Chapter 1

My uncle’s booming voice made my ears ring.

“The machine’s down, and the whole line is stalled.”

“Get back here now. Don’t put on airs.”

I was standing by the dorm window at my new company and looked down at my employee badge.

A monthly salary of twenty-eight thousand, full benefits, and project bonuses on top.

I said flatly, “I can’t go back.”

There was a pause on the other end, then he exploded.

“Can’t go back?”

“You’ve got some nerve now, huh?”

“Who let you stay at that factory for three years?”

“Without me, you’d have starved to death already!”

I laughed.

Three years ago, he had been blocking my front door.

He cried that the factory was going under, said I was his own nephew, and that he trusted nobody but me.

Now it sounded like he had been the one feeding me.

“Uncle, didn’t you say it yourself? I’m just an employee.”

“When a machine breaks, call a repairman.”

The next second, my cousin Eric’s voice cut in.

“Evan, what are you acting like? Those machines at the factory, weren’t you just messing around with them all the time?”

“You really think you’re some kind of expert?”

“My dad wants you back because he’s giving you face.”

That father and son pair were perfect. One played the good cop, the other the bad cop. After three years, I knew them better than anyone.

Eric was two years older than me and never got past middle school.

Over the years at the factory, besides driving around for fun, he mostly took clients to massage parlors.

The orders I brought in, he signed off on.

The processes I improved, he snapped a picture of and posted on social media with the caption, “Young people need to be bold and go after it.”

Last year, when the factory expanded, I pulled seven straight all-nighters. I turned several secondhand old machines into a linked production line.

Eric came through the workshop once. He stood off to the side and filmed a video. The title was:

“Factory heir of the ‘90s leads an old plant through transformation and upgrading.”

It got twenty thousand likes, and the comments were full of people praising how young and promising he was.

He didn’t reply to a single one, because he couldn’t even understand how the machine worked.

“Evan.”

Eric’s voice got louder again.

“Don’t push your luck.”

“Believe me, if you don’t come back, I’ll make sure you can’t survive in this industry.”

I almost laughed from anger.

“Try me.”

There was silence on the other end for a second, probably because he hadn’t expected that answer.

Then my uncle snatched the phone back.

This time, he didn’t bother pretending anymore. His voice was cold and hard.

“Evan, I’ll say this one last time.”

“Your mom’s still back in your hometown, right?”

“Leave some room for yourself. Don’t make this too ugly.”

My face darkened instantly. He was threatening me, using my mom to threaten me.

Three years ago, when he begged me to come back, he had shown up with two cartons of milk and kept calling me “brother” over and over.

Now that he had turned on me, he was pulling this crap.

“Try touching her.”

My voice wasn’t loud.

But the other end went strangely quiet.

He probably realized I was really pissed off.

But in the next second, Eric jumped back in.

“Oh, so now you’re freaking out? Then get your ass back here.”

“Stop pretending to be so high and mighty out there. How long can a big company really keep you?”

“You bookworms are nothing without my family’s factory.”

I hung up.

I thought once I left, that would be the end of it.

I had really overestimated them. This family wasn’t turning on me.

They just thought I was born to work for them.

My mom called me.

“Son, your uncle came by. He said you left him a pile of garbage to deal with.”

“If you don’t come back, they’re not leaving.”

“They also said if the factory has losses, they’ll use our house as collateral.”