Chapter 159: Collecting the Money

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“Everyone at the factory is saying that their family abused their power and lined their own pockets. If it weren’t for them, the factory wouldn’t have ended up in such dire straits, and everyone would still be getting paid.”

“Those vermin deserve to be hacked to pieces. They’ve aroused the fury of the entire workforce.”

Whenever the three members of the Wu family came up, Lin Jiayin was filled with hatred. She repeated everything being said around the factory to Chen Huajiang.

Much of it was exaggerated or outright fabricated—just people kicking a fallen man when he was down.

Even so, it was clear that the Wu family had truly become despised throughout Red Flag Factory.

“On my way back today, Auntie Wu gave me a string of sausages. They’re steaming in the rice now.”

“Old Li gave me a salted fish, but I didn’t take it. He’s getting on in years, and his son isn’t very bright. Their life is difficult enough as it is.”

“Auntie Six invited us over for dinner. The New Year is almost here, and we’ll be going home soon. They still have plenty of food left over, so I turned her down.”

Lin Jiayin gazed dreamily at Chen Huajiang, speaking softly, a blissful smile spread across her face.

The residents of the family compound had clearly changed their attitude toward the couple during this period.

When Chen Huajiang had first been dismissed, everyone had gone out of their way to avoid the pair. Women like Ma Hongfeng, in particular, had done nothing but gossip behind their backs.

Now, however, everyone greeted Lin Jiayin with a smile whenever they saw her. The long-suppressed feelings she had been carrying finally burst free, and she became much happier and more carefree.

Chen Huajiang, on the other hand, was somewhat speechless. He had never expected this foolish woman to care so much about such things.

Still, he knew that human needs progressed step by step. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, once people had satisfied their basic need for food and warmth, they began to seek security and self-esteem.

It seemed that Lin Jiayin had now climbed to the next level. But stripped down to its essence, all of this was merely an exchange of interests between people.

The moment anything happened to the couple, the residents of the compound would avoid them just as they had before.

Chen Huajiang shook his head at the thought, then wondered why he was overthinking things. His wife was happy, and that was all that mattered. Why bother thinking about the rest?

After dinner, Lin Jiayin was unusually proactive, catching Chen Huajiang so off guard that he nearly fell into the young woman’s trap.

Only after he had reasserted his authority as a husband and left Lin Jiayin utterly defeated did he finally sink into a deep sleep.

The next morning, however, he did not wake until the sun was already high in the sky.

“You’re only getting up now? Hmph. You were quite the hero last night, weren’t you?”

“The food is on the table. I’ll warm it up for you.”

Lin Jiayin cast her husband a smug glance as he rose from bed. Then her face flushed, and she carried the cold breakfast from the table toward the kitchen.

“Don’t bother. I’ll just eat an apple. I’ll have something outside later. We’re going home the day after tomorrow, and I need to make sure everything at the shops is properly arranged before then.”

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Chen Huajiang waved Lin Jiayin off, telling her not to trouble herself. After washing up in a hurry, he took an apple and went out.

His first stop was the central branch of Nantian Hotel. He began by settling the accounts, going through all the ledgers for the past two months.

The net profit for the two months came to forty-six hundred yuan. Foreign guests and overseas Chinese staying at Nantian Hotel had contributed one-third of the profit, while the remaining two-thirds had come from the local high-end clientele.

Chen Huajiang knew that the shop’s reputation as an upscale establishment had now been firmly established.

He gave each of the waiters a fifty-yuan red envelope and the chef a hundred. Working over searing-hot woks every day was genuinely difficult, and the chef had certainly earned it.

As for Hao Jianguo, he gave him an especially generous red envelope containing three hundred yuan.

“I can’t accept this, I can’t. It’s far too much.”

Hao Jianguo opened the envelope and saw a thick stack of ten-yuan notes. He immediately pushed the money back toward Chen Huajiang, flustered.

As he had said, it truly was too much.

“If I tell you to take it, then take it. It’s only three hundred yuan—what’s that to me? What I value is you.”

Chen Huajiang pushed the envelope back and patted Hao Jianguo on the shoulder. Pretending to be displeased, he said, “What matters most these days? Talent. Even the ancients understood the value of buying a thousand pieces of gold to obtain a horse’s skeleton, or making three personal visits to invite a worthy man from his thatched cottage. Surely I, Chen Huajiang, am not inferior to the ancients?”

Hao Jianguo’s heart burned with emotion, a warm current surging through his chest.

He nodded firmly, his voice slightly hoarse. “Boss Chen, you can count on me. I’ll work hard.”

Once a technician at the military factory who could not even receive his wages and had been treated coldly by his wife, Hao Jianguo had now regained his confidence under Chen Huajiang’s wholehearted trust. His heart was filled with gratitude.

Chen Huajiang patted him on the hand, then left the Kunlun branch with the remaining three thousand yuan.

His next stop was Food Street. There was no need to check the accounts here.

The money was made by supplying cooking ingredients and collecting management and stall fees, and he had already received those payments.

“Take this.”

It was a thousand yuan. Hao Jianguo could decide for himself how much to distribute to his men.

Chen Huajiang had no need for formalities with Er Mao, nor did he need to dress things up with empty words. He simply tossed him a large red envelope and left him to handle the matter himself.

A thousand yuan!

Er Mao was instantly stunned. He stared at Chen Huajiang, mouth hanging open.

“Brother Chen, a thousand yuan is far too much.”

It took him a long while to recover. His face flushed with excitement as he pushed the envelope back toward Chen Huajiang.

“If I tell you to take it, then take it. You have more than a dozen brothers under you, don’t you? Did they join you just to drink the northwest wind?”

“Look at you—what a hopeless display. A thousand yuan and you’re already this excited. The good days are still ahead for anyone working with me. If you’re acting like this now, what are you going to do later? Collapse from fright?”

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Chen Huajiang pretended to look down on him and kicked Er Mao in the rear, sending him stumbling away.

Leaving Er Mao behind with an excited, foolish grin, Chen Huajiang mounted his bicycle and pedaled toward the East Gate.

This time, he was heading to the shop at the East Gate Lock. Black Tiger and his brothers were already waiting there, but the atmosphere was somewhat strange.

“Ahem—let me, Brother Chen, let me!”

The moment Chen Huajiang got off his bicycle, Black Tiger came hurrying over. He grabbed the bicycle and insisted on pushing it aside and setting it securely in place for him.

Chen Huajiang was speechless. Caught off guard, he was even edged aside by the man.

As he watched Black Tiger courteously wheel the bicycle away and put it down, Chen Huajiang already knew that something was wrong.

As the saying went, no one showed excessive friendliness without a reason; if it was not treachery, it was theft.

Sure enough, once they entered the shop, Black Tiger awkwardly explained the situation to him.

“You’re out of money?”

Chen Huajiang stared at him in astonishment after hearing him out.

The shop was constantly crowded, with customers coming and going all day. On top of that, it sold the Kunlun coal stoves he had supplied.

It might not have been making money on the same scale as the central branch, but there was no way it could have no money at all.

“Ahem, Brother Chen, I’m really sorry about this.”

“One of my brothers lost his father. As his leader, I had to contribute some money toward the funeral.”

“How much?” Chen Huajiang asked. “How much did the funeral cost?”

“Three hundred.” Black Tiger answered directly, making no attempt to hide it.

“Go on.”

Chen Huajiang immediately knew something was off. He had not checked the accounts here, but judging from the flow of customers, he could roughly estimate the shop’s profits for the past two months.

His estimate was twenty-five hundred yuan: two thousand from the shop’s food business and five hundred from the Kunlun coal stoves.

If the total was any lower than that, Chen Huajiang would have gladly bet his eyes on it. After all, he had been in the food business for many years; he still knew a thing or two.

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