Chapter 4

I stared at Howard's smug face.

I wasn't angry at all. If anything, I found it almost amusing.

I reached up and straightened my tie. "Howard, for an intern fresh out of college, you seem to know quite a few legal terms. But since you know so much about employment law, did you ever bother looking up what happens when a company suspends operations?"

Howard froze for a beat, his eyes darting away. "Stop playing mind games and trying to scare us. Paying us our wages is a given!"

I turned, walked to the factory bulletin board, and pulled down an official notice that had been posted just yesterday.

With the notice in hand, I took my time walking back toward Howard.

"Open your eyes and read it carefully. Our factory has been sitting idle for two weeks because we've had no orders. Under labor regulations, once a company has been shut down for more than one pay period and employees aren't doing their regular jobs, the company only has to pay a living allowance equal to 80% of the local minimum wage."

I slapped the notice hard against Howard's chest.

"The minimum wage in our city is 2,000 dollars a month. 80% comes out to 1,600 dollars."

Howard's eyes widened in disbelief. "That's bullshit!"

I ignored him, picked up the microphone, and looked at the greedy workers gathered below. "That brings me to my second announcement. Since all the factory's orders have been outsourced, I'm shutting the whole place down indefinitely starting today."

"You really don't need to report to work anymore. You can stay home and lie around playing on your phones all day. But every month, I'll only pay you the legally required minimum living allowance of 1,600 dollars. If you can tough it out on that, we'll keep this going as long as it takes."

The factory floor fell dead silent again.

1,600 dollars.

In a city where even a bowl of noodles cost 15 dollars, that wouldn't even cover the rent.

Larry's knees buckled, and he dropped back to the floor. "1,600 dollars? My mortgage alone is 3,000 dollars a month!"

He turned to me. "Mr. Hale, I was wrong. I really was! I'll go back to work right now! I'll work for my regular pay. I don't even need five times the base rate anymore!"

A few of the other veteran workers panicked and rushed forward, trying to grab my sleeve. "Mr. Hale, please, get the order back! Our families are counting on that money to make ends meet!"

Howard completely lost it. He threw himself in front of them, barking like a madman. "Don't any of you beg him! Have some backbone!"

He whirled on me. "Mr. Hale, you're deliberately forcing employees to quit! You're exploiting a legal loophole just to avoid paying severance!"

He held the phone up, the stream still running, and shouted hysterically, "There are all my thousands of viewers in the livestream right now! Now you all see what kind of man he really is!

"Screen-record this and spread it everywhere! I'm going to make sure he's finished in this city! I'm going to get the authorities to shut his factory down!"

I watched him unravel and gave a short, humorless laugh. Then I slowly pulled a manila folder from my briefcase.

"Great. Whatever you do, don't turn off the livestream. With this many people watching, the timing couldn't be better. I want every single one of them to see what I'm about to show you."

Seeing Howard's expression change, I added, "You really think I haven't fired all of you because I can't afford the severance?"