Chapter 46: A resounding victory, awarding a million-dollar prize to all factory employees.

Just as the black Mercedes-Benz business van turned onto the pothole-ridden side road leading to Xinghai Technology, a series of explosions echoed inside.

"Pop! Crackle!"

Deafening firecrackers exploded at the factory entrance, sending red confetti flying everywhere in the wind.

Lu Jingming rolled down the car window, and a thick smell of gunpowder immediately rushed into his nostrils.

Hanging on the factory gate were two eye-catching, ten-meter-long red banners with yellow lettering.

"Warmly Welcome President Lu's Triumphant Return!"

"Punching Samsung, kicking foreign trash, Xing Dongfang dominates the world!"

Chu Xuan was wearing his signature floral shirt, one foot planted on a concrete block outside the security booth.

He held a chipped, battered loudspeaker in his hand, his neck veins bulging from all the shouting.

"Brothers! Clap until your hands are raw! Let President Lu hear our confidence!"

Niu Dazhuang led dozens of workshop managers, lining up on both sides of the gate.

This group of rough men clapped until their hands were bright red, each grinning so wide their back molars were practically visible.

The entire factory grounds were raucous, a hundred times livelier than the Lunar New Year.

The Mercedes-Benz pulled to a smooth stop in front of the office building.

Shen Qingqiu pushed open the car door and stepped out, her high heels clicking on the litter of firecracker debris.

She covered her ears, her brows furrowing behind her gold-rimmed glasses; she truly couldn't stand this rough-and-tumble style.

Lu Jingming stepped out with one hand in his pocket, tossing the car keys to the security guard who ran over.

"That's enough, Chu Xuan, stop howling."

He rubbed his numb ears. "You're acting like a mountain bandit returning to his lair. Aren't you embarrassed?"

Chu Xuan trotted over and hurriedly turned off the loudspeaker.

"President Lu, this is called boosting morale! Xinghai is now the true hegemon of the digital circle!"

He reported with great excitement, "Those 800,000 full-payment orders have all been shipped by logistics, and not a single one has been returned!"

Old Li pushed up his thick-rimmed glasses, his eyes slightly red.

"Young Master, after using our own Retina screens, the online reputation has gone absolutely wild."

His voice trembled. "Users are saying our image quality is a dimensional strike, and now the spot price on the black market has been hyped up to 3,000 yuan per unit!"

Everything was within expectations.

Lu Jingming pulled out a one-yuan plastic lighter and "clicked" it to light a cigarette.

He turned his head to look at Shen Qingqiu, who was standing to the side.

"God of Wealth Shen, how much liquid capital is sitting in our corporate account right now?"

Shen Qingqiu took a small notebook out of her bag, opened it, and glanced at it.

"After deducting the capital injection from Oriental Screen a few days ago, as well as the final payments to various suppliers."

She looked up, and those phoenix eyes, usually so calm, were now flickering with an unusual brightness.

"The current pure cash flow is 1.2 billion."

Upon hearing this number, the executives gathered nearby all collectively gasped.

Dazhuang swallowed hard, feeling like he had never even seen 1.2 billion coins in his entire life.

"Money left sitting is just a pile of waste paper; we have to make it move."

Lu Jingming exhaled a ring of blue smoke, his gaze sweeping over the group of executives who had endured these past few months with him.

"Go notify all factory employees to stop the three-shift machines for two hours. Everyone is to gather at the main playground."

Chu Xuan was stunned for a moment. "President Lu, are we holding an awards ceremony? Should I go prepare your speech?"

"No need for that pretentious nonsense."

Lu Jingming threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it, a scheming smile curling the corners of his mouth.

"Our factory doesn't believe in empty promises. Go to the playground; I'm going to show everyone something real."

Half an hour later, the open-air playground at Xinghai Technology was packed with people.

Thousands of assembly line workers in blue uniforms, customer service staff, and technicians in white lab coats were arranged into dozens of formations.

Everyone whispered to each other, discussing why the boss had suddenly stopped work.

Just then, a deep, resonant roar of engines came from the direction of the gate.

Three dark green heavy-duty armored cash-in-transit trucks, with their hazard lights flashing, slowly drove into the playground like three steel beasts.

The vehicles drove straight to the front of the makeshift stage.

"Clatter."

The doors opened, and twelve fully armed security personnel wearing riot helmets jumped out.

They formed two lines, eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly.

The crowd below went instantly quiet, thousands of eyes staring straight at those three vehicles.

Former Canteen Chef Wang Chunhua, wearing an apron and holding a metal spatula, stared without even blinking.

"Oh my goodness, did they empty out the bank?"

Several security guards worked together to lift large, sealed iron boxes out of the truck beds.

Over a dozen large boxes were stacked into a small mountain on the wooden stage.

Lu Jingming wasn't wearing a suit; he was still in his black T-shirt and jeans, striding onto the stage.

He took a rusty claw hammer from Chu Xuan.

There was no opening statement, no long-winded speech.

Lu Jingming walked to the iron box at the very front, raised the hammer, and struck the lock.

"Snap!"

The lock broke off, and he flipped the box lid open with one hand.

Sunlight instantly poured into the box.

Bundles of brand-new hundred-yuan notes, with the bank seals still intact, were stacked neatly inside.

Lu Jingming didn't stop, smashing open five more large boxes in a row.

Dozens of bundles of bright red cash, like a red mountain emitting the fresh scent of ink, were laid bare before thousands of people.

"Hiss—"

A uniform gasp resonated across the playground.

That blinding red was more shocking than any light show, hitting everyone's retinas directly.

Lu Jingming picked up the microphone and tapped it twice.

The "thump-thump" sound echoed throughout the venue.

"I'm not good with words, and I hate it when bosses get on stage and blather about sentimentality to the brothers below."

Lu Jingming stood with one hand in his pocket, pointing at the mountain of money beside him.

"Sentimentality can't fill your stomach. To buy your wife a bag, you need real money."

He scanned the eyes below, which were glowing with greed.

"These past few months, some of you have worked until your eyes were red, and some have slept on the floor of the workshop."

"Foreign companies wanted to choke us, and competitors wanted to trample on our faces. It was you who risked your lives to build the Xinghai we have today!"

Lu Jingming turned his head to look at the executives on the side of the stage.

"Old Li! Niu Dazhuang! Chu Xuan! Zhou Hong! Factory Manager Wang Jingdong!"

The five people called out jumped in surprise.

"Come up and get your money."

These five grown men, who usually cursed and swore in the workshop, now felt their knees shaking.

They walked onto the stage, trembling, and lined up.

Lu Jingming picked up several snake-skin sacks that had been prepared by his feet.

He bent down, grabbed the cash from the boxes with both hands, and stuffed it into the sacks as if he were packing cabbages.

"One million in cash for each of you."

Lu Jingming tossed the money-filled sacks at their feet one by one.

"Whether you take it back to put in a fixed deposit or buy a luxury apartment, this is what you deserve."

Old Li fell to his knees in front of the sack, his hands trembling as he caressed the banknotes.

Tears streamed down his face, and he wept like a child.

"Young Master... my old bones, this life has been worth it!"

Niu Dazhuang hugged the snake-skin sack tightly, grinning foolishly, snot bubbles practically forming in his nose.

Zhou Hong, the arrogant chief engineer of the big factory, now had eyes filled with the fanatical devotion of someone willing to die for a master who truly appreciates him.

Following Lu Jingming, he could not only create the most awesome system, but also earn money he wouldn't have dared to dream of before.

"Xia Weiliang!" Lu Jingming called out again.

The genius girl, wearing an oversized white lab coat and flip-flops, shuffled slowly onto the stage.

Her hair was as messy as a bird's nest, and her black-rimmed glasses were crooked on her nose.

Lu Jingming picked up the last sack and stuffed it into her arms.

"Yours. Go buy something good to eat; stop eating instant noodles every day."

Xia Weiliang stumbled under the weight of the sack.

She opened the sack to take a look, pushed up her glasses, and looked up at Lu Jingming.

"Lu Jingming, how many sets of top-tier IBM servers can one million buy?"

She asked seriously, "I want to expand the laboratory's underlying computing power by another factor of two."

The workers below were stunned; this was too hardcore.

Lu Jingming annoyed, curled his finger and flicked her on the forehead.

"You crazy girl. Servers come from the corporate account; this money is your dowry."

After dismissing the executives, Lu Jingming's gaze fell back onto the thousands of ordinary employees.

"If the supervisors eat meat, the brothers below absolutely cannot just drink soup."

He gripped the microphone tightly, his voice suddenly rising with an arrogance that could blow the roof off.

"Today, as long as you are a permanent employee who has been with Xinghai for over three months, whether you solder circuit boards or answer phones!"

Lu Jingming swung his arm down fiercely.

"Everyone will receive a super year-end bonus equivalent to five years of salary!"

"This afternoon, the cash will be settled directly!"

As his voice fell.

The entire playground was deathly silent for two seconds.

Then, a heaven-shaking roar erupted, loud enough to shatter the clouds in the sky.

"Long live President Lu! Long live Xinghai!"

"Oh my god! Five years of salary! I can build a two-story villa back home!"

Former Canteen Chef Wang Chunhua dropped the metal spatula in her hand, sat down on the ground in excitement, and wailed.

Several young assembly line workers took off their blue work caps and threw them into the air frantically.

This wasn't just handing out money.

This was like injecting a high-concentration stimulant into this group of grassroots workers.

If Lu Jingming pointed at the foreign company's headquarters right now and told them to smash it, this group of people would absolutely rush up there with pipe wrenches in hand.

Shen Qingqiu stood in the shadows at the edge of the stage, watching the thousands of people who had fallen into a frenzy.

Her eyes, which had seen billions in big projects without a ripple, were now filled with shock.

The money distribution process lasted for a full three hours.

By the time the armored trucks drove away with empty compartments, the people on the playground were walking as if they were floating, all looking as if they were hallucinating from joy.

The crowd dispersed.

Lu Jingming brushed the non-existent dust off his hands and strolled over to the steps.

Shen Qingqiu walked up in her high heels and handed him a bottle of mineral water with the cap unscrewed.

"A grand gesture, President Lu."

Her tone carried a hint of teasing, mixed with some incomprehensible helplessness.

"Thousands of people, and you handed out nearly 200 million in cash in one go."

Shen Qingqiu pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, sizing up this man who threw money around like dirt.

"If the presidents of the foreign companies knew you were playing like this, they'd probably curse you for breaking the industry's employment rules."

She shook her head, a faint smile curling her lips.

"By raising the bonus to the outrageous height of five years' salary, are you planning to work these employees to death?"

Lu Jingming took the mineral water, tilted his head back, and took a big gulp.

The cold water slid down his throat, and he let out a comfortable sigh.

He screwed the cap back on, turned to look at Shen Qingqiu, and a scheming smile crept into the corners of his eyes.

"Work them to death?"

Lu Jingming leaned in closer, his voice dropping low, revealing the cunning of a capitalist who sucks blood without spitting out the bones.

"God of Wealth Shen, your calculations are wrong."

He pointed at the backs of the employees running wildly toward the workshop while clutching their money, raising one eyebrow.

"After taking money from me, Lu Jingming, equivalent to five years of their lives, guess what?"

Lu Jingming chuckled softly. "If they still have the nerve to clock out on time tomorrow morning, can you even call them human?"