Chapter 342: Retribution

The lecherous gaze from Wu Liangzhu immediately made Lin Ruoxi understand what was going on!

Yang Chen had clearly been drugged with something earlier; this was a trap set long ago!

Little Liu, who had just toasted with Yang Chen, also arrived at the door of the private room, blocking Lin Ruoxi's way.

As for the other two deputy factory directors and the union chairman, they all showed expressions of greed that were completely unfitting for their positions, staring intently at Lin Ruoxi's delicate face.

"Bro, this chick is too damn pretty. We can still have fun with such a beauty before we leave! Maybe we won't even want to leave in the future!" Meng Fan licked his lips and chuckled.

"Why don't we just tie her up and take her with us when we run away!"

Gritting her teeth, Lin Ruoxi glared fiercely at them, "They aren't factory officials at all, are they?!"

The ugliness displayed by these people clearly wasn't something that educated individuals capable of managing a large factory would show. No wonder Meng Fan had looked clueless when asked about the financial reports earlier. He was impersonating the chief accountant!

"You just realized? It's too late now," Wu Liangzhu casually stood up, supporting himself on the table with one hand and running the other through his hair. "Lin Ruoxi, you walked right into this yourself. If you had sent someone else over, I might have just left. But since you came personally, I won't be polite anymore."

Lin Ruoxi's heart sank as she forcefully pushed Yang Chen, who was leaning against her, hoping he would wake up. However, her push caused Yang Chen to collapse on the ground, still unconscious.

"It's useless. He's drugged. He'll sleep for at least an hour. It was supposed to be you lying down, but who knew this fool would volunteer to drink for you. Well, it doesn't matter who falls. It's all good for us."

Watching Wu Liangzhu approach, Lin Ruoxi suddenly stood up and took two steps back, watching him warily. "Wu Liangzhu, if you try anything, I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in prison!"

"Haha? Prison?" Wu Liangzhu smirked evilly. "Once we're done with you, I'll just take my brothers and flee abroad. You won't have a chance to catch me."

"So you've embezzled all the money," Lin Ruoxi finally understood why the salaries hadn't been paid, and why so much profit had vanished without a trace. Wu Liangzhu was planning to flee the country with the funds! Though she didn't know where he planned to go, if he succeeded quietly, catching him would be extremely difficult.

Moreover, it seemed Wu Liangzhu had carefully planned this escape long ago, possibly laying foundations abroad to make extradition even less likely.

Wu Liangzhu sneered, "If it weren't for you, a rotten woman like you, I wouldn't need to take such risks and run away with the money. All of this is because of you. It's karma catching up to you, and I'm finally the one who gets to bring you down."

Facing Wu Liangzhu's dark and vengeful gaze, Lin Ruoxi finally felt fear creeping in. No matter how calm she normally was, she was still a young woman. Her social interactions were limited, especially in such a dangerous situation with four ruthless individuals.

"What have I done to you? Why do you hate me so much?" Lin Ruoxi genuinely couldn't understand why Wu Liangzhu was specifically targeting her. Logically, if he was prepared to flee, he should have left earlier. Why did he decide to stay upon hearing she was coming?

Wu Liangzhu's eyes blazed with flames of vengeance as he grinned maliciously, "You still pretend not to know? Think carefully about how you treated my family three years ago."

Three years ago?

Lin Ruoxi pondered briefly and furrowed her brow, "Three years ago, I acquired your family's Liangyu Garment Factory and renamed it Yulei Garment Factory under Yulei International. But is that really a reason for you to hate me so much?"

"You wretched woman! You don't understand anything!" Wu Liangzhu roared, "Do you know or not? Liangyu Garment Factory was established by my grandfather and his brothers through hard work! I watched my grandfather and father suffer from illnesses due to the factory's hardships since I was young. The gravel roads in the factory were laid by my grandfather and workers, and the trees were planted by my father and me. Everything there is our family's effort! When my grandfather passed away, he entrusted me to protect this legacy and ensure it thrives without any setbacks. I've been working diligently all this time just to keep this factory going, to honor the hard work of two generations of my ancestors. Three years ago, during an economic downturn, I reluctantly took out millions in loans from the bank to stabilize finances and continue development. But what did you do? You, the infamous CEO of Yulei International, slyly used your connections with local government leaders and colluded with the bank's president to pressure me into integrating the factory into Yulei's lower-tier factory system before relenting! Why didn't Yulei build its own factories? Why swallow the blood and sweat of three generations of my family's hard work? Have you no conscience? Do you know that all the local officials came to my house just to ingratiate themselves with you, forcing my father to agree to integrate the factory into the Yulei Group before he could even complete his term? My father died from anger before the end of the year. Even on his deathbed, he warned me not to get into trouble with you. He was right; I couldn't fight you. In this society, money talks, and you're the boss as long as you have it. Yulei's investments and expansions can influence not only local officials but also the leaders of the Zhonghai City Committee. But so what? You're just a beast who eats people and doesn't spit out bones!"

Wu Liangzhu's face turned red with anger as he continued, then sneered mockingly, "I take it back. With your beauty, how could you be a beast? Now, over these three years, I've managed to stash away most of the money I've earned, leaving enough to live comfortably abroad for the rest of my life. You've humiliated my family, reduced us to nothing more than servants beneath your feet like drowning dogs, and now, you're going to fall into my hands."

As Lin Ruoxi listened, her thoughts calmed considerably, and she appeared somewhat melancholic.

"The things you're saying aren't as you think," Lin Ruoxi responded, "I regret your father's death, but whether you believe it or not, when I decided to acquire your family's factory, it was purely because I felt that small private enterprises like yours, stagnating without direction, would benefit more under the management and integration of Yulei. Moreover, building a factory from scratch would be wasteful and inefficient. If I had done so, your factory might have still faced closure. I just wanted to invest rationally. I never expected the local leaders and the bank to treat you that way. It wasn't my intention, and I didn't force it. Their actions were wrong, but I wasn't aware of their intentions."

"Hmph, you're just talking nonsense! Ultimately, if it weren't for you, those officials wouldn't treat our family like this!" Wu Liangzhu said fiercely.

"But you've also seen the factory's development over these past two years. Following the path I laid out, the factory workforce has increased more than fivefold. Originally, you could only make a few million in gross profit annually. Now, we're talking about revenues exceeding a billion. Moreover, Yu Ping Garment Factory is now the largest garment processing plant in the entire town. Isn't this fulfilling your ancestors' expectations?" Lin Ruoxi replied.

Wu Liangzhu burst into laughter, "Are you genuinely stupid or pretending to be ignorant? Yu Ping Garment Factory is what I want. My grandfather, my father, we want Liangyu Garment Factory! Liangyu Garment Factory! That's our family's legacy! What we want is our dignity, not your crappy machines and messy factories!

Do you know what it's like for a son to see his own father kneeling before the bank president? Can you understand, you heartless woman obsessed with expansion and making money?!"

Lin Ruoxi sat there with wide, watery eyes, unable to utter a single word in response to this seemingly absurd discourse.