Volume One, Chapter Seventeen: Do Not Make Mistakes
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Last year, sometime around August.
At another company, a young employee about the same age as Max was also planning to switch jobs. After his boss found out, he was given a brutal beating.
It was certainly not as horrific as what Max had suffered, but it was far from mild. He was beaten so badly that his genitals had to be removed, and one of his kidneys ruptured.
Unable to pay the compensation demanded, and abandoned by his family, he was not killed only because his boss could not be bothered. Instead, he was allowed to remain at the company, where he was provided with food and lodging—but not a single cent in wages. He became nothing more than the company’s purest money-making machine.
To prevent him from slacking off, they even imposed performance targets on him.
Every month, if he failed to meet his quota, he would be beaten, locked in a water cell, or shut in a dark room without food or water.
Companies in this region generally disbanded toward the end of the year, with both the employees and bosses returning home for the New Year. Naturally, no one continued to keep an eye on that employee.
But less than half a month later, everyone who had worked at the company was arrested back home.
The source of it all was, of course, the employee who had been abused for several months.
After being beaten, he had long since developed a deep grudge. During work, whenever the others were not paying attention, he would either take photographs or record videos, secretly documenting everything and uploading the files to a cloud drive for safekeeping.
Once he returned home, he went straight to the police station to surrender and produced the hidden evidence.
He had used the method of sacrificing a thousand to kill eight hundred, taking revenge on everyone who had once bullied him.
Although the gray economy in northern Myanmar enjoyed government backing and appeared to be legal, the laws of different countries were not the same.
The law back home stipulated that as long as an act was recognized as a crime domestically, it would be subject to legal punishment whether it had taken place inside or outside the country—provided the person returned home and evidence existed. It was not as some people claimed: that once they committed crimes abroad, the authorities at home could do nothing.
This incident sounded an alarm for all the bosses engaged in the gray economy here. It made them realize that anyone they offended must never be allowed to escape. Otherwise, a moment of negligence could ruin their entire future.
A-Long said, “After being beaten so badly, do you really think Max wouldn’t hold a grudge? Wouldn’t he want revenge?”
“Like I said, we could have kept him here to work off the debt. But who would dare leave him here and let him continue working and making money?”
“As for asking his family to send money to cover the compensation, the reasoning is the same.”
“People come out here to make money so their relatives can live better. If they fail to earn anything and instead empty their family’s savings—or even force their family into debt—then whoever it was would find it hard to swallow that humiliation.”
“And if they can’t swallow it, they’ll find every possible way to take revenge.”
“Even if they were thrown out of the company, they could hide outside, photograph everyone in the company, and report them after returning home.”
“Although that wouldn’t provide any direct evidence of a crime, not everyone can withstand interrogation.”
“The more people there are, the easier it is for something to go wrong.”
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“As long as one person breaks and starts talking, everyone else will be exposed.”
“Money is only money if you have a life to earn it with and a life to spend it with. Once something happens, it becomes nothing more than paper.”
“For the sake of their own safety, and so they can return home to spend what they’ve earned, the bosses above us have no idea what mercy is.”
“They know only that if they want to avoid trouble, they must be ruthless.”
“Anyone standing on the opposite side is a threat as long as they remain alive. Only when they are dead can you be safe.”
“That is why, to this day, any employee who makes a mistake and is punished has no chance of returning alive.”
“Dongzi, do you really think I’m that cruel? You think I want to kill him over something like this? You’re wrong!”
“Max always performed well here. I’ve always had a good impression of him. His only mistake was choosing the wrong way to solve his problem.”
“He’d already been here for four months. If he didn’t want to pay the compensation and leave, couldn’t he have endured for just two more months? Once that time came, no one would have stopped him from leaving.”
“If you choose the wrong path, you have to pay the price for your mistake.”
“Although I haven’t made much money so far, I don’t want to return home only to be arrested and forced to kneel.”
“Besides, I’m merely an operation manager. There’s a boss above me. When the boss orders something to be done, I have no choice but to do it, even if I don’t want to.”
There was helplessness in A-Long’s voice.
I fell silent, not knowing how to respond.
Every man for himself, and the heavens will destroy him otherwise.
After thinking it over carefully, I realized that if I were sitting in the position of the boss above us, with assets worth hundreds of millions, my heart would probably become just as vicious.
If someone else did not die, then there was a good chance I would be the one to die.
Only when others were dead could I continue enjoying a carefree, comfortable life.
People in different positions naturally had different thoughts and made different choices.
After learning all these things I had never known before, I no longer knew whom to blame.
At this point, the only thing worth lamenting was that Max had been a perfectly decent man. Because he had made the wrong choice—or perhaps because he had been too careless in revealing his intention to flee—he had paid for it with his life.
It also served as a warning to me: I must not treat everything as trivial and casually tell outsiders about it.
A-Long rose and came over to me. He placed one hand on my shoulder, squeezed it firmly, and instructed me, “Dongzi, we’ll always be brothers. You don’t understand many of the rules here. From now on, whenever you plan to do anything, I want you to discuss it with me first. Then I’ll tell you what you can do and what you can’t.”
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“Things here in northern Myanmar may look loose and unregulated, but in reality there are countless taboos. Do you understand?”
“And precisely because everything is so loosely governed, human life is practically worthless here. If you violate the taboos of someone powerful, you’ll suffer unimaginable retaliation.”
“If you’re lucky, you might pay hundreds of thousands or even millions and still return home in one piece. Otherwise, your hands and feet will be broken, or you’ll be taken into the mountains and buried.”
“From now on, just work hard, don’t make mistakes, and leave this place of trouble as soon as you’ve made enough.”
I knew A-Long was telling the truth. After all, I had already witnessed the dangers of this place with my own eyes, so I nodded.
As for Max, whom I had been unable to stop thinking about, he was already dead, and my doubts about the senior management’s actions had been answered. I no longer dwelled on it.
When I returned outside, I saw many people busy at work. Remembering that A-Long had mentioned how some employees might take photographs, I asked him, “A-Long, should we start wearing masks at work from now on? That way, people won’t be able to photograph us.”
“No need!”
A-Long shook his head and explained, “You can guard against something for a while, but not forever. If someone truly intends to target you, you won’t even realize it.”
“Besides, everyone is here to make money. Unless they’ve been treated especially brutally, most people won’t go that far.”
“That’s also why, after you become a supervisor, I want you to check their phones regularly. If you find that anyone has photographed the company premises and sent the pictures elsewhere, report it to me immediately.”
Perhaps to reassure me, A-Long added, “This is really something for me and the senior management to worry about. You’re only a low- or mid-level employee. No one will have the spare time to target you, because there are only two reasons someone would do that: revenge or money.”
After hearing his explanation, I realized that I had indeed been overthinking things.
As long as I did not offend anyone, no one would secretly photograph me.
And as for money—did I look like someone who had any?
A nobody like me was hardly worth anyone’s risk.
While we were talking, the supervisor from the Celestial Group came over and ordered me in an imperious tone, “Dong, go over there and check the computers for us.”
Damn it, did he really think I was some kind of servant?
In an instant, anger surged through me.
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