Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Night had fallen.

The warehouse lights were still on, and the German machines stood there coldly, their surfaces still bearing the gleam of oil from the daytime cleaning. Scattered on the floor were a few pieces of leather used for practice, their edges worn soft from being handled so many times.

Old Xu, Old Chen, Zhu Zi, and a few others gathered around the machine, taking turns discussing the little tricks they had learned during the day.

"He presses down here first, then adjusts here." Old Xu gestured in the air with his hand. "He can't use too much force, or the leather plate will break."

"I think the key is the movement of the incision," Old Chen said, squinting at the machine's opening. "A slight difference, and the result would be completely different."

Zhu Zi squatted down beside him, his eyes shining: "I've figured it out a bit too. If he comes again tomorrow, I'll go up and give it a try."

"No, we have to let him stay longer tomorrow," Ma Jianmin added from behind. "What's the point of him coming here for just a short while today? What can he possibly learn? If this keeps going on, when will he ever truly master anything?"

"Disaster."

Wang Daikui leaned to one side, crossed his arms, snorted coldly, and spat a mouthful of phlegm onto the muddy ground at his feet.

"Hoping that thing will teach us real skills? I think that's unrealistic."

"Look at him during the day! His eyes are practically rolling back to the sky, and he looks at us like we're a bunch of uncivilized savages. This kind of person has no intention of helping us out; he's just pretending not to know, deliberately going around in circles and dragging his feet!"

Liang Tiejun, wrapped in a cotton-padded coat, stood under the lamp, listening to Wang Daikui's rapid-fire complaints without responding.

He looked up at the sky, then at the factory gate, his brows furrowing.

"What time is it? Why isn't Xiao Wang back yet?"

Zhang Dafa, his face dark, added, "I guess that troublemaker is at it again. Xiao Wang is such a capable young man. Before, when the factory was rushing to fulfill that export order, he stood in front of the machines for over ten hours straight, and when he got off work, he was still full of energy, helping move parts all over the yard. Look at him today, he spent the whole morning running around with that guy surnamed Liang, and when he came back, he looked like a wilted eggplant."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a screeching sound of brakes rang out outside the factory gate.

Two bright headlights, like two guillotines, instantly cleaved through the darkness in the yard. The old Shanghai car, almost drifting, crashed in, its tires kicking up a cloud of choking dust.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, the passenger door was slammed open with a loud bang.

Ah Kang practically tumbled and crawled off the car, losing a shoe in the process. He was as white as a ghost, and his voice was hoarse from shouting.

"Factory Director Liang! Deputy Factory Director Zhang! Something's happened!"

This shout instantly broke the silence of the courtyard.

It was just after dinner, and many workers in the factory were strolling around the yard with their hands in their pockets to digest their food. Some were smoking cigarettes in small groups under the lamplight, while others were peering at the newly arrived German machines.

Ah Kang's guttural howl, split open and dry, was like a boulder being smashed into a calm pond.

All eyes turned to them.

Liang Tiejun frowned and took a step forward, raising his hand to calm himself down: "Don't rush, tell me slowly what happened?"

"Mr. Liang has been arrested!"

"They've been arrested?"

Wang Daikui's eyes widened in disbelief, and his voice boomed like thunder: "What the hell?!"

He dropped what he was doing, took a few big strides to stand in front of A-Kang, and his towering figure cast A-Kang into shadow.

"Tell me what happened! How did he get arrested?"

Ah Kang, gripping the car door, was panting heavily.

"Mr. Liang was having a gathering with his friends at the hotel, everything was fine, when a group of people rushed in, beat him up without saying a word, and then forcibly took him away. The security situation here is simply..."

"Stop talking nonsense!"

Wang Daikui started cursing, spitting all over Akang's face.

"He's staying at the city's guesthouse! That's government property. There are guards at the entrance and security guards inside. He's a grown man with legs. Who can just kidnap someone from there? Do you think the police station is just for show, or that we're all fools?!"

A-Kang shrank back as he was scolded, his eyes visibly glazed over, and he stammered "I...I...I" for a long time without being able to get anything out of the box.

Liang Tiejun's face darkened, and he stepped forward, wrapping his cotton-padded coat tighter around himself. His calloused hands were tightly clasped together.

"Tell me properly, what exactly happened?"

Liang Tiejun's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable air of authority, and his eyes were fixed on A Kang.

"Manager Liang is a distinguished guest invited back by our factory. If something really happens to him at the city's guesthouse, it will be a major case that reaches the highest levels of government. But if you're just spouting nonsense here..."

"I...I'm not making this up, the person really was arrested! Right from your hotel."

Ah Kang yelled at Liang Tiejun and Wang Daikui, his hands gripping the old Shanghai car door handle tightly, looking like a frightened quail.

"The people here are too barbaric! Abducting such a grown man in broad daylight! Let me tell you, Mr. Leung is a French doctor, a Hong Konger! If anything happens to him…"

He was shouting and spittle flying when he suddenly realized that the light behind him had dimmed.

Wang Daikui and Liang Tiejun remained silent, staring intently at what was behind him.

Ah Kang felt as if something had suddenly choked him, and the rest of his words were stuck in his throat. He stiffly turned his head and met Zhao Shanhe's expressionless face.

"Director Zhao... Director Zhao, why do you walk so quietly..."

A-Kang forced a dry laugh, staring into Zhao Shanhe's unfathomable eyes, his legs trembling uncontrollably.

"Your most important task right now is to quickly take people to rescue them..."

Snapped!

Zhao Shanhe didn't even blink before raising his arm and slapping him across the face.

Ah Kang's head snapped to the side after being hit, causing him to lose his balance and crash directly into the cold exterior of the old Shanghai car.

"You hit me?"

Ah Kang covered his rapidly swelling and reddened face, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"How dare you hit me? I'm from Hong Kong, Mr. Leung's assistant, and Mr. Leung is..."

Snapped!

Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Shanhe slapped him again, silencing him completely.

"Now I will speak, and you will answer."

Zhao Shanhe stared at him, his voice low but carrying a chilling aura.

A-Kang shuddered when he saw the undisguised chill in Zhao Shanhe's eyes.

He remembered that it was this same person a few days ago. Just because Mr. Liang's attitude was a little bad, this madman bumped into him from behind, knocking Mr. Liang to the ground and staining his expensive suit.

Even more frightening was that when Mr. Liang went back to change his clothes, Ah Kang saw with his own eyes that Mr. Liang's back was covered in a large purple bruise, a shocking sight.

This guy is a complete savage! A violent maniac!

Upon realizing this, A-Kang trembled with fear and quickly shut his mouth and nodded.

"You said he was kidnapped. Was it at the city's guesthouse when he was kidnapped?"

A-Kang hesitated for a moment, then caught sight of Zhao Shanhe's hand that was about to be raised again, and quickly closed his eyes and screamed:

"No! He was arrested at the Red House Hotel on North Street!"

"The Red House?"

The workers exchanged glances, and the previously tense atmosphere instantly turned strange.

"You mean the red-roofed hotel at the North Street intersection? What was he doing there?"

Liang Tiejun frowned deeply. That place had a terrible reputation in the county town; it was notorious as a den of iniquity.

"Of course!"

Wang Daikui spat out from behind, his voice filled with barely concealed disgust:

"It's definitely that dirty business again! Everyone in the county knows what kind of scum lives in that red house!"

"no!"

Ah Kang was still stubbornly trying to explain, but his voice was clearly getting weaker.

He stammered, his eyes darting around, his hands nervously twisting together.

"Mr. Liang said... he was going to see a friend he met in France. He said that friend happened to be passing through our area and they arranged to meet there to catch up..."

"French friend?"

Wang Daikui chuckled, his fleshy face trembling.

"His French friend is meeting him at the Red House for a reunion? Is his friend a seductive woman in a cheongsam, or a prostitute with heavy makeup?"

Zhao Shanhe ignored the argument and slowly shifted his gaze to Xiao Wang, who was hunched over next to the driver's seat.

Xiao Wang's face was deathly pale, and his fingertips were trembling as he met Zhao Shanhe's gaze.

"Xiao Wang, tell me, what exactly happened?"

Xiao Wang glanced at A Kang subconsciously and saw that A Kang was staring at him with a sinister and warning look. He was so frightened that he quickly lowered his head.

"Try glaring at him again."

Zhao Shanhe suddenly turned his head, his eyes flashing with a fierce light.

A-Kang was so frightened that he quickly shrank his neck and closed his eyes, not daring to utter a single fart.

"Don't worry, you can speak freely."

Zhao Shanhe looked at Xiao Wang again, his tone softening slightly:

"With me here, no one in this factory can do anything to you."

Xiao Wang's Adam's apple bobbed violently. Finally, unable to withstand the oppressive force, he cried out with a mournful face:

"Mr. Liang... asked me to drive to the entrance of the Red House in the evening, saying that my assistant Kang and I should leave first, and that I would come back to pick him up in two hours..."

"When we returned on time, Mr. Liang was no longer in the house. The house was a mess, with broken bottles everywhere."

"I had just gone upstairs when someone grabbed me and said..."

"What did he say?"

Zhao Shanhe stared at him, his eyes now completely cold.

Xiao Wang closed his eyes and shouted at the top of his lungs, as if he were going all out:

"He said Mr. Liang hadn't kept his genitals in check and had gotten into someone's wife's bed, so the victim brought several strong men who pinned him down on the bed and tied him up with rope!"

(Ahem, the electrical wiring at home burned out, so I'm typing on my phone, which is much slower. The next chapter shouldn't be posted until 7 PM. My electrical wiring is too thin to support my new 45-watt light bulb, ugh, please forgive me /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~)