Xiaofeng listened to her words, pursed her lips, and said nothing.
The specifics would have to be understood after visiting the scene. She had initially wanted to ask Ye Cheng to accompany her, but considering he was still investigating the 319 explosion case, she decided not to call him.
In front of the Chengbei Factory site, a dense crowd had gathered; villagers were each armed with whatever they had—hoes, firewood knives, and those without tools had even brought household poles and long sticks.
They were holding weapons, confronting a group of people at the factory entrance.
These people were none other than some of Wolfman’s underlings in Chengbei.
At the start of the collaboration, it was agreed that Wolfman’s men would not be involved in management and would follow orders, but now it seemed impossible for these people to obey any commands.
One of Wolfman’s underlings, named Gao Dafang, was tall—hence his nickname "Tall Guy". He was around twenty-five or twenty-six, and liked to work with his shirt off, showing off the solid muscles on his arms.
At this moment, he was sitting there like a boss with a large knife in hand, facing the crowd of villagers with mockery in his eyes.
Tall Guy said, "Do you think it’s fun to make such a fuss? Whether you agree or not to us building a factory here, does it matter? Let me tell you, we’re opening this factory with proper procedures. You can oppose it, sure, go make your complaints higher up. If they tell us to stop, we’ll stop."
As he said this, he stood up, "If you don’t have the clout, don’t cause trouble here. If you do cause trouble, I am entitled to teach you a lesson. Yes, I did injure one of your villagers, but why did I hit him? Did he deserve it? I’m telling you, if you don’t heed the warning and insist on making trouble, you’ll end up like him."
"No, you’re not a legitimate factory. I know you; you’re just a ruffian from the county. I don’t care if your factory is legal or not. Your factory staff injured our villager, and you must come out and explain. If you don’t, there will be no end to this. The villagers from several villages will definitely not allow you to operate here. Even if someone from above intervenes, our demand is simple: why did your factory hit someone? Without a proper explanation, we can’t let this go."
"Right, right, there must be an explanation. You’re operating a factory on our land and you’ve assaulted someone here; we will not agree to this," a big group of villagers echoed.
"Look at you, are you shallow or what?" Tall Guy looked at them with frustration, "Let me tell you, the villager tried to steal materials from our factory. I caught him red-handed, and that’s why I taught him a lesson. Otherwise, we wouldn’t hit someone for no reason, right?"
"No, it’s clear you wanted to bully his daughter. He saw it and couldn’t tolerate it, and when he came to confront you, you all beat him up," a villager shouted angrily, holding a hoe, "If you do this, how can we feel safe about your factory operating here? Think about how many unwed girls there are within ten miles."
To see a woman on her way to being married suddenly snatched away—not to mention, when her father went to reason with them, they beat him up; what kind of reason is that?
In order to ensure the safety of many local girls, the villagers, who rarely united, came together to demand an explanation.
"Ah, will you ever cease? It was his daughter who seduced me first. If she hadn’t initiated, what could I possibly have done to her? Besides, before I could do anything, her father arrived," Tall Guy pointed the large knife at everyone, "Don’t waste your breath on me. If you keep making trouble, don’t blame me for taking action."
"This is just a thug’s factory. We must all stand together. If we let them stay, our village women might as well not leave their homes to work anymore."
"That’s right, this isn’t over until an explanation is given. Otherwise, we’re prepared to fight to the death to destroy this place," it was unacceptable that these people harassed local girls and acted as if nothing had happened.
"Make a fuss if you want to, but I’m curious to see how far you can go," Tall Guy wasn’t afraid of their ruckus, "Honestly, in this factory, the only person who calls the shots is me. The rest are just for show and no good otherwise. It’ll be the same even if you make a scene. If you really anger me, none of us will have good days ahead."
"Cheng Lu, if he keeps this up, the factory is bound to run into trouble. Have we got in touch with Boss Su yet?" Zhou Ming said anxiously, looking at the villagers not far away.
He and Cheng Lu, although transferred from Xijiang County and, according to Director Zhou, they’d finished high school and were educated, were supposed to adapt more quickly here.
"Let’s wait and see. If a real commotion breaks out, we’ll call the police. No matter what, we can’t let it lead to death; if it does, the matter will become very troublesome," Zhou Ming listened to Tall Guy’s arrogant speech and knew that it was very likely that Tall Guy wouldn’t apologize to the villagers, which meant a conflict with the villagers was highly possible.
Tall Guy never listened to Zhou Ming or Cheng Lu, let alone take orders from them.
Now, all they could hope for was either Boss Su or the man in charge of Tall Guy to show up.
"Listen up, everyone! They show absolutely no remorse. If we allow them to run a factory here, never mind our village’s young wives and unmarried girls, will there even be safety for the little kids going to school? What kind of factory is this? It’s clearly just inviting a gang of hooligans into our midst," a middle-aged man bellowed.
"You old fart, what are you trying to do, pick a fight, huh? Today, I’ll oblige you," the big guy said, his face flushing with anger. He grabbed his weapon and stepped forward, ready to fight.
The villagers watched his aggressive stance and gripped their own weapons tighter, prepared for a fierce battle at any moment.
A car sped along on the village’s dirt road, kicking up clouds of dust in its wake.
Feifei squinted her eyes as she admired Xiaofeng’s adept driving, skillfully manoeuvring the bumpy road as though she’d done it many times before.
With a whoosh, the car stopped behind the villagers.
A villager turned and said, "Someone’s come."
Zhou Ming and Cheng Lu saw the car and hurried over, "Make way, make way, our boss has arrived."
Zhao Youqian had some skills after all; he’d managed to bring Boss Su in such short notice. As someone got off the car, the villagers crowded around it.
Xiaofeng had just alighted when she found herself surrounded by the villagers, who all looked at her with curious eyes, probably because they’d never seen such a young boss before.
Feifei got out of the back seat, put on her sunglasses, and said with a lazy voice, "Yo, what’s happened here? Did we strike gold at the factory’s gate for everyone to be digging around here?"
Gao Dafang saw Feifei arrive and eagerly stepped forward, "Feifei, it’s a minor issue, what’s got you out here?"
Without a word, Feifei delivered a hard slap across his face.
Gao Dafang, clutching his face, didn’t dare utter a sound.
Of course, that slap from Feifei wasn’t for the villagers to see; it was for Xiaofeng. She needed Xiaofeng to understand that her people were hers to discipline when she wished, and if she didn’t want to, no one else had the right to.
"Speak up, what exactly happened here?" Feifei asked, removing her sunglasses, with a sharp tone in her voice.
"Feifei, it’s just a small incident, it’s about these villagers..."
"Zhou Ming, you explain," Xiaofeng interrupted, clearly not ready to fully trust what was being said. No one admits they’re wrong, not even three-year-old children; they all instinctively deny any wrongdoing.
"Boss Su, here’s what happened. A girl was passing by the factory, Gao Dafang chatted her up, but she ignored him. He tried to grab her, and her father saw it and accused Gao Dafang of inappropriate behavior. As a result, Gao Dafang had the girl’s father beaten up, and now the man is in bad shape in the hospital."
Upon hearing Zhou Ming say this about him, Gao Dafang immediately objected, "He’s exaggerating. It was that woman who started talking to me, asking for a job in the factory through the back door. When her father showed up, she turned the tables. Her father insulted me, and I was pissed, so I had him beaten."
The stories from Gao Dafang and Zhou Ming were clearly conflicting; one of them was telling the truth, the other was lying.
"Su Xiaofeng, you’ve heard it yourself. Someone wanted to get into the factory through Gao Dafang and when we didn’t let them, they and their family slandered us. In my view, Gao Dafang did nothing wrong in dealing with those who slander us; they deserve a lesson," someone said, adamant that slander must be met with discipline.
"I’ve never spoken to him on my own initiative. I was just going to pick some vegetables in the field, and I happened to pass by here. Seeing that I was alone and a girl, he stopped me. He said if I was willing to be with him, he’d let me manage in the factory. Of course, I disagreed, and he tried to force me. Just then, my dad came back from the field and tried to argue with him, but he had my dad beaten up," said the girl, probably eighteen or nineteen, the daughter of the man Gao Dafang had injured.