packet of Yuxi which he didn't want to throw away when he quit smoking. He put one in his mouth, but couldn't find where the lighter was.

A flame leaned over. Tao Yueyue knelt on the sofa, holding a lighter in her hand.

Chen Shi lit it and inhaled. Tao Yueyue asked, "Uncle Chen, are you in a bad mood today?"

"Something happened."

"Bad things?"

"It can't be said that it’s bad, but the impact was too great... A bad guy died. It was an old opponent. They suddenly died and I should obviously be happy, but my heart is empty."

"It's like losing your goal?"

"Haha, I'm not too sure either."

Tao Yueyue took out a cigarette and tried to light it. She exhaled and looked at the cigarette. "I don't know what’s so good about this thing."

"Ahem, don't learn this."

"I didn't breathe it in my lungs."

"Let's put it out together! I shouldn't smoke."

Chen Shi took out the ashtray from under the table and the two put out the cigarettes together. Then, Chen Shi threw the remaining packet away. He drank the remaining alcohol in one go. "I’m going to bed. You should go to bed early as well.”

"Uncle Chen!" Tao Yueyue reminded him.

"That's right, that’s right." Chen Shi gave her a hug and patted her head. "Show me the video when it’s ready!”

"Be a little happier. I don't want to see you always frowning." Tao Yueyue whispered.

Waking up the next morning, Tao Yueyue had already gone to school. Chen Shi neither drove his taxi service nor went to the bureau. He wandered around the housing community and ate breakfast. The young people all went to work. Only the old people were walking around on the streets. The sun was nice and it felt like the time had slowed down.

After eating, he considered where to go next. He suddenly found that he didn't seem to have a hobby. The way he passed the time was to cook and drink alcohol.

Today, there seemed to be a movie with good reviews. He was going to watch it alone.

At this time, Lin Qiupu called and asked, "Why haven’t you come in?"

"Who required me to be there?”

"Don't you want to investigate Zhou Tiannan's case?"

"Why should I? Do I like him very much?"

"You’re doing this intentionally, right?!"

"Don't disturb my rest. I won't go anywhere today. I'm giving myself a holiday. Are you envious?”

Lin Qiupu angrily hung up the phone. Chen Shi opened the ticket-purchasing software and began to buy his movie ticket.

A week later, the case of Zhou Tiannan's falling from the building hadn’t been resolved, and there were no traces at the scene. If they were talking about the motive, there were too many people who hated him.

The police searched Zhou Tiannan's residence for the first time, unlocked his computer, and found a large amount of criminal evidence of people he had "helped" in it. As expected, he was holding things over everyone.

All of a sudden, the police were extremely busy and were arresting people every day. Many people, including Yan Ke, were sent to the detention center, waiting for the execution of legal procedures.

This was good news, but Chen Shi felt that the real storm was coming soon...

In a basement on October 30th, a bulky man grabbed a woman by her hair and used his fist to punch her face fiercely. The bridge of the woman's nose was broken, her eyes were full of blood, and her teeth had also fallen out. She cried and begged, "Don't hit..."

"Say it! Who pushed the boss downstairs?!" the bulky man shouted.

"I don't know... I really don't know... The police asked me many times... Let me go. I won't say anything..."

The pitiful appearance of the woman begging ignited the tyranny in the man's heart. He punched her face a few more times. The woman originally had a good face, but it was now distorted from the beating.

There was a man and a woman watching quietly next to them with indifferent looks. The man wearing goggles said, "Old Three[1], don't just hit the head. If the head is dizzy, the body won’t feel pain.”

The burly man grabbed the woman, slammed her on the ground, and kept stepping angrily on her spine. As he did so, he shouted, "Why didn't you see?! Why didn't you see?! You didn't see, why?!"

With a crisp click, a pool of feces mixed with blood came from the bottom of the woman, and the man with goggles giggled. "Look at what you did. You broke the spine. I won't clean up the mess afterwards... Fuck, it’s really stinky."

"Kill her. It's useless." The female onlooker said casually.

The goggles man whistled, took out a needle, and injected it into the woman's neck. She struggled a few times before dying silently.

"Who handles the body? Let’s do rock-paper-scissors." The goggles man suggested. The burly man glared at him, and he narrowed his neck in fear.

"Ling Shuang, Xu Fa, the boss is dead. We have to avenge him!"

"You’re a wanted criminal. Recently, the limelight has been tight. You should stay low-key. Both Xu Fa and I can move around freely. We’ll investigate this matter slowly."

"No need to investigate!" The burly man wrinkled his nose, his face fierce. "Even if we don't know who the murderer is, we all know who should pay the price!"

The three were silent. Their exchanged looks reached a tacit agreement. They had thought of the same person.

"Starting today, everyone listens to me. Let those people know how amazing we are!"

"Old Three, we still need to discuss who should lead... I think."

"Don't call me ‘Old Three’. My name is ‘Zhou Xiao’. From today onwards, I will only use this name. We start with this name and we end with this name!” The burly man yelled, his eyes full of the flames of hatred.

1. Could be inferred as the youngest/person with lowest seniority amongst the three. I don’t know if the other two are considered one and two since I don’t know if there are other characters yet.