I'm a Master in India

Ron had returned to the Northern Province, this time traveling light with only Anil and a few other bodyguards.

This was his hometown, his base camp, and where his family connections lay, making it even safer than Mumbai.

His second uncle, Aditya, picked him up at the airport, but instead of returning to the village, they went directly to the construction site on the southern outskirts of Varanasi City.

This had originally been a piece of wasteland where crops were secretly grown, but after Ron bought it, Aditya and his men unceremoniously chased away the nearby farmers.

The lush green crops were destroyed, and bulldozers and rollers took turns leveling the ground, leaving behind brown, flat, and solid earth.

Then, hundreds of dark-skinned, thin workers gathered here, carrying bamboo baskets to haul away the碎石块 (broken stones) dug up from the ground.

Clever vendors set up tea stalls by the roadside, and in the scorching hot summer, the tea business was always good.

However, the busy scene didn't last long before the construction site seemed to be put on pause.

The yellow construction vehicles no longer roared, and the workers scattered, seeking shade under the trees to cool off.

Some squatted there chewing betel nuts, some chatted by the tea stall, and some simply lay down in the dirt to sleep.

There were plastic chairs prepared for customers in the tea stall, but the workers were not qualified to sit on them.

Those were reserved for the 'big shots' on the construction site; they could only huddle in the corner, bending over and squatting on the ground like the servants ubiquitous in India.

A car arrived, honking loudly.

The pigs and stray dogs wandering near the tea stall scattered in all directions.

The wind stirred up by the car carried dust, sand, and dried pig manure into the tea stall.

The driver in the khaki uniform in the front row slammed on the brakes.

He seemed somewhat pleased with the chaos he had caused, and after glaring demonstratively at the workers outside, he jogged down to open the car doors for his masters, Aditya and Ron.

The surrounding workers looked at the driver's khaki uniform with extreme envy.

For them, becoming a servant for a wealthy family was already the peak moment of several generations, true success.

A胖子 (fat man) carrying a notebook walked out of the tea stall.

His hair had already fallen out, revealing a pitted scalp.

This fellow's nickname was Wild Boar, and he not only managed all the workers here but was also responsible for supervising the entire construction site.

If you wanted to make a living in this area, you had to bow deeply in front of him, touch the dirt in front of his slippers, and swallow your pride to agree to his daily rent collection.

Every time he drove past women, he would stop the car, roll down the window, and grin.

When he smiled, his mouth opened wide, revealing two long teeth below his nostrils, with slightly curved tips, looking exactly like a wild boar's tusks.

The workers were all afraid of Wild Boar; as long as he bared his tusks, everyone would be scared and trembling.

They never knew that Wild Boar could smile so harmlessly, that kind of fawning, ugly smile.

It was still baring his teeth, but not in fierceness, but in flattery.

If Wild Boar really had a tail, it would definitely be wagging to the sky right now.

"Mr. Sur!"

He almost tumbled forward in a rush.

"Wild Boar, did Chada say when work can resume?" Aditya stood there, speaking to him without ceremony.

"Mr. Sur, very soon! As soon as the cement is in place, the workers will start immediately, day and night!"

"What about the rebar?"

"The rebar is also very soon!"

"What about the electricity?"

"Electricity? Electricity is also very soon! Very soon!" Wild Boar kept up his fawning smile, as if wearing a mask.

"You guaranteed this a week ago, and you're still saying such nonsense today!" Aditya was very angry.

"Mr. Sur, please don't be anxious, let's go into the tea stall first and have a cup of tea, and also this Young Master."

Wild Boar eagerly led the way, chasing away the nearby workers and wiping the plastic stools by the table repeatedly.

"The construction period has been delayed for too long.

I will call Chada today.

If he doesn't want to do this business, he can very well give it to someone else," Aditya grumbled.

"Oh my, our Langchao is the most powerful construction company in the Northern Province, you know that!" Wild Boar seemed very scared, but those familiar with him knew that most of this was an act.

A portrait of Gandhi hung on the wall of the tea stall.

The boss casually kicked away the short-term worker smashing coal nearby and enthusiastically welcomed everyone to sit down.

There was a pitch-black iron pot by the table, and an attendant was holding a large ladle, slowly stirring the sugar water simmering over a low fire.

"Ron, you see, everything is lacking on the construction site." Aditya was a bit troubled.

When building the dam, there was also a lack of building materials, but he wasn't anxious.

When it came to his own project, he was anxious.

Because this was his own project, every day of delay was a loss.

"Cement and these things are also lacking?" Ron frowned.

Cement wasn't something precious; it was the most basic building material, yet the contractor couldn't even guarantee this.

"Young Master," Wild Boar smiled bitterly, only now realizing that Ron was the real employer, "We are doing our best to purchase.

But the cement in the Northern Province has always been insufficient, and now we can only source from Bihar and near the Central Province."

"Does the Northern Province lack cement factories? Where did your company's cement come from before?" Ron asked in surprise.

"Uh, the Northern Province lacks everything.

There are no large cement factories, only small workshops.

As for the company..." Wild Boar stammered a bit.

"Langchao is a construction company that was just established this year, only a few months old," Aditya added from the side.

"A few months?" Ron was stunned.

His first thought wasn't about his branch factory, but how such a makeshift team managed to get a government dam project.

"Chada put in a lot of effort during the Chief Minister's election," Aditya gave him a "you understand" look.

Gurdip Chada, a liquor businessman from the Northern Province.

He was born in Moradabad, an industrial city in the Northern Province, to a poor family.

His father and uncles made a living by wholesaling cheap liquor, and Chada followed them from a young age.

At twenty, he started his own business, expanding operations through thugs and bribes.

Four years ago, when Yadav ran for election, he sent money bag by bag in his father's name.

The two sides established a connection this way.

This year, Yadav was re-elected as the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, and Chada's status also rose accordingly.

He was not content with limiting his business scope to the liquor industry and began to venture into real estate.

Langchao Construction Company was Chada's attempt; relying on nepotism, he easily obtained government bidding projects.

Just like the dam project Aditya was previously in charge of, Langchao had no qualifications whatsoever, but what did that matter? No one cared.

"If I'm not mistaken, there are limestone mines in the Northern Province, right?" Ron asked.

"Young Master, you have an excellent memory.

Mirzapur, south of Varanasi, has the largest limestone mine in the Northern Province, and there's a cement workshop there," Wild Boar said, his words laced with flattery.

"Your cement comes from there?"

"That's right, we can buy out all the stock from the cement workshop there at once," Wild Boar was very proud.

"Does Langchao Company have many projects currently?"

"Of course, Mr. Chada and Mr. Yadav are good friends, we are not short of business."

Ron's eyes lit up slightly, and he habitually tapped the table with his fingers.

"What about rebar, is that also lacking?" he asked.

"Rebar is not lacking."

"Hmm?"

"Rebar is easy to buy, but our goods are stuck on the road.

Young Master, you know, the roads in the Northern Province are very bad."

Ron felt this deeply; the road they had just driven on looked like it had been bombarded.

"What about electricity?"

Wild Boar grinned.

"All of India is short of electricity, and the Northern Province is the most short."

"It seems our power plants are still too few."

"This can only wait for Delhi to allocate funds; the Minister truly has no money left," Wild Boar laughed carelessly.

The public finances of the Northern Province were completely devoured by parasites, like companies such as Langchao.

"Power station..." Ron furrowed his brow in thought.

"The Northern Province also has coal mines, but no money to build power plants.

Yadav should solve this problem.

Most of the time, my TV doesn't work," Aditya complained.

He looked down on that low-caste "Yadav" but couldn't openly mock him, so he could only vent a few grievances.

"Second Uncle, you said the Northern Province also has coal mines?" Ron's voice rose slightly.

"It's in Sonbhadra, a two-hour drive from here."

The mining resources of the Northern Province are concentrated in the southeast; south of Varanasi is Mirzapur, and south of Mirzapur is Sonbhadra.

Coincidentally, they are all near Varanasi, and Aditya had been there more than once.

"Look, the large coal lumps here are from Sonbhadra."

Aditya pointed, and in the corner of the tea stall, a thin figure was grabbing a black coal lump and hitting it hard.

He had to break the large coal lumps into small pieces so he could put them under the stove for boiling sugar water.

"How much is a lump of coal here?" Ron asked the tea stall owner.

"Ten rupees can last a long time, it's not worth much," the owner's face was covered in the same fawning smile as Wild Boar's.

"Ron, the coal mines in Sonbhadra are not mined by anyone; these are all sold privately by local people," Aditya waved his hand, not caring.

"Why?" Ron was a little curious.

"Because as long as you mine, the coal you extract can only be used for surrounding industrial projects, such as steel mills and power plants.

This requires a large investment and is very risky.

In the end, the government gives away mining permits for free, and no one wants them."

"Could it be that no companies are short of coal? There must be businesses in the Northern Province that can use it, right?"

"No need," Aditya shook his head again, "Coal India can provide cheap, high-quality coal, and the supply is sufficient."

Ron understood; ultimately, it was because there was simply no supply and demand pressure.

Coal India is a state-owned enterprise, massive in scale, with channels spanning across the states.

This was far more cost-effective than mining coal oneself; not only were the costs high, but the coal couldn't be transported out and could only be consumed within the state.

Who would bother to mine it unless they were bored out of their minds?

Well, Ron was that person who was bored out of his mind.

"Second Uncle, we should go see that Chief Minister." Ron's eyes sparkled.

"What do you want to do?" Aditya had a bad premonition.

"Let's just shut down the branch factory of Sur Electronics; we'll do other business."

"Huh?" Both Aditya and Wild Boar's mouths dropped open.