42: The factory manager's brother-in-law's conspiracy

The piercing sound of the loudspeaker was still echoing over the large playground as Wang Fugui was swept into the factory's grand auditorium by the crowd.

The place had been temporarily converted into an examination hall. Red banners hung from the ceiling, reading "Open Competition, Positions for the Capable." The bright red color made Wang Fugui's head spin.

He held a pitifully thin ballpoint pen in his hand. The thick calluses on his palm made the pen feel slippery and greasy; he was terrified that if he exerted even a little strength, he would snap the thing in half.

My hands are for carrying sacks, not for writing.

Wang Fugui felt uneasy. Beads of sweat seeped from his forehead, slid down his angular cheeks, and dripped onto the brand-new exam paper, blooming into a small ink stain.

His mind was a mess, filled with the bite mark Lin Xiaocao had left on his neck last night and her tearful threat.

“For that dormitory... I'm going all out!” Wang Fugui encouraged himself, his fan-like hands clenched tight.

“Yo, isn't this our ‘King of Porters’?”

A sarcastic voice drifted over from the side. Li Fried Dough Stick walked over swaggeringly with several lackeys in tow. He didn't have his walnuts to fiddle with, but his punchable attitude hadn't diminished in the slightest.

He glanced at the exam paper in front of Wang Fugui and intentionally raised his voice to read out the first question.

“Discuss the specific application of the ‘Three No-Harm’ principle of safe production in the injection molding workshop. Oh my, Fugui, do you even know how to do this? You probably can't even recognize all the characters, can you?”

“Hahahaha!”

A burst of laughter immediately erupted around them. Li Fried Dough Stick's lackeys laughed hysterically, their mirth full of malice.

Wang Fugui's face instantly turned the color of pig liver, and a surge of blood rushed to his head. He felt as if everyone in the auditorium was laughing at him. Those various gazes—sympathetic, mocking, gloating—wove together into a large net, threatening to choke him to death.

He clenched his fists until his knuckles cracked, yet he couldn't say a single word.

Just as the awkward atmosphere reached its peak, a cold female voice rang out.

“Silence!”

Holding a stack of documents, Chen Yun walked onto the rostrum in her high heels. Today, she wore a crisp blue work uniform with her long hair tied up, which emphasized her slender neck and sharp, commanding aura.

She scanned the room, finally fixing her gaze on Li Fried Dough Stick with a temperature cold enough to freeze someone solid.

Li Fried Dough Stick shrank his neck back resentfully, not daring to make another sound.

“Considering the actual literacy levels of some front-line employees and to ensure the fairness of the selection,” Chen Yun announced into the microphone, enunciating every word, “for this written exam, oral answers will be permitted.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the entire room went into an uproar.

Li Fried Dough Stick's originally triumphant face instantly collapsed. He couldn't believe his ears and snapped his head toward Chen Yun, his expression looking exactly as if he had swallowed a live fly.

Wang Fugui was also stunned.

Oral answers?

His mind buzzed, and memories of that suffocating night flashed by. Chen Yun's cold fingers, Lin Xiaocao's pouting little face, and that notebook soaked with his sweat and filled with crooked annotations.

Those rules and regulations that had been forced into his brain suddenly became incredibly clear at this moment.

Chen Yun's gaze crossed the crowd and met Wang Fugui's for a second. She nodded slightly, signaling him to stand up.

Wang Fugui took a deep breath, and his massive frame suddenly rose from the low stool, knocking over the chair with a loud crash.

He didn't bother to pick it up; instead, he faced the rostrum and roared out with all his might.

“I know it! I'll answer!”

“Safety in production is more important than Mount Tai! The ‘Three No-Harm’ principle means not harming yourself, not harming others, and not being harmed by others!”

His voice was unrefined—rough, loud, and carrying the unique simplicity of a farmer—yet it exploded in the auditorium like a clap of thunder.

“The pressure parameters in the injection molding workshop must be less than 3.5 standard values! If the temperature exceeds the preset, the power must be cut immediately! During night shift handovers, the safety of the oil and electrical circuits must be checked!...”

Like a schoolboy reciting a textbook, he poured out everything he had memorized the night before. He didn't understand what those parameters meant, but he remembered every number and every clause, word for word!

The entire hall fell into a deathly silence.

Li Fried Dough Stick's lackeys had their mouths open wide enough to fit an egg.

The fellow workers who had been watching for entertainment saw the mockery on their faces turn into astonishment, and finally into an indescribable respect.

As for the female workers, their eyes lit up one by one. Wang Fugui's serious and honest appearance, combined with his loud, powerful voice and the invisible masculine aura he exuded, created a fatal attraction.

This man, though illiterate, had etched the factory's rules into his very bones!

The written exam portion ended in a strange atmosphere.

Soon, the voting began.

Two red ballot boxes were placed in front of the rostrum.

Relying on his status as the factory manager's brother-in-law and his habit of treating people to meals, cigarettes, and alcohol, Li Fried Dough Stick had won over a large group of male workers. They laughed and joked as they lined up to cast their votes into his box.

His vote count rose rapidly, quickly taking a commanding lead. The smug look of certain victory returned to Li Fried Dough Stick's face.

However, when the host called out, “Female workers, begin voting,” the situation changed abruptly.

“Go, Brother Fugui!”

A female worker with braided hair blushed and was the first to rush up, solemnly casting her vote into Wang Fugui's box.

This action was like lighting a fuse.

“Brother Fugui, I'm voting for you too!”

“Brother Fugui is the best!”

Dozens, then hundreds of female workers poured out from every corner, forming an unstoppable torrent. They chirped excitedly, their faces filled with fervor as they each cast their votes for the big man who was still standing there dazed.

At this moment, Wang Fugui's popularity was like a flash flood.

The tally clerk's voice began to tremble.

“Wang Fugui, 121 votes... 122 votes...”

Li Fried Dough Stick's smile froze on his face. He watched helplessly as Wang Fugui's vote count caught up frantically, and finally... actually tied with his!

“Final tally... Li Fried Dough Stick, 150 votes! Wang Fugui, 150 votes!”

A tie!

Li Fried Dough Stick's face turned a deep purple, and he shook with rage. He couldn't understand how, after spending so much money and social capital, he could end up in a tie with a country bumpkin. Were these women crazy?

The atmosphere in the auditorium became awkward to the extreme.

The factory manager walked out from behind the rostrum with a dark face. He cleared his throat and picked up the microphone.

“Ahem! Since both the written exam and the voting resulted in a tie, it shows that both comrades have their own strengths and are well-loved by everyone!”

He spoke in official jargon, but his eyes glared fiercely at Wang Fugui.

“To select the true technical backbone, the factory committee has made a temporary decision to initiate the final resolution plan!”

He paused and pointed to a massive object covered by a canvas in the corner of the auditorium.

“This afternoon, we will have a practical operation tie-breaker! Whoever can repair that German ‘Krupp’ stamping machine, which has been idle for six months, will be the new deputy supervisor!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the workers in the hall gasped.

That machine was a treasure the factory had spent a fortune on, but it had been completely dead since an accident six months ago. Everyone privately called it the “Iron Coffin”; whoever touched it was cursed.

This wasn't a competition; this was clearly a deliberate hurdle!

Everyone felt that Wang Fugui was doomed to lose.

However, Li Fried Dough Stick, standing in the crowd, revealed a cold smile of successful plotting the moment the manager announced the rules.

Wang Fugui ignored the surrounding discussions. He just stared fixedly at the steel beast covered in canvas, its silhouette looking like a prehistoric monster under the lights.

He had only one thought in his mind.

I want to win.

For that dormitory with a toilet, so Lin Xiaocao wouldn't have to go to that dark, smelly public restroom in the middle of the night, and so he could protect her openly.

Forget repairing a machine; even if he had to dismantle this “Iron Coffin,” he would dare to try!

The whistle for the lunch break blew, and the workers dispersed in small groups, still discussing the impossible duel scheduled for the afternoon.

Li Fried Dough Stick pushed away the lackeys surrounding him and feigned a stretch.

“You guys go eat first. I'm going to take a leak and check the tools for this afternoon.”

Humming a little tune, he turned into the corridor leading to the rear workshop, but he wasn't heading toward the restroom.

He dodged several patrolling security guards and slipped behind the massive “Iron Coffin.”

The light here was dim, and the area was covered in grease and dust.

Li Fried Dough Stick looked around alertly. After confirming no one was there, he pulled a strangely shaped, seemingly custom-made T-handle wrench from his coat.

He crouched down, fumbling through a tangle of pipes and wires, and quickly found an inconspicuous hexagonal valve covered in sludge.

He fitted the wrench onto it, a cruel and twisted sneer appearing on his face.

“You blockhead, you think you can fight me?”

He gritted his teeth and used all his strength to give the valve a sharp half-turn.

Only an extremely faint “hiss,” like leaking gas, came from deep within the machine before vanishing.