In the 90s, you could acquire max-level skills every 14 days.

Zhang Defa left home early in the morning.

When Zhang Yong sat up in bed, the living room was already empty.

On the table was an enamel mug, half-filled with tea leaves, with something underneath it.

Zhang Yong went over and took a look; it was his salary savings book.

The green one belongs to the Agricultural Bank of China.

"mom."

Li Guilan poked her head out of the kitchen, holding a pair of chopsticks in her hand, her face full of energy.

"Your dad got up at five o'clock this morning." Li Guilan wiped her chopsticks on her apron and came out.

"He sat at the table for about ten minutes, put this on the table, and left."

Li Guilan picked up the passbook and glanced at it.

"This is yours from now on. He said you can keep your monthly salary and he won't interfere anymore. If you need money, just ask him for it."

Zhang Yong took the passbook but didn't open it.

"Mom, please take this."

"what?"

"Whoever buys the groceries manages the money." Zhang Yong handed the passbook back.

"I'll use my own share, and you can take care of the household expenses."

Li Guilan paused for two seconds, then clutched the passbook in her hand and flipped through a few more pages.

"Oh my, my son is so sensible. I'll make you a couple of outfits later, you'll need a new one when school starts."

She turned and went back to the kitchen, her voice carrying a cheerful tone.

"I went out with your dad this morning and bought six meat pies. Your dad ate three on the spot and said they were delicious. I brought the remaining three back; they're still warm in the pan."

Zhang Yong sat down and ate a pancake.

The meat pies are from the halal shop at the intersection of Jinsong Road. They're filled with mutton and scallions, with a thin crust and lots of filling; one bite and the oil just drips down. Each pie costs 35 cents, so six pies would be 2.1 yuan.

In the past, Li Guilan would never have been able to bear it.

Zhang Yong finished all three pancakes, then had another bowl of corn porridge and wiped his mouth.

"Mom, I'm going out to run some errands."

"Go ahead," Li Guilan replied from the kitchen, her tone light and cheerful. "What do you want for lunch?"

"Chef Li, please make yourself at home."

Zhang Yong went out the door and downstairs.

The engine made a muffled roar, and a puff of white smoke came out of the exhaust pipe.

They went straight to the Chaoyang District Police Station.

……

When Zhang Yong arrived, Xiao Li was washing a water tank under the tap in the yard.

Seeing Zhang Yong come in, he put the jar on the windowsill and gestured towards the inside.

"You're here so early? Come in and talk."

Inside the duty room, the fan was whirring, and a stack of note papers was on the table.

Xiao Li closed the door, took out a bag of spiced salt and pepper peanuts from the drawer, and pushed it in front of Zhang Yong.

"Your uncle confessed."

Zhang Yong sat down but didn't speak immediately.

"I interrogated him with Lao Zhao yesterday afternoon," Xiao Li said, leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed. "To be honest, I didn't even use much force."

"We just laid Liu Gui's statement in front of him and told him that the police station in your hometown of Baoding had also been contacted—your uncle's legs went weak on the spot."

Xiao Li scratched his head, "I've never seen someone confess so quickly before. I was afraid he was lying, so I interrogated him all afternoon."

"The man in his fifties almost wet his pants."

Zhang Yong rubbed the skin off a peanut. "So what did they confess to?"

"Ma Degui has a large courtyard in Gaoyang County, Baoding, with two courtyards. He specializes in two businesses: collecting waste engine oil, processing and reselling it, and lending money at high interest rates."

Xiao Li opened the notebook and pointed to a page. "Zhang Dewang was a local tyrant in that area, working as Ma Degui's errand boy. He usually hung around the surrounding villages, collecting waste oil, and sometimes he also lent money at exorbitant interest rates."

"Where's the IOU?"

"It's all fake." Xiao Li slammed his hand on the table.

"Ma Degui sent your uncle to Beijing with a fake IOU, firstly to ask for money, and secondly to probe your background. You fixed Wei Dabiao's car before, cutting off his source of income, and Ma Degui has taken note of that."

Zhang Yong nodded, just as he had guessed.

"What about Mr. Xu from Fengtai?"

"Xu Dacheng is Ma Degui's henchman. The three people we arrested the day before yesterday—Liu Gui, the man in the white vest, and the skinny guy—were all thugs under Xu Dacheng's command."

"That Mr. Zhou from Tongxian?"

"Your uncle said he'd never heard of him," Xiao Li shook his head. "He's probably just a downstream distributor, someone who gets goods and sells them. He's not on Zhang Dewang's side."

Zhang Yong popped a peanut into his mouth and hesitated for a moment.

"What did they say in Baoding?"

Xiao Li's expression turned serious. "We've coordinated with the police station in Baoding, and now all that's left is to arrest Ma Degui. But—"

He paused for a moment.

"As you know, in some areas..."

Zhang Yong knew what he wanted to say.

In the early 1990s, local protectionism at the county level was extremely severe. Ma Degui had been operating in the area for many years, and he had connections at all levels. If it really came down to arresting someone, it wouldn't be so easy, and he would definitely be in hiding by now.

"Then let me ask you something," Zhang Yong said in a low voice. "Did my uncle mention anyone surnamed Chen?"

Xiao Li flipped through two pages of the transcript and pointed to a line of text.

"Yes, they say Ma Degui has a sworn brother surnamed Chen, who is the second-in-command of a large factory in Baoding. Your uncle can't say which factory it is, he only knows that it's state-owned and quite large."

Zhang Yong narrowed his eyes.

Chen Ping's father.

"Besides this, is there any other connection?"

"That's all." Xiao Li closed the notebook. "That's all your uncle knows; he doesn't have access to the core information."

Zhang Yong leaned back in his chair and went over the line in his mind.

Ma Degui – Waste oil processing and lending.

Chen's father—the second-in-command of the large factory, a sworn brother—it's unclear what he's providing; it could be channels, or it could be a protective umbrella.

Xu Dacheng – a thug in Beijing.

Zhang Dewang – Oil collector in Baoding.

Boss Zhou—the distributor in Tongxian County—has absconded.

Everything is clear now.

"Oh, right." Zhang Yong pulled out the stack of remittance slips from his pocket. "How many did Zhang Dewang acknowledge?"

"He's honest, he admitted to everything." Xiao Li took the remittance slip and flipped through it.

"He said he made up excuses to swindle most of the money. We can check each specific instance one by one."

"The office has a civil mediation process. Take the receipts and sign the agreement on the spot, and we'll keep it on file according to the procedure. When the time comes, you'll repay every penny. As for interest, you can coordinate that on the spot."

Zhang Yong carefully put away the remittance slip and thanked Xiao Li sincerely.

"There's something else—"

Xiao Li hesitated for a moment, glanced at the door, and after confirming that no one was in the corridor, pulled Zhang Yong towards the corner.

His expression became somewhat subtle.

"Well... although it's not related to the case, when your uncle was giving his confession yesterday, I kept trying to get information out of him, and he said something else..."

Zhang Yong looked at him.

Xiao Li rubbed his hands together, considering the matter carefully.

"Your uncle... kept a mistress in Baoding County."

"……what?"

"They also built a small, two-story building."

Xiao Li's expression was indescribable.

"He said all the money he earns goes to this younger guy, and it's still not enough, which is why he works so hard to make money."

......