Official title: Refused to stay at the university, started his career in a rural town.

Yang Fan was still somewhat dazed when he left Handong University.

He stood by a big tree by the roadside for a while, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and the spiciness of the nicotine shot from his throat all the way to his lungs, finally calming down the tangled mess in his mind a little.

There's probably more to Qi Tongwei's decision to apply to join the criminal investigation team than that.

Yeah, what makes you think you can just apply and go?

He recalled Wang Minhua's words, slamming her fist on the table: "If I apply to go to Yantai City tomorrow to go undercover, will I be sent out next week too?"

These were said in anger, but they contained a real problem. Undercover missions are highly confidential operations within the public security organs, and candidates must undergo layers of screening—psychological qualities, physical fitness, adaptability, and loyalty are all indispensable.

Why should a judicial assistant who has been stuck in a remote judicial office for two years without even being promoted to deputy section chief be allowed to go?

Whose scheme is hidden behind this?

The first name that popped into Yang Fan's mind was Chen Yanshi.

The old chief prosecutor who kept saying "young people should rely on their own efforts" transferred his daughter Chen Yang to Beijing and arranged for his son to work in the garrison, but told Qi Tongwei that he should rely on himself and be transferred to Beijing with dignity.

And then what? Qi Tongwei has been in Yantaishan for three years, but he still hasn't been promoted to deputy section chief, and he doesn't even dare to go home for the Spring Festival.

Now, out of nowhere, I found out that the criminal investigation team was recruiting undercover agents, so I volunteered and was thrown in without even receiving any training.

He recalled the words he had told Qi Tongwei and Chen Yanshi last year at Yantai Mountain, when Chen Yanshi had cursed Chen Yang: "He has no ambition, he's a toad trying to eat swan meat."

Qi Tongwei's face turned pale, but he still said, "Uncle Chen is an old revolutionary, and he hates pulling strings the most."

That person refused to admit until his death that the person standing between him and Chen Yang was never Liang Lu, but Chen Yanshi.

Yes, in the eyes of Chen Yanshi, a senior official who was almost about to retire as a deputy minister, wasn't Qi Tongwei just a blond-haired guy riding a ghost fire and heading to hell with his daughter?

But will Chen Yanshi go to such lengths?

Yang Fan threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out.

Chen Yanshi, judging from the original drama, is rigid and stubborn, and has his own ideas, but would he really go out of his way to harm someone?

Didn't he ultimately sacrifice himself while saving people?

But who else could it be besides Chen Yanshi?

Liang Qunfeng? Yang Fan shook his head.

He had met Liang Qunfeng once.

On the awards stage in the provincial government auditorium, Liang Qunfeng sat on the dais, holding a teacup, with a warm smile.

That person was able to climb to the vice-ministerial level and seize control of the political and legal power in Handong not through conspiracies and tricks, but through careful planning.

If he wanted to suppress Qi Tongwei, he wouldn't need to resort to such underhanded tactics as infiltrating an undercover agent. A few words would have been enough to force Qi Tongwei to retire at the Yantaishan Judicial Office.

Liang Lu? Even less likely.

Liang Lu is willful and unreasonable, but she is not stupid. She is a teacher at Handong University, and she knows what it means to be an undercover agent!

What she wanted was for Qi Tongwei to bow down. Even if she really wanted to ruin Qi Tongwei, she wouldn't dare to use such methods.

Handong University isn't made of clay; she's a teacher there. How could she not understand that when she lowers her standards to deal with others, others can also lower their standards to deal with her?

Yang Fan leaned against a sycamore tree by the roadside and lit another cigarette. The blue smoke spread in front of his face, then was swept away by the wind and disappeared.

If no one specifically asked Qi Tongwei to go undercover, would he even consider it?

This is what Yang Fan can't understand the most. Qi Tongwei stayed in Yantai Mountain for two years. Although he felt stifled and couldn't see any hope, at least he was safe.

His daily work involves mediating disputes over homestead land, helping old women divide walnut trees, and repairing the leaky roof of a primary school—jobs that are a far cry from those of an undercover drug enforcement officer.

How could a judicial assistant who has barely ever handled a real gun suddenly think of applying to become an undercover narcotics officer?

Moreover, he was an undercover agent infiltrating a drug cartel.

Shouldn't this kind of information about an undercover agent within a drug trafficking group be kept secret? Why would a lowly judicial office assistant know such information?

Yang Fan stubbed out his cigarette, and the ash fell on his leather shoes, but he didn't brush it off.

There is only one answer—someone deliberately passed the message to Qi Tongwei's ears.

It's true that undercover missions are kept secret, but there are a hundred ways to leak secrets.

You could casually mention it in the cafeteria, discuss it quietly in the corridor, or have a helpful colleague pat Qi Tongwei on the shoulder and say, "Tongwei, haven't you always wanted to make a name for yourself? It seems the criminal investigation team is recruiting. It's dangerous, but if you succeed, you'll be on a meteoric rise."

And then what? What will Qi Tongwei do?

Yang Fan knew without a doubt that the man who had been clutching the account book and weeping by the river, the man who hadn't dared to go home for the New Year for two years, the man who felt he owed the whole village a debt of gratitude that he could never repay—would he hesitate upon hearing this news?

He would only feel that this was an opportunity given to him by God!

Give it a shot. If you succeed, you'll bring glory to your ancestors! If you fail, at worst you'll die in a drug dealer's den, which will be the end of this extremely repressive life.

With his simple mind, he wouldn't even think about why this news had reached his ears in the first place.

Yang Fan rested the back of his head on the rough tree bark and closed his eyes.

That's mind-bending.

The original series was too high-level; it only talked about things at that level.

Qi Tongwei was shot three times on Guying Ridge, cracked a drug trafficking gang, became a hero, was transferred back to Jingzhou, entered the Provincial Public Security Department, and climbed all the way to the position of director.

What the audience sees is a legend of a poor boy's rise to success, a tragic story of overcoming adversity.

But what about before that? Before the gunshots rang out at Lone Eagle Ridge, before that judicial assistant was thrown into the drug dealers' den, how many people gave him a push? How many people watched him walk towards the cliff edge, not only not pulling him back, but even pointing him in the right direction?

In the eyes of those who appeared in the original drama, those below the provincial level were just names, just like Qi Tongwei at this moment, who was just a name.

A name that can be casually added to an undercover agent's list.

A name with no background, no powerful connections, and no one to speak up for him.

If it's written in, it's written in; if something goes wrong, it goes wrong. At worst, if we investigate later, it might be considered dereliction of duty—who would have the evidence?

Was that sentence on the screen spoken verbally, mentioned over the phone, or a line found in meeting minutes? Can you find out?

Yang Fan opened his eyes and looked at the sycamore leaves above his head rustling in the wind.

It's likely that Qi Tongwei, who later rose to a high position, also understood the reason behind this.

That's why he ignores or even treats some people coldly.

He realized that those who pushed him into the fire, those who watched him walk towards the edge of the cliff without offering a helping hand, those who casually wrote his name on the undercover agent list and then waited for the results with their teacups in hand—they had no evidence left on their hands.

He can't touch them, but he can be indifferent. He can use his own methods to trample those people under his feet, bit by bit.

Why did Gao Yuliang tolerate Qi Tongwei's antics repeatedly in the later period, and even promote Qi Tongwei all the way, which was somewhat out of character for him?

Yang Fan couldn't understand it when he watched the show before. Gao Yuliang was a cautious person who was cautious his whole life. He even had to calculate the pros and cons before choosing sides. How come he became a bottomless indulgence when it came to Qi Tongwei?

He covered for Qi Tongwei's ill-gotten gains; he turned a blind eye to Qi Tongwei's formation of cliques; and he not only didn't stop Qi Tongwei from eliminating his political opponents within the Public Security Bureau, but also paved the way for him.

This doesn't seem like something Gao Yuliang would do.

Even if they are brothers-in-law!

Perhaps it was because these were students he had personally mentored at the Department of Political Science and Law of Handong University, and he hadn't taken good care of them.

He, Gao Yuliang, was the department head, Liang Qunfeng's successor, and the banner of the Han University clique—yet he couldn't even protect his own students. How many years had that guilt weighed on him?

That's why he tolerated Qi Tongwei's nonsense time and time again.

That's why, even though he knew Qi Tongwei was making money, forming cliques, and making mistakes, he still promoted him all the way. It wasn't appreciation; it was compensation. It was a teacher making amends for a student he hadn't protected for over a decade.

How many surviving Class A combat heroes are there, whether from the military or the police?

Yang Fan flicked the long-extinguished cigarette butt into the trash can by the roadside.

A first-class combat hero is someone who risks their life for that title. They're one in a thousand, if not one in ten thousand.

Qi Tongwei survived crawling out of the drug dealers' den, shot three times, and pulled through – a feat no one can deny.

Gao Yuliang wanted to promote him, and no one could say a word against it.

This achievement was not given to him by others; it was earned by Qi Tongwei himself, risking his life.

This was the capital that enabled him to run rampant in the political arena of Handong in the future, and it was also the only thing he still held in his hand when he finally committed suicide by shooting himself on Lone Eagle Ridge.

Yang Fan straightened up and patted the bark chips that had gotten on his back.

He recalled that last year at Yantai Mountain, he had told Qi Tongwei that if the mountain delicacies weren't enough, he should transport them to Qingping, so that the villagers could at least earn a little more money.

But Qi Tongwei refused, saying that the mountain road was too difficult to travel, and even tractors couldn't get up the most dangerous section. Moreover, the mountains in their village didn't have many resources, so the matter was dropped.

But he didn't know that the path he was on was even more difficult than that mountain road!

Yang Fan sighed. If things continued like this, Qi Tongwei's knees would probably be bent under the weight of the favors owed to him by the villagers. The tuition fees scraped together by selling chickens, grain, and even winter quilts; the gazes of those who stood at the village entrance to see him off, hoping he would bring glory to his ancestors—Qi Tongwei could never repay them in his lifetime, nor could he ever let them go.

He desperately wanted to succeed, to prove himself, and to pay off all those debts of gratitude.

So when that "opportunity" was presented to him, he jumped in without even thinking.