Chapter 223 - Didn’t Really Spend Any Money

Translator: Lav

Editor: Seliniaki Ilikia

When the new deputy factory manager took over, the factory made swift and decisive adjustments of the staff and the iron-like factory director Li Peisong finally stepped down. The excuse given by the factory was that, for his new post, he would be relieved of his previous duties as the factory director and other arrangements would be made. However, everyone knew that Li Peisong had reached his end. The only thing that was waiting for him was most likely a letter of dismissal.

After that, the deputy factory manager, Yang Ruicai, convened a staff delegation meeting in which he declared the decision of the police to arrest Qin Huaiyuan and also announced the head office’s decision to fire Qin Huaiyuan according to the contract.

Yang Ruicai wept bitter tears on stage and expressed how bitter and hateful the parent company felt toward this, constantly expressing that the higher levels of the company didn’t supervise Dahua Electronics enough, especially the recent cut in staff. Finally, he declared that more than ten people over fifty years old who had been fired with unjust reasons were invited to return to the factory. Everyone was there except for the injured Shi Zhongping. His wife attended in his stead.

Needless to say, Yang Ruicai was excellent at acting. He bowed at a ninety degree angle and apologized to every single worker who was over fifty years old. Then he personally handed each of them a new letter of appointment, which naturally won applause and cheers from the representatives of the staff.

Shi Zhongping didn’t accept the position of director in the factory since he felt that he was just an ordinary worker and the highest position he ever worked was the vice director of the workshop. Hence, he didn’t feel that he was capable of being the director. Yang Ruicai expressed that he understood, but also invited him to take charge as the chairman of the labor union. This duty had almost nothing to do with production. It was simply for the purpose of coordinating the relationship between the workers and the departments of the factory. Shi Zhongping still declined, but under Yang Ruicai’s insistence, he eventually reluctantly accepted.

Hence, the position of the new factory director was taken by a former vice director, but due to his incapability of coordinating the relations between the workers and departments of the factory, the representatives of the staff voted to dismiss him from his post after getting scolded by Yang Ruicai. They quickly elected a new candidate to work as the factory director. All the representatives had already been notified beforehand by Yang Ruicai, so Shi Zhongping’s election didn’t encounter any problems.

Since Shi Zhongping was temporarily unable to work, the work for the labor union was covered by the vice director. And finally, after Yang Ruicai’s countless apologies, he handed a check of one million yuan to Shi Lei’s mother and begged for her forgiveness in tears.

After this torment, Shi Zhongping’s hospital room’s door was instantly broken.

All the factory leaders naturally paid visits to express their sympathy and give their well wishes. They weren’t too clear on what exactly had happened, not to mention the power Shi Lei had demonstrated because of this. All they knew was that Shi Lei had solved this with the help of some others and sent Qin Huaiyuan to the jail with his own hands (he wasn’t in the jail at the moment, but it was already final). Just going by the fact that Shi Zhongping was going take the position of factory director after he recovered, they naturally had to come and wish him well.

After them were Shi Zhongping’s former colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances, and friends. Although Shi Lei and his mother were rather unhappy about the fact that these people had kept their mouths shut during the incident, they knew that they did it because they were afraid of Qin Huaiyuan and his abuse of authority. How could ordinary workers and citizens like them stand up to a factory manager? Shi Lei especially understood that if he was just the ordinary university student he had been before, this would have definitely ended with Qin Huaiyuan getting away with his misdeeds and his family losing everything. So Shi Lei and his mother didn’t show their dissatisfaction to them, although it was clear from their att.i.tude that they were not as close to them as before.

He spent the New Year’s Day at home and his parents were worried that it would negatively affect his studies. Under their urging, he eventually returned, although he didn’t feel like it was that important.

Before he left, Shi Lei met up with Hu Xiaohua and Jiang Yuanchao and treated them to a meal as a token of grat.i.tude for their help.

As for Qin Huaiyuan’s mansion, it was the property of Dahua Electronics anyway and Yang Ruicai naturally wouldn’t be senseless enough to really ask them to pay compensation for its destruction, so the problem was settled by leaving it unsettled.

Shi Lei told Hu Xiaohua and Jian Yuanchao to definitely contact him if they ever went to Wudong, to which they agreed. After that, he finally returned to Wudong.

Shi Lei hadn’t told Sun Yiyi about the unforeseen events at home. He only said that he went back a few days earlier to get ready for New Year’s with his parents during the winter holiday. After he returned to Wudong, Shi Lei noticed that the house he had rented was spotless. It was obvious that it was Sun Yiyi who had come to clean it, so he called her.

“Brother s.h.i.tou, are you back in Wudong?”

Shi Lei laughed. “Yup. My parents asked me to bring some things for auntie, so I’ll send it over later.”

He hung up after they exchanged a few sentences, beginning to calculate the amount of money he had spent this month.

He had less than ten days before the end of the consumption period. Before he went to Runzhou, he had spent about 200,000 yuan. When he was in Runzhou, although Shi Lei had paid for the medical expenses, he was certain that the Black Card wouldn’t include this money as a consumption, since all the medical fees would eventually be covered by Dahua Electronics. And for this amount of money, Yang Ruicai had expressed that Dahua Electronics had already reimbursed them for the actual expenses, so Shi Lei didn’t have to worry about any of the follow-ups.

He rented the car for about a week’s time. Including the payment for food and accommodation for the driver in Runzhou, that was approximately 20,000 yuan in total.

He bought a bulldozer for the price of 100,000 yuan, but its real value was only about 10,000 or 20,000 yuan. Shi Lei was ready to use his own funds to cover this hole. However, he felt that this wasn’t as simple as it looked. Maybe he wouldn’t have to cover for anything, and would instead earn some sort of reward from the Black Card.

Although it appeared like Shi Lei had spent more money than it was worth to buy that broken thing, it had been that broken thing that had demolished the walls of the mansion and even destroyed the main entrance. Shi Lei estimated that the expenses to renovate and rebuild the walls and front door would at least be 100,000 or 200,000 yuan. Considering that the Black Card would count the extensions of some consumptions, Shi Lei felt that he had a pretty high chance of not only not having to cover for the extra expenses with his own money, but also receiving some sort of reward.

Of course, Shi Lei could only wait to confirm it with the Scepter when he went to consult it about how much money he had left to spend on the last or the second to last day of the consumption period. Regardless, Shi Lei had enough free funds to cover the hole and he wasn’t in a hurry to verify it. Then, there was the series of expenses in Runzhou, which was mostly the cost of meals. This was slightly complicated. From his former speculations, if Wei Xingyue and Wei Qing were considered to be his friends, then Hu Xiaohua and Jiang Yuanchao could somewhat be considered as his friends, since they helped him and he also had interactions with them afterward.

But it was hard with w.a.n.g Hua’an and the others. They sat around the same table. Some were his friends and some weren’t, and he had yet to understand how the consumption would work for that.

Of course, it wasn’t too expensive. Even if he calculated it per capita, w.a.n.g Huayuan and the others’ consumptions wouldn’t exceed 10,000 yuan, so it wasn’t a big deal since Shi Lei could fill it in himself.

In general, including the cost of eating and drinking in Runzhou these past few days and the things he had bought for his parents (of course, Shi Lei had already confirmed that they were already either using it or eating it), the amount he’d spent was close to 100,000 yuan.

Roughly calculating, Shi Lei currently had about 500,000 yuan left in his hands. But there was about 100,000 yuan of consumptions that Shi Lei wasn’t exactly sure whether it would be counted within the sum or not. In other words, the highest amount of money Shi Lei had left for this month was about 600,000 yuan and the lowest was about 500,000 yuan.

There were nine days left and he had a lot of things to do. Shi Lei had to activate his frantic shopaholic mode.