The cousins had once ditched classes when they were in middle school. They went to a cinema to watch a crime and gangster film, and both of them promised to become policemen.

 Ma Jingtian liked those heroic feelings where they came onto the scene with their own background music. Though why did his cousin also want to be a policeman?

 Those vague memories slowly became clear in the midst of the smoke.

 He remembered now. His cousin had said that being a policeman was stable. It was a civil servant and a cradle-to-grave job.

 There wasn’t any dream or perseverance. All he wanted was stability.

 The memories made Ma Jingtian cough. The smoke had choked the tears out of him. The person he assumed was on the same path and like-minded as him was actually different from the very beginning.

 In the room, Qianmo quietly waited for the cousin to finish crying.

 “I am the only person who can help you now. Your actions didn’t cause me any real harm. As long as I forgive you, everything is still reversible—you didn’t do any other things, right?”

 “No! Just this once. Once…” The cousin wanted to take back his words, but it was already too late.

 Hence, he had presented a spaced-out state and refused to say a single word. But, neither did he want to let the truth out.

 “She told you this would be the only time, right? She also said she wouldn’t threaten you ever again?”

 The cousin raised his head up with a shocked expression, as if asking how did you know?

 “The rationale behind being threatened and domestic violence is the same. It’s either zero or numerous times. The minority that was able to stop was due to the interference of external factors.

“For example, he was too old to continue the violence, or the wife’s family was able to pressurize him into stopping. However, instead of waiting for a miracle, why don’t you grasp destiny into your own hands again?”

 Threatening had the same logic. If they wanted the threat to stop, they either had to go through proper legal channels to take out the person making the threats, or they had to pray hard that the bad guys had a car crash or were struck by lightning, or they had to run away and hide from debtors forever.

 Therefore, no matter whether threatening or domestic violence, forgiveness was conniving. Of course, one could eliminate the filthy rich and those who had mastered the kungfu “Golden Shield” and could survive any beatings.

 “How do I grasp it? I’m already, I’m… gone. Everything about me is over.”

 The academy had such a strict disciplinary policy; how would they tolerate a person who was tainted? He wasn’t going to get the civil servant, cradle-to-grave job he had yearned for in the past.

 His father’s hard work and his studies over the years were all destroyed at that moment.

 “How could you say it’s over for you at such a young age? The consequences caused by this incident are still not serious. Tell me, and I’ll help you think of a solution.”

 “It’s useless! She has my photo. I’m dead meat if the academy finds out!” The cousin roared with red eyes. After all his years of blood, sweat, and tears, he was inches away from his dream; how could he accept the fact that he would be back to square one now?

 If this incident hadn’t happened, he would be entering a good unit the moment he graduated and enjoy stability for his whole life. But now it was all a pipe dream. Gone!

 Qianmo looked at this man’s tortured expressions coldly, completely unmoved. She couldn’t sympathize with him at all. Actually, she even despised him.

 Just like 99% of the bad guys that were caught.

 These people only regretted that they had lost their interests and happiness, but they were never sorry for the trouble they had caused for others. All the remorse was for themselves.

 This type of person didn’t deserve to wear the sacred and honorable uniforms and didn’t deserve to be in the police force.

 Qianmo already had a verdict in her heart. This chap would definitely get expelled after this incident was over. It had nothing with her personal vendetta, but a case of simple incompatibility.

 “The incident has already happened, and the outcome is irreversible. Are you willing to let the woman, who set you up, off? Are you willing to lose everything while she gets away without a scratch?”

 “I’m not willing!”

 “Then tell me everything. I cannot promise that the academy wouldn’t expel you, but what I can do for you is make the person who used you pay the same price as you.”

 The cousin raised his head. Qianmo had successfully lit up the fire of hatred in him.

“Tell me. Cooperating with me is your only and last resort.”

 He finally spilled the beans under Qianmo’s intense psychological attack.

 During the summer holidays, he met a lady online. When she was in town, he would accompany her to play. Under her instigation, he logged onto a website in an internet cafe. It claimed to be a lottery site, which, in fact, was a gambling site.

 This new form of gambling wasn’t established yet, so he was only curious how it actually worked and wasn’t really into it. However, after a few rounds, he really received the funds transfer.

 He began to lose control of himself when he felt the taste of real money so easily.

 Like all gamblers, he was only trying out at the start and would quit the next day. But when the next day arrived, he would begin to think that he would stop after he earned a certain sum. Half of his person was already “stuck in the mud” when his head finally cleared.

He couldn’t even remember what he had gone through for the past two weeks. The cousin failed to extricate himself once he discovered he was already up to his neck in debt.

 A few thousand dollars wasn’t a small sum to his family. Both his parents were average workers, who received a fixed salary in this county city. Even more, they still had to send him to college in the capital. Nevertheless, had he told his family at the start, they would have been able to save him.

 His parents would at most give him a beating, then return the money, and make him stay away from this nasty hobby. He would be properly disciplined, and things wouldn’t become so bad.

 But, the cousin didn’t dare to tell his family at all. His father had a bad temper, and his mother was someone who liked to gain petty advantages. She could spend half a day bargaining when buying groceries. If they knew he was losing money out there, they would definitely beat him up. Hence, one wrong step led to a catastrophe.

 He had to think of solutions to return the money himself since he couldn’t tell his family. Yet, he was still a student. He couldn’t gather such a large sum whenever he wanted.

 Furthermore, the lady who lent him the money changed her attitude and said if he couldn’t return the money, he would have to work for her. Or else, she would go to the academy to expose him.

 Qianmo’s incident wasn’t the first task that woman had sent him to do. There was another one before that, where he had to go collect debts with others. He was well aware this job wasn’t only going to get him expelled from the academy, it would even violate the law. He had wanted to decline, but the other party threatened him with the online gambling website, so he had to follow suit.

 He had wanted to overtly agree but covertly oppose when he went there. He decided to appear on the scene but wouldn’t raise his hand. However, the choice wasn’t up to him.

 The die was already cast. The other party had set him up deliberately, so this young punk without any working experience had no chance at all. He was forced by his companions to hit the debtee with a rod the moment he arrived. Someone even took photos of him in action.

This kind of aiding and abetting was mostly similar.

 Maybe at the start, he had never thought of harming anyone. But he was forced, and slowly, he transformed from the victim to the perpetrator. Finally, he would replicate the process of how he was blackmailed onto other innocent people.