Chapter 337

Question:

What does it take to be a security guard at the docks?

A stable temperament?

A gentle and polite attitude?

The determination to help people solve their troubles in a timely manner?

Or the fists that can solve trouble?

There is actually only one answer, and that is—whoever is the trouble, they solve them!

Most of the workers on the docks are from the bottom of society. They haven’t received any higher education, nor is it possible for them to read books to cultivate their sentiments during their rest time.

Most of the time, they only know how to swear. When they can’t win an argument, they will bump their chests, then push and shove, and even finally lead to physical conflict.

You can’t make these people learn to solve problems politely, gently, and peacefully.

Just like you can’t get a perfect score on a third-grade math test from them!

For them, it’s too difficult!

So don’t expect the security guards at the docks to speak to others in a soft voice. The first thing the security guard did when he entered the office was to give Johnny a warning.

Johnny had a bit of a reputation at the docks, a typical small-group bully. Many people had been bullied by him.

But as long as he didn’t affect the company’s interests, the security guards would turn a blind eye. But that didn’t include him now appearing here and getting rough with the office staff.

“Don’t make things difficult for me, Johnny. You know me.”

“Put him down, and then get out. Go and sweep your floor, otherwise I’ll use your face to sweep the entire dock floor clean!”

Johnny glanced at the security guard. He threw the manager he was holding in his hand with force. The latter fell back into his chair with a thud.

The manager subconsciously straightened his somewhat messy tie, his voice becoming shrill, “Teach him a lesson!”

The security guard felt that his authority had been challenged. He twisted his neck, and before he could say something to set the stage for what he was about to do, he was punched in the stomach by Johnny.

In an instant, the severe pain accompanied by strong nausea almost made the security guard vomit!

He bent over, his butt sticking out. He felt that his stomach or something else had spasmed, making it impossible for him to stand up.

Johnny grabbed a thick book from the corner of the table, swung it up from below, and slammed it on the security guard’s chin, directly knocking him backwards!

“Motherf—ker!”

“Come and suck my big d—k!”

Since he was going to make a scene, Johnny was going to make it big!

After he had somewhat unscrupulously knocked down the security guard, he returned to the side of the office manager who was screaming like a woman. He didn’t care what the other party said, just swung his fist and smashed it on the other party’s face!

Until, he felt many people hitting him from behind, and someone had also choked his neck.

Suffocation, and pain, made him have to give up on the manager, but it seemed the manager had already been beaten unconscious…

The whole office was in a mess. A group of security guards surrounded and beat Johnny.

In this era, to dare to lay a hand on a manager was an unforgivable crime!

More than ten minutes later, Johnny was thrown out, and this also attracted the attention of some people.

Many workers saw Johnny being thrown out, bruised and swollen, looking extremely miserable.

Some gloated, but some also felt that the management office was going too far.

So many people hitting one person, and a dockworker at that. This stirred up the emotions of some of the workers.

Someone contacted Vaughn. Vaughn immediately arranged for people to send Johnny to the hospital and then gave Lance a call.

“Johnny has been sent to the hospital by me. He looks to be very seriously injured.”

President Scott had already left in advance. He had found a way to spend a little money and had his connections transferred away first.

Vaughn told him about this matter truthfully—Lance was planning to use the conflict between the dockworkers, the management company, and the capitalists to launch a big strike!

This sentence scared Scott so much that he almost couldn’t sit still in his chair!

A major strike by the dockworkers would mean that everyone would eventually have to compromise with the dockworkers because they couldn’t accept, nor could they afford, a prolonged shutdown of the Golden Port docks!

It sounded like another good thing. The working class had once again proved that as long as everyone united, they could defeat the capitalists. This was a great victory for the working class!

But in fact, after the storm of this matter passed, someone would definitely have to be punished for it.

He wasn’t sure about others, but the president of the dockworkers’ union was definitely the first one!

Why wasn’t such an important public sentiment discovered and reported in the first place? Why wasn’t the strike stopped in time before it began? Why was the strike, a tool of the union, formed spontaneously by a group of workers?

The union had long regarded the “strike” as their private means to force capitalists and politicians to compromise.

The more important something is, the less it should be used easily. Currently, the industry unions in the Federation were trying their best to mediate the contradictions between laborers and capitalists to avoid escalating the situation.

It seemed that they were doing it for the good of the working class, but in fact, they were doing it so that “strikes” would not become commonplace.

The president, who had not organized everything, would obviously be punished!

He had paid out of his own pocket to speed up the transfer of his connections. Although he was still nominally the president of the Golden Port Dockworkers’ Union, in fact, his connections had already been transferred away, and Vaughn was the first person responsible here.

Lance was very satisfied after hearing this, “Continue to pay attention to these things. I will have my people cooperate. It still needs some time now.”

A strike is not a simple matter. It definitely won’t work without someone leading it. Vaughn hadn’t had a chance to advance further for several years, or even seven or eight years. So, cooperating well with Lance was the best path he could see at the moment.

“I will pay close attention.”

Lance was very satisfied with Vaughn’s attitude. Regardless of whether he could do this well, at least his attitude was very comfortable.

“After this is over, I guarantee that you will become the envy of everyone. Of course, whether to let them know is entirely up to you!”

The matter of Johnny being beaten subsequently began to spread throughout the docks, with all sorts of things being said.

Although the vast majority of people didn’t like Johnny, in this matter, Johnny represented the interests of the working class, their fellow worker.

And the dock management office, that was the means used by the capitalists to enslave the workers. They were naturally opposed.

The news spread very quickly. In less than two hours, there were already many variations of the rumor—

“Johnny wanted to get justice. You know, he could have had $38, but now he only has $27 or $28, which is almost half his salary gone.”

“If it were me, I definitely wouldn’t agree either. So he went to find the manager, but the manager didn’t say anything and just had the security guards beat him up and throw him out!”

“They have never respected us. In their eyes, we are no different from a wrench, a screwdriver!”

“A wrench still has things it can’t do and doesn’t want to do, but we have to listen to them for everything!”

As the rumors began to spread, the matter of Johnny began to ferment. The whole thing became an emotional garbage can. People were not just communicating “what happened to Johnny,” but also began to communicate “what happened to me.”

They would talk about some of the unfair treatment they had received from the management company, the most common being being late, leaving early, and being docked pay when they were not found during inspections.

The originally strictly abided-by rules and regulations, at this time, when people were full of resentment, became tools for the capitalists to deliberately make things difficult for the working masses

The emotions on the docks were thus stirred up bit by bit by themselves.

The thing about being angry is that you can’t think too deeply about it.

Because the more you think, the angrier you get. Now the people on the docks clearly had this tendency. The unfair treatment they had encountered in the past, which had been almost forgotten, was now brought up again, making them even more angry!

When the entire dock became a powder keg, it was time for the union to make an appearance.

But for now, they still needed to wait a little longer.

The changes at the docks also made this city look even more chaotic. Just at this time, the mayor decided to give a public speech on Thursday afternoon to talk about some of the problems the city had recently encountered.

Some people thought this was a good thing. City Hall had finally noticed that the city was sliding towards the edge of danger.

But some people also felt that it was meaningless for the mayor to notice these things now. And for some locals, the source of the chaos was the mayor.

If he wanted to end the chaos, the best way was to give up resistance and abide by the city’s regulations, but that was obviously unlikely.

He was constantly challenging the old order and trying to create his own. This irreconcilable contradiction was the real source of the city’s chaos!

From the fact that the police were already in a semi-strike state, it could be seen that the mayor was facing a very bad situation.

Under the influence of the information gap, the people at the bottom felt that he no longer had a chance to turn things around, but the people who could truly understand the current high-level movements of the city all knew that the real situation was the opposite.

Everyone was waiting, waiting for Wednesday to come.

Before Wednesday arrived, the renovation of the Red High Heels had officially begun. According to the design, they would first demolish a large amount of the existing decoration, and then rearrange the layout of the house.

This place would be a film company in the future, so it didn’t need so many small compartments, nor did it need such a large dance floor.

So before the real renovation according to the design drawings, they had to knock down all the previous things.

A young man who had just arrived from the Empire not long ago was bare-chested, swinging a 20-pound sledgehammer, knocking down those things.

This was a very hard job, but Lance’s side was very humane. Everyone could get an income of $1 a day, and could also enjoy lunch and dinner for free.

The food was not very tasty. It was all bread with coarse fiber, which was very filling.

The first time he ate this kind of bread, he was almost choked to the point of doubting his life. Almost every bite was so difficult to swallow.

Even if you swallowed it with water, it would stick tightly to your esophagus and go down bit by bit.

Later, he saw others eating it bit by bit and then mastered the correct way to eat it. He suspected that there were some wood chips or something in this bread.

Besides the unlimited bread, everyone could also eat a whole roasted chicken every day, a whole one.

This was also the reason why many people were willing to work here. For them, eating meat, even chicken, was a very luxurious thing!

Being able to fill their stomachs, they were particularly energetic when working. When he once again swung the sledgehammer towards the wall, he suddenly felt the force on the hammerhead was instantly unloaded!

And the wall was also smashed with a hole by him.

He forcefully pulled the hammerhead out. He had encountered this situation many times in the past few days.

Sometimes, in order to create some design beauty, a large amount of plasterboard was used in the previous decoration. It was possible that this was a piece of plasterboard or something.

When he pulled the hammerhead out of the hole, he also knocked open the entire brick surface, and some things fell out from inside.

Several kraft paper bags. His heart suddenly thumped.

He had heard many rumors about the Federation, for example, something like smashing open a wall and finding a secret room inside, filled with gold coins and cash.

Or an inconspicuous painting was an antique and could be sold at an amazing price!

Was it his turn this time?

He quickly picked up the several kraft paper bags and opened one of them. What made him feel a little disappointed was that inside were some notebooks.

He casually picked up a book and opened the first page.

“April 17th, Mr. … called. He specifically requested… to go and accompany him. He offered a price of $1,000 for this.”

“In the morning, we sent the person over, and we picked her up at just after four in the afternoon. He’s simply a madman!”

“The girl has been tormented by him to the point of incontinence, making a mess of the car. It’s a living hell!”

“… (He guessed it was a doctor) said that she would not be able to work normally in the future. She is a beautiful girl with some stable customers. Abandoning her really makes people feel dissatisfied and angry.”

“But fortunately… Mr. … gave another $5,000 in compensation. I hope he won’t be so violent next time!”

“April 19th, Mr. … ran into some trouble. It just so happens that we have a girl who has been unwilling to cooperate. I have decided to send her over.”

“Sometimes they don’t understand at all. Everything that seems unbearable to them is actually for their own good.”

“They can’t understand me, always think I’m harming them. It’s ridiculous.”

“I can recall the nimble hatred in her eyes every time I domesticated her. I hope this time, she can still hate this world so much!”

The following paragraph was obviously written at a different time, and the notes had also changed somewhat.

“She died, in pieces. The person in charge of cleaning up the scene came back and told me he almost vomited.”

“That’s a psychopath. He cut her into pieces. I feel sick just hearing about it!”

“These people are so f—king perverted. Are all rich people like this?”

“April…”

After flipping through several pages, the young man’s chest was already heaving violently. He roughly understood what this was.

He wasn’t a fool. Of course, he knew that these should be the diaries of the former operator of this place.

What was recorded inside was the diary of him once persecuting the girls here. It was criminal evidence, but he didn’t know who to hand it to.

He held these things and thought for a long time, then found the person in charge of supervising their work, “I want to see the boss. I have important matters to report to him.”

The person in charge of construction looked him up and down. Under Lance’s excellent “leading by example,” the Lance Family had not yet become corrupt and decadent.

“Don’t go anywhere here. I’ll go make a call right now.”

Before long, Elvin drove over, “Who’s looking for me?”

That young man raised his hand. At this time, some people had already gathered here to watch. After Elvin had someone disperse them, he and the young man walked to a corner.

He directly handed a notebook to Elvin. Elvin opened it and just glanced at it, and his expression became exceptionally serious!

“Besides you, who else has seen these things?”

The young man shook his head, “No one else, only I have seen them.”

Elvin called over the person in charge of supervising the workers, “Give me a list of all the people here. Before I call you, none of them can leave.”

The supervisor could feel the seriousness of this matter. He quickly nodded, “I know what to do, Elvin.”

Elvin patted his shoulder, then looked at the young man, “What’s your name?”

“Philip.”

“Philip, come with me to see Lance…”

More than ten minutes later, Lance glanced at Elvin and Philip standing by the door and opened the notebook in his hand.

He then flipped through a few pages. Inside, it roughly recorded the education of Red High Heels and the Bay Area.

There were no records of Red High Heels’ ordinary business inside, nor was there any value in recording it. Business of a few dollars, a dozen or so, at most a few dozen, was not worth recording.

Only the business with the Bay Area was worth recording.

These notebooks were obviously not from the same batch. He picked up some that looked older, “These should have been recorded by Booker (the manager of Red High Heels during the Camille gang period, who had already committed suicide).”

Then he picked up another two books that were obviously newer, “These should have been recorded by Sam (the person invited by the mayor, who had also committed suicide).”

Sam was obviously more cunning than Booker and had more experience in dealing with these matters.

Booker had not left any valuable “evidence” in the notebook, but in this notebook of Sam’s, there were about forty or so banknotes and checks in total.

These banknotes were all properly sandwiched between two pieces of paper. He should have done this to protect the fingerprints on them. Lance didn’t know if this would be useful.

There were also about a dozen or so checks, and these checks were obviously much more useful.

Not only did they have the date, the amount, and the handwritten signature of the person who paid the check, but they could also be matched with the service amount recorded in the diary!

If fingerprints could also be extracted from these checks, then this would be ironclad, valuable evidence!

Lance looked at Philip, “These things are very important to me. You have rendered a great service.”

“I am a very fair person. If what you do is valuable to me, I will reward you.”

“Now, tell me, what do you want to get?”

“Money, status, or something else, you can mention it!”