Chapter 90: Mortifying Beyond Words

“Buy collective bonds? Wu Ya, we may not know much about bonds, but we have heard the market talk. Collective bonds have already collapsed into worthless paper. Buying them now would be like throwing money into a pit, wouldn’t it?”

Fang Huayan froze.

She looked at Wu Ya, confusion written all over her face.

But unfortunately—

“Heh, let’s hurry back to the factory and sign the contract. The sooner we do, the sooner we can calm everyone’s minds.”

Wu Ya no longer wished to linger.

This trip had already run three days longer than expected.

Liu Qian had been calling almost every day, asking where he was.

By now, even the front desk clerk at the hotel knew that every day at eight o’clock, his room extension was the one that needed to be transferred.

So whenever they saw him, they would always wear that knowing little smile.

He had a thick skin, but even he could not endure a beauty’s repeated, teasing scrutiny.

Besides.

Believe it or not.

He had cut their losses from the front end, because that was simply the discipline of doing business, never yielding an inch.

Who told them to hand him such an opportunity?

And helping them plug the hole afterward, from the back end, was a matter of human decency.

He could not bear to watch them sink into the mire and have to start all over again.

Since he had already done what he could and could stand before his own conscience, there was no need to waste any more breath.

Explain it all to them in detail?

He still had to buy a ticket and hurry home.

“Yes, darling, we should get back to the factory as soon as possible. That’s what matters.”

Beside him, Lan Yaoming had also long since grown impatient.

The factory was in a critical state.

If they delayed any longer, and this turned into a mass incident, then even if the money came through, it would be too late.

Punishment from the authorities would surely draw the bank in as well.

By then, the only thing waiting for them would be bankruptcy.

There would be no other road left.

“You! Fine, let’s go!”

Fang Huayan shot a vicious glare at Lan Yaoming, but in the end she could only agree helplessly.

It was obvious that Wu Ya did not want to say more.

Even if she could coax a few things out of him, they would never come easily in a few words.

And they no longer had time.

The three of them set off at once for Grand Ambition.

Meanwhile, at the factory—

“Hmph! Is Director Lan planning to keep hiding forever, never showing his face to us in this lifetime?”

“That’s right! Make him come out and give us an explanation! That’s our hard-earned money, not a single cent can be missing!”

“He ruined the factory for the sake of some shameless woman. He got what he deserved! But he can’t drag us down with him and use us as his cushion!”

Dozens of workers had surrounded the office, sealing it off so tightly that not even water could have leaked through.

At the entrance, the office manager wore a dark, stormy expression.

Sweat had already beaded across his forehead and formed a thin curtain.

It streamed down in rivulets, yet he had no time to wipe it away.

“Brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, I am not lying. Director Lan really is not here!”

He had said this no fewer than a hundred times.

But to no avail.

No one would believe him.

Everyone was convinced that Lan Yaoming was hiding in the office right now.

Watching them.

The money had all been squandered by Mo Xiao.

Where else could he be now?

He could only be staying at the factory to guard against the unexpected.

“Manager Yang, stop standing in the doorway like a dog. If we don’t see the boss today, we’ll have no choice but to move the machines and exchange them for cash!”

“That’s right, Manager Yang! Since you keep saying Director Lan isn’t in the office, why are you afraid to step aside and let us go in and see for ourselves?”

“Exactly! Move aside. We want to see Director Lan!”

Seeing that Manager Yang refused, no matter what, to budge even a step from the entrance, everyone became even more certain that Lan Yaoming was hiding in the office.

“He’s not here, he really isn’t!”

Manager Yang was on the verge of tears.

Lan Yaoming had given him a death order: he must hold the office no matter what.

He could not allow the workers to charge in.

Otherwise, once they discovered he truly was gone, they would suspect that he had already taken the money and run.

That would not only ignite their fury and drive them to smash the office in their rage, it would also stir up their viciousness.

If they fell into the mindset of all or nothing, who knew what else they might do?

So holding the office was the only reliable way to buy time and stabilize the crowd.

But as the minutes dragged on, Manager Yang was clearly running out of strength.

“Why still not back yet? Could it be that Grand Ambition is truly finished?”

Just as he was drowning in despair, utterly broken—

“Everyone, listen to me! We should stop wasting time! Rush in, drag Lan Yaoming out, and demand our hard-earned wages!”

No one knew who shouted it first.

The cry cut through the uproar and ignited the fury that had been suppressed for so long.

Boom.

The crowd exploded.

“That’s right! Charge in and catch Lan Yaoming. Demand our wages!”

“Exactly. We can’t wait anymore! If we keep waiting, he’ll get away!”

“Go! Maybe the finance office still has some money left. Whoever gets it, it’s theirs!”

There’s still money in the finance office!

That last line drove the already heated crowd completely out of their minds.

In an instant, every pair of eyes turned bloodshot.

Crimson.

All crimson.

“Charge!”

With a shout, before Manager Yang could even dodge aside, he was swallowed by the crowd.

Gone without a trace.

With the gate already breached, people surged into the corridor.

And just as the last person was about to step through the door—

“Stop right there! You are employees of Grand Ambition, not street thugs brawling in the lanes! What kind of situation could possibly drive you to act like nothing but rioters?”

A stern rebuke suddenly rang out from behind and echoed across the entire factory.

Those who had already rushed into the office, and those still pushing forward with all their strength—

everyone stopped.

One by one, they turned around, their eyes filled with complicated expressions.

That voice.

They had not heard it in years.

It was their most respected former boss’s wife, Fang Huayan.

At a time like this, at this critical moment when the factory was in such a desperate plight—

she had appeared again.

Had she come to solve the problem for them?

If so, then their behavior right now had been far too outrageous.

They had not only betrayed the trust they once shared, but also let down the care and kindness their boss’s wife had shown them all along.

She was such a kind woman, so warm and generous.

As they looked at her, their expressions shifted from conflicted to ashamed.

Their feet, too, began to retreat from the office.

One by one, they stood in the yard with their heads lowered, too ashamed to meet Fang Huayan’s gaze.

“What now? The swagger you had when you stormed the office has already vanished just like that? Weren’t you all so heroic, so full of bravado? Why is even the courage to look me in the eye gone now? Why is that? Is it because you feel ashamed? You can feel shame too?”

Fang Huayan swept a cold gaze across them.

Then came a barrage of questions.

Yet there was not the slightest trace of anger in her tone.

Only deep disappointment.

But precisely that emotion dissolved the last scraps of anger the crowd still had left.

In its place came a still heavier shame.

They had stormed the factory and allowed suspicion to swell into something beyond cure.

And this was their answer to the boss’s wife who had once fought side by side with them, worked shoulder to shoulder with them, and treated them like family?

It was enough to make one die of embarrassment.

“Boss’s wife, what we did today was indeed wrong, and we owe you an apology. But we have our own difficulties too! Which one of us here doesn’t have a family to feed? Which one of us isn’t the main source of income at home? If there’s no pay for a month, how are we supposed to live?”

After a long while, someone finally began to pour out their grievances.

The boss’s wife might be righteous, but they still had to survive.

There were wives and children at home, all waiting for rice to go into the pot.

No income for a month?

And with school about to start, the children’s tuition would have nowhere to come from.

“That’s right, Boss’s wife! We’ve heard about what happened with Accountant Mo. But what does that have to do with us? Every cent we earn is blood and sweat. Surely you can’t just refuse to pay us because the factory is losing money?”

“Boss’s wife, you can’t use our hard-earned wages to plug your own hole!”

“Boss’s wife, just tell us the truth. How are you planning to handle this situation now?”

One wave of questioning followed another.

They had been driven by circumstances and had no choice.

Smashing and seizing things was wrong.

But the questions that needed asking still had to be asked, didn’t they?

Could they simply ignore their families’ livelihoods just because they felt guilty?

That would not be loyalty. That would be stupidity.

Faced with the crowd’s eager eyes, Fang Huayan brushed back the loose strands of hair at her temple.

“Yes, the factory has indeed run into some trouble because of Mo Xiao. But who told you that we were going to use your wages to make up the shortfall? And who told you that we are already in such dire straits that you’ll have to sell off the machines just to get paid?”

Those two questions, combined with her open acknowledgment of the trouble caused by Mo Xiao, immediately calmed the emotions that had just begun to roil again.

And when Fang Huayan finished speaking, every pair of eyes in the crowd changed.

From longing, they instantly turned hot.

The way she said it, their wages were still safe?

No need to sell the machines, and no chance they would be used to fill some pit?

That was wonderful.

If Lan Yaoming had said those words, no one would have believed him.

His credibility had already fallen to rock bottom.

But these words had come from Fang Huayan.

That meant—

their wages still had hope, and they could actually be paid in full.