Early in the morning, sunlight came in through the window, and the raindrops on the leaves gleamed like pearls. Lin Dongxue opened her eyes and found that Chen Shi was also already awake. She greeted him. "Good morning, husband."

"Good morning, wife."

"I’ve decided not to call you 'husband' in the future. I will also call you 'Captain' at home, so that when I call you 'Captain' in public, it’ll feel very intimate." Lin Dongxue winked mischievously.

Chen Shi put the back of his hand on Lin Dongxue's forehead. "Did sleeping with my arms around you last night give you a fever? You’re talking nonsense so early in the morning. Why don't you just call me ‘Daddy’ then? It's both intimate and exciting."

"Go to hell!" Lin Dongxue waved her fist and pummelled Chen Shi’s chest.

"Hey!" Chen Shi caught her little fist. "Private is private, public is public. In the bureau, we still have a pure captain-subordinate relationship. Even if I give CPR to a dying female colleague in front of you, you will also need to be expressionless."

"Sure, but I will shoot you to death right after we get off work."

"Shoot your head. Would you still be carrying a gun after you get off work?"

"Hurry up, I'm going to be late!" Tao Yueyue complained outside.

Chen Shi glanced at his phone. "Fuck!"

He forgot that the military training of the police academy started very early, but they started work at 8:00, and their biological clocks had become fixed long ago.

As a result, they didn't even have breakfast. They hurriedly drove to the police academy. On the way, Tao Yueyue picked up a sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap and handed it to Lin Dongxue. Lin Dongxue, who was busy tying her hair, was surprised and said thank you.

"I want to eat too." Chen Shi said.

"Nothing for you!" Tao Yueyue snorted.

Lin Dongxue passed the sandwich to the front. Chen Shi took advantage of a red light to tilt his head and take a bite.

Chen Shi said, "Yueyue, I’d like to ask you something. Now that there’s one more person in the house, the per capita living area cannot help but be considerably reduced. I have three proposals. The first is to buy you a small cozy house, and you will live outside by yourself in the future. The second is that we sell this house in exchange for a bigger one. The third is to keep things as they are."

"Does option one mean that I will be driven out?" Tao Yueyue asked.

"The main reason is that if you aren’t at home, we can live a more low-carbon lifestyle. For example, we won’t need to wear clothes normally." Chen Shi said with a deadpan face.

"Do you need to be so direct?" Lin Dongxue smiled and thumped the seat in front of her with her hand.

"Then are you planning to have a baby?" Tao Yueyue asked again.

"We’re not having one. Having you is enough. You are my ideal child."

"But I'm going to grow up soon, so I won’t be any fun. Surely, both of you would still want a young and fun child?"

"What's so fun about children? They’re so annoying. If we had all that energy and money, then wouldn’t it be better for our whole family to go traveling?"

"Oh... Both of you would definitely prefer living by yourselves."

Lin Dongxue explained, "No, Uncle Chen's idea is to bring it out for discussion, prioritizing your preferences."

"In that case, I still hope to live alone outside. That way, it would be very convenient for all of us. Of course, I can come back occasionally to see you two lonely old people."

"You aren’t saying this out of consideration for our needs, right?"

"I’m a very selfish person and won’t consider your needs."

"Okay, then I'm relieved." Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief. This was also the proposal he preferred most. After all, a father and daughter must be separated eventually.

Tao Yueyue said in deadly earnest, "My classmates all joked that they wanted to be the police chief in the future, but I want to be the number 1 in the criminal police force. When that time comes, I will support both of you and it can be regarded as my repaying you for raising me."

Chen Shi felt touched and smiled, "The joy you have brought to me has long offset my raising you."

Lin Dongxue stroked Tao Yueyue's head. "It's very interesting to think about it. I just married your Uncle Chen and acquired such a grown-up daughter. When you have children in the future, I will become a grandmother in my thirties, haha."

"Hmm..." Tao Yueyue fell silent on this, it seemed like it had tugged a certain heartstring of this adolescent girl, so the topic didn’t continue.

When they arrived at the police academy, they were late anyway. Rows of freshmen were training on the drill-ground, and their juvenile faces were filled with strength like that of soldiers.

Tao Yueyue ran back to the dormitory to change her clothes. Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi stood at the side of the drill-ground. Many boys stole glances at Lin Dongxue. Someone whispered, "That uncle must be very rich or he must be someone powerful!"

The instructor’s radar-like ears immediately caught the whisper and shouted, "Fourth row, third column, come out and do fifty push-ups."

The boy who had been named stuck his tongue out as he left his place, and there was a burst of laughter in the ranks. The instructor scowled. "Who’s laughing? Do you want to do it with him?" There was instant silence.

This was the iron-blooded instructor who had made Tao Yueyue complain. Lin Dongxue briefed Chen Shi that he should lead Tao Yueyue forward to apologize for being late after she had changed into military uniform and returned. He had to appear sincere, but he must "inadvertently" mention that he is the criminal police force captain. Not only should it be heard by the instructor, but also by the whole class.

Chen Shi's cheek twitched. "Isn’t that too deliberate?"

"If you want Yueyue to have a better time in the future, you have to act out this drama. Someone with Yueyue's personality is too easily isolated. You have to hold an invisible, protective umbrella over her."

"In the end, we’re still using our power for personal gain."

"What do you think of the chief? Is he impartial and only enforces the law? But even he has said that selflessness without principles is pathological. You protect all the police in the second team, but you won’t protect your own daughter?"

"I know. I know. I will definitely put on a good show."

Tao Yueyue came back. The large, loose military uniform made her look even smaller. She whispered, "I'm so late, the instructor won't punish me, right?"

"I will accompany you to apologize!" Chen Shi patted Tao Yueyue on the back and walked towards the square drill formation.

Chen Shi’s back was sweating during this scene, but the effect was immediately visible. After learning of Chen Shi’s identity, the instructor said with a straight face, "Tao Yueyue has always performed well. Since she isn’t feeling well, I’ll let it go this time but it shouldn’t happen again."

Whisperings arose among the classmates. "Wow, that little thing’s dad is actually the captain of the criminal police force!", "Do you want to die? Don't call her a little thing.", "She really kept it hidden, amazing!"

Chen Shi turned to leave, waved to Tao Yueyue, and Tao Yueyue smiled slightly from within the ranks.

Lin Dongxue suggested, "Let’s come over to see Tao Yueyue after we get off work at night. How about going to the canteen for a meal?"

Chen Shi smiled, "I wonder if the canteen auntie's Parkinson's syndrome has been cured yet."

The two rushed to the bureau and went about their work separately, because now that they were ranked differently, Lin Dongxue's partner was the new policeman, Luo Fei. It has always been a public security bureau tradition that old police officers should lead the new police officers.

Today, they didn’t need to go out on business. They just had to deal with some desk work. Lin Dongxue compiled a case report. This was just a minor case. After the Lie Guoxiao and Zhou Xiao cases, the minor cases that hadn’t been settled at the time were as numerous and annoying as a rain drizzle. There were some people hacking people to death after a dispute at the gambling table, drunks wounding people with weapons, etc. Chen Shi complained all day long that there weren’t any interesting cases for him recently.

Lin Dongxue took the report, went to the forensic department to get an appraisal report, then went to the captain's office and knocked on the door. She only opened the door after he said "come in" inside.

She saw Chen Shi holding a document and spinning around on his chair like a restless child. Lin Dongxue asked, "Captain, aren’t you afraid of others seeing you like this?"

Chen Shi stopped, turned his head and said, "I’m very active when I go over documents, otherwise how can I absorb these boring things?"

Lin Dongxue smiled. She noticed the picture frame on the table. "Are you still leaving this photo here? Do you have any thoughts about Captain Lin?"

"Insane. Me looking at him? I’m looking at myself!" He picked up the photo frame, took out the photo, folded it in half so that Lin Qiupu’s half was folded inwards, and put it back into the photo frame. "Song Lang was so handsome. I shouldn't have been a criminal police officer. I should have entered the entertainment industry and become the idol of all the women across the country."

Lin Dongxue resisted mocking him and put the things on the table. "This is the closure report of the murder case in Jinxiu district. There’s also the fingerprint identification results from the check yesterday."

Chen Shi started and picked up the identification results. "Interesting, Old Man Lu's new son is truly rich in experience."