Published at 15th of September 2019 10:31 am

Chapter 130 - Predicament

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Translator(s): Zryuu

Editor(s): Amalea, FistFullOfDollars, Juurensha

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.”

Jin Weicheng, “Human life is priceless. One life is not inferior to five.”

Yu Hao, “Not for me.”

Jin Weicheng, “Wouldn’t you have let down the one who died?”

Yu Hao, “Yes. But if he has any grievances, then he can just come find me. I’ll wait for his revenge. In any case I have a clear conscience.”

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!”

Yu Hao experienced a ton of hardships and could even recite the manuscript backwards smoothly, Lin Ze finally signed it and sent it out. The chief editor stamped it, and they entered December. It had already been nearly ten days since he and Jin Weicheng went out for their interview.

“The manuscript passed.” Lin Ze said, “It’ll be published tomorrow.”

“Yeah!” Yu Hao almost raised both his hands out as he shouted. He couldn’t help himself from asking, “Did the chief editor say anything?”

Lin Ze, “As a chief editor who has read countless manuscripts and survived the Cultural Revolution, what do you think she would say?”

Yu Hao thought that was true. For him, this feature was something he had poured his heart and soul into, but in the eyes of the chief editor, it was just a sloppy and ordinary manuscript. She would be giving him a lot of face just by taking some time out to give it a brief glance.

Lin Ze said, “It’s not difficult to pass one manuscript; what’s difficult is passing manuscripts all the time. Everyone won’t be able to help you pick out the faults like this every time, you’ll have to rely on yourself.”

When Yu Hao thought about how he would have to revise his manuscripts over and over again for every feature from now on, he felt like his life was instantly filled with despair.

“Okay.” Yu Hao said, “I’ll work hard.”

Lin Ze carried his bag, then left with Yu Hao. They were the last to leave, so they locked the door as they left. When they passed by the subway station, Lin Ze said to Yu Hao, “Jin Laoshi has many shortcomings, and similarly, we all have many shortcomings as well. But I don’t know if you’ve noticed that on this feature, he signed for you without hesitation. That’s one of the reasons he became a member of our team.”

Yu Hao felt deeply moved for a moment, “I understand.”

Lin Ze nodded solemnly, waved to him, and left.

Amidst the bitingly cold winds, Yu Hao looked up from underneath his house. Within this city that was ablaze with lights, there was one light that stayed lit for him.

Will we have chopped peppers with fish head today? Or hotpot? Or curry crab? Zhou Sheng wore heat-insulating gloves and placed a semi finished chestnut roasted chicken into the microwave oven, then turned on the timer. Conan played on the TV. Yu Hao picked up a call and went in, changing his shoes in the entrance hall. It hadn’t even been a month since he moved here, but he was completely used to it already, as if this house had been waiting for him here for a long time, waiting to be their home.

“I always feel like somebody's watching me from behind my back.” Zhou Sheng said into the phone, “I don’t know if I’m overthinking this……”

The sound of the door opening travelled over, so Zhou Sheng said, “I got to go, Yu Hao’s back.”

“Un……” Yu Hao had his earphones on, he was on the phone as well.

There were forms on the dining table. Zhou Sheng had bought a printer to make it easy for Yu Hao to read manuscripts at home.

He raised two fingers, to motion that dinner will be ready in 20 minutes, then pushed the electric cooker button to start cooking. Yu Hao nodded and looked at the forms on the table. They were the management situation and financing plans for the first three months that Fu Liqun had sent to Zhou Sheng via the group chat. Zhou Sheng looked at Yu Hao’s phone, the display showing “Gege”. Zhou Sheng wanted to take the earphones out and turn it to loudspeaker mode to say hello to Fu Liqun, but Yu Hao raised his hand to motion ‘don’t’.

Zhou Sheng thought about it, then nodded.

Yu Hao, “I feel really exhausted too sometimes, but I’ll feel a lot better the next day after sleeping.”

Fu Liqun, “……I can’t tell Young Master, you know? Yu Hao, I’m not pretentious. But I feel like if I don’t find someone to talk to, I’ll really suffer from depression.”

“You won’t suffer from depression.” Yu Hao smiled, “You’re just a little stressed.”

Fu Liqun, “I can’t talk to your sis-in-law, I can’t talk to Xia Lei, Li Yangming, not my parents, and I don’t want to look for Young Master. After thinking about it over and over, I can only find you. It’s been three months, and I’ve exhausted all ideas I could come up with. It’s really hard.”

Yu Hao said, “How many members are there now?”

Fu Liqun said, “12, two are still considering, but they’re unlikely cases. I can host my own Last Supper now.”

Yu Hao laughed. Fu Liqun said, “What I’m most worried about isn’t my determination, but their determination. Bian Qiang obviously doesn’t want to do it anymore, but he’s afraid of hurting my feelings. Although Xia Lei didn’t say much, but I know he’ll leave soon. Most of the members were pulled in by him, but he also observes people. It was okay to depend on him at first, but now, he probably thinks that I’m not that capable, but at least I don’t have any resources, so he won’t work too hard. As soon as New Year’s is over, and our graduation thesis begins, they’ll probably……”

Yu Hao said, “I understand. Now I really admire my leader. Even lady boss is complaining about quitting and giving up, yet he can still hold on.”

Fu Liqun talked about his current predicament, and the most important thing was the divergence of opinions amongst his partners. He hoped that Xia Lei could bring in more members, but once his partners started looking down on him, they’d think that the membership of this gym relied on them to be developed, which is to say, they could do it themselves. Their families don’t lack for money, so what do they need Fu Liqun for?

And a gym itself isn’t very profitable; most profit comes from the fitness products sold to students. Just as Lin Ze had said, no one believes that hard work can make a fortune, so they search for a lucrative industry. They want to earn money while lying down every day, so they’ll gradually start thinking of leaving the partnership.

Or they could say that from the very beginning, Xia Lei and Bian Qiang were only interested in accompanying Fu Liqun to mess around a bit. Now that they don’t think it’s fun anymore, then they could just now play. How much could their shares be worth? They could just give it all to Fu Liqun, then couldn’t they just stop doing it with him?

Zhou Sheng took off his microwave oven gloves, had one foot over his other knee, and lit a cigarette. He looked over the management situation of Fu Liqun’s gym.

“When I was giving lessons to my students today,” Fu Liqun said, “There was that one instant when I suddenly thought that when she laughed, her eyes resembled your sis-in-law’s a little. You may not understand that feeling. I just want to ask one question, which is a little offensive. Yu Hao, in the three months when you were in Beijing, have you ever been interested in your boss, lady boss, or other men?”

Yu Hao thought about it and said, “No. We video call each other every day, I miss him very much.”

Fu Liqun said, “Your sis-in-law and I had two video calls. I had that one instant, when I really thought about giving up. But in less than a few minutes, I felt so guilty. I asked her to train by herself before walking to one side and washed my head with cold water. I don’t know if I cried at that time……”

“Gege.” Yu Hao said.

Fu Liqun drank beer as he wore a sports tank and sat on the balcony at home. Half a year ago, he, Zhou Sheng, and Yu Hao often looked at the stars here. The Milky Way in the mountains was very beautiful.

He worked as a fitness coach for several months. His figure now was trained to be much better than before; his muscles were tight, he had broad shoulders and a narrow waist, but he looked like he was at a loss.

“I might close the gym.” Fu Liqun said, “It can’t make money. I’m losing nearly a thousand dollars every day.”

Yu Hao’s voice travelled through the earphones, “It’ll get better. When people start a food and beverage company, they’ll only be suffering losses in their first year.”

Fu Liqun said, “I don’t know how long I can hold on for. I let down Young Master too much, I’ve let down both of you. But I don’t want to tell Young Master that. I feel like I’m walking in a desert, and I don’t know how long I have to walk before finding an oasis.”

“I thought your sis-in-law was my oasis. I walked for so long, and I keep looking for some water to drink, but no matter where I walk to, all I see are mirages. I’ve been thinking over and over again these days; it’s just like what you said, I’ll think of giving up every night, but when I get up in the morning, I grit my teeth and continue holding on.”

Yu Hao looked at Zhou Sheng. After Zhou Sheng looked through the forms, he placed them aside and started reading his《Western Economics》.

Yu Hao, “I understand that feeling so well. There have been a few times where I almost told my leader that I didn’t want to do it anymore, but when I thought about it some more, I decided to just do it. At least it’s what you want to do, and at least you’re working hard for yourself. When you go somewhere else, you’ll feel even less motivated.”

Fu Liqun said, “If your sis-in-law was by my side, I feel like no matter what happens, I would be able to hold on. Let’s stop talking about this, are you home yet?”

“Yeah.” Yu Hao said, “Zhou Sheng found a job as a private detective, we’re going to live in Beijing. I like this place very much.”

Fu Liqun said, “Okay. If I can’t do this anymore, I’ll go seek asylum with you guys.”

Yu Hao said, “You’re extremely welcome. Our sofa can be opened up to be used as a sofa bed.”

Fu Liqun laughed, “I really miss those few years when we were together, and we didn’t need to worry about anything. I’ll go now, I need to take a bath and teach a student.”

Yu Hao hung up. Zhou Sheng knew what he said without asking. He washed his hands and served the dishes -- chestnut roasted chicken, two bowls of stewed pork rib soup, and there was stir-fried cabbage as well. The two began to eat and asked each other how their work went.

“I see, can’t hold on anymore?” Zhou Sheng said, “Xia Lei never regarded the gym highly from the beginning; that kid’s really proud, he just wanted to play with him. Bian Qiang has always been lazy; he can’t bear hardships and played with him for a few months at most to earn some internship experience. Neither of them thought of doing it as a career.”

“What about Yangming?” Yu Hao said.

“That kid overthinks.” Zhou Sheng said, “And gets jealous easily.”

Yu Hao said, “Gege can recruit other people.”

Zhou Sheng said, “Nowadays, those who dabble in fitness are mostly old dough fritters, while those who are capable have all opened their own private gyms. Those that remain are just getting by. Gege’s inexperienced too, if employees don’t fool such bosses, who else can they fool?”

Yu Hao said, “How much did he lose?”

Zhou Sheng answered, “Not much. He hasn’t lost as much as your camera, it’s not a big deal. The most scary thing about starting a business is when your partners each have their own plans. I accepted an investigation that happens to be about something similar, to check if their partners are accepting kickbacks.”

Yu Hao, “How’s the investigation going?”

Zhou Sheng smiled, “They were such good friends, yet it ended up really ugly. So it’s better if friends don’t partner up with one another to do business……when will we invite them to our new house? Oh right, I haven’t declared my sovereignty to Kaikai yet. Since we’ve moved to a new place, invite him here for a meal?”

“You’re doing it again.” Yu Hao said, “Chen Laoshi hasn’t come looking for me ever since he knew you arrived in Beijing.”

“But you have to go to him for your graduation thesis ba?” Zhou Sheng said, “Invite him, and call that Ou Qihang kid too to come to our house for a meal? We haven’t seen him in more than two years, and there’s something I want to ask him too, regarding their school’s graduate students.”

Zhou Sheng hadn’t decided which college to take the graduate exam for, and he may really be able to get into Wudaokou Institute of Technology. Yu Hao thought about it and said, “Then, I’ll find a chance to ask them.”

In December, the Guangxian battery plant feature was published.

It was Yu Hao’s first time experiencing the might of the main office. Indeed, the strength of his newspaper office was entirely worthy of the way it conducted itself —— headlining the second edition of social news, it was a major hit! Following which, major news APPs, web portals, and WeChat public numbers all reprinted the news. 100,000 Chicken Soup public numbers were all chasing this hot topic.

“Congratulations to Jin Laoshi.” Lin Ze was reading《Gushi Hui》, “You once again triggered a national media hot topic.”

Situ Ye said, “A large number of reporters have already rushed to the scene, they’ll have quite a headache now.”

It was Yu Hao’s first time getting submerged by his own manuscripts. All of the reprints used his manuscript, including his introduction, factual descriptions, and the statistics collated by Jin Weicheng. Yu Hao flipped through it repeatedly as he looked at his work, and the byline had Investigative Reporter Jin Weicheng, followed by Intern Editor Yu Hao.

Jin Weicheng said, “Five years! Damn, it’s getting tougher and tougher to work in the media industry.”

Jin Weicheng took a bottle of Erguotou and poured it out to toast with the other three, then drank. Jin Weicheng said lightly, “I’m going out for an interview. Xiao Yu, don’t let manuscripts stack up, finish them as soon as possible.”

Yu Hao said, “Too amazing, this is really too amazing!”

Weibo, WeChat, web portals, and even a pop-up window was talking about the battery plant.

Translator's Note:

Juurensha: Awwww, I’m happy for Haohao, but I feel bad for FLQ…

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