Chapter 400: Chapter 287: This Is Suicide!?
Coercion in buying, but don’t make your face look too ugly, or it can easily backfire!
So how can you maintain both dignity and substance?
"The factory’s water supply has been cut off."
"If you want to drink water, you have to go two kilometers away to fetch it, carrying bucket by bucket."
"Besides, the orders have basically disappeared."
"Everyone in the factory is living on air, relying on old resources..."
As he spoke, Liu Jinshui seemed to come to his senses, pointing to himself, then to others, and said:
"You may not believe it."
"But... the factory has only eaten two meals in the past two days."
This is...
Cut off water and food!?
It’s 2005, is there still a place daring to do such a thing!?
Su Yu and Yang Ruoxi frowned, is this coercion in buying? This is simply banditry! No... worse than banditry!!!
"Who did this?" Xu Liang’s face turned dark.
Liu Jinshui took a drag of his cigarette, and with the smoke exhaled, four words appeared in their ears.
"Zhengyang Mining Company."
Zhengyang... Mining Company!?
Mining Company? What’s a mining company doing buying a weaving factory!?
Moreover, it’s a purely manual weaving factory without any technical content!
Calling this place a factory is a bit flattering; it’s just a large tin shed, mainly divided into three areas: weaving, raw material storage, and finished product storage.
Nothing else!!!
"Didn’t you think about calling the police!?"
Xu Liang pursued with another question.
Finished speaking.
Liu Jinshui paused, turned his head, looked at Xu Liang, and gave a bitter smile.
"Yes, we called the police."
"But what use is it?"
"They neither hit us nor appeared directly, the police just gave a verbal warning and left."
This....
Xu Liang frowned, and the word ’contracted personnel’ floated in his mind.
Police have contracted personnel.
In early years, there was a lack of police force locally, most of the police were socially recruited, so the quality was uneven, further back twenty years, police positions could even be bought.
Only in recent years have contracted personnel gradually been removed, but in remote places, they still exist.
"Have you tried reporting to a higher level?" Xu Liang asked again.
"Tried."
Liu Jinshui shook his head helplessly.
"Can’t get out of the city."
Can’t get out of the city....
"Someone’s watching?" Xu Liang paused, increasingly puzzled.
Liu Jinshui nodded, then paused, stretched out his left hand.
His left hand, the sleeve was empty.
"Swoosh~"
The cuff slid down.
The person was missing a hand!
The cut was very neat, like a cleaver, chopping at his wrist with one slash!!!
"Can’t get out of the city." He said.
Xu Liang fell silent.
If nothing unexpected happened... This hand is probably due to the attempt to report outside and resulted in being chopped off.
But even with this...
Even the hand is gone!
Liu Jinshui and the others still have no way.
"Lawyer Xu, the factory probably can’t be kept."
"We just want to survive, even if it means going back to the wandering, scavenging life, living hardly..."
Liu Jinshui tugged at the corner of his mouth, forcing out a smile.
"But at least, we can still survive..."
"We don’t want to confront the mining company, Old Zhang is gone..."
"So..."
"Sorry to have made you come for nothing, I’ll find a way to cover your travel costs."
Upon hearing, Xu Liang was silent for a long time.
He did not rush to give a reply but shifted the conversation, saying:
"Do you mind if I stay a little and take a walk around the factory?"
Liu Jinshui was slightly taken aback, hurriedly said: "Don’t mind, don’t mind."
Truth be told, Liu Jinshui was somewhat flustered.
This was the first time, aside from factory people, someone asked him such a question, as if treating him as a person.
"Okay, thank you."
Xu Liang nodded, not in a hurry to leave.
Liu Jinshui silently went to handle Zhang Shan’s matters.
Just... without waiting for any action, suddenly a voice rang out.
"Who called the police!?"
The voice was loud, followed by the sound of car brakes.
Everyone turned their heads, and saw a middle-aged burly man in plain clothes frowning, getting out of the car and walking over.
Is this guy... a police officer?
Xu Liang frowned, feeling the guy’s aura a bit odd.
Yang Ruoxi was about to say she was the one who called the police, but Liu Jinshui spoke first.
"It was me, I called the police..."
Liu Jinshui managed a fawning smile, approaching the man.
"What’s wrong?"
The man frowned, looked around, and then saw something covered by a white cloth on the ground.
In a few steps, he approached, lifted the white cloth.
Suddenly, a corpse appeared!
Is this... Zhang Shan?
The man paused, as if sensing something, glanced at the bench in the dormitory, yet still covered the corpse with the white cloth again, looked at Liu Jinshui, and spoke:
"How did he die?"
Liu Jinshui replied: "Hanged himself."
"Nonsense, I’m not blind!"
The man furrowed his brows, "I ask you, was it suicide or murder?"
"Suicide, hanged himself, you see, there’s a rope mark around his neck!"
Liu Jinshui spoke up.
Upon hearing this, the man still did not relent, asking, "Suicide? Then why did you call the police?"
"I wanted to ask how to close the account..." Liu Jinshui stammered.
"Close the account? Why call the police for that? You’re wasting time!"
The man was very dissatisfied, and Liu Jinshui hurriedly said:
"Sorry, I’m sorry, really sorry..."
"Use your head next time."
After speaking, the man got back into his car, and shortly after, he drove away.
It wasn’t until he left.
That Liu Jinshui dropped his ingratiating smile, fell silent, and then forced a faint smile as he feebly told the people around:
"Continue with whatever you were busy with."
The others continued to silently sort through Zhang Shan’s belongings.
If nothing unexpected happens, this murder case should be closed as suicide.
As for the man’s identity...
Xu Liang couldn’t guess, but judging by Liu Jinshui’s attitude... the man most likely could influence the direction of the case!
Watching this scene, Xu Liang suddenly felt a bit philosophical.
Dark.
Very dark!
If the previous darkness targeting Zhengyang City was based on Sun Zhongmin’s words, then now... it’s a firsthand experience!
This place is pitch black, and those at the bottom have already lost some of their rights!
"Is it still 2005..."
Yang Ruoxi murmured, feeling a bit bewildered and unreal about the steel incident.
"This case is hopeless."
Su Yu sighed, "The client is dead... Liu Jinshui might not be able to afford the commission fee."
"And he currently has no intention of filing the case..."
The difficulty of the case aside.
The most crucial thing now is Zhang Shan’s death, Liu Jinshui’s lack of filing the case, and his continued reluctance to escalate it!
The factory employees... called employees, but to them, it’s no different than family!
Continue to escalate... will these people still survive?
Moreover.
Zhang Shan is already dead, the factory is short on food and water, Liu Jinshui’s previous attempts to escalate even cost him a hand, and Zhang Shan even lost his life...
Honestly, Liu Jinshui currently has no intention of filing the case again.
Just like his silence toward Zhang Shan’s body, he has already compromised.
"If Blue Shield were here... they probably wouldn’t take this case." Su Yu said again.
Blue Shield?
If it were Blue Shield, they would probably turn around and leave!
They might even demand consultation and downtime fees, piling up miscellaneous charges that might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back!
In contrast, Xu Liang.
He has already given up asking for travel fees and is even willing to talk with the other side, which is far beyond Blue Shield...
"Let’s not rush."
Xu Liang shook his head, "There’s something I haven’t figured out about this case."
Those nearby were taken aback and instinctively asked:
"What’s the matter?"
Xu Liang didn’t say.
He wanted to ask whether Zhang Shan’s death was due to unwillingness to compromise on selling land leading to his murder, or... was it because he approached someone that he was preemptively killed?
If it’s the former.
Then Zhang Shan’s immediate death after his call with him might just be a coincidence.
And if it’s the latter...
Leaving might be falling into the opponent’s trap!
Regarding whether staying would mean meeting Zhengyang Mining Company’s people... Xu Liang thinks he will.
Zhang Shan’s death is definitely murder, and the only entity with direct interest is Zhengyang Mining Company.
If the other side did kill him, then this timeframe... they should appear now!
Just as Xu Liang was thinking this.
A sudden sound rang out.
"Screech~!"
Is that... a sound of brakes? Has the man who left just now returned!?
Everyone involuntarily felt slightly surprised, but when they turned their heads to look... they saw that the newcomers were two middle-aged men with briefcases, dressed in suits, completely out of place with the surroundings that included the beggar-like Liu Jinshui.
"Director Zhang, Director Zhang? Is Director Zhang still here!?"
One of them acted as if he hadn’t seen the white cloth at the scene, shouting loudly.
Hearing the noise, Liu Jinshui looked up, his face growing unsightly, eyes flashing with anger, but only for a moment.
After a long silence, he suppressed it, stepped forward, and quietly said:
"Boss Zhu, Lawyer Li... Director Zhang is dead."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Haoyi paused as if only then noticing the white cloth at the scene, his face showing an unsurprised surprise.
"What’s going on with Old Zhang?"
He asked eagerly, his expression looking not so good.
"I met him yesterday, how come he’s gone today?"
Met yesterday?
Not far away, Xu Liang’s eyes squinted with interest.
As they spoke.
Zhu Haoyi didn’t wait for a response and immediately walked over to the white cloth, directly pulling it open to reveal Zhang Shan’s vicious face.
"Hey, wake up, Old Zhang, wake up!"
Zhu Haoyi slapped Zhang Shan’s face, with a ’slap’ sound coming from it.
Behind him, Liu Jinshui and others wore increasingly grim expressions.
Until Li Yang pulled Zhu Haoyi up, "President Zhu, we have serious matters to attend to."
Li Yang said.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Haoyi covered the white cloth again, turned his head to Liu Jinshui, and remarked with emotion:
"Truly things have changed."
"Yesterday, he was alive and kicking... how come today he’s hanged to death?"
He said, then sighed and spoke:
"Oh, by the way."
"Director Liu, did you call the police?"
"What if this thing is murder, what do we do?"
