Although the way I received this position in front of me was unjust, it could even be said to be mean and despicable.

But I... didn't feel ashamed of it.

First of all, the leader I used was not worthy of sympathy, nor should he receive sympathy.

Secondly, such positions that can be arranged by nepotism are not worth showing off.

Let me take a step back and for a unit that is full of unspoken rules and corruption from top to bottom, I really cannot invest in any loyalty or a sense of honor.

Maybe people will be like this after being in society for a long time. Each of us becomes more and more shameless in the process of self-persuasion, and then strives to convince ourselves that this "shamelessness" is a manifestation of "maturity".

Those incompetent people will often give up thinking and self-reflection on this "mature" path and become both ridiculous and pathetic double-faced people. They nodded and bowed in front of others during the day and were as tired as their grandsons, and at night they went online to seek cheap superiority and vent their emotions by suppressing and pretending. If you encounter someone who likes to ask "How old are you?" when you argue with others on the Internet for certain opinions, then you will basically meet such people... There is no doubt that the guy behind the screen is probably not capable, and he is not young anymore.

I don't want to become that kind of person, so I will also torture myself when I convince myself.

I have also asked myself: "Can you be forgiven if you use the wrong means in the right place? Can you even say that you are doing good things?"

Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with the answer, so I could only advise myself to vary from person to person, adapt to the times, and distinguish according to the matter, and have a clear conscience.

Of course, this time, I cannot say that I am doing something good. After all, my motivation contains selfish elements: from the results, I received better rewards and higher social status.

No matter how insiders think of me, at least in the eyes of most uninformed outsiders, "Investigational reporters" are still much more decent than "Brother Paixin".

People live in this world, no matter how maliciously others speculate and slander you behind their backs, as long as you can make them polite to you on the surface, this is already very good.

This is something most of us have been pursuing.

When you think thoroughly, you will find that it is impossible to make everyone respect you from the bottom of their hearts or understand you, and it is impossible on the day you die; in this era, even emperors, great men, saints... will be taken out by people to arrange and slander them at will, let alone us mortals.

Therefore, what we need is never a real "identity", but some "labels".

"Reporter", "Doctor", "Teacher", "Expert", "Leader", "Talent", "Rich", "Boss", "Famous Artist", "Successful People"... We pursue these labels that can make strangers look up to you, at least in front of you, and put them on as much as possible, and enjoy vested interests. This is our pursuit and the concept we have been inculcated since childhood.

No matter how fake and empty the textbooks we read are, the real environment will eventually point us to this path.

I understand all of this, I understand it all.

But I, Li Xiaofan, still have a dream that is not so realistic and selfish.

I want to be a pair of eyes, ears, mouthpieces... to show people in the world what they cannot see or hear, but should go and see and listen to.

I want those who give up thinking and introspection to regain the habit of reflection and the courage to question.

I will use any means to realize this ideal and implement my justice, even if... it is a kind of despicable justice.

…………

On September 9, it had been a week since I became an investigative reporter.

I am almost familiar with the working environment here and have become nods with my colleagues.

But in fact, my job doesn’t require a good relationship with other people in the office. I just need to flatter the editor-in-chief; others can’t control me, and I can’t control them either.

I am mainly responsible for print media and online news, so I am not the type of reporter who needs to interview others directly in front of the camera, and I don’t have to provide me with a photographer or something. All I have to do is investigate, collect evidence, and then turn what I see and hear into a text report and hand it over to my boss... that is, the editor-in-chief’s desk. As long as he nods and says he can publish it, I will not be in vain.

My editor-in-chief is Luo. He is over 50 years old this year and has a good education. When he was young, he went to the New York Herald for an internship, but because of his poor ability and bad character, he was driven away before he even passed the internship.

This... except him, I know about it in the entire unit.

Because I've investigated him.

Many people think it is difficult to investigate a person, but it is difficult to do if it is not a policeman. But in fact, as long as you understand some skills and dare to wander around the boundaries of the law, a lot of intelligence is within your reach.

Editor-in-chief Luo was able to get to this position in our unit, on the one hand, because of his profound flattery and fraudulent ability, and on the other hand, because of his experience of "having worked in the New York Herald."

Although 99% of office workers will dislike their leaders to varying degrees, despise their leaders' ability to do things, or question their leaders' resumes, fewer than 1% of them will take action to confirm their views.

I am that 1%.

When I was sure to be transferred to this department, I launched a comprehensive investigation into Editor Luo... this man who would be my immediate boss in the future.

First, look at the written materials.

The archives edited by Luo are naturally present in the Human Resources Department. Although I am not from the Human Resources Department, I can still see them because I was still "Paixin" at that time; all the files that have been in mailro will be backed up in our computers. "Backup first and then print" is the basic charter, which is to prevent the files from being lost or damaged during the delivery process.

Although these materials cannot be taken out of the company (the anti-theft measures are very complete), I can just memorize them when I read them... Don't forget, I am from the Chinese department.

Then, we will investigate this person’s “review”.

This is even simpler. Every one or two days, I will take a few cups of milk tea from the internet celebrity store, and go to the floor where Editor Luo works in my free time in the afternoon, find an excuse to stand at the front desk for a while, chat with the front desk, and then chat with those who are chatting with the front desk, and you can basically find a rough idea.

However, this matter cannot be done too frequently. You must know how to be sensible and stop when you click. If you go there every day for a week, the front desk will misunderstand that you are interested in her, and then you must ask her out, otherwise she will find that you are actually useless to her... At that time, she will be a little unhappy. Even if she didn't like you at first, she planned to reject you or treat you as a spare tire, but if you stop some ambiguous relationship that she thought already exists, she will hate you, and then she will start to say bad things about you behind the scenes.

Human nature is so troublesome. I also think these are very troublesome if I know how to figure them out. If I were a woman and were born in ancient times, I might have the opportunity to use this knowledge in palace fighting activities, but unfortunately I am not.

Back to the topic, after understanding Editor Luo to a certain extent, my doubts about his resume became very strong. In order to verify this... I took a weekend to apply for a tourist visa and went to New York.

Before leaving, I had contacted an old reporter who retired from the New York Herald by email and made an appointment to have a cup of coffee with him.

Of course, I can't ask him directly about Editor Luo on the Internet. I'm not afraid of leaving any chat records, but that you may not pay attention to you when you ask him such questions directly.

When I met that old reporter, I thought of a complete set of rhetoric. He had written a well-known report on environmental governance and almost won the Pulitzer Prize. I used this as a breakthrough and claimed that I was determined to become an investigative reporter when I was in school because I read his report. Now I finally got what I want, so I want to meet him, chat with him, and ask him, the "life mentor", to teach me some experience.

As I expected, the old man agreed very readily.

"Arrogance above average", "different degrees of self-righteousness", and "desire to be valued" can be said to be common problems in the lawyer and journalist industry.

Imagine an old man who "almost won the Pulitzer Prize" who is now retired at home; he is not old enough to have to go to a nursing home, and there is no financial difficulty; he is no longer busy from morning to night like before, and his interpersonal relationships in the past have gradually become alienated and decreased; when he was young, his wife had already left him because of his obsession with work, and his children only met him a few times a year...

What does such an old man need? Money, social status? He does not lack these, or it is no longer important to him now.

What he desires most is nothing more than the company of others. If this "other" is his relative, it is best to be a friend. There is really no... a stranger with kindness or respect is also great.

I got off the plane that day and contacted him, forty minutes later we met in the cafe.

When the old man saw that I was still holding my luggage (I didn’t have much luggage, I only brought a small suitcase) he came. But he was so moved that he shook hands with me enthusiastically and forcefully, as if I was a confidant he had never met from afar.

In the next hour, I had a great chat with him. After all, I did a lot of homework before coming and read a lot of reports he wrote before. "Memorizing things" is my special skill, otherwise I would not have been able to get into college, as a poor student.

I could see his satisfaction from the old man's eyes, and I could see that... it has been a long time since no one has listened to him carefully for such a long time.

Some people have never been valued or admired by people outside their families in their lives, and some people have enjoyed those things, but one day... usually the day they retire, these will disappear with it.

This psychological gap, coupled with the arrogance that these people are used to, will make them very disappointed.

It is indeed pitiful and sad to be older. When a person inevitably becomes less and less valued, or even regarded as a burden, and his body and brain gradually fade, they will slowly be swallowed up by loneliness and loneliness; many people will be easily merciless when they are young, but they do not trust their relatives because the scammers may spend more time with them.

I am also a liar.

I deceived him into trust and got what I wanted.

When I refilled the coffee for the third time, I pretended to mention my boss, Editor Luo; the old man naturally no longer remembered that guy, but I was prepared for it. I took out my laptop and clicked on a photo of Editor Luo's internship at the New York Herald. This guy hung this photo directly on the wall of his office to show off, so it was not difficult to get it.

In that photo, in addition to Editor Luo, there were several other interns and the reporter who was responsible for "leading" them at the time, that is, the old man in front of me.

Behind old American media like the New York Herald are mainly controlled by white chaebols, and racial and gender discrimination are deeply rooted in open and secretly; Editor Luo was interned more than 20 years ago, and "political correctness" was not as tight as it is now, so there are very few Chinese interns. When the old man saw the photos, he had an impression of him.

Maybe I was worried about my friendship with Editor Luo, so the old man took some turns when talking, but it was still obvious... The person with the surname Luo was very different.

It seems that his tricks of flattery and fraud have not changed, but they are not feasible everywhere.

Three hours later, I said goodbye to the old reporter. Before leaving, the old man patted my shoulder, praised me, and blessed me.

If it were ten years ago, before he retired, he might not have been reluctant to sit down and have coffee with people like me; even if he came, he would not have talked to me for so long.

At that time, he would probably put on airs and say something he was very busy, interrupt my statement roughly, criticize my country's freedom of the press, forcibly instill some values ​​he agreed with, answer some questions he wanted to answer, ignore other ones, and after a wave of superiority, he left a sentence "I bought this order, thank you for wasting my time", then threw down a few pieces of cash and left rudely.

But now he stood on the street, waved his hand, watched me get into the taxi, and he turned his head and breathed a sigh of relief, walking home.

Can he realize afterwards that I was just inquiring about information from him?
Chapter completed!