Special forces soldier demobilization: Starting from the county government compound, a meteoric rise

In Beijing, the most beautiful autumn scenery is not the red leaves of Fragrant Hills, but the secluded hutongs hidden deep within the Second Ring Road, nestled among gray walls and black tiles.

Old Chen drove his beat-up Santana, winding through the maze-like alleys, finally stopping in front of an extremely unassuming black lacquered gate. The gate was quite old; the paint was slightly wrinkled, and the verdigris on the door knocker exuded a sense of age.

It's only a few hundred meters from Chang'an Avenue, yet it's so quiet you can hear the leaves falling.

"Director, we've arrived." Old Chen turned off the engine and pointed to the door. "This is a private residence that Old Lin bought years ago, and it's been empty. A few days ago, we specially had it cleaned up, just waiting for you to move in. It's close to the National Development and Reform Commission building; it's only a ten-minute bike ride, saving you the hassle of traffic jams."

Liu Ming got off the car carrying the tactical backpack.

He looked up at the small space. In Beijing's Second Ring Road, where land is incredibly valuable, this quiet courtyard house, nestled amidst the bustling city, is priceless. It represents status, and it serves as a protective barrier.

Pushing open the door, you see two jujube trees growing vigorously in the courtyard, and the blue brick ground is swept clean. It lacks the luxurious decor of the Ningzhou villas, possessing only a reassuring simplicity and profound history.

"Pretty good." Liu Ming casually tossed his backpack onto the stone table, took a deep breath of the air which smelled slightly of coal smoke, and said, "This is the smell of Kyoto."

Old Chen helped settle the luggage, gave a few instructions on security, and then took his leave.

Liu Ming quickly washed his face. He changed into a gray knitted sweater, opened the door, and planned to go out into the yard for some fresh air.

Just then, a refreshing jasmine fragrance wafted over.

Liu Ming followed the scent and looked in that direction.

On the east wall of this courtyard house, there is a half-person-high, extremely hidden "moon hole." The entrance is mostly obscured by a row of lush green bamboo. Through the bamboo shadows, he could see a corner of the neighboring courtyard.

That was a courtyard that was even smaller than his.

In the center of the courtyard, an old man wearing a gray cotton shirt and round-toed cloth shoes was bending over, carefully trimming a pot of jasmine flowers that were in full bloom with a pair of delicate little scissors in his hand.

The old man had his back to Liu Ming. He was slightly thin, and although his hair was completely white, it was neatly styled.

His movements were extremely slow.

Every snip of the scissors seemed to be the result of meticulous calculation.

Liu Ming stood quietly under the bamboo shadows, watching.

As a professional soldier, he could glean a wealth of information from a person's silhouette and movements that ordinary people couldn't. The old man's posture was remarkably precise. His center of gravity was slightly lowered, his lower body extremely stable. Even while trimming flowers and grass, his spine maintained a subtle, upright posture.

Such magnanimity.

This is the composure to remain calm even when Mount Tai collapses before you.

This is something that ordinary centenarians can not possess.

"Now that you've had your fill of looking, come and help this old man up; this pot of flowers is too heavy."

The old man suddenly spoke, his voice clear and strong, showing no signs of old age.

Liu Ming was slightly taken aback, then chuckled. He thought he had concealed his aura, but he hadn't expected the other party to still notice.

He didn't stand on ceremony; he reached out and parted the bamboo curtain, stepping through the "moon hole."

"Sir, you have a good eye." Liu Ming walked over and steadily supported the blue and white porcelain basin.

The old man turned his head and looked Liu Ming up and down.

It was a face etched with the marks of time, wrinkles crisscrossing like deep ravines. But what was most striking were his eyes. Those eyes were exceptionally deep, exuding a detached calm that came from a profound understanding of the world, yet they also inadvertently flashed a hint of majesty that made Liu Ming's heart tremble.

"Did you just move here?" The old man put down the scissors, took the flowerpot from Liu Ming's hand, and asked casually.

"Yeah, we just moved in." Liu Ming patted the dirt off his hands. "I came from Ningzhou, and I was transferred to the Development and Reform Commission to do some work."

"The National Development and Reform Commission, that's a busy place, a real brain drain." The old man clapped his hands and pointed to a stone chessboard on the stone table. "Want to play a game with me? Everyone in this alley thinks I'm a terrible chess player, nobody wants to play with me."

Liu Ming glanced at the chessboard.

It was an old stone carving, and many of the patterns on it had been worn away.

He initially wanted to refuse, but seeing the fleeting loneliness in the old man's eyes, he was slightly moved and sat down.

"Then I'll make a fool of myself."

……

The game begins.

Liu Ming took the red card and went first.

Instead of the conventional "opening shot," he went straight for a "side horse."

The old man raised his eyelids, a playful smile appearing on his lips, and casually raised his chariot to deal with the situation.

At first, both of them were moving very fast.

The sound of pieces being placed echoed "snap, snap" in the quiet courtyard, with a tight rhythm.

But after walking less than ten steps, the old man's expression changed.

He discovered that the young man's chess style was extremely rare, even... brutal.

This is not a game of chess.

This guy is fucking risking his life!

Each of Liu Ming's chess pieces was like a venomous snake lurking in the grass. As soon as the old man showed the slightest opening, those pieces would instantly pounce and bite down relentlessly.

He doesn't play defense at all.

All his pieces are on the offensive.

He was using a near-suicidal, yet terrifyingly precise, exchange tactic to forcibly dismantle the old man's defense.

"Young man, you've got quite a temper."

The old man stared at the chessboard, his brows furrowed, a black pawn hovering in mid-air, not falling for a long time.

He found himself being drawn into Liu Ming's rhythm.

Every step they took felt like stepping on a minefield. Every time they took one of Liu Ming's pieces, they faced an even fiercer counterattack.

This tactic of disregarding costs and aiming only to destroy the enemy's central command reminded him of a term—surgical strike.

"It's not that I'm angry." Liu Ming took another step forward, locking the old man's seat in place. "It's that I'm in a hurry. There are too many things to do, and I don't want to go through the trouble of dealing with things that can be done simply."

The old man sensed the sharpness in her words.

He raised his head and gave Liu Ming a deep look.

"It's hard to get things done in Kyoto without taking detours."

"Whether or not you can go around depends on how fast your knife is." Liu Ming said calmly as he placed his last piece.

"General."

The old man was stunned.

He looked at his black-clad general, who was surrounded and had nowhere to escape, and fell into a long silence.

He lost.

They lost to a young man in his early twenties.

Moreover, they lost because of that almost arrogant, head-on crushing defeat.

"call……"

The old man exhaled a long puff of white mist and casually tossed the chess piece back into the box. Far from being angry, he burst into laughter, the sound so loud it made the jasmine petals beside him tremble.

"That was satisfying! I've been playing chess for decades, and this is the first time I've lost so humiliatingly, and also the first time I've lost so decisively!"

He stood up, walked to the sink, and washed his hands.

Just then.

The courtyard gate was gently pushed open.

Two men dressed in black casual clothes, their eyes sharp as knives, walked in. They carried fresh vegetables and meat, but when they looked at the old man, their heartfelt respect and protectiveness were impossible to conceal.

Upon seeing Liu Ming, their eyes instantly turned extremely dangerous, and one hand almost instinctively reached for their waist.

"Step back."

The old man didn't even turn his head, but simply gave a brief instruction.

The two men instantly suppressed their murderous intent, bowed slightly to the old man, and carried the things into the kitchen.

Liu Ming's eyes narrowed slightly as she watched this scene.

That level of security, that professional ethics ingrained in their very bones...

These bodyguards are not from ordinary security companies.

It didn't come from the police system either.

they.

From... the Garrison Bureau of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.

The identity of the old man planting flowers in front of us is already quite obvious.

Retired, a national-level elder.

The water in this alley was indeed deeper than Old Chen had said.

"Alright, that's enough for today. This old man needs to take his medicine."

The old man turned around, looked at Liu Ming who was about to leave, and wore a wise smile that showed he had seen through the ways of the world.

He didn't ask Liu Ming's name.

They didn't ask him what he specifically did at the National Development and Reform Commission.

He simply offered one last piece of advice, like any ordinary elder in the neighborhood:

"Young man, the game is good, but the aggressiveness is too strong."

"Things that are too rigid are easily broken. In Kyoto, sometimes, knowing when to bend is more important than knowing when to charge."

The old man pointed to the "elephant" piece on the chessboard that Liu Ming had just discarded.

"To capture a cannon fodder, they'd even abandon their own defenses. That's an incredibly aggressive tactic."

Finally, the old man chuckled and made a joke, his voice drifting away on the wind:

"This young man's chess style is too aggressive; he's likely to offend people in the ministry."