Meanwhile.
The old man in the duty office never expected these people to actually get in.
Trembling, he called Boss Tian again.
"Boss, you didn’t get into some kind of trouble, did you? They’re already inside! The gate didn’t stop them at all!"
The old man in the duty office stammered, his voice trembling.
Hearing this, Boss Tian slammed on the accelerator. "Explain things to them! Just say I’m not there yet but I’ll be there soon! Tell them to be patient!"
"And tell the employees they have the day off today."
After saying that, Boss Tian hung up and floored it toward the factory.
However, the old man in the duty office didn’t dare to step outside.
Fortunately, the residents of Cyan Mountain Town had only come to reason with him and had no intention of causing any real trouble.
So, they sent an older gentleman to do the talking.
He knocked on the window of the duty office.
The old man inside flinched, but seeing that the person outside was also quite old, he wasn’t as nervous as before.
"Hello, I’d like to ask if your Boss Tian is at the factory. Where is he?"
The old man tried his best to appear amiable.
The old man in the duty office secretly glanced at the bustling crowd outside the window.
Then he turned around and sold out Boss Tian. "I just called him. He said he’s on his way and will be here soon. You should just wait!"
The old man heard that Boss Tian wasn’t at the factory.
He didn’t give the man in the duty office a hard time.
When the crowd of residents behind him learned that Boss Tian wasn’t there, their mood was not as agitated as before.
"Let’s just wait for him here inside his factory. As long as Boss Tian still wants this factory, he’ll definitely show up!"
A level-headed person among the residents said.
"We came here to talk sense, not to make trouble. We can wait for a bit!"
The others thought about it and agreed it made sense, so they turned and waited in the factory’s open area.
They were all reasonable people. This time, they just wanted to discuss things with Boss Tian.
They didn’t want to cause any trouble now that they were inside the factory.
When the old man in the duty office saw that the crowd didn’t seem to be here to demand money or cause a scene, he grew a bit bolder.
As it happened, the old man who had asked the questions was sitting on the steps of the duty office.
The duty officer asked, "What are all of you gathered here for, anyway?"
"Did Boss Tian owe you money? He’s usually good about paying wages!"
the old man muttered.
The old man tapped his cane on the dirt ground. "We’re not here to see Boss Tian about wages. We don’t work for him!"
"Do you know that Boss Tian is planning to sell the land to a chemical company? They want to build a huge factory complex!"
Speaking of which, the duty officer actually knew about this.
After all, the team from the chemical company had been here before to inspect the site.
So the old man had seen those people.
"I know about that. It’s a good thing, isn’t it? Someone is leasing the land, and it’ll provide jobs for people in our town!"
The old man was a bit puzzled as to why the residents were reacting so strongly to this.
He didn’t expect that hearing this would make the old man so agitated.
He slammed his cane hard on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"What do you know?"
"If it were really so great, we wouldn’t be reacting like this!"
The duty officer’s eyes went wide. "What?"
Seeing that the duty officer was genuinely clueless about the situation, the old man’s anger subsided a little.
"That chemical plant is a disaster! It completely polluted the land at its previous location!"
"I heard the people over there can’t even drink the water. The groundwater is all contaminated!"
Upon hearing this, the duty officer’s eyes widened even more.
The old man continued, his words flowing freely, "And the working conditions inside that factory are terrible. Think about it, it’s a chemical plant. It’s full of toxic gases."
"There were employees who worked there for four or five years and all got cancer!"
The duty officer’s eyes bulged. "That’s a vile, wicked thing to do! They’d really do that?"
The old man tapped his cane lightly on the ground and said, "The bosses of that chemical company don’t work here. They’re just here to make a quick buck, right?"
"When the time comes, it’ll be the land of our Cyan Mountain Town that gets polluted, and it’ll be the children of our Cyan Mountain Town who get cancer. How can we let a factory like that move in?"
The duty officer was gradually beginning to understand.
By now, it was eight in the morning.
The workers arriving for their shifts saw the large crowd gathered in front of the factory, creating quite a scene.
They were stunned.
Fortunately, the old man had already received instructions from Boss Tian.
Until this matter was resolved, it was best not to let these workers enter the factory.
So, when the duty officer saw the arriving employees, he immediately shooed them away:
"Boss Tian said you all have the day off today! No need to come to work, get going now!"
Even though the duty officer said this, the sight of such an unusual commotion in front of the factory made the employees gather in small groups in the distance, pointing and murmuring about the situation.
"Go on, go on, stop bunching up! Boss Tian will be here any minute. If he comes back and sees you don’t want the day off, he’ll make you work overtime!"
The old man hustled them along.
Hearing the old man’s words, some of the employees who didn’t want any trouble stopped lingering and left.
But a few bolder ones even went right up to the people sitting on the ground inside the factory and started talking with them.
Some of the workers at Boss Tian’s factory knew about the land lease, while others were still in the dark.
While some were migrant workers, most were natives of Cyan Mountain Town.
After some "persuasion" from the long-time residents, these factory workers also began to realize the severity of the problem.
’If this whole area is filled with toxic gas later on...’
’Wouldn’t working on this land mean I’m risking my life?’
"We just came to talk to your Boss Tian about this. What he’s doing is really not right!"
"Don’t you agree?"
The money Vice President Li had spent was well worth it.
The plants he had hired were now even starting to pull the factory’s own employees into their group.
This matter truly concerned the future livelihood of Cyan Mountain Town’s residents.
So, it was understandable that people were filled with righteous indignation.
The bolder workers simply sat down next to them.
"I’ve got good eyesight! I’ll be the first to let you know when Boss Tian shows up!"
someone even joked cheerfully.
Vice President Li had been waiting outside the factory, keeping an eye on the situation.
He glanced at his watch. It was already eight o’clock.
According to the time he’d had the front desk arrange...
He estimated that the people from the chemical company should be arriving soon to discuss the partnership with Boss Tian.
What kind of reaction would occur when all these people were gathered together?
Vice President Li smiled at the thought.
Just then, Vice President Li saw a black car speed to the factory entrance.
A figure quite familiar to Vice President Li got out of the car and hurried into the factory.
Vice President Li immediately sent a message to Lin Feng: "President Lin, everything is proceeding smoothly."

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