"Didn't I say not to disturb me right now?!" Eugene yelled at the door.
The knocking stopped, then started again, more forcefully.
"F***!" The furious Eugene walked to the door and pulled it open violently. "Don't you understand... You know, I'm...
I'm a man for all seasons, and... hello, Director!"
A dark-faced Brown stood at the door, glaring at Eugene.
Eugene's angry face instantly morphed into a smile.
"You're very arrogant, Director Eugene?" Brown said after a long pause.
Although it was all a big misunderstanding, since he was there, Brown couldn't just go back without doing anything.
So, Brown decided to do a round of inspections and mention the "friendly exchange" with the IRS to the relevant personnel.
The CIA's elite agent department, the IMF, couldn't be left out. So, after walking around for a bit, Brown came to Eugene's office.
And then, what just happened, happened.
"Director... I... it's just a small problem..." Eugene used what little brain power he had left to figure out how to explain his outburst. It was indeed a small problem.
...
"Thank you."
London, England.
Ethan thanked Morin again.
"You're welcome. I told you, it's just the basis for our partnership," Morin smiled.
"We don't know each other well, so we need a little assurance. If this partnership works out, we won't have to do this the next time we work together."
"Isn't ten million dollars enough for you?" Ethan raised an eyebrow, surprised at Morin's appetite.
"You can never have too much money, can you?" Morin
said.
"Besides, when I get the money, I'll give some of it to my director, keep some for myself, and I'll give some of it to you."
"To me?" Ethan shook his head. "I don't need it."
"That's not going to work," Morin said, looking at the rain outside the window. "You have to take this money..."
"...I see." Ethan understood what Morin meant and smiled bitterly.
"So the money laundering skills I mentioned earlier will come in handy very soon?"
"See? Sometimes it's good to have more skills in your arsenal," Morin laughed.
"I think you can show your director what real money laundering is."
"Real money laundering, isn't that when he doesn't know about it at all?"
Ethan said with a smile. The next moment, as if he had just remembered something, he asked,
"Oh, right, in that case, I have a question for you."
"What?" Morin leaned in to listen.
"This money..." Ethan asked. "Do I have to pay taxes on it?"
"Hahaha..." Both of them burst into laughter.
"What decent person pays taxes?" Morin said.
"As an IRS employee, do you want me to tell you about the hundred legal ways to evade taxes?"
"That's interesting," Ethan said. "I thought you'd just use your position to get out of it."
"No, no, that's a low-level tactic," Morin shook his head.
"As a dedicated IRS employee, I have, of course, mastered all the tax laws. I use them to find all the tax evaders, and in the process, I naturally figured out how to legally exploit the loopholes."
"What do you call that?" Ethan's smile faded, and his tone became sharper.
He gestured with his hands.
"A dragon slayer who becomes a dragon?"
He was still not used to this gray area of transactions and was using this to vent his frustration about Morin's blackmail.
"...No." Morin looked at Ethan, his smile gone. He said slowly and seriously, "The people you're talking about, they have indeed changed."
"Their hearts have been corrupted by profit, and their eyes have been blinded by greed.
They forgot their principles and started to curry favor with the powerful and bully the weak...
That's why they were assimilated and changed from heroes to dragons."
"But I am different from them."
"I'll admit, I've used my position to get gray income, but I can say that all the gray income I've gotten has come from drug dealers, gamblers, smugglers, and other people
who deserve to be punished."
"As for others, as long as they haven't done anything
horrible or illegal, and they haven't intentionally offended me, I have never, ever taken a single cent from them."
"I admit I'm not a good person, but I'm definitely not a bad person either. I'm just a normal person with all the emotions like sympathy, anger, greed, and lust... And I have my own set of principles."
"Ethan, there's money that can be taken, and there's money that, even if it's right in front of me, I will never touch. Similarly, there are things I will do, and there are things that you can't even mention in front of me."
"Because those are my principles, my bottom line, and my original intention."
"I will never become a dragon."
"Because my original intention will never be forgotten."
...
After Ethan left, looking pensive, Morin stared out the window at the London nightscape for a long time.
His sudden heartfelt confession brought up an emotion that he had tried to avoid for years but sometimes fell into: homesickness.
Morin knew he was just an ordinary person, not of high moral character, but not bad either.
"Moderation" was a good word to describe his
personality. And this ordinary him had suddenly gained
immense power and traveled to another world.
He had no restrictions, no restraints. Morin was really worried that he would become the "dragon" Ethan was talking about.
He still wanted to go back to his hometown someday, to see his parents, his sister, and all his family and friends again.
So, he couldn't let himself become a "dragon," because once you start to fall, you can't stop. He couldn't imagine
what he would become then.
He didn't want to become the person he hated the most.
So, he chose to follow his heart.
Going to extremes is easy; maintaining a balance is the hardest. The more he worried about falling, the more he had to face it.
Because if he went to the extreme of becoming a saint, then one mental breakdown would be enough for him to become a demon.
"One thought to become a demon, one thought to become a Buddha." These two seemingly opposite phrases are actually two extremes.
The conditions for reaching them are just as easy.
So, Morin never put too many restrictions on himself.
He would help good people and punish bad people; he would get angry and he would be happy; he would be lustful, but he would choose his target and not hurt others' feelings; he would earn gray income, but only from bad people like drug dealers...
He seemed to follow his heart, but he never crossed the line.
Those were the rules he had set for himself. He was still
himself and had never changed. After all, he still wanted to go back to his hometown as himself...
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