Chapter 487 Blood for Blood
On the way downstairs, Ruby gave Courtney a basic rundown of the situation.
“A dozen or so employees who were fired before are now bringing a bunch of people downstairs to cause trouble. They are holding banners while shouting that Citron Apparel is heartlessly profiteering and treating human life as a child’s play…”
At the moment, the building was surrounded by a group of strangers, some of whom were holding wooden signs and banners while others had bandanas tied around their heads with three large bloody letters written on it—blood for blood.
When Courtney rushed downstairs, she could see Angie trying to calm everything down. Her slender body looked particularly helpless among the restless crowd, and her shouts were all swallowed by the clamor of noise.
“Angie!” Courtney yelled to call back Angie as the latter moved forward. When Angie retreated behind her, she already had a clear sight of the entire situation.
“Citron Apparel doesn’t care about human lives!”
“They are heartless and only care about their profits. Give me back my health!”
“They are the scum of society and Melrose City. Citron Apparel, I want you to pay me back blood for blood!”
The group of people held banners and wooden signs with different slogans written on them. In front, there was a middle-aged man with a megaphone shouting, “Citron Apparel! I want you to pay me back blood for blood!” The people behind him would follow his chant, creating a formidable atmosphere.
In the meantime, Ruby hid behind Angie as she bit her lips unknowingly due to nervousness.
Courtney stopped for a while and realized that these people weren’t planning to stop, so she simply walked toward the middle-aged man in front and snatched the megaphone from his hands. Before the man could react, she stood back in her original position.
She held the megaphone and shouted, “If you want to settle the matter, send someone out to speak!”
Then, she smashed the megaphone in her hand. The megaphone was smashed into pieces on the ground, producing an ear-splitting murmur in the ear.
The noisy chants finally stopped as a chatter among the crowd began. In the middle of the crowd, a middle-aged man was wearing a blue t-shirt. His face was rugged and his skin was tanned. Even though he was tall, his body was muscular. After a short discussion, he stood out from the crowd.
“I’ll talk to you.”
The man strode and stood in front of Courtney with a pair of fierce eyes staring at her. After giving the man a thorough look, she asked, “Are you a local?”
Although he only spoke a few words, she could still hear his deliberately maintained accent. He wasn’t speaking a standard level of the local language, nor did he have the accent of someone living near Melrose City.
The man obviously didn’t expect her to ask something like that, so he was left startled without knowing how to answer her. However, she was able to get an answer from his brief hesitation.
She smiled faintly and ignored this issue. Then, she continued, “I believe that you are all here because of the company’s layoff some time ago. May I ask if you are a former employee of Citron Apparel or a family member of a former employee?”
The man initially prepared a bunch of speeches so that he could gain a dominant position during this negotiation, but unexpectedly, Courtney cleared up a lot of problems with just a few words, making it difficult for him to speak. He was stunned for a moment before he answered, “I’m Rosalie Wallace’s husband.”
“Rosalie Wallace?”
Courtney pondered for a moment before she nodded. She had previously checked the onboarding information of all the dismissed employees in this incident, and Rosalie was a person she had a strong impression of.
“I remember that she was the first person to pull out a pair of scissors and threaten to kill me at that time. I remember her very well.” She paused for a moment to deliberately aggravate her voice. When she saw the change of expression on the man’s face, she became more serious as she cut to the chase. “Rosalie and the others were dismissed for not following the company’s rules and provoking trouble. All decisions were carried out in full compliance with the company’s procedures, so you shouldn’t have any doubts about this matter. Also, as far as I know, the ones causing the trouble should have just come out of detention, right?”
“Provoking trouble? We are just honest people who heard about Citron Apparel’s benefits, so we quit our previous jobs to come work for you. However, we didn’t expect that this is an illegal business. The materials you use are toxic, and now that it has affected all the staff, you are trying to blame others. This is outrageous!”
With that, the man threw a pile of medical documents at her.
She read through the medical records the man had thrown at her and confirmed that the time of diagnosis was coincidentally two days before she fired those employees. She had a feeling that the situation was sailing in a direction of chaos.
Angie could see the worry in her eyes, so she tiptoed and glanced at the medical reports. When she saw that the word ‘leukemia’ was written on the reports, her eyes began to darken. At that instant, it seemed like her face had exploded. She snatched over the medical reports and slammed them on the man’s face.
“To think I was wondering why you all were gathered here. Now, it’s clear to me that you were just waiting to show us this nasty thing!”
After all, Angie was still young, so she had a burning rage inside her. As she shouted, she stepped forward as if she wanted to get into a fight with them, so Ruby had to hold her back from behind in fear.
Angie’s reaction seemed to be within the man’s expectation as he chuckled and said, “I knew that you wouldn’t admit it, but it is a fact that they were diagnosed with leukemia a month after joining Citron Apparel. Now, I have the medical reports of the other employees in my hand. You’re finished!”
The man revealed a chilling smile as if he had nothing to fear. If there was news about the person in charge of Citron Apparel not admitting to their crimes and even assaulting the victim, it would make their case more convincing.
“Sc*mbag!” Courtney remained calm, but Ruby wasn’t able to hold Angie back. Just like that, she flung the bag in her hand and scratched a bloodied mark on the man’s face.
The moment Angie flung her hand, the shoving crowd was instantly agitated. They were patiently waiting for a chance to riot from the start, and now, the chance was here. At that moment, someone threw their wooden sign, and it grazed Courtney’s shoulder before colliding with the ground behind her.
When the second wooden sign was about to hit her head, she felt a sudden force pulling her from behind, causing her to fall on her back. Instinctively, she turned around as the white figure spun in front of her.
“Angie!”
When Courtney wanted to push away the people in front of her, everything was already too late. Therefore, she could only hold Angie tightly to protect her while her mind turned blank at that moment.
Bang!
When the wooden sign hit a body, a muffled sound was heard. Due to the massive impact, the wood chips scattered around, but Courtney kept her eyes closed because she didn’t dare to face the situation.
However, Angie didn’t feel the pain that she expected even though the muffled sound was heard long ago. She was so terrified that a layer of sweat formed on her back.
Afterward, a heavy force suddenly pressed on her shoulders. She opened her eyes and saw a young man in a white T-shirt trying to support his body. After a few struggles, he gave in and collapsed.
“Zeke…”
Angie reached out and touched his head in panic. As soon as she touched him, she could feel warm liquid flowing through her fingers.
