Chapter 165

"If you don't get a promotion or raise, how do you support your family? How do you live?"

Li Tian said: "Hmm, no problem—Old Song's place was demolished."

??????

"How much did they pay him?"

"Old Song was already rich before, and after the demolition he got even richer. Didn't you say his wife ran off with someone? That's all nonsense—impossible. Old Song was handsome when he was young."

All viewers pictured Old Song's greasy appearance—forget it, forget it, no one could ever find him attractive.

"This case is preliminarily judged as death—specifically, natural death, not even suicide."

Natural death? Then this matter is serious.

Such a determination is highly contradictory.

"Natural death—is it from illness?"

Li Tian said: "The heat around this case keeps growing because no one wants to accept this outcome, so we must give the public an explanation. The public pressure is too great. After much thought, we could only turn to you—you have the highest visibility, the greatest expertise, and you're a celebrity yourself, capable of providing excellent guidance."

The car arrived at the station, where crowds surged back and forth, and many onlookers had gathered.

A man sat alone on a chair, his head tilted to one side.

The man had already stopped breathing.

In one hand he held a train ticket; in the other, a toy—likely meant for his child.

The man had no luggage; his clothes were simple, his hair greasy.

Here, Chen Fan quietly approached the man, neither joking nor laughing.

Quietly, he asked Zhang Xinyu for a bead bracelet.

He began to chant slowly.

"For all sentient beings not yet liberated, their nature and consciousness are unstable; evil habits bind karma, good habits bear fruit; whether good or evil, they arise according to circumstances, revolving through the five paths with no rest, enduring eons of dust, lost in delusion and obstacles, like fish swimming in a net, forever in this endless stream, briefly escaping only to be caught again. For beings such as these, I must harbor concern. Since you have fulfilled your past vows and accumulated countless solemn pledges to broadly save the sinful, what more is there for me to worry about?"

Many in the crowd did not understand this passage.

Teacher He said: "This seems to be the Rebirth Mantra."

Qin Ming said: "I haven't studied it much, but this appears to be a passage from the Earth Store Sutra. The general meaning is: this suffering man has passed away, yet his suffering has nothing to do with those around him—then what of the suffering of these others?"

"This old man has transcended, left behind the suffering sea of the human world, but those people remain deeply trapped in it."

Rarely, Li Tian made no sarcasm or curses; instead, he ordered the surrounding officers to disperse the crowd.

Chen Fan quietly returned the bracelet to Zhang Xinyu and said: "Thanks."

"This is just an ordinary pearl bracelet."

"It doesn't matter what it is—it's just a form."

Zhang Xinyu said nothing, withdrawing her previously alluring gaze, replaced by shyness.

A shyness born of a racing heart.

Xiang Qinqin opened her tool kit; Chen Fan took the tools and began carefully inspecting.

After completing the basic examination, Chen Fan stood up and said: "Send two people to take the body to my teacher's place. Wait for the family to arrive before performing the autopsy."

Here, some people didn't understand.

"Does this even require an autopsy?"

At this moment, the lawyer in the observation room stood up and said: "Ah, Chen Fan is actually signaling me."

Signaling the lawyer?

The lawyer said nothing.

Those who understood instantly grasped the meaning—and stayed silent, fearing someone with intent might notice and prepare in advance.

Li Tian examined the train ticket, checked the destination, contacted the local authorities, and quickly pinpointed the man's workplace.

He worked at a printing factory—a typical factory worker.

The group boarded the high-speed train.

The high-speed train was close—only an hour and change away.

On the train, everyone remained silent.

When they arrived at the factory, trouble arose—people at the gate refused to let Li Tian and his team enter, but Li Tian pulled out his gun and scared them off.

Zhang Tianxiong led his two brothers straight forward.

Then no one came.

Then the firefighters arrived; a fire investigation was needed, so the site was immediately sealed off.

But Li Tian's attitude was stern—he forbade any employees from leaving until they determined exactly how the man died.

Everyone knew the man had died of natural causes; the public just needed an explanation.

And that explanation was often one people couldn't accept.

Li Tian went to chat with the printing factory owner; Chen Fan led his team to the man's production line.

They stared at the heavily worn workbench before them.

"Do you know that any factory in China, if strictly following standards, is actually non-compliant?"

Xiang Qinqin said: "I know. My parents used to work in factories. Everyone knows whether it's legal or not, whether it meets regulations—but people need to work, need to live, so they don't speak out."

Chen Fan said: "Start collecting evidence."

Xiang Qinqin nodded. She didn't follow Chen Fan's instructions—during this period of study, she had gained the freedom to collect evidence independently and could even organize it herself.

Meanwhile, Chen Fan took the cameraman and Zhang Xinyu to the dormitory.

The dormitory smelled awful; just this single dormitory was enough to make everyone's spine tingle.

On the man's bed lay empty plastic bottles, each containing some water.

Chen Fan collected samples and stored them.

After that, Chen Fan went with someone to the cafeteria, went straight into the back kitchen, and opened the food storage room.

He looked at the food in the pots, then at the oil and water being used, then at the other things in the back kitchen.

Chen Fan picked up a dish, looked at the cook, and said, "You eat it, are you going to eat it?"

The cook said nothing.

"Eat it for me, now, eat it, right now, you made this dish yourself, why won't you eat it."

Zhang Tianxiong directly hugged Chen Fan, stopping him from acting recklessly.

At this point, the cook didn't dare speak.

"Did something happen? Stomach trouble?"

Zhang Xinyu said in surprise, "Ah, stomach trouble? How did you know?"

"The toilet paper usage, and it's a bit scattered — this is clearly from rushing to the toilet and pulling the paper out fast. Obviously, a lot of people have stomach trouble. Didn't you notice that most of the people walking around here have pale faces?"

Death is never caused by a single thing, especially natural death — natural death is accumulated.

Chen Fan sniffed it, then found a few pieces of meat and packed them up.

These pieces of meat didn't need testing — just by looking at the color, everyone knew what was going on.

"Holy shit, why does a factory like this still exist."

"Holy fuck; this boss has gone crazy just to make money?"

"I don't understand, aren't employees people too?"

"Just to save this little bit of money, what can it do, what's the point?"

Chen Fan looked at the machines inside, and at that moment, a technician came over with a smile on his face.

"You do the work."

"Ah, I don't know how."

"You definitely can, it's very simple — pull it, then cover it, and that's it. Pull it for me."

The technician pulled hard, but couldn't pull it at all.

"If you can't pull it, then damn right — this junk is all machinery eliminated from the market. Machines are meant to free up human labor, not add to it."

Zhang Xinyu said, "When we were leaving, Liu Laoshi told me to try to talk some sense into you, to remember your own identity."

"It's fine, I'll go back and write a self-criticism."

Zhang Xinyu said, "Okay, I'll help you write it."

"Alright then, you write it."

Huh?????

No wait, what kind of turn is that.