Chapter 1

When I landed that urgent order from the German client, the pen in my hand felt heavy.

I solemnly stamped the company seal on the contract.

The two-million deposit hit the company’s corporate account the next second.

I let out a long breath.

Because there were no orders, the factory had already been shut down for a full half month.

The profit from this order was enough to support the fifty workers in the factory for half a year.

The only deadly problem was how tight the deadline was.

The client insisted the goods had to be delivered on time on the first day after May Day.

I walked out of my office and looked at the empty production floor.

I immediately took out my phone and opened the company’s SnapChat group.

“I’ve got some good news for everyone. The factory just landed a big order.”

“If anyone is willing to stay and work overtime during the May Day holiday, I’ll pay five times the normal wage.”

“It’s completely voluntary. Nobody will be forced.”

I honestly thought the group would explode right away.

These workers usually complained the loudest about not getting overtime pay.

Now it was five times the normal rate. Work five days, and you’d make almost half a month’s usual income.

One minute passed.

Five minutes passed.

The company SnapChat group stayed dead silent.

Not even one person replied with a simple “got it.”

I frowned and walked toward the employee break room with my phone in hand.

Just as I reached the door, I heard a smug voice coming through the half-open crack.

“Everyone, whatever you do, don’t reply to him in the group.”

The one talking was Ethan, a college intern who had just been hired last month.

He was wearing a branded T-shirt and waving his phone around as he talked nonstop.

“Bosses are all heartless.”

“He says he’ll pay five times the wage. Do you really think he’ll follow through?”

“He just wants to use us like animals during the May Day holiday.”

Old Mike, who had worked in the factory for five years, was smoking.

He blew out a puff of smoke and joined in.

“Ethan makes sense.”

“I’ve been working here for years, and I’ve never seen any five times wage.”

“Let’s ignore him for now and see how anxious he gets.”

My face darkened, and I shoved the break room door open.

The discussion inside stopped dead.

I stared coldly at Ethan.

“The five-times pay is written in black and white in the group chat. That’s legal proof.”

“If you don’t want to do it, you can just go home and rest.”

Ethan curled his lip and crossed his arms with a cold laugh.

“Boss, quit trying to play games with us.”

“You need to deliver the order on the first day after the holiday.”

“If we don’t work overtime, you’ll have to pay the client a huge penalty, right?”

He pulled out his phone and shoved the screen right in front of my face.

“I already screenshot your message in the group and posted it online.”

“Now everyone online is calling you heartless for forcing employees to work overtime during the holiday.”

I only felt a surge of blood rush straight to my head.

I quickly took out my own phone and found that my private messages were already flooded.

Tens of thousands of netizens were screaming abuse at me in the comments.

“Heartless boss, all you care about is money. Hope you go bankrupt soon.”

“Report him to the mayor’s hotline right now and get the labor bureau to shut down this broken factory.”

Seeing the ugly look on my face, Ethan got even more arrogant.

“Boss, online public pressure is a big deal these days.”

“We workers are the vulnerable side.”

“You want us to work overtime to save your order, and five times pay won’t cut it.”

“We want ten times pay.”

As soon as Mike and the other old employees heard that, their eyes lit up and they started chiming in.

“Yeah, ten times pay.”

“We won’t do a single thing for less.”

I took a deep breath and forced down the anger in my chest.

I turned and strode back to my office to get the ledger for this order.

Then I slammed the ledger down hard on the table in front of them.

“Open your eyes and look clearly.”

“The total profit on this order is only five hundred thousand.”

“If I pay you five times wages, forty thousand will be cut right out.”

“The remaining one hundred thousand has to cover the factory rent for the second half of the year.”

“As the boss, I haven’t put a single cent in my own pocket from this order.”

Looking at these familiar faces, my voice even started to shake.

“I fought like hell to get this order just to keep the factory alive and keep your jobs intact.”

Mike lowered his head and looked at the ledger, and his expression softened a little.

But Ethan snatched up the ledger and threw it straight to the floor.

“Who knows if this junk ledger is fake bookkeeping meant to fool people?”

“You bosses are best at pretending to be poor.”

“I’m saying it here and now: ten times pay, not a cent less.”

“We already made a new group chat on the side.”

“We’ve all agreed. If you don’t give us ten times pay, we absolutely will not start production.”

I stared hard at Ethan’s arrogant face.

Then I looked at Mike and the other employees who had silently gone along with it.

My heart went completely cold.

I treated them like family who were going through hard times with me.

But they treated me like a sucker they could take advantage of however they wanted.

“Fine.”

“I understand.”

I bent down, picked up the ledger from the floor, and walked out of the break room without looking back.