Nominal: Starting with an entrance exam for a PhD in Economics at Peking University

Chen Yanshi was still awake, sitting in the living room watching the news. Wang Fuzhen was knitting beside him, the TV on, the volume low. Seeing Chen Hai come in, Wang Fuzhen put down her knitting and stood up: "You're back? Have you eaten?"

"I ate. I ate at Teacher Gao's house." Chen Hai changed his shoes and sat down on the sofa.

Chen Yanshi glanced at him, said nothing, and then turned his gaze back to the television.

Wang Fuzhen sensed something was off between the father and son. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then swallowed it back. She went to the kitchen, poured a glass of water, placed it in front of Chen Hai, and then sat back down in her original spot to continue knitting, but her ears remained perked up.

The silence lasted for almost a minute.

Chen Hai spoke up: "Dad, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Chen Yanshi grunted in response but didn't move.

Chen Hai said, "I want to go to school to teach."

Chen Yanshi paused for a moment. He slowly turned his head to look at Chen Hai, his eyes filled with something indescribable—not surprise, nor anger, but a complex scrutiny mixed with many emotions.

“Teaching?” he asked.

“Yes.” Chen Hai nodded. “Handong University, or the Handong branch of the Prosecutors College, will also be fine. Professor Gao said he can help me arrange it.”

Chen Yanshi was silent for a few seconds, then turned off the TV.

The living room fell silent, with only the ticking of the wall clock.

“Say it again,” Chen Yanshi said, his voice calm, but there was something weighing on that calm.

Meeting his gaze, Chen Hai said, word by word, "Dad, I want to go to school to teach. I don't want to stay in the system anymore."

"Don't you want to stay in the system anymore?" Chen Yanshi repeated, his tone still calm. "Go become a teacher? Play house with students?"

"Correct."

Chen Yanshi stood up, walked to the window, turned his back to Chen Hai, and looked at the night outside. He stood there for a long time, so long that Wang Fuzhen couldn't help but want to speak, before he turned around.

“Chen Hai,” he said, his voice turning low, “do you know why I put you in the procuratorate back then?”

Chen Hai remained silent.

“Because I want you to have an easier time leaving,” Chen Yanshi said. “My entire network of connections is here, so you’ll have the easiest time leaving here.”

He paused, then raised his voice slightly: "You're telling me now that you don't want to stay? Just because you suffered a little injustice this time?"

Chen Hai looked up at him and said, "Dad, it's not about being wronged. It's about feeling like I'm not suitable."

"Not suitable?" Chen Yanshi sneered. "You've been doing this for over a decade, and now you say it's not suitable?"

“Yes,” Chen Hai said. “For the past ten years or so, I’ve been trying to adapt, always telling myself that as long as I do my job well, that’s enough. But this incident has made me realize that I’m not suited for this industry. I don’t know how to take sides, how to read the wind, or how to figure out what the leaders are thinking. All I know is how to handle cases and how to examine evidence. But in this industry, just knowing those things isn’t enough.”

Chen Yanshi stared at him with a complicated expression.

"So you want to run away?" he asked.

“It’s not about escaping,” Chen Hai said. “It’s about changing the way we live.”

"A different way of living?" Chen Yanshi laughed, a cold laugh. "You think school is clean? You think there are no factions, no struggles, no messy stuff in school? Chen Hai, you're over forty years old, how can you still be so naive?"

Chen Hai was silent for a few seconds, then said, "At least the struggle within the school won't send people in."

Chen Yanshi was stunned.

Wang Fuzhen, who was listening nearby, was extremely anxious and quickly tried to smooth things over: "Old Chen, don't talk to the child like that. It's a good thing that he has his own ideas..."

"Good news?" Chen Yanshi interrupted her. "What good news? My son, who worked in the procuratorate for more than ten years, has ended up becoming a teacher? Where am I supposed to put my old face?"

Chen Hai stood up, his voice rising: "Dad, do you value your reputation or my happiness?"

The living room was quiet for a few seconds.

Then Chen Yanshi slowly sat back on the sofa, as if he had suddenly shrunk in size. He looked at Chen Hai with a look he had never seen before—not anger, not disappointment, but a complex emotion mixed with vulnerability and helplessness.

“Chen Hai,” he said, his voice lowering, “do you know what I’ve been most afraid of all these years?”

Chen Hai remained silent.

“What I fear most is that our family will return to the state before the lifting of the ban, back to the time when we had nothing,” Chen Yanshi said. “I put you in the procuratorate, I forced you to climb the ranks, I forced your sister to marry someone she didn’t like—all to drive a wedge between father and daughter, just to keep power firmly in my grasp.”

Chen Hai couldn't help but retort, "You're just a power-hungry person! You haven't even gotten the benefits of a vice-ministerial level position yourself, yet you force me to climb up, never caring whether I want to or not. What's the use of vice-ministerial level benefits? Besides a higher pension and a few perfunctory visits during holidays, what good are they?"

Chen Yanshi stared intently at Chen Hai, his old face flushed red: "What do you know!"

Chen Hainiu also lost his temper: "How could I not understand!"

Chen Yanshi looked at his son, who had a stiff neck and looked nine-tenths like him, and his anger suddenly subsided. He sat down and said in a low voice, "You don't understand. When your sister was born, it was already in the 70s. At that time, I was already a division-level cadre, and our family's conditions had improved. Although it can't compare to the conditions of today's little girl, compared to our time, we were already considered to have grown up in a honey pot."

Chen Hai didn't care: "You're going to spout your old 'bitter memories' rhetoric again. Times have changed."

Chen Yanshi: "Your teacher Gao likes reading Ming Dynasty history so much, why don't you take a look? No matter how much the times change, it is all made up and driven by individuals."

"Desire will not change, nor will power!"

“You were born into my Chen family. Although we’re not extremely wealthy, we still have a decent background. You don’t know that what you have so easily is what others dream of their whole lives.”

"You don't understand the importance of power."

"Before I joined the GM, I was a farm laborer for a landlord. I did everything: herding cattle, cutting grass, planting crops, carrying water, but I was never full. My parents worked hard all their lives to save up for a small piece of land, but the landlord, in collusion with corrupt officials in the county, easily took it away."

“From that time on, I knew that power was the most important thing. It must be firmly held in my hands.”

Chen Hai: "We live in a society governed by the rule of law now."

"What if others are like the landlords of yesteryear, disregarding the law? Haven't you seen enough of that in the procuratorate?"

Chen Yanshi paused, his eyes reddening slightly: "You're telling me now that you want to be a teacher. Do you know what that means? It means that all the accumulation of my forty-plus years of life is completely wiped out."

Chen Hai stood there, looking at his father, a wave of indescribable bitterness welling up in his heart.

He walked over and sat down next to Chen Yanshi. He remained silent for a long time before speaking in a low voice: "Dad, I know you've done a lot for me. But this incident has really made me realize that I'm not cut out for this. If I stay any longer, something bad might happen to me."

Chen Yanshi looked at him, a hint of wavering in his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

Chen Hai said, "You know the case Hou Liangping and I were investigating, right? We almost ran into the wrong people. If someone hadn't leaked the information beforehand, we might be in jail now. Dad, I don't want to live like this anymore. I'm always on edge, not knowing when I'll step on a landmine. I want a simpler life, without having to think so much or have to put up with so many people."

Chen Yanshi fell silent.

Wang Fuzhen quietly wiped away her tears.

After a long silence, Chen Yanshi spoke, his voice weary: "Go to sleep first. Let me think about it."

Chen Hai nodded, stood up, and went into his room.

Only Chen Yanshi and Wang Fuzhen remained in the living room.

Wang Fuzhen looked at him and said softly, "Old Chen, the child has grown up and has his own ideas. Please don't..."

“I know,” Chen Yanshi interrupted her, leaning back on the sofa with his eyes closed. “I know.”

He remained silent for a long time, then opened his eyes, looked at the ceiling, and said, "I'll try one last time."

Wang Fuzhen was taken aback: "Try what?"

Chen Yanshi did not answer.

The next morning, Chen Yanshi called Bai Jingwen.

"Director Bai, hello. I'm Chen Yanshi. I'd like to ask if Secretary Sha is free these days? I'd like to invite him to look at a place."

On the other end of the phone, Bai Jingwen's voice was very polite: "Mr. Chen, is there anything I can do for you? I can pass on your message."

Chen Yanshi said, "I would like to invite Secretary Sha to visit Dafeng Factory. That place is about to be demolished, but some things are still there, and the glorious history of Dafeng Factory remains. I want him to see with his own eyes how those workers supported the government's work back then."

Bai Jingwen was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Old Chen, I'll ask around for you. I'll get back to you when I have news."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yanshi sat in the living room, looking at the sunlight outside the window, and remained silent for a long time.

He knew this was the last time.

If this still doesn't work, he'll give up.

Meanwhile, in the provincial party secretary's office, Bai Jingwen was reporting to Sha Ruijin.

"Secretary Sha, Comrade Chen Yanshi called and would like to invite you to visit Dafeng Factory."

Sha Ruijin was looking at documents when he heard this. He looked up and asked, "Dafeng Factory?"

“Yes, that’s the place where the January 16 Incident happened,” Bai Jingwen said. “Old Chen said that it’s going to be demolished soon and he would like you to come and see how the workers support the government’s work.”

Sha Ruijin remained silent for a few seconds, some thoughts flashing through his mind.

The Bright Peak Project.

Qi Tongwei and Li Dakang had already clashed over jurisdiction of the project at the Standing Committee meeting. Li Dakang conceded and changed the chief commander, but Qi Tongwei's intentions were clear to him—it wasn't something that could be resolved simply by changing personnel.

He also wanted to visit Bright Peak.

That project was the lifeblood of Jingzhou, and also Li Dakang's last political asset. He needed to see for himself how the project fared and whether it was worth continuing to protect Li Dakang.

“Okay,” Sha Ruijin said, “make the arrangements. Go to Dafeng Factory first, then to the Guangmingfeng Project Command Center. Don’t notify the lower levels.”

Bai Jingwen nodded: "Okay, Secretary Sha."

Sha Ruijin thought for a moment and then added, "By the way, invite Hou Liangping as well, I want to meet him."

"Ok."

In the afternoon, Chen Yanshi received a call from Bai Jingwen.

"Mr. Chen, Secretary Sha is free the day after tomorrow morning. We'll go to Dafeng Factory first, then to the Guangmingfeng project. Is that alright with you?"

Chen Yanshi felt a weight lifted off his shoulders: "Okay, okay. Thank you, Director Bai."

After hanging up, he immediately dialed another number.

"Zheng Xipo? I am Chen Yanshi. Come to my house, I have something to discuss with you."

When Zheng Xipo received the call, he was at home, lost in thought. The Dafeng factory had been demolished, and the workers had been mostly resettled. He, the union chairman, suddenly found himself without a job. His son, Zheng Qian, was still in custody at the Public Security Bureau, denied visitation, and he had no idea when the case would be resolved. He spent his days sitting, lost in thought, smoking, and then lost in thought again.

Chen Yanshi's call surprised him somewhat.

"Old Chen, what's the matter?"

"You'll see when you come," Chen Yanshi said. "That's a good thing."

Zheng Xipo hung up the phone, hesitated for a moment, and then put on his coat and went out.

Upon arriving at Chen Yanshi's house, Chen Yanshi got straight to the point: "Xipo, Secretary Sha is coming to Dafeng Factory the day after tomorrow. Find some veteran workers and have them go to the site to say a few words."