Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 289

Another night arrived.

Each day was never quite the same as the previous one.

At this point, even a born sociopath like Shen Lian could sense an unusual atmosphere, but her physical defect prevented her from understanding the emotions held by the voters and the meaning behind these emotions.

Therefore, she could only stare at the statistical data being constantly read out on the television with a murderous gaze. The closer it got to the final time limit, the faster the “No” option rose.

The current online voting “ratio” of Yes or No stood at——14,225,264:14,210,754.

Shen Lian stared at the screen for a long time.

This evenly matched result was something she had never thought of before. She was incredibly shocked but still held onto the last hope.

She could still win; she would definitely win. This made her current state much like a drowning person clutching at straws—otherwise, she would really not survive.

Lin Chen looked at the woman across the square table and answered her previous question. “You know, because I bet four lives on it, I believe the result must be that more people choose ‘No’. And you need to expose the inherent selfishness under the guise of kindness in many people, so you need an answer of ‘Yes’.”

“But I won’t lose, Shen Lian. At least in this matter, I won’t lose.”

The chandelier on the ceiling sheds warm yellow light, giving everything an uncertain hue.

The woman across the square table had disheveled hair. The background behind Shen Lian was the vast night. She was no longer the calm and confident figure she was, but she still felt the scales of victory would surely tilt in her favor. “Consultant Lin, I notice you’ve been avoiding a direct answer. Does this mean you actually dare not even admit your inner thoughts?”

Lin Chen glanced at the night outside the window. Time was almost up, so he no longer needed to hide anything.

“Some years ago, psychologists and human behaviorists like Marc Hauser brought the classic trolley problem onto the internet.” He looked at Shen Lian and spoke calmly.

“200,000 respondents from around the world took the survey. That was the famous trolley track problem, which is almost identical to the question that millions of residents in three provinces have been asked today. In the fields of philosophy and psychology, we define such problems as moral dilemmas.”

He seemed as if he were speaking to himself and signaled to Shen Lian with his eyes to stay calm.

“In the survey, the question was asked in two different ways,” he said.

“The first is the original rail dilemma. The question goes like this—

The trolley on the track is out of control and will hit five people ahead. If the trolley continues to move forward, these five people will definitely die. The only solution is for the railman to switch the trolley to another track where there is only one person on the other track. The question is: Should the railman kill this one person to save five?”

He suddenly leaned forward and asked Shen Lian, “What do you think?”

Shen Lian instinctively leaned back into her chair. “You don’t answer me directly, but you expect me to answer you directly?”

“Alright, I’ll tell you the result directly.” Lin Chen said, “The survey result is as follows—regardless of race, age, and group, among 200,000 respondents worldwide, 89% of people believe that the railman should pull the switch.”

On the TV news, the female anchor was reciting the survey results from some place. Her solemn voice sounded just right.

Upon hearing this, Shen Lian had some incredulous emotions on her face, then she slowly started to laugh, very pleased, as if she finally got the expected result.

Lin Chen took in Shen Lian’s triumphant expression. This time, he didn’t give Shen Lian the chance to speak and said, “According to your view, the conclusion of this online survey can actually prove that human nature is selfish; most people would sacrifice a minority for a greater benefit.”

“Consultant Lin, I find your view on human nature is indeed more insightful than mine!” Shen Lian interjected, praising him.

Lin Chen looked at the woman’s face, exuding an air as if she had won, then he looked up at the moon outside the iron window before calmly replying, “Yes, if it weren’t for the existence of a second way of asking and another survey result, your view might be unassailable.”

He suddenly sat up straight, quickly and seriously said, “The second question is as follows—

The situation is the same as the first one. There is still a runaway trolley about to hit five people. You, as the railman, are standing on a footbridge. Next to you is a sturdy stranger. If you push this stranger off the bridge to get him stuck on the track, then the trolley will stop, and although the stranger will die, you can save five people. The question is: Should the railman push the stranger off the bridge to save five people?”

Lin Chen thought his attitude had already been serious enough.

But at this moment, it was still Shen Lian who looked up at him, her face filled with inexplicable emotions, “What’s the difference, Consultant Lin?”

Lin Chen looked at the woman’s ignorant and bewildered gaze illuminated by the moonlight and never felt such a huge gap at this time.

Shen Lian simply can’t perceive it, he told himself.

But the story had to continue. “In fact, this time, 89% of people chose—they shouldn’t.”

Sure enough, after this number appeared, Shen Lian’s eyebrows furrowed, and even her body muscles were obviously tense. Someone as smart as her obviously realized that there was a serious problem here and that the huge voting happening right now was a psychological trap through and through.

She really was going to lose, but she didn’t know where she lost.

“And why is that so?” Lin Chen looked at Shen Lian and explained in a very calm tone, as if speaking to a different kind of person in this world. “Because psychology is science. On the one hand, many of its conclusions come from the results of large-scale experiments and statistical data; on the other hand, behind every psychological phenomenon, you can mostly find corresponding neuropsychological mechanisms.”

Shen Lian looked at him suspiciously.

Lin Chen said, “The two different outcomes of similar problems made neuropsychologists curious. Scientists then scanned the brain activities of the subjects under these two different problems.”

“You work with brain-related drugs, so you should understand this result better.” He gazed at Shen Lian and continued, “In the first situation of whether to pull the track lever, the brain area responsible for reasoning and problem-solving showed increased activity, while in the second situation of whether to kill a stranger to save five people, the brain areas related to emotion and social cognition showed increased activity.”

Shen Lian fell silent for a moment, and then the sound of chains shaking crazily echoed in the interrogation room. The woman was thinking frantically and tried to put her hand in her mouth, a psychological compensation state under extreme anxiety.

“Neuropsychologists have different types of explanations for this phenomenon. One argument is that pulling the track has nothing to do with the individual, so people use the reasoning-related brain area to make judgments; while pushing a stranger is a situation related to a specific individual, where the emotional and social cognitive parts precede; another explanation is…” Lin Chen’s voice overpowered the clanging noises in the room and the voice of the female anchor reporting results behind him. “A common view exists among normal humans—that people think it is acceptable to sacrifice a small part to achieve a greater benefit, but in reality, you cannot force others to sacrifice deliberately.”

Lin Chen’s words were incredibly plain. When he got to this point, Shen Lian suddenly said, “What does this count as, Consultant Lin?”

She burst into laughter. Given that she didn’t have a knife in her hand to stab Lin Chen or force Lin Chen to shut up, she could only rummage through her mind, trying to find all the offensive words to refute Lin Chen. “Hypocrisy! Yes, it’s hypocrisy. Your conclusion makes people look good, but in fact, they can’t hide your cowardly and ugly nature. We are the same!” She shouted.

However, in front of her, the frail Mr. Consultant had no intention of backing down.

“This is morality, Shen Lian.” Lin Chen’s gaze was peaceful and deep, without any boasting. He was just stating facts. “This proves that there is a moral brake commonly present in the human brain, proves that the moral brake will timely start to prevent people from doing certain things, proves that morality is a neural mechanism that definitely exists in the brain and not a mirage, and proves that morality is nothing special but still remarkable, because…” Lin Chen pointed at his head and said, “it’s here.”

After saying that, he pointed to his chest and softly said, “And also here.”

Kinky Thoughts:

Not sure if referencing Mark Hauser adds to your argument, considering he was found guilty of scientific misconduct…

What Lin Chen is referring to in the second question is The Fat Man. In the original question, usually up to 90% of those surveyed would pull the lever to save the majority. However, when rephrased by saying: If you were to push a fat man in front of the trolley, stopping it, the majority of people who approve of pulling the lever actually disapprove of pushing the fat man.

This has led to researchers attempting to find a moral distinction between the two cases. Some speculate that while one action wasn’t intended to harm (pulling the lever) and the person being harmed was just a side effect of one’s action, the second case put your action as an integral part of saving the lives on the track (you have to push the fat man in front of the trolley). This makes your action deliberate, so it’s wrong, and that’s why people struggle to make the decision.

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 288

It was an abandoned high-rise building.

As the city developed rapidly, unfinished buildings gradually increased. This high-rise seemed nothing but an ordinary, unfinished one among many others. Except for its remote location, there was nothing remarkable about it.

The lower part of the building still had some curtain wall glass attached, while the upper part was entirely empty.

When looking up, one could vaguely see the hollow floors erected by rebar and cement, which looked like a dark nest hiding some sinister creatures. However, unless you rose to the same height, you would never know what was hidden in these hollow floors.

Even if you sent up a drone, you wouldn’t be able to see what was inside. After all, a geek’s den wasn’t so easily spied upon.

In fact, to reach the floors of this abandoned building, one must make a special contribution in a certain field and also avoid being recruited by the government. Such special contributions include hacking into the official website of a country’s Ministry of Defense, and after completing this task, you must publish all the code online. Otherwise, it wasn’t cool enough.

These complicated rules, peculiar interests, and a lack of clear regulations had made this building a holy place for many “special talents”.

However, for Wang Chao, all he had to do to get upstairs was to step into the elevator.

Beside him were constant buzzing of electricity and the sound of wind sweeping past his ears. Sometimes, the wind was so strong that he even had the illusion that he must hold onto the table tightly or else he would be blown away.

Every time this happened, he would yell in anger, “Damn it, why can’t you guys install a few pieces of glass?”

His shouting had the violent temper of a Xing Conglian, which proved that his mood was indeed very bad at the moment.

Meanwhile, someone around him would often appease him in the sycophantic tone of Xing Conglian. “Boss, we need to properly cool down these servers. Didn’t we choose this building because of its gloomy atmosphere?”

Wang Chao wanted to curse, but at this moment he couldn’t spare any mental capacity to scold others. Only he knew how crucial a role he was playing in the whole plan.

Simply put, he had to locate the enemy’s server within 24 hours, and then someone else would be responsible for finding it.

This operation was necessary for three reasons:

First, the behind-the-scenes boss was likely to use the darknet to issue tasks, so controlling the server would cut off the enemy’s communication network. Although this was a temporary solution, it was better than nothing during special times.

Second, locating the hosting server meant finding the enemy’s weak point, where every byte of information was extremely important to them.

Third, if the operation was successful, it would mean that they had developed a deterrent against the enemy.

However, while the ideal was beautiful, unless they could infiltrate the system like the Americans over several years, it would be hard to find an exact way to eliminate a darknet site completely. But almost impossible didn’t mean completely impossible.

In reality, there were some algorithms that could estimate the location of the host based on the linear relationship between latency and geographical distance.

With topology information to reduce location errors and probability statistics to summarize the distribution rule of latency and geographical distance, as well as linear mapping of latency and geographical distance, they might be able to narrow down the server’s location to an area of 50 to 100 square kilometers. After that, it was a matter of exhaustive search.

In the beginning, the national government exerted great effort, and he also utilized all of his and his boss’ connections to lay numerous measurement nodes globally. Although there were still blank areas, they couldn’t care less about that.

To ensure the accuracy of latency measurement, it was best to have an accurate time point, which was why 12:00 noon GMT was chosen.

He remembered when he tentatively asked his A’Chen Gege and got the affirmative answer of “should be able to”.

Damn it, A’Chen Gege really made it happen.

So now all the pressure was back on him. Whether it was useful or not, he had to find the location of that damn server as soon as possible.

Time was ticking away.

He was still immersed in the sea of data streams. Sometimes he even felt that writing an AI program might be easier than locating a dark web server here.

But obviously, he didn’t have time to write an AI program now, let alone time to reassess the difficulty.

All he could do was sort everything out before the enemy got desperate.

But just then, someone gently tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Boss Chao, I must interrupt you. You said you must be informed at this time.”

Wang Chao stood up abruptly.

……

It was a long and vast queue, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Under the scorching sun, an untold number of people were lining up.

People rarely conversed, just moving forward one after another, entering the blue tent to cast their votes before emerging.

This scene was like a well-ordered and massive ant migration, and humans were just another such group.

No one knew exactly when this state of affairs had started.

Many people came out because they were influenced by this scene on the news, while others simply wanted to vote in person at the polling station, only to accidentally hit the peak.

Among those in line, some were young, some were old, some were students in school uniforms, and some were mothers holding their children.

None of them had a particularly unified label that could categorize them, and even their expression and the choices they were about to make varied.

And looking at this scene, one might even think: Are there really so many people in this world?’

What are they here for? To participate in an absurd choice that could only appear in TV dramas and movies?

But when you saw so many people standing right in the middle while you were among them, you realized that, in fact, everyone made choices and judgments every day, and these choices and judgments often became the past in an instant.

So, it was rare to have such a unified moment for everyone to leave their homes and to make a “yes” or “no” decision on a very simple question.

There were, of course, journalists stationed on the scene, but at this moment, they too gave up taking pictures and interviewing.

Initially, it was because many people were silent and shook their heads. Although some people answered the reasons, everyone’s thoughts were very different. Later, even the journalists who wanted to dig deeper didn’t want to disturb this state.

Meanwhile, the family members who were distributing flyers were still doing so, and there were citizens voluntarily helping them, but there were no more cries and pleas at the scene.

The atmosphere here was heavy, serious, somewhat sad, yet extraordinarily resolute—it was difficult to describe in words.

But when people were doing the same thing without any agreement, there would always be an awe-inspiring moment.

What Wang Chao saw was exactly this live broadcast from Yongchuan TV Station.

There were people he knew and didn’t know around him, among whom were geniuses who naturally had a hard time perceiving normal human emotions, but when facing this scene, the entire empty floor was silent. It was like everyone seemed to have lost their ability to speak.

It took a long time for Wang Chao to recover with great effort.

He forced himself to look at another monitor data screen—the government voting website that he coded himself. The figures on it had reached the critical point calculated by Lin Chen before, meaning the real peak of voting; the moment when people had thought carefully and decided to make a choice, had arrived.

Wang Chao felt unprecedented pressure.

To put it in a humorous way, he didn’t have much time left. After all, there was no knowing when that lunatic would realize that this vote was a complete trap.

The vote wasn’t to prove the selfishness or selflessness of human nature. Its only purpose was to force most people to think carefully about moral dilemmas. If one must explain forcibly, solving the initial voting dilemma and delaying time were also its purposes.

And now that the purpose had been achieved—the only matter left was to put it into action!

“What are you all stunned for? Get to it! Are we really going to lose to a bunch of idiots I don’t even look up to?” The teenager roared, rushing back to his computer, and finally looked back at the voting screen, seemingly gaining some kind of strength from this silent operation.

……

On campus, Fang Aizi, who just finished her physical education class, splashed water on her flushed cheeks. She took out her phone from her zippered pocket, opened the page, and chose “No”.

Outside the hospital ward, Mr. Zhai had just parted with Mrs. Su. Despite the gentle lady’s advice not to be too obsessed with this matter before parting, he still took out his phone without hesitation and chose “Yes” before passing by the emergency room.

On the street, Jiang Zhao, who had been maintaining order at the voting site, filled out his ballot. He cut in line and asked a construction worker about to open the curtain to put his ballot in the box for him. He chose “No”.

In the laboratory, the analysis hit a wall again. A bunch of old experts were talking in low voices. Xiao Zhan looked at that pile of chemical bonds, finally made up his mind, and made the bravest choice in his life. He chose “Yes”.

In front of the desk, Zhai Yong, who hadn’t made a choice, still refused to make one.

In the beef noodle shop, the old shopkeeper who was boiling soup ladled out a spoonful of chili oil, and almost uncontrollably, extremely angrily splashed it on the television.

On either side of the square table in the detention center, Shen Lian asked Lin Chen, “So, how would you choose, Consultant Lin?”

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 287

The usual breakfast time in prison was generally between 7:00 and 7:30, but today was an exception. This was, of course, due to the special circumstances of the four individuals in “solitary confinement”. Therefore, breakfast time was specifically set at 8.

Throughout the night, Huang Ze didn’t experience the same confusion as others. He was very clear, of course, that some wavering emotions were spreading within the prison law enforcers, but fortunately, they had strict rules in the team, so he was still able to control the situation.

Huang Ze took the extra meal brought by the chef and walked to the iron gate carrying the meal box.

Although the surveillance could clearly show what the four people were doing, he still pulled down the small window on the prison door to look inside.

The four people were all sleeping.

The first half of the night was far from peaceful. Yan Guiqiu cried for a long time, Sun Zhen lost his temper and wanted to strangle him, then Qian Bao incited discord, and Zhao Yi kicked the upper bunk bed hard. The four people made a fuss for a long time, with a kind of hysterical madness. But in the second half of the night, probably feeling that the chances of survival were slim, all four quieted down.

The cell finally regained its usual atmosphere.

Huang Ze closed the small window, pushed the door open, and entered. No one opened their eyes to look at him, not even the thief, who used to cry and cling to his legs whenever he saw him.

“Breakfast. Anyone want to eat?” Huang Ze asked.

He said this, but there was no response.

Qian Bao and Zhao Yi slept in the upper and lower bunks, respectively, while Sun Zhen and Yan Guiqiu each occupied a corner. Huang Ze said to the two people on the bed, “This might be your last breakfast of your life; don’t you even want to eat it?” He paused. “If I were you, I wouldn’t protest too much about things that are out of my control…”

As he said this, Yan Guiqiu finally turned over. “Aren’t you annoying, officer!” The prisoner, who always seemed like a rat, rolled over and responded irritably.

Huang Ze felt something different about Yan Guiqiu at this moment. Perhaps a night’s thinking could make people sober, and those who realized the coming of death would always be different. He looked at the other party with pity.

“I deserve to be in prison. You can do whatever you want, just don’t show me your pity,” Yan Guiqiu said to himself, seemingly angry. He suddenly stood up and pointed at the four walls. “This is such a shitty place—I at least made a sacrifice for the people; shouldn’t you arrange some hot girls to see me off? There’s not even a toilet, and you want to dismiss me with a crappy meal. I’m not happy!”

As he said this, Yan Guiqiu got carried away. He abruptly dropped his prison pants, and before Huang Ze could react, he whipped out his dick and aimed it at the camera.

A stream of yellow urine sprayed out.

The prison guards rushed over to knock Yan Guiqiu to the ground. But the urine was flowing everywhere, creating an appalling smell and turning the scene into a chaotic mess.

‘Very well,’ Huang Ze thought. ‘So be it.’

He took a deep breath, feeling that he probably didn’t handle the task entrusted to him by Lin Chen well.

However, at this moment, the prison guard who rushed in violated the rules and began to whisper to Yan Guiqiu. “Guiqiu, don’t be like this. Who knows what the result will be.”

“Lao Zhang, Lao Zhang, don’t lie to me. If you really care about me, promise me—just give me a quick death. Don’t shoot me, I’m afraid of pain!” Yan Guiqiu rolled around on the ground and yelled.

“What are you talking about, Yan Guiqiu? It’s not time yet. Act like a man!”

The prison guard stood in Yan Guiqiu’s urine and talked all the while the live broadcast was still ongoing. Huang Ze turned his head and said coldly, “Officer Zhang, please watch your words.”

Officer Zhang immediately stood up and walked out of the cell, but after a while, he came back in with a mop in his hand, cleaning up the urine on the floor little by little.

Yan Guiqiu crouched down and watched the police mop the floor.

He clutched his hair, his eyes growing redder and redder. In the end, the thief suddenly yelled out, “Lao Zhang, would it be easier if we just killed ourselves?”

At that moment, Huang Ze noticed the gazes of Sun Zhen, Zhao Yi, and Qian Bao all directed at him.

‘How absurd,’ Huang Ze thought.

He didn’t answer. He knew Lao Zhang wouldn’t answer this question either. Lao Zhang walked out the door, and he followed out. The iron door closed heavily.

In a place where the camera couldn’t capture, he unusually patted the shoulder of the prison guard.

“There is no correct answer,” he said to Officer Zhang.

……

The first person to notice that something was amiss was a reporter.

Of course, what he called an issue was based on the expected phenomenon according to theory. After all, theoretically, it was already past eight in the morning, during rush hour, and there should have been many people beginning to vote again.

But what was happening in reality didn’t match theory. The dawn didn’t have much of an impact on voting; the data on the government’s voting website was still slowly climbing, but not fast—at least much slower than expected.

On the dark web, there was overwhelming opposition, as those who wanted to see bloody drama would not be satisfied with this. But nobody cared about the opinions of those dark creatures now.

Shen Ping opened his office computer and began to check the data recorded by the government voting website while munching on a sandwich. He was a very sharp person and noticed an issue with the numbers at a glance—

The total number of voters was 5,561,120.

Yes: 3,559,117

No: 2,002,003

64% of the public still chose to exchange the lives of the four criminals for a treatment plan and a chance for survival.

Although 5.55 million was a very large number, it was far from the total population of the three provinces, 77.2 million, meaning that the actual number of voters only accounted for 7% of the total population, with only a small part of the people making a choice within 12 hours.

Perhaps the middle-aged and elderly people were more willing to go to the polling stations, and many people might not know about this news. Shen Ping thought so, but even considering these factors, with just a little more than 5.5 million votes, it was still too few.

He even suspected that the votes were being manipulated by the government, although this seemed unlikely.

Shen Ping put down his sandwich and thought about the problems. It seemed that many people had changed their choice after sleeping?

He then quickly noted down several key numbers and rushed to the editor-in-chief’s office. He forgot to knock, and when he pushed the door open, he saw the editor-in-chief clearly closing a web page with a click of the mouse, although he couldn’t confirm it as the screen was facing away from him.

“Twelve hours, editor-in-chief!” He stepped back half a step, bowed apologetically, but couldn’t help but say, “The number of voters is far lower than the actual number of the total population of the three provinces. Considering the residents who do not have a household registration in the three provinces but have a residence permit, the ratio is even lower.”

“What are you trying to say?” The editor-in-chief knocked on the table. “Get to the point.”

“A lot of people didn’t vote—um, what are they planning to do?”

“Did you vote?” The editor-in-chief asked him.

Shen Ping was immediately stumped. “I-I’ll go vote right away!”

“What are you planning to choose?”

“That’s personal privacy. Editor-in-chief, will you tell me your answer?” Shen Ping countered.

Of course, the leader had his own art of speaking. He immediately changed the subject and said to him, “Xiao Shen, it’s good that you have doubts. Since you have doubts, as a reporter, you should go and interview ordinary people to find out what their answers are.”

Shen Ping was suddenly enlightened.

But stating positions on the internet with screenshots didn’t count, as one image could be copied and pasted many times.

So Shen Ping immediately rushed downstairs. There was a voting point in the commercial area near the newspaper office.

He didn’t call the cameraman but instead took his phone and went down. When he got there, sure enough, quite a few people were queuing up.

What surprised Shen Ping was that it wasn’t middle-aged and elderly people queuing, but quite a few young white-collar workers.

Although the staff at the polling station were also advising those in line that they could choose to vote online, some were silent and refused to leave.

Shen Ping took out his ID, got a voting slip, and then stood at the end of the line.

He nudged a young man in front of him, who had a bank badge pinned on his chest, and asked, “Can I ask what you plan to vote for?”

The young man glanced back at him, a bit guarded and puzzled. Shen Ping showed his press card and said earnestly, “I’m a reporter. As you can see, I don’t have a camera or recorder. I just genuinely want to interview you. If it’s convenient, can you share your thoughts with me?”

Surprisingly, the young man asked him back, “How about you first? What do you plan to vote for?”

Such a simple question suddenly made Shen Ping feel a lot of pressure. His usually eloquent tongue seemed to have failed him. He could only take out a cigarette from his pocket, intending to give one to the other person, but the young man gestured that he didn’t smoke.

Shen Ping put a cigarette in his mouth and was about to light it when the young man started to respond. “The way you are now is probably how I feel. I thought about it half of last night, and it seemed simple to choose to save more people by sacrificing four. But no matter what, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”

The young man calmly explained, “I had to ask myself why. Why, even though it should be a simple choice, did it become so difficult when it came to actually clicking the mouse to vote? Am I being too sympathetic to the criminals? I don’t think so, even accounting for the thief. Honestly, my father’s a police officer. I grew up seeing a lot of these things. I think these people are just wasting social resources, but when it comes to trading their lives, I can’t bring myself to do it… Isn’t that strange?”

“Not strange at all.” Shen Ping shook his head. “I’m a reporter, and even I can’t do it.”

They looked at each other, and the young office worker gave a bitter smile, telling him, “I broke up with my girlfriend over this last night. Of course, she proposed the breakup. I didn’t have the guts.”

Shen Ping’s head shot up. “Damn, man, that’s a big loss!”

“My ex was one of the first to make a choice. As soon as that letter came out, she called me and told me to act like a man. I told her I needed to think, and she said she didn’t expect me to be the kind of person who would sympathize with four criminals.” The young man swallowed, awkwardly.

“But you came here,” Shen Ping said, “Trying to win back your girlfriend?”

“No, I’m here to vote ‘No’,” the young man said solemnly.

“Why?” Shen Ping was surprised.

“I can’t bring myself to do it.”

“But if you can’t bring yourself to do it, why not abstain?”

“Because I suddenly realized last night that if the result comes out and we have to sacrifice four criminals to appease the terrorists, I would regret not having made a choice.”

“But aren’t you afraid of what the terrorists might do? This is much worse than a bomb.”

“Then let it continue. I can only represent myself.” He sighed. “At least, I’m not afraid.”

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 286

Even the best TV show would become boring after watching it for over 12 hours, and continuing to watch it would make one irritable.

But since she was the one who asked for the TV, no matter how painful, she must watch till the end.

Shen Lian squirmed unhappily in her chair, while Lin Chen sat across from her, maintaining a pose of half-dressed light sleep, with no intention of talking to her at all.

“Consultant Lin, this is fatigue interrogation, which violates the United Nations Human Rights Convention,” she finally couldn’t help protesting.

Lin Chen half-opened his eyes. His dark and sleepy eyes stared at her, and his words were quite cheeky. “Miss Shen Lian, you should know that I nearly died of sepsis half a month ago, and in order to save you, I was injected with a drug that is very harmful to the nervous system, which has led to high levels of depression and even addiction symptoms. Despite this, I’m still here, accompanying you and talking to you, even though I’m sick. You should be grateful.”

“Then I should just die, so you don’t have to work so hard,” Shen Lian retorted irritably.

Lin Chen closed his eyes but spoke very lucidly. “Before the results come out, you’re not willing to die.”

Shen Lian didn’t know when Lin Chen started speaking so casually to her, but apart from his slow movements, Lin Chen himself didn’t seem to have any signs of depression. She stared at Lin Chen for a while and asked, “Are you upset? Do you want to talk about it to cheer me up?”

Lin Chen shook his head and turned his face to the other side, showing off his fair and fragile neckline, refusing to look at her.

“So, are you actually not confident about the voting results?” She leaned forward and asked, somewhat annoyed.

“You’ve been fretting over the same question so many times. It seems like you’re the one who’s not confident,” Lin Chen said. He straightened up with a self-control that Shen Lian could feel, opened the drawer, took out a file, and threw it on the table. “Since you want to talk so much, let’s talk about the time when you were molested.”

The abrupt change of topic left Shen Lian needing some time to wrap her head around it in order to face the document on the table.

It was an old file, and the name of the principal police officer was signed in the red box on the right bottom of the cover—Bian Yuan.

“Who do you want to talk about first? Chen Jianguo, Bian Yuan, or the old homeless man who saved you?”

Shen Lian knew that they must have thoroughly investigated her past, but when Lin Chen suddenly brought it up, she still found it inconceivable. “You really don’t care if you upset me.”

Lin Chen sat up straight, pointed to the TV, and said, “After all, that’s my biggest confidence.”

The program being replayed was an interview with a family member of one of the criminals. The mother of the murderer, Sun Zhen, was being interviewed. The woman should have been middle-aged, but her temples were gray, and she looked old and pitiful. She kept telling the reporter in front of the camera that her son had drunk too much and accidentally stabbed someone to death.

The judge had sentenced him to life imprisonment, which meant his crime wasn’t punishable by death. Moreover, her son had been very obedient during his imprisonment and would soon have a chance for his sentence to be reduced. The woman kneeled in front of the TV, weeping and begging everyone to give her son a chance.

Of course, the middle-aged woman omitted in her narration the history of Sun Zhen’s repeated violent assaults. In her mouth, Sun Zhen was just a little boy who made a mistake once.

Shen Lian snapped back to reality, looked at the file on the table, and had a vague sense of what Lin Chen was about to say.

“Are you satisfied with who you are now?” He asked her, but didn’t give her time to think and continued, “Overall, you’ve caused a lot of trouble, helped your comrades voice their opinions, and it seems you’re doing quite well. But since antisocial personalities are extremely selfish, I want to ask, setting aside the collective, are you satisfied with who you are now, proud and unregretful, feeling like you wouldn’t regret it even if you died right now?”

Stared at by Lin Chen’s cold gaze, Shen Lian found herself unable to move. She really wanted to find something to argue with, but at that moment, her mind inexplicably went blank.

She swallowed and, for a change, wanted Lin Chen to keep going so she wouldn’t have to think about this question.

But Lin Chen, being as sharp as he was, clearly knew how to seize every opportunity.

So he probably gave her about five minutes to think, which was so long that the program had started interviewing the family of the victim in the Sun Zhen case.

“I am very satisfied,” she said forcibly, with a tone of conviction.

Lin Chen nodded. “So, imagine for a moment that nothing happened back then. That man didn’t violate you, the old vagrant didn’t die, you as a girl whose personality differed from others, just stumbled and grew up; how would you evaluate such a you?”

Shen Lian narrowed her eyes, staring coldly at Lin Chen.

Lin Chen interrupted her before she could speak. “Your first reaction is to feel very lucky, isn’t it?” He paused and said, “What I mean is, you think that if nothing happened that night, it would have been the best, right?”

“But it happened.” Shen Lian licked her lips.

Lin Chen nodded. “So, you finally admit that this incident changed your life?” He leaned back in his chair and said seriously, “Just like Sun Zhen’s mother, who spoiled her son, thinking that the moment her son stabbed someone to death while drunk decided everything that followed.”

“Of course not.” Shen Lian looked at Lin Chen’s condescending face. “You see, this is where we fundamentally disagree. Even without this incident, my family, my genes, and my problematic mind would determine that I would inevitably be antisocial and that we would become enemies, Consultant Lin.”

“That’s just your personal view,” Lin Chen said lightly, as if those things were really not important.

Shen Lian laughed. She suddenly felt relieved that she even wanted to thank Lin Chen for his sharp questions that finally made her dare to face these things. “Admit it, Consultant Lin. Although you say it, in fact, born criminals in your society have only one way—a dead end.”

Lin Chen said seriously, “You’re wrong, Shen Lian. This is one of the wrong beliefs he instilled in you. In fact, people are experiencing different events every day, so choices are made every moment. As long as a person is alive, he has choices. Some choices are easy, some are difficult; some people are swayed by choices, some people really make choices.”

……

When Lu Xu was locking the door of the late-night snack bar, it was almost dawn. According to the instructions of the proprietress, he turned left, and the house with the light on not far away was the polling station.

Unlike what he had imagined, the polling station was neither too hot nor too cold, with an inexplicable sense of solemnity fitting the atmosphere of the early morning.

Across half a street, Lu Xu vaguely saw some sleepy journalists squatting at the location of the polling station, but no one had the energy to take pictures.

There were a few elderly people coming out of the polling station, and the only people who could get up and move at this point were the elderly. However, as he got closer, he discovered that those stooped figures he vaguely saw weren’t only early-voting elderly people. There was an old couple distributing flyers.

Lu Xu walked to the edge of the small flower bed at the door and was stopped.

The old woman with a small bouquet of flowers on her head handed him a flyer, but perhaps because he had a fierce face, she looked at him with a subconscious vigilance.

Lu Xu shrugged and walked away without paying too much attention. Under the light of the polling station, he glanced at the flyer.

It was an introduction to four criminals, which he had already seen a lot of on the TV in the shop today. But as he was about to put the flyer in his pocket, he realized that there was a letter written in blood on the back of the flyer.

The letter detailed how the usurer, Zhao Yi, had forced a desperate woman into a corner, eventually leading to her suicide.

The old woman’s crying voice came faintly from the wind. “Zhao Yi drove my granddaughter to death. I beg you, good people, that beast deserves his crime! My granddaughter was in debt to him because she wanted to treat her old grandmother. It should have been me who died, not my poor little granddaughter. I beg you! I beg you!”

The old woman knelt down as she said this, and the old men and women who had come to vote comforted her. The cries, the tragic accusations, and the comforting words were unsettling.

Lu Xu looked at the scene and suddenly remembered that his mother seemed to have knelt down in front of the police station in the same way.

The woman who failed to bribe with her body knelt in front of the police, begging the law enforcers to give her son another chance, but clearly, the strict law wouldn’t change because of a woman’s knees.

But today, it may change due to an old woman’s kneeling.

Lu Xu felt it was very gratifying, but also had a feeling of annoyance that he couldn’t describe. However, he was here for revenge today, so he unhesitatingly chose to walk straight into the polling station, and he must not turn back.

The time was still early, and not many people were in line at the polling station. There was a small, deep-blue tent partitioned off with a rainproof cloth in the farthest area. After lifting the curtain to go in and vote, no one would know what that person chose.

Lu Xu presented his ID to the staff. After it was checked and approved, the staff handed him a simple ballot, with a question he could almost recite backwards.

—I will vote in favor of executing four criminals who were not assigned capital punishment to save more people.

A. Yes
B. No

Lu Xu looks at the government worker next to him, at the old man coming out from behind the curtain, and then back down at the multiple-choice question on the ballot. He felt a sense of reality and absurdity he had never experienced before.

The staff member lightly pushed his shoulder, indicating that he could go in and vote.

He walked into the small tent, dumbfounded, like a marionette.

It was a tiny space that could only accommodate one person standing. The lighting was dim, which felt even more oppressive for someone as fat as him. In front of him was a surveillance camera, a simple pencil on the table, and a locked voting box. He peeked into the voting box, only seeing layers of white paper.

Lu Xu placed the ballot on the table, staring at the blunt 2B pencil, still feeling incredulous. Just by picking up the pencil, he could indirectly decide Qian Bao’s life and death?

He felt there was no reason not to fill in “Yes”, but every time he reached for the pencil, it felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. He realized he didn’t even have the courage to pick it up.

From afar, the faint crying of an old lady made this cramped space even quieter. This might be the first time in Lu Xu’s life that he felt the world was so heavy yet so serene. The quietness made him question: This choice should be a no-brainer, so why can’t he choose “Yes”?

The light was still on, the pencil was still there, no one was rushing him. Time flowed meaninglessly. Gradually, Lu Xu seemed to see his dazed life. He saw the clueless boy standing at the dock facing the police, saw himself being pinned down by the police over and over again, saw the judge speaking time and again, the jail door closing time and again. And then, all these complicated images disappear, freezing at the simplest moment.

A young prison guard patted his shoulder and told him, “Be good and never come back again.”

It was only in such quiet moments that he finally understood the meaning of this phrase he had heard so often. This wasn’t some automated farewell, nor false advice, but a sincere hope.

“Reform and be a good person.”

This was probably the fairest chance the world gave to every criminal who didn’t deserve to die. It was also the maximum goodwill formed when all viewpoints converged. He had enjoyed such forgiveness many times before, but at that time, he didn’t think he still had a chance.

Looking at the paper on the table, Lu Xu felt he didn’t need to think any more.

When he left the polling station, Lu Xu started to cry.

The old man handing out leaflets in the morning light was hunched over and unsteady on his feet.In the distance was a weak sunrise. He raised his head, looking at the hazy daylight, and wished he could tell his 17-year-old self—Don’t go to the docks for 50 yuan, you fool.

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Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 285

The starry sky was bright tonight, a rare clear day at the end of summer.

Many people had gone to bed with their worries, while others considered this just another ordinary day.

Lu Xu, as usual, had a bit of drink while tidying up the tables and chairs at the late-night snack shop. Of course, what he called “as usual” referred to his life in the past month.

After all, he had done some very bad things, and it was only by becoming a tainted witness that he was able to negotiate a plea deal and replace imprisonment with community service. He worked during the day and helped out at the snack shop at night, leading a life of starting anew.

It was almost four in the morning, and the bustling stands were about to close, so there was only one table of customers left in the shop.

However, those customers showed no signs of leaving early. To be honest, even though he had spent most of his time dealing with the wealthy and the powerful, he had also seen plenty of people at the bottom. They would order a plate of peanuts and a portion of smashed cucumber, get a bottle of Red Star Erguotou, and stay in the shop until five in the morning without any remorse.

He wiped most of the tables clean, flipped the chairs over, and swept and mopped the floor, but the two people at that table still hadn’t stopped chatting.

“Lao Zhang, what you’re saying makes sense. We have a distant relative working at the police station. He said there’s a big government action behind all this. Let me tell you…”

Lu Xu really didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but their voices were so loud that every word seemed to be drilling into his ears, unstoppable.

“Lao Pei, you always know so much. You had insider information and didn’t share it. This is not treating your brothers as your own!”

“Hey, this is all inside information that we’re not allowed to talk about. Those four people are actually just ordinary people who offended someone and got thrown in. Otherwise, why was there no sound at all during the live broadcast?”

The middle-aged man raised his small wine cup and, with half-closed eyes, spoke in a mysterious manner.

Lu Xu suddenly froze in place.

The man across the table slapped the table and asked drunkenly, “Brother, are you telling the truth?”

“Absolutely, it’s all true!” As he spoke, he intentionally lowered his voice and pretended to warn, “You mustn’t let this get out. These are life-threatening matters. We might get in trouble if…”

As he was speaking, a dirty rag suddenly fell into the empty cucumber bowl. It didn’t splash any liquids, but the crushed garlic mixed with the dirty rag looked extremely disgusting. The two men turned their heads in unison, angrily looking at the fat man who had been cleaning up the shop.

“I’m sorry, sir, my hand slipped just now.”

The fat man was wearing glasses, and his eyes were bulging, making him look like a greasy toad. Although his eyes seemed kind and humble, he couldn’t hide the shadow of the world that passed through them.

“What are you up to? Picking a fight?” The man slammed down his wine cup. With blood rushing to his head, he stood up and rolled up his sleeves.

At this moment, he heard a pleasant female voice from behind. “Sir, I’m truly sorry. Please, calm down…”

Lu Xu also turned his head along with her. The proprietress, dressed in her nightgown, had just come down from the second floor. She leaned against a pillar with her arms crossed, posing seductively.

Men, faced with such a scene, would undoubtedly have their minds racing.

Sure enough, the men at the table who had been drinking were about to take action. But at this moment, the proprietress said, “My shop isn’t very lucky.”

The two drunken men stopped abruptly.

The proprietress continued, “The last person who drank until five o’clock in my shop was hit by a car on his way home and died.” The woman revealed a chilling, genuine smile. “It was really my bad luck. The family came with a Daoist priest and caused a scene in my shop, saying my shop is unlucky and that it killed their husband. The Daoist opened his heavenly eye and said it was because there were ghosts in my shop, and if a customer stayed past five o’clock, the ghosts would be displeased. It’s already 4:20 now… I… am genuinely concerned for you.”

The two middle-aged men were already quite drunk. The shop was half dark because it was about to close, and outside was pitch black except for the streetlights. At this moment, they were facing a woman who resembled a vixen, the atmosphere was indeed eerie.

Sure enough, the two men looked at each other, sobered up instantly, threw down their cups, and ran out of sight.

Lu Xu watched the proprietress with an ingratiating look, only to hear her say, “The bill will be deducted from your salary.” With that, she began to move gracefully back upstairs to sleep.

Her footsteps seemed to hammer Lu Xu’s heart. He watched her enchanting back, dry-mouthed, wanting to speak but unable to.

At this moment, the woman suddenly turned around and looked down at him from above, asking, “So, what’s going on with you today?”

Lu Xu sat under the lamp, sipping the cheapest rice wine in the store, and began a long and uninteresting narrative.

He never thought of himself as a good person. After all, according to his track record, he could basically be considered total social trash, not much different from those four pieces of garbage now locked in the small dark room waiting to die. But his mood now was complicated and sad, not because of the sorrow of kindred things hurting each other, but because he found fate really strange.

The first time he saw Lin Chen, he was severely beaten because he made a move on him. Later, Lin Chen treated him like a useful dog, leading him to investigate a case. Although it offended many dignitaries in Fengchun, it also gave him a chance to start anew. Now, fate once again linked him with Lin Chen in an unpredictable way, and he probably had to thank Lin Chen again. After all, he became a pile of social trash, all because of Qian Bao.

When Lu Xu got to this point, he looked at the woman across the small square table. It must have been because his story was too uninteresting that the lady boss was drinking on her own and didn’t care about him at all.

He awkwardly picked up the wine cup in front of him and drank it all. The hot and spicy wine slid down his throat in a straight line, giving him the courage to continue the story below.

“Don’t look at me now, being fat and ugly like a toad. In fact, I was terribly poor when I was young.”

“My father died early, and my mother, in order to raise me, messed around with men in the village. I didn’t understand the difficulty of life when I was young, and I just thought she was dirty and stupid.”

“I’m uneducated, and people from families like mine basically have no chance of turning their lives around through education. So after middle school graduation, I took a vocational school exam in a big city. It was my mother who forced me to go there. She thought that since I had relatives in that city, I would be able to graduate and find a good job. The relative was Qian Bao’s father, my distant cousin. My mother slept with him for about a week, and this distant cousin agreed to take care of me.”

As Lu Xu spoke, he felt more and more drunk, and he couldn’t even distinguish between reality and the past.

He said: “It wasn’t until I arrived in Fengchun that I realized that Qian Bao’s father was not really a car mechanic but a car thief. Qian Bao was younger than me and my cousin, but he started school early, so he was already in his first year of high school. Qian Bao wasn’t like his father—he didn’t want to do risky things with low returns, like car theft. Although his car theft skills were better than his father’s in high school, he had big ambitions and always wanted to do ‘finance’.”

He laughed, seemingly mocking but also admiring. “A first-year high school student, knowing how to cooperate with the owner of a video game store, investing in slot machines. I was short and fat at that time, but I had some strength. As his brother, I felt I should take care of my younger brother no matter what, so I helped him watch the venue. He gave me some money. I have been poor since I was young, and that money was astronomical to me. I was so happy that I would do whatever Qian Bao told me. I thought I would live like this for the rest of my life, the best scenario being owning my own small game hall, marrying a wife, until one day…”

When Lu Xu got here, the woman across from him still didn’t move. Her black hair shone lustrously under the light. Lu Xu didn’t know why he became so wordy and messy; it was simply uninteresting. Suddenly, he didn’t want to go on.

Just as he was about to get up, the woman hit the table with her wine cup and called him to continue in a long tone. “Continue, I don’t like to listen to stories halfway through.”

Lu Xu stood still by the table.

He would never forget that day, even though it was nothing compared to what he had done later, but after all, all the first times are unforgettable.

It was a weekend, and as usual, he had to get up earlier than usual to watch the venue for his cousin. However, when he was having breakfast, Qian Bao came in and bought him a delicious beef roll. Although he rejected it, he hadn’t eaten meat for a long time, and he didn’t think about whether there was any conspiracy behind a simple roll. While he was wolfing down the roll while pretending to be reserved, he heard Qian Bao tell him that he didn’t need to go to the game hall.

His beef-swallowing motion slowed down a beat.

Qian Bao said, “There is a new machine coming in today, smuggled goods. Brother, you go and help me carry it, and I’ll give you 50 yuan.”

Even today, he could clearly recall every bit of Qian Bao’s expression and tone change when he was speaking, but these were all meaningless things now.

Of course, he went to the dock later. It was indeed a new slot machine, but there were also other things hidden in the slot machine.

What happened later was a blurry nightmare of life—one that would continue to this day.

The police came, cracked open the slot machine, and found bags of colorful little pills inside. He was familiar with this stuff since Qian Bao often asked him to deliver them. However, it wasn’t until he was interrogated that he realized they were not refreshing mint candies but ecstasy pills.

He tried to turn Qian Bao in, but then he discovered that all along, Qian Bao had been dealing under his name. Even the account for receiving the illicit money was secretly set up in his name. Moreover, since he was the one delivering the goods, both person and material evidence were present, and the police wouldn’t believe any ungrounded accusations.

From the day he got into trouble, he never saw Qian Bao again. His mom did come to the police station to see him, even attempted to seduce the police to save him, which was utterly shameful.

At that time, that was what he thought. Shame, regret, pain, resentment—these intense emotions completely transformed a 17-year-old boy.

He was expelled from school and went to jail.

An elder in jail helped him analyze the situation. It was likely that Qian Bao had received a tip, which was why he had been sent to pick up the goods. In unflattering terms, he was the fish that Qian Bao had baited for the police.

However, all this no longer mattered. He knew he couldn’t go back.

What followed was a cycle of getting out of jail, going back in, getting out again, and going back in. In between, his mom contracted an STD and died. He mixed with the elder he met in jail for many years, struggling step by step to climb up from the gutter. After all, the underworld was a place with strict hierarchies.

Eventually, he became a pimp, having a handful of girls under him. He often abused those boys and girls, doing things similar to what Qian Bao had done to him.

But, he never saw Qian Bao again. He didn’t even know when Qian Bao was arrested and put in jail.

If it weren’t for the live broadcast he saw on TV yesterday, he would have been unable to associate his mischievous cousin, always with a smiling face, with the grim, overweight middle-aged man on the screen.

And now, the wheel of fortune had turned, and he even held a precious vote that could get Qian Bao killed.

When Lu Xu came to this point, somehow, he lowered his head and looked at his own hands. He thought this shouldn’t be difficult at all. Many people waited their entire lives for such a chance to exact revenge. And the only reason he hadn’t voted yet was because he needed to bathe and change clothes—to send Qian Bao to the guillotine with reverence, just as it’s shown on TV.

When he finished speaking, a low and boring voice came from behind.

“Oh…” His boss stood up from the chair, swaying towards the staircase, and as she walked, she said, “Turn left and go three hundred meters out the door, and you’ll find a voting station in the square. Go on.”

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