77: Chapter 77 Top Secret Files and the Show of Force at the Factory with Tens of Thousands of People

Wei Jianguo took the paper and looked at it for a few seconds by the light of the floodlight.

"How many days and nights of calculation would it take to arrive at such an extreme value? This is too wild. The guys at ASML would have to shut up if they saw this. This plan completely abandons fine filtration membranes."

Lu Chen didn't pay attention to their technical discussion; he pulled open the door of the car and picked up the military tablet Wu Dong had left behind.

Old Zhou's message popped up: "Director, all five thousand people have finished signing. The number plates for the grand banquet hall have run out. The rooms at the Jinlan Hotel aren't enough, so I just booked out three budget hotels around Jiangcheng."

"There's a problem now. That group of small downstream bosses on the steps this afternoon, whose loans were called in, brought dozens of truckloads of workers. They've parked everything, including the equipment trucks, right outside the hotel lobby."

"There are over two thousand people in total. They refuse to leave, saying that since you told them to report tomorrow, they'll just sleep on the floors of the buses tonight and wait until dawn."

Lu Chen tapped the screen to reply: "Tell them not to wait until dawn. Have everyone taken directly to the construction site in the north of the city and find Old Wu to sign employment contracts."

"I acknowledge the IOUs. Incorporate all of their equipment into the peripheral processing workshops. Report the factory floor area, current inventory, and debt amounts to me before dawn. Don't let a single person leave."

After replying, he clicked send, and Old Zhou replied with a 'Received' in seconds.

A black Audi drove over from the dirt road on the perimeter of the construction site. The car did not have any special license plates.

The car stopped five meters behind the car.

Director Li Jianguo stepped out of the driver's seat in plain clothes. He wasn't wearing a hat, his face was grim, and he was clutching a red kraft paper file bag.

He strode up to Lu Chen.

"Wang Teng confessed everything inside." Director Li Jianguo's voice was extremely low, squeezed out from between his teeth.

Lu Chen tossed the tablet into the car and turned to look at Director Li Jianguo.

"The trap Morgan set in Jiangcheng began thirty years ago." Director Li Jianguo gripped the paper bag, his fingers wrinkling the kraft paper. "The water inside is too deep for you to fathom."

Lu Chen reached out his hand.

Director Li Jianguo handed over the paper bag, but his fingers didn't let go yet.

"The classification on this is top secret."

Director Li Jianguo looked Lu Chen straight in the eyes. "Take one look, and you will have no way back. The power in those people's hands is ten thousand times greater than Sun Lide and Wang Teng combined. If they dared to intercept Jason in Bangkok, they would dare to make you disappear in Jiangcheng."

Lu Chen grabbed a corner of the paper bag and yanked it over.

He used one hand to pull open the white string wrapped around the file bag.

"From the day I threw Wang Teng out of the convention center," Lu Chen pulled out the documents inside, "I never intended to leave myself an escape route."

Lu Chen looked down and scanned the bold text at the top of the page.

Top Secret File: yttrium star stone Huaxia Region Distribution Hub.

Lu Chen rolled the documents up in his hand and pointed at the construction site behind him, where machines were roaring.

"Director Li, at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, seal off the entire north side of the city."

Over ten thousand people were crowded onto the main concrete road of the Chenguang Factory area.

Bus after bus pulled up to the iron gate, and as soon as the doors opened, the crowd surged out.

The air was thick with the smell of sour sweat and cheap tobacco. The ground was piled with red and blue woven snake-skin bags, chipped plastic buckets, and old bedding tied up with hemp rope.

Two buttons had popped off Old Zhou's suit jacket. He stood on an overturned waste paint bucket, holding a yellowed megaphone with black electrical tape wrapped around the edges.

"Workshops one through five, move to the playground on the left! They're handing out basins and towels there! Once you've got your supplies, go to Building Six and line up!"

"Workshops six through ten! Go to the Third Canteen to collect lunchboxes and dormitory keys!"

"Those with children, single female workers, and those with sick family members, bring your documents and go to the bottom of Building Two to find the Dormitory Management Office!"

A harsh static noise came from the megaphone. Old Zhou's voice cracked from shouting, and sweat from his forehead ran into his eyes.

There were too many people. Originally, Chenguang Electronics had at most two thousand people. Now, ten thousand workers who had just fled the collapse of Tengfei Electronics were suddenly crammed in, a vast, dark mass of shadows covering the ground.

The dozens of security guards Old Zhou had brought back from the Jinlan Hotel were separated into isolated islands, blowing their whistles, but they couldn't suppress the noise of the crowd at all.

Underneath the twelve newly built, fully furnished apartment buildings, the paved red brick paths were now littered with crushed cigarette butts, betel nut residue, and sunflower seed shells.

Baldy Zhao draped a black jacket over his shoulders, revealing a faded, greenish tattoo of a tiger descending a mountain on his chest.

Wearing rubber shoes covered in yellow mud, he swaggered to the entrance of Unit 1, Building Two.

Behind him followed thirty or forty hooligan-like young men, all of them troublemakers and nepotistic hires from the former Tengfei Electronics Workshop Two.

Baldy Zhao stood right at the stairwell entrance, reaching out a hand to block the long line of people behind him.

"Those in front who have received keys, move aside." Baldy Zhao exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. "Let my brothers pick first."

An old worker carrying a mesh bag hunched his back, clutching his keys.

"Director Zhao, the room number is written on these keys." The old worker swallowed. "There's a barcode on the access card, too. It's assigned."

"Assigned?" Baldy Zhao sneered, snatching the room card from the old worker's hand and glancing at it. "612. Sixth floor."

Baldy Zhao threw the room card back at the old worker, and the plastic-laminated card fell into a crack between the bricks.

"Old thing, if you don't mind your legs hurting, go ahead and climb. I have rheumatism in my legs, so I can't go up." Baldy Zhao pointed to the security doors on the first floor. "We're taking these four big rooms on the first floor. Everyone originally assigned to the first floor, get lost and go to the sixth floor."

The crowd lined up behind them stirred, but no one moved.

"Also," Baldy Zhao patted his pants pocket. "Everyone's in a new place, so time to pay respects to the new bosses. Everyone pay fifty yuan for a bed fee, just consider it buying cigarettes for my brothers. If you don't pay, and the dormitory security door gets broken tonight, or your bedding grows legs and runs away, don't blame me for not warning you."

A young worker wearing black-rimmed glasses nearby couldn't help himself and stepped forward.

"Brother Zhao, this isn't right. We didn't have money when we were owed wages at Tengfei Electronics. Now that Chenguang Electronics has finally taken us in, the megaphone announced very clearly that this housing is free."

Baldy Zhao eyed him askance.

Baldy Zhao didn't speak. A young man with dyed yellow hair beside him stepped down the stairs and grabbed the young worker by the collar.

The yellow-haired youth hooked his left foot around the man's ankle and used his right hand to shove him back with force.

The back of his head slammed hard against the red bricks by the wall, making a dull thud.

The young worker groaned, and his black-rimmed glasses fell to the ground. The yellow-haired youth raised his foot and stepped on them—crack—the lenses shattered.

The yellow-haired youth raised his hand, swung his arm, and slapped him twice—crisp and loud.

"Using Chenguang Electronics' megaphone to pressure Brother Zhao?" The yellow-haired youth spat. "Back at Tengfei Electronics, you had to get Brother Zhao's approval for leave. Now that you're at Chenguang Electronics, as long as you're still someone tightening screws on an assembly line, you have to listen to Brother Zhao."