Chapter 61

In the South Street of Qingshan City, it was already four o'clock in the morning. For early summer in Qingshan, it was almost time to see the sunrise. At this time, although there were already a few people on the streets, it was absolutely not a suitable time for a primary school student to go out. He Ping appeared in a relatively secluded corner of Ping'an Garden, looking at the street lamps and the shops that had not yet opened, and finally heaved a sigh of relief.

"Damn! Damn, damn, damn!" He Ping kicked a stone on the road, looking very depressed. Did the plan fail? Not really. Those few people were scared enough, and he was sure they would have trouble sleeping for a few days. As for the wooden boxes in the third workshop, he had already collected them all. A plot to frame He Xiangdong had been thwarted. As for the retaliation that would follow, he would complete it slowly, and none of those people would escape.

What was he depressed about? He Ping wiped his forehead, and his hand immediately became wet with sweat. Tired? Of course not. With He Ping's current physical strength, such a small amount of exercise couldn't possibly tire him. This wasn't from being tired, but from being scared! Scaring others by pretending to be a ghost had scared him as well. He Ping was quite speechless. He had only planned to scare them with sounds and shadows, but he hadn't expected Old Zhang to tell such a story, which ended up scaring him badly.

His courage had never been great. Although walking at night or being active at night was no longer a problem for him, horror movies and ghost stories were definitely not. Jiang Dezhi and the other three had simply left, and Old Zhang had hidden in the gatehouse, where there were lights and a TV, which made him less afraid. But He Ping had nothing, and he had to stay in the third workshop to collect all the wooden boxes they had placed. Especially after hearing such a story.

When he was collecting the boxes, He Ping's feeling was no better than when Xiao Li and Xiao Liu had placed them. There was no one around, only him, and his mind kept recalling the two stories Old Zhang had told. He was so agitated that he almost saw hallucinations. Moreover, his senses were now very developed, especially his hearing in the dark. Many people know that even in places where there is nothing, there are occasional sounds. These sounds, in He Ping's ears, were like thunderbolts.

Finally, he managed to clean up all the wooden boxes. He Ping didn't even bother to find Old Zhang to cause trouble, but directly used the spatial mirror to teleport to the marker he had set up in a corner of Ping'an Garden. Only then did he feel at ease. He checked the time, took a rarely used small road, and quietly came to the building where Dong Dapeng lived. Fortunately, Dong Dapeng seemed to still be awake and immediately opened the door for He Ping. He Ping ran to Dong Dapeng's door.

"Brother!" Dong Dapeng was quite excited to see He Ping: "You're finally back!"

"Is everything okay at my place?" He Ping asked as he walked into the house.

"No problem. Uncle He called when it was just getting dark, and I told him you were buying something downstairs. There was no more trouble after that."

"That's good. What's wrong with you, it's this late and you're still not sleeping?"

"My brother!" Dong Dapeng said with a worried look: "I'm all alone at home, how can I sleep? I want to sleep, but as soon as I get to bed, I can't. So I came down to play games and have been playing all night."

He Ping was speechless. His own courage was small, but Dong Dapeng's was even smaller. If it weren't for the influence of ghost stories and horror movies, He Ping could still walk at night and sleep alone. Dong Dapeng, who did nothing at home, couldn't even sleep, and he still dared to stay alone at home.

"Alright, go to sleep quickly. I'll take you to my dad's place to play tomorrow."

"Really! Okay, I'll go to sleep right away!" Dong Dapeng was a bit excited. Actually, Dongfang Hardware wasn't very interesting, but there were a lot of machines that children rarely got to see. Although there were a few computers, they were old and had no games. However, the South Suburban Industrial Park had not been fully developed, and there were a few stone mountains and a small forest nearby, which was a good playground for Dong Dapeng and other children of his age.

The night passed without incident. The next day, May 20th, was a Saturday. Early in the morning, He Ping took Dong Dapeng to his house. After having breakfast with He Xiangdong and Yin Xiulan, He Ping asked He Xiangdong if he could go to the factory to play. He Xiangdong thought that weekends should be for playing, and the factory seemed safer with him watching, so he agreed to the two children's request.

A Grand Cherokee, which had just been released in this era, came out of the garage. This was He Xiangdong's car. Although he could afford a better car, the road conditions in the South Suburbs were not good, and the powerful Grand Cherokee was very suitable. Moreover, He Xiangdong was a fan of off-road vehicles, so he had recently traded in his old Santana for this Grand Cherokee.

He Xiangdong drove, Yin Xiulan sat in the front passenger seat, and He Ping and Dong Dapeng were secured in the back seat with seat belts. With the roar of the engine, the Grand Cherokee left the neighborhood, drove onto South Street, and then out of the city to the south. After driving on the asphalt road for a while, it turned onto an unimproved dirt road. After a bumpy ride, Dongfang Hardware finally appeared before them. This road was really not easy to travel.

At the factory gate, workers were already arriving for work. Seeing He Xiangdong's car, they stopped to let it pass and greeted He Xiangdong. He Xiangdong smiled and responded to each of them. The security guard in the gatehouse was no longer Old Zhang. Old Zhang, who had been on night duty, had eagerly gone home as soon as the day shift guard arrived. The experience of the previous night had really taken a toll on him, and he hadn't slept all night.

The car drove into the factory, and He Xiangdong first dropped off Yin Xiulan and the two children before parking the car. However, before the group could go to He Xiangdong's office, one of the security guards at the gate ran over. He Xiangdong was a bit surprised to see the guard running, so he stopped and waited for the guard.

"Factory Manager!" The guard said, a bit out of breath: "Several cars have come from outside, saying they are an inspection team and want to conduct a surprise inspection at our factory. They want us to let them in and for the person in charge to come over."

"Inspection?" He Xiangdong was puzzled: "It's Saturday, and those people are actually working? The sun must be rising in the west. I'll go check it out first. You guys go to the office."

"Let's go together. We'll watch the show. We have nothing to do in the office anyway, and there are no games on that computer." He Ping immediately suggested. This inspection was going to be a good show, and he couldn't miss it.

[PS: First update of the day!]