The past was built upon collecting unique characteristics.

Hehe, as long as you like it...

Even with his professional training, Morian almost couldn't control his expression.

"How should I address you?" He took out a pen and notebook, ready to take notes.

"My name is Charlie, and this guy is Ham." The bald man put his arm around his companion.

"Ask me anything you want to know, sir."

"First, could you please tell me the cause of the strike?"

"Strike? Hmph, unpaid wages are only a small part of the reason." Charlie snorted and slammed his wine glass heavily onto the wooden table.

"Not long ago, the factory owner, Tang Ji, suddenly announced that a batch of new production machines needed to be replaced, which would significantly increase costs."

"So he claimed that in order to keep the factory running, he laid off a third of the workers and cut the wages of the remaining workers."

"That's a complete scam! We checked the price list for those production machines privately, and they don't cost that much at all!" Ham interjected excitedly, adding, "That old bastard Tanguy is just trying to use this opportunity to get rid of some of our old colleagues and then find an excuse to cut our wages!"

"Not only that, the remaining guys have had their working hours increased to a full ten hours a day! That means we have almost no free rest time, not to mention that this son of a bitch still owes us two months' salary!"

Charlie took a big gulp of wine, his expression indignant.

Ten hours of work in total?!

That sounds pretty good... but it seems alright?

As a former wage earner, Morian had barely conceived the idea when he belatedly realized that his thoughts seemed to have taken on the form of a corporate slave.

Why do I suddenly feel like I'm a little more pathetic than them?

While reflecting on his thoughts, Morian quickly jotted down these key pieces of information in his notebook.

After a moment, he raised his head and looked directly at the two of them: "So, what is your core demand?"

"Reduce our working hours! Pay us back wages and restore our original salaries! Make Tang Ji come out and apologize!" Charlie's voice rose with each word, prompting the workers at the surrounding tables to echo his sentiments.

"Yes, we must apologize! I'll go talk to Joseph about this tonight!"

"Get that vampire Tanguy out here!"

Joseph? He was also involved in this strike?

The crowd in the tavern was in an uproar, and Morian had to wait until the noise subsided a little before continuing to ask questions in a reporter's tone.

"I just heard someone mention Joseph. Was he also one of the workers involved in the strike?"

Mentioning this name, Ham across the table corrected, "Not entirely. To be precise, he was the one who started the strike and is also the most senior worker here."

"Joseph led our strike and protests and gave several speeches before that son of a bitch Tanguy agreed to negotiate."

"I see." Morian nodded, then asked again, "Has the date for the negotiations been set?"

"This afternoon, on the shore of the dock area," Charlie replied quickly.

Morian's expression shifted almost imperceptibly; he couldn't immediately grasp Joseph's true intentions in leading the workers on strike.

This afternoon? That's way too fast. Even if we start investigating right now without stopping, we might not be able to find out the truth in time.

What is the connection between the negotiations and the deal that Joseph is currently making?

Having no other choice, he had to temporarily suppress his doubts and continue asking:

"What's Joseph's employee number? If it's convenient, I'd like to find an opportunity to interview him."

"Number 018, but if you go looking for him at this time, he probably won't be in the dorm," Charlie answered without hesitation, then shrugged. "Joseph is always elusive."

"Understood, thank you all for your cooperation."

Morian closed the notebook, put the pen back in his jacket pocket, and then carefully placed the notebook into his inner pocket, his movements professional and practiced, just like a real journalist.

He stood up, nodded to the two men, and then slowly walked out of the tavern toward a building materials factory near the dock.

The area around the docks not only has a busy port, but also a large number of factories built along the port. These factories operate day and night, with thick black smoke billowing from their chimneys and rising into the sky.

Every citizen walking on the roads in the factory area will notice that the sky in this area is darker than in other areas, and that is usually not because of bad weather.

Even though the sun is shining brightly today, the thick black smoke that blots out the sky makes it look like a cloudy day.

Based on the information he had gathered, Morian quickly located the building materials factory.

The entrance consists of two rusty iron gates, which are ajar and unguarded. Even when workers hurry by, they don't bother to give them a second glance.

Piles of timber were stacked in the factory area. These logs had not been processed and were simply piled up in the factory area. Considering their weight, there was no need to worry about anyone stealing them.

He pushed open the iron gate, went to the workers' storage room of the building materials factory, and then took out the "Key of Caius" and aimed it at one of the walls.

"Open up new paths."

As the spiritual essence was infused into it, the light of the key suddenly intensified, and in the blink of an eye, a "door" woven from starlight took shape.

The walls of the storage room are lined with rows of metal cabinets, each with a number on its door.

Morian's eyes quickly scanned the numbers one by one, and finally found the number "018" in the third row of cabinets. He used the same method to open the passage again with the key.

The "door" that was opened this time was only the size of a palm. The interior was the storage space. Looking inside, you could see several work clothes covered with a small notebook.

That's the beauty of the Key of Caius: it can not only do something similar to "passing through," but also create an open "door" on small, locked objects.

After noting down the placement and orientation of the items to ensure he could restore them to their original state later, Morian took out the notebook and began to examine its contents.

The notebook was filled with crooked handwriting, mostly Joseph's black market transaction records, noting the time and amount of each transaction.

He skipped the previous records and flipped to the last few pages, where the transaction date was recorded as this afternoon!

Four o'clock in the afternoon? Isn't that the time he set for negotiating with the factory manager, Tang Ji?!

The thought that the trading partner was the factory owner Tang Ji was immediately rejected by my mind. Negotiation and transaction were going on at the same time, and it was impossible to do both at the same time.

"Or is it that Joseph never intended to go to the negotiations as a representative?" Morian muttered to himself, his tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxing.

The hypothesis was quickly refined in my mind and became increasingly clear.

The police and customs officials, due to various concerns, did not want to get involved in this wage dispute, which provided Joseph with perfect cover!

At that time, by using a "negotiation" that would attract everyone's attention, under the cover of chaos, he could very well be able to safely complete a secret deal somewhere.

The so-called negotiations are likely just a smokescreen, a scapegoat used to attract attention, create chaos, and cover up the real deal!