Mystery: A Spark

As the security team approached, a petite woman stepped between the portly supervisor and the middle-aged man, and asked with a serious expression:

"How is this going?"

Klein observed the short woman and found her somewhat familiar. After a moment's recollection, he remembered that she seemed to be Arthur's friend named Hugh, and that she had once uttered the name of the Fool and even sworn an oath in that name.

As for the content of the oath, well, let's not talk about it.

All I can say is that Arthur always manages to come up with something new.

Before the middle-aged man could speak after hearing Hugh's question, the fat manager beside him sneered:

"It's fine if you manage public order, but this is an internal matter for our brewery. Do you have to interfere with it too?"

Hugh completely ignored him. She looked at the middle-aged man in tattered clothes and asked in a calm tone:

"Can you tell me the whole story?"

The middle-aged man was about to speak when he saw the fat manager staring at him fiercely, and he immediately hesitated.

He still has to work at this brewery, and if he offends the supervisor, his future will definitely be difficult.

So he hesitated for a moment, but ultimately remained silent.

Seeing this, Hugh didn't pay any attention.

She turned around, looked at the chubby manager with a smug look on his face, and said calmly:

"Since he's unwilling to talk about it, then you should."

The fat manager's face twitched, and he said viciously:

"Isn't your security force overstepping its bounds a bit? It's true that you defeated the Zigman Party, but that doesn't mean you can interfere in everything."

After saying that, he turned to leave, but was pushed back by a strong man in a uniform and red armband.

"Who gave you permission to leave?"

"What do you want?" The fat manager panicked. "My master is Baron Rhys. Do you want to provoke a nobleman?"

"Ha, can you represent a nobleman? You're just a... a servant. Who gave you permission to represent a nobleman?!" Hugh said coldly.

She originally wanted to say that the supervisor was just a dog, but then she thought that the dog didn't deserve such a thing, so she changed her words halfway through.

Her noble status didn't frighten her much; after all, she was once a noble lady herself, and her father was the commander of the royal guard and the chief of the palace guard.

Although her family has fallen on hard times and she has become more down-to-earth, it doesn't mean that just any baron's servant can act arrogantly in front of her.

Even if this matter really involved the baron, Hugh wouldn't panic at all, especially since she had no intention of dragging the baron into it.

Keeping the situation under control and preventing the scope of the crackdown from expanding is the current operating principle of the security team... Hugh recalled what Arthur had once told her, stepped forward, and said in a deep voice:

"Do you know what is most important to a nobleman? It is reputation. And now you are using Baron Rhys's name to withhold the workers' wages and are wantonly beating others here. This is damaging the reputation of your master, Baron Rhys."

“If today’s events were to spread and even make it into the newspapers, your master’s reputation would suffer greatly. He might never be able to hold his head up in aristocratic circles again, and adjectives like ‘stingy’ and ‘miserly’ would follow him around forever.”

"Do you guess what will happen then? Will he be so angry he'll skin you alive?"

Some things are destined to be done but not spoken.

Even things that are generally agreed upon take a different meaning once they are discussed openly.

Just like in some dynasties in Arthur's previous life, even though the ministers were actually doing things like annexing land and oppressing the people, when they were in court, didn't they still talk about morality and righteousness all the time?

When attacking political enemies, they would throw accusations of "competing with the people for profit" at you and "harming the people" at me.

It's as if all these people are morally upright gentlemen, and as long as they are there, there will be a righteous court and peace throughout the world.

But actually?

But none of them are cleaner than the other.

In the mysterious world, such rules of the game also apply.

Although most nobles didn't treat commoners like human beings in private, they still had to be mindful of their image in public.

Therefore, Arthur advised Hugh to follow the principle that "those above are good, it's just that those below are doing evil" when he was in charge of the current security team.

This way, the scope of the attack can be controlled to a certain extent, preventing the conflict from becoming more complicated.

As long as high-ranking officials and nobles aren't dragged into it, Hugh's security team can run rampant in this East District, and Arthur can handle most of the trouble directly.

After all, people of higher status would not be willing to come to a place like the East District. Even if they have businesses here, they would only choose to have someone else manage them for them.

Besides them, all that's left here are gangsters.

Arthur's approach to them was...

“Since you know that our security team defeated the Zigman Party, do you know how we did it?” Hugh took another step forward and stared intently at the fat supervisor as he asked.

Before the fat manager could answer, Hugh continued, speaking in a voice just loud enough for the fat manager to hear:

"That was not long ago, when the leaders of the Zgman Party met together because they encountered some trouble."

"But coincidentally, the gas pipes in the building they were in exploded. The leaders were first blown to pieces by the explosion, and then burned to ashes by the fire that lasted for more than half an hour."

"Fortunately, the fire only burned one house, and the surrounding houses were not damaged."

After a pause, Hugh chuckled and looked at the pale-faced fat manager, saying:

"Now, sir, can you tell me the whole story?"

Looking at the seemingly gentle, smiling petite woman in front of him, the chubby manager broke out in a cold sweat and quickly spilled the whole story.

Overall, things aren't actually that complicated.

The middle-aged man who was beaten was just an ordinary brewer working at a nearby brewery.

Like many others in the East District, he had to work hard every day to earn a meager income to support his family.

The only difference between him and the homeless is that he has a relatively stable job, which allows him to barely survive and avoid dying in this cold autumn like the homeless people on the street.

This brewery is owned by a baron, but due to mismanagement by the manager, it has recently encountered cash flow problems.

So the brewery manager made a decision: he decided to make things difficult for the factory workers by delaying their wages for a while.

As for how long this "period of time" actually refers to, that depends on when the brewery's funds are ready to be replenished.

During this period, the brewery naturally had to continue operating to ensure the production of alcoholic beverages, otherwise the baron's income would be affected.

If the baron's income is affected, then the brewery manager will naturally be punished.

Of course, the supervisor also knew that the workers needed to eat to work, and that they wouldn't be very productive on an empty stomach.

So after deciding to delay paying the brewery workers' wages, he promised that the factory would provide each worker with a meal every day.

It was called a meal, but it was really just a piece of black bread and water.

It's that kind of hard, dry bread that needs to be soaked in hot water to soften before you can eat it.

The brewery workers were naturally very dissatisfied with this situation, but there was nothing they could do. At least they could eat a piece of black bread every day while working here.

But if we leave, we might not even get this piece of black bread.

Many of the brewery's workers were all alone; they were single and had no family to worry about, so with a piece of black bread as a supply, they could barely manage to survive.

But the middle-aged man who was being beaten was different, because he had a child of about ten years old with him.

As the saying goes, a half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home.

Children this age can eat a lot; a piece of black bread is hardly enough for both the middle-aged man and the child.

In this situation, the middle-aged man gave most of the bread to his child, eating only a little bit himself each day.

The child was barely fed, but with this kind of situation, the middle-aged man was starving every day, so naturally he didn't have the energy to work, let alone work efficiency.

This caused dissatisfaction among the managers at the brewery.

He thought to himself that he was being incredibly kind by providing these workers with a piece of black bread every day, yet some of them were still not working hard and were slacking off; it was simply outrageous.

Naturally, reprimands and scoldings followed.

However, when the brewery manager was reprimanding the middle-aged man, the man couldn't help but retort about his salary, which immediately enraged the manager.

This explains the scene that Klein and his group are witnessing at this moment.

Just as the fat supervisor finished speaking, a policeman in a black and white checkered uniform, carrying a short baton and a pistol, walked over from not far away, seemingly sensing that something was wrong.

Upon seeing the police, the overweight manager reacted as if he had seen a savior, and immediately shouted:

"Officer, there's a disturbance here, and they're threatening me!"

However, when the police approached, they completely ignored him and instead greeted Hugh politely.

"Miss Hugh, are you maintaining order again?"

“That’s right, someone is beating someone up here, so I came to check it out,” Hugh replied with a smile.

"Then I'll trouble you, Miss Hugh. I'll go patrol elsewhere." The policeman turned and left, ignoring the fat supervisor the whole time.

Hugh turned around, smiling broadly at the chubby manager whose legs were already trembling, and said:

"I forgot to tell you, I'm a special consultant at the police station, helping them handle some things that are inconvenient to deal with themselves. What were you trying to say just now?"

"Madam, I, I..." Under the imposing pressure of Hugh as sheriff, the fat supervisor could no longer speak coherently and was no longer as arrogant as before.

Hugh still had a smile on his face, but his tone turned cold:

"After the Grain Act was repealed, the price of grain dropped significantly, yet your brewery still managed to lose money."

"Either you're a good-for-nothing, or you embezzled money from the brewery."

"No matter which one,"

"What do you think will happen to you if I go and talk to Baron Rhys?"

Chapter 170 A painter can't live without a tavern, just like in the 3D district...

After a series of well-intentioned but ruthless actions by Xiu, the chubby manager was no longer as arrogant as before.

His face turned pale, he was sweating profusely, and his legs began to tremble.

What Hugh said earlier only made him less arrogant, but his last sentence truly exposed his secret.

Yes, the so-called poor management was just an excuse; the truth was that the fat manager was deceiving his superiors and making money.

Baron Rhys handed over the brewery in the East District to him and then stopped paying close attention to its operation, only requiring that he pay enough money each month.