CH 168

The similar malice smelled familiar to Lin Chen.

Once upon a time, someone planned a similar incident in order to play with human nature, arouse the malice of bystanders, and at the same time prove to all the well-meaning people in the world that the ordinary people around you would always be more vicious than you think, and the world was truly bad.

In fact, Lin Chen also thought about the significance of similar games in human nature, but the questions about morality and good and evil in human nature were themselves the ultimate questions for humanity. Countless philosophers, scientists, and psychologists have debated this extensively since ancient times, and with so many people discussing it in their daily lives, it should be meaningful.

However, with Xing Conglian not around, Lin Chen didn’t bother to think too deeply in this direction. He wasn’t engaged in philosophical research. He was just a lovelorn person who was left behind by his crush. Even if he did understand these ultimate questions about mankind, it wouldn’t make Xing Conglian come back a day earlier.

Lin Chen’s mood suddenly faded. He stood up and threw the bloody, broken porcelain in the trash.

Jiang Chao kept yelling in his ears, saying, “This wound is so deep”, “Consultant Lin, you mustn’t”, “Consultant Lin, you have to bandage it”, and so on.

Lin Chen looked back at him and said lightly, “I know. Is there any gauze here? I’ll stop the bleeding first.”

“How can you stop the bleeding? We have to go to the hospital right away.”

Looking at Jiang Chao’s appearance, Lin Chen thought of Xing Conglian. Xing Conglian really knew him.

At the embassy that day, after he finished his interrogation with Li Jingtian, Xing Conglian took him directly to the infirmary for bandage, because he knew he didn’t like hospitals.

But Xing Conglian never pointed this out and embarrassed him; instead, he dealt with it thoughtfully and meticulously.

Lin Chen spread out his hand. He saw the bloody wound on his palm that was cut by the porcelain and felt he was really done for.

He looked back at the police officer, who was tapping on the keyboard quickly after hanging up the phone, and said to Jiang Chao, “I think the result will come out soon, so it’s fine to go later.”

Jiang Chao wasn’t Xing Conglian, so he couldn’t explain to him why he was being so tough. Seeing that he was persistent, Jiang Chao could only nod his head and then immediately run out to get him the medicine box.

Lin Chen sat down next to the computer again and said to the police officer, “AIH Insurance has opened up the inquiry authority for you. Why is this so simple?”

“I said there might be insurance fraud, so the person in charge got nervous. Speaking of which, Consultant Lin, why do you think these criminals wanted to murder fans for insurance? Could it be that all the fans have listed the same beneficiary? Then isn’t it easy for us to find out who that beneficiary is?”

Lin Chen thought for a moment, then replied, “Assuming there’s a common beneficiary—let’s call him Mr. A—how can we prove that Mr. A planned the fire at the Christine Cultural Center? You can’t just say he was going to kill people and defraud the insurance because he’s the beneficiary, right?’

“Then let’s dig deep into the relationship between Meijing, Xiang Ye, and the beneficiary, Mr. A. There will be clues.”

Lin Chen shook his head and said, “First, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult for you to find empirical evidence. Second, I think when you find the relationship, it’s very likely you’ll dig up a huge criminal network. At that time, you must pay attention to your personal safety.”

“Don’t scare me.” The police officer was a little terrified.

“I’m being serious.” Lin Chen patted the police officer’s shoulder. “But don’t be afraid. There are many people around you, including me.”

The police officer let out a laugh that was as absentminded as Jiang Chao. “It’s okay. I’m not afraid of death.”

Lin Chen lowered his head and smiled, patted the other’s head, but didn’t speak again.

The computer issued a notification that the calculation was over, and the policeman hurriedly turned his head. Lin Chen followed suit. Colorful contents appeared on the comparison form. Although he couldn’t sort it out, he still understood something based on the increasingly frightened expression of the police officer.

Seeing that the police officer finally pushed the keyboard away and turned his head to look over in a daze, Lin Chen asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Consultant Lin, the direction you mentioned seems to be correct. It’s very likely that the fire set by Xiang Ye and Meijing was really for insurance,” he said as he held down the form and dragged it to the middle position. “There are three groups of insurance beneficiaries in the same situation. The first group should be a pair of sisters, and the beneficiary should be their own mother. The second group should be a couple whose beneficiary should be their own daughter. The last group is the most suspicious. There are 21 fans who filled out the personal accident insurance for a Doctors Without Borders* organization.”

*A charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It’s a non-governmental organization of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases.

“Doctors Without Borders?” Lin Chen was surprised. “Can a beneficiary be an organization?”

The police officer took a deep breath, then said, “It depends on the type of insurance, but since the beneficiary is listed here, it means that AIH Insurance approved of the purchase.”

Lin Chen nodded. “What you said makes sense, and I’m about to ask a dumb question.” He paused. “I just find it strange why these fans uniformly filled in the beneficiary for Doctors Without Borders…”

As Lin Chen spoke, he set his sights on the full name of the organization: [MSC Doctors Without Borders].

Lin Chen said to the police officer, “Can you calculate the total insurance amount first and then please check the relationship between Song Shengsheng and this organization and whether he has ever called on fans to donate to Doctors Without Borders?”

“Okay, I’ll check right away!” The police officer started to work.

Listening to the clacking of the keyboard, Lin Chen fell into contemplation again.

Could it really be that Meijing intends to murder more than 3,000 people just for the insurance claim of 21? The payoff was hardly proportional to the cost.

“Consultant Lin, I figured it out. Each person had a payout of 1 million, for a total of 21 million.

“US dollars?”

“Ah… The unit is our country’s currency.”

Lin Chen frowned. The amount was beyond his expectations. He was just about to say something when Jiang Chao finally came back with the first aid kit.

Lin Chen took the medicine box and, at the same time, informed Jiang Chao of the results of their investigation just now.

Vice-Captain Jiang patted his knees and said excitedly, “I know this organization. This is the oldest Doctors Without Borders organization in the world. My wife joined this organization before and also participated in a year-long medical aid operation in Africa. How could an organization like Doctors Without Borders scam people? I think it’s unlikely, right?”

Lin Chen nodded again. Jiang Chao’s words actually made sense. There was no reason for a Doctors Without Borders organization to do this. He opened the first aid kit Jiang Chao handed him and casually rummaged through it, looking for something.

Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, Jiang Chao began to ramble again. “But this beneficiary unit is too strange. I think there does seem to be a problem with it. I’ll investigate it later. Consultant Lin, what do you think is going on?”

Lin Chen didn’t answer. He opened the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and poured some on his hand nonchalantly. Jiang Chao was dumbfounded. “Consultant Lin, you’re being too rough.”

Lin Chen grimaced in pain, then looked at the technical officer and asked, “Have you found the relationship between Song Shengsheng and MSC?”

The other party nodded and clicked on the news report. “You guessed it right. Mr. Song Shengsheng did donate a lot of money to this MSC organization ten years ago. Although he didn’t directly call on fans to donate to Doctors Without Borders, since he took the initiative to do so, it still made a huge appeal. The so-called insurance beneficiaries may be decided through internal discussion within small fan groups. We won’t know the specific situation until we find these victims and ask them about it.”

“In other words, it may be just coincidence that the beneficiary of the personal accident insurance of the 21 fans is Doctors Without Borders?” The severe pain made Lin Chen sober. He picked up the gauze to wipe the blood from his hand.

“Maybe?” The police officer said, “But 21 people, isn’t this much?”

21 was indeed a clever number. It wasn’t so prominent among the more than 3,000 victims, but it would definitely become a clue for the police. Lin Chen finally realized that what Meijing and Xiang Ye were planning might be far beyond their imagination.

He thought again about the problem that Meijing kept constantly tricking him on the rooftop. Meijing himself wanted to use the revenge theory to cover up the insurance problem of AIH. What if this 21 was also a trap?

Lin Chen wiped away most of the blood clots and then changed the piece of gauze and pressed it on the wound. “First answer me this. Is there a high proportion of Song Shengsheng’s fans who buy AIH Insurance?”

“Among 3,021 people, a total of 1,922 have purchased insurance from AIH. Although I haven’t done a specific difference analysis, this ratio is relatively high.”

“Nearly two-thirds?”

“Correct.”

“So, if we put aside the beneficiaries, it should be AIH Insurance that will suffer the most economic loss if their action was successful.”

“Shit, Xiang Ye and Meijing aren’t trying to bring down AIH, are they?” Jiang Chao said.

Lin Chen frowned. Although Jiang Chao was just asking a rhetorical question casually, Lin Chen felt this might be the answer. “First calculate the total amount of insurance that AIH Insurance needs to pay.”

When the police officer heard this, he stared at him with wide eyes. “That’s probably an astronomical figure. Even if it were 2,000 people at 1 million each, it would total up to 2 billion.”

“Is it enough to bring down AIH?”

Jiang Chao took a deep breath. “Consultant Lin, your speculation is too scary, but AIH is a multinational insurance giant. Compensating such an amount shouldn’t be enough to bankrupt them, right?”

“The total amount is 4.5 billion,” the police officer said.

Jiang Chao almost bit his tongue. “So high?”

“I remember that a certain country once experienced a terrorist attack. The amount of fire insurance claims after the attack directly led to its bankruptcy. The total amount of claims that the company had to pay is about 3.5 billion.”

“But I still don’t think this number can really hurt AIH’s foundation,” Jiang Chao insisted.

“Whether the injury is foundational or not needs to be judged by carefully studying AIH’s financial report. If the company is in a period of internal losses, there may be some problems.” Lin Chen pressed the gauze on his palm tighter. “But I really don’t know anything about financial matters. This is just simple speculation.”

“No, no, your speculation does give us a general direction!” Jiang Chao said with emotion. “Hurry up. I’ll send you to the hospital right away. Don’t get caught up in the sequelae. I can’t have Lao Xing cut me to death!”

Lin Chen barely heard Jiang Chao’s words. He fell into contemplation again, but this time he wasn’t thinking about Xing Conglian, but another thing. Since it took up to ten years to plan behind the scenes for this incident, their purpose couldn’t be just simple revenge or targeting a certain Doctors Without Borders organization. It may not even be that they wanted to bring down a certain multinational insurance company. The three purposes may be mixed together, so what if there was a fundamental purpose that they weren’t aware of?

When thinking of this, Lin Chen felt chills all over again. At the same time, he also felt they were lucky. If the people behind the scenes had made any mistakes in the past ten years, it must be that they chose the wrong person to implement their plan.

Fortunately, Song Shengsheng persisted.

Lin Chen couldn’t help thinking like this. This was really an extremely fortunate outcome, but it was also awfully sad.

He seemed to see that blond young man standing in front of him again, patting his chest proudly, and looking at him with a big smile.Looking at Song Shengsheng’s figure, Lin Chen thought, ‘It’s amazing that you persisted for so many years. Just leave the rest to me.’