Chapter 216 Bad things Central, South Street. This is the entire central resource distribution center. Various industrial resources such as coal, iron ore, gasoline, etc. sent from other resource cities will first be pulled here, loaded and unloaded by workers and distributed, and finally sent to various research institutes or power plants and gas stations. And here, the lowest group of people in the entire central government gathered. The cabinet called these people hangers-on, and did not acknowledge that they were proletarians like laborers and farmers, but rather a group of ordinary central citizens who wanted to earn some extra money in their spare time. In fact, people who work in Nanjie do have central household registration, but they have no place to live in the city. The vast majority of these people were special recruits who graduated from colleges and universities. They were recruited by major laboratories because of their excellent academic performance. They worked hard to make money and were brought to the central government from their hometowns. They were once families of laborers and farmers. However, as the only children of their specially recruited graduates who could enjoy a stable life in the central government, an accident occurred in their subsequent experiments. Either they died or became seriously ill, and overnight they went from being the backbone of the family to being a burden. Many such families will eventually give up on treatment and abandon their children, who were once the pride of the family but have now become the family nightmare, to fend for themselves. Others will sell everything they can and return to their hometowns.
There are also some people who are unwilling to watch their children die in such pain. These people want to stay in the central government and use the medical conditions here to treat their children, but the high costs of those hospitals are too high for them to afford. These people have no status, no jobs and are not accepted by the city. In the end, they can only find the same hard labor here on South Street as before, desperately trying to make money to survive. Four or five hours after dark, the central government's "hangers-on" who had worked hard all day finally left their posts, exhausted. Most of these people have no fixed place to live, and almost all the money they earn every day is sent to the hospital. For convenience, they set up a tattered tent in a nearby park and make do with it night after night. However, in recent days, the top cabinet has begun to inspect various places in order to strictly investigate the situation of people without household registration entering the country and hiding in the central government. The "hangers-on" are not allowed to live in this park and have been driven out. Now, these sweaty people can only hide against the wall of the largest warehouse on South Street, waiting for the night's propaganda to end before setting up tents and sleeping. People were so exhausted that they didn't even have the strength to speak. They just sat in the corner, in the shadows, not knowing whether they were looking at a happy family of three taking an evening walk under the dim street lights, or worrying about tomorrow's medical expenses. As the night deepened and the hangers-on began to set up tents on the wall, two tall men, one old and one young, wearing church pastor robes, walked through the dim street lights and came to the gathering place of tents. Many of the helpers who were setting up the tent knew the old pastor whose robe was full of patches and whose face was old but whose back was straight without the slightest bend. "You're here again." "Thank you so much for last night! It's been a long time since I had such a good sleep and had such a beautiful dream!" "I heard today that these are things that only the nobles in the church can enjoy by spending a lot of money. Will it cause you trouble if you give them to us?" Hearing the questions from those hangers-on, Levi turned around and glanced at Lao Le beside him. Lao Le just smiled and shook his head. "Those people didn't buy it with money, but donated it. The church will allocate a portion of the money they donated to you, so don't worry about anything." Such an answer brought smiles to the faces of these hangers-on. Their words became more relaxed and they kept expressing their gratitude to Lao Le. At the same time, they also noticed the young pastor standing next to him. "Don't worry about him. He is new to the church and is temporarily doing internship with me." Lao Le just said it casually, and he didn't mean to introduce Li Wei. Soon, when these hangers-on set up the tents and lay down in them, Lao Le opened the communicator in his hand which had a web page open and played the melodious music on it.
Only after everyone in the tent fell asleep did Lao Le turn off the music and put away the communicator. "Those people in the central government are afraid." He said calmly, "They are all afraid. I don't know what the church is up to. They all seem to have studied Paradise thoroughly and think there must be some danger in it, but in fact, this thing is just that simple." Lao Le patted Levi on the shoulder, indicating that it was time for them to leave. Levi took a last look at the people who were already fast asleep in the tent. He followed Lao Le's pace and asked in confusion. "So the paradise is actually a simple hypnotist, and its only function is to let everyone see their own desires?" "The dreams these so-called hangers-on have in the paradise are basically the same." Lao Le took Li Wei to the road where the street lights were on. "In the dream, their families are not broken up, they are reunited, and everyone lives together in good health. Is this what they want?" Levi shook his head. "Hope is also a kind of desire. The word desire may be derogatory, but it is neither good nor bad." "Do you think that human nature is bad or good when they are born?" Lao Le suddenly asked. He seemed quite free-spirited, chatting with Levi about whatever he thought of. The theory of human nature being evil or good has been a controversial topic since ancient times, but after the rise of a series of humanities such as modern sociology, there is actually no need to debate this issue. Levi said. "Whether one's nature is good or evil is defined by oneself, and humans are social creatures who cannot exist without a group. Sociality is a manifestation of the consciousness of social animals, which makes the survival ability of individuals within the society far greater than that of individuals separated from the society. This includes altruism, cooperation, dependence, and more advanced self-awareness." "These characteristics cannot be said to be good or bad, but are defined by other individuals themselves. Generally speaking, those that benefit others are often defined as good, while those that harm others and benefit oneself are defined as bad. These criteria will change according to the development of society." Levi looked into Lao Le's eyes. “So there is no standard answer to judging whether a new individual is good or bad. Instead, we need to analyze it from a social perspective.” Lao Le's gaze towards him became a little strange. "Have you ever read any books on philosophy or sociology before?" Levi shrugged, not caring about some of the things he had exposed. "You won't report me and ask the Criminal Division to arrest me, will you? These are all banned books ordered by the central government." Lao Le laughed. "The more they fear something, the more they ban it. You're right. Humans are social beings. So when most people in this world have problems, the problem is not with the individual, but with society as a whole." "But very few people living in society can realize that it is this society that is really problematic. Those at the top think that everything should be this way and that they deserve what they enjoy, while the mediocre masses at the bottom, who have no knowledge and no energy to think because of the huge labor, will only think that their lives have become this way because they have not worked hard enough and have not made enough progress." Lao Le took Li Wei away from South Street and came to the largest hospital staff apartment near South Street. When they walked past here, they could vaguely hear melodious pure music coming from every room in front of almost every apartment. Lao Le sneered. "Did you hear that? No matter how much those who fear that the church has bad intentions try to stop and ban it, it will be useless. As long as one person tries and enters paradise, it will spread uncontrollably like a virus. No matter how affluent their lives are, as long as there are levels above the levels, they will inevitably have fantasies and desires. Reality cannot realize such desires, but in paradise, everything can come true as one wishes." Levi understood now. He looked at Lao Le who was mocking someone and realized that the church's paradise plan was a conspiracy! The top leaders of the central government know that it is impossible for the church to suddenly make a 180-degree turn in its attitude towards the powerful, so they will be extremely wary of this plan. But human desires are unstoppable. Those who have experienced the theme park will always communicate with others, show off, and recommend it. As time went by, many people found that those who had entered the park did not encounter any accidents or show any differences. Even the church's own clergy would enter the park to help the lower-level hangers-on use the park for public welfare to relax. Even if they were still wary, they would join the park plan with the mentality that everyone around them had experienced it, and even if there was a problem, it would be everyone's problem.
Now, it has only been three days since the theme park plan was launched and the first batch of people got to experience it. The entire central government has been fascinated by the perfect world that only exists in dreams. Entering the paradise at night will not only not affect people’s normal life, but will make them feel more comfortable and satisfied than ever when they wake up the next morning. Like this is a plan with only benefits and no harm. "But is it really without any harm at all?" Levi turned to Lao Le and asked. Lao Le calmly told Levi the answer. “If making everyone realize that there is something wrong with society is a bad thing, then Paradise is indeed a bad thing.” (End of this chapter)