“That’s a plastics factory. A while back they had some trouble because of cash-flow problems. Factory Manager Zhang owed his employees quite a lot in unpaid wages. He later paid back part of it, which calmed things down, but some workers are still desperate for their money. That man is probably one of them.” Factory Manager Li, standing nearby, assumed Wang Cheng was interested and explained the situation.
Wang Cheng nodded. “If the factory manager is the one who owes the employees money, what right does he have to throw them out?”
“Well…” Factory Manager Li suddenly became hesitant. When he saw Wang Cheng looking at him, he continued, “It isn’t exactly a secret. After all that happened, Factory Manager Zhang had already run out of money. Even when he had some, he didn’t want to hand it over, so he started pulling tricks. He accused employees of stealing things from the factory so he could deduct what he owed them from their wages. It’s happened more than once. Because of that, there are hardly any workers left in the factory now.”
After saying that, he sighed. With Factory Manager Zhang as such a vivid warning, he would never dare do anything like that himself. It was basically cutting off one’s own road ahead. He had no idea what the other man had been thinking to come up with such a brainless scheme.
Wang Cheng had not intended to interfere. Everyone had their own fate. But when the employee who had been thrown out raised his head, Wang Cheng suddenly thought the man looked familiar.
“Guan Jiahe, if you dare come back here and make trouble again, I’ll break your legs.”
The man who had driven Guan Jiahe out was Factory Manager Zhang’s nephew. He had a vicious-looking face, tattoos on his body, and had once spent his idle days as a street thug. Wang Cheng had heard that he had even been in prison, though no one knew what he had done. The factory employees therefore did not dare provoke him.
Guan Jiahe did not want to provoke someone like that either, but he had no choice but to demand the wages he was owed. “Zhang Wei, tell your uncle to give me my wages. The moment he pays me, I’ll leave.”
“Your wages were already used to compensate the factory for what you stole,” Zhang Wei sneered.
“I never stole anything. Everyone in the factory can testify for me. You deliberately framed me. Your uncle just doesn’t want to pay me, does he?” Guan Jiahe was furious. Two other workers had already been thrown out over the same kind of accusation, and he had been worried it might happen to him. He had not expected his turn to come so soon.
“What if he does? What if he doesn’t? You’ve already been fired. You’re not one of our factory’s employees anymore.” His uncle had repeatedly warned him what not to say, so no matter how overbearing Zhang Wei was, even he did not dare admit the truth in front of such a large crowd.
“Cousin Jiahe?”
Hearing someone suddenly call him cousin, Guan Jiahe froze and turned around. A somewhat familiar-looking person was walking toward him.
“You’re Cousin Jiahe, right? I’m Wang Cheng.” It was only after hearing Zhang Wei call the man Guan Jiahe that Wang Cheng remembered who he was. Guan Jiahe was the only son of Wang Cheng’s eldest maternal uncle, who had died young. He was a few years older than Wang Ning’an, was already married, and had reportedly fathered twins. The two cousins had met so rarely that Wang Cheng had not recognized him immediately.
“Wang Cheng? What are you doing here?” Guan Jiahe had recognized him before he even introduced himself. Wang Cheng’s features were fairly distinctive.
“I came to pick up an order. Need some help?” Wang Cheng glanced at Zhang Wei as he spoke.
“What are you looking at? So what if he’s got another person helping him? I’ll beat you both just the same.” Zhang Wei spoke while clenching his fists, his knuckles cracking loudly.
Wang Cheng gave a soft laugh and looked at him. “Pretty arrogant, aren’t you? Paying your debts is only right, but you and your uncle came up with this rotten scheme of framing people instead. Aren’t you afraid your sons will be born without assholes?”
Zhang Wei had a hot temper. The moment he heard that, he could no longer restrain himself and swung a fist straight at Wang Cheng.
“Watch out!” Guan Jiahe cried.
Wang Cheng tilted his head and easily dodged the punch without wasting any effort. He kicked Zhang Wei in the stomach, and when the man doubled over in pain, Wang Cheng twisted one of his arms behind him and restrained him. Then he turned to the dumbfounded Guan Jiahe. “Cousin, how much does his uncle owe you?”
Only then did Guan Jiahe recover. “Three and a half months.”
“What are you idiots standing there for? Beat him to death!” Zhang Wei roared furiously at the two men standing nearby. Back when he had been a thug, the pair had been his lackeys.
The two small-time thugs froze when they saw their boss being beaten. It was the first time anyone had dared lay a hand on them. They immediately rushed Wang Cheng, but one after another, both were kicked to the ground. They could only watch as Wang Cheng marched their boss into the factory. The crowd of onlookers followed them inside.
Factory Manager Zhang heard the commotion outside his office and thought nothing of it. Things had been noisy like this before, but every time, his nephew had driven the troublemakers away. He was even rather proud of the brilliant method he had devised to save himself a sum of money.
“Uncle, save me!”
His nephew’s voice suddenly rang out. Factory Manager Zhang looked toward the doorway and saw the nephew he was so proud of being held by a stranger, with a crowd already packed outside.
“What’s going on?” Factory Manager Zhang jumped in fright.
“Uncle, Guan Jiahe found someone to help him. You can’t let them get away with this. My arm hurts!” The moment Zhang Wei saw his rescuer, he started shouting and still refused to give in.
“You’re Factory Manager Zhang?” Wang Cheng looked at the only middle-aged man in the office. He had the standard beer belly, thinning hair, and looked as though he were in his fifties or sixties. With his shifty, ratlike features, he had an unpleasant face. A man with a face like that looked destined for a short life. No wonder he could do something so rotten.
“Who are you? Let go of my nephew.” With so many people watching outside, Factory Manager Zhang assumed Wang Cheng would not dare do anything excessive.
Wang Cheng said, “I can let your nephew go. First, pay my cousin every cent of the wages you owe him. And you need to pay the wages you owe the other workers too.”
“Uncle, don’t pay him! I don’t believe he dares do anything to me!” Zhang Wei shouted.
Wang Cheng tightened his grip slightly. Zhang Wei immediately cried out. His wrist hurt as though it were about to break, and the bravado he had shown a moment ago instantly turned into pleas for mercy.
“Wait, I’ll pay, I’ll pay! Let go of my nephew right now.” Factory Manager Zhang was frightened by the screams. This nephew was his younger brother and sister-in-law’s precious darling. If anything happened to him, they would definitely come after Zhang for answers. No matter how reluctant he was to part with the money, he did not dare gamble on whether the stranger might truly be ruthless. He hurriedly opened a locked drawer containing several tens of thousands of yuan and counted out six thousand.
Wang Cheng motioned for his cousin to take it. Guan Jiahe accepted the money and counted it.
“Is the amount right?” Wang Cheng asked.
“He’s still short half a month’s wages.” Guan Jiahe earned two thousand yuan a month. Three and a half months came to seven thousand yuan.
Factory Manager Zhang had no choice but to give him another thousand. At that moment, two more people squeezed in from outside and demanded their wages too. They had suffered the same thing as Guan Jiahe. Factory Manager Zhang owed them even more. One had gone unpaid for as long as five months, and his monthly wage was five hundred yuan higher than Guan Jiahe’s because he had been an experienced senior worker at the factory. Just like that, the tens of thousands of yuan in the drawer were wiped out, leaving Factory Manager Zhang looking painfully distressed.
Only then did Wang Cheng release Zhang Wei.
“Uncle, let’s call the police and report him for assault and robbery,” Zhang Wei said resentfully.
Hearing this, Wang Cheng flashed him a grin. “Go ahead. I’d love to see who gets in trouble. With this many people here as witnesses, accusing the two of you of unlawfully taking other people’s property will be easy.”
“That’s right. We can all testify.” At last someone was willing to deal with the notorious uncle and nephew, so the onlookers immediately voiced their support.
Factory Manager Zhang had a guilty conscience and naturally did not dare let his nephew call the police. Zhang Wei had only meant to scare Wang Cheng, but instead he was the one who got scared. He already had a record and had spent time in detention before. There was no need to guess whom the police would be more inclined to believe. In the end, uncle and nephew could only swallow their loss.
“Cousin, how did you end up working here?” Wang Cheng remembered Mama Wang saying that Cousin Jiahe lived in the city and was doing fairly well, but seeing him in person suggested the truth was rather different.
Guan Jiahe looked somewhat embarrassed. He had never had much contact with the main branch of the family and had always been too embarrassed to tell the Guan family about his circumstances. He had never expected to run into Wang Cheng here.
Guan Jiahe had been married for three years. His family of four had originally lived in the western part of the city, but that area happened to be slated for redevelopment, so they moved here. With two little children to support, their living expenses were fairly high. His old job had also been in the western district, so after moving, he had no choice but to find new work. The factory happened to be hiring at the time. Guan Jiahe had some technical skills and could handle specialized work, so his starting wage was higher than that of the other workers. He had never expected the factory to be in such poor financial shape. It claimed it would pay him two thousand yuan a month, but in reality the owner had never intended to pay at all and only wanted to cheat them out of their labor. The three and a half months of unpaid wages represented his entire time working there.
“At least you got your wages back now,” Wang Cheng said.
“That’s all thanks to you, Cousin. But now I have to find another job. My family owes some money. After I pay that back, there won’t be much left.” Guan Jiahe sighed. Only after becoming responsible for a household had he understood how much heavier a person’s responsibilities could become.
Wang Cheng suddenly remembered that he was looking for someone. Wasn’t there an unemployed person standing right in front of him? “Cousin, you’re pretty familiar with Shanhai City, right? If you don’t mind, I happen to need someone to help me make deliveries. You can come work for me. I won’t treat you badly.”