City of Sin (Third Section: Earnest Desire to Make Amends)

  After getting off the long-distance bus and taking a taxi for over ten minutes, I arrived at the gate of a barracks in the suburbs. The gate was lit by two not-so-bright lanterns, with a sign on the right side that read "M Country Constabulary Lion City Barracks". Next to the gate, a constable armed with an M-16 rifle stood in the sentry tower and immediately came out to ask: "May I help you with something?"

  Yu Fei got off the car and took out his ID, "The new commander of the Leo City Garrison Brigade is here to report for duty."

  The gendarme with a rifle on his back was a new recruit, with the rank of private first class on his shoulder. He looked at the ID card and saw that it was indeed a gendarme lieutenant. He returned the ID card to Yu Fei, saluted and said: "Good evening, sir. We've been expecting you."

  "Kill", "kill", a group of military police were conducting night training on the brightly lit parade ground, a group of soldiers with heavy backpacks and M-16A2 rifles with bayonets attached were practicing stabbing drills, while another soldier was spraying water from a hose to cool them down. The duty officer stood upright, this was Military Police Sergeant Wen Yong organizing the training, he wore the rank of Corporal, the lowest rank among officers, but his position was not bad, as the commander of the Military Police platoon, when the platoon leader was absent, he was the highest commanding officer here.

  Yu Fei walked up to Wen Yong, "Attention!" Wen Yong's voice was loud and clear as he gave the order. He had just heard from the intercom that the new platoon leader had arrived, his expression was serious as he ran up to Yu Fei in a standard posture, standing at attention in the trench and saluting, "Reporting to the officer, the Garrison Lion City Military Police Platoon is organizing night training for the soldiers. Commanding Officer Wen Yong, reporting complete."

  Yu Fei carried a travel bag, "Sorry, I'm not wearing a military uniform." Yu Fei saluted, "Please let the soldiers rest, would you mind helping me arrange for accommodations?"

  "Alright, sir, this way." Wen Yong didn't dismiss the soldiers, but instead led Yu Fei to the officers' quarters first.

  After entering the dormitory, Yu Fei put down his luggage, and Wen Yong handed him the key to the single room. Yu Fei asked: "I heard that the crime rate in this city is very high."

  "Yes, sir, that's right." Wen Yong had never attended the M Country Army Officer School, but his speech was still very standard official tone.

  "Can you take me out for a look tonight?" Yu Fei had just arrived in a new place and was eager to understand the situation here, wanting to let loose and make a big move.

  "Alright, follow me." Wen Yong led the officer to his office.

  He returned to the office, Wen Yong took out a mobile phone from his drawer. This phone was for work use only, never made calls, and only sent text messages to fixed contacts. The contact also regularly replied to him with text messages, hoping to crack several cases through the contact and get promoted early. There was a new text message on the phone, 'The Wanghaijiao police station is detaining gang members, they didn't bribe the police or bail them out, they might attack there tonight to rescue people.'

  What a great night, and something happened again. The new platoon leader came, and I didn't even have time to go out and relax like before. Damn those criminals. Wen Yong put his phone in his pocket and reported the information to the platoon leader. Yu Fei thought for a moment and said: "Let the soldiers rest, you and I will go." Yu Fei went into the dressing room, changed into uniform, buckled on his armed belt, put the M9 pistol in the holster at his waist, came out and gave the order: "Departure".

  The officers and non-commissioned officers came out of the office, while the soldiers in the courtyard were still standing at attention with their guns, wearing wet uniforms. "Dismissed, go back and rest." Yu Fei didn't want those soldiers to suffer, so he let them take a break.

  In the courtyard, a black Land Rover Defender was parked, polished to an extraordinary shine. Wen Yong sat in the driver's seat, and Yu Fei sat in the passenger seat. The jeep sped off like the wind towards the main gate. The soldier on duty opened the door to let the patrol car out. Seeing that there were two high-ranking officers in the car, he was naturally delighted, and could sneak away from his post at night without being noticed.

  Wen Yong skillfully drove the patrol car into a small alley near the Wang Haijiao police station, turned off the engine, and checked that there was no one else in the car. The two of them could now chat freely. Wen Yong took out two cans of iced coffee from the storage compartment in the car, "Let's have some of this to refresh ourselves."

  Yu Fei and he were superior and subordinate, no need to be too polite, anyway everyone will eat from the same pot in the future. He opened it and drank. "How long have you been a soldier?" The conversation between soldiers seemed to always start with their service period.

  "For over two years, I was in the garrison's military police unit. Because of my decent performance at the new recruit training center, I was selected by the military police to become a non-commissioned officer directly. But I still want to rise higher, am I being too greedy? I wonder what it feels like to wear the highest rank insignia on my uniform.

  Wen Yong likes uniforms, ranks, and medals. Who doesn't want to wear beautiful military attire? As a former mercenary, he only had one set of combat gear with no insignia on it, not even as good-looking as the imitation military uniforms worn by enthusiasts.

  As a mercenary, after winning a battle, all you get is a celebration party and some bonus money, then slowly forget about that victory. Only medals can help people remember those bloody victories. Mercenaries don't have ranks, no matter how high your command level is, the company will only give you more subordinates, but when standing in the team, new recruits won't know you're the leader because there's no rank insignia on your shoulders or collar."

  "How many suspects have you caught?" Yu Fei quickly shifted the topic to work, he wanted to understand this strange city as soon as possible. His memory of this city was that it was called a garden city, a good place for tourism, and even if you didn't speak Chinese, you could still come here for tourism because it was an area where overseas Chinese gathered. He had been yearning for this city since he was young and hoped to become a resident here.

  "Never mind, I've been here for so long, and as a deputy platoon leader, all I do is worry about the city's security. As soon as we catch someone, the police station takes over the case, and people come to plead their case in droves. It's impossible for me to make any progress, and then I worry about my own future. Everyone spends money to find connections to get transferred out of here. I've been a deputy platoon leader for a year now, but as a non-commissioned officer, I don't have the authority to issue arrest warrants or write case reports - all I can do is lead soldiers to assist the police in making arrests." Wen Yong despised those weak and incompetent military officers.

  "The National Police Agency and the Garrison Command are of equal rank, we can detain vehicles like traffic police, crack cases like criminal police, and catch thieves like security guards. This is a great power, even the French Gendarmerie doesn't have as much power as us. The French Gendarmerie only takes care of public order in areas with less than 10,000 people, we are much stronger than them, can fine and arrest people, how mighty!" Yu Fei knew that the Garrison Command and police had equal powers when he went to military school, and envied the soldiers wearing black uniforms.

  "Authority is yours, ordinary constables and NCOs have no right to issue arrest warrants, no right to decide on detention of a person, nor the right to transfer case files to the prosecutor's office, nor are they qualified to prosecute suspects. Only you have this power, simply put, only you have police powers. We can't just grab people, do you really like catching thieves?"

  Yu Fei said with a relaxed tone: "I've watched a lot of police and bandit movies since I was young, watching others catch thieves makes my heart itch, especially admiring the major crimes unit and SWAT. When I first arrived here, I took the police school exam, this police school is even harder to pass than those in the US, it's really disappointing."

  It's really stuffy sitting in the jeep at midnight, going out for a walk might be better. Yu Fei suggested, "Let's change places and squat somewhere else, I saw a coffee shop across from the Wang Hai Jiao police station when we drove by earlier, why don't we go sit there for a bit."

  "Sir, it's a hassle for us to wear uniforms there. The police generally don't like the constabulary because nobody likes another group of people having their own power. Moreover, the constabulary also has the power to monitor and supervise other administrative and law enforcement departments. They won't be happy when they see us." Wen Yong said, looking at the many shops on the street that had already closed.

  "No problem, we have the law to back us up. It seems that the military police regulations allow plainclothes officers to enforce the law, right?" Yu Fei changed out of his handsome military police uniform and was left with just a vest and shorts. He took out a bag and put his gun and ID into it, then stuffed some spare change into his pocket. This was a good opportunity for him to personally understand the local law enforcement department.

  The superior lets us do what we have to do, Wen Yong also took off his military uniform and picked up the car key and pistol. "In this way, coming out at midnight, others will take us as perverts."

  "Next time, just wear casual clothes, so you don't have to change." Yu Fei felt that wearing shorts didn't look good on him. Since high school, he hadn't dressed like this because his skin was allergic to ultraviolet rays and he couldn't even wear short-sleeved shirts, let alone a tank top and shorts. Fortunately, it was evening and there wasn't much sunlight or pedestrians staring at him. He felt that his figure wasn't good and the hair on his legs made him feel like wearing shorts didn't look good.

  "Shall we use something like a basketball as a prop?" Wen Yong said, crawling from the driver's seat to the back compartment of the car and fetching a skateboard, which was his toy. He usually locked it in the car for fear that the soldiers would play with it.

  Two people got off the bus with skateboards, saw that the dimly lit street was empty, and walked to a place where the streetlights couldn't reach. They finally arrived at the door of a 24-hour coffee shop. The fast-food-style coffee shop had only two night-shift workers standing at the front desk, busy with their work. Yu Fei pushed open the door and took a glance around, seeing several people in police uniforms and several others not in uniform sitting at a table, chatting and drinking coffee, discussing movies, TV shows, songs, celebrities, street gossip, and rumors.

  "Two iced coffees, large." Yu Fei put the change on the counter, and the server took the money and brought out two large cups of iced coffee. "Your coffee is ready." Yu Fei and Wen Yong each took a cup and found a place to sit near the window. The police officers were not used to strangers coming in, and their conversation was quieter than usual, as if they didn't want outsiders to hear: City of Sin