At dusk, in front of the Omiya Ward Police Station.

An old man looked up at the sky, looking through the gap between the tall buildings, looking at the red and purple skyline, the fragments of clouds overlapped, and the reflection of the waning sun was quite beautiful and pleasing to the eye.

However, in his experience, this is a sign that the rainy season is lingering, and it is estimated that it will rain again at night.

But the rain is not a bad thing, at least there are few people on rainy days, I can sleep well at night, I looked at it twice and then turned back to the security booth, sprinkled a handful of wolfberries into the thermos cup, soaked for half a minute and then took a sip comfortably, and lay comfortably on the curved recliner.

Looking at the police uniform on the hanger next to him, as well as the gray and white epaulettes on the two bars and one cherry blossom, the old man was quite emotional.

This is an epaulette of the rank of inspector general.

There are nine ranks in Japan, each of which is not graded, and it is easy to distinguish from the patrol to the police chief, which is nothing more than dyeing the epaulettes yellow, or adding a few more bars, and the highest police inspector and chief officer have only a few yellow stars.

Inspector General is the second-to-last rank.

This is a consolation police rank, which is specially given to police officers in the non-professional group who have not been admitted to the inspection minister for ten years, and they belong to the bottom of the bottom.

After all, the quasi-professional group is the head of the inspection department.

The Chief Inspector is at best a clerk in both the police headquarters and the district police station.

I used to be young and ignorant, and I always felt that hard work would be rewarded, so even if I stayed up all day and worked overtime, I didn't spit out a word of bitterness, and even when I met gangsters in the field, I dared to fight to the death, but after so many years, the epaulettes still haven't changed, but when I'm old, I have a problem.

Until he semi-retired and became a security guard.

He realized how stupid he had been.

Sometimes I have to admit that my background does crush most of my efforts, and he is a good example.

Now he is still annoyed at times.

What kind of life does he play for hundreds of thousands of yen a month!?

Even if I am scarred, when I ask my boss why I can't be promoted, most of what I get is comfort and encouragement, and I can say a lot of good things, but it doesn't have any substantive effect.

Polite, welcoming, and don't know what to ask or ask.

Thanksgiving, thank you, but sorry.

Understood, understood, there was really no way.

This is the general attitude of superiors towards themselves.

As for those who have taken the national examination from the police academy or a prestigious school, the professional group and the quasi-professional group, they are taken by their bosses all day long, even if they are just a useless showman, never on the front line, but they can also live a life of drinking and drinking, drinking and eating meat after work, and never going out to work, not doing so.

What? How can you, as the rising stars of our police system in the future, not drink!

Can't play? Rubbish! How will you improve in the future?

What is out of the field? Isn't that all the work of the casual workers in the non-vocational group? You don't even have the courage to direct other people's work, don't you want to stay!

Get out of here and spend our money hard!

I'm so blind! Bringing such an incompetent newcomer as you with you? Can your body be good if you don't eat and drink well? The health is not good, so how do we get rid of the evil name of the rice bucket group and fight the evil!?

The old man admitted that most of them had passed the national first-class or second-class examination through their own efforts, which was nothing to say, but it was still chilling to see that these people were being eroded by bad habits little by little, and people like himself who worked hard did not have any promotion ranks.

It's really a dreamy 40-year career, and looking back now, if I could have been a little more slippery and didn't do my job to please my boss, I wouldn't have ended up where I am now.

But can you still stick to your heart?

The question is unknown.

The old inspector reminisced about his life and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, but the old fingers rubbed the thermos cup in his hand, and he was quite satisfied with his current life, and even a little annoyed why he didn't transfer the post earlier, just guarding this small security booth to read the newspaper and drink tea all day long, this is not a 40-year detour!

He put the cup back on the table, and was about to take out a copy of the Economic Evening News to look at, but out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw a stranger walking towards the door without a police uniform, and instinctively looked over.

However, seeing the face of the person who came, the vigilance in the old man's eyes gradually dissipated, and he waved to him with a smile: "The kid of the Takiya family, why is it here again?" ”

He didn't know this young man before, and he only got familiar with it in the past three or four days, he was the younger brother of a quasi-professional group in the substation, and he belonged to the family of the police officer, so he was quite polite.

Besides, this kid is very good at talking, and he can talk to an old man like himself for a long time, and he doesn't feel tired, which makes him more enthusiastic.

Seeing the cigarette handed over by the other party, the old man's eyes lit up suddenly, and while taking it, he glanced at the other party, saw the rice in Takitanazawa's hand, and said with a smile: "Send your sister a lunch box again." ”

"Yes, Sister is too busy, and she doesn't know how to take care of herself, so I'll deliver a lunch." Takitanizawa smiled, took out a lighter from his pocket and handed it forward, lighting a cigarette for the old man who came forward.

"Young people are just energetic, but it's not okay to just focus on work and collapse your body, you have to persuade your sister, she is a quasi-professional group, why bother all day long..."

Speaking of this, the old man's voice stopped abruptly, because he suddenly thought that the kid named Takiya Tsubaki in the bureau seemed to be an exception, obviously from the quasi-professional group, and he hadn't been promoted in the past three years.

A semi-retired security guard like him actually knows a lot about the internal gossip in the substation.

It is said that the child is too naïve, working as hard as he was when he was younger, and it seems that he has never been to a drinking party when he goes out, and the promotion quota is always taken away by young people from other departments, and he can't be promoted.

But this kid has a very straight personality, as if he had made a big fuss in the office a few days ago, and many people heard the scolding, and heard that he cried at the workstation for a long time.

Many thoughts flashed through the old man's mind, and it was difficult to say, "Your sister's situation is a bit special. ”

"Maybe it's because it's too ideal."

"Ideals are good, but not here."

"By the way, do you know that Kazama section chief?"

"Fuda, that kid? Of course I know him, let alone him, even the director I know! But people won't buy my account, and the old man won't be able to help. ”

The old man glared, and hurriedly waved his hand to say that he didn't have that ability, and asked him to rely on the old man to find a place where no one was there to scold people, and it was okay to really ask someone to do something, and it was estimated that he couldn't get in the door, but don't be embarrassed.

Takitanizawa shook his head with a smile, and then explained: "I didn't want to trouble you, I was going to visit the door, but I don't know where the other party's house is." ”

"Visiting? That's okay—" The old man was stunned when he heard this, and seemed to understand what he meant.

But then he was silent.

Only the cigarette butt flickered on and off, and then slowly exhaled the smoke, and fell silent for a while.

Takitanizawa smiled when he saw this.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly seemed to remember something, groped around on his body, took out two slender strips of paper from the leather wallet, handed them in the direction of the old man, and said with a smile:

"By the way, didn't you say that your granddaughter loves concerts? Recently, a celebrity from Tokyo was coming to Saitama Stadium for a concert, and my friend worked in it and gave me two tickets, but I'm not very interested in this, so why don't you just give it to you? ”

"How can this work, I heard that the tickets are quite expensive..."

"I gave it to a friend, and I didn't plan to listen to it, so if you don't accept this ticket, it will be a waste."

"Oops! Ah! That's embarrassing! ”

The old man muttered, and his hands were swinging in mid-air, but he didn't seem to have good eyesight, and his two hands moved back and forth, but he couldn't stop Takitana's movements.

Let those two tickets slip into your pocket.

Throwing away the cigarette butt, the old man smiled again on his face, twisted his face and took out a pen, wrote a line of words in the notebook, closed the cap of the pen and tore off the paper, and handed it to Takitizawa through the window:

"This is the address, don't say I gave it, you'd better go at eight or nine o'clock in the evening, and he likes to drink tea, you kid can do it yourself."

"Thank you so much."

Takitanizawa smiled and took the note.

got what he wanted, even if he had the bottom in his heart, he chatted a lot with the old man surnamed Beiyuan, talking and laughing quite happily, and after more than ten minutes, he patted his ass and prepared to deliver the meal.

But just as he turned around and was about to leave, he paused again, muttered for a moment and said to the old man:

"By the way, don't tell my sister about this."

"Your sister, that kid hasn't spoken to me, and she's far worse than you in terms of understanding!" The old man of Beiyuan was a little confused by his words, but he felt that what he said was equivalent to saying it in vain, he was just an old man who was a janitor, and there were so many people in this sub-bureau, few of them were willing to talk to him.

But looking at the seriousness on Takitanazawa's face, Kitahara's old face was also puzzled, and he couldn't help asking:

"But why can't you tell her?"

"Sister A's personality is relatively upright, but I have been distressed for a long time because of this matter, although I want to help her, but I am also afraid that she will blame me for what she did after she finds out."

Takitanizawa pretended to sigh and slowly said the manuscript he had typed before, looking a little helpless.

"You're helping her, can she blame you!?" The old man glared at him, as if he didn't believe it.

Takitanizawa only smiled reluctantly.

And in the eyes of the old man in Beiyuan, he seemed to understand something, was silent for a while, waved his hand and agreed: "Don't worry, I won't say it, you can go." ”

"Thank you so much."

Takitanizawa thanked him again, bowed slightly, and after being released with a bento, he went straight to the main administrative building.

Inside the security booth at the entrance of the police station.

The old man of Beiyuan took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, took a few puffs, watched the figure of the young man disappear into the administrative building, and sat in place and thought for a while.

He shook his head with some emotion.

If I had such a younger brother back then, I guess I wouldn't have been just an inspector for the rest of my life.

The smoke rose and gradually obscured the old man's face.

The sound of self-talk sounded.

"This kid is so sensible, look back and tell his sister about the opportunity to see what the reaction is, this thing will definitely not be hidden, if his sister is not very happy at that time, I said in advance that it will be regarded as helping him..."