109: Chapter 109 The Storm Clears, A Deadly Game at Eight O'Clock (Revised)

4:00 AM, the Chengbei infrastructure construction site.

The muddy ground was completely soaked.

Zhao Tiezhu, shirtless, squatted beside the tracks of a large excavator, smoking a dry cigarette. In front of him, the three hundred acres of wasteland designated for the "Health and Wellness Center" had been cordoned off with two layers of red and white warning tape.

The ground was clean, and all the gravel had been leveled. Building a hospital in half a month—even he felt the pressure.

Since the boss wouldn't allow the workers to work overtime, he could only split them into three shifts, keeping the work going without stopping.

Lu Chen's car was parked on the side road at the edge of the fog.

The lights were off, and rain pounded against the car windows.

Lu Chen sat in the driver's seat with the window rolled down a couple of fingers' width, a half-smoked double happiness cigarette in his mouth, its glow flickering on and off.

A walkie-talkie was tossed on the passenger seat.

"Boss." Wu Dong's hoarse voice came through. "The people from the car companies have all arrived at the Jinlan Hotel and booked several suites. The front desk just reported that Zhou Cheng from BYD went to the restroom alone for ten minutes."

Lu Chen gripped the steering wheel with one hand and flicked the ash out the window.

"Let him move," Lu Chen said to the air.

"We're inspecting the goods at eight tomorrow morning. What if he dares to reach out?" Wu Dong asked.

"Chop it off," Lu Chen said calmly. "Where is Da Biao?"

"He's at Warehouse No. 1 at the main plant, guarding the first batch of batteries off the line," Wu Dong replied.

"Tell Da Biao to keep an eye on things, and tell him not to bring any weapons tomorrow."

"Understood." The other side of the walkie-talkie went quiet.

Lu Chen took a drag of his cigarette, then flicked the butt out the window, looking toward the family housing tents in the distance.

A few hundred meters away, there was a row of canvas family housing tents.

The tent roofs rattled loudly under the raindrops, and they were drafty everywhere.

Wang Yan curled up on a cot in the corner, wrapped in an old military-green quilt.

Beside her, on two dilapidated wooden boards pushed together, lay a thin, gray-haired woman.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

Mother coughed so hard she doubled over, her lungs making a wheezing sound like a bellows.

Wang Yan sat up abruptly, not bothering to put on shoes, and ran barefoot across the cold concrete floor.

She grabbed an enamel basin.

Mother spat a mouthful of phlegm into the basin.

Wang Yan took a look under the dim lightbulb overhead, and her heart sank.

There were reddish-brown streaks of blood in the phlegm.

"Yan'er... stop the treatment." Mother gasped for air, her withered hand gripping Wang Yan's wrist. "Let's go back to Xiang Province... We can't afford the hospitals in this big city."

Wang Yan's eyes reddened, but she fought back the tears.

"Mother, don't talk nonsense." Wang Yan wiped Mother's mouth with her sleeve. "I've joined Chenguang Electronics, and I'm a special-grade assembly line worker."

"Where would a factory manager treat illnesses..."

"They do, Factory Director Lu said so." Wang Yan held Mother's hand back. "He announced it over the loudspeaker today. He's going to build a big hospital, and it'll be free."

Mother sighed, shook her head, and closed her eyes. "He's just tricking you honest people into working... There's no such thing as a good deal like that."

Wang Yan let go of her hand, turned, and sat down on the cot.

She reached into her inner pocket and felt for that blue, hard plastic employee badge.

The plastic edges were a bit sharp.

Wang Yan gripped the badge tightly, gritting her teeth. She bit her lower lip until it broke, tasting the metallic flavor of blood.

She looked up, staring at a drop of water leaking from the tent roof.

"Factory Director Lu won't lie," Wang Yan whispered.

The heavy rain continued to pour.

The gray-white fog rolled over the three hundred acres in the Chengbei High-Tech Zone.

Director Li Jianguo's police car was speeding down the road, its lights piercing the night.

On the top floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan, New York, David held a coffee cup, staring intently at the stock curve on the screen.

In a suite at the Jinlan Hotel in Jiangcheng, Zhou Cheng was putting on a white shirt, his hands shaking so much he couldn't fasten his cufflinks.

Everyone was waiting for dawn.

Zhou Cheng gripped the edge of the bathroom vanity's tiles. "Cut that out. If you want to kill him, don't drag us down with you."

"Ten million US dollars," David interrupted.

Zhou Cheng's words stuck in his throat.

"Plus a green card and a villa on Long Island. The contract is already signed and locked in a safe." David spoke slowly.

The only sound left in the bathroom was the humming of the exhaust fan.

Zhou Cheng's fingers ached from gripping so hard.

"What do you want me to do?"

"At eight in the morning, you go to the workshop to inspect the goods," David said. "No matter what method you use, get the core component of that Solid-state battery, even if it's just a scrap piece."

Zhou Cheng broke into a cold sweat. "You're crazy. Lu Chen's security is very tight. The Chengbei High-Tech Zone is full of his security guards, and the guy in charge, Da Biao, is a cold-blooded killer."

"Mr. Zhou," David's voice turned cold. "It's a broken factory built by a county mason; what do they know about physical security? If you don't get the item, when the market opens tomorrow, BYD will drop another thirty percent. You might as well wait to go bankrupt and jump off a building with the other car companies."

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The call was disconnected.

Zhou Cheng stared at himself in the mirror, his eyes bloodshot.

He pried open the back of his phone, pulled out the SIM card, and with a forceful snap of his hands, broke it in two.

He threw it into the toilet and pressed the flush button.

The water washed the plastic pieces away.

Zhou Cheng turned on the faucet, cupped cold water, and splashed it hard on his face.

He looked up, grabbed a few tissues to dry his face, then gripped the knot of his suit tie and pulled it tight.

He pushed the door open and walked out.

7:00 AM.

The rain in Jiangcheng stopped completely.

The clouds split open, and the morning light pierced straight into the mud.

In the Chengbei High-Tech Zone, outside the three-hundred-acre cordon.

Hundreds of canvas tents were connected, water dripping from the canvas.

Zhao Tiezhu stood by the cordon, holding an aluminum lunchbox. Inside the box was freshly cooked hot porridge, steam rising from it.

Li Tiejun, wearing a yellow hard hat, walked over, his feet sinking deep into the mud with every step.

"Chief Engineer Zhao, eating?" Li Tiejun rubbed his frozen hands.

Zhao Tiezhu shoveled a mouthful of porridge with his chopsticks and swallowed.

"This damn weather." Zhao Tiezhu glanced inside the cordon. "Old Li, is your hand alright?"

Li Tiejun tucked his hand, which was missing half an index finger, into his cotton jacket pocket.

"For a ten-thousand base salary, I'd get the job done even if I lost an arm," Li Tiejun grinned. "But Chief Engineer Zhao, what is the boss actually planning? This fog is too weird. He had the ground leveled inside last night. Why is the boss in such a rush? What kind of hospital is he building?"

Zhao Tiezhu stared at the empty lot.

"Don't try to guess the boss's thoughts," Zhao Tiezhu shoveled a small piece of pickled vegetable into his mouth. "It's definitely not a bad thing. Let's just do as he says."

A car covered in yellow mud stopped on the side road.

The car window rolled down halfway.

Lu Chen leaned back in the driver's seat, his old black jacket still stained with last night's rainwater. He wasn't smoking, his hands resting on the steering wheel.

Wu Dong opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat, letting in a gust of cold wind. He held a walkie-talkie in his hand.

"Boss, there's movement over at the Jinlan Hotel." Wu Dong wiped the water from his face. "Da Biao sent word that Chairman Wei Jianlin from Great Wall and his people have set off. There are over a dozen cars heading toward Warehouse No. 1 in the Chengbei High-Tech Zone."