The old person was part of the first group of businessmen when the Chinese reform[1] happened. Although his businesses weren’t doing too well the first few years, he was able to accumulate a lot of contacts. Meanwhile, Yang Lan had strong, professional proficiencies.

In the early days of their cooperation, they only helped others to obtain claims. For example, from bribing a doctor to change their disease into another disease that was covered, to extend the length of hospital stay, or to comply with the strict insurance regulations. They earned a little bit of commission for this.

This kind of business couldn’t make big money though, and so the old person looked for other business opportunities.

Then, he saw in the news that a poor man who couldn’t afford his high-priced medical expenses jumped off a building and committed suicide. At that time, he thought that this person’s death could have been worth much more. If he had bought life insurance, he could have committed suicide after the insurance took effect, and his family would have received a huge sum of money.

He developed the idea of exchanging the lives of the poor for money. This provided mutual benefits and could also benefit society.

There were so many poor people in the world. For the sake of money, they could sell their livers and kidneys, but they could only earn tens of thousands of yuan, which was pitiful. If this was replaced by insurance, they only needed to chop off a few fingers and they could earn hundreds of thousands of yuan. Furthermore, it was a legal transaction.

They began recruiting the poor and buying insurance for them. After the insurance came into effect, they let the doctor cut off their fingers or gauge an eyeball. For the poor, it didn’t matter to them if they have one less finger and one less eyeball. The huge sums that were given to them could help them get rid of poverty and get rich.

“You need to pay a price to make a fortune. They just changed their form of payment, that’s all!” The old person patiently reasoned.

Since then, the business grew bigger and bigger. In order to successfully fool the underwriter and auditor's eyes, they bribed some of the insurance company's employees. After familiarizing themselves with the business processes, they almost never failed in obtaining a claim pay-out. It wasn’t any different from doing normal business.

Without realizing, the team had already grown very big. The old person didn’t even know many of the members that had joined. The scale of their business projects grew larger and larger. After all, they had many mouths to feed!

“Haii, everything is ruined by you guys." The person shook their head and sighed.

“Don’t you regret taking people’s lives for money?" Lin Dongxue scorned.

“Take a life for money? Is this your understanding of insurance? They volunteered!"

“Those that died also volunteered?”

"Died? I haven't touched life insurance policies before. I’ve told you already. The team is getting bigger and bigger, so there are many projects that have nothing to do with me.”

"Wow, you easily pushed the responsibility away!"

"I know that you guys have a lot of misunderstandings about this line of work, but we have been creating GDP and we’ve revitalized the entire insurance industry. Little girl, have you seen bacteria? Most people think that bacteria isn’t good, but if there’s no bacteria to break down the body to make the soil fertile, would there be such a beautiful earth today? We are like bacteria, building the city in a way no one can see and making it more prosperous. Besides, the law doesn’t prohibit this. That is, freedom without regulations..."

"Hey! Fraud is breaking the law!" Lin Dongxue interrupted him.

"Well, let's seek common ground while reserving differences. Shall we seek common ground while reserving differences?"

"Take him away!" Lin Dongxue picked up the phone. This kind of person couldn’t be saved. He was full of sin, but he still thought that he was benefiting the world.

When the police took the old person away, he still struggled and screamed desperately. "Is it not good to seek common ground while reserving differences? Gentlemen are different. How can you just force and impose your laws on me?!”

Lin Dongxue was so angry she could laugh. Xu Xiaodong responded, "How can he be so irrational? Why do we put our laws on him? Isn’t the law to protect and restrain everyone?"

A few days later, Lin Qiupu came back from his business trip and walked into the bureau. He was shocked by what he saw in front of him. The hall was full of policemen who were "hand in hand" with suspects. It was really crowded. There were also a large group of people squatting in the corner, and each room was filled with dejected suspects as they confessed.

In order to find colleagues more easily, they had all put on their police uniforms.

Lin Dongxue suddenly appeared in front of Lin Qiupu. She looked full of justice and mighty in her uniform. She saluted and smiled. "You’re back, brother?"

"Which triad gang did you clean up?"

"The insurance fraud case is broken! The total number of suspects arrested is 305. There are gang members and customers that were found according to their files."

"Beautifully done!" Lin Qiupu patted Lin Dongxue's shoulder. "What reward do you want?"

"Hey..." Lin Dongxue sighed. "When the case is over, let me take a few days off!"

"Sure, I’ll give you a day!"

"A day? Seriously?!"

"Haha, what about Chen Shi?"

Lin Dongxue looked around and said, "Hey, I asked him to help out. Why is he slacking?”

Chen Shi had run to the top of the building to hide and find some peace. He was with Peng Sijue, who couldn’t stand the noisy atmosphere either. The two stood on the roof and smoked. Today, the sun was shining brightly and the panoramic view of the city was beautiful enough to make them proud.

Especially since Chen Shi thought about how he had just protected the city.

"We sure are busy right now."

"Yeah, we might have to be busy until the New Year."

"I don't care anyway since I’m not a policeman. I should just rest."

"Old Chen, have you heard of this saying? A drop of rain doesn’t think that they were the cause of the flood. When the chain of sin is long enough and the whole picture cannot be seen, everyone within that chain will feel innocent.”

"Famous saying."

"These people are like this. Most people think that they are just doing their job and even think it’s beneficial for society. They have no guilt at all."

Chen Shi looked far into the distance and the view of the city that looked like miniature models was very cute. "Do you think the evil in the world will one day disappear?"

"No. Where there is light, there is a shadow. From the birth of private ownership, crime emerged with it."

"Why is there crime in the world? If human beings are social animals, why do they want to harm others?"

"Half of the human population is beastly, greedy, selfish, and lazy. The other half is divine, noble, selfless, and hardworking. This duality exists in every individual. The difference in their environment and their individual character will change the proportion of the two."

"When the animalism overwhelms the divinity, they’ll go down the wrong path."

"Exactly!"

The two of them threw the cigarette butt down together. This kind of talk with Peng Sijue always made Chen Shi have a kind of spiritual pleasure. This was true in the past as well. They could talk all day. From society to the universe, they’d never grow tired of talking to each other.

When they prepared to light up a second cigarette and continue to talk, the footsteps of Lin Dongxue came from behind.

Lin Dongxue reprimanded while stomping her feet, "Everyone is so busy but you guys are hiding here relaxing!"

"I am not a policeman. What does it have to do with me?"

"I am a forensic doctor. Interrogation has nothing to do with me!"

"Are you guys trying to annoy me to death?! Hurry up and go down. Even if you prepare water for everyone, that’s fine. A lot of people haven’t even had anything to drink since the morning.”

"This little girl sure is arrogant. She’s even ordering Captain Peng to pour water for others.” Chen Shi smiled and looked at Peng Sijue.

"I wonder who influenced her to be like this." Peng Sijue laughed as well.

1. The reform that happened in 1978. It had policies that opened up China.