"Don't even say it, I've been humiliated by that kid Lin Chuan too." Mr. Hu spoke frankly, "I went looking for the kid yesterday. I wanted him to lead the move away from Changlin Factory, but who would've thought the little punk just doesn't know what's good for him."

"Damn it, a person like that needs to be severely dealt with, better yet not let him live in this world." Song Wen gritted his teeth angrily.

"Murder?" Mr. Hu raised an eyebrow.

"This..." Song Wen was stunned, nervously saying: "Mr. Hu, what do you think?"

"No rush." Mr. Hu shook his head, "He's not worth me taking action yet, murder is no trivial matter."

"Right, right." Song Wen hurriedly nodded, saying with an awkward face: "Then... what does Mr. Hu mean?"

"A little punishment will do." Mr. Hu smiled nonchalantly.

"That..." Song Wen looked at Mr. Hu confusedly, asking, "So what should we do?"

"Get a few capable guys, then just bag him up... Isn't that what you're used to?" Mr. Hu chuckled.

"Ah... Mr. Hu, you are too brilliant." Song Wen was immediately overjoyed.

After the Song brothers left, Mr. Hu disdainfully glanced at their departing silhouettes, snorting coldly: "Two good-for-nothings, if it weren't for your uncle, would you even be worthy to step foot in my Qinghua Pool? What an international joke. Ptooey..."

Mr. Hu spat out a mouthful of saliva, genuinely looking down on these two courageless and tactless guys. They were typical bullies who feared the strong. Not only that, they always managed to cause trouble for Song Ming and for himself as well. No wonder Song Ming always lamented that his two nephews were utterly hopeless.

Full of pride, the Song brothers left Qinghua Pool with Mr. Hu's promise secured; they were convinced that Lin Chuan was as good as dead this time. Even if he didn't die, he was likely to end up disabled.

"This time the kid is definitely done for." Song Wen sneered coldly.

"Yeah." Song Wu nodded, "If he doesn't die, he'll be disabled, heh heh, with Mr. Hu's promise, we can easily handle it."

The two left Qinghua Pool looking smug and self-satisfied, with a sly smile curling up the corners of their mouths.

............

After they left Qinghua Pool, a rundown black Santana was parked outside. Two people were sitting in the car. The driver was Zhang Wenhui, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, squinting as he stared at the gaudy neon sign above Qinghua Pool that kept flickering intensely.

Next to him was Song Xiaojia, dressed in plain clothes. Her complexion was also very serious.

"Captain Zhang, when do we take action?" Song Xiaojia asked.

"Don't rush." Zhang Wenhui shook his head, "Qinghua Pool is suspected of illegal activities, including harboring women for illegal prostitution. We need to figure out a way to collect enough evidence."

"But, Qinghua Pool is well-informed, and the internal management is strict, they won't let you in unless you're a familiar face," Song Xiaojia said helplessly: "We can't just ignore this, can we?"

"We must act." Zhang Wenhui said through clenched teeth: "The country is strictly controlling this. How can we relax our efforts? Although it's difficult to gather evidence, I believe there will come a day when we can bring them to justice."

"I... I believe so too!" Song Xiaojia revealed a look of righteousness.

............

Changlin Factory.

Approaching the end of the year, rather than decreasing, the workload in the transportation market had actually increased considerably. Zhou Kai and his team were very busy. As the end of the year approached, everyone in the transport market was doing well, especially since Lin Chuan and his team took over the market, opening up the business in sand and cement. Other transportation companies also joined the competition, and many expanded their businesses.

However, Lin Chuan always adhered to the principle of making money together as the market and business expanded, which was beneficial for everyone. Society has always been about the survival of the fittest.

The true gold is always left after the waves wash away the sand.

Zhou Kai and his team's business was growing not because they bullied with power, but because they let their abilities speak for themselves. This group of guys transported sand quickly; Lu Dapao, using the skills he learned at Lanxiang, operated the excavator and moved sand at a rapid pace. Zhou Kai and his guys were also full of vigor. Thus, their speed was always one of the fastest in Jiangbei City, building a good reputation. As the homeowners doing renovations were in a hurry, while other transportation companies took two or three days, Zhou Kai's team would arrive the same day. Naturally, this satisfied the anxious homeowners, and work for Zhou Kai and his team was never scarce.

Their four or five eight-wheeled trucks were busy every day, and they weren't even willing to take demolition projects anymore, preferring to run transport and deliver sand.

Lin Chuan would occasionally visit the transportation market to check on things. Last time Feng Taibao sent someone to the market to try to win him over, and Lin Chuan didn't give them face; he expected that this time they would not let him off. So, Lin Chuan was always vigilant, not only watching out for unexpected attacks but also carefully monitoring the transport market. Even if Feng Taibao didn't come after him, Long Wu probably hated him for taking away his rice bowl.

"Chuanzi." Zhou Kai was smoking at the entrance of Feixiang Company, while a few of the younger brothers inside were playing cards.

"Everyone's here?" Lin Chuan grinned while clenching a cigarette between his lips.

"We're swamped. Huang Bo took several brothers with driving licenses to transport the sand," Zhou Kai pointed at the guys playing cards in the room and said, "These mutts don't have licenses, so they can only stay here to entertain clients or answer phones. We get dozens, sometimes over a hundred calls every day. About half of those turn into orders. So, we're basically rolling in cash every day. Everyone's working their tails off."

"That's good," Lin Chuan nodded.

In the room, the younger brothers quickly put their cards down and stood up: "Hello, Brother Chuan!"

"Mhm, hello," Lin Chuan offered each of them a cigarette.

The lackeys all looked terrified and unsure whether to take the cigarettes or not, their gazes turning to Zhou Kai. Zhou Kai glared at them and said, "You dumbasses. Brother Chuan is showing you respect by offering cigarettes. Don't stand there looking all scared."

"Yes, yes, yes," they all nodded, hurriedly accepting the cigarettes Lin Chuan passed out, their hands trembling.

These guys were all youngsters from Changlin Factory, seventeen or eighteen years old, who didn't like school and insisted on joining the society. Their mothers personally brought gifts to Zhou Kai's home, hoping to entrust their sons to Zhou Kai and have them do some work under him. Zhou Kai naturally agreed with a pat on his chest. After all, they were from the same factory, how could he not agree?

And Zhou Kai's parents were even more flattered by their son's lack of prospects, never refusing anybody that came to them.

Although these folks knew Lin Chuan, knowing that he was the boss of Zhou Kai, Lu Dapao, and the others, didn't that make him their boss's boss? They were somewhat frightened and nervous inside. Luckily, Lin Chuan was quite affable and polite, so they quickly calmed down.

The transport trucks, several small sand transporters coming and going. Each truck could carry ten cubic meters of sand at a time. The larger eight-wheeler could haul twenty cubic meters, and with side panels added, even thirty cubic meters or more. In short, there's never a maximum, only more.

Most residents doing renovations need about seven or eight cubic meters of sand. Of course, some renovation projects that are more complex might need even more sand. Right now, Zhou Kai and his crew could make several thousand yuan a day, and that's off-season. If it were the busy season, they'd earn even more. Once the New Year passes and the peak renovation season arrives, the sales of sand will naturally hit their stride.

Lin Chuan went to the management office.

Aunt Hong and the others were busy with the year-end inventory. Although they had only taken over the management office for just over a month, they had already gradually adapted to the work there. However, they were currently understaffed with only six people in the entire management office. Aunt Hong also served as the head of the office. Right now, other than their own salaries, the office didn't have much other expenses. Zhou Kai and his crew's salaries had yet to be settled as they were shareholders. Moreover, up to now, they hadn't agreed on how to handle the salary issues.

Many younger brothers came to work confused and just helped out. Sooner or later, this would lead to a problem.

"Chuan, you're here?" Aunt Hong welcomed Lin Chuan with a smile.

"Yep," Lin Chuan nodded and then said, "Just came to check on you guys. You're all my seniors, and I feel a bit bad for having you help out here."

"Look at what you're saying," Aunt Hong laughed, "We're not doing volunteer work here for you. Besides, we were idle at home. If we can find a job, we're already satisfied, and you're even paying us such good wages. You have no idea how many people in the factory are envious of us."

"Is that so?" Lin Chuan scratched his head.

"Of course," Aunt Hong quickly nodded.

"That's good, then. If you have any complaints, feel free to bring them up," Lin Chuan said hastily, "Since you're elders, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, just let us know. We young people might be a bit rough around the edges. After all, you have more experience and wisdom than us. So..."

"Chuan, actually, there's something I need to be clear with you about," Aunt Hong glanced at the others in the office.

The others also gathered around.

Seeing the situation, Lin Chuan knew something important was up and nodded quickly, "Aunt, please speak freely."

"The first issue is, who exactly is in charge of the management office and Feixiang Company?" Aunt Hong asked.

"I guess that would be me," Lin Chuan nodded.

"Good, now that we've established who the person in charge is, I must make things clear to you," Aunt Hong looked at Lin Chuan seriously, "Although Feixiang Company and the management office are making a considerable profit, recently, a lot of parents from the factory brought their kids to Zhou Kai, shoving their children onto him. That fool Zhou Kai doesn't know how to say no, taking in one after another, and stuffing them all into Feixiang Company. I mean, that's fine if they just show up out of nowhere since we're from the same factory, but... at least make a labor contract with them, right? Even if not, at least promise them how much they'll make in a month, right?"

Lin Chuan immediately understood the crux of the problem.

In the past, it was just him, Zhou Kai, and a few others totaling seven or eight people since they only had two trucks then, and only seven or eight people took turns working when transporting slag. Key players like Zhou Kai, Lu Dapao, Huang Bo... were the ones exerting the most effort. Now it's different; the company's staff had suddenly expanded quite a bit. Just under Zhou Kai alone, there were a dozen or twenty people. According to Aunt Hong, there were too many people for the amount of work available; anyone extra was just loafing around.

But even if they were just loafing around, you'd still have to pay them a salary, right? Otherwise, they couldn't muddle along doing work for you for free, could they?

After thinking it over, Lin Chuan said, "Right, this is definitely a problem. I'll have a clear talk with Zhou Kai and the others later."

"That'd be great," Aunt Hong smiled, "There's nothing else really. These kids are willing to endure hardship and work hard. Business is getting better and better; just this month, we made over a hundred thousand. Who would have thought that even cheap sand could be such a lucrative business, huh."

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