Chapter 2: To Follow to the Death, With Unwavering Loyalty

Huafeng Cement Factory naturally had stable clients; for instance, the Wan'an Real Estate Company, a subsidiary of the Wan'an Group, was supplied by Huafeng.

Supplying one's own needs keeps the benefits within the family, after all!

However, Wan'an Real Estate currently had few projects under construction, so the demand for cement was low.

If things continued this way, let alone competing with his older brother Lin Haoning, it was questionable whether the factory would even be able to stay open by the time the one-year deadline arrived.

At this moment, Lin Haoran also realized the cruelty of the elite circles.

Even among biological brothers, for the sake of profit and achieving one's goals, backstabbing and scheming were unavoidable.

Needless to say, the loss of these old clients was certainly related to Lin Haoning.

After all, the status of an heir to a listed conglomerate was far too important.

Lin Haoning possessed many advantages, such as more business experience and broader connections.

Yet, to ensure Lin Haoran didn't have the slightest chance of a comeback, he had simply decided to cut off all paths!

Lin Haoran led the four men on an inspection of the factory grounds.

In his memory, when he had first taken over, the entire Huafeng Cement Factory was bustling with activity throughout the day.

But now, only two months later, it was obvious that the busy figures of the employees had dwindled.

As Lin Haoran absorbed the suddenly increased memories, he inspected the factory that now belonged entirely to him.

"Boss, boss, there are two people floating a hundred meters outside our pier." At this moment, an employee came over to report.

Huafeng Cement Factory was located near Liufu Mountain in Yuen Long, directly opposite the Shekou area of Shenzhen.

In recent years, the number of people trying to stow away from there was countless.

In the waters near Huafeng Cement Factory, floating corpses could often be seen; those who worked here were long used to it.

In fact, their cement factory even employed people who had stowed away.

Currently, Hong Kong implemented a "Touch Base" policy for stowaways: if illegal immigrants from the north successfully reached the urban area after crossing over, they could become legal residents of Hong Kong; if they were intercepted by law enforcement in the border restricted area, they would be repatriated to the north.

The policy was relatively lenient.

Lin Haoran, having merged the memories of two lives, also found the images of floating corpses he had seen previously in his mind. In such situations, the standard procedure was to call the police.

"Are they alive or dead?" Lin Haoran asked while walking toward the pier.

"Boss, the two of them are floating while holding onto a log. They might be alive. It’s truly impressive that they managed to evade the marine police patrols," the employee replied.

Everyone knew that stowaways crossing by sea faced a one-in-ten chance of survival; the difficulty was extremely high.

Soon, the group arrived at the cement factory pier.

By this time, quite a few people had already gathered there.

Lin Haoran could now see the situation on the sea.

More than a hundred meters away from the pier, two burly men were clutching a log, motionless, drifting with the waves.

It was dusk, and the border marine police were just changing shifts; not a single patrol boat was in sight on the water.

"Lin Yi, Lin Er, take some men and go see what the situation is. If they’re dead, call the police directly. If they’re alive, bring them in," Lin Haoran ordered directly.

Although these people didn't have much loyalty to him, it didn't stop him from using them to get work done.

"Yes, Young Master."

There was a speedboat at the pier. Lin Yi took a few men onto it and sped quickly toward the two.

Soon, Lin Haoran saw them pulling the two men onto the boat.

This showed that the two were likely not dead.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered pulling two corpses up.

A few minutes later, the speedboat returned to the pier.

"Young Master, they are alive and still breathing, but they’ve fainted from extreme exhaustion. They were holding onto the log purely by instinct; if they had let go, they definitely would have drowned," Lin Yi reported.

"Understood. Move them to the dormitory building, find a vacant room for them to rest, and let me know when they wake up," Lin Haoran nodded and said.

"Yes, Young Master."

Lin Haoran stood at the edge of the pier, his gaze deep as he stared at the sunset slowly sinking below the horizon, remaining silent for a long time without saying a word.

Stowaways yearned for the infinite beauty of Hong Kong, little knowing that in this era, Hong Kong was actually a place of turmoil, rife with gang conflicts and chaos, making life for ordinary people full of hardship and struggle.

Of course, as long as they could make it across alive, there was indeed a great chance to change their impoverished fate.

For the next two or three days, Lin Haoran didn't go out much. He spent his time absorbing the memories of this world while learning about Hong Kong during this period through newspapers.

Furthermore, although his fever had broken, his body was still quite weak and needed plenty of rest.

He even had Lin Si and the others bring his meals up to him.

Although these turncoats were working for Lin Haoning, they didn't dare to put poison in his food. If such a thing happened, even without evidence, Lin Wan'an would never forgive them.

Therefore, Lin Haoran felt quite at ease regarding these meals.

However, once he had his own loyal subordinates after some time, Lin Haoran certainly wouldn't keep them around.

For now, with no one else to do things for him, he had to make do.

"Young Master, this is tonight's lunch. I specifically instructed the kitchen to buy a roast goose—the Emperor of Roast Geese—from the nearby Yuen Long Market. The best parts are all here."

Lin Si placed the food on the table, his attitude as fawning and sycophantic as ever.

"Mm, thank you for your hard work. By the way, how are those two stowaways?" Lin Haoran washed his hands at the nearby sink and asked casually.

"Young Master, they woke up yesterday. They looked very weak then, but today they seem quite spirited and are recovering quickly," Lin Si replied.

"Alright, take me to see them in a while," Lin Haoran nodded.

"Yes, Young Master. I'll wait outside for you to call me in to clean up after you finish eating."

No matter how much they tried to curry favor, Lin Haoran already knew they were turncoats; it was impossible for them to deceive him.

Lin Haoran ate quickly, finishing in about ten minutes.

Today, he could feel that his body had recovered quite well; the sense of weakness was gone.

"Lin Si, come in."

"Young Master, you finished so quickly?"

"Enough, take this away quickly. I need to go see those two stowaways."

"Alright, Young Master, don't be in such a rush."

Lin Si cleared the table as fast as he could and followed behind Lin Haoran out the door.

The dormitory building of the Huafeng Cement Factory consisted of two three-story buildings. The more than one hundred employees of the factory all lived there.

The place where Lin Haoran lived was the factory's office building, where the environment was slightly better than the dormitory side.

Walking into the dormitory, there were two bunk beds inside.

"It was our Young Master who gave the order to save you. Why aren't you getting up to pay your respects? Without our Young Master, you would have died at sea."

Before Lin Haoran even entered the dormitory, Lin Si walked in quickly and started lecturing them.

The two burly men, who had been resting on the beds, quickly scrambled up.

"Don't, you haven't rested enough. Just lie down," Lin Haoran said as he walked into the dormitory, not caring at all.

Only then did he carefully examine the two men.

"Benefactor, the grace of saving our lives is like giving us a new one." The two men had already gotten up and knelt before Lin Haoran.

A man's knees have gold, but Lin Haoran was their savior; this kowtow was the expression of their most sincere gratitude and reverence.

Lin Haoran wanted to use his "Golden Finger" to check their status, but the progress bar did not appear.

This was perhaps because the two were not yet considered his subordinates.

"Get up, all of you. No need for such formalities. Let's sit down and talk. Lin Si, you go outside."

"Young Master, for the sake of safety, I should stay."

"Get out! I don't want to say it a third time!"

"Alright, I'm rolling out immediately."

It turned out that both men were from Guangdong Province, born into poverty. They had served in the army together for a few years, and after being discharged, they heard that there were plenty of opportunities to make money in Hong Kong, so they decided to stow away.

In this era, people's reasons for stowing away were very pure; it was basically because life in the mainland was too hard, and they had to take the risk to stow away for the sake of their families and their own survival.

At this time, there were mainly three popular routes for stowaways

The Western Route: Entering the water around Shekou or the mangroves, swimming across Shenzhen Bay to reach Tuen Mun in Yuen Long on the opposite side.

The Middle Route: Waiting for an opportunity at night to cross the Shenzhen River near Lo Wu and climbing over the barbed wire to enter Hong Kong.

The Eastern Route: Climbing over Wutong Mountain from the Lo Wu or Huidong areas to enter Hong Kong.

These two had ultimately chosen the more difficult Western Route because the border patrols there were less strict.

They were also quite stubborn, deciding to swim across relying solely on a log.

It was fortunate they were discovered by the Huafeng Cement Factory employees; otherwise, drifting aimlessly on the sea like that, they would have lost their lives sooner or later.

"What are your plans for the future?" Lin Haoran asked.

The taller one was named Li Weiguo, 26 years old; the shorter one was Li Weidong, 25 years old.

Both were from the same village and were cousins who had grown up playing together; their martial arts skills were quite good.

"We don't know yet. We don't have any relatives in Hong Kong, so we can only take it one step at a time," Li Weiguo said with a bitter smile.

Their stowaway journey to Hong Kong was entirely impulsive; they had absolutely no plans or intentions for their life and future after arriving.

"In that case, why don't you work for me? I happen to be short on hands," Lin Haoran smiled.

Upon learning that they had served in the army for a few years and had decent martial arts skills, Lin Haoran had already formed this idea.

He could be considered their savior; if he took them in as subordinates, their loyalty would certainly be high—much better than continuing to use turncoats like Lin Yi and the others.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong became excited.

"Boss, from now on, our brothers' lives are entrusted to you. Wherever you point, we will never go the other way. We swear to follow you to the death, with no second thoughts!" Li Weiguo said with a firm tone.

"My big brother's words are my words too," Li Weidong added from the side.

At this moment, Lin Haoran's Golden Finger had automatically activated, and the familiar loyalty progress bars appeared above their heads.

Li Weiguo: [Loyalty: 82/100]

Li Weidong: [Loyalty: 88/100]

(End of chapter)