August 28, 1988, sunny.
Although the autumn had been established earlier, the weather was still scorching hot.
In the courtyard of the Linghai County Police Bureau, the trees were listlessly scorched by the fiery sun, while cicadas incessantly chattered on the branches, adding to the restlessness of Li Weiguo, the instructor at the Yanjiang Police Station, who was already feeling irritable.
Sending off old soldiers is like celebrating the New Year, but welcoming new recruits is supposed to be a happy occasion. Yet, when he excitedly arrived to meet the new colleague, he found out that it was just a child.
The station was short-staffed, but they were in need of people who could actually get work done.
Li Weiguo had never encountered such an absurd situation before and couldn't help but say with a bitter smile: "Director Wang, it's not that I'm disobeying orders or not listening to commands, it's just that this Han Yu is too young, and looks even younger."
The Political Work Office Director Wang handed over a cigarette and sat down saying, "Sixteen years old, not that small. My nephew started working at the agricultural machinery factory in place of my sister-in-law when he was just fifteen."
"But we are a police station, not an agricultural machinery factory. We deal with managing people, where deterrence is needed. He looks almost like a junior high student, how can he be deterrent when he goes out?"
Li Weiguo lit the cigarette and said with a puff of smoke, "His height is at most 155 cm, and his weight probably doesn't reach 100 pounds. Even the smallest police uniform on him will be loose and baggy. To have him work as a police officer would be a joke."
The child outside was all right, except he looked too young to be suitable for police work.
Director Wang was also troubled but had to assign the work nevertheless, and he said methodically: "Old Li, Han Yu's family are river workers. His ancestors have been sailors for generations, and during the Crossing the River Campaign, his grandfather's boat was even requisitioned to help with the campaign effort.
Later, when the county established the shipping cooperative, his father worked as the secretary for the Second Company of the cooperative. After that, when the cooperative was disbanded to establish a shipping company, his father became the captain of the motor sailboat team at the shipping company."
So, the kid's family were shipmen...
Linghai, and even the entire Binjiang District, has traditionally discriminated against shipmen, especially those who live on boats.
Even to this day, many people, when they are idle and well-fed, tease their own children for amusement, saying, "You were brought from a boat, and if you don't behave, I'll send you back."
In policy terms, shipmen haven't been dealt with favorably, even though they were changed to urban household registration when the shipping company was established.
However, many shipmen still live on boats to this day, making a living by water transport or fishing, leading a life that is neither urban nor rural, neither industrial nor agricultural.
Li Weiguo, having been an instructor at the Yanjiang Police Station for two months and dealing with shipmen every day, was very much aware of the hard life of shipmen. It wasn't easy for a family of shipmen to have a child who graduated from a vocational school, which made him somewhat reluctant to turn the boy away.
But a police officer must be capable of doing the work, and it was pointless to take back someone who couldn't.
After a moment of silence, he looked up and said, "Director Wang, what we are talking about now is his job assignment, not a military political review."
"I'm just introducing his background. He's very aspirational and hardworking. In 1985, he took the middle school entrance exams and ranked sixth in the whole county. If my son had such good academic results, I'd wake up laughing even in my sleep."
"Good academics are one thing, but the key issue is that he's too young. What can he do if we take him back?"
"There's plenty he can do. He grew up on a boat and is more familiar with the matters on the river than you are as the Yanjiang Police Station instructor. Plus, he graduated from the Binjiang Shipping School, where he studied Water Transport Management."
"What Water Transport Management? We don't control water transport on rivers; we can't manage that."
"It's better than someone who's a landlubber at least."
Director Wang took off his glasses and massaged his sore nose bridge.
Li Weiguo took two drags of his cigarette and asked puzzledly, "The Binjiang Shipping School is under the Transportation Department. He belongs to the transportation system; he should have been assigned to the Transportation Bureau. How come he was sent here?"
Director Wang found it strange as well and put on his glasses: "When it comes to job assignments for university and college graduates, we have the duty to accept them but not the right to refuse them."
"Didn't you go ask the Personnel Bureau?"
"Ask the Personnel Bureau? That's a joke. I'm only the head of the Political Work Office, not the director of the County Party Office."
"Director Wang, this matter is difficult to handle. You know what Xu Sanye's temper is like. Even if I bring the boy back, he'll send him right back to you."
"He wouldn't dare!"
Director Wang snorted coldly but then changed his tone: "Old Li, you are an experienced comrade with high political awareness. The bureau arranged for you to work with Xu Sanye because they were worried about him making mistakes again. Today, when Director Yang asked me to notify you to receive the person instead of notifying him, he was hoping that after you return, you would work on Xu's ideological mindset."
If Xu Sanye's ideological work was that easy, he wouldn't be called Xu Sanye, and he definitely wouldn't have been sent to the newly established Yanjiang Police Station to be the Director.
Li Weiguo doesn't think he is capable of taking on the director's job, frowning with worry: "Director Wang, our Yanjiang Police Station is newly established, and although the number of shipmen and fishermen in our jurisdiction is not very large, they all float on the water, making management difficult. We are so busy just handling Seaman household registers and Seaman's Certificates that we can't keep up. Even if you can't give us more people, you can't just give us a child."
These past few days, aside from salaries, everything else has skyrocketed. The public is in panic.
Many people run to the bank and credit unions to withdraw money, then go to department stores, commercial centers, and various shops to panic buy.
Everyone is worried that money will become even less valuable, buying anything they see, emptying the shelves and counters of goods without caring whether they'll use them or not.
The bureau leadership, following the orders from the higher-ups, divided the areas and are maintaining order outside to prevent any troublemaking.
Director Wang, being a member of the bureau's party committee, also has his own area of responsibility. He is about to go to the Agricultural Bank to prevent a run on the bank and he doesn't want to listen to the old comrades complaining.
"Old Li, I don't have time to argue with you. You must take Han Yu with you; he reported on July 2nd, and today is already August 28th. It's time to arrange his work. You must do Xu Sanye's ideological work as well and make it thorough!"
"Another political task?"
"You could say that."
"He has a technical secondary school degree, he's educated, why not keep him at the bureau?"
If we kept him at the bureau, what would it look like to have this little kid running around the office?
However, these are words that Director Wang would not say out loud. He gets up and pats Li's arm: "Old Li, actually, the bureau party committee arranged for Han Yu to be assigned to your station with another thought in mind; we hope you can carry on the tradition of mentoring and take good care of him."
"You want me to mentor this kid… I've never even mentored my own children!"
"That's your family business, I am talking about official business here. Mentor him well for three years, and when you retire, he will have grown up and it will be easier for the bureau to arrange his place."
…
Han Yu is sitting on the bench at the entrance of the Political Work Office, clearly hearing the conversation between Director Wang and that old instructor but, because he feels dazed, he doesn't take in a single word.
He is not worried about work. As a technical secondary school graduate assigned by the state, he is assured a job, good or bad.
He's also not worried about money becoming worthless, since he hardly has any money to begin with.
Nor is he thinking about international matters such as the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War coming to an end, or the thirteen-year-long civil war in Angola.
He feels dazed because everything happening before him seems so familiar, as if he'd either dreamed of it or experienced it before. The sense of déjà vu is so strong.
He had felt this way before but never as intense as today.
Back then, he asked his classmates, and most of them had similar experiences.
Some even joked, wondering if it was like what they say in "UFO Exploration" and "Secrets," encountering a UFO and gaining special abilities.
Later, when he asked his teacher, the teacher said it wasn't any sort of premonition but a psychological phenomenon called the "hippocampus effect." It's just the brain prematurely mistaking current events for things that have happened before in one's memory.
However, at this moment, Han Yu has some doubts about his teacher's explanation.
Because today's illusion isn't just familiar and clear but has also sparked a series of associations!
If he goes with that old instructor to the Yanjiang Police Station later, he might be sent back by the strong-willed Director named Xu Sanye because of his young age, short stature, and thin, frail appearance.
Director Xu is very domineering, daring to defy even the bureau leadership, and he could set a bad example.
If the Yanjiang Police Station doesn't want him, other units would follow suit.
The bureau leadership would have no choice, and in the end, they might assign him, the newcomer, to do odd jobs at the Jindun Hotel.
If his job was just picking vegetables and washing dishes at Jindun Hotel, it wouldn't be a big deal because in recent years, very few were assigned jobs that matched their training. Hence the popular saying, "I am a brick of the Party, to be moved anywhere east, south, west, or north. Proud in a mansion, not gloomy in a latrine."
But truly, if he ends up doing odd jobs at the Jindun Hotel for a few years, with a history of picking vegetables and washing dishes, he would be looked down upon by everyone. If he ever became a patrol officer, people would doubt his capabilities, and he might not be able to turn his life around forever.
Staying in the bureau is impossible, and hoping for reassignment by the Personnel Bureau is even more so.
Han Yu makes a silent resolution that once he gets to the Yanjiang Police Station, he must act wisely and absolutely cannot be sent back by Director Xu.