Chapter 1: Starting with a debt of ten million? Don't panic, take life and death lightly.

My head hurts. It feels like someone is using an electric drill to frantically bore holes in my brain.

Lu Jingming snapped his eyes open, gasping for air.

What came into view was a yellowing, peeling ceiling, and the broken ceiling fan above that was spinning with a creaking sound.

He braced himself against the old solid wood desk and managed to sit upright.

On the desk, a mountain-like pile of A4 paper was scattered about, all stamped with glaring red collection seals.

"Where is this?"

Lu Jingming pressed his throbbing temples as a massive wave of memories suddenly surged into the depths of his mind.

A minute later, he gasped.

He had transmigrated.

He had returned to 2007.

For the tech world, this year was a magical turning point.

The bitten Apple was about to release its first smartphone, while Nokia was still snoring away on the throne of the Symbian OS.

And domestically, Huaqiangbei was immersed in the carnival of the savage growth of knock-off phones.

The original owner was also named Lu Jingming, the Young Master of the "Xinghai Electronics Factory" in Donghai City.

The old factory director had suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage half a month ago and was in the ICU, and this guy had been forced to take over a riddled mess.

Lu Jingming grabbed a financial report from the table.

The glaring deficit on it made his eyes twitch uncontrollably.

"Good grief, owing the bank five million, the suppliers over three million, and two months of unpaid wages for the workers..."

He slapped the report onto the desk and couldn't help but curse.

Even more outrageous was that the overseas-educated financial director, whom the original owner had hired at a high salary, had rolled up the last one hundred thousand in cash from the account in the middle of the night yesterday.

He bought a plane ticket and ran away.

Just as he was wondering if he should just jump off a building to restart this opening.

"Bang!"

The peeling wooden door of the office was kicked open.

The solid wood door panel slammed heavily against the wall, shaking the white wall plaster down.

A burly man like an iron tower rushed in, covered in sweat.

The person was wearing blue work clothes stained with oil, sleeves rolled up high, revealing bronze-colored forearms.

This was the factory's production director, and also a loyal backbone who had followed the old factory director to build the business, Niu Dazhuang.

"Young Master, it's bad!"

Niu Dazhuang was panting like an old ox, not even bothering to close the door, and rushed to the desk in a few steps.

Lu Jingming rubbed his ears, which were numbed by the shock.

"If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. Uncle Dazhuang, catch your breath before you speak."

Niu Dazhuang slapped his thigh in anxiety, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

"Hold it up, my ass! The sky has already crushed our heads!"

He pointed outside the window and roared at the top of his lungs.

"The workers below have all stopped working, saying that if they don't see last month's wages today, they will move all that scrap metal in the warehouse out and sell it!"

Lu Jingming raised an eyebrow.

"Workers causing trouble? Where are the people from the finance department? Tell them to go stabilize their emotions first."

"Stabilize my foot!"

Niu Dazhuang spat on the ground, his eyes wide open.

"That bastard accountant with the gold-rimmed glasses ran away with his bedding overnight! Now even the computer host in the finance office has been swiped by him!"

Lu Jingming didn't speak.

Although he already knew about this from his memories, hearing this explosive news for real still felt absurd.

This factory was leaking even more thoroughly than a broken boat.

Before Lu Jingming could speak to soothe him, Niu Dazhuang dropped another bombshell.

"Young Master, that's not even the most fatal part."

The burly man lowered his voice, a hint of panic squeezing onto his rugged face.

"Over at the main gate, several material suppliers from Huaqiangbei have gathered over thirty people and have already blocked the factory gate!"

Lu Jingming narrowed his eyes slightly.

He stood up, walked to the window, and ripped open the dusty blinds.

Looking from the second-floor perspective.

The originally quiet entrance of the electronics factory was now surrounded by a crowd of people.

A bald man leading them was even holding a gleaming steel pipe, banging away at the rusty iron gate.

"Who is that bald guy leading them?" Lu Jingming asked, pointing outside the window.

Niu Dazhuang looked in the direction of his gaze, gritting his teeth to squeeze out a few words.

"That is Brother Biao, who supplies us with motherboards. He is a famous local tyrant in Huaqiangbei. We owe him a big chunk, over two million."

The sound of banging on the door became louder and louder, mixed with ugly curses drifting into the office with the wind.

"Listen up, people inside! You little bastard of the Lu family, don't be a coward!"

"It's only right and proper to pay back debts! If you can't come up with the money today, I'll call a forklift and take away all the placement machines in your workshop!"

Hearing the three words "placement machines," Niu Dazhuang completely panicked.

Those were the second-hand equipment that the old factory director had smashed pots and sold iron to get from the island country back in the day; they were the factory's lifeline.

"Young Master, if they dare to touch the equipment, I'll fight them to the death today!"

Niu Dazhuang grabbed a rusty large wrench from the corner, his eyes turning red.

"Uncle Dazhuang, put it down."

Lu Jingming turned around, his voice not loud, but filled with an unquestionable coldness.

Niu Dazhuang was stunned.

The Young Master in his impression was a spineless coward who would only hide behind his father and tremble when encountering trouble.

How come his tone of voice had changed today?

"Young Master, this is not the time to play the grandson!"

Niu Dazhuang stomped his feet in anxiety.

"Brother Biao and his gang are ruthless; this is clearly an attempt to take advantage of our crisis and forcibly seize our factory!"

"What they are eyeing is not the debt at all, but our piece of land that hasn't been mortgaged yet!"

Lu Jingming walked back to the desk slowly and methodically.

The land?

Land in Donghai City in 2007 was a real hot commodity.

These people certainly had a good plan, using a two-million debt to force a bankrupt factory to its death, and easily snatching away land worth ten million.

"How much usable cash do we have on the books right now?"

Lu Jingming leaned against the corner of the desk, arms crossed over his chest, watching the distressed Niu Dazhuang.

Niu Dazhuang made a bitter face and held up five rough fingers.

"Fifty thousand?" Lu Jingming asked.

Niu Dazhuang shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching.

"Five hundred yuan... This was still the coins I dug out from the canteen lady's grocery money pocket this morning."

Ten million in debt.

Five hundred yuan on the account.

Workers on strike inside, hooligans blocking the door outside.

If this were any normal person, they would probably already have weak knees, preparing to pack up and run away overnight.

The curses downstairs grew increasingly arrogant.

The wailing sound from the large iron gate was like a death warrant hanging over their heads.

"Bang! Bang-bang!"

Someone even started throwing bricks into the courtyard, shattering the glass of the first-floor workshop.

The sound of crashing glass pierced the nerves of the old worker.

Niu Dazhuang's fingers gripping the wrench turned white from the force.

"Young Master, you should go through the back door."

The rugged man sighed, his eyes revealing a sense of determination.

"The old factory director was kind to me. My old bones will be left here today; I can hold them off for at least half an hour."

"You hurry up and run, don't come back."

Run?

Lu Jingming laughed.

He had transmigrated back from the bloody tech world ten years later.

What kind of business war tactics hadn't he seen?

A bunch of second-hand thugs dealing in knock-off accessories, and they deserve to make him run?

Lu Jingming reached into the drawer and pulled out a flattened cigarette pack.

He shook out a yellowed cigarette and put it in his mouth.

He then pulled out a one-yuan plastic lighter.

With a "click," a deep blue flame sprang up.

Blue-gray smoke rose slowly in the messy office.

Lu Jingming leaned back in the boss's chair, half-squinting his eyes, and calmly blew out a smoke ring.

He stubbed out the cigarette butt and threw on an old jacket.

Niu Dazhuang looked at the Young Master in front of him, whose aura had suddenly changed, and was completely dumbfounded.

"Young Master, what are you doing..."

Lu Jingming patted the dust off his jacket hem and strode toward the door.

Without looking back, he left only a tall, upright silhouette and a light sentence.

"What are you running for?"

"Take life and death lightly, follow me out to meet them."