My name is Li Yu. My master once told me a very heavy story:

Master Cui Jianguo was expelled in 1953 for serious violations of discipline.

At that time, he was young and hot-blooded. While passing through a certain area in Sichuan, he encountered a group of bandits who brutally killed a local cadre.

The bandits were inhumane. They took out the cadre’s liver, cooked it, and drank wine with it. They also filled his stomach with pebbles, sewed it up, and sank him in a pond.

This action angered my master. He violated discipline by releasing a spirit he had just captured, letting it possess the bandits and causing them to kill each other. The entire bandit group was annihilated.

Later, the army arrived and initially concluded that it was an internal conflict due to uneven distribution of spoils. However, the gruesome and bizarre deaths of some people attracted the attention of higher authorities. Photos taken by military journalists were reported to the top leaders, which brought a "non-existent department" to light.

My master took full responsibility for everything and was expelled from this department. According to a confidentiality agreement, he was not allowed to mention anything about this department for 50 years.

So, when I heard my master tell this story, it was already 2003.

“Master? Does this department still exist?”

“I don’t know. The organization required 50 years, so I kept the secret for 50 years. Now that I’m old, I feel relieved to talk about it.” Master took a sip of old wine, shook his head, and smiled. He mumbled and used wine to recount his uneventful life.

After leaving his department, Master found a job in a factory workshop in the county town because of his skills. A few years later, he got married and had children, leading an ordinary life.

In the 1980s, Master left the factory where he had worked for more than 20 years. He went to the coast to do business. Although he was old, he was still bold, meticulous, and quick-witted. He made his first pot of gold by wholesaling cheap electronic watches to the inland for sale. A few years later, he returned to the county town and started a snack business.

By the 1990s, Master was already the richest man in the county town and one of the first to buy commercial housing. His children had grown up and taken over the business. Master retired and practiced Tai Chi in the park every day.

He loved watching the Jin Chaoqun version of "Justice Bao" and never missed an episode. Later, he even rented discs to watch. His family had a VCD player, which was later replaced by a newer DVD player. I was a classmate of his youngest son, so I often went to his house to watch discs and drink Coca-Cola.

Sometimes, Master would shed tears while watching "Justice Bao." At those times, his family would quietly slip away, leaving him alone to cry. They didn’t dare to ask him about it, knowing that asking would result in a scolding and a few knocks on the head.

Once, I couldn’t resist asking him why. He shook his head and said that he seemed to see the stories and figures of those predecessors in Judge Bao’s cases.

I pestered him about it all night. Master wasn’t angry but required me to kowtow and become his apprentice so that I wouldn’t be considered an outsider. Then he could tell me some things.

Curiosity outweighed everything at that age. Even though I didn’t have nine lives, I was willing to kowtow to an elder.

Master was very pleased and rewarded me with a bottle of Coke and a bag of chips. He opened a bottle of Moutai and started eating peanuts while telling me the story.

The department he belonged to was originally named the "Shanhai Unit," and it was under the General Staff. It was a department with a long history. Master had not been in it for long, and his level of access was not very high. In terms of structure, they were a "non-existent department."

According to his predecessors, the history could be traced back to the Song Dynasty, or even to the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years of the Tang Dynasty. Master greatly admired a predecessor named Cui Beihai.

My name is Li Yu. Thanks to my master’s recommendation, I had the opportunity to join the organization in 2003. The new department was called the Zhulong Unit One. My senior brother Meng Yuzhi, Zhao Ming, and I had a thrilling first mission. There, we encountered things scarier than ghosts.