amaotonovel Chapter 4363 The Justice League Assembles (1)
Chapter 4363 The Justice League Assembles (1)
Chapter 4363 Justice League: Assemble (Part 11)
The Batplane landed on the roof of Wayne Manor. Bruce and Barry stepped out of the plane. Alfred stood at the rooftop entrance to greet them. "Welcome back. And this is..."
“My name is Barry Allen.” Barry walked up and shook hands with Alfred, then said, “Um, I might be staying here for a while, sorry to be of trouble to you…”
Alfred smiled gently at him. Bruce went downstairs first, followed by Barry. He clearly already knew about Martian Manhunter's visit, and shook hands with Ron, who was drinking coffee, when he reached the living room.
"I had some things to do outside, I hope it didn't cause any problems?"
Ron just shook his head, looking somewhat dejected. He silently handed Bruce a document and said, "I'd like to ask you to help me find out where all these people have gone."
Bruce glanced down at the list, then looked at Ron with some confusion. Ron said, "To be precise, it's where they all worked after graduation. Be detailed. In return, I can work for you."
Bruce shook his head and said, "I don't need you to work for me. We agreed to fight the darkness that may come together, for the sake of the earth, and for your own sake."
Ron remained silent. He seemed very distracted. Bruce turned to Barry and said, "Your room has been prepared upstairs. Don't go out for the next few days. We'll talk about other things once things have calmed down."
Barry nodded. He went upstairs to his room and took a look around. The room was luxurious, but he really wasn't in the mood to look at it. The recent ups and downs had been too much for him; he was in a very agitated state, pacing around the living room 30 times a minute.
Ron was getting really annoyed by Barry's wandering around, but looking at Barry's youthful face, he couldn't bring himself to say anything harsh. He could only say, "Sit down and rest for a while, sir. Aren't you tired?"
“I’m sorry, but as soon as I stopped, I…” Barry wiped his face painfully, then said, “You have no idea what I saw. I was simply…”
Barry collapsed onto the sofa, lay there for a few minutes, then finally got up. He said to the butler, Affleck, "Hello, sir, could you get me a computer?"
When someone sees something completely beyond their worldview and understanding, they feel extremely uncomfortable. And when language fails to describe it, instinct will prompt them to share it with others so they can vent together.
Barry decided to share what he had seen with Ron. He took the computer that Alfred had given him, plugged in the hard drive with the copied photos, and handed it to Ron.
Actually, he hadn't even finished looking at all the photos. With someone nearby to embolden him, the two of them kept flipping through the pages without any restraint. When Bruce finally finished his research and came out, the two of them were vomiting together by the kitchen sink. Alfred stood helplessly to the side.
Once both of them were back on the sofa, Bruce sighed and said, "Curiosity killed the cat."
The two men slumped on the sofa, one on each side, unable to utter a single word. Actually, they could accept the horrific conditions some adults suffered. Sometimes, after seeing enough, the eye can automatically ignore it; otherwise, there wouldn't be any capable forensic pathologists in the world.
But the most disturbing things were the pictures of children. Barry might be a little better off, since he's still young, has no family, and no children. But Ron is married, he has children, and some of them are about the same age as his own.
The most horrifying thing was that Louise photographed an orphanage destroyed during a wildfire in California one year. About twenty children were severely burned. Louise arrived at the scene immediately and thus captured the victims' faces clearly. When Ron saw this, he couldn't bear to look anymore and wished he could faint immediately.
Even for someone like Martian Manhunter, who has served as a law enforcement officer on two planets and in two civilizations, these ideas are still a bit too advanced.
Bruce brought even worse news. He handed Ron three files containing information on the three medical students Ron suspected. The files showed that one of them had worked for several medical companies after graduation, and that he had been developing new drugs at that secret research institute around the time Dr. O'De died. His name was prominently listed among the developers of that new drug for Marfan syndrome.
Only then did Ron give up all his illusions. He took out the few pills the doctor hadn't finished from his pocket, handed them to Bruce, and said, "Help me get them tested. I want to know if this medicine works, and what it does."
After Bruce left again, the two continued to vomit until Alfred prepared some calming tea for them. After drinking the tea, the nausea subsided somewhat, but they were completely exhausted. Barry was physically weak, while Ron was mentally exhausted.
Both of them fell asleep on the sofa, and Afu draped a blanket over each of them. They spent the night like this, and the next morning, Bruce woke them up, handed Ron a stack of lab reports, and said, "If you hadn't told me that this was medication for Marfan syndrome, based solely on the test results, I would have thought it was a long-acting stimulant."
Bruce interlaced his fingers on his lap and said, "Simply put, it improves the heart's blood supply and speeds up blood circulation, which can enhance a person's athletic ability for a certain period of time. However, for patients with heart disease, this is fatal because it could very likely lead to aortic rupture..."
Ron was ashen-faced. He couldn't suppress his emotions any longer and couldn't even maintain his human form, reverting to his Martian state, which startled Barry.
"How dare they... how dare they..."
Ron was more experienced than Barry; he only lost control of his emotions for a moment, but quickly regained his composure and said, "Is there something wrong with this medicine, or is there something wrong with all the medicines?"
“All the medications are problematic,” Bruce said. “In the United States, the number of people with Marfan syndrome has gone beyond the category of rare diseases. Most of these people have insurance, and you should understand what that means, right?”
Rong En squeezed his eyes shut. Of course he knew, but he didn't want to admit it.
Insurance companies often increase the attractiveness of their policies and collect more premiums by underwriting relatively rare diseases. Because it's a rare disease, not many people suffer from it, so even if the treatment costs are relatively high, it's still profitable for the insurance company.
However, if the number of cases exceeds a certain value, the profit margin will drop significantly. After all, this disease is difficult to treat, and even if it is only the cost of surgery, it is not worthwhile for the insurance company.
For non-accidental illness insurance, once a hospital diagnosis is obtained, it's relatively difficult to avoid payment. If the insured chooses legal action, the probability of winning is quite high. In other words, insurance companies are happy collecting premiums in the short term, but as more and more people fall ill, they become unable to afford to pay out.
But what if the insurance company doesn't want to continue losing money? The best solution is to contact the pharmaceutical company to change the medication.
By simply switching the medication to an ineffective one, many patients could be prevented from surviving until surgery. If the person dies, there's no need for compensation. Furthermore, if the person has accidental death insurance, the insurance company can use the excuse of intentionally switching medication or failing to provide sufficient proof of natural death to refuse compensation—a double benefit.
Some might wonder, how could pharmaceutical companies be so kind as to go to such lengths to research new drugs only to benefit insurance companies? Putting aside the intricate connections between the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and the countless exchanges of interests involved, pharmaceutical companies could certainly profit from this one instance.
Normally, pharmaceutical companies need to pay the full amount for the research and development of new drugs. However, if insurance companies are involved, they will also contribute a portion of the cost. As a result, the new drugs developed will not become cheaper, but rather more expensive, with higher profit margins.
Moreover, because the new drugs are not effective enough, patients still feel unwell after taking them. So what do they do? Naturally, they buy painkillers, and the pharmaceutical industry makes another profit.
Some people will surely ask, then why would patients abandon the cheap and effective old drugs in favor of the expensive and ineffective new drugs?
Sorry, but this is where the insurance company comes in again. If you don't use the new drug, we won't pay; if you didn't take the medication we specified before the surgery, we refuse to pay, and you'll have to pay out of pocket—you won't win even if we take you to court.
This creates a perfect cycle: insurance companies give money to pharmaceutical companies to reduce the efficacy of drugs, and then use insurance to threaten customers to use new drugs; as the efficacy of new drugs decreases and the mortality rate increases, insurance companies can pay less money.
As long as the money they avoid losing is greater than the money paid to the pharmaceutical companies, they profit. This is why actuaries are so sought after in the US industry; these are all things that require calculation. And with the calculations of highly professional actuarial teams, it's guaranteed that neither the pharmaceutical nor the insurance industry will lose money, so it's obvious who will lose the most.
This is why many Americans resist vaccines. It might sound anti-intellectual, but it's really a matter of learning from past mistakes. With just a slight adjustment to the ingredients, a whole host of insurance customers could be wiped out; in that case, who knows what you'll get injected with?
The pharmaceutical company took an even more ruthless approach to the special drug Rong En possessed. Instead of reducing the effective ingredients, they directly replaced it with the most unacceptable active ingredients for patients—in short, poisoning them.
However, no one knew about this, and it didn't cause the slightest ripple. No one knew how many victims like Dr. O'Deer suffered ruptured blood vessels from taking the new drug. Decades passed, and history was completely buried. If Bruce Wayne hadn't been Batman, even a superhuman like Martian Manhunter would never have known the truth.
Looking at Ron's expression, Bruce could guess what was going on, so he said, "But actually, the lethal period of this drug is relatively long. If problems occur shortly after taking it, then the problem may not be solely due to the drug."