Chapter 13: The Face of the Wealthy

Shui Miao was thinking about Chen Xiang and didn’t notice that another car was following behind.

Originally, Shui Miao had planned to go to the old street first to buy some gifts and clothes for Chen Xiang. But after much deliberation, he changed his mind. It had been three years; he didn’t know what Chen Xiang looked like now. If the clothes he bought didn’t fit, wouldn’t that be a waste of money? He decided it would be better to ask her to take half a day off so they could go shopping together. After all, he had a thousand yuan in his pocket.

At the Qiaonan Development Zone, Rongwei Garment Factory.

Shui Miao parked his bike and walked to the guard booth at the entrance. Two guards in their forties were sitting inside the booth, snacking on sunflower seeds and watching TV.

“Hello, excuse me… may I come in to look for someone?” Shui Miao asked politely, leaning on the window.

However, the two guards merely glanced at him and then continued snacking, as if they hadn’t seen him at all.

Shui Miao had seen this kind of arrogant, self-important guard many times during his time working away from home. Many of them were like dogs—wagging their tails when they saw the boss, but ignoring the workers. Sometimes they even harassed employees, and worse still, used the excuse of a body search to molest female workers. Their behavior was despicable and infuriating.

Now, since he needed their help, he had to swallow his pride. Shui Miao looked back and saw a store nearby, so he ran over and bought two packs of five-yuan cigarettes.

Seeing the cigarettes, one of the middle-aged guards turned around and asked expressionlessly, “What do you want?”

Shui Miao handed over the cigarettes with a forced smile. “Uncle, I’m looking for someone. She’s my sister.”

“Looking for someone?” The guard took the cigarettes and shook his head. “That’s difficult. There are five or six thousand workers here. How do you expect us to find her? Two packs of cigarettes, and you expect a dozen of us to spend half the day looking for you? Do you think that’s reasonable?”

It was clear the guard thought the cigarettes were too few. When he mentioned a dozen people searching, he probably meant at least two packs per person—so more than twenty packs total! Twenty packs of cigarettes would cost over a hundred yuan. For the rich, that wasn’t much, but for Shui Miao, it was a significant amount.

“Please, Uncle, help me out. I’ve come back home after such a long time. I really need your help.”

Unwilling to spend the money, Shui Miao could only beg with kind words.

But the middle-aged guard suddenly threw the cigarettes out the window and snapped angrily, “You little brat, do I look that old to you? You think two packs of cigarettes are enough to get us to do something for you? Do you think we’re beggars? Get lost! Don’t hang around here whining!”

The guard’s attitude was rude and insulting.

Shui Miao was furious inside, but thinking of Chen Xiang, he had no choice but to swallow his anger. He picked up the two packs of cigarettes and left.

Behind him, cold and mocking words floated out from the security booth.

These guards were nothing but local hooligans—good for nothing but bullying and exploiting honest people.

Shui Miao walked to the roadside and stood there gloomily for a while. Determined to see his sister, he gritted his teeth and went back to the store, buying two cartons of cigarettes. He returned and handed them to the guards. But the middle-aged guard raised four fingers and said coldly, “Sorry, the price just went up. It’s four cartons now. If you can’t manage that, forget it.”

The two guards laughed and moved closer. One of them opened the pack and took out a cigarette. After lighting it and taking a couple of puffs, he grinned at Shui Miao with his yellow teeth and waved him off. “Go on, hurry up and buy them. Once you bring them back, we’ll help you find her.”

“Okay! I’ll go buy them. I hope you’ll keep your word.” Shui Miao clenched his teeth. At this point, he had no choice but to buy more.

He bought two more cartons and brought them back. The guards grinned happily, grabbed their walkie-talkies, and called over a dozen of their colleagues. Soon, the four cartons were divided among them—but not a single one of them mentioned anything about helping Shui Miao find his sister.

This was too much. Shui Miao tried to keep calm and asked, “Excuse me, when are you going to help me find her?”

“Hehe, why are you in such a hurry? Haven’t they already gone to look?” The middle-aged guard sat down in a reclining chair, put his feet up, and grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds.

Shui Miao felt cheated. “But you haven’t even asked me who I’m looking for! Aren’t you just scamming me?”

“Scamming! You dare to say we’re scamming you?”

The other middle-aged guard grabbed a bat and pointed it at Shui Miao, shouting, “Say that again, if you’ve got the guts!”

“Forget it, just let him wait outside. He’ll see her when she gets off work,” said the sunflower-seed-eating guard carelessly.

“Get lost!”

The guard with the bat glared at Shui Miao and shouted.

※※※

Shui Miao had never expected such treatment in his own hometown. He was so angry he felt like chopping those two bastards to pieces!

But again, thinking of Chen Xiang, he had to swallow his anger once more.

Fuming with rage, Shui Miao turned and walked to the roadside, clenched his fist, and punched the ground hard!

At that moment, a familiar voice called out, “Hey, isn’t that the apprentice of Master Xiong?”

Shui Miao looked up and saw it was Sun Jijun!

“What’s wrong? Who bullied you?” Sun Jijun quickly squatted down, looked at Shui Miao’s hand, and shook his head. “Brother, tell me what happened. I’ll help you get even. You’re Master Xiong’s apprentice, which makes you my friend. If a friend has a problem, I, Sun Jijun, will never stand by and do nothing.”

Shui Miao looked at Sun Jijun, feeling a little guilty. The man had been so kind to him, yet he had spoken rudely to him before.

But then he felt puzzled. How could it be such a coincidence that he came here and Sun Jijun showed up too? Could it be that he was the factory owner?

“You… you’re the factory owner, right?” Shui Miao asked hesitantly.

Sun Jijun looked at the factory gate, then shook his head with a sneer. “I know who’s been bullying you—Wang Hu and Wang Bao. You two, go in and beat them up! Beat those two guards until they can’t walk!”

As soon as Sun Jijun finished speaking, two tough-looking men came out of the car behind him. They took off their shirts, revealing dragon and tiger tattoos all over their bodies. Holding baseball bats, they charged toward the security booth.

Shui Miao stood up in shock.

Sun Jijun looked toward the security booth with a cold smile. “This isn’t even my factory, but the owner is a piece of trash. Don’t worry, I’ll call the owner right now and make him come out and apologize to you personally.”

What a bold statement!

Shui Miao stared in disbelief. Wasn’t Sun Jijun just a small business owner? How could he be so powerful?

A series of screams echoed. The two middle-aged guards were beaten so badly they were covered in bruises, dragged from the booth to the ground outside, howling like slaughtered pigs. Sun Jijun’s two henchmen were ruthless—they didn’t hold back at all! Soon, the two guards were lying on the ground, unable to stand, their legs seemingly broken. They begged pitifully, and even Shui Miao felt sorry for them.

After finishing his phone call, Sun Jijun smiled slightly at Shui Miao. “Come on, let’s go in.”

Following Sun Jijun to the gate, the two henchmen pushed it open. Sun Jijun looked at the two guards lying on the ground, unable to speak, and shook his head. He spat at one of them, “Hmph! Your titanium alloy dog eyes must be blind! Daring to bully my friend! If I didn’t teach you a lesson today, you wouldn’t know who Sun Jijun is.” Saying this, he took a bat from one of the henchmen and raised it high toward the middle-aged guard’s leg.

Shui Miao was startled and quickly stopped Sun Jijun. “Mr. Sun, enough! Let them go. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this because of me. I came here just to find a friend.”

“Find a friend…”

Sun Jijun had actually seen everything from his car and already knew why Shui Miao had come, but he pretended not to know. “So it’s just something small like that. Then there’s no need to cripple them. Since that’s the case, we’ll stop.”

Just then, the more than ten guards who had taken the cigarettes earlier came running out, each holding an iron rod.

Seeing this, Sun Jijun smiled coldly. “Wang Hu and Wang Bao, take them all down at once. No need to waste time.”

“Got it!”

The two henchmen seemed fearless. Facing more than ten guards with iron rods, they were actually excited, smiling coldly as if they were lions seeing a flock of lambs running to their deaths.

The guards charged forward aggressively, but the two henchmen radiated a deadly aura.

Shui Miao feared the situation would escalate, so he shouted desperately at the guards, “Don’t come any closer! Don’t come any closer!!”

But the guards, confident in their numbers, ignored him.

At this moment, Sun Jijun took out his phone and started recording video and audio, while narrating, “This is the Rongwei Garment Factory. More than ten guards with iron rods are preparing to attack us. We have no choice but to defend ourselves. This is the on-site recording.”

“Cunning!”

Shui Miao was startled. He hadn’t expected Sun Jijun to play such a trick. If a lawsuit followed, this recording would be solid evidence.

The guards charged quickly. In fact, they were mostly unemployed, overweight, clumsy, and only relied on their numbers to bully others. As soon as they clashed with Sun Jijun’s men, they saw the two henchmen suddenly darting left and right, swinging their bats. Before Shui Miao could even see clearly what was happening, several guards were already screaming, dropping their rods, and collapsing on the ground, groaning in pain.

In no time, half of the guards were on the ground.

The remaining few were so scared they backed away, too frightened to attack anymore.

From a distance, there was a commotion, and several formally dressed people ran over.

A fat, middle-aged man with a big belly saw most of the guards lying on the ground and the two henchmen standing menacingly. He turned pale with fear and hurriedly approached Sun Jijun. “Mr. Sun, Mr. Sun! What’s going on here? Let’s talk things through calmly. Why are you recording this?”

“Hehe, your guards are bullying the weak and ganging up on us. We were only defending ourselves,” Sun Jijun stopped recording and smiled at the fat man. “Mr. He, you need to discipline these bastards properly. They dared to bully my little brother. Their dog eyes must be blind. Also, you need to have them apologize to my brother, compensate for the losses, and preferably fire them all. Otherwise, I won’t agree, and neither will my sworn brother, Director Zhang.”

Sun Jijun’s sworn brother was Director Zhang, who was in charge of the development zone. If he got angry, the garment factory would be in serious trouble.

Mr. He understood the gravity of the situation and quickly smiled. “Mr. Sun, Mr. Sun! You’re being too formal. These dogs don’t know their place. I’ll deal with them. We mustn’t damage our friendship. Hey, Manager Feng, come and handle this matter. I’ve never liked these bastards. You must follow Mr. Sun’s instructions. If you don’t handle it well, you can leave too.”

“Yes, yes! I’ll definitely handle it well, definitely!”

Manager Feng was only in his thirties. Seeing the scene, he was already trembling with fear. Upon hearing his boss’s orders, he nodded repeatedly, showing utmost obedience.

Then, Mr. He hurriedly came over, smiling, and shook hands with Shui Miao, then with Sun Jijun. He grinned widely. “Hehe, Mr. Sun, it’s been a while since we last met. Today is a rare opportunity. Why don’t you come to my office for a chat? Let me treat you as a guest!”

“Sure, sure. We’re old friends. No need to be so formal. I came here today mainly to talk business with you. But…” Sun Jijun patted Shui Miao on the shoulder. “My little brother here still needs to find a friend in your factory. Why don’t you help him find her first?”

Sun Jijun clearly looked down on Mr. He, treating him like a subordinate.

Sun Jijun’s bullying was because Mr. He wasn’t a local and didn’t have strong connections.

Mr. He was a flexible and adaptable person. Hearing this, he immediately patted his belly and laughed. “Haha! I thought it was something big. It’s just about finding a friend! Come on, little brother, let’s go into the factory and find your friend…”

Seeing Mr. He’s reaction, Shui Miao couldn’t help but feel a flood of emotions. The faces of the rich truly changed like the weather. No wonder they could get rich—their ability to adapt on the spot was truly unmatched by ordinary people!