Chapter 1

The ground floor lobby of the Bao Long Group was simply structured, divided into two halls. The reception desk was at the very center of the front hall, with the security room and several functional offices to the left.

Employee entrances with card-swiping devices were situated on both the left and right sides of the lobby. Only by swiping their employee ID cards there could employees access the elevator area and the office zone in the back hall.

At this moment, the protesters from the two major associations were all gathered in the front hall, unable to pass through the card-swiping entrances. The extended gathering left some of them exhausted. Coupled with the lack of chairs or benches in the hall, some were sitting or lying on the floor.

In the left corridor entrance, the worker in yellow was somewhat bewildered by Xiao Hu’s questioning. His face flushed red as he stared at him and asked, "What's wrong with me? Why are you cursing at people?"

"What if I curse at you? You dare to do it but not admit it?!" As Xu Jinbo's right-hand man, Xiao Hu was constantly running around with him. Within the security department, he was also a force to be reckoned with. Usually, only the general manager and Xu Jinbo could keep him in check.

Xiao Hu didn't have much education. He had made it this far by being daring, reckless, and obedient to Xu Jinbo. As a result, although he usually didn't dare to act up in front of the company's top executives, he was quite the tough guy in society, especially when it came to showing off in front of women.

Xiao Hu had many girlfriends, and this female clerk was just one of them. However, he was very fond of her because she knew how to act spoiled and charming.

Now that his girlfriend had been harassed by someone lifting her skirt, Xiao Hu certainly couldn't stand it. In addition, he had been annoyed by these workers constantly causing trouble for his boss, so he blocked the corridor entrance and hurled insults at them: "Look at you lot, what's the difference between you and beggars?! No wonder people in this group avoid you! Stealing, robbing, acting shamelessly, making lewd jokes at women, all that kind of low-life stuff is done by you lot!"

The worker in yellow was called Lao He. Hearing the angry scolding, he stood up, tongue-tied, and yelled at the female clerk: "Who touched you? You're so young, how can you be so troublesome?! I was lying on the side, and you brushed against me when you walked past. I didn't even say anything, so why are you trying to frame me?!"

"Bullshit, you touched my ass!" Seeing Xiao Hu backing her up, the girl put her hands on her hips and cursed: "Look at your dirty appearance, anyone can tell you're no good! You're so old, but you're not ashamed to lie around in the lobby! Have you considered what your kid, who's squatting in the slums playing in the mud, would think if he saw you like this?"

Lao He's face flushed red: "Would we be here if you paid us fairly? Would we be waiting here and refusing to leave?! The district is always talking about resource regulation, but in the end, all the resources are being regulated into the hands of you unscrupulous merchants, aren't they? Isn't this too much? You won't give us money; you ignore us when we wait here; and now you're insulting us?! Damn it, one day all the workers will go on strike, and I'll see how you swagger then!"

"Keep it down!" Xiao Hu yelled, pointing at Lao He.

"Don't point at me! You're just an employee too, what are you so superior about?!" Lao He reached out and grabbed his finger.

"Let go of me," Xiao Hu roared, glaring. "Did you hear me?!"

Nearby, workers who hadn't planned to express their opinions all came over with sullen faces, blocking the corridor entrance.

"Point again?!" An old worker, about fifty years old, cursed at Xiao Hu with a gloomy expression: "Have we spoiled you too much?"

"Get lost, you old bastard...!" The girl, with her hands on her hips, jumped up and down and cursed.

"Slap!"

The old worker raised his hand and slapped her across the face, glaring as he roared, "I'm this old, and I deserve to be cursed by you?"

"You dare to hit me?!" Xiao Hu reached out and shoved the old worker: "Do you believe I'll get someone to kill you?!"

Xiao Hu hadn't come down to start a fight; he just wanted to stand up for the woman and vent his anger by cursing. But he hadn't expected to be led by the girl's antics the whole time.

The moment the two sides started fighting, the scene instantly spiraled out of control. The police officers who rushed over couldn't squeeze into the crowd at all and could only shout loudly, but no one paid any attention to them.

In the corridor entrance, the girl who had been slapped was sobbing, "Honey, he hit me!"

"You old bastard...!" Xiao Hu reached out and grabbed the old worker by the collar.

"Bang!"

Lao He raised his leg and kicked Xiao Hu in the waist.

"Get him!"

"Beat him up!"

"..."

In an instant, a very unified shout resounded through the hall. Almost all the workers near this area kicked over the card-swiping devices and rushed directly into the corridor.

This was not a small-scale conflict caused by a chance encounter, but an eruption of economic and class contradictions that had been building and suppressed for days.

In particular, the families of those workers who had died and lost their breadwinners had to endure the pain of losing their loved ones while restraining their emotions, seeking compensation reasonably and according to the law.

Everyone is human, and everyone's emotions will spiral out of control when they're suppressed to the extreme.

Xiao Hu was the perfect outlet. His curses and contempt directly ignited the Bao Long Group's lobby.

Fifty or sixty people rushed into the corridor, grabbing trash cans and vases from the lobby, smashing them down on Xiao Hu and the others.

"Bang!"

"Clang!"

"..."

As Xu Jinbo's top henchman, Xiao Hu was certainly skilled. After knocking down two people in succession, he looked up and saw a sea of workers rushing in.

At this time, Xiao Hu felt a little regretful, but since things had already come to this, he had no choice but to turn around and roar, "The workers are rioting, get the security department over here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the security department members behind him began calling for reinforcements on their walkie-talkies!

"Beat him up!"

Lao He roared and stepped forward. Xiao Hu jumped up with a straight kick, knocking Lao He down, and then he felt fists raining down on him.

At the elevator entrance, the girl who had provoked the incident turned and ran, completely abandoning Xiao Hu!

In the lobby, Er Mao, Su Tiannan, and others rushed in.

"What's going on?! What happened?!" Er Mao ran over and questioned.

"A fight broke out because of Lao He!"

"Who started it?" Er Mao asked.

"They did, they grabbed Uncle Liu first!"

"Damn it, I was just dozing off, and someone sent me a pillow!" Er Mao directly rolled up his sleeves, joined his hands on the reception desk, lifted a vase more than half a meter high, and roared, "Get out of the way!!"

The workers all moved aside when they saw Er Mao coming.

"Bang, crash!!"

Er Mao rushed over and slammed the vase squarely on Xiao Hu's head.

"Thud!"

Xiao Hu, who had been fighting three people, was caught off guard and collapsed on the ground.