Chapter 169: Should or Should Not

"Actually, we've been mentally prepared for a day like this for a long time."

"How many undercover agents ever get a good ending? Let alone Jasmine, I had a peer from my academy who went undercover, and two years after returning, he was still tracked down by enemies. They set a fire, and not a single member of his household managed to escape."

The old police captain composed himself slightly. "Jasmine had family too, but she was never allowed to contact them."

They did it precisely to prevent harm from coming to their loved ones.

It seemed that precaution was right after all.

Those people were so frantic and devoid of conscience that they dared to exact revenge in broad daylight. If they had known that Lin Jasmine still had family, probably not a single one of them would have survived either.

"Thank you for your help with this matter as well." The old police captain sighed again. "If you hadn't been there, it would have taken me another two days to find out about this."

Officer Xiao Xu couldn't quite describe the feeling in his heart. "This is... only my duty."

A few days later, Officer Xiao Xu sat at his desk, staring at the computer screen for a long time without typing a single word.

Seeing his absent-minded state, Officer Tang handed him a lollipop. "Here."

Officer Xiao Xu glanced at it and expressed his thanks listlessly.

"Still haven't recovered from it?" Officer Tang was crunching on a hard candy in his mouth, making crisp cracking sounds.

The moment he saw his old friend, he knew the person who had met with tragedy was his student.

He had heard that the student was one of his proudest pupils, plunging straight into undercover work upon graduation and only returning a short while ago.

As for Xiao Xu, he had likely met that person during the incident on the medical vessel in the Myanmar region.

This kid had been under his wing ever since he arrived here; whatever he was feeling was written all over his face.

Officer Xiao Xu let out a sigh.

Now that Lin Jasmine had sacrificed her life, it meant her identity had been compromised, so talking about it with Officer Tang didn't hurt.

"It's just... an undercover colleague I knew before. She sacrificed her life." Officer Xiao Xu couldn't wrap his head around it. "Their files were all heavily encrypted. How did those people manage to find out their identities?"

"Well..." Officer Tang pondered for a moment.

Officer Xiao Xu didn't know that Officer Tang was already aware of the girl's true identity, so Officer Tang simply went along with the conversation.

"Things like this..." He weighed his phrasing. "Look at me—I have a wife and a daughter. My wife is a capable woman, and my daughter is quite sensible too. Life is pretty good, isn't it?"

Officer Xiao Xu nodded in agreement.

"But the system isn't filled entirely with people like me who have no troubles and no excessive ambitions," Officer Tang said, leaning against the desk. "Some people are short on money and lack conviction; money can sway them."

"Some people have weaknesses, like children, parents, or wives. Some methods we aren't allowed to use, but those people can."

Officer Tang raised a finger. "At the end of the day, it comes down to those two things: either enticement with profit, or coercion through threats. There's no such thing as an airtight wall in this world."

"But this shouldn't happen." Officer Xiao Xu furrowed his brow, repeating, "This shouldn't happen."

"Where in this world are there so many things that should or shouldn't happen?" Officer Tang let out a bitter laugh. "Young man, you tell me—did those undercover agents deserve to sacrifice their lives? They didn't. Yet their casualty rate is precisely this."

He raised his thumb. "Then what did they sacrifice their lives for? To arrest criminals and protect the peace and safety of the people! You tell me, should they do that? Yes, they should!"

"They tried so hard, but does that mean there are no bad people left in the world? They're still out there."

Seeing the look on Officer Xiao Xu's face, Officer Tang knew this kid was backing himself into a corner again, and patted him on the shoulder. "The most porous wall in this world is the wall of the human heart."

People are multi-dimensional and complex creatures, and a single thought can change in the blink of an eye. Turning bad only takes a single impulse, but turning good requires suppressing that impulse countless times over.

Good and evil can even be concentrated within the very same person.

A murderer might return to his hometown and fund the building of bridges and paving of roads; no one can guarantee that there are no bad apples within the system.

Now that the data has been leaked, they will undoubtedly investigate the source of the breach.

In the past, a cough from above would bring heavy rain down below; this time, the entire hierarchy from top to bottom was bound to be shaken to its core.

Officer Tang thrust the candy into Officer Xiao Xu's hand. "Eat some sugar and look at the bright side."

Having served for so many years, even he couldn't keep his anger in check upon learning of a colleague's sacrifice, let alone a young man like this.

It was best to let him calm down.

Officer Xiao Xu indeed felt a deep heaviness in his chest.

Usually, when writing reports, he could churn out clichés by the dozen, but now he couldn't find a single adjective to describe his mood, leaving him with nothing to do except let out a long, heavy sigh.

On the studio backlot, Mo Fei collapsed onto Wu Miao's body, covered in bullet holes, while the camera panted upwards from above them, capturing a high-angle shot.

Extras playing police station colleagues entered the frame from the side to assess the situation on the scene.

"All right, cut. That take is good," Director Wang called out from behind the monitor.

The tense atmosphere of the gunfire scene instantly relaxed.

Mo Fei scrambled up from the ground and pulled Wu Miao up as well. "Didn't crush you, did you?"

Wu Miao pressed his lips together and shook his head.

Both of them were currently covered in dust and grime, with wounds of all sizes painted on by special effects makeup, making them look thoroughly wretched.

Mo Fei also felt awkward.

He had been riddled with holes like a watering can yet was still standing up and talking; walking around like that was way too spooky. Professionalism kept making him want to lie back down and play a dead body.

"Xiao Mo, come over here for a second," Director Wang called out, handing him a red envelope. "Take this, to ward off bad luck."

Who doesn't love receiving a red envelope?

Mo Fei broke into a wide grin right then and there. "Thank you, Director Wang."

Watching him smile, Director Wang chuckled himself. "You snap out of a scene pretty quickly."

Generally speaking, actors needed time to get into and out of character. For method actors, the time needed to detach from a role was even longer.

Right now, Mo Fei was clearly not a method actor.

Wu Miao, however, seemed to be one.

Standing off to the side, he looked thoroughly depressed.

Director Wang leaned over to the screenwriter's ear and asked, "Did you give him the later scripts?"

Otherwise, judging by the script he currently had in his hands, the death of a criminal shouldn't be enough to make him look like he was mourning at a funeral.

The screenwriter shook his head. "I didn't. He must have figured it out on his own."

Old Deng sat on the other side of Director Wang, crossing his legs and making sarcastic remarks. "He's considered a veteran actor after all, not some truly clueless rookie cop. That whole heart-to-heart talk scene in front of the grave—who couldn't guess the twist from that?"

Standing from an omniscient perspective versus a personal perspective were two different things.

From Ah Shui's point of view, Ten-Faced Buddha had committed unpardonable crimes; once the confessions and evidence were secured, there was nothing to mourn even if he died.

But from the perspective of the actor portraying him, figuring out that Ten-Faced Buddha was Ah Shui's older brother would undoubtedly cause heartbreak.

"Since they're real brothers, do you think there's any chance of a telepathic brotherly bond?" The screenwriter raised an eyebrow at Old Deng.

Old Deng nodded with a subtle expression. "Ah—are you talking about the fourteenth draft concept? You really never give up on your wicked ideas."

"Please look at the normal reaction of the actor," the screenwriter said, pointing at Wu Miao, who was still emo.

"Wanna go spar with them?"

"Let's go."

Disagreeing on a whim, the two of them scurried off to the corner again.

Director Wang was already used to it. "Everyone take a fifteen-minute break. Let's see what kind of argument they hatch out this time."