He just broke up with his girlfriend and is already living with the devilish rich girl.

Half an hour later.

In front of the supermarket counter.

With two thuds, a man and a woman knelt down directly in front of Bai Ziheng.

"Master, please accept our bow!"

Bai Ziheng, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, stared blankly at Zheng Xingguang and Xiaohua, who were kneeling upright.

There was a three-second silence.

"roll."

Zheng Xingguang raised his head, his face full of sincerity.

"Brother Bai, I understand now. You must be unwilling to take on apprentices, right?"

"It was my oversight. I have spent half my life wandering aimlessly, and I only regret that I have not met a wise ruler. If you do not abandon me, I am willing to become your godfather!"

Xiao Hua immediately clasped her hands in greeting and solemnly proclaimed, "Godfather, please accept my bow!"

Veins bulged on Bai Ziheng's forehead.

One minute later.

The supermarket's back door was pushed open, and two people were grabbed by the back of their collars and thrown out one by one.

Xiao Hua fell on the steps, still in the gesture of clasped hands, her gray-white blind eyes turning to Zheng Xingguang beside her, her tone serious.

Why won't our godfather take us in?

Zheng Xingguang sat on the steps, rubbing the back of his head, thinking for a long time.

"Perhaps he didn't bring enough gifts for the apprenticeship ceremony."

Inside the supermarket, Bai Ziheng closed the back door, making a big commotion.

The cat poked its head out from behind the shelf again: "What are those two little guys doing here?"

Don't ask.

"Meow~ It's a good thing that young people are ambitious. Besides, don't all humans like being a dad? Now that you're a dad, you should be happy, meow~"

"You want to be thrown out too?"

Bai Ziheng finished get off work at 7 p.m.

He took off his apron and hung it behind the warehouse door, then exchanged a few words with Old Zhou, who had come to pick him up for the night shift.

Old Zhou said his daughter got a perfect score on her midterm math exam today and insisted on showing Bai Ziheng the photos.

Bai Ziheng complimented her a couple of times, saying she was really smart and looked just like his wife, before slipping out the back door.

Zheng Xingguang sat on the left, and Xiaohua sat on the right.

Xiaohua was holding a plastic bag containing two bottles of mineral water and a small bag of bread. Judging from the packaging, it was bought from a supermarket.

Bai Ziheng leaned against the door frame, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his deadpan eyes sweeping over the two men.

"What exactly are you two trying to do?"

Zheng Xingguang jumped up, his posture exactly the same as the young soldier Bai Ziheng had seen in recruit training years ago.

"Brother Bai! I truly want to follow you!"

"What you said before is like a thunderbolt to me! You said I lack my own thinking, you said I only obey others, you said I can't do anything—no one has ever said these things to me before! I want to follow you, I want to—"

"I'm just an employee too."

Bai Ziheng interrupted him, took the cigarette out of his mouth, and flicked off the ash.

"A supermarket cashier earns 4,600 a month, but after deductions for social insurance and housing fund, I only get 3,800. I can't afford to support both of you. You should find someone else."

He turned and left.

"Brother Bai!"

Zheng Xingguang took two steps to catch up.

"I have resigned from the Special Administration Bureau!"

Bai Ziheng paused for a moment. He turned his head, his brows furrowing.

"That was a secure job, you're quitting it too?"

"It will make it impossible for me to see the road ahead."

Zheng Xingguang stood still, the streetlights casting long shadows of him.

The boy's eyes were a little red, but his voice was steady.

"Wearing that uniform and holding that ID, I felt that everything I did was right."

"I am protecting order, I am upholding justice."

"But who sets the order? Who writes justice? Those I protect are accomplices of murderers, and those outcasts I hunt down as enemies are just seeking justice."

He paused, his voice very low.

"I didn't even know what I was protecting, yet I dared to point a sword at my savior. Brother Bai, you're right, I not only lack strength, but also brains."

Bai Ziheng looked at him, put the cigarette back in his mouth and took a deep drag. The smoke came out of his nostrils and was blown away by the night wind.

Then he sighed.

"You still haven't figured it out, kid."

He walked up to Zheng Xingguang.

Bai Ziheng was a head taller than Zheng Xingguang, looking down at the young man who had just come of age.

What you see depends not only on where you are, but also on how you look at things.

"You're an agent of the Special Administration Bureau; you clearly have more opportunities to uncover the truth."

"Why do predators hunt those people? What do the dead have in common? As an insider, you could have easily grasped these patterns, but you didn't."

He took a drag of his cigarette.

"You just blindly obey orders. You do whatever tasks are given to you and follow whatever rules are set by you. You lack your own independent thinking."

"Of course, I'm not saying you did anything wrong. Doing your job well is called fulfilling your responsibilities."

"but--"

He bent down slightly and looked Zheng Xingguang straight in the eye.

"If you think that by leaving the Special Administration and coming to me, you will be able to see more and further, then you are very wrong."

"Because your brain is on your neck, not hanging on the nameplate at your workplace."

Zheng Xingguang was stunned.

Bai Ziheng straightened up, his gaze passing over Zheng Xingguang's shoulder and landing on Xiao Hua behind him.

The girl remained seated on the steps, clutching the plastic bag in her arms. Her gray-white blind eyes were fixed in their direction, her face expressionless, but her ears were clearly listening intently.

For example—

Bai Ziheng took a drag of his cigarette and gestured with his chin toward Xiaohua.

"I want you to kill her right now, take her heart and give it to me. What will you do?"

Xiao Hua shuddered.

Zheng Xingguang's reaction was much stronger than hers.

Almost instinctively, he took a step to the side, shielding Xiaohua's body behind him.

"I would never do that! She did nothing wrong! She—she's just a victim! I don't care what your reasons are, I won't hurt her!"

Seeing his protective stance, Bai Ziheng took the cigarette out of his mouth and stubbed it out on the nearby trash can.

"Look."

His voice was flat.

"Your first reaction is still not to ask why."

Zheng Xingguang opened his mouth.

"You didn't ask me why I killed her, you didn't ask what was special about her heart, you didn't ask if I discovered anything you didn't know."

"You didn't even consider that maybe I was just testing you when I asked that question."

Zheng Xingguang's shoulders slowly relaxed.

He lowered his head, his fingers hanging at his sides slowly curling up, his nails digging into his palms.

"Your first reaction was to protect her, that's fine."

"But what you should do next is figure out why I killed her."

"If you don't understand this, it's the same wherever you go."

"Whether you're working in the Special Administration Bureau or as a cashier in a supermarket, you'll only make decisions based on instinct, and then only afterwards will you realize that you've protected scum or harmed innocent people."

Bai Ziheng threw the extinguished cigarette butt into the trash can.

Does your sister know about your resignation?

Zheng Xingguang looked up, his expression stiffening for a moment.

"...She doesn't know yet."

"A young man with no beard is unreliable."

Bai Ziheng shook his head.

"How much has your sister worried about you? And now you've thrown away your secure job without even a word. Haven't you thought about how she'll react if she finds out?"

"I……"

"Forget it, it's your own business, you figure it out yourself."

Bai Ziheng turned around and waved his hand with his back to him.

"Once you've figured out what I just said, if you still want to work with me, then come to the supermarket for an interview at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

"I'll invite the boss over too—whether or not we hire people depends on her approval, not my decision."

Zheng Xingguang's eyes lit up.

A glimmer of life finally appeared on that dejected face.

"Okay! Okay! Brother-in-law! Thank you, brother-in-law!"

Bai Ziheng paused for a moment.

He turned his head, his dead fish eyes filled with speechlessness.

"See, you still won't ask why, why I suddenly agreed to your request?"

"You thanked me without even asking."

Zheng Xingguang immediately realized that he had fallen into his old habit again, his ears turned red, and he lowered his head to honestly admit his mistake.

"I...I will study hard, brother-in-law."

"...Whatever you want."

Bai Ziheng put the cigarette case into his pocket, turned around, and walked into the depths of the alley.

The footsteps faded into the distance.

Zheng Xingguang stood under the streetlight. Xiaohua stood up from the steps, walked to his side, and handed him the bottle of mineral water from the plastic bag.

Are you thirsty?

"...A little."

Zheng Xingguang took the water bottle, unscrewed the cap, and tilted his head back to take two gulps.

After a long while, she suddenly spoke.

"What he said is all correct, isn't it?"

Zheng Xingguang screwed the bottle cap back on, looked down at the bottle of mineral water in his hand, and remained silent for a long time.

"……right."

Xiaohua thought for a moment and then asked, "Shall we come again tomorrow?"

"Come."

This time he did not hesitate.

Xiaohua nodded, took the bag of bread out of the plastic bag, tore open the packaging, and handed one to him.

Zheng Xingguang took the bread, took a bite, chewed it a couple of times, and suddenly smiled.

Xiaohua tilted her head and asked him what he was laughing at.

He said it was nothing, he just felt that the taste of this little bread was very similar to the kind his sister used to buy for him outside his school when he was a child.