Chapter 1245

The phone rang for half a minute, but still, no one answered. In fact, this situation happened often; after all, at this time, there were no mobile phones or anything like that to keep in touch at any moment.

So, it was normal to often be unable to find someone when calling, but today's normality gave the President a sense of unease.

He dialed a few more numbers, but none of them yielded any results.

After a good while, as if he had thought of something, he dialed another phone number that he had almost forgotten.

The call was answered quickly, "Old Mai Grocery..."

"Hi, it's me. My brothers and I bought quite a few cigarettes from you last time; you should still remember, right?"

Old Mai Grocery was right next to his brother's company, at a distance of about ten meters or so, selling all kinds of groceries, including cigarettes.

In fact, it wasn't popular in the Federation to give cigarettes as gifts, but they would give cigars. However, the cigarettes they wanted to buy at the time weren't for people of equal status, but to be sent to the construction site as a benefit for the worker brothers.

Compared to a piece of fried chicken or something else, a pack or two of ten-cent cigarettes was something presentable, and the key was that it saved money.

It was during that transaction that they got to know the owner of this grocery store and exchanged phone numbers.

The grocery store owner hoped that these two big clients would patronize his business more in the future. Don't look at how a pack of cigarettes only earned two cents; as long as the quantity went up, it was also a lot of money.

It couldn't compare to those big bosses whose numbers skyrocketed every day, but it earned much, much more than ordinary laborers!

The President left his number because he would indeed call him when he needed cigarettes sometimes.

"I remember you, big boss," the grocery store owner said with a relaxed and teasing tone. "Is there any business you want to look after me with?"

The President was silent for two seconds. "Send... one thousand packs of cigarettes to... this address, before six o'clock tomorrow evening."

Hearing that there was another big deal that could let him earn more than twenty dollars at once, the grocery store owner was instantly overjoyed. "No problem, I have already noted this address. I will arrange for someone to deliver the goods to you very soon..."

Only then did the President say, "There is one more thing. I have a friend in the company to your right. You should have seen him last time; we went together."

"I have been calling him, but I can't get through. There is no one in the office or at the front desk. Do you know what happened?"

The grocery store owner was stunned for a moment, and then his tone was slightly regretful. "Several police cars came today, along with prosecutors. They took away everyone in your friend's company, including your friend."

The President's tone became a bit more urgent. "How do you know it was the prosecutors?"

The grocery store owner laughed and said, "Of course I know. Just looking at them from afar, that arrogance they couldn't hide pierced my eyes. Your friend must have done something big for so many people to come..."

The President couldn't listen to the following words anymore. He perfunctorily brushed it off with a couple of sentences, then hung up the phone, turned around, and looked at his nephew. "You heard it."

His nephew's face was full of anxious expressions. "Yes, he was arrested, but why?"

The President frowned. "Has your father done anything bad recently?"

His nephew shook his head and said, "I haven't heard him say anything, and you know, I don't get involved in what he does, nor can I interfere."

After all, these things were a kind of crime in the strict sense. To protect his own son, the President's brother did not let this guy get in touch with their "family business."

So he didn't know; this was normal.

"I'll make a few more calls to ask."

The labor union side and the police often had various collaborations; some collaborations were very pleasant, but some work was not very pleasant.

Fortunately, the police also had a labor union—the Federal Police Brotherhood.

There were more than 150,000 police officers registered in this labor union in total, and this was not the only police labor union; there was also a "Home of Justice."

Because police officers might often be involved in some... problems of excessive law enforcement and disputes with the people being enforced, in order to better help police officers ensure their personal rights, some retired police officers first established the Home of Justice.

In the Home of Justice, they imparted some of their own experience in work to those police officers who were still working, and set out to help them solve some legal problems.

As time went on, more and more retired police officers joined the Home of Justice, and its scale also began to become larger and larger. Moreover, its main work, besides sharing work experience, was to help registered members win legal lawsuits against them.

Police officers in many cities would register for one of the labor unions. The Brotherhood was mostly registered by some young police officers, while the Home of Justice was registered by some police officers who were about to retire or who had encountered trouble.

According to an inaccurate investigation by the "Labor Union Newspaper," nearly 300,000 police officers in the entire Federation were registered in these two labor unions.

Since they were labor unions, then after more or less twists and turns, they could all find people they knew.

After making several phone calls and pulling strings, the President knew why his brother was locked up.

"... I have already asked. Your brother might have caused trouble this time. Someone submitted some information to the State Prosecutor's Office about him violating... you wouldn't know even if I told you. In short, he and his company have problems with unfair competition."

"This case belongs to the State Prosecutor's Office to manage. Now the person has been sent to the capital. I heard that the evidence is very sufficient, basically to the extent that... it can be sentenced in a few days."

Hearing this, the President hadn't reacted yet. "He never takes outside work, and he doesn't have a competitive relationship with others. How could he violate..."

When the words reached this point, his brain reacted. The person on the other side of the receiver heard him suddenly get stuck and said with a smile, "Look, you also realized the problem."

"Alright, I have other things to do. You owe me a favor. Let's talk later."

"... Let's talk later."

The President put down the phone. His brother's enterprise had always been following him to make money. After several rounds of negotiations, the capitalists finally agreed to the labor union's request to add a meal with at least half a pound of net meat for construction workers every day.

For the convenience of transportation, production, and sales, Federation people were very keen on meat patties and canned meat.

This was a business where costs could be high or low. Through his own influence, the President almost pointed his nose and named his brother's company to supply the goods. Those capitalists also knew very well the tricks inside.

They could refuse, but the strike wouldn't stop. Since they had already made a compromise, then it didn't matter who earned this money.

As long as their quotation wasn't excessive, the capitalists were willing to reach this "deal" with the President. This kind of tacit understanding had been cultivated early in the long-term labor-capital confrontation.

Every month, his brother's company could provide meat patties worth about several thousand dollars for construction sites in three cities, with a net profit of about 10%, which was four or five hundred dollars.

It looked like this money didn't seem like much, but in a month, there was more than ten thousand dollars. Then, after the brothers split it, the President could get seven or eight thousand or even ten thousand dollars.

Suppliers in other cities were actually also "publicly tendered" by the labor union side. Of course, there must be problems of interest transmission inside. Everyone was making money like this.

There had been no problems all along. Now that there was a sudden problem, it appeared very suspicious.

If one had to say what could trigger all this recently, it was hard for the President not to think about the Wanli Group side.

He immediately let his nephew go home to rest, and at the same time called the Vice President to tell him about this matter.

The Vice President was also making money in this way. He immediately called his own company, but the phone didn't get through either. At this point, they finally realized that the problem was troublesome.

It was already past eight o'clock in the evening. They took the initiative to visit the labor union lawyer. They were very urgent to figure out whether the consequences of this matter would affect them.

The labor union lawyer hadn't thought that there would be work-related matters after work hours. He stood at the gate, looking at the two Presidents with some surprise, and then raised his wrist to look at his watch. "It's already almost nine o'clock."

He was reminding the two people that it was now private time.