Chapter 341: Days

More than an hour later, after the time it took to eat a midday meal, the few of them had already walked out of the factory area on the coast.

Just after stepping out the door, the young man behind Gou Er could no longer hold back his excitement.

"Second Uncle, we've made it big, from now on..."

"Shut your damn mouth!"

Before he could finish, Gou Er's hunched frame instantly straightened, and he raised his hand to deliver a resounding slap: "What did I tell you on the way here? Did you forget it all? Did I tell you to speak? When your old man is talking, you dare to interrupt, you damn brat?"

"You good-for-nothing thing!"

Compared to the withered, middle-aged man who was getting on in years, the robust young man was all muscle, but being hit like this in front of everyone, he actually didn't dare to fight back, could only lower his head and beg for mercy repeatedly.

Not until Gou Er had hit enough and cursed enough did he finally stop.

He spat a thick glob of phlegm onto the ground.

"All of you, damn it, remember this well."

He glanced coldly at the seven or eight people he had brought this time: "From this day forward, we are employees of the coast, we are employees of Factory Manager Ji, damn it!"

"Starting today, don't you dare be disrespectful in front of the Factory Manager, understand?"

For a moment, everyone nodded like chickens pecking at rice.

Thus, Gou Er nodded with satisfaction and suddenly asked:

"Who is the leader?"

In the brief silence, A-Nao sensed his Second Uncle's gaze turn dangerous again and immediately opened his mouth to answer: "It's Factory Manager Ji!"

Consequently, A-Song, who had just received a beating and was now slow to react, received a heavy blow to the neck from his Second Uncle.

"Learn from him!"

After a round of scolding, A-Nao finally summoned the courage to ask: "Uncle, where are we going to find over a hundred people?"

"We will have them soon!"

Gou Er instructed: "A-Nao, you and A-Song don't eat lunch, drive back first, and tell Old Six and Old Baldy that the matter is done."

"After Old Six and Old Baldy take care of those two traitors, Lame-o and Shit-hole Liu, tell them not to rush to move yet, go to those few villages nearby first."

Gou Er paused, his wrinkled face seeming to grin as it stretched into an arc: "Tell them, for the sake of so many years of friendship, I won't eat alone."

"—The opportunity to turn our lives around is right here, I'll wait just one day, let's see if they can seize it!"

The two young men took their orders and left.

After Gou Er watched their modified peanut-shaped tricycle disappear with a *putt-putt-putt*, he counted the gold sand in his pocket and, with rare extravagance, took the remaining people to a restaurant.

Sipping homemade wine and nibbling on stir-fried snails, he reached a state of five-tenths drunkenness, and a flush appeared on his wrinkled face.

Squatting at the entrance of the restaurant, watching the bustling and noisy market, he lit a cigarette with satisfaction.

Blowing out clouds of smoke.

Fine raindrops fell faintly from the sky; it was a sun shower, but the rain that used to make his skin crawl and keep him awake in agony suddenly didn't seem so terrifying anymore.

He squatted lazily under the shed, basking in the afterglow of the sun.

When he grinned, he revealed a mouthful of large, yellow teeth.

Isn't this what a life is?

In reality, in the days that followed, Gou Er did not see Ji Jue again.

While feeling disappointed inside, he didn't show it, but instead worked diligently, running between Xinquan and the wilderness.

It took him several days to become a familiar face to Yan Jian and Lu Feng, and after probing around privately, he used the excuse of being drunk to ask for guidance.

Only then did he realize that his many worries were completely unnecessary.

Yan Jian currently only managed the factory area and ignored everything outside it, nor did he care if Gou Er used this opportunity to plant his own people. After receiving the advice of "There are rules, just do your work honestly," Old Gou finally let go of his reservations and began to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

According to the factory rules—no matter who came, as long as they followed the regulations, signed the contract, were clean-handed, and were willing to work diligently, then food and lodging were all covered. Although the monthly salary wasn't much, it was considered abundant in the wilderness, and it was never in arrears.

The tenement building rented to the families was ugly, cramped, lacked natural light, and was like a pigeon coop with shared toilets, but at least it was a place to live. Water and electricity were cheap, and if you spent a little more money, you could even rent an air conditioner.

Such conditions, although in the city, would make even a beast of burden spit at the heartlessness, but compared to the original godforsaken settlement environment, it was simply heaven.

The factory hospital didn't have many medicines, but the prices weren't too expensive either. All the common medicines in the city could be bought there, and there were physicians from Jici Hospital who came every few days to organize free clinics, so one could die with clarity and not have to blame heaven or others.

Those with experience were assigned to posts after testing, and those without experience could sign a contract and work for free, following a master to receive training—what they learned was production and maintenance. After the harsh ten-year contract period was over, it wouldn't hinder you from going elsewhere to open your own repair shop.

Anyone with a bit of brains, once they figured it out, would happily rush toward the six-days-on, one-day-off assembly line.

However, in the wilderness, it was always hard to expect gratitude, and there were always some people whose hands weren't very honest and whose brains were a bit too clever... and such people often disappeared mysteriously very quickly, never to be seen again.

In less than half a month, Gou Er realized that Coast Industry might not be as simple as he had thought, and the things hidden behind it might be even more terrifying.

But so what?

Encountering such things, he instead beamed with joy, even more certain that he had come to the right place and latched onto the right thigh.

After settling the people from his settlement, he took the group of men, women, and children he had gathered and threw himself into the work of renovating the shanty area as ordered by Factory Manager Ji. The shanty area, which had originally been full of chaos, restored orderly discipline in just a few days, and the illegal structures, unauthorized construction, and even those stealing water and electricity were all demolished.

Even if there were occasionally a few blind ones who wanted to resist, they soon acknowledged their mistakes under the gentle caress of rubber batons, accepted Coast's great kindness and virtue with tears streaming down their faces, and obeyed the arrangements.

Later on, after he finished clearing everything, the engineering team that Coast had just finished training entered to begin digging sewers and reorganizing the electrical circuits and wires that had been a mess due to various illegal constructions.

Then, brand-new utility poles with paint still wet were erected, each equipped with cameras, bringing everything under surveillance and management.

Just like that, under the scorching sun, the intense renovation finally came to an end after more than half a month.

Following that, all of Xinquan fell into an eerie desolation.

In broad daylight, there was no one on the streets.

Because... they were all damn near dying of heat.

The temperature was rising day by day, the original average of thirty or forty degrees climbed even further, and at noon, in some parts of the Haizhou wilderness, it could even reach over fifty degrees.

At this critical juncture, anyone going out did so only in the early morning or evening, to the point where management fell into chaos once again...

And after Gou Er submitted his report full of typos, it actually received praise from Yan Jian. Soon, the original market area expanded again, huge sheds were propped up, and locations were re-demarcated.

Thus, amidst the busyness and noise of the night market, Xinquan, which had originally fallen into silence after nightfall, became brightly lit.

A few days later, the first rainstorm descended from the sky.

In the scorching noon hour, it came suddenly without warning, and heaven and earth went dark.

Amidst bursts of thunder, in an instant, the rain poured down, swallowing the entire world.

The heart-stopping thunder continued incessantly, and after just a few minutes, the wilderness outside Xinquan turned into a watery kingdom. When the dark clouds dissipated and the sun rose again, everything became even more parched under the steaming heat of rising water vapor.

After the rainstorm, no one's expression could be called good.

The rainy season had arrived early.

At least more than half a month early.

After A-Nao, covered in dirt, rushed back from the original settlement location, Old Gou received the news that the settlement had been completely flooded. Many people praised Uncle Gou's foresight, and the fierce hags in the settlement who had had complaints in the past were now well-behaved and didn't dare to speak.

Listening to the situation reported by his nephew, everyone felt a joy of surviving a disaster, only Gou Er, who was now sitting in the gatehouse blowing the air conditioner, remained silent, his expression becoming increasingly stern and cold.

Until no one spoke anymore.

After Old Gou finished his cigarette, he pinched the half-burnt butt, took one last hard drag, finally extinguished it, and stood up.

"Things are going to get troublesome. For the next two days, don't let your phones leave your side, get your spirits up for me, and split into day and night shifts. A-Nao, you keep a closer watch. When on duty, whoever dares to slack off, beat them to death. I don't care if their father died or their wife ran away, if anyone dares to mess up, tell them all to get the hell out, understand?!"

After giving his orders, he trotted to the factory area to find Lu Feng. After returning, he made another trip to the old Diaomao Town next to Xinquan and met with Brother Huang Mao.

Before the day was out, everyone in the shanty area discovered that fences had been erected around them, barbed wire was wrapped around the top, and the security was tight.

And the rubber batons at the waists of the management team members were gone, replaced by iron rods with barbs, and their faces were gloomy.

And the factory security team had also swept away their previous laziness.

They were fully armed with live ammunition.

Before dawn the next day, the outskirts of Xinquan Town, at the main entrance, were already overcrowded...

One by one, dirt-covered faces clamored to enter the town, and some had already run to secluded places, attempting to climb the walls themselves. Modified vehicles belching thick smoke *putt-putt-putted*, one after another, blocking the road, honking their horns incessantly, but it was of no use at all.

The bribes that had been useful in the past were now ineffective.

Unless you had a pass issued by Coast or could state your resident number, you were not allowed in or out, regardless of how exaggerated the reasons or excuses you offered.

As for those who still wanted to rush the checkpoint or attempt to climb the wall... they could use their own foreheads to personally experience the law enforcement intensity of the management team and the security department.

Yan Jian, who received the news, wiped the cold sweat from his brow, looking at the dense crowd outside the barbed wire, his skin crawling.

It was fortunate that they had been prepared and had completed the renovation, otherwise, who knew what kind of chaos the entire Xinquan would have fallen into!

The sudden rainstorm and the early rainy season were like the straw that broke the camel's back, crushing the hopes of who knew how many settlements.

Realizing they couldn't go on, many settlements scattered in an instant.

Those with connections found connections, those without found places on their own; everyone had to make a living.

And now, even though Haizhou was vast, how many places were there that could accept a group of unrelated outsiders?

The crowd covering the mountains and plains at this moment was only the first wave...

Amidst the gradually surging crowd, shouts were endless, and there were bursts of crying. The crowd, which had originally been somewhat settled under the threat of guns, was now actually pushing forward again. Amidst the shouting and roaring, there was a faint trend of a hard charge, and the atmosphere was becoming increasingly wrong!

It was obvious that someone was inciting them from behind.

Gou Er hid behind the fence, watching this formation, already drenched in sweat, and could only continuously direct the management team members via radio to speed up the suppression.

Amidst the helplessness, however, he suddenly calmed down.

He even took the cigarette he had just lit from his mouth, stepped on it, ground it hard twice, turned his head, and looked at the junior beside him.

"A-Nao, have I been good to you, Uncle?"

"Yes."

A-Nao nodded decisively, without hesitation.

Old Gou looked straight at him and suddenly asked: "Back then, Uncle didn't let you enter the factory and made you work with me, you suffered no small amount, tell the truth, do you hate Uncle?"

A-Nao shook his head: "Before my mother died, she said, let me listen to Uncle. Whatever Uncle says to do, I do."

"Good, then listen to Uncle one more time."

Old Gou suddenly reached out and gripped his hand like iron pincers: "A-Song is a good-for-nothing thing, can't count on him, working honestly is good for him, but you are different, you have a chance to get ahead..."

He paused and suddenly said: "There are some things the boss isn't suited to do, the people below need to know how to handle things... You need to take the initiative, understand?"

A-Nao nodded.

"Good boy, good, good."

Gou Er laughed, the wrinkles on his old face smoothing out for a moment. Then, he walked closer, stuffed a gun into his hand, bent his fingers to make him grip it tightly, and tucked it into his pocket.

"Follow me!"

The hunched man straightened his spine again, stood tall, raised his head, and walked toward the outside of the barbed wire.

Toward that crowd that was boiling over. ===== CHAPTER 342 =====