System Only Gives Me Useless Gifts

On Monday morning, all eyes were glued to their phone as they commuted to work. The latest trending news in Yide revealed the exploits of corrupt lawyers running illegal agreements. If the headlines were about the Horsemen using bribes and underhanded tactics to win cases for their wealthy clients, the public would have skipped and scrolled past the headlines. However, the headline was pushed to the top by Bufu and his team, including a leaked footage of the exotic dancers at the Midnight Sky Bar. It was the only way for the news to spread quickly before the internet police could take it down. There were also various recordings of under-the-table deals dispersed throughout the net. The local news picked up on the trend and reported it over the air.

“What’s going on!?” Lawyer Nan called the police captain from her law firm's office.

The police captain did his best to explain the situation.

“I don't care what you need to do. Stop all the news from spreading!” Lawyer Nan demanded.

After an hour, the authority issued a gag order to stop all forums and news from the audio citing that it was an impending investigation. Afraid of potential fines, many websites removed the content, but as it was already leaked, many people still had the files. Later that evening, several recordings of the police and Horsemen deals were brought to light. The netizens were infuriated that they were being blocked from sharing information by the police force involved in the corruption themselves. They demanded more transparency and oversight from a higher authority.

At that moment, the Governor’s office issued that it would take over the investigation, and requested everyone’s collaboration to cease the spread of misinformation. Sunday ended quietly after Governor Ning’s announcement.

“Were you able to track down the IP address of the initial leaks?” asked Governor Ning to his IT tech.

“We are still working on it,” said the tech. He was rushed to work on his day off and had only found the original forum where the leaks originated from.

“I want you to track this person down before midnight,” Governor Ning stated.

The tech looked at the clock; it was almost 10pm. He groaned internally. A little after 1am, the tech tracked down the leak and messaged the address to the Governor. It was a public internet cafe, so it wasn’t possible to track down a specific person without further investigation.

The next morning, a video recording of Governor Ning being surrounded by the Horsemen, prostitutes, and drugs surfaced.

“What the hell! I want you to take the video down as soon as possible!” Governor Ning screamed into the phone at the tech.

“Look governor, it’s over,” the tech replied. He knew when it was time to jump ship.

Not just the tech, but nearly everyone who was associated with Governor Ning and the Horsemen quickly cut all ties. They were willing to testify to gain leniency. The corruption was big enough that Imperial City sent out investigators and prosecutors to take over the case and contain the fallout.

Aside from the videos, a list of clients and public officials was revealed with evidence of their underground connections. More than fifty public officials and CEOs were arrested. The chairman stepped in to announce that it was part of his plan to clear out corruption by past administrations. Many political officers around the country were implicated and arrested. All the major news outlets in the country picked up the story and even made it to foreign's news.

“Breaking news, Governor Ning has been arrested at noon by the State prosecutor’s office after leaks of his involvement in bribery, corruption, and prosecution,” said the news anchor. “The State Prosecutor’s office released a statement indicating that they have clear evidence to charge Governor Ning for several severe disciplinary violations. We will turn to Reporter Xin on-site at the Governor Ning’s estate.”

The camera switched to a young woman standing in front of the Ning’s family estate. The area was quarantined with yellow tape by the police and there were other reporters outside snapping pictures of the officers carrying out boxes and boxes of evidence.

“The officers are currently collecting evidence in former Governor Ning’s estate as well as his government office,” said the reporter. “It has not been revealed who is the source of the leak, but a source who speaks on anonymity suggests Governor Ning’s friend and confidante Mr. Bai has leaked the information. Mr. Bai, a former Yide judge, is currently missing. No one, including his family, knows of his whereabouts. According to miscellaneous sources, all of his properties and wealth had been donated to various charities a week prior to the week. Everyone believes it was an act of redemption for the former judge.”

Everyone had different opinions about Mr. Bai, but the majority of people felt he did the right thing. As for where he was, many speculated that he had left the country.

Ju De was brought in for a statement due to his relationship with Governor Ning. As there wasn’t any evidence of his involvement, the police didn’t press him too hard. The police had found files of his therapy sessions and were aware that he was bullied and abused while growing up. They returned the private session tapes to him as it was his private affair. There were other files relating to his mother that the police thought he should have. He was released after a day and returned to work as though nothing had happened. The Shennong's employees stopped gossiping as soon as they saw Ju De within earshot. They were all aware of Ju De’s connection to Governor Ning, but they didn’t expect him to act normal when he arrived in the office.

****

“Yun, are you all right? You seemed a bit stressed out,” Rouxi noticed that Li Yun hadn’t been researching much like usual. "Is it the lawsuit?"

After exposing Governor Ning, Shennong was still dealing with the lawsuit. Li Yun had assigned Wing Bo to steal all the assets from the Horsemen to recuperate the loss from all the lawyer fees from Lawyer's Gong stall tactic. Luckily, Shange & He was in disarray and Lawyer Gong was arrested on several charges of bribery and corruption. Shang had his own corruption, but it wasn’t as bad as Gong. He lost his license and was given three years of probation. Lawyer He officially retired, leaving Lawyer Lang in charge of the office.

Lawyer Lang spent a lot of time dealing with the fallout at Shang & He. As her workload increased, Lawyer Lang placed another lawyer and Zhangmi in charge of Shennong’s cases. They had already convinced the vast majority of patients to settle outside of court and sue the hospital.

The Galba Group also dealt with the patients by quickly settling out of court. They were able to convince the patients that Shennong was spreading lies to cover up the dubious nature of the drug. The footage of Li Yun’s acupuncture ability was even used to support the claim, calling him a liar and con artist.

If Li Yun didn’t know about his own ability, he had to admit he did look like a scammer. The lawyers from Chenchen Hospital were working that angle to counter-sue Shennong for fraud and deception. In the end, the only active lawsuit remaining was between Chenchen Hospital and Shennong Pharmaceutical.

"I'm not too concerned about the lawsuit," Li Yun responded. "I'm reviewing Shang Cang's treatment plan."

Two weeks ago, Shang Cang sent him an email agreeing to undergo surgery in China. Li Yun paid for his flight to Yide and scheduled the surgery the following week. Time was ticking down fast as the glioblastoma was aggressive. Li Yun had formulated a treatment plan, but it was much more difficult than his previous surgery. The tumor was located close to the center of the brain, between the motor cortex, sensory cortex, and temporal lobe. The easy part was blocking the arteries that fed into the tumor. The difficult part was removing the 5-centimeter tumor from the brain without extensive surgery.

Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) could be used to destroy a good portion of the tumor, but a small fried lump would remain. There was also the issue of the remaining microscopic cancer cells in the nerves. He could use temozolomide to destroy the remaining microscopic cancer cells, but he was concern about the effects it would have on Shang Cang. If he could find a way to destroy the cancer cells inside the nerves, he could exclude temozolomide from the treatment program.