The Southern Airlines supervisor walked over to the dumpster and looked inside, only to find it completely empty.

He froze for a moment, then looked up and shot a cold glare at Fang Chenyi.

"Hey kid, did you steal what was in here?"

Hearing the man’s tone, Fang Chenyi’s brow furrowed. He retorted, clearly displeased.

"Watch your words. ’Steal?’ This is a dumpster, in case you hadn’t noticed. Taking things out of it is called recycling—I’m doing my part for the environment! Do you really think ’steal’ is the right word here?"

He had just acquired 71% of Southern Airlines’ stock, giving him absolute controlling interest. He was their de facto chairman, which meant that the man before him, a Southern Airlines maintenance supervisor named Hao Jianren, was his own employee.

Fang Chenyi was, however, quite curious as to why a maintenance supervisor would personally drive a garbage truck over to collect the trash.

"Watch my words? Heh. Look at you, all dressed up. You could do anything, and you choose to be a scrapper? I’m asking you, scrapper, did you make off with what was in here or not?"

Hao Jianren sneered. A broke scrapper putting on airs in front of him? Telling him to "watch his words"? As if he was worthy of even saying that.

Hearing Hao Jianren’s question, Fang Chenyi gave a slight nod and replied nonchalantly.

"I did indeed take the junk that was inside. But since it was thrown in a dumpster, what’s wrong with me taking it?"

The moment Hao Jianren heard that this young man had indeed taken it, veins bulged on his forehead. He lunged, grabbing for Fang Chenyi’s collar, and snarled viciously.

"Bullshit! Who told you that was junk? Let me tell you, those are important airplane parts! Every single piece is worth tens of thousands! You think you can afford to replace them?"

"Not junk? Then why’d you throw them in a dumpster?"

Fang Chenyi raised a hand and caught the man’s arm. With a slight twist and a flick of his wrist, he sent Hao Jianren spinning twice on the spot before he landed on his ass with a THUD.

Fang Chenyi snorted. He was fairly certain he knew what was going on. He stared into Hao Jianren’s eyes and spoke, enunciating every word.

"Heh. I see now. You’re lining your own pockets, aren’t you? You deliberately threw these parts into the dumpster, planning to come back with a garbage truck to sneak them out and sell them. Am I right?"

How could someone as smart as Fang Chenyi fail to figure out the scheme?

Through simple observation, he had spotted the numerous suspicious details and arrived at this crucial conclusion.

Namely, that the maintenance supervisor named Hao Jianren had secretly stashed the parts himself.

Sure enough, as soon as Fang Chenyi finished speaking, Hao Jianren, still on the ground, was visibly startled. He pointed a trembling, furious finger at Fang Chenyi’s face and shouted.

"Cut the crap! Hand over the parts right now, or you’re not leaving here today!"

As he spoke, he scrambled to his feet and pulled out his phone to make a call.

Fang Chenyi shot him a disdainful look, then, having no intention of dealing with the man, turned to leave. ’As for him stealing airplane parts,’ he thought, ’I’ll just have someone fire him when I get back.’

’After all, I’ve already tossed the evidence into a sack to be recycled for cash. Even if I accuse him of theft, there’s no proof anymore.’

But when Hao Jianren saw Fang Chenyi about to walk away, he lunged forward to block his path.

This was a joke. He had gone to so much trouble to steal parts worth hundreds of thousands, and now they were just gone? How could he possibly let it go?

Staring at Hao Jianren blocking his path, Fang Chenyi’s brow furrowed. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Char’s voice from behind him.

"You bastard! What do you think you’re doing? You dare lay a hand on our boss?! You’re asking for a death wish!"

As the voice rang out, a figure rushed over from the distance. By the time Fang Chenyi turned around, a large boot had already planted itself squarely on Hao Jianren’s face. In an instant, bright red blood gushed from his nose.

"Whoa. Didn’t realize you were such a badass, Old Cha."

After kicking Hao Jianren to the ground, Old Char turned to Fang Chenyi with a grin, cool as a cucumber. "Heh, Boss, don’t forget, I used to fly planes. Oh, right, everything’s loaded. Shall we get going? But Boss, you have an awful lot of stuff. Besides the two seats we saved for you and the missus, the entire cabin is packed. Smith and I will stay behind to fly the plane, but let’s have the other three take a commercial flight home."

Fang Chenyi understood the subtext in Old Char’s words, of course. To be able to fly fighter jets, he had to have been in the military.

Seeing Hao Jianren get kicked to the ground, the two other workers with him rushed forward to help him up.

Hao Jianren wiped the blood from his face, then pointed a trembling finger at the conversing Fang Chenyi and Char. He spoke in a mangled, lisping voice.

"I know you’re a foreigner. Your plane uses Southern Airlines’ services, flies Southern Airlines’ routes, right? Haha, this is karma! Hmph, I might as well tell you, since you hit me, you can forget about taking off!"

With that, the man made a call.

"Chief, I got beat up. And they stole that batch of stuff. Yeah, that’s right, it’s the guys with the private jet using our flight path. What do you think, should we cancel their route? ...Okay, I got it. Don’t you worry."

After a few more words, he hung up, then turned his head back and broke into a wicked grin.

"Kid, it’s not just this time. From now on, your plane can forget about ever using a Southern Airlines flight path!"

Fang Chenyi sneered. He didn’t believe a mere maintenance supervisor had the power to cancel his flight path. While it might not require the airport director’s approval, the final say would have to come from the head of Southern Airlines’ local operations.

Besides, the man was clearly trying to embezzle company property. Why would he dare to get the local Southern Airlines director involved?

But it seemed he had oversimplified things. Just as Fang Chenyi was wondering if the guy was bluffing, Char’s phone suddenly rang.

He answered, exchanged a few words, and hung up.

Putting the phone back in his pocket, Char gave Fang Chenyi a helpless shrug.

"Well, Boss... Southern Airlines actually canceled our flight path."

Fang Chenyi was stunned. ’They really canceled my flight path?’

’What the hell is the director here playing at? Could it be...?’

’Damn it,’ he thought. ’Do they really think I’m a pushover?’

[To be continued...]