Chapter 039: The Failing Pharmaceutical Factory—Let Me Help You

Song Kai was genuinely worried that Jia Dongming might get beaten to death. If he died, that would be a small matter; but if Song Kai couldn't find the century-old Polygonatum, that would be a catastrophe!

He dashed into the office building. The whole place was just three stories high, and as soon as he entered, he heard a loud commotion coming from the third floor.

Without hesitation, Song Kai rushed up the stairs. In the reception hall at the center of the third floor, four men dressed in black suits were wielding machetes, white cloths tied around their heads as if they were some kind of mobsters in mourning.

Between them sat a stretcher, and on it lay a body covered by a white sheet—clearly someone already dead.

Opposite the stretcher, a middle-aged man with glasses, thin and frail-looking, shrank into the sofa, his face full of fear.

“Jia Dongming! Get down and kneel before our boss!” one of the men in black barked. As he spoke, he walked over and kicked the bespectacled man in the back, pressing him to the floor.

“Bow your head to our boss!” he demanded, forcing Jia Dongming’s head down, intent on making him kowtow.

Song Kai frowned at the scene. Still, he was somewhat relieved to see Jia Dongming was alive—he could still get the information he needed.

“What’s going on here?” Song Kai strode forward, pushing the man in black aside and helping Jia Dongming up. “What’s all this about?”

“Who the hell are you?” The man in black, Liu Liang, was a well-known thug in the area. He glared at Song Kai. “Are you looking to die, meddling in my business?”

Song Kai glanced at Jia Dongming, who just hung his head and didn’t speak.

Song Kai said, “Cut the nonsense. I don’t care about your business. I’m a friend of Mr. Jia. Don’t you think it’s a bit much, bullying him like this?”

“Oh, well, isn’t that perfect! You’re his friend, right? Good, good—I was just worrying about who would pay. Fine, you pay. A life for a life, two million. Pay up!” Liu Liang rolled up his sleeves.

Song Kai pushed Jia Dongming onto the sofa, frowning. “So what, are you saying Jia Dongming killed this man?”

“That’s right!” Liu Liang pointed at the stretcher. “That’s our boss! The big man! After taking your boss’s Kangxin Granules, he had a heart attack and died! Damn it, you think we’ll just let this go? Our boss’s life, two million, that’s cheap, isn’t it, kid?”

After hearing this, Song Kai had a general idea of what was going on. So, the man took medicine produced by the factory, died, and now these people were here making a scene.

Song Kai said, “Well… a life for a life, that’s only just. Call the police.”

“Are you looking to die?” Liu Liang flared up at the mention of the police, grabbing Song Kai by the collar. “Don’t think I won’t call the police! But whenever we do, the cops say there’s no proof the medicine killed him, but I know for sure it was! Damn it, two million, hand it over. If you don’t, I’ll cripple you too!”

Song Kai looked at Liu Liang’s hand. “Take your hand off me.”

“Oh? Got some backbone, huh? Good, I like bullying tough guys like you.” Liu Liang sneered, then raised his hand, aiming to slap Song Kai’s face.

Song Kai, of course, wouldn’t stand for it. He lifted his leg and drove it straight between Liu Liang’s legs. This was the infamous underworld groin kick—devastatingly effective. With a shrill scream, Liu Liang collapsed, clutching himself, rolling on the floor in agony.

Seeing this, the other three men pulled short steel rods from their waists and swung them at Song Kai.

“So you all brought weapons—clearly here to extort. Scum!” Song Kai shouted, grabbing the ashtray beside the sofa and smashing it down on the first man’s head with a loud crack.

Blood streamed down the man’s face as he collapsed, unconscious.

Song Kai kicked the second man flying, then hurled the ashtray at the third, smashing it into his cheek and splitting it open.

In the blink of an eye, all four men in suits were on the ground, unable to get up.

Song Kai walked over to the stretcher and lifted the white sheet. Beneath it lay an old man, dried up and wrinkled, his hands thick with calluses. Seeing this, Song Kai understood: this was just an old farmer, a hardworking countryman—how could he be their boss, the so-called “big man”?

He covered the old man again, bent down to pick up a steel rod, and walked over to Liu Liang.

Liu Liang, still clutching himself, recoiled in terror at Song Kai’s approach.

“You came here just to extort money, isn’t that right?” Song Kai asked.

Liu Liang nodded frantically. “Brother—no, big brother, we didn’t know who we were messing with! We’ll leave right away, right away!”

Song Kai cracked his neck. “Oh? Maybe you don’t know my rules. I’m always fair. Since you’ve caused trouble and provoked me, I won’t do anything crazy. According to my rules, I’ll just break one of your arms.”

He glanced at Liu Liang’s right wrist.

Liu Liang’s face went pale with fright. “Please, sir, I was wrong! I really was! I’m just Big B’s lackey. Even if you don’t care about me, on Big B’s account, please let us go. I’m begging you, please, sir!”

Song Kai had intended only to scare Liu Liang. After all, he didn’t really know what kind of person Liu Liang was, and it wouldn’t be fair to cripple him just for this one attempt at extortion.

But hearing that Liu Liang worked for Big B made Song Kai laugh. He kicked Liu Liang in the chest. “Well, isn’t that just perfect? I’ve been looking to collect a debt from Big B these past few days. Couldn’t find him, but I’ve found you instead. Fine, I’ll collect the debt from your arm first.” With that, Song Kai smashed Liu Liang’s wrist with the rod.

Liu Liang howled in pain, forgetting all about his groin, and scrambled away, clutching his wrist, abandoning his three subordinates.

Song Kai sneered, tossing the steel rod aside. He turned to another man and said, “Wake your buddy, take the corpse back where you got it, and if you cause trouble here again, I’ll break your legs!”

“Yes… yes…”

The man in the suit revived his companion, and the three of them hurriedly carried the stretcher away.

Song Kai dusted off his hands and turned to Jia Dongming on the sofa. “Mr. Jia, running a factory like this—what a sorry state you’re in. Anyway, I have something to ask you.”

Jia Dongming shot to his feet and ran toward the window. Climbing up, he leaped out.

Startled, Song Kai jumped to the window and managed to grab Jia Dongming by the belt.

“Hell! You actually jumped? A grown man so pathetic he wants to kill himself—aren’t you ashamed?” Song Kai gasped, struggling to hold Jia Dongming.

Jia Dongming struggled desperately. “Let me go! Let me die!”

“This is the third floor, you won’t die from this jump—at most you’ll end up paralyzed from the waist down. Then your life will be even worse. And with how corrupt hospitals are now, if you end up in one, your factory will be gone too,” Song Kai said.

At that, Jia Dongming stopped struggling.

With both hands, Song Kai hauled Jia Dongming back inside, panting heavily, then shoved him to the ground. “Are you crazy? A grown man trying to jump out a window—shameful! If I didn’t have questions for you, I wouldn’t have bothered saving you.”

Jia Dongming didn’t get angry. Instead, he sat on the floor and started sobbing, rubbing his eyes. “What do you know? Are you here to ask for money too? I really don’t have any! I, Jia Dongming, was a PhD, a mid-level manager earning half a million a year in Shanghai! I came back determined to help my fellow villagers get rich, and now? Now all my money’s gone, the factory’s about to go under.”

Song Kai had been annoyed at Jia’s lack of backbone, but hearing this, his anger faded. “I’m not here for money. Tell me what happened. If I can help, I will.”

“There’s nothing you can do.” Jia Dongming sighed. “I was born in this village—an orphan, parents died when I was three. The villagers raised me, fed me, paid for my schooling all the way to university. I studied pharmacology, got my doctorate, stayed in Shanghai, and worked my way up in a foreign company. But when I heard how poor my village still was, I decided to come back. I used my two million in savings, borrowed three million from the bank, and got the villagers to invest—pooled together five million, a total of ten million, to build this herbal medicine factory. I thought we’d all get rich together, but now the factory’s going bankrupt, I’ve lost a fortune, and I can’t face the people who trusted me.”

Song Kai understood. “So why is the factory failing? Poor management?”

Jia Dongming shook his head. “I don’t even know. At first, we made some money, so I developed a new heart-health supplement, Kangxin Granules. But starting a week ago, every day someone comes with a corpse, demanding money, claiming their family member died after taking Kangxin Granules…”

“Then call the police!” Song Kai said at once. “Those people today were obviously here to extort you.”

“It’s useless.” Jia Dongming wiped his tears. “The police have been here several times. They say it’s a civil dispute—there’s no proof the medicine killed anyone, but also no proof it didn’t. Every time, they just smooth things over, and I can’t run the factory, no one buys our products, people keep coming to demand money, and won’t leave without it… The factory really is going bankrupt. And look, all those villagers outside, they’re afraid I’ll run away and they’ll lose their investment.”

Song Kai smacked his lips, thinking. “Alright, I’ll look into this for you. Oh, and one more thing—did you give Director Tang Zhong a packet of tea recently…?”