Chapter 190 - 178: The Reincarnator’s Kindness Paradox

Chapter 190: Chapter 178: The Reincarnator’s Kindness Paradox

The current voters were: Huang Zhiqiang, Zhao Youcai, Zhou Jian Country, Liu Ye’ye, Qiao Ping, Jing Yanwei, Xiao Dabe, Liu Hao, Yang Ze, and Sun Shan.

These ten individuals were the ideal voting members, as decided by the three leaders.

Among them, Yu Dong’s side had four people, and Wang Dingbei’s side had four. Sun Shan was considered a free agent. Qiao Ping... was the most unique case. She had been saved by Yu Dong but was closest to Lin Mo. If one had to place her, she would have to be considered part of Lin Mo’s faction.

The voting environment was relatively fair.

Lin Mo had no intention of bringing in her own people. She never wanted to contend with the other two for power; everything she did was simply an attempt to maintain the group’s harmony.

"Let me explain..."

Yu Dong explained the matter from start to finish, then asked, "Everyone, can we allow someone with such a dark psyche, a penchant for violence, and a criminal record to remain in our group? Are we supposed to wait for him to do something wrong before we act? Who will bear those consequences?"

Everyone frowned after listening. The situation sounded truly heinous.

Zhao Youcai slammed his hand on the table and shot to his feet.

"This guy is clearly bad news! It’s the quiet dogs that bite the hardest! We should just kill him now, instead of waiting to get bitten and then running for a rabies shot... We have to be wary of any bleeding-heart mentality in this group."

When he was done, he gave Wang Dingbei a pointed look.

This intense sentiment even swayed someone from Officer Wang’s side. Fire Captain Liu Hao declared with stern conviction:

"Let me say this: the best time to stop a fire is before it starts. Fire prevention is paramount."

As it turned out, Yu Dong was very skilled at persuasion.

He described the horrors Lin Xiaojun had inflicted on others in the past and the potential dangers he posed for the future. Even Liu Hao, one of Officer Wang’s own supporters, came to agree with his method.

He was now in an unassailable position.

He only needed one more vote to win. He turned his gaze to Sun Shan. Sun Shan did some quick mental math... and understood.

’If I vote for Brother Dong, I’ll be on the winning side!’

"Hold on, hold on. Let me say something."

Wang Dingbei spoke up, and all eyes turned to him. Yu Dong was curious to see how Wang Dingbei planned to turn the tables now.

’That approach might work for petty criminals, but Lin Xiaojun was no petty criminal. When he acts, it’s a major incident. A heavy-handed response is essential.’ Yu Dong acknowledged the logic behind Wang Dingbei’s ideas—his whole spiel about due process and the impossibility of being on guard forever—but he knew it wasn’t the kind of perfect argument that could take him down at a time like this.

"Everyone here is one of our own. We all know about Yu Dong’s identity as a Reincarnator, and most of us have come to believe it, right?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

After all this time, every one of Yu Dong’s judgments and predictions had been spot-on. It was clear he had truly lived through the apocalypse; he wasn’t spouting nonsense.

"I personally had always suspected that Yu Dong might have some other source of information that allowed him to achieve this ’Reincarnator’ effect. Unfortunately... I could find no such explanation within my own body of knowledge. In fact, I’ve recently come to believe that Yu Dong is a Reincarnator."

"A few days ago, during the bank trip, Yu Dong led us inside with complete confidence, but we were nearly overwhelmed by a zombie swarm. That mistake... is actually what made me truly believe him. Because in his past life, he never went to extort Yin Shuangyang, so he didn’t know that Yanhai Bank Headquarters was conducting an all-night audit and was full of people."

Yu Dong nodded. ’I never would have thought... the thing that finally made Wang Dingbei believe me was actually one of my own mistakes...’

’The world works in strange ways.’

"Wait, that’s not right... Officer Wang, if you already believe me, then with your understanding of criminals, you should have reached the same conclusion I did. At the very least, you ought to agree to something like life imprisonment under supervision, right?"

"Hold on, let me finish."

Wang Dingbei’s gaze sharpened. "But once I started believing in Yu Dong’s identity as a Reincarnator, my old suspicions should have vanished, correct? Just as Yu Dong says, I should trust his judgment. After all, he’s seen the future."

The group nodded.

"But over the last couple of days, I’ve felt that something was off. I’ve had this persistent, unsettling feeling. At first, I thought it was my own ego—my lust for power—making me unwilling to admit that a college student had better insight than I did. But today, when Yu Dong proposed holding a private vote to execute Lin Xiaojun, that feeling reached its peak."

"It forced me to start thinking deeply about a question... a question that most of you have overlooked."

"When it comes to Reincarnators, there is a paradox that is very difficult for us to prove."

"Is a Reincarnator... necessarily good and righteous?"

The statement stunned everyone.

Huang Zhiqiang and Zhao Youcai shot to their feet.

"Wang! What do you mean by that?!"

"Officer Wang, you’d better be prepared to stand by those words! We don’t expect everyone to understand or be grateful for what we’ve done, but you... you have no right to say something like that!"

Liu Ye’ye’s face was also filled with displeasure; his words were far too jarring.

’They were the ones who took the cruise ship, the foundation of everything they had now.’

Zhou Jian Country remained silent. He was actually the one who believed in Yu Dong the most, but he understood the implication of Wang Dingbei’s words...

Yu Dong’s expression darkened. ’I never imagined... a day would come when my own integrity would be called into question.’

"Wang, are you suggesting my motives for doing all this aren’t pure?"

Wang Dingbei held up his hands. "Everyone sit down, sit down. Don’t get agitated. I acknowledge what Yu Dong and you all have done. Taking the cruise ship, clearing Binhai Avenue—from a long-term perspective, these were all extremely forward-thinking moves. I’m not going to deny the obvious."

Only after Huang Zhiqiang and Zhao Youcai had taken their seats did Wang Dingbei continue.

"’Reincarnator.’ We all use the internet; we all understand the term. When Yu Dong told us, we had a choice: to believe him or not. But once we choose to believe... does that mean every single word a Reincarnator says from that point on is the truth?"