Chapter 3272

In the last hour before dawn, Wan Pojun led the final group of personnel out of the food factory, and Ye Chen had him lock the gate from outside; the vast factory now held only him and Li Yalin.

Li Yalin gazed at the site, restored to its original state, and couldn't help but sigh: "Mr. Ye, the efficiency and execution of these Jinyiwei and dead warriors are too strong—even if I were to inspect this scene myself, I wouldn't detect that over ten thousand people had briefly stayed here."

Ye Chen nodded slightly and sighed: "Their efficiency and execution were honed by centuries of generational enslavement."

After saying that, Ye Chen exhaled a turbid breath and said: "Never mind that—Detective Li has been busy for days; rest a while. I'll stay here and watch to see if the factory manager comes today."

Li Yalin had been working nonstop for days, barely resting; now that everyone had withdrawn, he felt relieved and truly exhausted, so he told Ye Chen: "Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Ye—I'll just nap a bit."

Ye Chen replied: "No problem—sleep soundly; I've got everything under control here."

Afterwards, Ye Chen sent Li Yalin to the factory manager's office, then stepped out of the workshop and sat on a cardboard mat under the tarp shielding the truck from rain in the warehouse, continuing to form hand seals, absorb spiritual energy, and release a trickle of it to constantly sense his surroundings.

These past few days, whenever Ye Chen had free time, he devoted it entirely to forming hand seals; the spiritual energy accumulating in his body grew ever more abundant, and he planned to, once his internal spiritual energy reached a limit, pour it all into the ring Lin Wan'er had given him to see if anything new might emerge.

Soon, the sky gradually brightened.

Li Yalin slept deeply, while Ye Chen meditated, and time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, it was noon.

At that moment, Ye Chen sensed movement in the distance—the factory manager's car had returned.

He curled the corner of his mouth into a smile, then walked back into the workshop and headed to the factory manager's office.

Li Yalin had just woken up at that moment, having slept seven or eight hours, feeling refreshed; as he opened the door, he saw Ye Chen approaching and immediately asked: "Mr. Ye, any developments?"

Ye Chen smiled: "The factory manager has arrived."

Li Yalin raised his eyebrows, smiling: "Looks like he's indeed quite anxious."

Ye Chen said: "Let's go, Detective Li—when he arrives and sees the gate locked from outside, he might climb in to investigate."

"Alright," Li Yalin replied with a laugh, and together with Ye Chen, they left the workshop and climbed over the low section of the rear wall.

At the same time, the factory manager parked his car outside the gate, stepped out, saw the gate locked from outside, and felt a sudden pang of doubt.

In his view, even if the factory hadn't yet begun upgrades, Li Yalin shouldn't have closed up and left at noon; moreover, last time he'd come, though construction hadn't started, there were still a few subordinates present—so even if busy, at least someone should have been left behind.

After a moment's hesitation, he pulled out his phone and called Li Yalin, hoping to probe his tone; after all, last time they met, he had, relying on his keen sense of smell and eye for people, concluded that Li Yalin's finances were surely in trouble, and Li Yalin had said three to five days would resolve the funding issue—but now, not only had work not started, people had left, making the situation feel even more off.

Li Yalin's number he'd left was already off; he'd been calling from the gate for ages with no answer, and his unease grew.

So he shouted loudly at the gate: "Anyone there? Mr. Li, are you in?"

After shouting several times with no reply, he slammed the lock on the fence gate hard, bang after bang, but inside remained utterly silent.

The factory manager couldn't help but feel a secret joy, faintly sensing that something good might be about to happen.

He immediately clambered up the iron gate, clumsily scrambled over, struggled a moment, then jumped down, ignoring the dirt on him, and rushed straight into the workshop.

At that moment, he still worried Li Yalin or his men might suddenly appear, so he kept shouting: "Mr. Li, are you alright? I'm coming in to check on you—if you're here, please don't misunderstand!"

Shouting as he went, he entered the workshop.

Inside, the equipment had been torn apart into seven-zero-eight-fallen pieces, as if dismantling had been half-done then stopped; not a single person was in sight, and the scene showed no other abnormalities.

He scanned the surroundings, unable to stop himself from thinking mutedly: "Where did that guy go? Is this just a temporary shutdown, or did he flee outright?"

Meanwhile, Ye Chen and Li Yalin had just watched him climb the gate and enter; Ye Chen asked Li Yalin: "Detective Li, what do you think he'll do next?"

Li Yalin replied: "Unable to reach me, he'll definitely come by every day, waiting until he realizes I might truly not return, then he might consider taking over this mess himself."

Ye Chen nodded and said: "In that case, the timing feels uncontrollable—better to just call him and say you have urgent domestic matters requiring a trip back, possibly one or two months, but reassure him you'll definitely return before the two-month deadline."

He added: "Still, tone it a bit—make him think you might have run into serious trouble, and might not be back even after two months."

"Alright," Li Yalin said: "Let's try to get him to resume production tomorrow."

Having said that, he immediately powered on his phone and called the factory manager back.

At that moment, the factory manager was inside the workshop, dreaming of Li Yalin's vanishing act, when suddenly Li Yalin's call came through—his heart instantly turned cold halfway, and he grew tense, glancing around nervously, fearing Li Yalin might pop out from somewhere.

Seeing no one around, he then picked up the phone and said with a smile: "Oh hey, Li Boss, why was your call just now disconnected?"

Li Yalin said: "I have some urgent matter requiring me to return to China—Casablanca has no direct flights, I have to connect via Cairo, I've just landed, what do you need?"

The factory manager felt a bit disappointed, but also detected urgency in Li Yalin's tone, as if he were distracted, so he quickly asked: "Mr. Li, if the factory hasn't even started work, why are you going back? When will your partner's funds come in?"

Li Yalin said somewhat irritably: "Hey, why are you rushing? Our contract clearly states in black and white that as long as I pay your balance within two months, I'm done—when the factory upgrades is none of your concern."

The factory manager hurriedly explained: "You misunderstand, Mr. Li—I'm not urging you to settle the balance with me, nor am I worried you won't pay; I'm doing this for your own good—those workers are on vacation with your money, and if you can't restart work in two months, they'll have nowhere to go and surely won't wait for you; you can't keep paying their wages to keep them idle, can you? Once you finish renovations and restart, if you lack skilled workers, hiring and training will take time—don't you agree?"

Li Yalin replied dismissively: "Fine, fine—I got it, you don't need to worry about my affairs; this time I return to China, I might not even be back in a month, and if losses occur, I'll accept them—but rest assured, I will definitely settle your balance before the contract expires."

Having said that, Li Yalin didn't wait for a reply and immediately said: "Alright, I've got other things—let's not talk further."

With that, Li Yalin hung up directly.

At that moment, the factory manager's mind was racing; he muttered: "Might not even be back in a month? Is this guy in some big trouble? He left without directly coming to me to break the contract and demand back the hundred thousand dollars—seems he still holds a bit of hope, but judging by his tone, the trouble's probably serious, and since he might not be back in a month, I reckon this guy can't pay the balance, and at most will come back to demand that hundred thousand from me."

Having said that, he glanced around at the equipment, excitedly saying: "Screw it—the factory's idle, workers' wages already paid—just call them back to start work! If Li can't scrape together the money in two months to come demand a refund, I'll squeeze him hard, outlast him, and keep that hundred thousand; if I truly can't outlast him, or if he insists on suing, I'll wait for the court to rule against me before returning that hundred thousand! Even if I return the hundred thousand, I still net a hundred thousand for free! The key is, I'm starting work now—workers' wages he already paid me for—so these one or two months won't I just be making pure profit? Maybe even another hundred thousand! This time I've really struck it rich!"

With that thought, he immediately burst into excitement, ran out again, clumsily scrambled over the wall once more, climbed into his car, didn't leave, but instead rammed the gate open with a chain-lock, then immediately called his workshop foreman, opening with: "Have everyone end their vacation and report to the factory immediately!"

The foreman asked in surprise: "Boss, didn't we already get paid leave?"

"Screw your mother's wages!" the factory manager angrily snapped: "What right do you have to take the money and not work? You really think there's such a good thing as this? Hurry up and get your asses back to work, or else you'll have to cough up every last cent of your advance wages!"