Chapter 452 On Fire
Chapter 452 On Fire
The bodyguard lifted the man by his collar, dragging him through the crowd. Meanwhile, Maria's assistant wiped her hair with a wet tissue. "Ms. Song, what should I do with this one?" he asked.
Maria glanced at the worker and said to her bodyguard, "Let him go!"
She could tell that many of these people had been bribed to participate in the rally.
Due to his anger, the bodyguard want to disagree. "But-"
"I said let him go!" Maria interrupted.
The sternness of her voice compelled the bodyguard to let the worker go. At once, the worker rushed into the crowd, disappearing.
Maria stopped her assistant from cleaning her up. With a piercing gaze, she looked at the women who had hit her and said, "The reason I'm here today is to solve this problem. If anyone dares to use violence again or try to hurt an innocent person, I won't show them mercy!" Material © NôvelDrama.Org.
The women felt guilty for what they had done; they stepped back, holding their baskets tightly.
"I won't let anyone speak ill of me again! That man who just ran away, I will make him pay for doing so. Perhaps he'll be able to go home, have a meal, and take a shower, but he'll be receiving a letter from my lawyer very soon!" Maria announced. That wretched man had no escape because the net of justice was infallible.
Due to Maria's warning, the crowd's blatant disrespect of her had died down.
"No matter what platitudes I say, and no matter how many times I say it, the best thing to do would be to give you the wages."
The workers were in agreement with her. "Yes, that's right."
"Indeed, Ms. Song. We don't want to cause trouble either. We just want our wages!"
Maria took out her phone and called the manager of the finance department. Once the manager received her call, he was put in a very difficult situation. "Ms. Song, it's not that I don't want to transfer the money; it's just that the company has already allocated money for several other projects. We can't take out that much cash at the moment. Can we please make them wait two more days?"
'Two more days?'
Maria looked at the hundreds of pairs of expectant eyes before her. None of them were greedy. They were just waiting for the money they deserved; money that they pinned their hopes on to continue living.
Shortly, she hung up the call. Unfortunately, DS Group couldn't afford that much money for the time being. Fosun Entertainment Group and DS Group were two different companies. It wouldn't be impossible for her to use Fosun Entertainment Group's money. However, if she didn't follow the formal processes, this would be illegal.
In the end, she said to Cesar, "Give me the bank account number of the finance department." She still had something that could save her situation-her own savings.
"Yes, Ms. Song."
Once she had transferred millions of dollars to distribute to the workers on the spot, Maria was faced with another problem. She had gone beyond her withdrawal limit.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to call the only person that could save her: James. "I need your help. I'll give you an account number. Please transfer five million dollars to the account."
A few minutes after she sent her account number to James, she received the five million dollars.
Maria felt warm. Whenever she was in a bind, James would stop at nothing to help her.
An hour later, Maria sent him another message, saying, "I need another five million dollars."
There were hundreds of workers. Adding to their regular salaries, bonuses and overtime pay for several months should be given to them as well. Maria had spent nearly twenty million dollars to settle all accounts.
By the time the matter was settled, it was already dark. However, the problem with the partners still hadn't been solved.
In the evening, Cesar arranged a banquet at a restaurant. Maria invited all the partners to attend.
Just when she was about to enter the restaurant, she caught sight of Summer. At first, she thought that her eyes were deceiving her. But upon closer inspection, she realized that it was actually Summer, walking towards her.
"Maria," she greeted.
"What are you doing here, Summer?" Maria wasn't expecting to see her here.
There were two other people standing behind Summer. "Mr. Xi asked me to be here. He mentioned that you haven't settled the problem with your partners yet, so you probably need the money. These two are bankers sent by Mr. Xi. Maria, if you need money, no matter how much it might be, they'll transfer it to you."
Maria was so speechless. 'Wow, James is so powerful.'
Suppressing the gratitude she felt, Maria nodded and said, "In that case, let's go inside and have dinner first!"
Now that she had the liquidity to pay the loss of the partners, this matter was solved much easier. She also promised that she would give them an additional two percent of the profits after the goods had been delivered, despite the fact that the wholesale price would remain the same.
Later that evening, Maria didn't go home yet because she had to keep comforting the workers tomorrow and persuade them into continuing working for the factory.
After she went out of the restaurant, she told Summer to go back to the hotel first.
Afterwards, she went back to the factory along with her chauffeur and Cesar. This factory was ten thousand square meters wide.
Maria went to the warehouse to check the goods. At present, there were already many products in stock, ready to packaged and released at any given moment.
At her side, Cesar said, "Before Farris left, he urged the workers to go on strike, and said that the company was refusing to pay them their wages."
"It's my fault that it happened." Maria thought that the reason she was betrayed was because she was too trusting. Farris was just one of many. His sincere and loyal demeanor had her fooled.
Despite the fact that it was already summer, the temperature in the town wasn't that hot. When they went to the packaging room, a man rushed in from outside. "Bad news!"
Maria's heart sank at once. As he caught his breath, the man said, "The products are on fire!"
Maria wasn't sure how to react to that.
Just now, the products perfectly fine. How did a fire start within a few minutes?
Immediately, they all ran towards the warehouse that stored the products.
The second they stepped out of the packing room, thick smoke rising from a certain direction greeted them. Judging by the density of the smoke, the fire wasn't small. Maria was getting more and more anxious by the second.
Sure enough, when they went into the warehouse, they found that half of the large room had been set ablaze, and there were already many people going in and out to put out the fire.
"Have you called fire service?" asked Maria.
"Yes, Ms. Song."
"Good. Do what you can to stop this fire, and wait until help arrives."
Maria was about to rush into the warehouse, but her driver stopped her. "Ms. Song, it's too dangerous to go inside!" "It's fine. I'm just going to take a quick look inside. I'll be careful!" Shortly afterwards, she shook the chauffeur's hand away and walked forward.
The size of the fire rendered everyone unable to get close to it. Those who had enough courage to try and put it out were now too scared to get any closer. The water they had brought was only a drop in a bucket. And all they could do was watch as the fire devoured all their inventory.
Thick smoke billowed, causing Maria to cough.
Just then, she caught sight of a figure at the corner of the warehouse not far away.
"Who's there?" she asked.
Upon hearing her voice, the person hiding in the corner immediately ran away.
There must be something fishy about that person. Without hesitation, Maria ran after the strange man.
The chauffeur and Cesar exchanged glances before they ran after her.
There was a back door in the warehouse, which the strange man used to escape.
Maria also went through the door, but before she could see which direction the culprit was heading towards, a voice stopped her in her tracks. "Don't move!" Suddenly, two people appeared from behind her. One of them pressed a gun against her temple, and the other was holding a dagger to her throat.
By the time the chauffeur arrived, it was all too late. He could do nothing but watch as the dagger was pressed against Maria's neck.
Taking out his gun and pointing it at the two criminals wouldn't make a difference.
Nobody had expected that something like this would happen to Maria in the factory. It turned out that what happened today was just a setup for something far bigger and more sinister than they had imagined.
In H City Restaurant
James was talking business with some government officials when his phone vibrated on the table. He glanced at the caller ID and found that it was from Maria's chauffeur.
"Mr. Xi, something bad happened to Mrs. Xi!" said the chauffeur.
James was too devastated to speak.