The auxiliary police officers shouted listlessly, all grumbling resentfully—not at the suspects, but at the criminal investigation team for giving them more work. Tonight, they wouldn’t be able to go home again!

“Alright... get ready to move out...”

The criminal investigation team assigned the tasks and left! Instructor Smith spread out a map and pointed to nine checkpoint locations within the jurisdiction of the Chengguan Police Station, assigning four of them to the auxiliary police team. James Brooks looked over the four checkpoints, picked one, and led a group of four, driving the little Chang’an police car out...

...

...

“Leader, why did you pick the farthest spot? Wulong Zhikou is still more than ten kilometers from town!”

After leaving the city, getting off the secondary road, and onto the rural road, the bumpy dirt path was uncomfortable. James Brooks was driving; the driver’s license he got in college was finally coming in handy. His family had a small Wuling van for hauling vegetables, and at work, this little police car was always driven by James Brooks—the instructor trusted him. You could say he was a seasoned driver.

“What do you know? On secondary roads, national highways, and expressway entrances, you could run into criminals at any time. We’re taking the rural road—nothing will happen. We’ll just sleep in the car and go home in the morning.” James Brooks said impatiently as he drove.

The five-person team was a tight-knit group, and they’d never really run into any big trouble. Each of the four subordinates was darker-skinned than the last. On his first day, James Brooks had casually given them four nicknames: Charlie Thompson, George Brooks, Jack Brooks, and Henry Brooks!

The one speaking was Jack Brooks, a solidly built, medium-height guy. Sitting next to him in the back seat were Henry Brooks and George Brooks, each darker than the other! That’s exactly why James Brooks had given them such vivid nicknames.

The one in the front passenger seat was Charles Thompson, the one James Brooks called Charlie Thompson. He’d always been a problem student, couldn’t get into any high school, so his family sent him to a martial arts school for two years. When he came back, he had nothing to do, so he joined the auxiliary police for a paycheck.

Charles Thompson was two years younger than James Brooks, but after a few years in society, he was already a streetwise guy. He respected James Brooks, who had both an education and cooking skills. Charles turned around and shouted, “Listen to the leader! He’s a college graduate—do you think you’re smarter than him? The five of us together only have five batons. You think we’re here to scare off street vendors?”

The more fights you’ve been in, the more you know your limits. In this area, Charles knew what he was talking about.

“Mr. Thompson, what if the criminals come straight for us?”

“Yeah! James Brooks, what then?” Charles was unsure.

If something happened here, with no backup, it would be risky.

“No way. Wulong Zhikou is an old road, hasn’t been repaired in over a decade. Cars can’t go fast here, and this road doesn’t even leave the county. Unless they want to run into the mountains and live like wild boars! ... Today, the county’s armed police are all out. Hundreds of police and armed police have blocked more than a dozen entrances around the county, setting up dozens of checkpoints. The ones assigned to the auxiliary police are the safest. And as for Wulong Zhikou, do you know why there’s only one checkpoint here? Because the chance of criminals coming this way is basically zero.” James Brooks analyzed carefully, laying everything out so clearly that the others had no choice but to accept it.

The analysis was authoritative! The team members all shut up. Whenever something came up, James Brooks made the decisions. Having gone to college and lived in a big city, James Brooks had a much broader perspective than these half-grown kids—at least he wouldn’t do anything reckless!

When they reached the designated spot, dusk was falling. Wulong Zhikou was already out of sight of the county seat; with the hills and ridges in between, you couldn’t see far at all! On one side of the road was a hill, on the other, a field. The wheat harvest was over, and the golden stubble fields had been planted with corn, already waist-high. Once it got dark, the place was especially quiet—squirrels, owls, and crickets all making their noises—a classic rural scene.

The five of them parked the police car and chatted idly. This old road was like a chicken rib: though it connected to the national and secondary roads, it had been abandoned for years, and hardly any vehicles passed by. They were stationed there from 7 p.m. until midnight, and only saw a few farm vehicles go by, which they checked perfunctorily—none of them could possibly be fugitives. After midnight, with no order to withdraw, the five of them got a bit dazed from chatting, all secretly cursing the station for treating auxiliary police like nobodies, but not daring to leave their post...

Every hour, the five of them took turns mechanically reporting over the walkie-talkie: “All normal...”

After a while, no one even asked on the other end. One was snoring in the back seat, two were drooling as they leaned against each other, and James Brooks and Charles had already fallen into a deep sleep in the front seats! For them, being on duty was basically the same as camping out and sleeping in the wild—auxiliary police always did it this way!

They slept like the dead, all the way until daylight. When James Brooks opened his eyes, it was already bright outside. Glancing to his right, he saw that the plug supplying power from the cigarette lighter to the walkie-talkie had been knocked loose by Charles’s arm while he slept. No wonder no one had checked in!

“Crap!... We must have slept through the order to withdraw!”

James Brooks thought ruefully—they’d wasted a whole night out in the wild for nothing.

Looking at his teammates snoring, legs propped up, heads lolling, and butts sticking out, James Brooks grinned, a mischievous idea coming to mind...

Bang bang bang bang... Several sharp gunshots... The loudspeaker in the car blared with a piercing voice: “Brothers, wake up, the criminals are here...”