The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

173 A Leader Is a Role Model

Afei frowned and turned his gaze to the two receptionists who were busy answering the telephone. Without permission, he swiftly unplugged the cable on the telephone that was still in use and then asked the two employees working behind the desk, “Who keeps calling here?”

The two receptionists looked scared. The reason was that so far, they had never spoken directly to the leader of the Creeper who was their boss. “They are.. the managers of the companies here, C-commander,” The male receptionists replied.

“What did they say?” Afei asked again, even though he had already predicted what the companies would say. He still wanted to hear the confirmation.

“They complained because their workers went on strike as a protest by accusing the management of their company of cooperating with Creeper to scam workers into doing hard labour for life. The company said that Creeper should be held responsible for their losses because production went chaotic.” He explained.

Afei’s jaw instantly hardened. He looked ahead and walked towards the door. From there, he could see a collection of demonstrators who kept voicing their speeches with various insulting posters that they hold up high. All this time, Afei never thought that those people could unite to attack him back. He thought that they were old and stupid enough to think that uniting would render the Creeper powerless.

“You’d better not come out, Commander. They’d get even more aggressive when they see you.” One of his assistants said when he had just entered the door.

Afei huffed softly, “This isn’t good. If the company finally reports this incident to the owners of Chingsu District, they might get the Creeper out of here,” he muttered with both eyes kept looking at the employees who were being blocked by all his men about twenty meters from the headquarters building. “Push them back. Don’t be afraid of those people. Show them how powerful we are here.”

“All right, Commander!” The assistant nodded and then went back to lead his men to dispel the demonstrators.

Employees who had become victims of scams by the Creeper reached hundreds of people because the area of ??the Chingsu District was so big that the factories inside were also quite large. As ordered by the commander, all the Creeper men on guard tried to push back the demonstrators. But it seemed they had underestimated those people too much. The angry demonstrators finally hit back at the burly men who had been treating them unfairly.

.....

In fact, it wasn’t only those who had been scammed who participated in the demonstration, but everyone who was fed up with the behaviour of the cunning group of guards called the Creeper had also joined in. Although many employees had bribed the Creeper to facilitate their cheating, there were not a few honest employees who wanted a healthy environment. In addition, it was felt that Creeper members tend to deliberately find fault of every employee to extort their money.

In the end, the demonstration turned into a riot. Even, a few fights between employees and members of the Creeper happened. The factory workers had lost their temper and became furious when the people who were supposed to protect them used violence to stop their demonstrations.

The riot lasted until the afternoon. Due to the chaos, all the factories in the Chingsu District experienced production paralysis. All members of the Creeper came back overwhelmed and not a few of them were injured as a result of being hit with rocks by the demonstrators.

Afei, who saw the condition was already in chaos, began to feel worried. He did not expect that the employees dared to attack him back. With a large number of employees, it was not comparable to the number of members belonging to the Creeper in the Chingsu District. Therefore, Afei ordered his assistant to pull back all of their members lent to Oscar.

As Afei had predicted, Oscar immediately called him when he heard the order that all the lent members must be returned.

“Afei! You can’t do that! There are only a few members in my place. Plus, because of yesterday’s attack, no one can stand guard here. If RJC comes again, we’ll be crushed.” Oscar said over the phone.

Afei sighed softly but deeply long, “We are short of men here. So you have to hang in there.”

“You can’t do that, Afei! Your men over there are strong, not like my men here. Creeper could be crushed if there’s no balance between both sides.”

“What exactly are you saying, Oscar Chopper?” Afei asked flatly which made Oscar speechless. “It wasn’t the Creeper that would be destroyed, but the group you led yourself. Do you think I didn’t know that you’ve been embezzling your group’s income statements so you didn’t have to deposit everything to the head base? You’re keeping the rest in your own pocket.” he continued. It was something his assistant had just discovered that he had asked to investigate if Oscar was cheating. And as it turned out, he was right. “From the start, you only cared about the group under your feet and used us here to be your support.”

What Afei said made Oscar’s heart beat fast. He couldn’t believe what his ears heard. Why did problems keep coming to him like a bunch of arrows? He never thought that his cheating all along would be discovered. He thought, all this time, Afei had never paid attention to the reports he had given him because Afei was not the type of man who was concerned too much about money. That was what made Oscar confident to cheat all this time.

But Oscar felt Afei was starting to be very curt towards him lately. It seemed that the sharp-eyed man was deliberately looking for Oscar’s fault for a special reason.

“Are you going to get rid of me?” Oscar guessed.

Finally, the question was asked. Afei smiled, “You realize that you don’t deserve it.”

“Are you really doing this lowly thing to the person who raised you to the top? So Lee Mu Fei was a coward who betrayed the person who had contributed to his life?” Oscar said. His hand that was holding the cell phone to his ear started to shake. He was angry and scared.

“You still dare to say the word ‘betrayal’? Don’t you realize what you’ve been doing all this time by committing that cheating? So far, I’ve trusted you so much and you’ve also taken too much as the pay of your sedition service that you are so proud of.” Afei replied.

Oscar’s jaw hardened, “So, is this the end? You kicked me from the Creeper we built together?” he asked again.

Afei nodded slowly, “You don’t need to confirm anymore. Take all the subordinates and base in Greenvalley. Think of it as my mercy to you. You and your group are no longer part of the Creeper.”

Oscar laughed furiously, “You don’t know what I can do. You will regret it for sure, Afei!”

“I’m waiting for what you can do without my support. And, don’t ever call me Afei again. I never thought of you as a close person of mine.” Afei said before hanging up the phone.

The cell phone that Oscar was holding slid onto the floor. It was all over. Started from a scam committed by those jerks and now he had lost everything. He was left alone and must face a very strong enemy, which was RJC.

“I will destroy you, Afei!” He growled.

***

An offensive smile appeared on the handsome man’s fresh lips. His eyes looked at the two black-masked men sitting on the sofa in front of him, “Looks like your plan has worked,”

Emma smiled inside her mask, “I’ve told you, you just have to do what we ask and everything will be finely done.”

Several knocks on the door interrupted them and then the door opened with a man with a ponytail and another man with bright red hair came in.

“I have received the latest report. The Creeper Chingsu District and Greenvalley have separated. Lee Mu Fei had pulled back all the strong members that he previously lent to Oscar Chopper which numbered around two hundred people.” Damian explained. Previously, while attacking the Creeper’s base in Greenvalley, he captured one of that group’s men and threatened him to spy. It happened that because that man realized that the Creeper was about to be destroyed, he complied with Damian and Vico’s request to save his own life.

“That’s good,” Marcel said with a big smile. “Then we can destroy the Creepers in Greenvalley and all their branch groups.”

“Ehm..” Rachel cleared her throat, “Sorry, but we won’t use that plan. Let Oscar fight Lee Mu Fei alone, so that Lee Mu Fei won’t suspect RCJ is behind this mess. That’s our goal against them. ”

Emma nodded, “Now, we need someone to instigate Oscar Chopper so that he dares to attack the Creepers in Chingsu District. When that happens, we will enter the Creeper’s main headquarters to steal the stuff we need.”

“That’s a good idea. But how?” Marcel asked.

“A leader is a role model for his followers. If the leader dares to stab his partner in the back, the mindset would not be much different from the men he leads. We will use the person who is around Oscar the most, which is his assistant.” Emma said.