Lin Dongxue assigned a few people to protect Sun Shu personally, and sent a few people to investigate the surroundings in casual clothes. Others went home to rest so that they could come over tomorrow morning to take over the shifts.

Those left behind included Chen Shi, Lin Dongxue, Xu Xiaodong, and Old Zhang. Sun Shu quickly pretended they were not there and went back to continue burning the pig's bristles off. It was a young suckling pig that had just been slaughtered and dipped into the steaming wooden barrels to boil. The barrel was hot, and all the blood around the barrel was solidifying. Sun Shu held a cigarette in his mouth. He skillfully pulled out the hot suckling pig with a hook and scraped the bristles on its skin off with an iron brush. The whole place was filled with the smell of a pig’s stench.

Old Zhang said, "Old Sun, why are you doing this kind of work?"

Sun Shu’s eyes narrowed because of the smoke from his cigarette. "The roasted suckling pigs in the restaurant have to be killed the day before. This is my job. A table of roasted suckling pig feast is more than 3,000 yuan. Damn, I can’t even eat that with my monthly salary.”

"You have been wronged all these years."

"Wronged? I have served a sentence, and no one will take me no matter where I go. I’m lucky just to be able to find this job. You policemen, you can make a lot of money per month, right?"

"Don't you know how much the police salary is?"

Sun Shu sneered and continued to scrape the pig bristles.

Looking at Sun Shu's bent-over waist, Chen Shi also felt a bit sad, but he was Chen Shi and not Song Lang, so he had to pretend not to know him.

After finishing the work, Sun Shu said, "I will be on duty as security at night. If you’re all here, I will go to sleep first."

"Okay, just go to sleep. We’ll be on watch here."

"At five o'clock, the truck from the meat factory will come to offload some stock. Remember to wake me..." Sun Shu unscrewed the thermos mug, pulled out a medicine bottle from the drawer, poured two pills into his palm, and prepared to swallow them.

Chen Shi immediately stepped forward, "Don't eat it!"

"This is a medicine to lower blood pressure!" Sun Shu said impatiently.

"Be careful. We have to check everything that goes into your mouth from now on."

"Okay, check it then!"

Chen Shi examined each pill carefully, and unscrewed a few to have a look, before allowing him to take the medicine.

After Sun Shu fell asleep, there was soon a snoring sound. Keeping watch there all night was boring. Everyone could only read novels or play mobile phone games. During that period, they bought supper to eat. There was heating in the room, so it wasn’t too cold.

At around two o'clock, Old Zhang and Xu Xiaodong became too sleepy and lay on the table and chair to sleep respectively. Lin Dongxue yawned repeatedly. Before that, she was still playing with “Guess Who” with Chen Shi, but now even the energy to speak was gone.

Chen Shi gave her the car keys and said, "It's not good for your skin to stay up all night. You can sleep in my car for a while!"

"How about you?"

"I'm a night owl. It doesn't matter if I stay up late."

Lin Dongxue yawned, "No, it’s better to have two people keeping watch in case something really happens. It would be too late for regrets if we don’t."

Chen Shi tucked the car key into her hand, "Go to sleep for an hour. I'll wake you at three."

Lin Dongxue agreed, moved her face closer and said, "Good night."

Chen Shi kissed her and said, "Good night."

Chen Shi moved a chair and sat facing the outside of the door to ensure that Lin Dongxue and Sun Shu were both within his sight. The city was silent in the early morning and he reminisced about a lot of things. He thought of Sun Shu, thought of Wang Sunxu, and thought of himself. Everyone was made up of countless past experiences. Fate was like a rollercoaster; one choice could rewrite life.

Unwittingly, a whole night had passed. A truck drove outside the place, and the driver jumped down and knocked on the door.

Everyone was awakened, and Sun Shu rubbed his eyes and said, "Here comes the meat delivery. Don't hold back and help me unload the goods."

The pork was unloaded from the freezer truck, and Old Zhang said, "Isn't it a grilled suckling pig restaurant? Why do you sell this?"

"You can't just eat roast suckling pigs. Other dishes also need to be sold."

"You step back!" Chen Shi said, "Check every piece of pork to make sure there is nothing in it."

"Aiya, I already said you’re too paranoid. How can things be hidden in there?”

"The killer used a homemade bomb once. What if he hid one in the pork?"

Only after everyone had inspected all the unloaded pork, did they feel safe about letting Sun Shu touch the pork. After finishing the work, Sun Shu was going to go for breakfast. He was followed by Old Zhang and Xu Xiaodong all the way. Sun Shu laughed, "Yay, I have two bodyguards even though I’m just a worker!”

At half past seven, the next shift of police officers came and Chen Shi told them that everything Sun Shu ate needed to be checked and that the video surveillance within the restaurant must be confirmed to be working at all times. If there were any suspicious personnel, they should investigate it immediately.

Chen Shi sent Lin Dongxue home and found that Tao Yueyue hadn’t gone to school. It turned out that it was a weekend that day. Chen Shi said, "Yueyue, I will call your teacher later and ask for a few days of sick leave. You should stay at home and not go anywhere the next few days.”

Lin Dongxue said, "Why do you need to be so careful? Why would Wang Sunxu come to look for Tao Yueyue?"

"I don't feel a sense of security!" Chen Shi said, "Ah yes, today I'm going to buy two cheap mobile phones. You and Yueyue will get one each, so as not to lose touch."

Lin Dongxue smiled. "Don’t worry about buying a phone. If you are really worried about what's going on, I'll get a button GPS tracker for everyone."

"Okay, let’s get it done today!"

The two slept until the afternoon, had a brief meal, and then went to Sun Shu’s again.

Today, Peng Sijue also came, carefully inspecting every corner of Sun Shu's residence. But Sun Shu didn’t feel grateful. Instead, he spoke coldly to him because the report saying that Sun Shu had shot and injured a civilian by accident had been written by Peng Sijue.

It was another peaceful night. When the dawn came, Chen Shi, who had stayed up all night, breathed a sigh of relief. Although it may not be safe during the day, daylight always makes people feel more at ease.

At seven in the morning, Sun Shu yawned and got up, saying, "This generation of police is really incompetent. Isn't he just a serial killer? You haven’t been able to catch him for so long. You all look good, but I think you’re all just embroidered pillows[1].”

After saying that, Sun Shu took his morning blood pressure lowering medicine with his thermos mug.

Everyone was used to his attitude, but Chen Shi asked, "Have you caught a serial killer before?"

"I have! Do you know the 421 Extraordinary Poison Case?"

"I know, but it was not counted as a serial killing case, and the credit wasn’t yours either."

"Not mine? Then was it yours?" Sun Shu sneered.

"Do you know that the person who wants to kill you this time is Wang Sunlei's brother - Wang Sunxu?"

"It’s him?!" Sun Shu was shocked.

"Have you seen him before?"

Sun Shu recalled, "After his brother was sentenced, I often went to visit him, but the child seemed to hate us police very much. He was an orphan. He only had his brother to rely on. The newspaper articles about it could be found everywhere. Everyone called him "the murderer's younger brother". How could he not hate us? Aiya, why did he take this step? A twenty year-old kid, doesn’t he want a future anymore?”

"If the ice is three feet deep, it wasn’t cold for just a day[2]." Chen Shi said.

"If he really comes to kill me, I really want to talk to him... Look at me. I’ve made mistakes, served a sentence, and my family has left me, but aren’t I still struggling to survive? Living isn’t easy, but falling into depravity is.”

"It seems that you are still upright inside! Though your outside is disagreeable." Chen Shi smiled.

Sun Shu also laughed, "Go fuck yourself!"

1. They’re only good for their looks.

2. The “ice” or trouble had been brewing for a long time and wasn’t just due to one incident.