Reborn in 1993, Dark Sea

"After Haiyaozi entered, he greeted Amei very politely. Amei made tea for us, and we sat down at the table like old friends."

We drank tea and chatted idly, but didn't talk about anything substantial.

After finishing his tea, Haiyaozi got up and left, leaving behind a briefcase.

I opened my briefcase and took out what was inside. I was quite startled. There were five stacks of money, a hundred bills in each stack, all brand new ten-yuan notes.

A full 5000 yuan!

5000 yuan! My monthly salary at the time was only 38 yuan.

5000 yuan is equivalent to ten years of my income. Haiyaozi just casually gave me ten years' worth of income without even asking for anything in return.

I don't remember how I felt at the time; I only remember my heart was pounding.

The sound was like a drumbeat, making my heart feel like it was about to jump out of my throat!

I had absolutely no idea what to do. Honestly, I couldn't bear to hand over this money—it was 5000 yuan! I was thinking that even if I quit this job, I could still live a very happy life with this money.

But not handing it over meant embarking on another path, a path of no return. I knew very well what it meant for Haiyaozi to give me 5000 yuan.

To my surprise, Amei had no psychological issues whatsoever. She was overjoyed, and the next day she used the money to buy our son several beautiful outfits and a whole bunch of baby supplies on the black market.

Those things, I wouldn't have dared to even think about in the past.

After a while, a lot of the money had been spent.

I knew there was no going back. I spent every day in fear and anxiety, waiting anxiously for Haiyaozi to make his demands.

A month passed like this, and instead of receiving the sea hawk's request, I received a second 5000 yuan!

It wasn't until I received the second sum of money that I truly realized how narrow-minded I had been.

I, a policeman, am filled with anxiety because I accepted 5000 yuan, but in reality, the other party didn't care about that 5000 yuan at all.

This is just a trial balloon; it doesn't matter if we lose it.

From that moment on, I slowly and completely woke up to the fact that this is a dog-eat-dog world, and that hard work alone is not enough to become someone superior to others.

If you want to become someone of high status, you have to risk your life—you really have to risk your life!

I've already taken 10,000 yuan from them. If I worked honestly, it would take me 20 years to earn that 10,000 yuan.

It was worth it; consider it as if I sold my life to them.

From then on, I began to actively cooperate with them, providing them with information about the police and helping them evade police crackdowns. As a result, the money I received each month increased.

Six thousand, eight thousand, ten thousand... There are no consequences, only an increasingly better life.

As the amount of money hidden in my home grew, my ambition was also stimulated to grow. I became dissatisfied with merely having money; I also craved the power that matched it.

I shared my ideas with Haiyaozi, and he was very supportive. So we started to cooperate and seize power.

From then on, Sea Hawk began to provide me with intelligence on other criminal organizations, and I led my colleagues to sweep them away.

Three years passed in the blink of an eye. I had basically wiped out all kinds of criminal organizations in Baoshan County. It was during that period that the Waterbird Gang became the dominant force, almost controlling the entire underworld of Baoshan County.

As for me, I went from an unknown junior policeman to a police chief. Many of those who were promoted before me sacrificed their lives in these operations.

I certainly contributed to their sacrifice, but it's not my fault. The key issue is that their abilities didn't match their positions.

Being a police officer isn't something you can do well just because you have connections; it's very dangerous! Many times it's a life-or-death situation! No matter how powerful your backing is, when a fight breaks out, bullets won't dodge you.

Live it!

Let's not talk about that anymore, I know you're not interested in those things either. Let's talk about what you're interested in.

With money, things naturally become easier.

I took Amei back to her hometown in a grand and glorious manner. If anyone had any objections or looked at me with hostility, I would throw money at them.

Soon, all the opinions and hostility disappeared, replaced by a harmonious atmosphere.

Money really is a wonderful thing!

With that money, I successfully helped Amei get a divorce, married her, and registered my son's birth.

With money to pave the way, everything went smoothly, but then something happened that served as a wake-up call for me.

Once, a former colleague came to Baoshan County on business. I treated him to a nice meal. At the dinner table, he got a little drunk and told me a story.

The deputy chief of the police station where I used to work died, along with his entire family. They were all burned to death in their sleep.

Although they claimed it was an accidental fire, in reality, they were being retaliated against by the underworld. However, the incident was so egregious that it was covered up.

The truth seems to be that the deputy director only took money and did nothing, which angered the underworld figures. So, they broke into his house, tied up his whole family, and burned them down.

I was a little scared at the time.

Yes, those Waterbirds are all vicious criminals! Don't be fooled by how polite Seahawk is to me, like a gentle old friend.

But he's a sea hawk! I know a little about what they've been doing behind the scenes these past few years. To describe them as ruthless and vicious would be an understatement.

The sea hawks are being polite to me now because I still have some use to them.

But what will happen next? It's hard to say! And if they ask me to do something that would endanger my safety and that of my family, how can I refuse them?

These people are a double-edged sword; they are very dangerous, and if handled improperly, they can hurt you.

I think my fate might not be much better than that of the deputy director.

No, this can't be done!

Amei has become more and more elegant and beautiful, and my son is so smart and cute! I don't care if I die or not, but I must protect them, otherwise, all my efforts will be in vain.

So I came up with a plan to secretly send Amei and her son away, to hide them in a place where no one knows them.

That way, even if something happens to me in the future, it won't affect them.

I told Amei about my plan, and she cried a lot, but she finally agreed. She was so obedient to me and had never disobeyed me.

So I divorced Amei, and then found a Hong Kong smuggler to take Amei and my son away and send them abroad.

My heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down. Now that I'm all alone, I can finally do whatever I want without restraint.

I was worried that being divorced might affect my career, so I remarried.

I didn't just marry any woman; I married a policewoman with connections, the one you all know. Her father worked in the provincial department at the time.

Days passed by like this, and my relationship with my second wife was fairly harmonious. Every now and then, Amei would fly back from abroad to spend some precious time with me.

You must all think that I killed my second wife.

Actually, no, she has a serious illness, severe asthma. Originally, she shouldn't have been able to become a police officer, but what can she do when she has such a powerful father!

One day, Amei came back, and I excitedly ran to meet her. We then spent an unforgettable night together.

To my surprise, when I returned home the next day, I found her dead; her body was completely cold. It must have been an asthma attack, and she had run out of her medication, and I wasn't there with her. I didn't harm her; it was just an accident. She was sick and didn't have her medication on hand, so who can she blame?

Later, I got too lazy to look anymore; I had everything I needed anyway.

In March 1979, Baoshan County was transformed into Shenhai City, going directly from a county to a sub-provincial level unit. Everyone was overjoyed, as if they had been promoted several levels in one fell swoop!

Over the years, I've seen more and more darkness. I'm not the only one doing this; there are many people in the system doing similar things.

I was working with the Waterbird Gang. They did all sorts of things at first, and only started dealing drugs later.

Besides drug trafficking, there are many other ways to make money. There are too many people who specialize in smuggling, money laundering, controlling waste recycling, human trafficking, fraud, and running brothels. Basically, every one of these people has someone protecting them.

I know perfectly well who is doing these things and who is providing protection, and I think those who are doing the same things as me know it perfectly well too.

However, everyone had already reached a tacit understanding: you make your money, I'll make my fortune, and we'll all go our separate ways, keeping to ourselves.

If something happens, we'll lend a hand if we can. In short, everyone is happy and we all get rich together.

And so it went until 81, when the accident finally happened.

A greenhorn in the police station, an unremarkable young man, a quiet and reserved guy, quietly spent two years figuring out the drug trafficking patterns of the Waterbird Gang and organized a raid without telling most people.

Even more deadly, during that arrest operation, he actually shot and killed Haiyaozi, the same Haiyaozi who came to my house ten years ago with 5000 yuan to bribe me.

Wang Tiejun, do you know who this young policeman I'm talking about is? Ha!