Then the chase began. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ noveⅼfire.net
In the process, they "accidentally" knocked over some machinery in Liu De’s factory.
Hearing those clanging noises, Liu De felt as if his heart was bleeding—those were his capital for turning his life around.
But for the time being, he couldn’t get these people to leave.
He shouted several times, asking them to talk it out properly, but not a single person listened to him.
Liu De’s factory was in a remote location, yet it wasn’t completely isolated; this was the suburbs of Haimarket, not the countryside.
Neighbors, hearing the loud noise, flocked to the factory gate to watch the commotion.
Because the cries of those causing trouble were so exaggerated, the onlookers thought something serious had happened.
Especially when they heard the wails, "My poor child", the crowd was shocked.
"Did someone die?" someone asked.
"Hard to say, it looks like it, oh dear, let’s go home, we better not get involved, might end up hurt by mistake."
So, groups of people began leaving.
But there were still some who stayed to watch the drama.
One woman, cracking sunflower seeds as if she was watching a movie, said while munching, "I knew it, that Liu Datou did Zang De things, snatching someone’s business. Just a few days ago his mother-in-law was boasting in front of me. Well, now look what happened, big trouble, huh."
The woman’s face was full of schadenfreude.
Liu De chose to set up his factory here because when he first came to Haimarket to work, he had lived here for a while and was fairly familiar with the area.
Later, when he made his fortune in the jewelry business, he moved away.
Everyone knew about him offending people and then running off.
Unexpectedly, in less than a month, he returned with a wife and opened a factory here.
At first, everyone was quite friendly to Liu De and when he built the factory, they even volunteered their labor to help for a while.
They thought that in consideration of their help, Liu De would let them work in the factory.
However, when the factory started hiring, it specifically excluded people from this area.
These people were very resentful. If they were told they didn’t meet the requirements, they might have accepted it quietly.
After all, the factory was opened to make money, not for charity.
But upon further investigation, they found out it was his wife’s idea not to hire people from this area. The reason being, Liu De’s wife said that since he knew these people, she feared they would be greedy.
This made these individuals incredibly angry.
What were they greedy for?
They kindly helped out, and even if the factory didn’t consider their help when hiring, at least they deserved a fair chance to compete for the positions.
The hiring announcement made it clear from the start that they didn’t want anyone from their area.
Even this could have been tolerated.
But Liu De’s mother-in-law, Zhao Shuihua, was shameless.
She strutted around in her fancy clothes, visiting people under the guise of making friends or relatives, bragging every day.
Bragging about having a wealthy son-in-law, who allowed her to eat and drink well and wear gold and silver.
Just bragging could be overlooked, and wouldn’t upset people to the point of delighting in Liu De’s downfall, but the key issue was Zhao Shuihua’s habit of flirting with other women’s husbands.
She was an old woman, yet, just a few days ago, scandalous rumors were circulating about her and Elder Qian’s 20-year-old grandson.
Suddenly, the women nearby were utterly disgusted with Zhao Shuihua.
The women whose husbands had been seduced by Liu De’s mother-in-law had come to confront Liu De.