Chapter 339

The manager stood upstairs, holding the phone and looking at the growing crowd below. He dialed the dockworkers’ union again, but Vaughn still wasn’t there.

“Damn it, he disappears whenever he’s needed. Are we paying them all that money every year just to support a bunch of people like this?”

The manager slammed the receiver back onto the phone’s base. With his hands on his hips, he paced back and forth by the window, his eyes fixed on the swelling crowd of workers below.

From his vantage point, he could see many more workers gathering. It had been two years since he had seen so many workers assemble during work hours.

He also loathed the idiots under him. It was just a matter of finding Johnny a new job, so why did it have to turn into this?

Even if there wasn’t a suitable position, couldn’t they have just given him a raise?

What a useless fool!

Although this is how those in power usually think. When a small loss leads to a potentially huge risk, they feel it’s because their subordinates aren’t flexible enough.

How could they mess up something so simple? Weren’t they just useless?

But in reality, for those in the middle and lower ranks, they have no real decision-making power. The only thing they can do is abide by the company’s rules and regulations.

Many capitalists even create a “work manual” to help them quickly establish the correct work ethic, which documents many situations they might encounter in their work.

But the one thing it doesn’t teach them is how to flexibly predict the future.

The security captain ran up from downstairs, panting. “People are getting a little emotional now.”

This was only half a sentence. He didn’t say the second half, just stared intently at the manager.

The crowd was agitated, and with so many people gathered, a group incident could erupt at any moment. This was not a good thing. Based on the security captain’s experience, if the situation wasn’t controlled soon, it would spiral into an abyss.

The unspoken half of his sentence was simple: “You have to do something.” But as a subordinate with a work manual ingrained in his mind, he knew very well what could be said and what couldn’t.

Ask the manager to take responsibility? Do you want to keep your damn job or not? As for whether the manager would misinterpret his meaning, that wasn’t his problem. He had fulfilled his duty.

The manager turned to look at the people below, who were continuously shouting various slogans. He had a feeling that this matter wasn’t so simple.

The sudden ringing of the phone startled him slightly. The security guard’s gaze shifted from the manager’s trembling hand to elsewhere.

The manager picked up the phone. It was a director from the board.

The board was extremely displeased with today’s sudden incident. They demanded he resolve everything here as soon as possible, or he would lose his enviable job.

To keep his job, to pay for his mortgage, car loan, his child’s college loans, and for the good life and a future he could look forward to, the manager took a deep breath.

He looked at the security captain. “Can I trust you to protect my safety?”

The security captain wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. He had to keep a straight face and put on a serious, mission-driven expression, saying, “I will be by your side at all times, sir!”

“Very good!”

“I like your attitude.”

The manager put on a thin jacket and left his office.

He was actually very nervous, because he wasn’t sure if he could handle this.

Soon, he arrived in front of the office building and saw the increasingly agitated crowd. He gritted his teeth, glanced at the security captain, and strode out.

The commotion instantly subsided. Many people looked at him; every dockworker knew what the manager looked like.

Because every day before they entered the docks to start work, they would pass an “outstanding employee notice board,” and the manager’s picture was usually in the “Star of the Week” spot.

Although no one knew what he had actually done for the prosperity of the docks.

“Work—”

He had just started to speak when someone, from who knows where, threw an egg that smashed on his head, making him flinch and nearly fall to the ground.

He stood as if he were stunned. He had never experienced anything like this in his life. The jeers from the crowd made his face flush red. He wished he could run back to his office right now and order all these people to be fired.

But he knew he couldn’t do that. He could deal with these people slowly later, but not now.

Egg yolk and white dripped down through his hair. The security captain tried to hide him behind him, but failed.

The manager stood up like a warrior, wiping the egg from his face. “I’m here to solve the problem!”

The crowd’s laughter died down a little. At least it seemed the manager wasn’t a complete waste.

He was a little worried, but he steeled himself and walked up to Johnny. Now, besides the security captain, there was no one else by his side.

The vast majority of people here could beat him senseless. He was very nervous.

His nerves stretched taut, he said, “Johnny, you can tell me your conditions. There’s no need to make it like this.”

If this were Johnny’s own affair, he might have made some demands right then and left with the benefits. But this wasn’t his own affair, it was Mr. Lance’s.

His eyes suddenly filled with a pity that was hard to comprehend, and this pity clearly angered the manager.

He clenched his fists. “None of us want something bad to happen. State your conditions. Any conditions, we can negotiate.”

Johnny looked at the people around him. The crowd had gradually quieted down, as if waiting to see how things would develop.

He had never felt anything like this before, being the center of attention. He liked this feeling! He licked his lips. “First thing, I want you to make that guy from the office and everyone else who participated in beating me apologize to me, and then fire them!”

Between getting the boot himself or his subordinates getting the boot, the manager made a decision in less than a second. “No problem. Anything else?”

Perhaps his decisiveness showed the people some sincerity. The originally tense situation eased considerably.

Johnny stated his second demand, “One more thing, a pay raise!”

Someone in the crowd booed, but Johnny didn’t explain himself. Some others showed looks of disappointment.

The manager agreed again. “No problem. I heard they changed your job. I’ll have someone change it back, and I’ll give you a raise of… two dollars!”

He thought Johnny would agree, but the people only saw Johnny shake his head.

The manager frowned, cursing the insatiably greedy bastard in his heart, but he still managed to squeeze out a smile. “I can make the decision to give you a raise of…”

He was about to say three dollars, but thinking that Johnny might still be dissatisfied and that an incident could occur, he decided to give him a full raise at once. “I’ll give you a five-dollar raise, making it forty-three, Johnny. This income already puts you at the average level, and it’s a very high income on the docks.”

His subtext was “don’t be a damn fool,” but Johnny still shook his head. He even said loudly, “I’m not asking you to give me a raise, I’m asking you to give everyone a raise!”

“This is what you owe us!”

That one sentence, almost shouted, made the surrounding people pause for a moment. Some big guys came over to Johnny, waving their fists.

They ruffled Johnny’s hair and patted his shoulder to express their affection for him.

The workers on the docks were just that simple. If they hated you, they would show it clearly.

If they liked you, they would make you feel it too.

At the same time, the topic of a raise for everyone triggered a faster response and more support from the people!

The manager looked at Johnny in disbelief, as if looking at a fool. Even if he raised Johnny’s salary to fifty dollars, it would be no problem. If that could solve this trouble, the board would praise him fiercely.

But if he solved this problem by giving everyone a one-dollar raise, he probably wouldn’t even have to wait until next month before the board would tell him to get lost. Perhaps these workers weren’t as terrifying as he had imagined. His courage grew a little. “Can I talk to you alone?”

Some people began to try and stop him, but he just looked at Johnny.

Johnny raised his hand to signal everyone not to be nervous or agitated. “Let me hear what he has to say!”

The people no longer stopped him, and Johnny was pushed to the side by the person behind him. The manager then walked over.

“Give up those unrealistic ideas, Johnny. I can give you five hundred dollars, and this matter ends here!”

Johnny shook his head. “That’s not enough.”

Hearing his words, a trace of contempt flashed in the manager’s eyes. Although his sudden proposal to give everyone a raise had caught the manager off guard, Johnny was really not smart.

If he accepted this condition, then Johnny would become a “sinner,” which was one of the best outcomes the manager could foresee.

Since the other party was willing to talk, he could continue to add more.

“Eight hundred dollars. Eight hundred is not a small amount, Johnny. Even if I raise your salary to forty dollars a month, you’d have to work for twenty months without eating or drinking to get this money!”

“And we all know you don’t actually save much money each month!”

He had to drink, and occasionally he had to spend a dollar or two to solve his personal physiological needs. He really couldn’t save much money.

But Johnny just looked at him. After cursing Johnny a few more times in his heart, he offered a higher price, “One thousand dollars!”

“That’s enough, Johnny. You just took a beating. They will apologize to you and be fired, and you’ll get a thousand dollars.”

“If we switched places, I would have agreed when you offered five hundred!”

He desperately wanted Johnny to nod in agreement, but Johnny still shook his head.

This attitude made the manager’s teeth itch with hatred. “Fifteen hundred dollars, and not a penny more!”

“Too little!” Johnny said.

If it weren’t for Lance’s request, he really would have, as the manager said, agreed at five hundred dollars.

But now, this was the task Lance had given him. He could not betray Lance’s “trust” in him! “Damn you, you greedy bastard, do you know how stupid you are?”

The manager bent down, his face a mixture of contempt and ferocity, his features twisted together. “Two thousand dollars, this is the last number I can give you!”

Johnny met his gaze for a few seconds, then pushed his wheelchair to go back. The manager was taken aback by this suddenly assertive Johnny! Was this still the piece of trash from the docks that he knew?

He looked at Johnny with disbelief. “Two hundred more, out of my own pocket. That’s all I can give you!”

Without looking back, Johnny wheeled himself back to the front of the crowd. He shouted, “That man, he said he’d give me two thousand two hundred dollars to persuade you all to go back, and I refused!”

“I don’t understand any grand principles. I only know that we haven’t had a raise in two or three years!”

“The price of beef is going up, the price of bread is going up, the price of everything is going up, except for the whores outside the docks, and us!”

“I’m not here for myself today. I’m here for all of you who are like me. They must give us back the wages they owe us!”

“He’d rather give me two thousand two hundred to shut me up than let me say what needs to be said. That’s who they are!”

The people at the bottom are the easiest to incite because their ability to empathize is incredibly strong. You don’t even need to say much to pander to them to get their emotions stirred up. “You did the right thing, Johnny!” a burly man walked up to him and clapped him on the shoulder, nearly breaking it.

The manager on the other side saw this and cursed “Fuck,” feeling helpless. While he was still considering remedial measures, someone suddenly started shouting “Apologize, raise our wages,” and then more and more people began to wave their fists and shout along.

The rhythm was fast and strong, gradually forming a force, not just a simple slogan.

Especially when it concerned one’s own vital interests and someone was leading the charge.

The invisible power from each individual, under the effect of these slogans, twisted into a single, indestructible force. This was the power of the workers! Seeing this, the manager’s vision went black, and he nearly collapsed. He watched in despair as it all unfolded, knowing that he was about to be finished. The relentless advance of the workers made the atmosphere on site extremely tense and serious. Some security guards also became uneasy, some even picking up their wooden batons, motioning for the crowd not to get too close.

At this point, everyone’s emotions were running high. How could they possibly calm down in a short time? Just as friction was about to escalate, the manager did his best to appease the workers, telling them to calm down and that everything could be discussed.

But the strength of one person was too weak. He could only part the people in front of him, but there were many more around! Just then, as all the security guards, including the captain, watched dumbfounded, one guard suddenly swung his baton and struck a worker in front of him, drawing blood. In that instant, the conflict escalated. Countless ugly curses began to ring out. The two groups started pushing and shoving each other, then broke into a full-blown brawl! “The guards are hitting people!”

“The management company’s people are hitting people!”

When it really came to this, the manager, who had taken several punches, also became ruthless. He ran to the very back, grabbed the security captain by the collar, and said viciously, “Show them some color!”

His job was lost anyway, so he might as well vent his frustration while his power hadn’t yet expired! He even snatched the baton from the security captain’s waist and charged toward Johnny!

Both sides were constantly bringing in more people. More security guards rushed over from various parts of the docks, and more workers who had heard about the conflict also joined in.

The most eye-catching were a large group of temporary workers in blue work clothes. They also joined the resisting group, fighting together with the security guards! The regular workers, who had held some prejudice against these people before, at this moment, at least for this moment, suddenly felt that they were actually quite decent. The massive brawl on the docks lasted for more than forty minutes before the police belatedly arrived. Many people were beaten and bleeding, including the manager.

He had originally wanted to give Johnny a few hard hits, but he never expected to be the one on the receiving end.

When he was helped up from the ground, he couldn’t even stand steadily on his own. He had several lumps on his head. If someone hadn’t been supporting him, he would have fallen again!

“Murder, this is murder!”

“Officer, they almost killed me!”

The manager screamed hysterically, but the police officer clearly knew how to handle such a situation.

“You can tell that to the judge, not me.”

Of course, his tone wasn’t that rigid. He recognized the manager, but he didn’t know yet that the manager might not be the manager in the future.

“Do you need me to call a doctor for you?”

There were quite a few medics on the scene treating the injured, and they were a bit short-handed.

The manager calmed down a little. He shook his head, walked aside to get a piece of gauze, pressed it against his wound, and went back upstairs.

The phone was ringing constantly. He was a little scared, but finally picked it up.

As soon as he answered, a torrent of ugly curses came from the receiver, lasting for a considerable time.

After about two or three minutes, the person on the other end of the line softened their tone slightly. “How did it get like this?”

The manager explained what had happened, and the person on the other end immediately sensed a conspiracy.

But even if he knew, he wouldn’t say it. Someone had to take responsibility for such a major incident, and the manager was a good choice.

“First, appease the workers’ emotions. Have them send representatives to talk with us. I will call Vaughn to clean up your mess!”

The person repeatedly warned, “Don’t provoke them anymore, and don’t do anything stupid!”

The manager quickly agreed. He certainly wouldn’t do something so foolish.

Everything that happened at that moment began to spread throughout the docks. The workers’ club was clearly the best place to exchange information.

There was no place more exciting than drinking a cold beer while chatting about these things! Around 8 o’clock, when the workers’ club was packed, Lance had Elvin and the others bring the “undercover agents” over to unload their cargo…

(End of chapter)