âWe shouldnât make wild guesses yet. We need to approach this carefully. Things are too messy and ambiguous right now so we need to gather more evidence,â Skinny advised.
Fatty and I nodded.
I walked to the side and thought about how to obtain information about the old man.
There should be a lot available on the Internet since he was a public figure.
I started my computer and entered his name into the search engine.
Thousands of links popped up, information and news.
News mostly covered public welfare events that he partook in.
I went straight to the forum on his company site since forums were usually more genuine.
There were staffs who complained about getting underpaid and cursed their leader for skiving at work. They do all these under an anonymous account of course.
There were all kinds of comments but none of it mentioned the old man.
They were all talking about the companyâs daily affairs or other trifling matters. I scrolled for a long time but there was nothing useful.
I found something good, however. Horse Brand Red Wine employeesâ group chat.
I made an account and applied for an invitation to that group chat and was quickly accepted even without any verification.
(Welcome, new member...)
(Thereâs been a number of new employees recently. May I know who you are?â
(Xiaowang perhaps? He said he would come today.)
I started typing, âYes, Iâm Xiaowang.â
(Welcome, Xiaowang!)
(Welcome!)
(How is it Xiaowang? Taken a liking to any ladies from our assembly line?)
(Please, Xiaowangâs so young, why would he be interested in you aunties. Come, Iâll introduce my niece to you. Sheâs a kindergarten teacher. Interested?)
This Xiaowang guy appeared to be a lady-killer. âThatâs very kind of you but itâs alright, thanks.â
(I heard that there will be a pay increase soon. Is there any movement on your side, Xiaowang?)
(Yeah, I heard that the leaders are going to jump a grade. What about those at the bottom? Try finding out, alright?)
I sighed. Of all the people I could pose as, it has to be a leader. âI heard that too so it should be true. Everyone will get an increase so donât worry. But weâll have to count on the director ultimately.â
(Director? When has he ever managed the company?)
(Could these pay raise be his idea? Didnât some of you say that he visited recently to check on us?)
(Didnât we last saw him two years ago? When has he ever cared about us?)
âTwo years agoâ caught my eye. It seemed that I could really gain some information from there.
(You guys might have some misunderstanding about our director. He grew his company singlehandedly and was still busily operating the workshop up until two years ago. You newbies donât know stuff so donât spout nonsense.)
(Why are you here, Brother Chen?)
(You mustâve been here for at least eight years, isnât that right, Brother Chen? Since you know that much...)
(The director personally taught me how to brew wine. Why do you think our wine is so delicious? Itâs just that the director got busy over these past two years so he handed the assembly line to us.)
This Brother Chen seemed knowledgeable. âHis family is facing a problem, Brother Chen. Could that be why heâs mostly been out of the company?â
Silence.
No one replied at all and just as I was about to regret my action, a message came in.
(His illness perhaps?)
The message quickly got recalled.
(Alright, we shouldnât be discussing this. The other leaders might not have seen it. Recall your message, Xiaowang.)n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
I quickly deleted my previous message and wondered if this was it, a dead end.
Brother Chenâs message came in.
(Youâre still rather new, Xiaowang. I think I need to educate you on the companyâs history. Letâs chat privately.)
Sounds like a good opportunity.
I sent him a private message, âDid I say something wrong, Brother Chen?â
(Youâre still new so donât let these impede your future. Itâs not a big deal to talk about these matters, but just donât do it publicly.)
Hereâs my chance. âIâm just curious. I want to know more to avoid any mistakes in the future.â
(Iâve been a technical staff for eight years now â frontline staff that is. I donât have any education, unlike you. You graduated from a university with a masterâs degree and came in straight as our leader. It was really tough at the beginning and the director had always been at the front so how can it be that he doesnât care about the company?)
I read the message and pondered over the old manâs character. If he hadnât been acting in front of us, I would think that he had a very good personality.
âThen you know what happened two years ago, Brother Chen? Why did the director stop coming to work?â
(He fell ill. You know the smell of our brewing factory. Employees arenât that healthy and the director started suffering from a chronic cough. In spite of this, he couldnât bear to let go of the company. Didnât he return recently? Actually, the company is mostly criticizing the directorâs son. That scoundrel caused the company to lose 200,000,000 in just half a year. Horrendous, isnât it?)
A chronic cough? That I do remember.
His son being a scoundrel? That was new. I jotted down that piece of information in my notebook. In Brother Chenâs perspective, the old man was a good man. âHave you heard about what happened to his son?â
(Something happened to him? He deserves it. What happened? Did he owe so much money that the director decided not to help him anymore?)
It made sense that the director chose not to publicize his family affairs. âIt was just something I heard. Might not be accurate.â
(Itâs better if you donât ask too much. You have a bright future ahead. The head leader is about to retire and it shouldnât be difficult for you to take over his position. Think more about how you can contribute to the company. Stay away from the group chat if you can. Donât get dragged down by us.)
âThanks, Brother Chen. Iâll get back to work.â
I wrote everything I found out and deduced in my notebook.
I didnât even realize that it already had gotten dark outside.
âIâve got major findings,â I called out to Fatty and Skinny.
Fatty smiled. âWhat I have is great, too. Looks like we wonât have to wait until tomorrow to start our work.â