Chapter 3239: Hiding the Sky and Crossing the Sea

Seeing the other party accept this quotation, Li Yalin seized the moment and said: "In that case, let's sign an agreement—I'll pay you 50% first, which is two hundred thousand US dollars, and you don't need to immediately handle the transfer procedures with me; you just need to first settle all the workers here, completely vacate the place so I can complete the upgrade, and the remaining two hundred thousand US dollars, I will pay you in full within two months."

After saying that, Li Yalin added: "Since the factory isn't in a hurry to change ownership, it will remain under your name, so you don't need to worry about me defaulting on payment."

The other party thought for a moment, felt Li Yalin made sense—if the factory ownership didn't change, they wouldn't bear any risk, and moreover, they would already have received two hundred thousand US dollars in advance.

Moreover, no matter who comes to buy your factory now, it's unlikely they could pay the full amount upfront; encountering someone planning an upgrade and renovation is still manageable, but if it's someone who doesn't plan to upgrade and just wants to continue operating with existing equipment, that would be more troublesome, because they would certainly assess all the equipment, and those old machines come with all kinds of problems—by then, just arguing over them would take a long time.

So, he nodded and said: "As long as you can guarantee the remaining funds will be paid to me within two months, I have no problem."

Speaking, he added: "Since we're signing an agreement, should we also write this clause in? If I don't receive the remaining two hundred thousand within two months, should there be some kind of penalty or compensation?"

Li Yalin readily said: "Of course, we can draft an agreement, put the payment schedule in it—if within two months I encounter some situation and fail to pay you the remaining two hundred thousand, then this factory will revert to you, and you only need to return one hundred thousand of the two hundred thousand US dollars I gave you—equivalent to you getting one hundred thousand US dollars for free."

The person looked at Li Yalin in some surprise and asked: "Is this really true?"

"Of course." Li Yalin smiled: "Let's just write this clause into the agreement."

Upon hearing this, the other party breathed a sigh of relief—this way, they not only faced no risk, but actually gained flexibility, it was simply perfect.

So, he readily said: "No problem, let's do it your way!"

After speaking, he smiled slightly, lowered his voice to Li Yalin and said: "Actually, when you upgrade the production line, there's absolutely no need to pay wages to these outside workers—just have me tell them to stop work today, and they'll obediently go home; a few days later, I'll tell them to return to work, and they'll obediently come back to me—even if they found other jobs in between, it doesn't matter, because in this small town, being able to work at my food factory is absolutely their best job option!"

"My place is only a few kilometers from home—biking or even walking is very easy for them; as for wages, although not very high, it's already the highest they can earn near home—if they want to make more, they'd have to go to a port dozens of kilometers away, or even go out to sea with fishing boats—then perhaps they could earn a few dozen more dollars per month, but commuting costs would suddenly rise significantly, and sometimes they couldn't return home for a long time, so unless absolutely necessary, they won't go running off to the port."

Li Yalin looked at the other party's confident expression and smiled: "I've always been steady in my actions—if I upgrade your factory here, I'll gradually turn it into a high-output, high-quality large factory; some competitors might not have taken you seriously before, but once they know I'm upgrading this place, they'll definitely see me as a major threat."

"If I were their competitor, I'd poach all your potential workers before the upgrade is complete—just need to pay a small price to make it impossible for you to start production on time; your workers should be skilled technicians in canned food processing—if they're poached, hiring and training replacements temporarily would mean this place might not operate normally for several months; for those with tight capital chains, eager to start production and recover funds quickly, delaying by a few months could directly break their capital chain."

The other party listened, looking astonished, somewhat enlightened, and said: "I've never thought of these things you mentioned… it seems I'm really not cut out for business—I just know to guard this small trade, make a profit and be happy, never thought about how to grow big and strong. But with my brain, I probably don't have the capability to grow big and strong, nor the vision."

Li Yalin nodded and said: "So just follow my advice—after signing the contract, first let these workers go home, but tell them it's paid leave, pay half the wages now, and the other half when they return to work; also, they must keep this secret after taking the money, and absolutely cannot go work elsewhere—otherwise, we'll make them return the money and seek compensation."

The other party kept nodding: "No problem, I'll tell them seriously—they're all afraid of me, so they definitely won't dare violate the rules."

Speaking, he asked Li Yalin: "By the way, you said earlier you'd give them two hundred US dollars paid leave per month, pay half first—so for over three hundred people, that's over thirty thousand US dollars a month, over sixty thousand for two months—this money should also be borne by you, right?"

"Naturally." Li Yalin said: "This money is not included in the two hundred thousand US dollars down payment—I will bear it."

Upon hearing this, the other party immediately laughed and said: "Then I have no other problems! We can sign the contract anytime!"

Li Yalin nodded and added: "By the way, when you give them leave, don't tell them the factory has already been sold to you."

The person asked doubtfully: "Why? Don't you want them to know you're the new boss here?"

Li Yalin waved his hand: "I'm a foreigner here with no roots—if they knew you'd already sold the factory to me, they might not keep their promise—they might take the base pay I gave them and just run away."

Speaking, he added: "Just tell them you're about to receive an investment and will fully upgrade this place, so give them paid leave first—but due to business confidentiality, this must absolutely not be known to any competitor, so they must work together to keep the secret; otherwise, if your factory runs into problems, their jobs will be affected, and they'll continue to fear your authority—this way, it's easier to keep the secret."

Li Yalin felt that if, after Ye Chen sent people here, this place wasn't discovered by the Broken Clear Society, then we must make the people here keep the secret.

For someone like him who's done decades of criminal investigation, if you hide people in such a birdless place—so remote it's hard to find on a map—as long as no clues are left on the way here, the Broken Clear Society would probably only find this place through a carpet search.

Such a small place has nearly zero population mobility, nearly zero outsiders, information is extremely blocked, the chance of being focused on is extremely low, and the chance of leaking news is equally extremely low.

If these several hundred named workers can also keep their mouths shut and not go around talking, then it would be even more stable and safe.

So, to make them stop work, yet not let them have emotions, cause trouble, or speak recklessly—just give them some wages, make them feel grateful, and send them home to wait for work to resume.

Moreover, the workers here work year-round except when sick—wanting to take leave means no wages, taking too much leave might even get them fired by the boss; if we can give them paid leave to rest at home, the only requirement is not to leak the paid leave secret—they'll likely comply.

Just paying a few ten thousand US dollars a month can turn them into our most loyal allies—they won't dare disturb us, and will faithfully keep the secret—this money is truly well spent.

Besides, Li Yalin insisted on agreeing with the boss that if the final payment isn't made after two months, the factory returns to him, and he only needs to return one hundred thousand US dollars to me—because he himself planned to leave this boss in the lurch.

Because he clearly knows that once Ye Chen moves everyone out of this place, this location will naturally be unwanted—no matter how much money was spent here, it will be directly abandoned.

But if he himself bought this place outright, and then one day suddenly everyone left and the building was empty, abandoning a factory worth several hundred thousand US dollars, it would definitely cause a major stir locally—maybe the news would leak quickly and draw unnecessary attention.

Although he will definitely run away, after running away, it's best if this boss can still take over the factory.

That way, the factory keeps running, the boss remains unchanged from start to finish, and outsiders won't notice anything abnormal.

So, setting such terms is meant to make the boss a person always ready to take over.

When the time comes and I suddenly vanish from the human world, he will indeed be surprised, but more so delighted—because he can reclaim his factory and also receive one hundred thousand US dollars in compensation.

Although he should rightfully return one hundred thousand US dollars to me, by then I will have vanished from the human world, so naturally I can't come to him for it—from his perspective, it's as if he gained one hundred thousand US dollars and also picked up another one hundred thousand US dollars for free.

Due to the clause terms, this one hundred thousand US dollars must be returned by the boss, while I, as the creditor, have vanished from the human world—so in this way, the boss is equivalent to gaining an advantage of one hundred thousand US dollars from me; at that time, having gained the advantage, he will surely still feel some anxiety in his heart, fearing I might suddenly come back to demand money, or even fearing I met with some accident and my family will come to him for money.

Once he's caught in this anxious psychological state, he will definitely strictly guard the secret, won't tell anyone about this matter, and will silently enjoy this ill-gotten wealth.

As for these employees, at that time they'll know nothing—they'll only know the boss initially wanted to attract investment for an upgrade, but later the plan fell through, yet it didn't affect everyone receiving wages, and when they return, they'll work just as before—fundamentally impossible for them to know this factory was once used to transfer Broken Clear Society's dead men.

By then, the factory will resume operations, everyone will act as if nothing happened before, the boss will continue to guard this secret, and no one will know this place was once used by me for another purpose, to transfer several thousand dead men—everything will then proceed smoothly in a manner of hiding the sky and crossing the sea.

Li Yalin firmly believes that in this world, the person who understands crime best is not the best criminal, but the best criminal investigator—since Ye Chen let me handle this matter, I naturally won't let the Broken Clear Society find any substantive clues!