Don't Talk Feelings-It'll Cost You Money

Late that night, the moon shone clear and the stars glittered.

Su Tianyu came to his eldest brother's room and knocked. "You asleep, Tiannan?"

"Coming." A voice answered from inside, and Su Tiannan opened the door, still dressed in a suit. "You're still up?"

"Couldn't sleep. Thought I'd come talk." Su Tianyu smiled.

"Heh, come on in." Su Tiannan stepped aside.

Su Tianyu walked inside and glanced around. Little had changed in the past few years. The room was clean and tidy, without a single unnecessary piece of furniture.

The lighting was a little dim, and sandalwood incense sat on the desk in the living room. Su Tiannan closed the door and went over to pick up the teapot. "Your timing wasn't great, little brother. The family's run into some trouble, and I can't spend much time with you right now. I'll have Miaomiao take you around later."

Su Tianyu sat down on the sofa, paused, and said, "Tiannan, I didn't come for a heart-to-heart."

Su Tiannan came over, set a cup of tea in front of him, and sat down. "What's wrong? Something else on your mind?"

Su Tianyu thought for a moment before answering. "When you were talking earlier, I heard the broad outline of what happened. I've got a few ideas."

Su Tiannan looked at his younger brother with some surprise and prompted him. "Go on, then. What are your ideas?"

"Personally, I don't think the turning point in Second Uncle's case lies with the judicial authorities. Even if we spend money pulling strings, we might not get a good outcome," Su Tianyu said bluntly. "Corruption is everywhere in Dragon City. If Changqing Company can get both the district Police Affairs Bureau and the city Police Bureau in its pocket, it won't give us an easy chance to overturn the case. To put it bluntly, can our family outspend Changqing Company? There's only one way to turn things around through the judicial authorities: use power to counter power. Unless we find a connection who can make the Police Bureau fall in line with a single word, pulling strings is a waste of effort."

Su Tiannan rested his chin on his left hand, crossed his legs, and nodded slowly. "Keep going."

"I've boiled this down to two points. First, unity within the company matters. If eight people speak up, no one might listen. If eight hundred speak up, that's a loud voice. Second, I heard you say that besides our Su Family, three other companies in Zhannan have also been framed and crushed. Why can't we join forces with them?" Su Tianyu said with a slight frown. "We don't have connections or money backing us, so we need to find a way to make the higher-ups notice us."

Perhaps influenced by his father, Su Tianyu was very good at distilling problems. He liked reducing complicated situations to their essential points, then adjusting his approach accordingly.

In Su Tiannan's mind, Su Tianyu was still a child. His younger brother had left for school at eighteen and hadn't returned for years, so his impression of Tianyu had remained fairly fixed. Yet as he listened now, he found himself unwittingly following Tianyu's lead-and thought some of what he said made sense.

"After your second uncle was locked up, everyone in the company lost heart. They think the Su Family won't make it through this, so they're all avoiding involvement. Not only are they refusing to support the company, a few managers even want to take advantage of our troubles and have us subcontract our work zones to them," Su Tiannan answered with a slight frown. "Getting them united won't be easy."

"I don't think it's hard." Su Tianyu smiled at his brother, knowing him well. "It might mean burning some bridges... and you don't want to do that."

Su Tiannan froze again at those words.

"Tiannan, management is the bridge between the company and the workers. What holds them to the company is always their interests," Su Tianyu gently urged. "Using one another is part of that. It's perfectly normal. If you don't want to handle this yourself, I'll play the villain."

Su Tiannan fell into thought.

"Why don't you call the managers together so we can talk first? If we can resolve our internal problems, we can sit down with the other three companies," Su Tianyu continued. "They could decide the charges against Second Uncle at any moment. Once they pin something like smuggling contraband on him, it'll be too late to come up with a plan."

At that, Su Tiannan slowly rose. "All right. I'll call the foremen together tomorrow."

"It's not that late yet. Why not call them tonight? The sooner we settle this, the less chance of complications." Su Tianyu actually pressed him.

"That works too. Let's head to the yard now." Su Tiannan had been thoroughly persuaded.

At the Changqing Company's headquarters in Zhannan District, a heavyset man in his forties wearing a black suit sat on a spacious leather sofa, smoking with his legs crossed. "What did Su Tiannan say?"

"He asked us for another five days." Lu Feng sprawled lazily on the sofa and rubbed his short hair. "The kid won't give up. He's probably still hoping to pull some strings at the Police Bureau and get his dad out."

The heavyset man in the black suit was Li Hongze, the boss of the Changqing Company and the head of the Changqing Group's Dragon City branch.

"Then why did you agree to give him five days?" Li Hongze asked.

"There were over a hundred people there. If I hadn't agreed, we'd have had a fight on our hands today. A fight could easily attract attention, and that wouldn't do us any good," Lu Feng answered just as concisely. "Old Wang from the Police Bureau wanted to mediate too. No need to argue with him over something we've already got in the bag. He's not one of us, after all."

Li Hongze smiled. "Ha! Zhannan's Number One Blade is using his head now. Nice. The company's getting better and better."

"Mr. Li, once we take down the Su, Bai, Liu, and Kong companies, can I have half their business?" Lu Feng asked with a grin.

Li Hongze picked up the cigarette pack, pulled one out, and tossed it to Lu Feng. "In five years, I'll make you Dragon City's top blade!"

"You got it."

About an hour and a half later, over a dozen managers had gathered in the two-story office building at the Su Family's yard in Zhannan. They each oversaw work crews in different street sectors. Some received a share of the company's profits, while others held a certain amount of non-contributing shares. They formed the backbone of the Su Family's company.

Smoke filled the room, and murmured conversations rose constantly. Su Tiannan sat on a wooden chair, his expression grave.

"Tiannan, we've all worked for the Su Family for quite a while. There are no outsiders here, so let's speak openly. If the Su Family goes under this time, what arrangements are you making for us workers? Will our pensions and employment benefits be affected? Will the year-end bonuses be paid on time?" a man in his forties asked bluntly.

"Exactly. If the Su Family hands our work zones over to the Changqing Company, what happens to our sanitation worker registrations and personnel files?" Someone immediately chimed in. His tone was aggressive too, almost an ultimatum.

Before Su Tiannan could even ask these managers for their support, they had gone on the attack. In a crisis, personal ties counted for nothing.

"Here's the situation. My youngest brother just graduated and came home, and the family has put him in charge of company affairs." Su Tiannan gestured to Tianyu beside him and said quietly, "I'll sit here and listen. Talk to him."

Everyone turned to look at Su Tianyu. Seeing how young and scholarly he looked, they immediately grew dissatisfied.

"He's a kid who's never run a sanitation business. What can we possibly work out with him?"

"Exactly. What does a kid know?"

"...!"

Su Tiannan looked at them. "I told you, I'll be right here listening. I'm not going anywhere."

Only then did everyone fall silent.

Once they had quieted down, Su Tianyu adjusted his glasses and spoke politely. "Then let me say a few words, all right?"

The managers watched Su Tianyu coldly. Some whispered among themselves, while others smoked in silence.

Su Tianyu took out the documents he had organized in the car and said expressionlessly, "My eldest brother went downtown yesterday and spoke to his connections at the Police Bureau, but the results weren't promising. Simply put, there's almost no room left to maneuver in my second uncle's case. To get him out, we'll have to pay up and hand over the Su Family company's work zones. Our family discussed it too, and we all agree we can't afford to fight the Changqing Company. So our only option is to trade the territory for his release."

No one seemed surprised by this outcome, and no one responded.

"Before we hand over the territory, we've prepared termination agreements for everyone," Su Tianyu said with a frown. "Your personnel files and sanitation worker registrations will all be returned to you individually. We can settle this month's wages, but forget about year-end bonuses. And the managers can forget about their profit shares. It's only the middle of the year, so the Management Council won't settle the year-end bonuses. Once the paperwork is handed out, you'll all have to find your own way forward."

The room erupted at those words.

"What do you mean? You're terminating our contracts and refusing to cover our year-end profit shares and bonuses? What gives you the right?"

"Exactly! You're terminating our contracts and returning our files to us personally. Isn't that the same as firing us?! Then there's no guarantee for our pensions or employment benefits either!"

"Su Tiannan, what's the meaning of this? We've worked for half a year. How can you just take away our year-end bonuses? Your Su Family caused this mess. Why should we pay for it?!"

"...!"

The moment the managers heard that the Su Family was washing its hands of them, they exploded.

Su Tiannan frowned at them without answering. Su Tianyu, meanwhile, watched them without a flicker of emotion in his eyes and continued quietly, "When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. The Su Family can't even protect itself anymore. We can't look after everyone else."

"Bullshit! We've worked for the Su Family for so long. Even if there's no affection, surely that counts for something! I'm telling you, if Second Su hadn't been locked up, he would never handle things like this!" The man in his forties who had taken the lead was practically shouting at Su Tianyu.

"Sir, first you wanted to talk about your interests, and now you want to talk about our ties. You're putting the Su Family in a difficult position," Su Tianyu replied with a smile.

"You don't know shit!" The man in his forties stood up and addressed Su Tiannan. "If this is how you're going to handle things, there's no point being reasonable. Tomorrow, we'll bring the workers over to your house and eat at your table."

Su Tiannan sighed and lowered his head, still saying nothing.

Su Tianyu adjusted his glasses and slowly stood. "Are you threatening me?"

The man looked at him. "Get lost. This has nothing to do with you."

Su Tianyu smiled at him, reached into his bag, and pulled out a small batch of employee records. He spoke concisely. "The company holds your sanitation worker registrations and personnel files. When you're hired or leave, the company submits the paperwork to the Management Council. Doesn't that mean... if I say you're a permanent employee, you are, and if I say you're a temporary worker, you're that too?"

The managers froze completely at those words.

"See? If you want to play dirty, capital can play even dirtier." Su Tianyu put down the documents. "So, sir, do you want to talk interests now, or personal ties?"

Everyone remained silent.

Su Tianyu turned to address them all. "You think the Su Family going under has nothing to do with you. You think the Sanitation Management Council can't function without workers. But is that really how it works? Once the Su Family hands over its work zones, do you think you'll still be able to make a living in sanitation? Let me tell you, you're dreaming! Why is the Changqing Company going after the Su Family? There are only thirty-odd people in our family doing sanitation work. What do they gain from taking us down? Wake up. The Changqing Company is after the eight hundred registered sanitation worker slots we hold. They're taking the work zones so their own people can have jobs. They want a monopoly. Understand, folks?"

The middle-aged man listened to Su Tianyu, thought it over carefully, then sat back down with a dark expression.

"If we don't stick together, we're dead." Su Tianyu pointed at the termination agreements on the table. "Sign the agreements or get through this with the Su Family. Decide for yourselves. Oh, right-if the company is liquidated in bankruptcy, you'll have to give back the dormitory housing the company allocated to you too."

"What if we can't beat the Changqing Company?" a man in his fifties demanded bluntly.

Su Tiannan, who had remained silent until now, stood decisively and pointed toward the yard. "I, Su Tiannan, will not let a single one of you lose out. We can put it in writing. If the Su Family goes bankrupt and hands over the business, all existing equipment and assets will belong to management. You can divide them among the workers to cover their wages."

These managers were ordinary people from poor backgrounds too. Most had brought friends, fellow townspeople, and relatives into the Su Family's company with them, and they didn't earn much over the course of a year. Their demands had always been simple: a livelihood. When that was guaranteed, ordinary people were always compliant and worked themselves to the bone contributing to society. But if anyone was foolish enough to threaten it, trouble followed. That was why so many business giants now publicly proclaimed that they cared about the people while privately urging each other to fleece them quickly. Once the fleecing was done, they still had to add, "Folks, we're always in this together."

Look back through history, and it had always been this way.

Su Tianyu had never intended to fight these people. He only wanted to harness their strength.

After the negotiations ended, Su Tiannan sat in the now-empty conference room and sighed. "They're all familiar faces. It's ugly having things come to this."

In truth, the Su Family's eldest brother understood all the reasoning. There were simply some things he was unwilling to do.

Su Tianyu sipped his tea and said quietly, "Tiannan, once we've united the company, we need to talk to the other three."

Downtown.

Su Tianbei sat in a car, holding his phone. "Can you get me a couple of guns?"

"Have you lost your mind? Your dad's already locked up, and you're still pulling this shit? What, do you want your whole family wiped out?"