At the main gate of the steel factory, a red flag snapped in the wind.
Lin Xiaomei stood at the very front. Behind her were a dozen or so lightly injured workers, every one of them standing with their backs ramrod straight.
Their faces still bore injuries. Some had bandaged arms, others walked with a limp, but all their eyes were fixed on the black sedan approaching in the distance.
A car door opened. A pair of gleaming leather shoes stepped onto the coal-dusted ground. The members of the Country M inspection team ambled out. Their leader, Dr. Karl, removed his sunglasses and squinted, surveying the factory grounds before him.
"This is your 'advanced' steel factory?"
he asked in stiff, broken Chinese, a mocking curve on his lips. "It looks more like... a scrap heap."
The Country M engineers behind him burst into laughter. Someone even took out a camera and snapped a few pictures of the dilapidated factory building, as if documenting some bizarre spectacle.
