At the very back of the factory workshop were several workers covered in blood, their bodies marked with numerous wounds; in the deepest corner, they were tightly restraining the boss, who was so terrified he had wet his pants.
As for the security guards, they had already been dragged out by the Lungmen Guard Officers and rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Seeing the situation, Hoshiguma handed her shield to a nearby Lungmen Guard Officer and walked over to the hostage negotiator. The negotiator was still painstakingly trying to persuade the workers to release the boss.
"They just want their wages. You're a strange one—instead of making the boss pay back the money, you insist on them letting him go. If they release him and don't get paid, are you going to pay them on his behalf?"
little Flandre Scarlet, who had appeared beside him at some unknown point, left the expert momentarily speechless with her words. Hoshiguma also gave him a cold glance before turning to look at the workers.
"Holding him like this isn't a long-term solution. I know you just want your wages, but if you hold the person who pays the wages, where is that money going to come from? How about this: I'll leave a phone with you, and you have the boss immediately contact finance to transfer all your wages to you. But once you receive the wages, I require you to release him. Do you think this is feasible?"
After discussing it for a few moments, the workers agreed. Hoshiguma started walking over with a mobile phone, but after a few steps, a worker suddenly shouted, "Wait! Let that little girl bring it to us!"
The man pointed at Flandre Scarlet.
"Actually, I'm even more dangerous!" Flandre Scarlet replied with a beaming smile.
"I know, but I only recognize you... You've appeared on TV, you're definitely more reliable than her!" One of the workers, who looked quite young, said to Flandre Scarlet.
Hearing the worker's words, Flandre Scarlet was stunned for a moment. "You say Flandre is reliable?"
The man nodded nervously. Flandre Scarlet then broke into a smile.
"Flandre likes that description, so Flandre has decided to help you. Hoshiguma, give me the phone!" Flandre Scarlet reached out her hand to Hoshiguma for the phone.
"Be careful!" Hoshiguma nodded slightly and placed the phone in Flandre Scarlet's hand.
Flandre Scarlet walked up to the workers with the phone and pointed to the boss they were holding. "How about I help make the call!"
The workers nodded and made a path for her. Flandre Scarlet walked up to the disheveled, unkempt boss. She looked up at him, a flash of red light glinting in her eyes.
"Come on, Mr. Villain, tell me the number for finance."
A hint of confusion flashed in his eyes, and he immediately recited a string of numbers. The call was connected quickly. The boss told the person on the other end, word for word, to immediately transfer all the back wages owed to the workers into their accounts. The person on the other end was aware of the boss's situation and immediately stated they were already at the bank and could make the transfer at any time.
The call wasn't hung up; in less than ten minutes, the accountant on the other side said the payments had been fully settled and told the workers to check for themselves. Some workers contacted their families, and shortly after, they received news that they had indeed received their overdue wages. Upon hearing this, the workers sat on the ground one after another and began to wail and cry.
Seeing the workers give up their resistance, the Lungmen Guard Officers rushed forward to try and restrain them. But they were stopped by Hoshiguma.
"They are all just people with hard lives. Everyone, help them into the police cars!"
The Lungmen Guard Officers paused for a moment before slowing their movements and supporting the workers as they walked out of the factory.
"Clearly that guy had money, so why wasn't he willing to pay their wages?" Flandre asked Hoshiguma after everyone had left.
"Greed, and he thought the workers wouldn't dare to burn their bridges with him." Hoshiguma remarked that she had seen this kind of thing several times; most company bosses don't actually lack the funds. It's just that they take advantage of the fact that workers need a job to put food on the table, so they constantly oppress them. From heavier workloads to lower pay, to bosses like this one who don't pay wages for a long time. It's all for the sake of squeezing out the maximum profit.
"What a huge villain!" Flandre Scarlet cursed angrily and then asked what would happen to the workers in the end.
"If the surveillance can prove that the conflict was started by those security guards and they only fought back out of necessity, then these workers will likely be prosecuted for intentional injury. Considering several people died, they'll probably be sentenced to ten to twenty years in prison. The same goes for those security guards. After all, people died on both sides." Hoshiguma explained the relevant laws of Great Yan to Flandre Scarlet.
"What about this villain boss?" Flandre Scarlet asked.
"Let's look at the surveillance first, we'll know after we see it!" Hoshiguma didn't answer directly, but instead took Flandre Scarlet to the information department nearby to retrieve the factory surveillance footage. After watching it, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's clear from the surveillance that the security guards were the ones who started the fight, and it was their barbaric behavior that led to the rapid escalation of the conflict. And the reason these guards did that was on the boss's orders. So he is the primary person responsible for this case. Don't worry, because his actions led to such a heinous brawl resulting in death, that guy will have to spend at least twenty years in prison."
Hoshiguma also expressed her anger after watching. This was clearly a case that could have been completely avoided. Yet, because of the boss's actions, it resulted in so many casualties. The negative impact this brought to Lungmen is immeasurable; Old Wei will definitely not go easy on this boss.
Hearing Hoshiguma's words, Flandre Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief. She had just been planning that if the boss could escape punishment, she would trigger the mental suggestion she had planted in his heart to make him commit suicide. Now that she knew the guy would be punished, she decided to change the content of the suggestion to make him confess all the bad things he had done in court.
"I didn't expect you little one to be quite useful!" Getting into the car for the return trip, Hoshiguma reached out and poked Flandre Scarlet's cheek.
After returning to the Major Crimes Unit, Flandre Scarlet told Chen Huijie, who was now sitting at her desk, about what happened.
Chen Huijie said, "It's okay now, but in the month before the New Year, this kind of thing happens almost once or twice every day."
"So why not severely punish those black-hearted bosses?" Flandre Scarlet asked, not understanding.
"Punish? Every year a batch of these people are kicked out of Lungmen. But so what? The newcomers are all the same. These insatiable fellows are more numerous than locusts; you can't catch them all."
Ch'en shrugged helplessly. They had caught many people like this, but it had no effect. Those guys still withhold wages like they always do. Some even threaten their employees, saying they'll pay twenty to thirty percent of the wages before the year ends and pay the rest slowly next year.
"If you don't agree and try to sue, you won't get a single cent. What do you expect those people who are counting on that money to go home for the New Year to do?"
Flandre Scarlet scratched her head after hearing this; there were too many villains for her to manage. Oh well, instead of getting angrier the more she thought about it, she might as well read a book for a while. After finding an empty seat and sitting down, Flandre Scarlet took a book out of her backpack and began to flip through it. Although people left the Major Crimes Unit from time to time for field duty, everyone tacitly avoided disturbing her.
Until the afternoon, when Chen Huijie patted Flandre Scarlet on the shoulder. "little Flandre, the matter we need your help with has arrived."
"Ah?" Although Flandre Scarlet was a bit confused, she still stood up.
"A female corpse was found in the park woods, with some eerie symbols carved all over her body. I remember you said before that your level with incantations and runes was very high. Want to come to the crime scene with me and take a look?" Chen Huijie said while straightening her clothes.
"Okay!" Flandre Scarlet put the book back in her backpack and followed Chen Huijie out of the Guard Department.
Before long, the two arrived at the park. By this time, the area had been completely cordoned off. Chen Huijie took out her police ID and led Flandre Scarlet inside. They soon found the deceased in the woods.
The deceased looked absolutely terrifying at this moment. There wasn't a single patch of intact skin on her body. Symbols had been carved into her one by one with a knife. Flandre Scarlet's expression turned somewhat solemn after looking at the corpse.
"These scars weren't carved after death."
The Forensic Doctor nearby also nodded. "Correct. According to our examination, the deceased likely suffered extremely severe torture before death. These wounds were almost all carved with a small knife while she was alive. And her cause of death was shock and organ failure due to excessive blood loss."
Chen Huijie looked at Flandre Scarlet. "Do you recognize these symbols on her body?"
Flandre Scarlet looked for a moment and then nodded. "I've seen them in books. They're some seemingly mysterious but completely incorrect magical runes used by a cult called the Cult of Truth."
"Cult of Truth, those guys have come to Lungmen again!" A flash of murderous intent crossed Ch'en's eyes upon hearing Flandre's words.
"Chen Huijie, you know about this organization?" Flandre Scarlet looked up at her.
"Of course. About six months before you came to Lungmen, that organization committed several inhuman murders in the city. I remember that it was only after extensive searching by all parties in Lungmen that we caught their trail. However, those guys were extremely cunning. Before we could close the net, several leaders had already fled Lungmen, and in the end, we only caught some ordinary members."
After Chen Huijie finished speaking, she took out her phone and dialed a number.
"Lin Gerui? It's Chen Huijie. It's like this: we found traces of Cult of Truth activity again while investigating a case today. Flandre Scarlet discovered it; she confirmed that the marks on the deceased come from that organization called the Cult of Truth. Okay, then I'll leave it to you."
Under any other circumstances, she would have been absolutely unwilling to make this call. But the last time the Cult of Truth appeared, it was that side that found their trail; it was just that the Guard Department was a step too slow and came up empty-handed, allowing them to escape.