Ch130.1 – Predicament

Yu Hao struggled to refine his language and began writing introductory speeches. Jin Weicheng watched him write his manuscripts at one side. At first, Yu Hao had been most nervous about conducting interviews as a reporter, but this manuscript that he couldn’t escape ended up making him the most frantic. Interviews felt good for a moment, but writing manuscripts was like being cremated.

As Yu Hao typed noisily on his laptop, Jin Weicheng said, “Don’t you have the least bit of hesitation?”

Yu Hao said, “What’s there to hesitate about?”

Lin Ze looked at Jin Weicheng and didn’t interject. Yu Hao knew that most of the time, Lin Ze and Jin Weicheng’s world views conflicted a lot, but both sides also restrained themselves a lot. After all, Jin Weicheng was ranked higher in seniority than Lin Ze, so no one would refute him openly.

Everyone’s values had been tempered by their unique vicissitudes of life, just like what was said in《The Great Gatsby》, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

Yu Hao wrote an introduction, deleted it, wrote it, deleted it again, then leaned against the back of his chair and ruminated silently. He looked sideways at Jin Weicheng.

“What follow-ups will our investigation report trigger?” Jin Weicheng said, “Before writing, think about that carefully.”

Yu Hao said, “Reform, large-scale compensation ma.”

“Reform will be impossible.” Lin Ze casually said, “There will never be a reform. When something happens, it will just be shut down straight away. Guangxian’s incident can already be considered to be quite serious.”

“Yes.” Jin Weicheng said, “Shut down completely, which means that these people will lose their jobs. A feature report will affect an entire county’s GDP, affect their finances, affect their lives. After leaving the battery plant and getting their compensation, what can they do? Farm? The land is already polluted. These people will either have to leave their hometown and travel somewhere else to find jobs, or play cards in the village and gamble for a living.”

Yu Hao said, “If they don’t shut down, more and more people will die.”

Jin Weicheng answered, “So, what we’re doing is virtually equivalent to making decisions for the fate of these people. Have you ever wondered, what right do you have to decide the fate of others?”

Yu Hao said, “Un……”

Jin Weicheng, “Officials obtain remarkable achievements for bringing benefit to people in one region, yet they concealed a large-scale accidental death incident. Getting him sacked could lead to soaring property prices; the local people’s lives will suffer, and everyone will scold you. Do you report it or not?”

Yu Hao said, “Report it, how could it be more reasonable to conceal it for him? What did they do before concealing the report? Why didn’t they think it through beforehand?”

“If it’s reported, even more people will die of starvation.” Jin Weicheng said, “How do you choose?”

Yu Hao said, “That’ll be the successor’s problem. If it’s serious, chase it and continue biting on it.”

Jin Weicheng got up and refilled his cup with water, “Trolley problem: there’s one child on a track while there are five children on the other. The switch is in your hands, where do you pull it to?”

Yu Hao, “Pull it towards the side with one child, save five lives.”

Lin Ze finally laughed, but he didn’t interrupt Yu Hao.

Jin Weicheng pondered for a bit and nodded. He said, “What if that person is someone you know? For example, your boyfriend?”

“Pull it towards the side with five children, save my boyfriend.” Yu Hao thought, did you even need to ask that?

“What is that based on?” Jin Weicheng said, “What right do reporters have to decide whether a person lives or dies? To determine a person’s life?”

Yu Hao smiled and continued writing his manuscript, “Based on the fact that the switch was handed to me, and based on the fact that I’m the reporter for this feature.”

Lin Ze didn’t speak for a long time. Jin Weicheng nodded and didn’t comment. He got up and left, stood in the sun and snow for a while, then went out for an interview.

“You were taught that in psychology?” Lin Ze said.

“Zhou Sheng taught me.” Yu Hao said, “I think I’m actually much gentler. If it were Zhou Sheng, as long as I’m not on the track, his answer would probably be ‘I’ll pull it to wherever I feel like’ ba?”

Lin Ze laughed, but Yu Hao said, “But learning psychology has its influence.”

Lin Ze said, “So the books you’ve read are useful.”

Yu Hao, “Did Jin Laoshi ever……”

Lin Ze, “After you get to know him better, he’ll tell you, so I won’t gossip about it.”

That night.

“You’re going to become a private detective?” Yu Hao asked.

“What private detective.” Zhou Sheng tasted the lotus root soup in front of the electric cooker and answered, “It’s really being a paparazzi for the people. You’ll know when I show you around in a few days, it’s really not dangerous. Come, have dinner.”

Yu Hao was afraid that Zhou Sheng would be in danger, but with Zhou Sheng’s skills, as long as he didn’t get involved in something major, Zhou Sheng would know what to do himself. In the first few days, Yu Hao always inquired about what he was doing. Zhou Sheng showed him the induction training materials, and then Yu Hao felt a little more relieved.

“I’m just doing it for fun.” Zhou Sheng came back at night and read《Western Economics》, he was about one fifth through it as he started revising for his postgraduate entrance examination. After a week of simple induction training, Zhou Sheng’s first job was to help a rich madam find private detectives to take photographic evidence of her husband’s affair.

Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng’s picture, “How long will your stakeout have to be to take this?”

Zhou Sheng came out after taking a bath, “We’ve been following her husband’s car for three days, I reckon it’ll be soon.”

At first, Yu Hao thought that this profession was too unreal. But Lin Ze, Zhou Sheng and Jin Weicheng all seemed to regard it as a very normal profession. On the contrary, they thought Yu Hao was making a fuss over nothing.

“There are about 30,000 to 40,000 investigators nationwide.” Lin Ze said, “In any case, there are a lot more of them than investigative reporters; our profession is the rare one. We have no money but we’re still happy to wade through muddy waters. They have the money to collect and live comfortable lives. Why don’t you tell me where its rarity lies?”

Yu Hao finished revising the last manuscript, and this time, everyone was alert and ready in full battle array. After it was printed out, everyone got a copy, and they all gathered around for a meeting to give feedback on the manuscript. They discussed it once before letting Yu Hao read it out loud once. Situ Ye even looked for two editors from the general office to listen to Yu Hao read the manuscript. Yu Hao felt like he was being paraded on the streets, and it became a little difficult to keep reading.

“The deterioration of the environment is an urgent……oh why didn’t I write predicates again.” As Yu Hao read, he casually slapped himself and took out a pen to slash out this sentence, and everyone burst out laughing.

“The first feature is very important.” Jin Weicheng said, “It’s been tough on you to revise it so many times.”

Yu Hao looked at the scanned manuscript. Everyone’s opinions were even recorded separately, and a stack of manuscripts was covered in red circles, so he could only nod and start revising them again.

Zhou Sheng took the subway then took a public bus for one stop. He carried a sports bag, looking like he was going to the gym, then he arrived at the company. From today on, he had to scrimp a little, since they needed enough to live on after all. Zhou Sheng also had a lunchbox in his bag, and inside it was a bento Yu Hao had made —— Yu Hao would occasionally practice cooking as well, but of course, most of the time he would just cook a pot of rice in the morning before piling up dishes from last night that had been separated out for Zhou Sheng, place them in the lunch box, then add some hot sauce.

Aside from this, he would prepare a flask of hand-made coffee for Zhou Sheng that was locked in his thermos cup, so that he could take it to work to drink.

Zhou Sheng was born and raised in Ying City, so he had never encountered such evil winds that were stirred up as Beijing entered its winter season. As soon as he left the subway station, he had the misperception that the world seemed to be ending and almost got blown away. When he arrived at the company and reported for work, he underwent simple training first. His boss was a woman in her forties, bespectacled, with fierce red lipstick. She chatted with Zhou Sheng for a while, then his supervisor handed him a stack of materials as well as a recording for him to analyze.

This was an assignment to investigate business secret leaks. Zhou Sheng had to search for clues from party A’s talks in the recording and the stack of materials, filter and sort them out, then create an action plan. The team would discuss the matter in the afternoon.

“My target here is a man, 39 years old, project manager, often comes to Beijing on business trips. Party A suspects that he copied the core framework of the company and handed it to their competitors.” Zhou Sheng said, “Lives in Orange Crystal, the last time he appeared was the day before yesterday, the competitor’s boss invited him to eat at Respected Prince’s Mansion……”

Zhou Sheng began his analysis and distributed a simple handwritten blueprint at the end. He planned to follow the project manager for awhile while he was still in Beijing, and have the team dispatch someone else for assistance in watching the person who would contact this project manager.

The person-in-charge who gave Zhou Sheng a brief training yesterday now prepared to set off separately. Shortly afterwards, the big boss of the investigation institute came down. It was an old man, and he had come specifically to see the new recruit. Zhou Sheng knew that since he was introduced by Huang Ting, the boss would pay more attention to him and quickly greeted him as ‘boss’. When the two of them looked at each other, Zhou Sheng was stunned.

“Hello, kid. We meet again.”

Zhou Sheng immediately extended both hands and shook hands with the old man.

The old man’s surname was Qin, and his name was Qin Guodong. He was smiling, yet his gaze had the unique trait of criminal investigators. He looked him from head to toe, “Zhou Sheng, Xiao Huang has a very high opinion of you, so do a good job.”

Zhou Sheng laughed. Qin Guodong held his hand and didn’t let go, while one of his hands unconsciously patted Zhou Sheng’s left arm and coincidentally patted the Golden Crow Wheel that Zhou Sheng had hidden in his sleeve. He retracted his hand, then the two parted.

After returning to his seat, Zhou Sheng took the Golden Crow Wheel out of his sweater’s sleeve and kept it in his trousers pocket, then surveyed his surroundings.

“How was it today?” Yu Hao asked at home.

“Pretty good.” Zhou Sheng said, “I realised that I’m quite fit for this job.”

Zhou Sheng told Yu Hao about his work while he checked up on Qin Guodong on the computer, as well as information on Xiao Jian, the executive director of the office. He searched online, but found nothing.

Yu Hao looked at the contents of the work Zhou Sheng brought back — suspecting key employee of the company of leaking business secrets. But before they had any evidence, the case couldn’t be reported, so they had to entrust it to private detectives to investigate.

“The remuneration for this case is high. We’re doing it from scratch, and if everything goes smoothly, we’ll get 3,000 more in commission.” Zhou Sheng said, then entered “STA” and keywords related to the office in the computer and began checking.

“That’s a lot!” Yu Hao said, “We only get 600 for writing manuscripts.”

Zhou Sheng smiled, “Try writing some Chicken Soup articles for another public number?”

Yu Hao said, “I don’t even have enough time to revise manuscripts, aahhhhhh, I’m going crazy!”

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