103: Chapter 103 I just took them to repair the road

Lu Chen pressed answer.

"Boss, I'm following behind President Ma Jianping's convoy," Wu Dong panted heavily over the phone. "There are too many vehicles. Three hundred heavy-duty 8x4 dump trucks, fully loaded with cement, sand, and rebar."

"Where are you?" Lu Chen asked.

"Just got off the outer ring road, preparing to enter the Chengbei High-Tech Zone service road, but..." Wu Dong's voice trailed off.

Lu Chen spat out his cigarette. "But what?"

"The service road is blocked by two police cars," Wu Dong swallowed hard. "The municipal road administration vehicles are there too. They've put up barbed wire and said this section of the road is at risk of subsidence. It's completely closed off; they won't even let a bicycle pass."

Lu Chen leaned back in his seat, his fingers tapping against the steering wheel.

"What did President Ma Jianping's people say?" Lu Chen asked.

"The one leading the team is that man in the black suit who works for President Ma Jianping. He went down to negotiate, but the other side isn't buying it at all. They pulled out a seal directly and said anyone who dares to touch the barbed wire is obstructing official business." Wu Dong sounded anxious. "Boss, if the materials can't get in, the two thousand excavators on Zhao Tiezhu's side will have to stop working."

The person in the Hongqi sedan.

Lu Chen's mind flashed to the figure behind the scenes who had forced President Ma Jianping to cut off the supply.

After buying the materials, the other side immediately blocked the road. This tactic was too familiar. Choking the throat, cutting the main artery—they weren't following any business logic, just using rules to suppress people.

"Where are you?" Lu Chen pushed open the car door.

"I'm at the back of the convoy," Wu Dong replied.

"Stay there and don't move." Lu Chen got out of the car, closed the door, and stepped into the muddy water.

"Tell President Ma Jianping's people to turn off their engines and block the entrance to the service road with all the trucks."

As he walked, Lu Chen dialed another number.

The dial tone rang three times before it connected.

"In the middle of the night, what are you causing trouble about now?" Director Li Jianguo's voice came through the receiver, heavy with exhaustion, the background filled with the noisy chatter of walkie-talkies.

"Director Li, you were right. I bought the materials, but the road has been blocked." Lu Chen walked steadily through the mud.

"I told you, the people you've provoked are high-ranking. I can't interfere in road administration matters." Director Li Jianguo's voice was deep. "This is a warning to make you bow your head obediently."

"The construction of the Chengbei High-Tech Zone was approved by Comrade Zhou Changming of the Provincial Party Committee." Lu Chen ignored Director Li Jianguo's warning and got straight to the point.

"Now, someone is using ground subsidence as an excuse to lock the material passage for a key project of the Provincial Party Committee."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"What do you want to do?" Director Li Jianguo asked.

"These tens of thousands of brothers who just signed their contracts have eaten the food and taken the money." Lu Chen stopped walking and looked at Old Zhou, who was still stamping documents on a container in the distance. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets.

"They have no work to do right now."

"Lu Chen! Don't do anything reckless!" Director Li Jianguo's voice rose. "Gathering a crowd to storm a blockade is a capital crime!"

"I'm not storming it." Lu Chen's tone was calm. He turned his head to look at the massive silhouette of the industrial park under the night sky.

"I'm just taking them to repair the road."

Lu Chen hung up the phone.

He walked to the front of the container. Da Biao, sharp-eyed, immediately pushed aside the people blocking his way and ran over.

"Boss." Da Biao stood at attention.

Lu Chen looked at the endless line of people behind him and took the red megaphone that Old Zhou had placed on the table.

He pressed the switch.

"Everyone who has signed the contract and received their work badge, stop what you're doing right now." Lu Chen's voice exploded across the sky above the Chengbei High-Tech Zone through the megaphone.

The gazes of tens of thousands of people instantly converged on him.

Li Tiejun, holding a steak box in his hand, stopped chewing. He held the bowl, staring blankly at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen pointed in the direction of the outer ring road.

"Outside, there are three hundred trucks belonging to us, loaded with steel and cement, blocked on the road by a few pieces of broken barbed wire." Lu Chen's eyes were cold to the extreme. "Someone said that road is broken."

The crowd was silent; only the sound of the wind remained.

"You've taken Chenguang Electronics' money and eaten Chenguang Electronics' food." Lu Chen raised his voice. "The road is broken—what do you do?"

A brief, deathly silence.

Da Biao was the first to roar at the top of his lungs, slamming the solid steel pipe in his hand into the mud.

"Fill it in!" Da Biao bellowed.

Li Tiejun slammed his steak box heavily onto the table, sending grease splattering everywhere. He raised his mutilated hand, missing an index finger.

"Repair the road!" Li Tiejun shouted, his eyes red.

"Repair the road!"

"Fix the road!"

Tens of thousands of people roared in unison, the sound shattering the glass of the construction sheds. The anger that had been suppressed for years was completely ignited by Lu Chen's words.

Lu Chen threw the megaphone to Old Zhou.

"Da Biao, take the men and let's go." Lu Chen turned and walked toward the service road.

Li Tiejun picked up a broken brick from the ground, stuffed it into his pocket, and followed closely behind.

The massive sea of people, forming a river of iron, followed behind Lu Chen, pressing toward the blocked road.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the service road.

The road administration personnel sat in their cars smoking, watching the barbed wire they had set up.

"Boss, is this enough? What if they start causing trouble?" the young enforcement officer asked, sounding a bit nervous.

"Cause trouble? They wouldn't dare. That was a direct order from the city." The leader puffed out a smoke ring and tossed his cigarette butt out the window.

No sooner had he finished speaking than he looked through the car window and saw something in the darkness in the distance.

On the horizon, dense clusters of torches and flashlight beams, like a red tsunami, were rapidly approaching.

The leader's hand shook, and his cigarette pack fell under the seat. He shoved the car door open.

The entire road was vibrating.

Lu Chen walked at the very front, holding a silver windproof lighter. With a ding, the lid flipped open, and the flame danced in the night wind.

He wanted to see if these few pieces of broken barbed wire could stop tens of thousands of desperate people who just wanted to earn a living.

At the service road entrance.

The young enforcement officer gripped the steering wheel tightly, his legs shaking like a sieve under the seat.

The leader gritted his teeth, leaned half his body out the window, and raised his high-intensity flashlight, sweeping it wildly toward the dense, surging crowd in front.

"Stop! Everyone stop!" the leader roared at the top of his lungs. "This is a subsidence zone ahead! The road is closed, do you understand? Anyone who dares to force their way through is disturbing the peace!"

The beam of light hit them, but it couldn't even reach the end of the crowd.

No one paid him any attention.

At the very front was Li Tiejun, the man with half his index finger missing on his right hand.

His eyes were red, his feet covered in mud. He walked up to the barbed wire stretched across the middle of the road, didn't even stop, and grabbed the rusty wire with his calloused hand, pulling it down with all his might.

"Move!" Li Tiejun exhaled a cloud of white mist and roared, "Don't stop our boss from hauling sand!"

Dozens of men beside him rushed forward, using no tools, relying entirely on their rough hands and the worn-out rubber shoes on their feet.

"Snap... snap..."

The wooden stakes securing the barbed wire were ripped out by force, and the barbed netting was trampled into the mud, crushed into scrap metal by hundreds of feet in the blink of an eye.

"They're crazy... they're all crazy!" The leader's flashlight dropped outside the car door. Watching the sea of people surging forward like a burst dam of black water, he pulled his head back and grabbed the young driver by the collar. "Reverse! Reverse the car! Do you want to be trampled to death by these desperate people?!"