Chapter 3: Don't Talk About Feelings, It Hurts the Wallet

Late at night, the moonlight was clear and the stars were bright.

Su Tianyu came to his big brother's room door and knocked: "Are you asleep, Brother?"

"Coming," came the response from inside, and Su Tiannan, dressed formally, opened the door: "You're not asleep yet?"

"Can't sleep, came to talk with you," Su Tianyu replied with a smile.

"Hehe, come in," Su Tiannan stepped aside.

Su Tianyu walked into the room and turned his head to observe the furnishings, seeing that it hadn't changed much from several years ago - clean, tidy, without any unnecessary furniture.

The room was dimly lit, with sandalwood incense burning on the desk in the living room. Su Tiannan closed the door and walked to the desk to pick up the teapot: "Little Brother, your timing coming back isn't very good. The family is indeed facing some issues, and I can't accompany you for now. Later I'll have Miaomiao take you around."

Su Tianyu sat down on the sofa and after a pause said: "Big Brother, I didn't come to you for a heart-to-heart."

Su Tiannan came over, placed a teacup in front of him, and sat down asking: "What is it, is there something else?"

Su Tianyu thought for a moment before replying: "Just now when you were all talking, I listened to the general course of events and had some thoughts."

Su Tiannan looked at his brother with slight surprise and actively asked: "Well, tell me what you think."

"I personally feel that the turning point in Second Uncle's case isn't actually in the judicial department. Even if we spend money to build relationships, we might not be able to work the case to a good outcome," Su Tianyu said directly. "Since Changqing Company could arrange things with the District Police Bureau and City Police Bureau, they won't easily give you a chance to leverage the case. To put it bluntly, in terms of spending money, can our family compare with Changqing Company? So there's only one condition for turning things around in the judicial department - that's power checking power. Unless we can find someone whose single word can make the Police Bureau listen, working it would be useless."

Su Tiannan rested his chin on his left hand, crossed his legs, and slowly nodded: "Continue."

"I have two points to summarize about this matter: First, uniting the workers is very important. Eight people shouting might not be heard, but eight hundred people shouting makes a very loud voice. Second, I heard you say that besides our Su family being strangled in Zha'nan, there are three other families being dealt with, so why can't we unite with them?" Su Tianyu said with slightly furrowed brows. "If we don't have absolute power backing us, then we need to find a way to make absolute power notice us."

Perhaps influenced by his father, Su Tianyu was very good at summarizing when facing issues. He liked to distill complex matters into their most refined points to adjust his approach.

In Su Tiannan's mind, he had always treated Su Tianyu as a child, because the latter had gone to school at eighteen and hadn't been home for several years, so his impression of Tianyu was quite fixed. But now listening to Tianyu's words, he was unconsciously led by his rhythm and felt that what he said made some sense.

"After your Second Uncle was arrested, the workers' hearts scattered. They think our Su family will have trouble getting through this crisis, so they're all avoiding trouble. These people not only don't support the company, but some team leaders even want to take advantage of the Su family's difficult situation to have us subcontract the territory to them," Su Tiannan replied with slightly furrowed brows. "So uniting them is quite difficult."

"I don't think it's difficult," Su Tianyu smiled as he looked at his big brother, understanding him well: "It's just that we might have to break faces... and you're unwilling to do that."

Su Tiannan paused again upon hearing these words.

"Big Brother, workers and companies are always united through profit," Su Tianyu advised softly. "There's always exploitation within profit relationships, that's very normal. If you're unwilling to handle this matter personally, I can be the bad guy."

Su Tiannan fell into deep thought.

"Why don't you arrange a meeting with the workers, let's talk first. If we can resolve the internal issues, we can then sit down to talk with the other three families," Su Tianyu said again. "The characterization of Second Uncle's case could come down at any time. Once it's labeled as trafficking, it will be too late for us to do anything."

Hearing this, Su Tiannan slowly stood up and replied: "Alright, I'll arrange to meet with the team leaders tomorrow."

"I see it's still early, why not arrange it for tonight? Better resolve it sooner to avoid complications," Su Tianyu actually urged.

"That works too, let's go to the storage yard now then," Su Tiannan was completely convinced.

......

At Changqing Company headquarters in Zha'nan District, a man in his forties wearing a black suit sat on a spacious leather sofa, legs crossed, smoking as he asked: "What did Su Tiannan say?"

"He asked us to give him five more days," Lu Feng lounged lazily on the sofa, stroking his short hair as he replied. "This kid won't give up, probably still thinking about working through the Police Bureau to get his father back."

The man in the black suit was Changqing Company's boss, named Li Hongze. The so-called Changqing Company was also a long-established organization. Before the New Era, it was called the Changqing Gang, with members who were overseas Chinese, and this organization had branches worldwide, though its reputation had always been poor.

"Then why did you agree to give him five days?" Li Hongze asked.

"There were over a hundred people on scene, if I didn't agree there would have been a fight right then. Fighting would easily draw attention, which wouldn't benefit us," Lu Feng answered concisely. "Old Wang from the Police Bureau also wanted to mediate. We don't need to waste words with Old Wang on something we already have in hand, after all, he's not one of our people."

Li Hongze laughed upon hearing this: "Haha, our Zha'nan First Blade is now using his brain when handling matters. Good, the company is getting better and better."

"Big Brother, after we take down these four families - Su, Bai, Liu, and Kong - can I have half the territory?" Lu Feng asked with a smile.

Li Hongze took out his cigarette case and threw a cigarette to Lu Feng: "In five years, I'll make you Dragon City's First Blade!"

"Alright!"

......

About an hour and a half later, in the second-floor office building of the Su family storage yard in Zha'nan, over thirty worker leaders had gathered in the small conference room.

The room was filled with smoke, with constant murmuring voices, as Su Tiannan sat on a wooden chair with a grave expression.

"Little Nan, we've been working with the Su family for quite some time now. There are no outsiders here, so let's speak frankly. If the Su family falls this time, how do you plan to arrange for us workers? Will retirement benefits and labor insurance be affected, can year-end bonuses be paid on time?" a worker leader in his forties asked very directly.

"Yes, if the Su family hands over the work territory to Changqing Company, how will our work registration and personnel files be handled?" someone immediately chimed in, their tone quite aggressive, somewhat like forcing an ultimatum.

Before Su Tiannan could even open his mouth to seek support from the worker class, they had already launched their offensive. Under difficult circumstances, all personal feelings seemed worthless.

"It's like this, my little brother just graduated and came back, and the family has put him in charge of worker arrangements," Su Tiannan pointed to Tianyu beside him and said softly. "I'll listen here while you talk with him."

Everyone turned to look at Su Tianyu upon hearing this, and seeing how young and refined he looked, they immediately became dissatisfied.

"He's just a kid who's never run a dirty gang business, what can we possibly discuss with him?"

"That's right, he's just a child, what does he understand?"

"...!"

Su Tiannan looked at everyone: "I said, I'll stay right here listening, I won't leave."

Only then did everyone fall silent.

After everyone quieted down, Su Tianyu adjusted his glasses and said politely: "May I say a few words?"

The worker leaders looked at Su Tianyu coldly, either whispering among themselves or smoking silently.

Su Tianyu took out the materials he had organized in the car earlier and said expressionlessly: "My big brother went to the city district yesterday to talk with connections at the Police Bureau, but the results weren't very promising. To put it simply, there's basically no room to work with on my Second Uncle's case. If we want to protect him, we'll have to pay money and hand over the Su family company's territory. Our family members have discussed it and all feel we can't fight against Changqing Company, so we can only hand over the territory to protect the person."

The workers seemed unsurprised by this result and didn't respond.

"Before handing over the territory, we've prepared termination contracts for everyone," Su Tianyu said with furrowed brows. "Personnel files and work registration will all be returned to individuals, current month's wages can be settled, but forget about year-end bonuses. Since it's only mid-year, the Management Council won't settle year-end bonuses. After the paperwork is distributed, everyone will have to find their own way."

Upon hearing this, there was an immediate uproar.

"What do you mean? Termination, and not handling our year-end bonuses, on what grounds?"

"Yeah, you terminate us and return our files and registration to us personally, isn't that basically firing us?! Then our retirement and labor insurance benefits won't be guaranteed either!"

"Su Tiannan, what do you mean by this? We've worked for half a year, how can you just say there's no year-end bonus? The Su family caused the trouble, why should we workers pay for it?!"

"...!"

The workers exploded as soon as they heard the Su family wouldn't take care of them anymore.

Su Tiannan frowned as he watched everyone without responding, while Su Tianyu looked at everyone with eyes showing no emotional fluctuation and continued softly: "When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. The Su family can't even protect itself now, so there's no way to take care of everyone."

"Bullshit! We've worked with the Su family for so long, even if there's no emotional connection, there should at least be some relationship! I'm telling you, if Old Su Er hadn't been arrested, he would never handle things this way!" the forty-something leader almost shouted at Su Tianyu.

"Brother, you were the first to talk about profit, and now you're talking about relationships. You're making it very difficult for the Su family," Su Tianyu replied with a smile.

"What do you know!" the middle-aged man stood up and said to Su Tiannan: "If this is how you're going to handle things, then let's not talk reason anymore. Tomorrow we'll bring over two hundred workers and start trouble at your house."

Su Tiannan sighed, keeping his head down, still not responding.

Su Tianyu adjusted his glasses and slowly stood up: "Are you threatening me?"

The worker leader looked at him: "Get lost, this has nothing to do with you."

Su Tianyu smiled as he looked at him, reaching into his bag to take out a small portion of worker documents, speaking concisely: "The work registration and personnel files are all in the company's hands. Your employment and termination are all submitted to the Management Council by the company. Doesn't this mean... if I say you're a formal employee, you are, and if I say you're a temporary worker, you are too?"

The worker leader was completely stunned upon hearing this.

"You see, if you want to be shameless, capital can be more shameless than you," Su Tianyu put down the documents. "Brother, do you want to talk about profit now, or relationships?"

Everyone remained silent.

Su Tianyu turned to look at everyone: "You think the Su family's downfall has nothing to do with you, that the Sanitation Management Council needs workers to operate normally. But is that really the case? After the Su family hands over the territory, do you think you can still eat from the dirty gang's bowl? Let me tell you, that's just a dream! Why is Changqing Company targeting the Su family? Our whole family only has thirty-some people doing dirty gang work, what benefit would they get from taking us down? Wake up! Changqing Company is after the eight hundred dirty gang worker households under the Su family. The purpose of seizing territory is to give their own people work, it's about monopoly, understand? Family!"

The worker leaders listened to Su Tianyu's words and after careful consideration, sat down in their seats with gloomy expressions.

"Without unity, there's only death," Su Tianyu pointed at the termination contracts on the table and said: "Sign the contracts, or get through this crisis with the Su family - you decide."

"What if we fucking can't beat Changqing Company?" a man in his fifties asked bluntly.

Su Tiannan, who hadn't spoken until now, decisively stood up and pointed at the storage yard: "I, Su Tiannan, will absolutely not shortchange any one of you. We can sign contracts - if the Su family goes bankrupt and hands over the territory, the existing equipment will belong to the workers."

The interests of grassroots workers have always been simple, nothing more than the two characters for "livelihood." When these two characters are guaranteed, the common people are always docile and will work desperately to contribute to society. But if someone thoughtlessly touches these two characters, then there's trouble. That's why many business giants nowadays publicly shout about being people-friendly while secretly calling to quickly harvest the leeks, and after harvesting still say, "Family, we're always together."

Looking through history, it has always been so.

Su Tianyu had never intended to confront the workers, he just wanted to use the situation to his advantage.

After the negotiations ended, Su Tiannan sat in the empty conference room and sighed: "They're all familiar faces, it's really unpleasant to end up like this."

Actually, the Su family's big brother understood all the reasoning, he just wasn't willing to do certain things.

Su Tianyu drank his tea and said softly: "Big Brother, after uniting the workers, we need to talk with the other three families."

......

In the city district.

Su Tianbei sat in his car holding his phone and said: "Can you get me two pieces that make noise?"

"Your father got noisemakers, and now you want noisemakers too? What, are you planning for the whole family to die together?!"