Chapter 512: Human-Shaped Chives

"Get out!"

Liao Liao Zhangwei grabbed the cigarette pack on the desk and hurled it at Yu Dazhang.

The office door shut, and the cigarette pack slammed against the door frame.

Liao Liao Zhangwei stared toward the doorway, his face dark, his eyes seeming to spit fire.

His mind replayed the scene that had just unfolded, and he couldn't help but clench his fists.

"Did I want this? Did I want this…?" he said toward the doorway.

As if speaking to the person who had just stood there, yet also as if muttering to himself.

Only his voice grew quieter and quieter, and by the end, even he himself seemed to have lost his conviction.

After a moment, Liao Liao Zhangwei slowly relaxed his body, then drew in a deep breath.

He turned his head, looked out the window, yet his eyes were full of complexity.

"I'm not wrong."

He said softly, a hint of helplessness seeping through his voice:

"I'm just following orders to get things done."

His tone was calm, but the bitterness within was hard to conceal:

"I'm accountable to my superiors above, and I've given the victim's family an explanation—I'm… I'm not wrong."

Yu Dazhang left the Criminal Investigation Brigade and drove back to the sub-bureau.

His real purpose in coming to the brigade this time was to verify his own hypothesis.

If there was no problem on the brigade's side, then once it was confirmed that Wang Lingling's case was connected to illegal online lending, per procedure the case would be transferred to the brigade for consolidated handling.

Otherwise, he would solve the case independently, and use this case as a breakthrough to drag Zeng Xiaoxiao's case into it as well.

Arriving at the sub-bureau, he went straight to the Technical Section.

"Brother Qian, there's an online lending platform suspected of usury—I want you to help me trace the other party's IP address."

Having an acquaintance in the department makes things easier; even things that normally can't be done can get resolved.

Qian Cheng was Yu Dazhang's connection in the Technical Section.

You don't need many such connections—one is enough.

"You've come to the wrong place." Qian Cheng said, eyes wide:

"Illegal online lending falls under financial crime—you should go to the Economic Crime Investigation unit."

Actually, this really is somewhat hard to define.

Usury disputes fall under civil jurisdiction.

Violent debt collection falls under criminal jurisdiction.

This also involves fraud, extortion, and blackmail, among other things.

So only a portion of usury cases fall under the Economic Crime Investigation unit's jurisdiction.

It is now 2015.

From 2007 to the present, the online lending industry has gone from nothing to something; in 2015 the number of online lending platforms reached its peak, but it was also at this moment that the state began to step in.

Yu Dazhang remembered it very clearly.

The state began to take control in 2016, shutting down some illegal online lending companies and gradually establishing a regulatory framework.

So from the founding of the first online lending company in 2007, a full eight-year evolution of online lending devouring people had unfolded.

During this period, countless young people were dragged into a death spiral of borrowing to pay off loans.

They mortgaged their youth with their ID cards, overdrew their future with their credit, and in the sweet traps woven by algorithms, lived as "human-shaped chives" precisely harvested by capital.

It cannot be denied that online lending did indeed play a role in boosting the economy.

Young people, as the main force of consumption, often face the problem of insufficient funds.

And online lending, to a certain extent, solved their consumption dilemma, thereby driving consumption upgrades and promoting economic growth.

Yet human greed and desire—once having obtained one loan without working for it—will lead to thoughts of a second, a third, all the way to the nth time.

The consequences speak for themselves.

"The girl who committed suicide last night is connected to illegal online lending."

No lengthy explanation was needed—Qian Cheng had also been present last night, so Yu Dazhang only needed to state this fact.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Qian Cheng immediately picked up the thread: