I Can Stock Up in the Game

Chapter 119: Chapter 95: It’s Truly Impossible! Time for Special Methods!

When he arrived at the construction site for Li Yuan Farm’s campsite again, he was utterly dumbfounded.

They had already laid down turf in some areas, and the general outline of the site was clearly showing a high degree of completion.

’This is way too fast.’

’At this rate, they’ll be finished in half a month. By the time Li Yuan Farm’s campsite is built and open for business, his own site might not have shown any progress at all.’

He was now completely convinced Chen Hu and his crew were just playing him for a fool.

Zhao Neng hurried back to his own construction site and called Chen Hu and the other crew bosses.

Before long, Chen Hu and the other bosses arrived, each one of them wearing an enthusiastic expression.

”President Zhao, I’ve already found the men! They can start first thing this morning!” Chen Hu said with a smile, indicating that he had taken the matter to heart.

”That’s right, my men are also coming first thing this morning!”

”Same here!”

”...”

The others chimed in as well.

But Zhao Neng’s face was grim as he asked, ”Gentlemen, are you taking me for an idiot? Treating me like a sucker?”

His question caught Chen Hu and the others off guard. They felt a pang of guilt, because they had, in fact, been doing just that.

After all, he’d agreed to pay extra, and then extra on top of that!

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Chen Hu immediately forced a smile and asked, ”President Zhao, you’re the client. How would we dare treat you like a sucker? We’ve been giving our all on your project.”

”Your all?” Zhao Neng had completely lost trust in them. He pointed at the Li Yuan Farm site across the way. ”They started yesterday, and we started yesterday. You call this ’your all’? Go take a look at their progress, then look at mine! We may have signed a contract, but a contract is just a piece of paper. If you don’t want to do the work, I can replace you! Do you really think I can’t find anyone to take on a project covering tens of thousands of acres?”

Chen Hu and the others were clearly stunned by his words.

Honestly, compared to their previous jobs, they really had been putting more heart and effort into this one.

Since the client was paying extra, they couldn’t just take the money for free; they had to at least put in some extra elbow grease.

But something was clearly off about what President Zhao was saying now.

”President Zhao, don’t get worked up just yet. We’ll go over to their site and see what’s going on,” Chen Hu said, quickly trying to placate Zhao Neng before hurrying off the site with the others.

They did feel this President Zhao was something of a fat sheep, but his construction site was truly massive. They also knew that after this 2,000-acre campsite was finished, he had a project spanning tens of thousands of acres to develop.

Landing all those contracts would make them a fortune.

Chen Hu and his men quickly reached the Li Yuan Farm construction site, and they too were dumbfounded by the progress:

”They just started this yesterday?”

”It must be true. President Zhao has no reason to lie to us about this.”

”But to get this far in just one day and night... are they working themselves to death?”

”...”

It wasn’t that they couldn’t achieve this kind of progress if they all worked together. After all, their country was hailed as being unrivaled in infrastructure, even if they were just private construction crews.

But to do that, you’d have to work your men like mules. They wouldn’t last long at all.

”What kind of crew is this? So damn cut-throat! They’re not playing by the rules!” one of the crew bosses cursed.

Another snorted, ”There’s no way they can keep this up for two days.”

”Let’s head back for now. It seems President Zhao and this Li Yuan Farm are in direct competition. If we want to land his future projects, we’re going to have to respond accordingly,” Chen Hu said with a frown, watching the frenetic activity on the site.

The others could naturally see that.

If that weren’t the case, President Zhao wouldn’t be in such a hurry. If they couldn’t keep up, they would probably lose the project entirely.

The men hurried back.

’So what if it means working people like mules? They could do that, too.’

Besides, they were confident the other team’s workers couldn’t last long at that pace.

They’d just make their workers push through it for a bit, then things would go back to normal later.

When Chen Hu and the others returned to the Kailin Investment site, they overheard Zhao Neng behind a car, instructing his assistant, ”I’m starting to think these construction crews can’t be trusted. Find a way to get over to the Li Yuan Farm site and see if you can poach their team. I can offer more money!”

’Since I’m paying extra anyway, I might as well poach the competition’s team instead of dealing with these useless crews I hired.’

Chen Hu and the others were instantly mortified.

They understood that if they didn’t do something fast, they were really going to be replaced.

Spurred by a sense of crisis, the bosses started shouting at their employees, telling them to push through and work at full capacity.

Before long, the additional workers Chen Hu and the others had found also arrived and joined the work. For a time, the site was a hive of activity, and the pace genuinely picked up.

Zhao Neng naturally saw this and was slightly more satisfied.

However, he was still pinning his hopes on his assistant poaching the team from Li Yuan Farm.

He refused to believe that if he simply offered a higher price, the rival construction team wouldn’t be tempted.

This was a tactic of crushing the competition with capital.

His pockets were deeper than his rival’s, which gave him the capital to do such things.

So, all he had to do now was wait for news.

By evening, his assistant finally returned, and he immediately asked, ”How did it go? Did you poach their crew?”

But the assistant looked utterly helpless. ”Boss, it’s impossible. I couldn’t even get onto their construction site. And when I tried to talk to the workers, they completely ignored me. Even when I told one of them I could give him double his pay to come to our site, he wasn’t interested at all.”

Zhao Neng’s face filled with disbelief.

’Just a manual laborer, and he’s not tempted by double pay? Are you kidding me?’

’He should have come scurrying over eagerly.’

But this left him with no options. Since he couldn’t poach the rival team, he had to rely on Chen Hu and his men.

Still, their construction speed today had been much faster. At this pace, even if they couldn’t match the speed of the Li Yuan Farm site, they wouldn’t fall too far behind.

Even if the other campsite opened a few days earlier, he could run special promotions to siphon off their customers.

This was another case of using his capital to hurt the competition.

Aside from its previous projects, Kailin Investment had 200 million in capital before this project began. They had only spent 60 million leasing the land, so even if they invested another 50 million-plus in building the campsite, they would still have nearly 100 million left.

If things got tough, they could always get a bank loan. Kailin Investment could secure a significant amount of financing.

But just as he was thinking this, he suddenly noticed a noisy commotion breaking out on his own construction site.

”FUCK, I can’t do this anymore! We worked all through last night, and we haven’t had a break today.”

”Not even a mule can work like this!”

”Yeah, that’s it! I quit! I quit!”

”...”

Chen Hu and the other crew bosses were mortified.

They had also tried to work their men like mules, pushing them at high intensity all day, but who would have thought their own workers couldn’t even last a single day?

This was so embarrassing.

The crucial part was that the other team seemed to be working without ever stopping.

Seeing this, Zhao Neng frowned and summoned Chen Hu and the others, demanding, ”Gentlemen, what is the meaning of this? Are you playing games with me again?”

Chen Hu and his men felt truly wronged.

”President Zhao, we’re not, really! It’s just that working like this... the men can’t take it.”

”Yeah, the workers really can’t keep it up.”

”...!”

”Then why can they?” Zhao Neng shot back, pointing directly at the Li Yuan Farm site.

This left Chen Hu and the others speechless. They truly didn’t know how to answer.

But Zhao Neng didn’t listen to their explanations. He got straight into his car and left. After returning to his office, he immediately posted the 2,000-acre campsite project on a construction job board, stipulating an investment cost of 50 million and a 15-day completion deadline.

He felt that Chen Hu and his men had ganged up to play him for a fool. He had to find a new crew. There were plenty of construction teams in the city and the province; with a project this big, he wouldn’t be short of takers.

Meanwhile, Chen Hu and the others were looking at the Li Yuan Farm site, growing more and more irritated.

’This is really ruining our livelihood.’

”We can’t let this go on.” Chen Hu stared viciously at the opposing site, then walked aside and called over a subordinate. ”Tonight, take a few guys over to their site and cause some trouble. Threaten them and tell them not to be so damn cut-throat. They’re cutting off other people’s income.”

He had a background in the streets and knew that sometimes, you had to use street methods.

They definitely couldn’t go around smashing and destroying things; after all, this was a society ruled by law.

But just causing a little trouble was fine. Even if they got caught, it would only be five to ten days in detention.

If something happened, he’d let his subordinate take the fall for a few days; it wouldn’t be traced back to him.

Besides, he knew the temperament of those construction workers very well. They were all simple, honest migrant workers. As long as he could intimidate their foreman, be fiercer and more ruthless than them, those guys would be scared shitless.

Some of his subordinates were experts in this area, having come up in that kind of environment.

The key issue was that this was an outside crew causing trouble for him, the local boss. It was a complete slap in the face.