Chapter 37 Establishing Authority with Fists

The company offers excellent benefits and high salaries—a security guard can easily make at least four thousand yuan a month. With such a position, there’s never any worry about not being able to recruit people. It was now the season when soldiers were discharged; the veterans would either return to their hometowns or stay in Jiangzhou to look for work. Tens of thousands of men had just left the military, all in excellent physical and mental condition. Recruiting thirty of them would be more than enough to staff the entire security department.

Whether they were Wang Hu’s men or just onlookers, if they didn’t even know who the company’s boss was, there was no need to be polite—just send them away and free up places for others. They were not irreplaceable. Yang Changfeng, who saw this clearly, didn’t care at all about being ostracized. He wouldn’t even bother asking about Wang Hu’s current moves.

Even a beast at bay will fight back, not to mention Wang Hu wasn’t even cornered. With the security department still under his control, he still held a strong hand; it all depended on how Wang Hu would play his cards next.

At lunch in the cafeteria, someone came over and coldly tossed a piece of paper in front of Yang Changfeng—it listed a few matters decided at the morning’s security department meeting.

The first point was about Yang Changfeng. There was an office for the security team leader on the first floor, originally meant for Wang Hu. But Wang Hu also held a high-level management position in the company, essentially the deputy general manager in charge of security, with an office upstairs. The first-floor office had thus always been left empty, used only by Wang Hu’s cronies for playing cards. Starting now, this office was assigned to Yang Changfeng.

“Stop right there.” Unafraid of causing trouble, Yang Changfeng called after the guard who had just thrown him the notice. “I don’t believe the company’s regulations say that employees in training aren’t allowed to attend departmental meetings, do they?”

The guard replied coldly, “Let’s not beat around the bush. What are you trying to pull with us?”

Yang Changfeng smiled. “All right, I understand.”

That afternoon, a fierce brawl broke out in the cafeteria. Fierce, because the attacker didn’t suffer a scratch, while the victim was left covered in blood, dragged out, and left at the entrance to bake in the sun.

The new deputy head of the security department was certainly making a strong impression!

The atmosphere in the company changed instantly. Where people once avoided Yang Changfeng, now, after he’d beaten Wang Hu’s men within an inch of their lives and tossed them out one after another, everyone was afraid of him.

To be feared is also a form of presence.

Thus, Yang Changfeng became someone people in the company remembered.

When he went downstairs and came out of the elevator, the receptionists greeted him with forced smiles. Yang Changfeng didn’t joke around with them; it was past three in the afternoon, and it was time to stir things up again.

The guard he’d thrown outside at midday was gone—whether he’d crawled away himself or been carried off by Wang Hu’s men was unclear.

Yang Changfeng shouted furiously, “Who the hell took him away? Whoever did it, step forward!”

He yelled for a long time, but no one dared respond. Yang Changfeng was not to be trifled with. He strode to the reception desk and slapped the counter. “Pull up the security footage from noon until now.”

The young women at the front desk trembled in fear, but none dared actually pull up the footage for him.

“So, is my presence really that insignificant?” Yang Changfeng picked up the crystal ball sitting on the counter. With a squeeze of his five fingers, the ball shattered into powder with a bang.

The girls all shuddered, their faces ashen. The shift supervisor pleaded, “Deputy Captain Yang, please have mercy on us little people. If we give you the footage today, we’ll be beaten to death by them tonight.”

Them?

Who are they? Yang Changfeng asked.

The girls fell silent, begging for mercy, making it clear they weren’t actually afraid of Yang Changfeng.

“I don’t have time to mess around with you.” He grabbed a computer and pulled it in front of him, starting to check the footage himself.

The girls exchanged nervous glances. After a while, one finally dared reach for the phone.

“Don’t give me a reason to act,” Yang Changfeng said coldly, his eyelids twitching. “Just because you’re women doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you. And don’t forget who the boss of this company is, and whose money you’re living on. If you keep betraying the company, no matter how ruthless Wang Hu is, I can be ten times worse. I could easily find a few street thugs who’d be very interested in young ladies like you.”

The receptionists fell silent, terrified, no longer daring to report to Wang Hu.

Yang Changfeng knew Wang Hu was already behind him, waiting for the right moment to act.

Wang Hu, his face bandaged, glared with hatred from behind Qiao Lin, debating whether to take the opportunity to attack Yang Changfeng from behind while he was distracted by the footage.

But he was too afraid of Yang Changfeng’s fighting ability.

What if this was a trap?

Would he be beaten up again in front of everyone?

No, that was too risky.

So Wang Hu coughed and barked, “Yang, do you really want to tear things apart?”

Yang Changfeng didn’t even look back, mocking him with a half-smile. “You? You think you’re worthy of going head-to-head with me? Even when given the chance, you don’t dare act. What good are you?”

As expected, it was a trap after all! Wang Hu was relieved, but his anger at Yang Changfeng’s attitude was hard to swallow. “Fine, fine, be arrogant. You’re the wildest one in the whole company. We’ll see about that…”

“There’s a meeting at four-thirty this afternoon. Any security staff who don’t show up will be out immediately. I need those spots for better use.” He pushed the computer back. The guard in question had been taken to the gym by the security department, not outside.

A new officer must make his mark, and since people kept testing the new deputy, he wouldn’t show mercy.

Wang Hu said in alarm, “Don’t go too far—if you keep this up, you’ll ruin the company. I’m going to file a complaint with the boss.”

Yang Changfeng ignored him and went straight to the gym, dragged out the guard who was half-asleep after being patched up by his colleagues at noon, and beat him up again outside the building. Two questions, one beating per answer, for a total of sixty or seventy blows.

Who allowed you to leave your punishment post?

Who took you away?

If he didn’t answer, he got beaten. If he answered, he had to explain why he hadn’t spoken up earlier. If he couldn’t answer, he got beaten again.

In such a big company, not a single person called the police.

There was no point. That morning, the provincial authorities had come and taken those five people away. Until they were back, or until Wang Hu had completely seized control, with the boss backing Yang Changfeng, no one would dare provoke him. Besides, if he beat someone to death, what did that have to do with anyone else?

No matter what happened, someone else would take the fall. Why bother worrying?

In the end, Yang Changfeng didn’t actually beat the guard to death. The man just wasn’t made of stern stuff.

He was carried away by two of his fellow guards. Whether those two had received Wang Hu’s orders no longer mattered; what Yang Changfeng needed was just an opportunity—a pretext to clash with Wang Hu.