147: Chapter 147 Forcing Capitalists to Raise Wages

Lu Chen raised his right wrist.

He turned his wrist slightly.

The enamel bowl tilted accordingly.

The remaining half-bowl of noodle soup, with a layer of grease and chopped green onions broken in two, splashed onto the solid silver Spirit of Ecstasy emblem on the front of the Rolls-Royce.

The pale yellow soup flowed down the intake grille.

It dripped one by one onto the black bumper beam.

Two greasy pieces of green onion were stuck fast to the reflective car paint, looking extremely conspicuous.

General Manager Zhou Haitao's hand, holding the transfer agreement, froze in mid-air.

His eyes widened, staring fixedly at the dirtied front of the car; even his breathing stalled.

It took a full five seconds for him to come back to his senses.

"You're crazy." General Manager Zhou Haitao was trembling with rage, pointing a finger at Lu Chen's nose and roaring, "This is a custom Rolls-Royce Phantom. With that bowl of swill you just splashed on it, the polishing and car wash alone will cost over a hundred thousand. You've even forgotten your own surname."

Lu Chen completely ignored him.

He casually tossed the empty bowl aside.

Da Biao caught the enamel bowl steadily with his left hand, took half a step back, and kept his right hand pressed against the half-length baton at his waist.

Lu Chen lowered his head, raised his old, mud-caked leather shoe, and gave the Amex Black Card in the muddy water a casual kick.

The mud-covered black card slid half a meter away, coming to a stop right at the edge of General Manager Zhou Haitao's high-end custom leather shoes.

"Step back." There was no fluctuation in Lu Chen's voice.

General Manager Zhou Haitao stood stunned: "What did you say?"

"I told you to step back half a meter." Lu Chen looked at him, his tone indifferent, "I just paid two hundred yuan per tile to replace this floor yesterday. If you dirty it, even if you sold your entire Huasheng Motors, your market value wouldn't be enough to pay for it."

General Manager Zhou Haitao laughed in extreme anger.

He slammed the transfer agreement in his hand onto the ground, completely breaking down.

"Lu Chen, you really think you're something, don't you? You think just because you dug up some waste rocks in the Great Northwest, you can walk sideways in the domestic business world?" General Manager Zhou Haitao pointed at Warehouse No. 1 through gritted teeth, "The settlement fees you're handing out right now are all high-interest loans. Once the bank withdraws the loans tomorrow, these workers lining up for money will tear you to pieces."

Lu Chen felt his pocket and didn't say anything.

General Manager Zhou Haitao thought he had hit Lu Chen's sore spot and became even more arrogant.

"I'm here out of the kindness of my heart today to deliver five billion in life-saving money, and you dare to splash noodle soup on me. Fine, this deal is off." General Manager Zhou Haitao threatened loudly, "I've been a standing director of the East China Chamber of Commerce for five years. Once I put the word out, we'll see. As long as I'm alive, no car company in the East China region will ever take a single screw manufactured by Chenguang Electronics Factory. Your crappy Lithography Machine can just sit in the factory and rust as scrap metal. I'm going to cut off all your paths."

Upon hearing this, Da Biao grinned and laughed out loud.

On the side road to the right, in the line of hundred-billion-level CEOs standing in a row, a few suppressed coughs could be heard.

Chairman Wei Jianlin switched the suit jacket draped over his forearm to his other hand, keeping his head very low.

Next to him, the CEO of BYD swallowed, and nudged Chairman Wei Jianlin with his elbow.

"Did General Manager Zhou Haitao leave his brain at home? He's trying to throw five billion at someone who is holding hundreds of billions of US dollars in cash, and he's threatening to blacklist a 28nm Lithography Machine with a 100% yield rate." The CEO spoke in a tiny voice, his eyes full of pity, as if looking at a dead man.

Chairman Wei Jianlin sneered, "He's been listening to reports in his office until he's gone stupid. He has no idea how Wall Street crashed this morning, and even less idea what kind of monster was cut out of the basement ahead. He's just rushing to reincarnate."

General Manager Zhou Haitao turned his head and glared fiercely at the group of bosses with their heads down on the right.

He still hadn't recognized that Chairman Wei Jianlin was standing in the line.

In the long line on the left, less than five meters away from them, the queue of migrant workers was still inching forward.

A man who had just received his money slapped the twenty thousand yuan in crisp new bills against his chest and shouted to the worker in front of him, "Is that big boss with the scrap paper sick in the head? A few billion isn't even enough for Factory Director Lu to go out and haul two truckloads of rocks. Hurry up and move, don't hold me up from depositing my money."

This vulgar urging made General Manager Zhou Haitao feel deeply humiliated.

Lu Chen didn't continue listening to General Manager Zhou Haitao's yapping.

He didn't even spare the man a glance from the corner of his eye, simply striding forward and walking around the smashed Rolls-Royce.

Lu Chen walked toward the row of CEOs standing obediently on the side road.

Seeing Lu Chen approach, the twenty-plus hundred-billion-level CEOs instantly straightened their bodies.

No one wiped the sweat from their heads.

No one dared to speak or say hello.

The line fell into an absolute dead silence.

Chairman Wei Jianlin kept his breathing extremely steady, standing with his feet together.

Lu Chen stood directly in front of the line, coldly sweeping his gaze over this group of capital tycoons who usually called the shots.

"When I was eating noodles in the office just now, I heard that you were all waiting for me to take your orders." Lu Chen's voice was not loud, but in the absolutely quiet side road, it was heard clearly.

A dozen or so CEOs nodded in unison.

The CEO of BYD quickly replied, "Factory Director Lu, just say the word, and we at BYD will hand over our entire high-end line for next year to you. We are even willing to pay the full amount upfront and hold it for a year."

The CEOs behind him, fearing they would fall behind, immediately chimed in.

General Manager Zhou Haitao stood in the back, hearing the CEO of BYD's voice clearly; his eyes widened instantly, and his jaw nearly hit the ground.

He couldn't believe that the CEO of BYD, a domestic new energy giant, would actually speak to a bankrupt factory director in such a begging, groveling tone.

Lu Chen raised his hand and pressed it downward.

The surroundings instantly went quiet.

"I posted an announcement on Weibo yesterday," Lu Chen said slowly. "The rules are set. The manufacturing fee will be settled by weight, measured by the jin. Whatever the weight of the wafers you bring, I will charge double the price of the material itself. I won't take a single cent more in processing fees."

As soon as this was said, all the CEOs' eyes lit up.

This rock-bottom price was practically equivalent to shoving huge profits directly into their pockets.

"However," Lu Chen's tone shifted, his gaze becoming extremely oppressive, "if you want to take the etched chips out of my factory gate, that's just the rule regarding money."

Lu Chen extended a finger, pointing at the two-thousand-meter-long line beside them, packed with low-level laborers.

"I'm adding one more rule regarding how to be a human being."

The CEOs immediately held their breath and pricked up their ears.

"Any enterprise that wants Chenguang Electronics Factory to manufacture for them," Lu Chen's voice pierced through the heatwave, slamming into everyone's ears, "must go back and immediately raise the base salary of all your low-level employees to over six thousand yuan. Provide food and accommodation. Regardless of whether they are temporary workers, you must pay for the highest tier of social insurance and housing fund starting from the day they are hired. Two days off per week, and absolutely no overtime allowed. You must force them to clock out."

The air froze completely.

The entire side road was so silent that only the sound of the loudspeaker calling numbers in the distance could be heard.

The CEOs in line looked at each other; the wild joy on their faces vanished instantly, replaced by extreme heartache and shock.

Raise wages? Add benefits? And they couldn't let the employees work overtime?

Among this group, who didn't have tens or even hundreds of thousands of low-level assembly workers? If they were to force the base salary up to six thousand yuan and pay full social insurance and housing funds, the annual labor cost would be an astronomical figure.

The profits they originally intended to rake in were cut in half by this single rule.

General Manager Zhou Haitao was stunned for a few seconds, then burst into a huge roar of mocking laughter.

"Are you fucking sick in the head?" General Manager Zhou Haitao clutched his stomach, pointing at Lu Chen and laughing, "I'm here to buy your chips, not to do charity. Why do you care how much I pay my subordinates? I have one hundred thousand assembly line workers at Huasheng; if I raise everyone's base salary to six thousand and pay full social insurance, I'll have to spend an extra five billion a year. Do you think I'm running a charity? You planning on taking this deal to the underworld?"

No one in the CEO line dared to respond to General Manager Zhou Haitao.

They were indeed pained by the money, but they were even more aware of the weight of that Lithography Machine with a 100% yield rate.

Chairman Wei Jianlin ground his back teeth and took a step forward.

"Factory Director Lu," Chairman Wei Jianlin stated loudly, "Great Wall Motors can draft a supplementary agreement right now. When we go back, we will immediately adjust the base salary for all employees to six thousand five hundred, and pay full social insurance and housing funds."

The CEO of BYD panicked too and quickly raised his hand, "BYD will follow too. No overtime, provide food and accommodation. Everyone gets six thousand."

Seeing the two giants surrender, the remaining CEOs, no matter how much they hurt over the money, had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree, scrambling to nod in agreement.

They calculated it very clearly. Morgan had cut off the source materials, and there would be no more overseas imported chips in the future. If they didn't sign this rule, their production lines would all have to shut down and go bankrupt tomorrow.

A few billion in labor costs was nothing compared to the company going bankrupt.

General Manager Zhou Haitao looked at these peers who had collectively gone insane, feeling like the whole world had turned upside down.

"CEO Wei. CEO Wang. Have you two been heat-stroked?" General Manager Zhou Haitao rushed over, trying to grab Chairman Wei Jianlin, "Can you really agree to this kid's rules? Once this precedent is set, how are we going to exploit these cattle and horses in the future? The labor prices for the entire industry will be ruined."

Chairman Wei Jianlin shook off General Manager Zhou Haitao's hand and stepped back two paces as if avoiding a plague god.

"General Manager Zhou Haitao, your mouth will destroy your entire Huasheng sooner or later." Chairman Wei Jianlin said with a face full of disgust, "I'm happy to abide by these rules. If you at Huasheng want to spend five billion to bury someone else, go buy the paper money yourself."

Lu Chen fished a pack of double happiness out of his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, biting it in his mouth.

He then fished out a transparent plastic lighter.

Click.

A flame shot up, lighting the cigarette tip.

Lu Chen took a deep drag and slowly exhaled a pale blue smoke ring; the smoke blurred his extremely calm face.

He glanced at General Manager Zhou Haitao.

"If you're not buying, then get lost."

Lu Chen turned and walked toward the factory building, casually issuing an order.

"Da Biao, clear the area."