Chapter 30:
In that moment, all of them became silent.
Hei Hu always said that they were his brothers, but they also knew how much Hei Hu loved money!
He was extremely greedy when it came to money!
Between money and themselves, Hei Hu would definitely choose money!
It was just 100k - were their lives not even worth 100k?
They had worked hard and risked their lives for Hei Hu all these years, but now Hei Hu couldn't even bear to pay 100k for each of them. Instead he chose to abandon them.
"It can't be...Brother Hu wouldn't do this!"
"This must be your ploy! Brother Hu wouldn't abandon us!"
"Brother Hu...Brother Hu...he wouldn't..."
The voices grew softer and softer, and they lost confidence in themselves.
It was only in times like these that they understood how much they meant to Hei Hu.
Obviously they didn't mean anything to him.
There was disappointment on all the men's faces. Then it quickly turned to despair and fury!
"So what do you want to do?" The leader of the pack stared at Jiang Ning with bloodshot eyes as he asked.
Jiang Ning was very powerful!
Frighteningly powerful!
Even if Jiang Ning killed them, they could only blame themselves for being poorly skilled. But they knew that Jiang Ning despised the idea of killing them himself.
"Nothing, I just wanted you to face reality."
Jiang Ning calmly replied, "Now you know what you're worth to Hei Hu, right? You thought that by risking your lives for him, he would cherish you guys?"
"Wrong! He would despise you even more! He would just treat you as tools, throwing you away once he's done using you!"
"You guys have nowhere else to go but to risk your lives for him, so why should he think that any of you is important to him?"
Jiang Ning's words pierced the hearts of every one of them.
It was difficult to swallow, but every word was true.
Their faces became angry then pale then angry again. It was true that they gained nothing from following Hei Hu. After all their sacrifices for him, they were barely making ends meet.
No matter how much money Hei Hu earned, it had nothing to do with them.
"I, on the other hand, could provide you a way out."
Everyone looked up violently.
"Don't look at me like that, all of you are too useless for my standards. But then since you are all so energetic, it's not a bad idea for you guys to work on this construction site."
"Are you...are you insulting us now?" One of the hooligans couldn't help but respond angrily.
"Insulting you?"
Jiang Ning laughed coldly. "Then tell me, what else do you know how to do?"
That man shut his mouth. Besides fighting, he didn't know how to do anything else.
"Don't forget, your lives are now in my hands. Each one of you is worth 100k, so you can work here until you've earned 100k, then you can go."
"You're willing to let us go?"
The leader of the pack was stunned by this. He had gone through many fights in the illegal circles.
Once they were in the hands of the enemy, even if they didn't die, they would be incapacitated for sure!
Jiang Ning was actually willing to let them go at 100k per person. That was 6.8 million in total!
"Once you've earned the 100k, you can go. I won't keep you here even if you want to stay."
Jiang Ning then went straight to the point, "I'll say it more clearly. Finish building the factory in two months, then you can go."
All of them exchanged glances. So Jiang Ning meant that each month of work was worth $50,000?
"You trust us? Aren't you afraid that we'd run for it or make trouble or ruin the factory?" asked the leader.
"You dare?"
It only took one sentence from Jiang Ning.
None of them said anything.
Before this, they had to work and risk their lives for Hei Hu, but Hei Hu earned all the money.
Now Hei Hu had abandoned them, so there were no longer obliged to do Hei Hu's bidding. Besides, if they offended Jiang Ning, the consequences were very grave!
They remembered very clearly that when Huang Yuming came, he had respectfully called Jiang Ning 'Big Boss'!
If Huang Yuming, who was on the same level as Hei Hu, had to call this man Big Boss, how terrifying he must be!
More importantly, he had convinced them after beating them all up singlehandedly!
"I'll do it!" the leader was the first to shout. "I hope you'll keep your promise!"
"Me too! Bloody hell, I'll fight for my own freedom!"
"Two months to earn 100k to redeem my freedom, I'm doing it!"
One by one they all started shouting in agreement.
No matter what they had to do, it was 50k a month. At least here, they were worth a lot more than before.
Right now Lin Yuzhen was having a headache because it looked like they weren't going to meet the schedule.
"Can't we hire more workers? If we can't finish the building in two months, we can't fit the assembly line on schedule."
Chapter 31:
Her plans couldn't be delayed like this.
"It's very hard to find people now, especially since this place is pretty far out."
Mr Xu was also having a headache over this. It was expensive to hire workers, but the bigger problem was that few were willing to do this sort of work and couldn't take the work, so he couldn't find anyone at such short notice.
Lin Yuzhen was still frowning when she saw that the hooligans from the morning were all walking towards them.
She immediately became nervous, "Who...who untied them?"
Mr Xu became even paler, and anxiously looked around for Jiang Ning.
But Jiang Ning wasn't around - who could fend them off now?
But the entire group walked right up to Lin Yuzhen and bowed slightly.
"Miss Lin, we will listen to your instructions for the next two months and work on this construction site!" said the leader.
"Wha-?"
Lin Yuzhen was in shock. What did he mean?
So they weren't here to make trouble, but they wanted to work on the site?
She was just vexed over how she couldn't find enough workers to speed up the building of the factory, and now all these men had come just in time to offer to work on the site.
But these men all looked so dangerous and scary, she didn't dare to hire any of them.
"We don't need to be paid! We just want to complete the work and regain our freedom!" the leader continued.
Lin Yuzhen and the rest were even more stunned. They wanted to work but didn't need to be paid?
Work on a construction site was all menial work. It was tough but they didn't want money, and only wanted to regain their freedom.
Lin Yuzhen turned to see Jiang Ning walking over.
"Jiang Ning, what's going on?"
"They want to prove that they can do something else besides fight. You're facing a shortage of workers now, so I told them to come over."
Jiang Ning took one look at them. "Don't worry about hiring them, they won't dare to make any trouble."
If anyone dared to, then they couldn't blame Jiang Ning for turning nasty.
Lin Yuzhen still didn't dare to believe her ears, so some of the men just went straight into the site and carried some cement bags in.
Once one started moving, the rest of the men moved too. They went asking the other workers what needed to be done, and started work very quickly.
At least this way, they just needed to use the next two months to repay their debt of 100k. They could get their freedom back and get some pride back as well.
Lin Yuzhen watched in confusion as the hooligans who had made so much trouble before were now rolling up their sleeves and working in the hot sun at the construction site. How did this world change so fast?
"They really won't make any trouble?"
She was most worried that they would cause trouble.
The project couldn't afford any further delays.
"Don't worry, these people have been abandoned and they want to prove themselves now. They don't have any time or energy to make trouble," replied Jiang Ning calmly.
"Then about their salary..." Mr Xu couldn't help but ask.
"Salary? It's already not bad that I didn't ask for money from them," snorted Jiang Ning.
Lin Yuzhen rolled her eyes at Jiang Ning.
"I will consider the issue of their salary. As long as they work seriously and help to hasten the building, then we have to at least provide them with food. We can't make them work on an empty stomach."
What a kind woman Lin Yuzhen was.
After leaving the factory for home, Lin Yuzhen was still worried. She made several calls to Mr Xu to make sure the men were all still working hard before she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But how did Jiang Ning manage to persuade them?
All these men were gangsters, and were terrifying if they started to fight!
She wanted to ask Jiang Ning, but she could tell from his expression that everything was under control, so she suddenly didn't want to ask him anymore.
What was this fellow gleeful about.
By the time they reached home, it was dinner time.
Su Mei had already prepared dinner long ago, and was just waiting for Lin Yuzhen and Jiang Ning to come home.
At the dining table, Jiang Ning's appetite was excellent as usual.
Lin Wen and Su Mei never really ate very much, but now she had to cook quite a bit everyday.
"Yuzhen, I heard something cropped up at the factory?" Lin Wen was quite worried.
He knew very well how kind and easily bullied his daughter was.
"It's all settled."
Lin Yuzhen put some vegetables into Lin Wen's bowl. "Dad, don't worry."
She turned to Jiang Ning, who was furiously wolfing down his food. She was glad that he had been around, and thought about whether to put some meat in his bowl as a reward.
"It's all thanks to Jiang Ning, right?"
Su Mei put the biggest pork rib into Jiang Ning's bowl before Lin Yuzhen could. "Eat more."
"Thanks Mum!"
Jiang Ning had a look of joy on his face.
"Who on earth is this person, making things difficult for you again and again?"
Lin Wen frowned. Jiang Ning was around, but surely they couldn't always trouble him.
Lin Yuzhen shook her head. She only knew that those hooligans worked for Hei Hu in the illegal circles, but she didn't know who was giving them instructions.
"Dad, you know this person very well."