Chapter 127: The Test of Humanity

Kang Long had been home for a while, now staring blankly at the bundles of cash spread across his bed.

Three hundred sixty-three thousand! This was the first time in his life he had ever seen so many bundles of bills together. Unlike an intangible number, money had weight; just moments ago, the more than twenty pounds resting on his shoulders felt heavy, yet he didn’t feel tired at all. He knew that the weight pressing down was money.

The weight on his shoulders was heavy, and now that he had set it down, it pressed heavily on his heart.

Back then, in order to make some money, he had climbed over a wall into a factory to steal scrap copper and iron. At best, he managed to sell it for just over a hundred yuan, only to be sentenced to six months in prison! Seasons passed—spring to autumn—and sometimes it felt like time flew by, but inside those walls, each day dragged on endlessly. Six months! Kang Long felt as if the first half of his life had been spent behind bars.

All for less than two hundred yuan!

Those red bills—only two of them back then—now were piled high over the entire bed!

Kang Long wept alone, facing those three hundred sixty-three thousand yuan in cash. If only he could travel back to before his imprisonment, he would take a bundle of bills and slap his own face with it—look! This is money! Can you have a little ambition?

Three hundred sixty-three thousand, right here on his own bed.

...

At the restaurant, Yang Ze scratched his head in frustration. Everyone else had responded to the message—except Kang Long. He had tried several times to call Lao Kang to ask what was going on, but Xiao Cheng hadn’t allowed it.

The waiting dragged on interminably.

Friendship was now being tested by money. Fortunately, among those who had gone, Da Gang, Yang Huo, Luo Han, Nezha, and Da Jiang all passed the test. The only uncertainty now was Kang Long.

Time ticked away, each passing minute sinking deeper into Xiao Cheng’s heart.

They had just earned two million, but Xiao Cheng felt no joy. Wang Yang sensed the strange atmosphere too, smoking cigarette after cigarette, filling the private room with choking smoke.

“小 Scholar, why do you think we succeeded but can’t feel happy?” Yang Ze asked.

Xiao Cheng didn’t open his eyes. “You can’t feel happy because they all made more than thirty thousand yuan, but you didn’t.”

“Damn! So all that driving you around, covering your escape, was for nothing?”

“At most I’ll reimburse your gas money.”

“Damn!” Wang Yang threw a napkin box across the table; Xiao Cheng caught it gently and set it down.

“Stop it. Let me be alone for a while.”

Yang Ze couldn’t sit still either. “Fine, I’ll take a walk and see if they’ve arrived.”

He pushed open the door and left, leaving Xiao Cheng alone in the smoke-filled room. The air was thick with secondhand smoke. Xiao Cheng turned on the exhaust system, its loud hum filling the room, buzzing in his head.

“Wen Xiaodao, come out; let’s talk,” came a voice in the virtual world.

Wen Xiaodao appeared, impeccably dressed in a suit, calm and elegant, smiling like a confident psychological counselor.

“Why, even though we succeeded, can’t I feel happy?”

“Success? What is success? Success must have a goal. What is your goal?”

Xiao Cheng was speechless. A goal?

This operation had been a multi-pronged strike: inexplicably pocketing over a million yuan, establishing himself as the leader among these brothers, hitting Lao Wai’s underground casino, avenging Ding Sina, returning money to Crippled Ding, diverting the enemy’s attention, capturing the fugitive Xiao Tao, and funneling hatred toward Lei Yang...

But which was the goal he truly desired?

“Let’s take it step by step,” Wen Xiaodao began, analyzing all of Xiao Cheng’s moves:

“Starting with Crippled Ding—you could have simply returned the money to him. Give him eighty thousand and he would have been grateful. But you made him gamble to win a bigger pot. Why?”

“Purpose...” Xiao Cheng faltered.

“I’ll tell you: first, you wanted to test Crippled Ding. If he followed your instructions, quietly winning eighty-eight thousand without drawing attention, no one would suspect him, and Lao Wai’s people wouldn’t target him. But if he got greedy and bet recklessly, drawing early attention to himself, he would become a pawn, distracting their firepower while your team remained safer, right?”

“If the casino retaliated against him, it would be his own fault for greediness, and it would still have nothing to do with you.”

Xiao Cheng had to nod. That had indeed been his intention, and it was fair to Crippled Ding: to win more meant taking more risks.

“Next, you had Wang Yang gather the brothers to go to the casino to make money. Everyone was earning, but you kept Wang Yang close to test his patience, right? To see if he could endure the boredom.”

Xiao Cheng shook his head. “Not entirely. More than that, I was thinking of safety. Wandering alone outside the casino was too dangerous. If anything happened, Yang Ze driving could help me escape.”

Wen Xiaodao nodded, continuing, “You only told Wang Yang the secret to winning at the casino, keeping others in the dark. That was to establish absolute authority in front of Luo Han and the others, right? Of course, also for safety, but you can’t deny that building prestige was one of your goals.”

They had won so much inside. If someone really took notice and dragged them to a secluded place for interrogation, some might crack. Not telling them was a precaution, since these weren’t yet sworn brothers.

“With gains come losses. Being their leader means responsibility. Whether for safety or because of the crisis awareness from your past, you need a team around you to act on your behalf. That’s understandable. But unconsciously, you’ve taken on a burden. If Kang Long really runs off with the money, will you feel at ease?”

Logic told Xiao Cheng this wasn’t a bad thing, but a hollow feeling lingered.

“This setup you devised was clever. You infiltrated their control center, manipulated the games, used Crippled Ding as a decoy, sent brothers to take risks and earn money for you. Then, before the casino could figure out what happened, you timed it perfectly for Lei Yang to lead a raid!”

“After the police intervened, gambling equipment would be seized, so no one would know what tricks you played in the system. Lao Wai would never learn who was behind it, and even if suspicion arose, the first suspect would be Lei Yang, the second Crippled Ding. Your brothers—or rather, your subordinates—would appear as mere gamblers riding the wave, making them the safest. Even if they were investigated, no one would connect them to you behind the scenes.”

Xiao Cheng blushed a little, defending himself. “Actually, I gave everyone a choice!”

Indeed, Crippled Ding could have declined to gamble or stayed prudent, avoiding suspicion. Luo Han, Kang Long, and the others could choose to participate or not, and after winning, could decide to keep the money or hand it over. Even Lei Yang could have opted to confess to the police, rejecting Xiao Cheng’s plan.

“But why do you still feel unhappy?”

Xiao Cheng couldn’t figure out this question: why, despite success, was he unable to rejoice?

“Because you’re probing their humanity. Whether friend or foe, you’re testing their nature, forcing them to make choices. Interrogating human nature is cruel. When you do something cruel, you naturally cannot be happy.”

Suddenly, Xiao Cheng was overwhelmed by a profound sense of defeat—this bitter feeling after total success.

“Moreover, your own humanity is being tested.”

“But it’s okay. Only friends who have passed such tests are worth trusting. Only those whose humanity has been interrogated can truly shine.”

——————

A high-IQ scheme, calculating every player in the game, even himself. Speaking of tests: the midnight hour is my trial; the first watch is yours. You must hold fast! Voting every day without fail!