You're Strong But Now You're Mine
Chapter 131 - 130: The Wicked Takes the Lead to Complain

Chapter 131: Chapter 130: The Wicked Takes the Lead to Complain

"The night is dark and the wind is high, be wary of fire."

Outside the Xuanzhu County in the Half City factory district, at the Jing Family’s smelting factory, the old man Lu who was dozing off in the sentry box around the high walls of the factory was suddenly awakened by the noise coming from below.

All around was quiet, the streetlights shone brightly, and there seemed to be a distant dog barking. Old man Lu stretched his head out to look at the two security guards patrolling, yawning as he said, "May auspiciousness dispel adversity, may auspiciousness dispel adversity... Hey, Old Li, do you have some wine? Suddenly craving it."

"I got piss, come down and I’ll give you a splash," an old security guard sneered, too lazy to bother with old man Lu, the drunkard, and continued patrolling the factory with the young guard.

The five major Silver Blood guilds have nearly monopolized a certain industry, with the military industry of the Ting Family, the Quan Family in light textiles, the transportation of the Luo Family... and the Jing Family monopolizing the steel industry. Apart from the Red Moon Fortress, the Jing Family has three other mines in Dongyang District and has eight smelting factories under its command, five of which are near Xuanzhu County. For a long time, ’Jing Steel’ has been synonymous with ’Dongyang Steel.’

Steelmaking requires large facilities and large equipment, and it’s prone to safety accidents—workers dying in the factory every year is not uncommon—thus the Jing Family places a significant emphasis on factory safety. Where other factories might only assign an old man to keep watch, the smelting factories are surrounded by four sentry boxes, staffed with four night watchmen, and are located very close to the Patrol Execution Guard’s division; any incident can quickly be addressed with support.

The ’Half City’ where the factory district is located is a rather peculiar place. Firstly, because it actually lies outside the outer city, without the protection of city walls, and secondly, because it is surrounded by branches of the Xuan River, providing convenient water access for the factory and allowing it to construct defensive facilities along the river, hence called ’Half City.’

The night security is divided into two teams, one guarding the entrance, and the other patrolling around and inside the factory, rotating every 15 minutes, quite frequently. When patrolling security passes by the sentry boxes, they must exchange passwords with the watchmen, to check if anything is happening and to remind watchmen not to fall asleep—capitalists don’t hire you just to sleep.

Since the patrolling security themselves don’t get to sleep, they naturally enjoy waking up the watchmen who can lounge the whole night in the sentry box.

However, human sleep cannot be eradicated. Even though old man Lu is woken up every 15 minutes, he still quickly falls back asleep.

In fact, he sleeps during the day too, but sleeping while working gives him a strange sense of security.

But the sleep of older people is always shallow. Old man Lu was quickly awakened by strange noises. He rubbed his eyes and found that the shouting came from the factory’s main gate, startling him with fear.

What’s going on?

Are workers coming for their wages again?

Old man Lu, who used to be a worker for the Jing Family, naturally knows the ins and outs of the factory. Working long hours here, wages are generally settled annually, but not everyone gets paid, as the wages are the juiciest pie, with Jing Family officers skimming a little off the top from all sides.

Generally speaking, if a worker gets two-thirds of their wages, they can consider themselves very lucky and thank the heavens; if only half, that indicates a poor relationship with the officers, not currying favor or running errands; if only a third, it suggests they’ve offended an officer or got caught slacking.

The worst-off workers naturally get nothing—they may not be slackers, yet may be the hardest workers, but they’re unlucky: discovered by the officers as easily bullied.

Indeed, if you’re owed wages in Xuanzhu County, it’s not due to offending anyone, laziness, or any other nonsense—just because you’re easily bullied.

Officers aren’t fools; they know not paying means driving workers to despair. But their audacity proves their confidence that workers won’t or can’t resist. Plus, these workers aren’t many and won’t amount to anything, and the ones getting paid won’t help them, so every year many workers end up unpaid.

The existence of gangs in the outer city arises from various grievances, unpaid wages being one of them. Gangs, of course, wouldn’t go demand wages from capitalists but they can threaten factory officers—officers are merely dogs of the guilds, not Silver Blood folk, if they’re beaten, they’ll have to sort it out themselves, with no one standing up for them.

Therefore, if a worker joins a gang, officers generally won’t mess with such workers, it’s a sort of balanced understanding.

Of course, joining a gang requires paying ’protection fees.’ If unfortunate, you’ve paid just to have the gang wiped out by another gang—as with the now-defunct Yitian Gang—you’d have to pay again for another gang.

Amid such ’income redistribution’ and ’value-added service tax’ extortion, a worker’s annual salary naturally gets eroded significantly, though with thrift, they could barely scrape by.

The worst-off workers, having gotten no pay, could only wait for death.

Sometimes, they wait quietly for death, sometimes they don’t.

Even a rabbit bites when cornered, and when facing death, people find the courage to gather dozens together and make noise for wages outside the factory entrance. Old man Lu, having lived for fifty years, was no stranger to such events.

Whether they succeed or not depends on the supervisor’s mood. If the supervisor thinks workers will be needed next year and needs to give them a little sweetener, they might graciously dole out some wages; if the supervisor thinks the factory can easily hire workers, they naturally won’t care about those paupers, instructing security to beat them away with batons.

Old man Lu thinks if they’re demanding wages this time, they’d be hitting a brick wall—the city’s outskirts are teeming with refugees, a shout for hiring with food included would have a swarm of people flocking in, no fear of lacking recruits.

Besides, old man Lu heard the factory plans to hire fewer people next year, given the wars everywhere and goods not moving out. Hiring fewer and having die-hard refugees willing to work for food, the factory’s choice is obvious even to a toenail’s gray fungus.

Being an old worker, being a night watchman doesn’t pay much, so the officers haven’t deducted much from old man Lu, at least leaving him some pay to buy cigarettes. But he’s prepared to shamelessly stay even if they cut his pay—no work outside, a meal here at least.

As for going home to his son... ha, he doesn’t have such face, plus his son’s wife is fiery. Rather than bothering his son, he’d better retire here.

While old man Lu was lost in thought, he noticed the noise at the main gate escalating until a piercing sound shattered the night sky—

Bang!

It’s the sound of a gunshot!

Old man Lu cowered in the sentry box, trembling. This gunshot seemed like an attack signal, as with the first gunshot, disorderly and piercing gunshots erupted from all directions across the Half City!

The shouting, cursing, the entire Half City plunged into chaos!

Boom!

A sudden explosion erupted in the direction of the main gate, and Old Man Lü immediately realized what had happened—it was the factory gate being blasted open!

"Fire! Fire!"

"Quick, someone put out the fire!"

"Rebellion! They’re rebelling!"

"Where’s the Patrol Execution Guard!? Where’s the Patrol Execution Guard? Where are they!?"

Old Man Lü hid in the watch hut, hearing the deafening explosion outside, not daring to stick his head out, simply waiting quietly for the arrival of the Patrol Execution Guard—similar incidents had happened before when workers collectively sought payment, someone had accidentally killed one of the workers causing a severe conflict, but the Patrol Execution Guard stationed in the outer city quickly arrived and suppressed the lawbreakers.

Plus, the rioters surely won’t dare to stay long, they definitely will retreat after committing arson and murder!

Sure enough, after ten minutes, Old Man Lü heard the shouts of killing outside gradually weaken, the vandals seemed to withdraw from the factory, but from the direction of the outer city came fierce gunfire—the Patrol Execution Guard had arrived!

Wonderful!

How could those thieves possibly stand up to the Patrol Execution Guard?

Old Man Lü’s mind was racing—should he go out and shout a few words? If others found out he stayed in the hut the whole time, they’d definitely say he was slacking, but if he went down now, he could prove he had also fought back, maybe even get a reward...

Just as he was preparing to leave the hut, a powerful voice came from the main road of the factory area:

"Everyone, everyone, abandon pursuing the thieves, abandon pursuing the thieves!"

"Prioritize treating the injured, extinguish the fires! Treat the injured, extinguish the fires!"

"I am Jing Zhengwei of the Jing Family, everyone follow my command, abandon pursuit, prioritize firefighting!"

"Medical Officer, go save the people!"

Old Man Lü stood up in shock, seeing several light trucks traversing the factory streets, a young man standing on the rear seat of the lead truck with a megaphone loudly calling out, followed by dozens of fully armed guards. The security guards at the various factories, stunned by the attack, seemed to have found their backbone and began orderly transporting the injured and extinguishing fires under the outsider’s command.

"There are too many injured, send people to the Patrol Execution Guard, in the name of the Jing Family, have them dispatch some Medical Officers over, and also send over some people, firefighting is more important than pursuit!"

"First save the nearest fire, then the distant fire!"

Old Man Lü left the hut and ran down, seeing the young man rolling up his sleeves to help with the water buckets, he couldn’t help but say, "Young master, I... I am the night watchman of your family’s factory..."

"Hmm? Thank you for your hard work tonight, old man, sit aside for now."

Old Man Lü was flattered: "I dare not, I dare not, but our side of the factory is also on fire, young master, you should quickly go put it out!"

The young man looked over to where he pointed and shook his head, "That side is a bit far from the water source, let’s save this side’s nearest fire first, then go handle that side’s distant fire!"

"This, this..."

"Don’t be afraid, the losses tonight won’t be counted against you!" The young man’s voice suddenly rose by eight octaves: "Everyone listen, those who help put out fires and treat the injured tonight, can come to me, Jing Zhengwei, for a reward later!"

"Save people first, then put out fires!"

Everyone heard that the eldest young master of the Jing Family was willing to spread money for this, their expressions changed.

When the first rays of morning light hit the land of Dongyang, the name Jing Zhengwei was already known by everyone in Xuanzhu County.

...

...

Le Yu pushed open the heavy redwood doors of the main hall of Jing Garden, storming into the council chamber with a gloomy face.

Jing Qingfu sat in the main seat, several family elders sat on the right, with Jing Zhengwu, Jing Zhengfeng, and Jing Zhengtang sitting on the left.

As Le Yu entered, everyone turned to look at him.

Le Yu did not stand on ceremony, directly pointing at the three of Jing Zhengwu and furiously scolded:

"This is all your doing, now not only has it implicated our Jing Family but also other business associations... our Jing Family is doomed!"