Chapter 451 Handle It In Person
Chapter 451 Handle It In Person
While tidying up her clothes, Maria gritted her teeth. She made up her mind that she would torture James the moment she came back tonight.
She grabbed a tissue, wiping away the lipstick from his lips. "Maybe I shouldn't wipe it for you. I should just let you go out like that."
James grabbed her hand. "Leave the lipstick on. I'm going out like this!"
Maria glared at him as she forcefully removed the lipstick from his lips. She then took out a mirror from her handbag and ordered, "Hold it up!"
Although he was reluctant to do it, he still held up the mirror while she was fixing her makeup.
Once she was done, James returned her mirror, and then they walked towards the door. His arm was wrapped around her waist.
The moment his hand reached the doorknob, Maria said, "Oh, by the way. There's one more thing I need to do."
"What is it?"
She stood on tiptoe, pretending to move closer to his ear. Then, she playfully kissed his cheek, catching him off-guard.
James was at a loss for words. She had just reapplied lipstick, so her lipstick was probably on his cheek.
But before he could react, Maria opened the door of the meeting room. Afterwards, she dragged him out of the room, exposing the red lipstick on his face to everyone.
At this point, James wasn't sure what to do.
Maria just waved at him goodbye and acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "I'm leaving now. Bye, James!"
And since James couldn't chase after her like this, all he could do right now was watch her walk away happily after playing tricks on him.
Maria disappeared behind the elevator doors. While James was standing at the door of the meeting room, he shook his head helplessly and said to his secretary, "Grab me a tissue."
The secretary immediately give him what he asked for. After he wiped away the lipstick on his face, he left the meeting room calmly.
As soon as he left, the people outside the meeting room started gossiping among themselves.
"Mr. and Mrs. Xi are so in love with each other! The way he was looking at her was so sweet!"
"Mrs. Xi looked really upset earlier, but she left in a good mood. I think Mr. Xi said something sweet to her."
"Mrs. Xi is incredible! She managed to make Mr. Xi show up with lipstick on his face.
Everyone knows how much he cares about his public image."
The factory producing H Brocade was situated in the outskirts of H City, in a town called HY Town. Many of the factories had been moved to this town after the urbanization of H City.
The factory's employees had gone on strike. When they heard that the CEO was coming, they had been waiting at the gate since the break of dawn.
A few minutes before noon, two luxurious cars appeared in front of the rallying crown.
It seemed that this matter was much more drastic than Maria had expected. The workers were holding up dozens of picket signs. One said, "DS Group, give us our hard-earned money back!"
Another said, "Maria Song is a dishonest businesswoman!"
All of a sudden, someone shouted, "Ms. Song is here!" Within mere seconds, the scene became much worse than it already was. The employees who had been resting stood in attention and surrounded the two cars.
In the back of the car, there were bodyguards that James had assigned to Maria. A couple of burly men got out of the car and began to disperse the crowd away from the car.
No matter how hard the bodyguards and police tried to maintain order, it was still difficult for Maria's car to move forward.
Left with no other choice, she told the chauffeur to pull over, and then she stepped out of the car.
The sun was scorching, and it was hotter than being inside a steamer. Feeling uncomfortable, Maria blocked the sunlight with her hands. Immediately, the chauffeur unfurled an umbrella and raised it above her head. However, Maria told him to stop. And because of that, he obeyed the order and stood behind her.
Once again, the rallying cries of the employees started. "Give our money back!"
"Maria Song, do you still count as human?"
"Pay us what we deserve, Maria Song!"
Cesar Gong, the factory director, and his assistant squeezed through the crowd and reached Maria. The cries of the crowd almost made them deaf.
"Where are these people's wages?" Maria asked.
Cesar didn't seem to hear Maria until she repeated it. With a forlorn face, he replied, "Ms. Song, I haven't received the money yet!"
His answer did not please Maria. She had already asked her employees to calculate the wages yesterday, but they hadn't completed the task and the money hadn't arrived yet. They were being too slow.
Through the help of her bodyguards, Maria found a spot that she could use as a makeshift pedestal. As she glanced at the hundreds of workers, mixed emotions overcame her.
She had just found out on her way here that most of these people were from villages nearby. They had been workers of this factory since it began its operations. Sadly, they had been working for several months without even getting paid.
Many families were counting on that money to survive, but the factory had been delaying their payment up until the person in charge ran away.
"Everyone, please be quiet! Let's all listen to what Ms. Song has to say," said Cesar.
Gradually, the workers piped down, and their eyes fell on Maria.
She cleared her throat and said, "Hello, everyone. My name is Maria Song, and I'm the CEO of DS Group. I'm here to solve this problem..."
Before she could finish talking, someone from the crowd shouted, "Pay us our wages. We want our salary!"
Shortly, everyone else echoed him by chanting, "Pay us!"
Due to the commotion, Cesar spent a lot of time and effort trying to get everyone to calm down.
"I just received the news that Farris Zheng ran away with your wages," Maria continued.
"There's no way we'll listen to you! We want our money!"
"That's right! We just want our money! Stop talking nonsense."
"This woman is lying to us. No way am I going to let that happen. Let's take action!"
Amidst the commotion, several objects were hurled at Maria. A raw egg was thrown at her shoulder. Its shell was broken and the contents were spilled all over her body.
The second one hit her head, and the thick goo of the egg got into her hair.
By this point, she looked disheveled.
The moment she saw the egg falling from her hair, Maria thought of James and felt like she had been wronged.
In addition to the eggs, rotten vegetables, mineral water bottles, and even stinky shoes were thrown at her.
Upon seeing this, the bodyguards shielded Maria with their bodies.
"First, you killed your own son, and now you're deceiving us!"
As soon as one of them said that, the rest of the workers were enraged further, stirring up an even worse commotion.
"What? This woman is evil incarnate!"
"Oh, my God! She doesn't deserve to have a child!"
"Bitch, if you don't give us our money today, we'll kill you send you to meet your dead son."
One of the bodyguards pointed at the man who accused Maria of killing her son. "What are you talking about?" he shouted.
That night, the bodyguard had gone to the seaside along with James to save Tommy. With his own ears, he had heard from Rosa how Arthur had actually died.
He knew that these people were slandering Maria.
As soon as the worker saw the bodyguard charging towards him, he was shaken to his core. "Help! That man is trying to kill me! The bodyguard is going to kill us!"
Amidst the crowd, the bodyguard subdued the man, pressing him against the ground. Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.
Cesar, who had been running after them, quickly said, "Please, stop! Don't use violence."