Chapter 48: Social Practice of Leaders (Part 1)
After the deal was done, Li Wei went "offline" to do his own thing.
And on this side:
Janna began to study magic with Seraphine and taught her the initial steps to master her talent.
After a long wait, Mr. and Mrs. Erwin finally met their second business partner, Professor Victor of Piltover University.
Victor is gentle, elegant, and has an extraordinary demeanor, with a strong scholarly temperament in his speech and behavior. As soon as he appeared, he was liked by the Erwins, two technology entrepreneurs.
After discussing the relevant technical issues with Victor in depth and confirming and being impressed by his background and academic ability, Erwin finally let go of his last bit of guard:
"Professor Victor, we can sign a contract with you now. I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation!"
Erwin showed his sincerity.
But Victor shook his head: "Don't worry, the contract can be signed later."
"Why?" Erwin was puzzled.
Victor gave him a deep look:
Because of signing this contract, this guy has officially been abducted into the pirate ship.
If anything happens to the leader in the future, Erwin's family will definitely be implicated.
The Leader is not a Bilgewater hero, and he shouldn't use such deceptive methods to lure people into joining the Liangshan gang.
Otherwise, once Erwin discovered the truth, the trust that both parties had worked so hard to build would be completely broken.
Will he then make the best of a mistake and stay on the mountain to sit on the throne, or will he find an opportunity to surrender and be recruited by the court...it's hard to say.
In short, what leaders need are like-minded companions, not time bombs with different ideals.
so……
"Mr. Erwin, I hope we can first get to know each other better, and then formally confirm the partnership with your full consent." Victor explained sincerely.
"This..." Erwin thought it was just Victor and wanted to inspect his factory for a while longer. "That's good. Both sides can have more time to think about it."
"Then Professor Victor, would you like me to accompany you to take a look around the factory right now?"
"I was just about to tell you about this." Victor smiled. "I hope the factory can temporarily stop production for a day. This will allow me and my students to go to the factory and understand the situation firsthand."
"You and your students?" Erwin was curious. "Are there any students from Piltover University participating in this project ?"
"Yes, and quite a lot. This is considered a kind of... social practice in our college, right?"
"Okay." Erwin thought for a moment and said, "Then I will stop the factory now and let the workers go back to rest."
"No, you just need to send back the local workers from Piltover."
"What about the Zaun apprentices?"
"They need to stay. My students and I are here for them."
Hearing this answer, Erwin's eyes flashed with a strange color.
In fact, he had already smelled something wrong.
Because he already believed in the existence of Janna and believed that Levi was the chosen one of the goddess Janna.
His tears, his helpless prayers on that desperate night twenty years ago...Apart from himself, I'm afraid only the goddess knows.
Then just think about it:
Goddess Janna came to the world again after hundreds of years. Is it just to open a factory and make music in Piltover to earn some pocket money for herself?
Levi and Victor, as well as the goddess Janna behind them, definitely have a grand and great goal.
Students, workers, professors... all of these people will unite under the banner of the goddess. What do they want to do?
Erwin didn't dare to think too deeply.
But after hesitating, he still reached out his hand to Victor:
"No problem, Professor Victor."
"Although I don't know what you and your students want to 'practice' here, if this is what Goddess Janna wants..." Goddess Janna is the patron saint of Zaun and a symbol of kindness and mercy: "I am willing to believe it."
"This factory will be handed over to you temporarily."
"Thank you!" Victor shook his hand gratefully.
Then he took out two booklets from his pocket.
One was written by Li Wei yesterday and printed this morning, "Zuan, Where Did It Come From?"
The other was compiled by Victor based on Levi's speech this morning, "Zaan, Where to Go?"
The first volume talks about what and why, and the second volume talks about how to do it.
The content of the latter is obviously somewhat sensitive.
Victor thought about it and handed only the first booklet to Erwin for the time being:
"Mr. Erwin, perhaps you could take a look at this article."
"Once you understand, you will know what we are doing."
…
An afternoon passed and night fell quietly.
The lights in Erwin's Hex Audio Factory were still on and the work was in full swing. But today, the people busy here were not the workers, but the group of Zaun students brought by Victor.
They are trying to face and solve a problem:
How should the work of a leader be carried out?
Nobody knows.
It’s the first time for everyone, so we have to rely on practice to accumulate experience.
Fortunately, these students all came from poor backgrounds and could get along well with the apprentices.
They are also future scientists who know how to conduct investigations scientifically.
The Zaun apprentices saw that they could get paid for free without having to work today, and that these students were introduced by their boss, Erwin, so they were happy to chat with them.
For these young and immature students, this is undoubtedly the best starting point for their future work.
After this afternoon of communication and investigation, everyone finally had an understanding of the specific situation of this factory.
"Professor Victor!" Lina brought everyone's summary of opinions and found Victor, who was in charge here.
She reported the results of everyone 's investigation this afternoon in detail:
"The investigation shows that this Elvin Hextech Audio Factory has a total of 51 Piltover local employees and 148 Zaun apprentices..."
"Wait. " Victor noticed something strange just after the report began: "Why are there so many Zaun apprentices?"
"Doesn't Piltover have a rule that the ratio of local employees to foreign workers in a company must not be less than 50%?"
In order to give priority to local employment, Piltover does have such regulations.
"But those are just paper rules..."
When Viktor was young in Zaun, he had followed a teacher. So he didn't have to endure the hardship of working in the factory, and he was able to pass the exam to Piltover.
After coming to Piltover, he hadn't stepped out of the school gate for more than ten years and had never seen what a factory looked like.
Compared to Viktor who has been in the ivory tower for a long time, Lina, a poor Zuan girl, understands the social reality of Piltover better:
"Zuan people are cheap and work hard."
"Who wouldn't want to hire fewer spoiled Piltover guys and more hardworking Zaun people?"
"So even though Piltover has such regulations, these business owners can still secretly increase the proportion of foreign workers in their factories through various means such as concealing information, affiliation, and indentured labor."
"This... concealment? Affiliation? Contract labor?" Victor was confused.
He has been a scholar for a long time, but he still has no idea what all this is about.
"It's easiest to conceal the truth," Lina explained. "It's to hide those illegal immigrants who don't have the legal qualifications to be apprentices, and hire them to work illegally in the factory at a price half that of normal apprentices."
"Mr. Erwin might be too timid to do this."
"But of the 148 Zaun apprentices in his factory, 32 are 'signed workers'—"
"Nominally they were attached to Mr. Irwin's household and the homes of several of his acquaintances as 'domestic servants', but in reality they were working as apprentices in Mr. Irwin's factory."
"Another 65 people were 'contract laborers'—"
"That means signing a contract with contractors in society, and then having those powerful and well-connected contractors send their workers to work in the factory."
"These people are also not considered official Zaun apprentices and do not occupy positions in the factory."
"So after careful calculation, the factory only has 51 formal apprentices in name - exactly 1:1 with the local workers in Piltover, accounting for 50%, and it does not violate Piltover's local employment protection regulations."
"This..." You don't know until you check, and you'll be shocked when you do.
Victor never expected that Mr. Irwin, who seemed kind and honest on the surface, could actually play so many tricks behind the scenes.
It’s a pity that his expression was so sincere when he mentioned Goddess Janna.
Oh no, maybe he sent the booklet to the wrong person?
"No, this really can't be blamed on Mr. Erwin." Lina shook her head helplessly: "All business owners in Piltover do this. He is already considered honest."
“Is this what you call honesty?”
"In Piltover, yes."
“…”
Victor was silent for a long time and sighed:
"I thought I was the teacher in this practice."
Great professors and great intellectuals should, at first glance, be leaders and enlighteners to the masses.
Even the gentle and humble Victor had instinctively believed that he stood higher , saw farther, and was wiser than those students and workers.
But now, after stepping out of the campus and into the factory, Victor discovered:
"So... I am that student."
