Instance game: I signed a pact with the gods, and the gods accused me of cheating

[It really is a head... Is that really her son?]

[Those things, those things that were peeking out of her pockets, if I'm not mistaken, they should be train tickets, right? Why did this old lady take so many trains? Even back then, there should have been a direct train route from southern Henan to Beijing...]

Following the gaze of the conman in the video, some sharp-eyed viewers noticed the train ticket peeking out of the old woman's pocket and immediately asked a question.

Is it possible that the elderly person had never left the countryside their entire life and therefore had no idea how to take the train, and was thus scammed by a scalper on the way?

【You're all intellectuals. After living in big cities for so long, have you almost forgotten the awkwardness and restraint you felt when you first came to the city from the countryside? How many of our parents' generation traveled by train alone back then? Even those who went out to work were mostly from our generation...】

[Is the person upstairs a 90s kid?]

[Born in '80, what about you, bro?]

[Those born in the 00s have no recollection of that period. When we were little, we always traveled by train with our parents. But I remember the first time we took a train, it was incredibly difficult to buy tickets. My mom and I waited from afternoon until evening to finally manage to snag two tickets to the border region. At the time, we were in the inland area because of my dad's work. During the Spring Festival travel rush, we wanted to go back to our hometown, so we squeezed into hard seats for three days with my mother. When we were tired at night, we slept under the seats of the old green train. This is probably a memory for our generation born in the 00s...]

【Hey hey hey! Don't even mention it, I rode the old green train when I was a kid. Back then, time always seemed to pass very slowly. Getting from one place to another was really difficult, often taking three or four days at a time, not to mention the Spring Festival travel rush】.

So, was the old woman's son really beaten to death because he was falsely accused of stealing gold?

Could there be some hidden story? Perhaps she simply believes her son is innocent. After all, even in 08, wouldn't the local police station and court in a small town act so indiscriminately?

[Haha, the person upstairs is definitely a Gen Z.]

[Not only that, it feels like they're from 05. Damn, when we talk about people born after 05, they still seem like little kids. But when I think about it, the earliest batch of people born after 05 are already 20 years old. Time really flies!]

Wait, why are you guys creating an age-based hierarchy?

[Because, young comrades, in that era you may have been born into but didn't personally experience, many things weren't as they seem now. For example, do you know why many people born in the mid-90s and early 95s are academically excellent, even though they actually came from small towns? There's a popular internet term for them now: "small-town exam takers." These are the kind of small-town exam takers who, around 2000 or even 2005, were desperately trying to stay in big cities?]

[Because small towns not only have poor medical conditions, but also poor public security. What's even darker is the human nature of people in those places. Some wealthy and powerful people can't stand seeing an ordinary family's child achieve success. I was an excellent student in school, but there was a guy in my class whose background might seem ordinary to you now. To be honest, his family just owned a brick factory, but back then, in our small town, they were incredibly powerful. He was the school's leading troublemaker. I never messed with them, but these people would inexplicably look down on people like us who were focused on studying and changing our fate through education. In the era when Hong Kong movies and gangster films were all the rage, joking around and bullying men and women seemed to be the life motto of many young people. Those who studied hard were seen as outcasts in their eyes.]

They also became the primary target of their unprovoked attacks...

The land that gave me birth and raised me left me with too many bad memories and shadows from my upbringing. Even now, after years of working in the public sector, I still don't want to go back to that place. I've brought my parents here now. It's not that I look down on small places or admire big cities, but small places really have too many dark sides that you big cities would never see.

[Heh, the rule of law in our society is so much better now, kids. Around 05, when you little rascals were born, back in my hometown, there were still debt collection agencies and loan sharks. Violent debt collection and harassment were common; people were getting killed every few days. The sheriffs couldn't do anything about it. Most of the time, they'd just pull out a written agreement and say, "Officer, this guy owes me money. Why don't you help him pay it back?" That would shut many sheriffs up. They couldn't do anything... they could only send you to court for the verdict. Many people couldn't take the pressure of debt collectors anymore; some jumped off buildings, some committed suicide, and some who escaped never dared to contact their families back home again!]

[I haven't been back for a while since becoming a sheriff and being too busy with work. But I heard those debt collection companies haven't gone out of business yet, though they've changed their names to something like "Dimensional Reduction Companies," which means they use a dimensional reduction tactic—a dimensional reduction attack against debtors!]

Upon seeing the comment above, a netizen named 'Park Guk-chang' immediately asked a question.

Paying back debts is a matter of course. Aren't these debt collection companies using shady practices to help people collect debts a good thing?

The man who had just spoken, "The children of Nancun bully me because I'm old and weak, and take turns rewarding me," immediately sneered disdainfully.

[So do you think banks need to use violence to collect debts? Why don't banks need to? Why aren't banks worried about your inability to repay and are willing to lend you money? Isn't it all because they conduct thorough approval processes, verify your repayment ability, and confirm that you have other assets before approving a loan?]

"So who do you think is behind those debt collection companies? Loan sharks! Don't they have rigorous due diligence when lending money? They usually thoroughly investigate how many people are in your family, how many are able-bodied, and whether you have the ability to repay before lending you money. Do they want the money in your pocket? No, they want the money you'll earn in the future—the money your family of three or four will earn in the future. From the moment you sign and put your fingerprint on their papers, do you think they're only eyeing your family's current meager earnings? No, that's not it. What they actually want is the entire income of you, your wife, your son, your elderly parents—your family of five or six—for the next two or even three years. These kinds of people, once they've set their sights on a target, will leech off that person. They won't stop until they've drained you dry." In the end, the original loan of 3,000 becomes 50,000, 50,000 becomes 300,000, and 300,000 becomes 3 million. It's like a bottomless pit, with interest compounding and interest accumulating, making it impossible to pay off. From the moment you borrow money from them, your entire family is destined to work for them to pay off their debts for the rest of your lives!

What's even more despicable are those who deliberately set traps to make you owe money. It's only because there are now standardized laws and regulations that the interest rates are so high that even if you go to court, you only need to repay a reasonable portion. But that doesn't mean these kinds of people have no place to exist. They're no longer focused on lending to ordinary people; they're lending to small and micro-enterprises and startups, under a different name—now called a performance-based agreement. Within a year, you use the money lent to operate your company. If you don't achieve positive growth to meet certain business requirements, the other party can sue you, recover all the money they gave you, and unconditionally acquire your company…

Perhaps this scene resonated strongly with some people born in the 80s and 90s, as comments from veteran players who had experienced that era began to pop up in the comment section of the official Shenlu player forum. They frequently expressed that the era was not as bad as some people thought, but it was not as good as everyone imagined either. It's just that everyone has a different background, a different perspective, and a different viewpoint, so the world they see is also somewhat different.

Have you ever heard of steel mills from that era? Back then, there was a local gang that got wiped out because they offended the daughter of a steel mill owner. In today's terms, it was like a local scumbag running into a local tyrant. It's no exaggeration to say that back then, the steel mill owner's son and daughter probably only learned about the illegality of murder in the outside world after leaving our area. You should understand what I mean!

[Alright, alright, stop talking nonsense. Everyone's been through that era. Those who say this act like they're incredibly knowledgeable. Hurry up and stop spamming. So what's that guy called "Old Swindler" up to?]

Can't you tell? He probably wants to take that old woman to petition the government, right?

[Wasn't Laoqian a player of the Divine Path at this time? Why was he meddling in other people's business?]

[Maybe they felt sorry for the other person...]

[Bullshit, do you think we can't understand Nantong dialect? Didn't that conman tell his colleagues that he also took that old woman to the police station? He's being two-faced, pretending to be a good person while betraying that old lady...]

[To the person upstairs, I feel like your emotional intelligence really needs a makeover.]

[I admit you can understand Nantong dialect, but you can't understand human speech. I suggest you go back to school as mentioned above, and go back to where you came from!]

[Agreed].

Add one.

On the other side, in the scene presented by the memory trial, the conman, in full view of everyone, picked up the canvas package containing the human head, and then his expression turned calm as he took the old woman's hand. The old woman's eyes were red from crying, and her vision was so blurred that she could probably not see the road ahead. If it weren't for the conman, she might have fallen again. Several other colleagues dressed as train station staff tried to persuade him, but the conman waved them off.

"Alright, I'll be right back, don't worry..."

After saying this, the conman glanced at the old woman who was crying so much that she barely had the strength to walk or even stand, hesitated for a moment, and then slowly squatted down.

"Come on up, I'll carry you!"

[It's true, it's true. This case even caused a sensation in the central government back then. The old woman Wang Ciniu's son was working for a private mine owner named Bai in southern Henan, carrying ore. One day... Bai couldn't find more than 280 grams of gold in his bedroom. Subsequently, Wang Ciniu's son, who had entered Bai's room that day, was listed as a suspect. Yes, without any evidence. I just checked the case file. When Bai used the law, he couldn't find any evidence because the other party first used the law to tie up Wang Ciniu's son. At the time, there seemed to be four suspects, but some of them were afraid of being beaten, so in order to exonerate themselves, they directly claimed that someone else stole it. They said they didn't see the thief's face clearly, but he was short, liked to wear tattered clothes, and always carried a bag. Actually, this range is quite broad. After all, people who bring their own food on construction sites often carry bags. The economy in that area is not developed, and there are many people wearing tattered clothes and short people are everywhere. But I don't know why...]

[Coincidentally, these characteristics just happened to match those of Wang Ciniu's son. And because Wang Ciniu's son did enter Bai's room that afternoon at Bai's request to retrieve something, Bai concluded that Wang Ciniu's son had stolen his gold. However, during the subsequent investigation, when the police questioned the four parties involved, they all denied providing Bai with any clues such as physical characteristics.]

At the time, after being tortured into confessing, he went to the police station to report the case, using his confession to prove that Wang Ciniu's son had indeed stolen gold. Zhang then intervened. In reality, all of this was baseless accusations. Later, during the interrogation, Zhang, a police officer and Bai's childhood friend, seeing that Wang Ciniu's son refused to admit to stealing gold, followed Bai's advice and severely beat him, leading to his death. Ultimately, because his mother, Wang Ciniu, went to Beijing to have her head taken, it caused a national sensation and led to another thorough investigation.