Five in the evening.
The security gate at the Special Search Team Headquarters compound slowly slid open to both sides.
People in the offices began packing up files and shutting down computers, streaming out of the building in twos and threes.
They casually took off the blue work badges hanging around their necks, put them into their bags, chatting about buying groceries for dinner and picking up kids from school.
The time clock in front of the guard booth kept flashing green, emitting a rapid series of "beep-beep" sounds.
This massive state machine, bathed in the glow of the setting sun, slowly shed its solemn sharpness and revealed a worldly air no different from any ordinary office building.
Fang Cheng turned the steering wheel, Driving the black Land Rover SUV out of the underground garage, and slowly pulled up at the back of the line of cars waiting to exit the gate.
