Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

Fusheng looked at the safe opposite, with a sad expression on his face.It was early morning and he was in the office of the Strong Spring Company.Mr. Lake hadn't arrived yet. He should have been in a hurry to do the accounts at this time, but now, his attention was all attracted by the safe.It squatted there, as if mocking him, and the curling cigarette did not invite the gods and Buddhas to open it. Since the landing incident, the safe has never been opened again, and the foreign devil named Lake is always peeping behind him, asking about the accounts, and tentatively asking this and that.Meanwhile, the manure giants are still waiting.Fusheng saw him twice more after that meeting.He has always been very patient, but Fusheng can still feel the growing impatience. Maybe he would prefer to take over this task by himself.The window of opportunity is closing.

Fusheng scribbled numbers in his ledger to cover up his own pockets from the funds for the makeshift reels.Should he risk becoming prime suspect and open the safe the easiest way?There are tools in the factory that can break through the iron sheet in a few hours.Wouldn't that be better than keeping the manure giants waiting?Perhaps the godfather of godfathers is plotting to take matters into his own hands.Fusheng hesitated.Both options are extremely risky and make his hair stand on end.If the safe was breached, his face would surely appear on the wanted poster posted on the lamppost, and it would be very bad to be the enemy of the "foreign devil" now.The power of the Ministry of Trade is rising, and Francois also rises to heaven.News of white shirt insults arrives every day.The Tiger of Bangkok has now shaved his head and become a monk, stripped of his family and property.

What if Mr. Lake is completely wiped out?Perhaps as he was walking down the street, a dagger came out of nowhere and stabbed him in the chest?This method is simpler.It doesn't even cost anything.As long as there is 1.5 baht as payment, Smile Zhan will be happy to take this job.In this case, that "foreign devil" would no longer be able to cause Fusheng any trouble. The knock on the door awakened Fu Sheng who was in deep thought.He straightened up and stuffed the newly made ledger under the desk, "What's the matter?" It was Amai, the skinny girl on the production line, who knocked on the door.She bowed her head in salute, and Fu Sheng felt a little more relaxed. "Khun, there's trouble."

He picked up a cloth to wipe off the ink on his hands, "Really? What's the trouble?" Her eyes flicked across the room, "It would be best if you could come and see. Just you." There was a definite air of terror emanating from her.The hair on the back of Fusheng's neck almost stood up.She was not much older than a child.He's done her a lot of favors, and he's given her an extra bonus when she crawled into the drive-chain catwalk to investigate the damage... yet there's something about her behavior that reminds him of Malay Man's actions when he begins to deal with his fellow man.His workers had been loyal and grateful back then, but suddenly they couldn't look him in the eye anymore.If he was smart, he should have seen the change in the limelight then.

Now it's Ah Mai again, looking like he has a ghost in his heart.Does this mean they are ready to attack him?Send a little girl who looks harmless to humans and animals as bait?Is this the end of the yellow card people?Is the manure baron ready to take on him?Fu Sheng pretended to be indifferent.The eyes were fixed on her, and the body sitting on the chair was slightly straight. "If you have something to say," he said in a low voice, "say it now, say it here." She hesitated, her fear becoming more apparent. "Is Fran here?" Fusheng glanced at the clock on the wall.It was six o'clock. "He won't be here for an hour or two. He's seldom early."

"Please, you must come here yourself." It seems must go.He nodded slightly, "Okay, I'll go with you." He stood up and walked towards her.What a pretty girl.Of course, they had to send someone who was prettier.She doesn't look threatening.He scratched his back, pulled out the hem of his shirt, pulled out the dagger hidden inside, hid that hand behind his back, and gradually approached her.He waited until the last moment... He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her toward her, the blade of the dagger at her throat. "Who sent you? The Manure Giant? White Shirt? Who?"

She gasped for breath, but she couldn't break free, and if she moved a little harder, the dagger would have cut her throat. "I did it myself!" "Do you think I'm a fool?" He cut her skin with a little force, "Who is it?" "I really did it myself! I swear!" Her body trembled violently with fear, but Fu Sheng didn't let her go. "What are you trying to say? Are you keeping some secret from me? Say it now." The dagger on her neck brought her great pressure, and she gasped violently, "No! Khun! I swear! There is no secret! But...but..."

"how?" She leaned against him, "White shirt," she whispered, "if the white shirt finds out..." "I'm not a white shirt." "It's Aji, Aji is sick. And Sriman. Both of them are sick. Please. I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose my job. I don't know what to do. Please don't tell Farang ...everyone knows that Farang might close the factory. Please. My family needs... please, don't tell Farang." She began to sob, leaning against him, begging him as if he were hers The savior, unaware that he was threatening her with a knife.

Fu Sheng frowned, put away the knife, and suddenly felt old.This is the price of living in fear.He even suspected a thirteen-year-old girl, thinking that she would lead him to death.He felt sick.He didn't even dare to look her in the eye. "You should have said it earlier," he said in a gruff voice, "Silly boy. It's better to say something like this." He turned up his shirt and put the dagger back in its sheath. "Take me to see your friend." She wiped away her tears carefully.She doesn't hold grudges, and she's as resilient as any other young man.Now that the crisis was over, she obediently led him out of the office.

In the workshop below, workers are coming to work one after another.The door was open, and sunlight flooded the great hall.The smell of feces swirled in the sun with the dust.Amai led him through the purification room, past the gray residue, into the cutting room. Seaweed is drying in the shade hanging above its head, giving off the fishy smell of sea water.She led him past the cutting machine and under the production line.On the other side are rows of seaweed tanks, smelling of salt and life.More than half of the tanks showed signs of declining yields, with algae barely covering the surface water.Under normal circumstances, the thickness of the seaweed layer in the culture tank should grow at least four inches overnight.

"There." Ah Mai pointed in one direction and whispered.Aji and Sriman lay against the wall.The two raised their heads and looked at Fusheng with dull eyes.Fusheng knelt down on one knee beside them, but did not touch them. "Did they have dinner together?" "I don't think so. They're not friends." "Second-generation tuberculosis? Rust? No." He shook his head. "I'm a silly old man. I'm useless. It shouldn't be these two diseases. There is no blood on their lips." Aggie groaned and tried to sit up.Fusheng backed away quickly, restraining himself from wiping his hands with his shirt.The man named Slimang looked worse. "What is this person in charge of?" Amai hesitated for a moment, "I think he is responsible for adding nutrients to the breeding tank, pouring large bags of fish food into the breeding tank." Goosebumps appeared on Fusheng's skin.In order to please Mr. Anderson, full production, he ordered the resumption of use of contaminated culture tanks.Now, these two patients are lying next to these culture tanks.Is this a coincidence?He shivered, his eyes searching the room for suspicious signs.Water overflowing from the culture tanks wet the floor and pooled in small puddles at the mouth of the rusted drain.Clumps of seaweed littered the damp floor, living on leftover nutrients.If there is really a problem with the cultivation tank, there will be sources of infection everywhere. Fusheng subconsciously wanted to wipe his hands clean, but he stopped suddenly, and goose bumps appeared on his skin again.The off-white powder from the purification room stuck to his hands, and when he pushed open the curtain just now, it had already left marks on the curtain.He was surrounded by potential sources of infection.Overhead hung seaweed drying in the shade, in rows that made the room as dark as a warehouse.A drop of water fell from one of the boards and smashed to pieces on the floor at his feet.Seeing this drop of water, he suddenly heard a sound that he had never noticed when the factory was full of people.But on this still morning, the sound seemed to be everywhere: it was water droplets falling from the seaweed drying board, like light rain falling on the ground.Fusheng straightened up suddenly, fighting fiercely with the panic in his heart. Do not be silly.You can't be sure it's algae.Death comes in a variety of ways.That could be any disease. In the silence, Aggie's rapid breathing sounded rather strange.His chest rose and fell, making a sound like a bellows. "Do you think this disease is contagious?" Ah Mai asked. Fusheng gave her an annoyed look, "Don't say that! Do you want to attract demons or white shirts? If the news gets out, they will seize the factory. We will starve like the Yellow Card people." "But……" Voices echoed from the main hall of the factory. "Don't talk, child." Fusheng signaled her to keep quiet, while he thought quickly.It would be a disaster if White Shirt came to investigate.That was the perfect reason Mr. "Foreign Devil" Lake needed, so he could close the factory and fire Fusheng.He'd be sent to starve to death in a building where the Yellow Cards lived, even though he'd come so far, so close to his goal. The sounds of workers greeting each other can be heard from elsewhere in the factory.A gigantic elephant moans.The hinges creaked.Someone started a test run of the production line, and the main flywheel started to move. "What should we do?" Amai asked. Fusheng glanced at the cultivation tanks and machines around him.No one has entered this room yet. "Are you the only one who knows they're sick?" Ah Mai nodded, "I only saw the two of them when I came in." "Are you sure? You didn't mention this to anyone before you came to me? No one else came into this room? No one was here with you, or maybe saw these two off work?" Amai shook his head, "No, I came here by myself. I took a farmer's boat near the city. He took me here in a long-tailed boat along the canal. I always come early." Fusheng looked down at the two patients, and then at the girl.There are four people in the room.four.He shivered involuntarily.This number is too unlucky.Four, is death.Why not a better number like three, two... Or, one. For secrets, one is the ideal number.Fusheng was thinking about the girl, and subconsciously reached out to touch the knife at his waist.That would be a mess, but at least no worse than four. The girl's long black hair was coiled on top of her head in a round bun so as not to get caught in the running equipment.Her neck is completely exposed.There was a look of trust in her eyes.Fu Sheng turned his gaze and looked at the two people lying on the ground again, calculating that ominous number in his mind.Four, four, four.die.One is clearly better.One is the best.He took a deep breath and made a decision.He held out his hand and motioned to her, "Come here." She hesitated.He frowned at her and motioned her to come closer. "You want to keep your job, right?" She nodded slowly. "Then you come here. These two have to be taken to the hospital, right? We can't help them here. Besides, two sick people lying next to the incubators are not doing any of us any good. We still have to eat. Get them out of here." Get up and find me by the side door. Don't go through the hall, go through the side door. Take them under the production line, take the employee-only passage, and come out the side door, do you understand?" She nodded hesitantly.He clapped his palms together, and the girl started to move immediately. "Hurry up! Hurry up! You have to pull them hard if necessary!" He gestured to the two patients. "The workers are coming soon. This kind of secret is too much for one person to know. Four people. We have to make it a secret for at least two people. Anything is better than four." Four means death. She took a panicked breath, then narrowed her eyes determinedly.She crouched down and began to drag Aggie's body.Fusheng stared at her to confirm that she had started working, and then bent down and got out of the room. In the main hall of the factory, people are still storing their lunch boxes, talking and laughing.No one is in a hurry to work.Thai people are lazy.If it is a yellow card Chinese, they are already working, and everything will be exposed.For the first time Fu Sheng felt happy working with Thai people.That means he still has a little time.He ran out through the side door of the factory. The alley outside was empty.High factory walls crowded the narrow roads.Fusheng ran in the direction of Horsley Street, which was full of breakfast stalls and children in rags.A rickshaw flashed by at the intersection. "Hey!" he yelled, "Samiloh! Samloh! Wait a minute!" But he was too far away. Dragging his injured knee, he limped to the intersection and happened to see another rickshaw.He waved to the coachman.The coachman looked back to see if there were any other business-robbing colleagues, and then he stepped on the pedal listlessly, taking advantage of the small slope on the street, and drove towards Fusheng effortlessly. "Hurry up!" Fu Sheng yelled, "Hurry up, you bastard!" The driver ignored the swearing and stopped the car, "Did you call me, Khun?" Fusheng climbed into the car and waved his hand into the alley, "I have a guest for you, but you have to hurry up." The coachman mumbled something and drove into the narrow alley.The chain on the bicycle rattled leisurely.Fu Sheng clenched his teeth. "I'll pay double. Hurry up, hurry up!" he urged the driver. The coachman stomped on the pedals, but the car still struggled like a gigantic elephant.Amai's figure appeared in front of him.For a while, Fusheng worried that she might be too stupid to expose the two patients before the rickshaw arrived, but Aji was not in his field of vision.It wasn't until the rickshaw was close enough that she slipped back through the door and dragged out one of the already incoherent workers. Seeing the worker's body, the driver couldn't help but shudder, but Fusheng leaned over from behind him and said in a hoarse voice, "Three times the pay." He grabbed Aji and put him on the seat of the rickshaw. There was no time to protest.Ah Mai's figure entered the door again. The coachman looked at Aji, "What's wrong with this man?" "Too much to drink," Fusheng said. "He and his friends. If the boss sees them, he will fire them." "He doesn't look like he's drunk." "You read it wrong." "No. This man looks like..." Fusheng stared into the driver's eyes, "If the white shirt will catch me, of course they will catch you too. He is sitting on your seat now, and you are already within his breathing range." The driver's eyes widened.He flinched back immediately.Fu Sheng nodded in satisfaction, but he still stared at the coachman, "It's useless to complain now, if I say they're drunk, they're drunk. I'll pay you three times when you come back." Ah Mai comes out again, dragging another worker.Fusheng helped put him on the seat, and urged Ahmai to get on the rickshaw with the two patients. "To the hospital," he said, leaning towards her again, "but not to the same hospital, understand?" Amai nodded quickly. "Very good, smart girl." Fusheng took a step back, "Then let's go! Go!" The driver immediately stepped on the pedal desperately, and the speed of the car was much faster than before.Fusheng watched them leave, three passengers and a coachman, their heads bouncing up and down on the uneven cobblestone road.He frowned again.Another four is definitely an unlucky number.He tried to drive away the panic.These days, his mind is barely able to contemplate any strategy.He's become an old man who jumps at the sight of a shadow. Would he feel better if Amai, Aji, and Sriman were drowning in the murky waters of the Chao Phraya River, eating red fin fish?Wouldn't he be safer if they were torn to pieces unrecognizable by the hungry fish? Four, is death. He got goosebumps all over again.The illness was so close to him, he subconsciously wiped his hands back and forth on his pants.He'd have to take a shower and scrub his body with chloroform bleach, hoping it would help.The rickshaws carrying the sick were out of sight.Fusheng walked back to the factory.The rumble of the production line trial run, and the sound of people greeting each other make the workshop full of life. It must be a coincidence, he prayed.It must not be a problem with the production line.