Chapter 1

I closed down my car repair shop in town and went to the city for a year to help my apprentice, Matthew Darwin.

The headquarters finally decided to give someone in our car repair shop the title of the best employee of the year and give them a bonus of one million dollars, though we were to pick who it was on our own.

Unfortunately, during such a good occasion, I received news that my mother got into an accident and needed money for her surgery.

I was in a hurry to get money to save her, so I grabbed Matthew’s sleeve. “Matthew, you got the bonus, didn’t you? You promised to give me 30% of it.”

But right in front of everyone’s faces, Matthew declared, “I’m happy to announce that I’m the one who’s getting the bonus!”

“What? Didn’t you say—”

“Say what? Without me as the owner, we wouldn’t have gotten the bonus.”

“Matthew, I’m really in a hurry for money right now. My mother got into an accident and needs money for her sur—”

Before I finished speaking, Matthew had already kicked me to the floor.

“What does your mom getting into an accident have to do with me? Work! I don’t keep slackers around!”

After Matthew sauntered out, Gary, one of the repairmen, helped me up. “Mr. York, without you, Mr. Darwin wouldn’t have gotten the bonus.”

None of them have forgotten how the shop had gone from nearly bankrupt to the best car repair shop in the company, only Matthew.

I had fixed cars for twenty years. It was time for me to fix his morals.

Chapter 1

“That’s right. The best employee of the year award should have gone to you. Why is Mr. Darwin the one getting it?”

“Why is he even part of the running? That award was always supposed to be for Mr. York.”

Everyone found the situation unfair for me.

I remembered how Matthew had begged me for help at Metal Repairs Shop, which had been my own shop.

“Please help me, Mr. York! It’s not easy running a car repair shop in the city. I’ve only just become the owner, but business isn’t doing good. If business is still bad next month, I’ll be fired. I really need your help.”

“I’ve only just opened this shop in town with my wife, and you’re asking me to go to the city?”

He grabbed my hand. “I’ll give you six thousand dollars as your salary and 30% of any bonus the shop gets. The shop belongs to a major company, so the bonus we get every year is huge. I’ll give you the best treatment!”

Lina Stane, my wife, came out. “William, Matthew is being so sincere. Besides, he worked with you for eight years. Just say yes.”

So, I smiled and helped him up. “Alright, get up. I’ll help you.”

Back then, Matthew had shown me a bank card that had one million dollars in it. That was the bonus, he had bragged to me.

…

Later on, he took out another document and announced the latest news, “From this month on, I’ll be adjusting your salaries for the development of the shop.

“Your base salary will be tied to your productivity. Your pay grades are tied to your ranking in the shop. Mr. York, from this month onward, your base salary is three thousand dollars.”

“Three thousand? You didn’t give me the bonus I deserve, and you’re cutting my salary in half?!”

He cast me a glance before sneering. “Do you think three thousand is too little? You’re old now. No one else but me will hire you, old man.

“Everyone, listen up. We’re driving up sales. If you can switch the parts of any car coming in for repairs, do it,” Matthew said loudly while looking at the repairmen watching.

“Mr. York, your skills only help the customers save money, and it’s useless now. The fact that you’re even getting three thousand dollars is because you were once my teacher.” Matthew patted my face with the documents and strode into his office.

I had repaired cars for more than twenty years and came to the city to help him after closing my own shop in town.

There were plenty of problems in the shop, and I solved them all. Yet in the end, I had my salary cut in half.

When I needed money the most, Matthew took the bonus that belonged to me. I could not just let it slide!

I called Lina quickly, “Lina, my mom got into an accident. Transfer eighty thousand dollars to me, please?

“You don’t have it?

“What? Wasn’t there more than one hundred thousand dollars in our bank account? Why is it gone?”

“Things are expensive in the city. I’ve spent them all. Could you stop being so annoying? I’m hanging up. I’m busy here.” Lina hurriedly hung up.

As I clenched my phone tightly, I was forced to go to Matthew again.

Right when I reached the door, I heard familiar laughter from the office.

Lina sat on Matthew’s lap while buttoning her blouse. Her face was red. “Why were you so rough just now? What if William finds out?”

Matthew laughed again and pulled Lina into his arms.

I barged in. When Lina saw me, she shot up from Matthew’s lap in fright. “W-William…”

Chapter 2

Matthew did not even flinch. He merely straightened his tie.

“Since you caught us in the act, I won’t hide it from you anymore. You’re old now, Mr. York. You’re not that skilled either.

“I’ve been doing my best to take care of Lina for you over the past year.”

As I stared at them, I felt the two closest people to me becoming total strangers.

“Heh. One year ago, you even told me that you rented a place for me and will take good care of my wife. You just asked me to focus on repairing cars.”

When I remembered what Matthew had said one year ago, I grimaced.

“What did you do with that? Is this how you ‘take care’ of my wife?”

“Mr. York, Lina has been with you for more than twenty years. You know full well just how much hardship she’s had to endure. You’re old and poor. You can’t offer Lina anything.”

I fixed my gaze on Lina. “You’ve been married to me for years, and I’ve catered to your every whim. Is this how you repay me?”

“A woman marries a man so that she could be cared for, don’t you know? I just want to live a better life. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Lina met my gaze squarely in a matter-of-fact manner.

I stared at her for a full three minutes before I gritted my teeth.

“Fine. I’ll have someone draft the divorce agreement tomorrow. Just sign it.”

“That’s about right.” Matthew then wrapped his arms around Lina’s waist.

I turned to him. “I don’t need that 30% cut. Give me eighty thousand, and I’ll stop working here.”

“You’re not working here anymore? I rented your place, and your wife left you. Where else can you go after you lose your job here?”

“If I hadn’t come here one year ago, you would’ve been fired by the headquarters because you were falling short of your targets!” I clenched my fists tightly as I glared at him.

“Stop pretending, William. We all know how you are. You only charge your customers a tiny bit of money every time. You won’t be able to operate a branch shop.

“Matthew is the one who secured all the major deals. Without him, you wouldn’t be able to get such a high salary.” Lina glared at me in displeasure.

“Secured them? He scammed them, you mean. He’d rather switch out parts instead of fixing what can be fixed!”

“Shut up!” Matthew shot to his feet in anger.

“What would you know?! If not for me, we wouldn’t even have gotten the bonus! If you don’t want to work here anymore, scram!

“You’ve been an eyesore to me for a long time. Who the heck needs car repairmen nowadays, anyway. They need good salesmen!

“I was going to let you keep the job on Lina’s behalf, but you’re spitting on my good will? Do you really think you’re some saint just because you taught me once?

“I can’t believe you’re lecturing me.”

They had absolutely no shame and laughed at me while being all over each other.

Just then, my father called. “William, your mother passed.”

I could still hear them laughing.

I opened my mouth but found myself unable to say a single thing.

The memories of my life with those two and with my mother mixed together with their laughter.

Slowly, I removed myself from my reminiscence, and all that was left was the memory of my mother covered in blood, as well as raging hate.

I clenched my fists and charged at them. “Curse you!”

Before I could get close, Matthew had already sent me sprawling on the floor with a kick.

I screamed and laughed as I punched the floor until my knuckles were bloodied.

Lina glared at me coldly. “So useless.”

“You tricked me into closing down my shop, scammed me of my bonus, tried to humor me with only three thousand dollars, stole my wife, and got my mother killed!”

I climbed to my feet, gritted my teeth, and pointed at Matthew.

“I’m going to make you pay for everything you owe me, Matthew!”

…

Once I returned to my rental apartment, I found that it was empty aside from my clothes. Lina had long since moved out with her things.

Just then, the landlord came in. “You haven’t paid your rent for the month, Mr. York. It’s ten days past the deadline. When are you paying?”

“Rent? I gave the money to my wife last month. Didn’t she transfer it to you?”

Chapter 3

“I didn’t get the money. Mr. Darwin is the one who signed the rental contract back then, and he called today saying that he’s not renting the place anymore.

“If you want to continue staying here, you need to pay the deposit by tomorrow and sign another contract.”

My bank card was with Lina, so I could only beg for the landlord to give me some leeway. “Mr. Lande, could you give me a few more days?”

“No. If you can’t pay up, move out.”

I called Lina. “What’s with the rent, Lina? Didn’t I transfer my salary from last month to you?”

“I told you: I spent it all.”

“You couldn’t fork out eighty thousand dollars to save my mom, and you couldn’t even pay a few thousand dollars in rent? Curse you!”

“I. Spent. It. All. Can’t you understand?!

“You’re never home, and I have to take care of the place. When I go out shopping, I need money!

“Over the past year, I went traveling to Matthew, and I needed money for plane tickets and hotels. I used up everything.”

“What? You used my money to travel with Matthew?”

“Since things have already ended up this way, I don’t want to argue with you. We don’t have any shared assets, so we don’t need to split anything. I’ve already gotten the divorce agreement ready instead of waiting for you.

“Come over here to sign it tomorrow.”

With that said, Lina hung up. I could only hear beeping sounds from my phone.

Mr. Lande gave me the side eye.

“You don’t have any money, do you? Move out now. I need to rent the place to someone else. Even if you don’t rent it, plenty of other people will.”

I said nothing else and just packed up. I did not have a lot of belongings, so I could pack up really fast. After working hard for one year, in the end, all my belongings only fit into one plastic bag.

…

One week later, I finally finished settling my mom’s funeral and returned to the city that had caused me to lose everything.

When I stepped out of the bus station, I started wandering around aimlessly. I could only think about taking revenge.

“Mr. York?” Suddenly, someone called out to me. It was Gary from Matthew’s shop.

“Mr. York, I heard about what had happened! Matthew is a piece of trash!”

“I was blind as well and trusted him.”

“That’s not your fault. He’s the one who’s blind.” Gary was so angry that his face was red, and he looked murderous. “Why do you think our customers came to us?

“Because of your reputation! Aside from convincing them to change their parts, Matthew knows nothing else! What are you going to do from now on, Mr. York?”

“They scammed me of all my money. Right now, I need to find a place to settle down and find a job.”

“If you don’t mind, why don’t you stay at my place? You can stay as long as you want.”

“That won’t do. I can’t just stay at your place without paying.”

“What on earth are you saying? I’m not a backstabber like Matthew. You taught me, and you’re like a father to me.”

I had not cried when Matthew deceived me and my wife betrayed me. Despite having no money left and nowhere to go, I had simply gritted my teeth and carried on.

But Gary’s words made me tear up, and I patted his shoulder. “You’re a good kid.”

Gary sniffled as well.

“I’ll be frank with you, Mr. York. I’ve long since wanted to stop working with Matthew. If not for my desire to continue learning under you, I would have left.”

I stared at him and asked, “Want to earn big, Gary?”

“Of course. My mom is waiting for me to get married and give her grandkids.” Gary laughed.

“Do you know any person who’s waiting to sell their car repair shop?”

“Yeah. There’s one at the eastern side of the city. It’s not as big as ours.

“Because business in our shop has been good, the shop’s business went down, and it’s about to go bankrupt.”

Gary looked at me with sparkling eyes. “But if you go there, even a shop that’s on its last legs can make a comeback!”

“Alright. Once I finish signing the divorce papers tomorrow, bring me over to take a look.”

I needed to seize this chance and make Matthew pay.

Chapter 4

The next morning, after signing the divorce agreement with Lina, I went to the eastern side of the city with Gary.

“Smooth Rides Repair Shop? It really is located in a very secluded part of the city.”

I stared at the signboard.

It was surrounded by old houses, and the cars going inside for repairs were fewer than half of what Safe Driving Repair Shop had.

Clyde Clark was squatting at the entrance of the shop while smoking. When he saw us, he put out the cigarette and stood up.

“Mr. Clark, I’m Gary. I came here last time. This is my teacher, William York.”

“William York from Safe Driving?!” Clyde’s eyes lit up as he shook my hand. “Mr. York, why are you here at my rundown place?”

Clyde had us sit on the stools by the entrance, and we started talking.

I did not answer why I came to his place, though. Instead, I asked him some questions. I had already learned my lesson.

I had to work with someone who shared my ideals to be able to work well with them. I had to choose a good partner.

“How long have you been running your shop?”

“Eight years. Business was pretty good in the past, but now, all the car repair shops are franchisees. Business has been going down for me.

“I’ve been losing money over the past three months. If things continue next month, I’ll have to close down shop.”

“You can earn a lot of money repairing cars. If you change a part, you can earn a markup between dozens to hundreds of dollars. The customers don’t know anything about this.

“If you want to earn money, you have plenty of ways to do so.”

I stared at him fixedly to see his reaction.

Suddenly, Clyde stiffened up. His expression changed between anger and indignation.

He shot to his feet.

“Gary told me about you before. If you’re such a person, you can leave now. We have nothing else to discuss.”

He then turned around with teary eyes.

“If I have to close down my shop, then so be it. Even if I have to be poor, I’ll be poor with a clear conscience.”

I felt as if I could see my own shadow on him. “Please don’t take what I said to heart, Mr. Clark. I was just being careful.”

Gary then told Clyde about what had happened to me, and Clyde shook my hand.

“Mr. York, Matthew can’t see a gem for what it’s worth. If you have nowhere else to go, you can come here…”

But very abruptly, his voice faded to a whisper. “But my shop is just a small place. Would you mind…?”

My phone rang right then. It was from Matthew.

“William, where the hell are you?! Look at the time now! Why aren’t you at work yet?!

“If you’re late, I’m deducting five hundred dollars from your salary!”

“I should have made myself clear to you. I’m not working at your place anymore.”

“You have no place to live, and you’re still sulking? I’ll let you stay at the shop, alright? Just get back here to work!”

I could hear Matthew’s anxiety through the phone.

“The engine of Mr. Lane’s Rolls-Royce is shaking like a tractor, and the check engine light just keeps flashing. He’s going to kick up a fuss soon!

“If we can’t get it repaired, he’s going to file a complaint to headquarters!”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Don’t push your luck, York. At most, I won’t deduct your salary for being late today. Get your butt back here right now!

“I’m going to deduct your entire year’s salary for the losses we suffer today! You won’t be able to handle it!

“If it weren’t for the fact that Mr. Lane only wants you touching his car, I would have switched the engine for him instead of having you putting on airs here.”

I rubbed my ear. He was just too loud. Then, I hung up and blocked him.

After turning to Clyde, I asked, “How much can you offer me if I work here?”

Clyde still had not recovered from his shock from the phone conversation just now.

“Huh? Oh. If you’re willing to come, I can give you the shop.

“All of us know how skilled you are. I’ll take only 20% of the profits. How’s that?”

“You’re very decisive, Mr. Clark. I’ll take it, but you won’t be taking 20%.”

Clyde became nervous and rubbed his hands, not knowing what to do.

“I’m adding another 10%.”

“What? How much did Safe Driving offer you?”

“Mr. York, Mr. Lane just sent me a message asking me where you are. I’ve sent him our location.

“He should be here soon,” Gary said after checking his phone.

As I continued staring at Clyde, I questioned him.

“Why are you still daydreaming? Sign the contract already. Work is about to come to our doorstep.

“We’ve got money to earn.”