Becoming a Billionaire From Awakening a System

Chapter 226: Chapter 226: News Spreads, Protest from Local Residents

For the past two days, a piece of news had been circulating among the residents of Cyan Mountain Town.

At first, everyone thought it was good news.

After all, a new industry moving into town would boost local employment and the economy.

And the chemical company, feeling confident it was a done deal, had already started posting job openings in Cyan Mountain Town.

But as the news spread, its flavor began to change.

”Hey, have you heard? That new factory hiring in town... it’s no good!”

The folks gathered and chatting in the residential community always had the best gossip.

”What do you mean, ’no good’?”

”My husband just went to apply yesterday!”

Everyone was paying close attention to this new factory.

Mainly because the wages offered by the new chemical plant were quite high.

”You can’t go! They say that factory isn’t up to anything good. Who knows what they’re really doing? The pay is high, but what if your health gets ruined?”

The woman spreading the news downstairs said this with a look of pity.

”What’s really going on? Don’t keep us in suspense, Granny Chen!”

An old man next to her looked anxious.

It was precisely because of the high salary that both of his sons had gone to apply today.

When it was a personal matter, people naturally grew anxious.

Seeing the curiosity and anxiety on everyone’s faces, Granny Chen didn’t keep them in suspense any longer.

She spoke right up, ”I’ve got some inside information. That factory doesn’t do simple processing work.”

”It’s a chemical plant. I heard the pollution was so bad in its last town that they had to move it here!”

”The workers there before breathed in those toxic fumes every day, and their bodies were ruined within a few years!”

”You earn all that money, but in the end, it’s not even enough to cover your medical bills.”

Granny Chen told the story so vividly it sounded true.

Moreover, Granny Chen even mentioned the factory’s name.

”Go home and search for it yourselves. My son looked it up online and said all this news is true.”

”The factory really was driven out. It was useless for the old workers to fight for their rights. All the money they earned went to medical check-ups!”

”Uncle Yu, you have to tell your sons not to go! This is blood money!”

After hearing Granny Chen finish her story, the faces of the others turned grim.

This chemical company was planning to use Boss Tian’s entire plot of land to build its factory.

The scale of it was immense.

They were hiring a lot of people in Cyan Mountain Town, too.

Almost everyone had a few relatives who had applied.

Now that they knew this, they all mulled it over and felt this money wasn’t worth earning.

”No, I have to go home and have my son look this up online properly. If this is true, we can’t be careless!”

Uncle Yu sighed. Forgetting all about his evening chess game, he turned and hurried away on his cane.

Vice President Li was sitting in a nearby teahouse.

Among the small groups of people in the teahouse, some were spreading the same news, just like Granny Chen had.

Vice President Li had chosen his target audience perfectly.

Not the young and able-bodied, but the elderly.

The word-of-mouth among these seniors, combined with their concern for the younger generation in their families, would ensure the news spread like wildfire.

In just half a day, the news that the new chemical plant had a toxic work environment had spread throughout all of Cyan Mountain Town.

The news, coming from their own elders, sounded vivid and true.

This made the younger people take note, and one by one, they went online to search for information about the chemical plant.

They wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t looked, but what they found gave them quite a shock.

All of Vice President Li’s prior homework had not been in vain.

The problems were real.

And in previous news reports about this chemical plant, there were indeed workers who had developed cancer due to the work environment.

Some media outlets had gathered these people and even produced programs about them.

Unfortunately, this news wasn’t widely reported, appearing only in local tabloids.

However, this information alone was enough.

After all, the young people were just trying to see if there was any truth to the matter.

Now, it seemed the story was indeed true.

A wave of fear washed over some of them.

Thankfully, the factory hadn’t completely relocated yet.

The hiring was just preliminary recruitment.

If they had actually started working there and signed a contract, it would have been difficult to leave.

”Dad, that factory is exactly like you said!”

Uncle Yu’s son shivered, his face etched with lingering fear.

When Uncle Yu learned the news was true, his expression also turned ugly.

”These factories are truly heartless, insisting on bringing this kind of business to our town!”

”What were the higher-ups thinking? How could they approve a factory like this to come here?”

As a young person, it was easy for him to figure it out.

”Isn’t it because bringing this factory in means big money?”

”But you said the pollution from the factory is that bad... The water source in the last place was contaminated. I heard the river turned black and stank so bad you couldn’t even drink from it!”

”And they ruined the land, too. You can’t even grow crops in that area anymore!”

Uncle Yu’s son, Brother Yu, kept searching for news as he spoke with dismay.

Hearing his son say this, Uncle Yu’s expression grew even uglier.

The outskirts of town were all farmland.

Although it wasn’t too close to the land for Boss Tian’s factory, if this factory was really that destructive, the farmland on the outskirts would probably be affected to some degree.

Although Uncle Yu had been retired for two years, he still had some influence in the community.

Hearing what his son said, he didn’t care that it was already past nine at night. He turned to leave.

”Dad, where are you going? It’s so late!”

Brother Yu closed his laptop and turned to ask.

Leaning on his cane, Uncle Yu said with a solemn expression, ”This is a big deal! It’s not just about our little family!”

”I have to go to the community office and report this!”

”You might not want to earn this blood money, but you can’t guarantee some other short-sighted person won’t go for it!”

”If this factory is really built, our town will get rich, but I wonder if our hospitals will be able to keep up in a few years!”

After saying this, Uncle Yu slammed the door and left.

There were many people in Cyan Mountain Town like Uncle Yu—warm-hearted, or perhaps, far-sighted.

Coupled with the money Vice President Li was spreading around, the service platforms for the community and official agencies in Cyan Mountain Town had been flooded with complaints from people offering feedback these past few days.

All of them were protesting the chemical plant.

”This is so strange. The factory hasn’t even moved in yet, and so many people are already against it!”

One of the office workers, exhausted from the past two days, mumbled this as he was getting off work.

A male colleague nearby chuckled and took a sip of tea. ”Heh, you don’t know? The boss of that factory is loaded. He already greased the palms of the higher-ups.”

”But now, with so many people protesting, it’s up in the air whether this deal will go through!”

Just as the worker had said in his idle chatter, the management in Cyan Mountain Town was indeed having a major headache.

The people below were protesting in wave after wave.

Moreover, they had already started contacting the newspapers.

It looked like the situation was about to blow up.

If they moved the chemical plant to the Cyan Mountain Town plot at a time like this, it would likely incite public outrage.

And once it blew up, it would be difficult to handle.

”Let’s shelve this for now. Since public sentiment isn’t right, hold up the relevant paperwork.”

With this one sentence from the higher-ups, the people below knew what to do.

The people sent over from the chemical company on business had originally thought this trip would be very smooth.

But now, they found that Boss Tian’s attitude had become ambiguous.

Furthermore, the relevant procedures on Cyan Mountain Town’s end were not being approved quickly.

Some applications were even unexpectedly rejected as non-compliant.

”Something isn’t right about this!”

”Are you sure everyone in the Cyan Mountain Town administration has been taken care of?”

”Why does it feel like they took the money but aren’t doing the work?”

The person in charge who had been sent over keenly sensed that something was amiss.

”We can’t leave for a while anyway. A few of you, go and scout for information.”

”I have a feeling this ’sure thing’ isn’t so sure anymore!”

As expected of the person in charge, he had keenly sensed that the situation was off.

Meanwhile, Boss Tian was holding that hot-potato of a black box. He had been mulling over the matter of the chemical plant.

Previously, he had heard that someone was coming to discuss leasing his land.

A large chemical company, no less.

At that time, Boss Tian had carefully looked into the chemical company’s registered capital and other corporate details.

He had indeed found that the company had high registered capital and was quite large in scale.

But now, Boss Tian had calmed down and done a more thorough search.

And he, too, found the same negative news that Uncle Yu and the others had discovered.

The more he read, the more he broke out in a cold sweat.

’No wonder they’re so rich, doing this kind of business!’

Boss Tian’s brow furrowed.

Although the factories that wanted to move out had already started their preparations, and most of the land was already vacant, this chemical company seemed wrong in every way.

This made Boss Tian extremely hesitant.

Boss Tian certainly wanted to make money, and he also wanted to keep control of his land.

But this chemical company couldn’t stand up to close scrutiny.

Although the information he got from his friend was that this chemical company had a strong foundation and its financial backing was deep, Boss Tian was, at times, a bit timid and hesitant.

Therefore, Boss Tian did not, as he had originally planned, readily agree to the chemical company’s lease agreement.

Instead, he adopted a rather ambiguous attitude, stringing the chemical company along while he had his friends dig deeper into its background.

But at this very moment, Boss Tian had no idea that trouble was about to land squarely on his head.

It turned out that the old residents of Cyan Mountain Town who had been voicing their opposition had somehow found out that Boss Tian’s huge plot of land was about to be leased to the chemical company.

The news immediately sent the old residents of Cyan Mountain Town into an uproar.

”If Tian Youguang dares to earn even this kind of money, he’ll be a disgrace to that land!”

”If this deal is finalized, Tian Youguang will have committed a great sin!”

”We can’t let this happen! We have to go over there right now and stop this land deal!”

Granny Chen said with a grim face.

”Speaking of which, wasn’t the Tian Family’s son born right here in our community?”

”If his dad hadn’t gone south to do business and earn all that money, that land would never have been passed down to him!”

Tian Youguang was born and raised in Cyan Mountain Town.

So, as soon as this was mentioned, the others all started clamoring.

Vice President Li found a few people and gave them some money.

”Tomorrow morning, go make a big scene. Go ’reason’ with Boss Tian.”

”If you guys do this right, I’ll give you a reward of three thousand yuan immediately!”

Vice President Li gathered them together with a smile.

After taking the money, the leader also smiled and assured Vice President Li.

”This matter really does concern our own interests. And thanks to you, Mr. Li, for telling us about it. Otherwise, we’d still be in the dark!”

Vice President Li had long since established a good relationship with these people.

Everything was now set for the big show the next morning.