Two years ago, he was promoted to deputy bureau chief. At the age of twenty-five, he became the youngest deputy section-level cadre in the entire county, and naturally, he was full of youthful pride.

However, just a year after he became deputy bureau chief, I transferred to Guangning, breaking his “legend.” Especially since we ended up in the same system, he was bound to feel dissatisfied. After all, he had worked hard in the county bureau for many years before being promoted from regular section chief, so compared to me, he was already an old hand in public security.

In my previous life, my resignation and move to the private sector were, to some extent, caused by his scheming behind my back.

On this point, I didn’t really blame him—after all, everyone has their own interests. But what I never expected was that after the Lu family collapsed, the one who led the investigation into my company was none other than him, who had already been promoted to deputy director of the provincial public security department.

How deep must his grudge be, to refuse to let me go after all these years?

Perhaps it was because my success in the business world touched a nerve of jealousy in him? He absolutely couldn’t stand the fact that, after so many years, I was still doing better than him, even after he’d forced me out.

Of course, for such a major event as shutting down my company, there must have been some hidden hand behind the scenes—he was just the executor. But just seeing the excitement in his eyes as he carried out the task was enough to chill my heart. After all, we were old colleagues who hadn’t seen each other in years—shouldn’t there be some sense of camaraderie?

Yet his methods were so ruthless. With Scott’s death, I fear he couldn’t have been uninvolved. And the people he directly persecuted included my own family, forcing me to confess to crimes I hadn’t committed.

Eric Carter stood there, lost in these memories, silent for a long time.

Seeing Eric Carter so distracted, Scott Dawson asked quietly, a bit worried, “Political Commissar, are you alright?”

Eric Carter snapped out of it, shook his head to clear away those messy thoughts, patted Scott on the shoulder, and said, “Scott, I told you, from today on, we only fight to win!”

Scott Dawson nodded slightly, half-understanding.

Chapter 002: I Want to Take on a Big Case

In the county bureau compound, police officers in blue uniforms with red epaulets came and went. Occasionally, a three-wheeled sidecar motorcycle would rumble away, and the only green jeep parked in front of the office building belonged to Deputy Bureau Chief Kevin Grant.

Due to work needs, the Guangning County Bureau was equipped with two jeeps. One naturally became Director Zhang’s official car, and the other was assigned to Kevin Grant, which showed the status of this deputy bureau chief in the bureau.

Although the Wushan region is coastal and the economy is developing well these days, there are very few section-level leaders in the county who have official cars. Township leaders, without exception, ride bicycles to and from work. But because of the special nature of the public security system, vehicle allocation is a bit more generous.

Although Eric Carter was the deputy political commissar of the county bureau, not only did he not have an official car, but even his office was shared with the first deputy political commissar and deputy bureau chief Mark Mason.

The two of them had their desks facing each other, so whenever they looked up, they could see exactly what the other was doing.

Mark Mason was an old public security officer, his hair already gray. He was very down-to-earth and liked to chat about family matters, completely lacking the airs of a deputy bureau chief. This was a fine tradition among many old cadres in the 1980s. After all, there wasn’t so much special treatment back then—even the county party secretary and county magistrate had to line up in the same cafeteria as ordinary staff, with no distinction between big and small canteens.

But don’t be fooled by Mark Mason’s easygoing manner—he could joke around with ordinary officers for ages, but he just didn’t like to deal with Eric Carter and Kevin Grant. Naturally, he felt these two young deputies didn’t fit in with him, especially Kevin Grant. The jeep that the bureau had applied for was supposed to be available to all bureau leadership, but Kevin Grant monopolized it for a long time under the pretext of the special nature of criminal investigation work, and it gradually became the exclusive vehicle of the criminal investigation team. Mark Mason couldn’t stand it and even quarreled with Kevin Grant face to face, but was so angered by Kevin Grant’s domineering attitude that he nearly had a heart attack.

As for Eric Carter, Mark Mason didn’t have much patience either, thinking this young military transfer cadre was inexperienced and basically a big brute.

Today was like any other day. The two deputy bureau chiefs were each busy with their own work. In the office, aside from the sound of flipping papers, there was only the quiet gurgle of tea being sipped.

Seeing Eric Carter flipping through case files, Mark Mason shook his head, picked up his teacup, and sipped noisily.

Eric Carter noticed the head shake and knew this old officer must think he was just muddling through, an outsider pretending to be an expert, not really understanding anything.

The office door was open, and suddenly a figure appeared at the doorway and knocked. It was Old Johnson, a detective from the criminal investigation team.

Seeing someone from the criminal investigation team, Mark Mason’s face immediately turned cold. The entire criminal investigation team basically followed Kevin Grant’s lead, and Mark Mason really couldn’t stand Kevin Grant’s clique-building and factionalism.

“Old Johnson, what is it?” Eric Carter asked with a smile, though he knew in his heart that people from criminal investigation rarely brought good news.

“Yes, there’s something.” Old Johnson walked in slowly, glanced at Eric Carter’s expression a bit hesitantly, but still pointed at the file in Eric Carter’s hand and said, “Deputy Political Commissar, the materials you brought back—Chief Gao says he needs them now and would like to take a look.”