You're Strong But Now You're Mine
Chapter 132 - 131: Let the Cat Guard the Dried Fish

Chapter 132: Chapter 131: Let the Cat Guard the Dried Fish

Jing Qingfu, who was smoking a water pipe and puffing clouds, coughed twice, and the old housekeeper beside him hurriedly patted his back. Struggling to catch his breath, Jing Qingfu cleared his throat and said, "...Zhengwei, what do you mean?"

"Literal meaning."

Leyu did not sit down, coldly staring at his brothers: "If our Jing Family collapses because of this, it’s because of you guys."

"Speaking disrespectfully only exposes your weakness, elder brother." Jing Zhengwu lifted his teacup, gently blew on it, and laughed: "The century-old Jing Family is the legacy of countless ancestors. Though it may face numerous storms and challenges, how could it be unable to rise again and fight back? Empty threats and shirking responsibility—is that your commitment, elder brother?"

The family elders also snapped back to their senses, looking at Leyu with displeasure—crap, almost got scared pissless by you, coming in here saying ’Jing Family is going to perish.’ How could Jing Family perish? What nonsense!

Leyu snorted twice, sneering: "Really? Since you’ve called me over, it must be about what happened the night before last in Half City?"

At this point, everyone’s expressions turned grim, and Jing Zhengtang quickly tried to smooth it over: "We didn’t want such a thing to happen..."

"Of course you didn’t want it, because you took advantage and played innocent!" Leyu pointed at himself with his thumb: "Now who doesn’t know that the reason those people attacked the factory was because you guys teamed up with other associations for a salary reduction reform? I didn’t get involved in this crap, just honestly ran my newspaper, and what happened? My factory got burned too!"

"Benefits aren’t for me, but I have my share in taking the blame. Ha, I’m not blaming you guys, after all, I’m your brother, naturally, I have to pay for my brothers’ mistakes."

This is why Leyu had the White Night also attack his own factory!

Never mind if only his factory hadn’t been attacked, how obvious it would be, whether it would arouse family suspicion, and whether it would become a reason for his brothers to attack him.

Now that his factory has been attacked too, he can use this as a reason to go crazy on his brothers. Watching their expressions change from calm to anger, then from anger to looking terrible, it’s really fun.

As for Leyu’s losses... hey, loss is loss, what’s to fear?

It’s just buying machines again, repairing the workshops, spending money, plus it boosts employment.

What’s the use of Leyu saving money? He neither goes to Xiangxue Sea nor to Bu Gui Lou, doesn’t even smoke, has no bad habits whatsoever.

If currently Jing Zhengwei’s daily income is 100, Leyu can’t even spend 50 a day—and that includes the miscellaneous expenses for his workshop workers and others.

Why do poor people save money? Because they have to prepare for the future, such as marriage, childbirth, healthcare, travel...

And Leyu? Once he removed marriage and childbirth from his life choices, life became much easier for him.

Healthcare, people of Huiyao don’t get sick, at most they get chopped to death, and if they get chopped, then... the one chopping him is going to have bad luck.

Traveling, Leyu is prepared for this, he’s secretly stashed away a batch of gold and silver, waiting for an opportunity to take this fortune and roam the earth—that opportunity might be ’Jing Zhengwei is dead,’ or ’Leyu is fed up.’

Capitalists endlessly increase their capital because they want to obtain a voice, want to gain more power through capital. As a game analogy, if ’capitalist’ is a profession, then capital is their equipment experience, so the more capital a capitalist has, the higher their level and the more meaningful their account becomes.

People ultimately seek meaning.

So historically, there have been capitalists who betray their class because they’ve found ’greater meaning’—of course, such people are few. In comparison, the power that capital growth brings is the meaning that most people recognize more.

What’s the biggest difference between Leyu and them?

—Leyu doesn’t just have one account.

Others only have one account, so they can’t abandon everything of this account, even find it hard to change professions, and can only hold onto what they have tightly.

But Leyu is different; if the account of Jing Zhengwei is played to ruin, he can just switch to another account. Doesn’t even have to be proactive, someone like Jing Zhengwei, Leyu will sooner or later wake up one day to find that he’s awakened a new account.

Thus, no matter how much Leyu invests in Jing Zhengwei, it will eventually turn to nothing.

Moreover, he doesn’t like the ’Bloody Capitalist’ profession of Jing Zhengwei, and is not interested in the enjoyments brought by Jing Zhengwei’s identity—what enjoyments do capitalists have these days? Eating good, there is McDonald’s, isn’t it? Drinking spicy, isn’t there Cola? Entertainment, can’t even connect mobile phones to the internet here, what’s the fun in playing!

The only possible entertainment is breeding, but as for Jing Zhengwei... Leyu is not interested in breaking his pain-free physique for a few hours of pleasure.

He’s already experienced a painful death once with his main body, doesn’t want to experience it a second time.

In any case, I, Leyu, have money, waste it extravagantly!

"Don’t be too self-righteous, Jing Zhengwei." Jing Zhengfeng, sitting with crossed legs, coldly said: "You can’t protect your assets yourself, what do we care, what evidence do you have? If your woman gets—"

Slap!

Biting Battle Technique · Desolate Bite!

Biting Battle Technique · Universe Song!

In a flash, Leyu slapped him, Jing Zhengfeng immediately tried to draw a circle to resolve it, but of course, it was Jing Zhengfeng who received a loud slap, and Leyu withdrew his hand to avoid his counterattack, coldly saying: "I certainly have no evidence, but that doesn’t stop me from venting my anger at you."

"Just like half a month ago when someone sent dozens of thugs to block me in a dark alley. Although I don’t know who the mastermind is, soon someone will have to repay this debt."

Jing Qingfu acted as if nothing happened, inhaling a puff of white smoke, calmly said: "Zhengfeng, apologize."

"Spit." Jing Zhengfeng spat out a mouthful of blood along with his teeth, "No one here can order me; I might as well return that factory to you guys. Jing Family, I don’t care one bit..."

"It’s okay." Leyu leisurely sat down: "As the big brother, I have the magnanimity to tolerate my younger brothers. I regard Zhengfeng’s disrespect for me as just him peeing against the wind and getting himself wet—it’s amusing and doesn’t require apologies that could damage brotherly bonds."

Brotherly bonds... everyone looked peculiar.

"But you must give me an explanation, right? This can’t happen again and again!" Leyu slapped the table forcefully, saying with great distress: "Give up the reform already. You’d only lose face, but I’m losing money here!"

"No way." Jing Zhengwu said calmly: "If we back down like this, it wouldn’t be our face at stake, but our prestige. If those people can just cause a fuss and set fires, and we retreat, how will we run factories in the future? If we give them whatever they want, we might as well shut down the factories altogether."

Leyu: "Did you find out who they are?"

Jing Qingfu nodded, and the old steward immediately said: "The Patrol Execution Guard arrived promptly, but didn’t capture a single suspect. It’s suspected they could be Backlight Particles trying to incite the workers to stir up trouble."

Upon hearing that no one was caught, Leyu also breathed a sigh of relief: "Hmph, the Patrol Execution Guard are just a bunch of useless folks. We’ve paid so much tax, and they can’t even handle such a thing, tsk tsk tsk..."

"I heard, brother was the first to arrive the night before." Jing Zhengwu suddenly said: "Precisely because brother strongly insisted on saving people and putting out fires, the Patrol Execution Guard had to divert forces to support him, leading to insufficient encirclement in Half City..."

"Brother, how can you side with outsiders?" Leyu sighed: "The Patrol Execution Guard couldn’t do their duty and wants to shift the blame onto me? Wasn’t I trying to save everyone’s assets, and now you accuse me of conspiring with those thieves?"

"I didn’t say that." Jing Zhengwu blew his tea, smiling: "Then, according to brother’s logic, can I say I’m pushing for salary reduction reforms for Jing Family to earn more money, and why would you accuse me of harming Jing Family?"

Leyu was left speechless—damn, this annoying brother is arguing with logic!

But Jing Zhengwu was indeed correct; the reason Leyu arrived on time the previous night was not only to save people but also to ensure White Night’s members could leave smoothly. Calling out guards to demand Patrol Execution Guard support greatly increased the chances of success for White Night Walkers’ escape.

Jing Main Hall continued to mediate: "It’s all for our family, don’t argue, let’s discuss how to solve the issue."

"How else to solve this?" Jing Zhengfeng sneered: "Send more people to guard the factories, ask the Patrol Execution Guard to station next to us as well. I don’t care what you do, I’ll have my people from Green Rainbow help guard the factories, if they dare come again, they won’t have a coming back!"

"That addresses the symptom, not the root cause." Leyu said: "The root cause is the salary reduction, every day it’s unresolved is another day of risk."

"Shouldn’t we eliminate the risk..."

"You all seem not to understand why I say Jing Family is doomed!" Leyu shouted loudly: "Do you think our enemies are the workers? No, our enemies are the Silver Blood Association!"

"The Silver Blood Association is already dissatisfied with us, and now with such a mess, how do other associations see this? You three are the ones leading, as Jing Family, don’t you think other affected associations will resent us?"

Everybody’s face changed to a somber look, even Jing Zhengfeng, who usually opposed Leyu, fell silent.

Because Leyu was right.

Jing Qingfu had given them control of factories, hoping that through reforms, they could reduce the chance of worker unrest. Instead, it triggered a far worse incident the night before!

In business, you can be unscrupulous, you can cheat and extort, but the one thing you can’t do is stand against everyone. When no one does business with you, you’re finished.

Although the associations involved in salary reduction were like locusts on the same line, Jing Family was the one leading it. Now something went wrong, everyone is naturally unhappy with Jing Family — if not for you, we wouldn’t have been affected!

"So, abandon the salary reduction reform." Leyu said leisurely: "Don’t make mistake after mistake, otherwise Jing Family will only face a dead end."

"No."

The speaker was not one of the Jing Family three brothers, but Jing Qingfu.

He exhaled a mouthful of milky white smoke, calmly said: "There’s no need to abandon."

"The day after the arson incident, which was yesterday, I sent some people to attend a minor meeting."

Everyone perked up their ears-minor meeting, referring to the small meetings of Silver Blood’s five major associations, though not as decisive as grand meetings, the content discussed could still determine Xuanzhu County’s fate."

"Firstly, the four major associations also want to take this opportunity to reduce wages, extract profits, and transfer war risks. They hope Jing Family takes no step back and insists through this joint salary reduction. They will facilitate connections for us, ensuring we have no worries."

Leyu’s face slightly changed—capitalists have united again.

Clearly, the four major associations want Jing Family to take the bullet, but Jing Family is quite willing to take the bullet, the associations take gains, Jing Family takes fame and gains as well, that’s that.

"Secondly, they feel the Backlight Particles are way too bold, Silver Blood Association cannot tolerate Backlight Particles disrupting our merchant realm, much less compromise with them. Silver Blood intends to fund a patrol team in Half City, protecting factory areas’ safety, and capturing arsonist criminals. Our five major associations must each dispatch people to lead a patrol team, to show our stance."

Upon hearing this, the brothers all sat straight up, Jing Zhengwu’s eyes even sparkled with light.

Jing Qingfu took a deep inhale of white mist, then said, "Zhengwei, you as Jing Family, will lead one patrol team."

Everyone was astonished, Jing Zhengwu wouldn’t hold back his shocked expression, becoming extremely unpleasant; Jing Main Hall and Jing Zhengwu showed no change in their faces but seemed to be deep in thought.

Whereas Leyu was slightly stunned.

You’re asking me to be in charge of the Half City factory area’s patrol team?

This is like sending a cat to guard fish snacks!