Chapter 1011: Caught red-handed, thanks to Mr. Xiao for providing the crucial clue!
When driver Fu Shunping heard the news, he was still smoking.
"How much? Damn it, what kind of time is this to offer such meager pay? Who would dare take this job?"
The driver next to him spat, his words full of disdain: "With things so tense, who the hell would dare to do this? One wrong move and I'd be in jail."
The person who revealed the news chuckled: "Actually, I happen to have a friend who works in logistics, and he told me that the production team of 'Yuya' offered this much!"
He gestured the number three.
Everyone else stared wide-eyed: "What? Three thousand a car? No wonder it's a big production crew, they're so rich?"
"Something's not right. Why would they offer such a high price? Is it because their stuff is difficult to obtain?"
"Yeah, this price is unreasonably high..."
Fu Shunping paused in his smoking motion.
"Hey, you know what's been going on lately. Things have been tense lately, so everyone's been behaving much better and doing things the proper way. Also, the 'Yu Ye' crew is in a hurry to get rid of those things, so the company deliberately raised the price. Luckily, the big production team is rich and powerful, so they didn't argue with the company and just offered three thousand."
"Damn, the production team gave us 3,000, and then they only gave us a few hundred. That's outrageous! Let whoever wants to do this job do it."
"Actually, if I had to say, you could still make a profit at this price if you were running a normal business..."
Someone overheard this and started muttering under their breath, but didn't finish their sentence, thus earning the ridicule of the others.
Fu Shunping scoffed at the other party's greed, but he quickly did some mental calculations.
Their company takes a very high cut, which is why many of their drivers have started secretly dumping garbage in the mountains. Otherwise, if they make a few more trips like that, they would have to pay for the fuel themselves.
This is a rare opportunity. Although the company takes a cut, the original price is high, so even after the cut, they can still make a profit.
However, it recently went bust, and there's an investigation going on. If you want to take orders, you'd better work a few extra hours.
Fu Shunping was still pondering this matter when, just then, the team leader, with whom he had a very good relationship, came over and gave him a hand signal from the shadows.
Fu Shunping's eyelids twitched, as if he had guessed something. He immediately looked around and found that the other drivers were gathered together discussing the matter. So he quickly put out his cigarette and followed the captain to a secluded place.
"Are you going to take on any work related to'Sumi'?"
The captain inquired.
Fu Shunping hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Actually, you can make a profit even if you run it normally, I think it's okay..."
Just treat it as a normal order.
“I understand what you mean.” The captain patted his shoulder and then lowered his voice. “The company is currently under investigation and has voluntarily reduced its commission. Not many people know about this; it’s an internal business. But luckily, I have some connections and they helped me secure this order. I’ll get 30% of the commission per truckload.”
Fu Shunping's eyes lit up when he heard the company being so generous: "Really?"
“Really! Would I lie to you?” the captain said with certainty. “We can drive down the mountain to the treatment plant normally, or drive over there, it’s fine. The company doesn’t care at all, we decide for ourselves. The film crew has about six cars. I calculated that if it’s just the two of us, we can make three trips.”
If that's the case, there's bound to be a profit no matter what.
Nowadays, the film and television industry is not doing well, and there are fewer and fewer jobs available. Business opportunities are becoming increasingly scarce.
Fu Shunping looked up at the captain, and both of them were interested.
"Then...run normally?"
Fu Shunping confirmed it again.
"Hey, let's just run it normally. They've already given us such a high price. We can still make a profit if we run it normally, right?"
"...Okay, let's do it!"
-
That evening, the film crew was contacted again.
At that exact moment, the two directors and several lead actors were all in a room discussing the script. So when the person in charge came to find Fan Congwen, they were all there, and that's how he managed to hear the rest of the story.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with their "Yu Ye" production team.
The [N O V E L I G H T] person in charge came over for two reasons: first, to thank the film crew for their help and cooperation in catching the person who illegally dumped garbage by offering a high price; and second, to review the garbage collection receipts with the film crew to confirm the issue with the outsourced garbage collection company.
The others didn't leave either; they stayed to catch up on all the gossip that had recently happened at the film studio.
When he heard that the perpetrator had been caught red-handed, Xiao He's lips twitched. He never expected that at such a critical moment, someone would actually do such a thing, and even be caught red-handed by the police.
"The main problem is with the third-party cleaning companies. When the production crew deals with these companies, they pay the normal price. After the contract is signed, the company will assign drivers to carry out the transportation. However, the drivers actually receive very little money. Almost all of the money is taken by the company."
Therefore, in order to save costs and earn more transportation fees, drivers can only handle the transportation at the nearest location.
Anyway, whether the environment is polluted or not has nothing to do with them, right?
The real issue is whether we can pay next month's rent.
As a result, this situation has become increasingly rampant.
Ironically, the more drivers cut costs, the more the company took a cut once it found out.
Anyway, the company mainly controls the customer base. Many companies also have some connections with the film and television city management. When film crews want to clean up their leftover garbage, they usually contact the relevant management of the film and television city. So, apart from a few drivers who have the opportunity to take orders privately, most of the time drivers still have to follow the company's arrangements and can't just quit.
However, this time... it can also be attributed to someone being blinded by money.
"We would also like to thank Xiao He separately here."
The person in charge finally shook Xiao He's hand.
"Actually, the initial investigation into the food poisoning incident here wasn't focused on the water pollution issue. It was only after news spread that Xiao He had fished out trash in the river a while ago that people had their first impression of the river's pollution. So, after the mass food poisoning incident, the film crew here quickly went to the city's central hospital to check for parasites."
Parasites are generally difficult to detect on the spot, and it's hard to get immediate physical feedback, let alone show signs of mass food poisoning. But everyone was quite panicked, so they went to an authoritative hospital for repeated tests. However, this usually takes a long time, and it wasn't until the last two days that it was finally confirmed that some people did indeed have parasites.
During this period, the investigation team must have prioritized checking the food preservation situation in the kitchen of the farmhouse. They initially suspected that the food poisoning was caused by improper operation in the kitchen, or that the fish was stored improperly and had already spoiled. This is because the fish on the table at that time were not only wild fish caught by the film crew, but also mostly fish from the farmhouse itself.
In the end, it was because of their cravings that the two crew members from the "Yu Ye" crew who went to eat at the neighboring film set hit the nail on the head: "By the way, Brother Xiao fished out a suitcase in the river behind there a while ago! It's said that the upper reaches of that river are full of garbage, so can we still eat the fish we catch downstream?"
This led to the discovery of illegal dumping of garbage upstream, which resulted in severe ecological pollution.
Of course, if this matter is truly investigated, they will definitely be able to find out the results; it's just a matter of time.
However, they happened to meet Xiao He himself here, so the person in charge simply joked with Xiao He: "Who would have thought that this crucial clue came from a sting operation?"
Xiao He himself, who was being teased:...
No way, how could this become a black mark on my record?!
——————
【Special mini-drama, can be skipped】
"Brother Xiao, this is terrible! There's suddenly a book about you called 【The Villain's Acting Skills Are Top-Notch】! The first volume has been released online without any warning! I just searched for it, and it's everywhere. What should we do?"
Xiao Chen pushed open the door and excitedly called out to Xiao He, "Shouldn't we do something about this?"
Xiao He remained calm, cleared his throat, and explained, "Oh, you mean this? Sister Liu arranged something for me a while ago, it's about my book, so don't get so excited! But why didn't anyone tell me beforehand? It's so embarrassing that everyone suddenly saw it."
Xiao Chen exclaimed, "Brother Xiao, so you were prepared all along!"
Xiao He scratched his head and said in a very nonchalant tone, "Well, it's just like this, what else can I do? Anyway, the pressure isn't on me, I'm just a paper doll."
Xiao Chen was immediately speechless: "Wow, that makes a lot of sense? But if we do this, will anyone really support us?"
As soon as they finished speaking, the two looked at the camera simultaneously and pulled out their books: "Xiao He's Autobiography, watch the villainous movie star, become a winner in life, you deserve it~"
"Click! Not bad, not bad, this one's awkward enough, we can move on!"
The director shouted through a megaphone.
Xiao He: Okay!𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚