Chapter 223: Detective Chuck - One Sentence and He Demanded $12 Million! Tell Me, Am I Brave or Not?
"Chuck!" Alex immediately noticed who had grabbed the employee's hand.
"Who's this?"
"You don't recognize him? This is the famous detective Chuck from New York."
As some employees recognized Chuck, the crowd began to murmur. Under Chuck's expressionless gaze, the angry employee calmed down. After Chuck released her hand, she didn't continue her attack, but returned to the crowd and whispered to her colleagues, "What's Detective Chuck doing here? Shouldn't he be on our side?"
"Let's go," Chuck didn't say much.
"Okay," Alex didn't say anything more and followed Chuck out.
Chuck stopped in front of the employee. "You think you're brave?" he asked.
"Braver than you, anyway," the employee said through gritted teeth. "At least I did something for innocent Andrew. You, the so-called great detective—what have you done besides protecting the guilty party?"
"The guilty party?" Chuck glanced at the distraught Alex, then looked around at everyone. "You really think she's the guilty party?"
"Isn't she?" Seeing that Chuck seemed to be trying to reason with them, the employee's courage surged. Before anyone else could answer, she shouted back.
Reason with them? Don't be ridiculous! How about some real talk?
"She's just like you—an employee, getting paid and doing the work her boss demands," Chuck said calmly. "There's no fundamental difference between you, no fundamental conflict. She's just a scapegoat your boss pushed out. Did she want to fire you? No! She's just carrying out orders from the termination list your boss gave her. You know that, but because you're afraid to bravely confront the person who truly causes you anxiety and anger—your boss—you only show your 'courage' here."
"Stop talking nonsense!" the employee interrupted, somewhat embarrassed and annoyed. "We earn tens of thousands of dollars a year—look at her clothes and appearance! She easily earns hundreds of thousands or even millions a year, and she's the same as us?"
The others were initially a little embarrassed by Chuck's exposure, but after the employee's reminder, looking at Alex's outfit—even though they couldn't tell the exact price, even casual clothes looked like expensive designer brands on a beauty like Alex—coupled with the mention of hundreds of thousands or millions in annual salary, they were immediately filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment.
Chuck didn't explain that the so-called high-salary middle class was just a manufactured concept, an artificially created division by bosses to split the working class. In reality, Alex was just like them—a worker without ownership of the means of production.
However, he also knew that when it came to money, with such a huge gap, no reasonable person could accept the idea that they were all in the same class.
This was also the bosses' transparent strategy.
"So it still comes down to money. If the money is right, everything is negotiable, right?" Chuck looked at the employee.
"I didn't say that," the employee said this, but her expression and eyes told a different story.
Chuck looked around at everyone and asked, "What was the amount the family of the previous suicide victim sued the company for?"
"One million dollars," someone immediately answered.
They were all industry insiders and had been following these cases.
"Didn't you ask me what I could do for Andrew?" Chuck looked at the employee. "If I said I could get your company boss to pay $12 million in compensation for him and his family, what would you say?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone erupted in shock, stunned by this number.
It's important to understand that $1 million in compensation is already a massive sum in their eyes. Even then, it would require lengthy negotiations with lawyers and the company, with a low success rate to begin with. And even if they finally succeeded after a long and difficult process, the lawyers' fees and other expenses meant that the family might only receive half of it.
Therefore, in a sense, human life has a price, and it's quite cheap.
This is common knowledge in capitalist society.
A certain American car manufacturer, knowing that adding a small safety part could greatly reduce the accident rate, calculated through internal analysis that the money spent on installing that part on each car, given their massive production volume, far exceeded the amount spent on lawsuits and compensation from car owners after accidents.
So the company was unwilling to add this small part to its cars, preferring to pay out these cheaper "wrongful death" settlements.
This is the operating logic of capitalist society.
If Chuck said he would get the $1 million "life money" that Andrew's family deserved, no one could really object.
This is something that can only be accomplished by hiring top-tier lawyers with a huge budget.
In their eyes, Chuck was just making a boastful claim about being a champion of justice for the people, and that would be enough.
But now, $1 million has become $12 million. This isn't just going from 1 to 12—this would instantly make someone a multimillionaire.
Just as Alex's annual salary of hundreds of thousands or millions didn't make people consider her one of their own, this $12 million compensation figure, regardless of its truth, shocked them and immediately created a stronger connection between them and the deceased Andrew.
No matter how envious or jealous they were, if this number was real, Andrew's family would definitely regard Chuck as the most amazing, upright, and noble person, and sincerely say, "Detective Chuck truly lives up to his name!"
Anyone who denied it would make them furious!
There was a case in the US where a police officer went to the wrong apartment and ended up in her upstairs neighbor's home. Finding a man inside, she assumed she was being burglarized and shot and killed her neighbor.
In court, the victim's brother staged a dramatic scene: he publicly embraced the officer and said that his faith taught him to forgive, so he forgave her on behalf of his deceased brother.
Everyone knew that what truly moved the brother wasn't faith, but the hefty settlement the police department was willing to pay.
If the money is right, even the actual perpetrator can be forgiven and embraced, let alone Chuck, who only got involved because of Alex and claimed he would get an unbelievable $12 million in compensation for Andrew's family.
Detective Chuck? No! By then, Saint Chuck would be more appropriate!
"Chuck..." Alex was also stunned by Chuck's sudden demand for $12 million in compensation, momentarily forgetting her self-reproach and grief.
"This isn't something to joke about," the employee, noticing Alex's shocked and somewhat worried expression, snapped out of her own complex emotions of shock, envy, jealousy, and resentment, half-suspicious and half-accusatory. "Andrew just passed away. If you're going to joke about something like this to impress a pretty girl, that's going too far!"
Chuck didn't answer her, instead pulling out his phone in front of everyone and dialing John Foley, the owner of the dating website.
"Well, well, well," the call connected quickly, and John Foley's suppressed, mocking voice came through. "Chuck, the master of calming people down—I'm calm enough now. What more do you want?"
"Do you know about Andrew Morse's situation at your company?" Chuck put the call on speakerphone and surveyed the crowd.
The previously agitated employees held their breath, exchanging glances with strange emotions as they watched Chuck's conversation with their boss.
How thrilling!
"I heard, it's such a tragedy," John Foley was unaware that Chuck had put him on speakerphone, but as a seasoned boss, he naturally had his standard public stance on this matter. "If you're trying to speak for Alex, I'm sorry, but what she did was absolutely unacceptable. We hired her at a premium salary to ensure smooth talent transitions, enabling them to contribute more to society, not to drive such a good employee to such a tragic and heartbreaking situation."
Alex smiled bitterly upon hearing this.
Chuck glanced at Alex, unmoved by John Foley's carefully crafted yet subtly accusatory words.
His reason for taking action wasn't, as the employees thought, to win favor from a beautiful woman or to capitalize on Detective Chuck's reputation for standing up for the people.
His purpose was clear.
First, in his previous life, he had also been a stressed worker, experiencing moments when work pressure almost overwhelmed him, and he could empathize with Andrew's momentary breakdown due to excessive stress.
Second, Chuck found the behavior of both the boss and his wife at Encounter.com utterly distasteful, and he felt no qualms about confronting them.
Finally, Alex was clearly emotionally unstable.
While Alex was one of his long-term research partners, she possessed unique qualities that Jane, Monica, and others lacked.
Therefore, if a ridiculously high compensation amount could ease Alex's emotional distress, it would be worthwhile for Chuck.
He had long wanted her to stop doing this thankless and dangerous work, but he wouldn't force her to change. Now, he wanted to give her a real taste of the job's drawbacks, so she might voluntarily quit.
Even if she didn't, it wouldn't matter. After this incident, when others learned that the Encounter.com boss had been targeted by Chuck because of hiring her, and that their own companies might have to pay exorbitant compensation in similar situations, they would naturally help Alex, who was hesitant to quit, make a 'market-driven choice.'
Given all these factors, and now that they'd encountered this situation, and he had the confidence and ability to help Andrew and his family obtain this unbelievable compensation amount, it was only natural to step in.
"Cut the corporate speak," Chuck said. "You're going to pay $12 million in compensation to Andrew Morse's family."
"What?!" John Foley, who was on the other end expecting Chuck to embarrass himself, was so angry he laughed. "You want me to pay $12 million in compensation? Ha ha ha!"
The company employees watching, seeing their boss laughing at such a demand, didn't feel anger or find it absurd; instead, they understood their boss.
Because compared to their colleague, they were more likely to empathize with their boss.
Who wouldn't want to project themselves onto a powerful figure who could do whatever they wanted?
If they were the boss, they would probably think Chuck was completely insane, just like their boss.
$12 million? What a joke!
"Yes, $12 million is the minimum," Chuck said calmly. "If you have a change of heart and want to give more, you can raise it. I have no objection. Do you have a problem with that?"
"So you're not joking? You're serious?" John Foley muttered to himself on the other end of the phone, then his emotions suddenly intensified, and he could no longer maintain his schadenfreude. "What if I don't agree? What are you going to do? You think because you're an advisor to the IRS and FBI, I'll keep giving you respect? I'd like to see what tricks you have to calm me down! Screw you! Let me tell you, I won't give you a single penny, let alone $12 million! I'm going to fight you to the end! You really think you're some big shot!"
He was truly furious.
As the owner of the largest dating website in the country, he was worth hundreds of millions and received VIP treatment wherever he went. He had already given Chuck enough respect by backing down earlier, but now Chuck was taking advantage of him. How could he tolerate this!
Moreover, he was actually showing respect to the IRS and FBI behind Chuck, not to Chuck's so-called detective consultant title!
Besides, what if he broke ties with the IRS and FBI?
Even if it cost significantly more money, even more than $12 million, he wouldn't back down to Chuck this time!
Didn't he have any pride?!
"This offer remains valid until tomorrow," Chuck said calmly. "That's enough time for you to cool down. Call me when you've made up your mind."
With that, he hung up the phone, ignoring the increasingly furious and irrational John Foley on the other end.
The entire room fell silent, stunned by the conversation between Chuck and their boss.
The image of the wealthy, shrewd, and powerful billionaire boss they had once imagined was replaced by an image of him laughing and cursing in exasperation.
This was the real world.
"I will push for this compensation amount to be finalized. I believe your boss will make a calm and correct choice in the end," Chuck looked around at everyone, said this, and then looked at the employee who was standing there dumbfounded, and asked seriously, "I'm just asking you—am I brave or not?"
Everyone: "..."
Their boss's statement and what Chuck said about 'the compensation amount will eventually be finalized and your boss will make a calm and correct choice' were completely opposite. They didn't really believe that Chuck would succeed.
But to anger and offend a billionaire so much for a stranger—that truly was an act of great courage and righteousness, leaving them no choice but to admire it.
As for whether it was brave or not? Even the critical employee couldn't help but think to herself, "You're damn right you're brave!"
(End of Chapter)
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