Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
“Please, Mr. Chen. Deliver the water first. I’ll pay the original price!”
I sneered.
“The original price? You think I’m begging for charity?”
“Five hundred yuan a jug. Not a yuan less.”
Lin Tingting stared and shrieked.
“Five hundred? Why don’t you rob a bank?”
“It’s normally ten! That’s extortion!”
I pressed the accelerator as though about to leave.
“If you can’t afford it, move. Don’t delay someone else’s delivery.”
“You—”
Just then, Zhao Gang and the chairman hurried out with a crowd behind them.
Drenched in sweat, the chairman lit up at the sight of the water.
“I’m Shenghao’s chairman!”
“We’ll take the whole load. Five hundred a jug, fine!”
“Get it inside. Someone’s going to die in there!”
I set the handbrake, climbed down, and looked at them coldly.
“You can buy the water.”
“But I have a rule.”
He faltered.
“What rule? Whatever gets the water inside, I’ll agree.”
I pointed to Lin Tingting on the ground, then Zhao Gang.
“Yesterday, your Director Lin made a rule.”
“Water delivery workers aren’t worthy of the lift. They must carry the jugs up thirty-six floors.”
“I’m a reasonable man. If it’s a Shenghao rule, it must be followed.”
“I’m not carrying today’s water.”
“If you want to drink, those two can take it inside, jug by jug.”
**Part 7**
Silence fell.
Zhao Gang flushed and pointed at me.
“Who the hell are you? You want me to carry water?”
“One phone call, and you’ll never work in this district again!”
I wasn’t indulging him. I took out my phone.
“Fine. Sit here and wait to die.”
“Crew, back up. We’re going next door!”
The chairman panicked.
He slapped Zhao Gang across the face.
“Shut up!”
“You made this mess, and you’re still throwing your title around?”
“Carry the damned water!”
“If it isn’t done in ten minutes, you and Lin Tingting are fired. You’ll also repay every loss!”
Zhao Gang held his face, staring in disbelief.
But the murderous look in the chairman’s eyes cowed him.
He gritted his teeth and glared at Lin Tingting.
“All because of you, you useless idiot!”
“Get over here and carry!”
In her fitted skirt and high heels, she approached the truck in despair.
She tried to lift a twenty-kilogram jug. Halfway up, her hands gave out.
It crashed onto her foot.
She screamed and collapsed.
Zhao Gang fared little better. His beer belly thrust out, he took two steps with a jug and was already panting like a dog.
I leaned against the cab and started recording on my phone.
“Faster, Deputy Manager Zhao. Director Lin.”
“Over a thousand people are waiting.”
“And don’t forget the stairs.”
His eyes bulged.
“We need stairs for the ground-floor lobby?”
I shrugged.
“Yesterday, Director Lin said delivery workers couldn’t use the passenger lift because they’d dirty the floor.”
“You’re delivery workers now. Naturally, you use the service entrance at the side.”
The chairman ground his teeth, but for the company’s sake could only roar:
“Didn’t you hear Mr. Chen?”
“Do it!”
Utterly defeated, the two gritted their teeth, shouldered the water, and inched toward the service entrance.
Inside the glass doors, clients and employees gathered to point at them.
“Serves them right. They gave us poisoned water. Now look.”
“Isn’t that Deputy Manager Zhao? Usually so arrogant. Now he looks utterly pathetic.”
“Director Lin’s precious cost-cutting. How’s that working out?”
Flashes kept firing as everyone photographed their humiliation.
Ten minutes later, they finally dragged and staggered all hundred jugs into the lobby.
Zhao Gang collapsed on the floor, suit soaked, tie crooked.
One of Lin Tingting’s heels had snapped. Her foot was hugely swollen. She lay facedown, unable to rise.
The attendants hurried forward to open the water and distribute it to the guests.