Manager Chen reached for the clipboard, but the man holding it stepped back toward the mobile base.
Jingwei asked him to keep clear of the door, and he moved away without taking his eyes off the manager. The towel slipped from one shoulder, revealing raw skin along his neck.
"My brother’s wife," Manager Chen admitted, looking up at Zeyu rather than the man in front of him. "She’s pregnant. There wasn’t anyone else she could go with."
The woman with the scissors stared at him. Beside her, the man lowered the clipboard until it rested against his thigh.
"My wife has been sleeping in the service bay for eight nights," the man said. "She can barely stand long enough to wash herself. You told me they weren’t taking anyone who needed help walking."
"I was trying to get her another seat," Manager Chen replied. "I couldn’t promise you one until I knew."
"You already promised." The man lifted the clipboard and pressed his finger against the crossed-out name. "You made me show her this."
Zeyu watched the manager struggle to answer.
He remembered seeing him deal with an angry customer over a delayed shipment, carefully explaining what had gone wrong before offering a replacement vehicle. By the time the customer left, Manager Chen had found something the man would accept.
This man wanted the place his wife had been promised. Manager Chen had given it to someone else.
"Did Distribution Manager Gao approve the change?" Zeyu asked through the speaker.
Manager Chen straightened when Zeyu spoke. "The drivers left the final list to me. They said everyone needed to be ready when they came back. I had to decide."
Zeyu looked at the list on his screen.
The manager had pressed hard enough with his pen to leave a deep line through the woman’s name. He might not know what had happened to the first group, but he clearly believed the next van would take his sister-in-law somewhere safer.
That still didn’t tell Zeyu how much Manager Chen knew about the relocation program.
"When are they coming back?" Zeyu asked.
"Tonight, if the road stays open," Manager Chen answered, glancing along the lane. "We’re supposed to have the rest of the fuel ready."
The scissors clicked as the woman shifted her grip.
"You were going to let them leave again without asking about our families," she accused him. "You told me we could all talk to the drivers."
"You can talk to them when they get here," Manager Chen replied, his patience slipping. "Arguing with me won’t bring them back any sooner."
The woman slapped him before he could say anything else.
Manager Chen stumbled back a step and covered the swollen side of his face. Several people came out of the showroom, but no one tried to get between them.
"You don’t get to tell me to wait anymore," the woman said. Her voice shook as she lowered her other hand, holding the closed scissors against her stomach. "You stood beside that van and told my daughter she was lucky."
Manager Chen looked up at Zeyu.
For a moment, Zeyu almost stepped into the argument out of habit. He had seen that look before, whenever a manager wanted him to settle a complaint or tell an angry customer to leave.
Beside him, Jingwei adjusted the side camera so he could see the people gathering outside.
"The lane’s still clear ahead," Jingwei said quietly. "We need it to stay that way."
Zeyu nodded without taking his foot off the brake.
"Manager Chen, ask everyone to move back toward the building," Zeyu said through the speaker. "Keep the road clear."
The manager turned at once, relief crossing his face.
"Go back inside," Manager Chen called to the others. "Director Song is handling it. We’ll get this sorted out."
"I didn’t say that," Zeyu interrupted through the speaker.
Manager Chen stopped with his hand still raised.
Zeyu wanted to get him alone and ask what the hell he thought he was doing.
Instead, he had to speak through the glass while the people outside looked up at him from the heat. They could see the cool air moving through his shirt sleeve and the water beside his seat.
"I don’t know whether there’s a shelter," Zeyu told them. "I don’t know where Distribution Manager Gao took your families. Don’t tell anyone I’ve promised to fix this."
"Then why did you stop?" the man with the clipboard asked, looking up at him.
Zeyu tightened his grip on the wheel. He had recognized Manager Chen. He had heard that someone was using his name to take employees’ families away. Of course he had stopped.
But none of that helped the man standing outside with his wife’s name crossed off a list.
"I stopped to find out what happened," Zeyu answered. "I’m not going to tell you there’s a place waiting for your wife when I don’t know if it’s true."
The man looked down and ran his palm over the page, smoothing it even though the paper was already flat.
Behind Zeyu, Zhiyi said something quietly to Hanchuan. Zeyu couldn’t hear her, but a moment later Hanchuan leaned toward him.
"Ask where they’re keeping the fuel," Hanchuan said.
Zeyu glanced back. "Do you think someone’s waiting nearby?"
"They’ve already come back for one load," Hanchuan replied. "We need to know where they’ll pull in for the next one."
When Zeyu asked, Manager Chen pointed toward the far end of the lot. Two stripped SUVs partly hid a service door, with several containers lined up beside it. Zeyu had assumed they held water.
"The drivers told us to put it there," Manager Chen explained. "They load everything from the back."
Shichen turned toward the other camera display while Jingwei enlarged the view of the service door and the passage beside it.
"Why didn’t you mention that when I asked where the vans went?" Zeyu asked.
Manager Chen wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "The passengers got in at the front. They only used the back when they came for the supplies."
A horn sounded behind the dealership, and everyone in the lot turned toward it.
Someone called into the showroom. A woman came to the doorway carrying a bag tied shut with electrical cord, followed by another person with a rolled blanket tucked under one arm.
"They’re early," Manager Chen said, stepping away from the mobile base.
A white van came out of the passage beside the service entrance. Dust covered the company emblem on its side, and the rear windows were blocked from inside. A piece of wire held one of its mirrors in place.
The van stopped short of the fuel containers.
Through the windshield, Zeyu could see the driver leaning forward to get a better look at the mobile base. His passenger glanced into the back of the van, then reached beneath the dashboard.
Jingwei moved his hand toward his weapon as Manager Chen hurried across the lot, still holding the notice in its plastic sleeve.
"Director Song is here," Manager Chen called to the men in the van. He sounded relieved again. "He wants to speak to Distribution Manager Gao."
The driver looked directly at Zeyu, then reached for the radio clipped beside his seat.