thefictionvixens Chapter 2 Talent Intermediaries
Chapter 2 Talent Intermediaries
Morissania is synonymous with poverty and chaos in New York.
Here, and indeed throughout the Bronx, very few people have access to proper health insurance.
The quality and treatment of patients at public community clinics are therefore questionable.
A $16 annual salary seems pretty good, but unmarried young men are subject to the highest tax rate. After paying $2.8 in federal taxes, $8800 in New York State taxes, $5400 in New York City taxes, and $1.3 in FICA (equivalent to health insurance and social security), they are left with only about $10.5, which is equivalent to a monthly income of $8700.
I have to pay $3300 in student loans each month, $2300 in rent, gas for my 10-kilometer commute, car insurance, employee PPO insurance, credit card interest from the past three years when I had lower incomes to make ends meet, utility bills...
They basically only have $1000 left to cover daily living expenses, and any unexpected event could leave them destitute.
Moreover, $16 does not qualify one for low-income status, so they are ineligible for welfare and food stamps.
Anyway, I earn money in New York and spend it in New York, without thinking of bringing a penny home. My income and expenses always hover around the break-even point.
The original owner was forced into a corner and had no choice but to try the medicine.
However, paying off the loan does not mean you can rest easy.
If I still haven't saved enough for rent by next week...
That's not just a matter of a few late fees.
Although the original owner was a direct employee of NYC H+H (New York City's public healthcare company), she was protected by the extremely powerful Doctors Council SEIU union and would not be fired simply for losing her home.
However, sleeping in a car or on the subway in the Bronx is a high-risk activity that could lead to death at any time.
For a fleeting moment, he even considered calling Polina.
Rich woman, hungry, food.jpg
But after thinking about it, I decided against it.
He had no idea about the other party's background.
"Buzz...buzz..."
His thoughts were interrupted when his phone, which had been tossed aside, sent a message for the third time.
Chen Yisen couldn't hold back any longer: "Damn it, you don't have any other loans, do you?"
His memories were too complex; he had only been reborn for less than half an hour, and he couldn't immediately recall many details.
Thankfully, this time it wasn't a debt collection text message.
But about the same.
The sender is a housing rental company:
【[Crestwood物业管理]通知：亲爱的4C-7公寓租户，根据租金指导委员会的建议，您的月租将从9月1日起调整为$2，400。根据纽约州法律，我们已通过邮件向您发送了45天提前通知。请于8月1日前登录RentCafe门户查看并电子签署续约。如有疑问请联繫租赁办公室。】
Chen Yisen remained completely unfazed by this.
numb.
I can't even scrape together the money for next week, how can I have the mind to worry about what will happen a month and a half from now?
He simply exited to the messaging interface, ready to check the text messages he had received earlier.
There's just too much stuff in my head, like a database stored on a 5400 RPM hard drive. I need some keywords to quickly retrieve the relevant content.
However, the original owner may have had some obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and most of the information from earlier times has been deleted.
Besides the three mentioned above, there's only one from yesterday.
From TAKANASHI Marin.
Chen Yisen put in some effort to spell out the name "Takanashi Marin".
Then it matched the image of an Asian woman in my mind.
She is a resident nurse at Bellevue Hospital.
She was probably... the original owner's girlfriend.
The reason I say "probably" is because the original owner was a complete simp, and a large portion of the credit card debt was spent on the other person.
In the end, all he managed to get was a title, and that was done in private.
Marin Takanashi insisted that she "didn't want our relationship to affect our work," so they even used each other's original names in their contact lists.
From a third-person perspective, it's essentially a backup plan.
It's too awful.
Surely no one can't even get a proper title?
After clicking in, the content was exactly as Chen Yisen had expected:
Ethan, your current workplace is too far away, and I feel very insecure... so I'm sorry, I think it's best to end things between us.
Code.
That's too classic.
From this perspective, the reason why the original owner went to the hotel with Polina in a daze was probably because he was disheartened and had a reckless idea of doing whatever he wanted.
Little did I know it would really be the last time.
However, that's actually a good thing, given his current state, having someone he's particularly close to would be troublesome.
Of course, even without this text message, Chen Yisen wouldn't feel guilty towards his cheap girlfriend...ex-girlfriend because of Polina's situation.
On the one hand, all of this was done by the original owner, Ethan Chen, and had nothing to do with Chen Yisen.
On the other hand, what happened to his girlfriend? They didn't even make it public.
You can't stop me from going to someone better, can you?
Long press the screen and select Delete.
The most important thing now is to find a way to survive.
"You've really put me in a lot of trouble..."
Chen Yisen looked at the ceiling above his head and complained to his past "self".
Of course, that's what he said, but he didn't think the original owner's decision was wrong.
People, after all, need to live with a sense of pride.
Even if she had given in back then, given Natalia's attitude, it's unlikely she would have gotten herself into a bad situation.
Moreover, for Chen Yisen now, being relegated to the community isn't entirely a bad thing—
Inheriting memories is not the same as inheriting knowledge, and inheriting knowledge is even less the same as inheriting abilities.
He also studied medicine in his previous life, but it was battlefield medicate.
It's like using glue to seal a wound, or tying a knot in a major artery by hand.
While I can't say I'm completely ignorant of internal medicine, it's common knowledge that medical practice is only a small part of a doctor's daily work.
He's new here, and I'm afraid he'll find it hard to adapt to the environment of a large hospital in the United States.
Community healthcare facilities are different.
Especially in America.
If it can be treated, then treat it; if it can't be treated, then prescribe some painkillers and suggest transferring to a specialist hospital.
As for drug addiction...
It's all messed up.
From Manhattan to the Bronx, at least 90% of primary care physicians in New York City do this.
They've already shown a conscience by not prescribing high doses of painkillers to all patients, what more could you ask for?
If you're really worried about something going wrong, you can also get ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
"Buzz—"
Finally, the phone started vibrating continuously.
It was a phone call.
The caller ID showed Gao Fei.
That is, the original owner's cousin.
Out of caution, Chen Yisen did not answer the call, but waited quietly for the other party to hang up.
But soon, the second ringing started again, relentlessly.
It seems there's something important going on.
He had no choice but to take a deep breath, briefly search his memory for anything related to this person, and then press the answer button.
"Ethan, are you done with your work over there?" A familiar voice came through the receiver.
It wasn't the familiar tone of the voice, but rather the fact that they were speaking Chinese, even Mandarin.
"Hmm." Chen Yisen was afraid of arousing suspicion, so he didn't dare to say too much and prepared to improvise.
But the other person didn't do any preamble; they went straight to the point: "It's confirmed. Interstate 278, Rusty Motel. Give us the code when we get there."
"A hotel?" He stalled for time while frantically trying to recall what the other person was talking about.
"Yes, he was a homeless man without any identification. The cause of death seems to be an overdose of enhancement agents. The boss didn't dare to touch him, and contacting the biological resources company directly would inevitably result in him being pressured to lower the price, so he came to me," Gao Fei explained.
"it is good."
Actually, Chen Yisen wanted to ask some other questions, but he felt like a newbie player in a game that had been running for 20 years.
They don't even know what they should know.
An eerie silence fell over both sides.
"Is there anything else?" Gao Fei asked, puzzled, as the call continued for a long time.
No, there isn't.
Perhaps sensing that Chen Yisen was a little nervous, Gao Fei added another instruction:
"This is your first time doing this too, so be careful about what those guys are using. They might be up to no good. Remember to bring the naloxone I gave you."
"Don't worry, I understand."
After hanging up the phone, Chen Yisen had roughly figured out what had happened.
This is a side business that he, or rather the original owner of this body, developed not long ago.
Talent agency.
That is, trafficking in corpses.
Last week, the original owner agreed to his uncle Gao Fei's invitation to join the gang, but he died before he could even fight for the first time.
The person who has taken over this matter now is a new soul.
But it just so happens.
For him, this was a true match with his major.
……
Chen Yisen accepted the side job with almost no hesitation.
In the United States, collecting corpses is a legitimate business.
However, there are qualified and unqualified ones.
Doctors like him, in principle, can only handle the unclaimed corpses of patients they have treated.
Taking the initiative to act is essentially walking on the edge of the law.
On the one hand, the image of this cousin in her memory was quite reliable, and he had even helped the original owner in the past, so it was really difficult to go back on her word halfway through.
On the other hand, there was simply no other choice.
I'm poor.
I'm terrified of being poor.
Chen Yisen died in 2027 in his previous life, but was reborn directly in 2030. Not only did he not have future vision, but he also had three years less experience than others, so he had no chance to make money through investment or speculation.
Charging for medical consultations and prescribing excessive amounts of painkillers are all ways to make a living in the long run, and they can't solve the immediate crisis.
Reselling antibiotics or medical equipment can indeed be a quick way to make money, but for a novice doctor with no connections or background, if he dared to do that, he would end up in jail even faster.
As for using new debts to pay off old debts...
With the original owner's pitiful FICO rating, it would be difficult to borrow any money from legitimate channels.
Payday loans are typical examples of usury, with an annualized interest rate cap of up to 1600%. They are purely a case of drinking poison to quench thirst, simply delaying the inevitable until next week.
Moreover, the collection of these short-term loans is often outsourced to Latin American gangs, and Chen Yisen certainly doesn't want to end up like a sugar-coated apple...
In short, if they don't engage in some shady activities, they'll just have to continue being guinea pigs for pharmaceutical companies.
Why not take a gamble?
He was law-abiding at Dongda University in his previous life. If he were to continue to be law-abiding at Xida University after being reborn in this life, wouldn't his rebirth have been in vain?
Gao Fei has information about the source of the corpse, and he has the ability to identify it.
By collaborating, the two can find the most suitable place for bodies with different causes and conditions of death, thereby fetching the highest prices.
Even if they are involved in the transaction once more, it is guaranteed that everyone will make a profit.
At the same time, it can also minimize the risk.
Basically, as long as you're not caught red-handed, there won't be any problems.