My Original Intent Shall Never Be Forgotten

"I told you not to disturb me at a time like this, didn't I?!"

Eugene roared at the door.

The knocking stopped, but after a while, it resumed even more heavily.

"Fuck!"

The irritable Eugene strode to the door and yanked it open. "Can't you understand people's—people live for others, and others live for people. Hello, Director!"

Brown stood in the doorway, his face dark as he stared at Eugene.

Eugene's furious expression transformed into a smile at the speed of light.

"You're quite arrogant, aren't you... Minister Eugene?" Brown finally said after a long pause.

Although the whole thing had turned out to be one huge misunderstanding, since Brown was already here, he could not simply leave without doing anything.

So, Brown decided to make an inspection round and, while he was at it, inform the relevant personnel about the upcoming "friendly exchange" with the IRS.

Naturally, the CIA's ace agent division, the IMF, could not be left out.

After making his rounds, Brown arrived at Eugene's office.

And then came the scene from moments ago.

"Director... I... I had a tiny little problem..." Eugene used what little brainpower he had left to figure out how to explain his earlier outburst.

It really was a billionth of a tiny problem.

"Thank you."

London, England.

Yinsen thanked Zhou Yi again.

"No need to thank me. I said it was merely the foundation for our cooperation," Zhou Yi said with a smile.

"We aren't familiar with each other, so naturally, we need a few small guarantees. If this cooperation succeeds, we won't need to do this when we work together again."

"Ten million dollars isn't enough for you?" Yinsen raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by Zhou Yi's appetite.

"No one ever thinks they have too much money, do they?" Zhou Yi said.

"Besides, once I get the money, I'll give part of it to my director, keep part for myself, and give another part to you."

"To me?" Yinsen shook his head. "I don't need it."

"That won't do." Zhou Yi looked out at the curtain of rain beyond the window. "You have to take this money..."

"...I understand." Yinsen understood what Zhou Yi meant and gave a bitter smile. "Looks like the money-laundering operation I mentioned earlier will come in handy very soon?"

"Exactly. Sometimes, it never hurts to have a few more skills under your belt."

Zhou Yi laughed. "I think you can show your minister what real money laundering looks like."

"Real money laundering means he never finds out, doesn't it?" Yinsen smiled, then seemed to remember something and asked, "By the way, if that's the case, I have a question for you."

"What?" Zhou Yi listened attentively.

"This money..." Yinsen asked, "do we have to pay taxes on it?"

"Hahaha..." ×2

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"What respectable person pays taxes?" Zhou Yi said. "As an IRS employee, do you need me to explain a hundred ways to legally avoid taxes?"

"Interesting," Yinsen said. "I thought you were planning to abuse your authority directly."

"No, no. That's the most low-level method." Zhou Yi shook his head.

"As a qualified IRS employee, I naturally mastered every tax law in order to find all those evading taxes. And in that process, naturally, I also came to understand how to legally exploit the loopholes within them."

"What is that called?" Yinsen wore a smile, but his words became sharp as he spread his hands. "The Champion who slays the dragon will eventually become a dragon himself?"

He was still somewhat uncomfortable with such shady dealings, and he used this to vent his dissatisfaction at Zhou Yi's coercion.

"...No." Zhou Yi looked at Yinsen, his smile fading as he spoke slowly and seriously.

"The people you mentioned have indeed changed."

"Their hearts were corrupted by profit, their eyes blinded by desire. They forgot their bottom line and began currying favor with the powerful, bullying the weak and fearing the strong... That was why they were assimilated, why they became dragons instead of heroes."

"But I am different from them."

"All along, although I have used the convenience of my position to obtain gray income, I can say that every bit of gray income I obtained came from drug dealers, gamblers, smugglers, and others who deserved punishment in the first place."

"As for everyone else, so long as they were doing legal things that were not utterly devoid of conscience, and had not deliberately offended me first, I absolutely never touched a single cent of theirs."

"I admit that I am not a good person, but I am certainly not a bad one either. I am merely an ordinary person. Sympathy, anger, greed, lust... I possess all these emotions as well, and I have my own principles for dealing with the world."

"Yinsen, some money can be taken, but there is money that I would never touch even if it were placed right in front of me. Likewise, there are things I will do, but there are things that must not even be mentioned before me."

"Because that is my principle, my bottom line, my Original Intent."

"I will never become a dragon."

"Because my Original Intent shall never be forgotten."

After Yinsen left deep in thought, Zhou Yi stood motionless for a long time, gazing at London's nightscape beyond the window.

His heartfelt words in that moment had drawn him into an emotion he had tried to avoid over the past few years, yet still found himself falling into from time to time.

That emotion was called homesickness.

Zhou Yi knew very well that he was just an ordinary person. His character was not especially noble, but it was certainly not vile either.

The word "moderate" was actually quite fitting for his personality.

And then, someone with that personality had suddenly gained great power and crossed over into another world.

There were no more restrictions, no more restraints.

Zhou Yi truly feared that he would become the "dragon" Yinsen had described.

He still hoped that one day, he could return to his hometown and see his parents, his younger sister, all his relatives and friends again.

Therefore, he could not allow himself to become a so-called "dragon," because once corruption began, it would never stop.

He could not imagine what he would become by then.

He did not want to become the person he hated most.

That was why he had chosen—to follow his heart.

Extremes were easy. Balance was the hardest thing.

The more one feared falling into evil, the less one could avoid it.

Because if he chose the extreme of becoming saintly, then if his mentality collapsed one day, Zhou Yi would very likely become a demon.

A single thought made one a demon; a single thought made one a Buddha. These two seemingly opposite phrases were, in essence, merely a shift from one extreme to another.

The conditions for achieving either were equally easy.

That was why Zhou Yi had never placed too many shackles upon himself.

He helped good people and punished evil ones; he became angry and felt joy; he was lustful, but chose his targets and did not hurt others' feelings; he earned gray income, but only targeted evildoers such as drug dealers...

He seemed to do whatever he pleased, yet he had never crossed the line.

Those were the rules he had set for himself.

He was himself, and he had never changed.

After all, he still wanted to return to his hometown as his original self...

A sudden burst of feeling, really. To some extent, this probably counts as my own life principle... Of course, I definitely don't do illegal things, hahaha. Please give me some votes~ -(￢￢)σ