Chapter 49 An Unexpected Surprise

Chapter 49 An Unexpected Surprise

Emily's POV

The company had gone bankrupt and was drowning in debt—that was bad enough. But now, we couldn't even pay the electricity bill.

With no other option, I had to take Joshua with me to the power company.

At the power company, we were escorted to a manager's office.

"I need the power restored to the company right now."

Manager Vaughn was there. "Sorry, ma'am, but you owe a substantial amount in electricity bills. We can't restore power until the outstanding balance is paid."

"How much do we owe?"

"The company is six months behind. With late fees, it's $330,000."

My vision blurred, and I nearly fainted.

Great. This wasn't buying a company—it was taking on a ticking time bomb.

$330,000. How could we possibly repay that?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I decided to threaten him. "If the power company doesn't restore electricity, over a thousand people will be forced out of work. I'll tell them it was because the power company refused to restore service. What do you think they'll do then?"

"Oh, and I forgot to mention—a large portion of them are men. If there are public safety issues, the power company will be held responsible!"

The manager grew nervous at my threat and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Ma'am, please don't worry. I'll call the director right now."

Soon after, the director personally came to received us.

The director's name was Alexander Garcia—I saw it on the plaque outside his office.

"I can restore your power, but you’ll need to pay back the outstanding electricity bills within three months."

Three months—that seemed doable. I immediately agreed.

Alexander nodded and was about to speak when his phone rang.

Seeing this, Joshua and I stood up to step out and give him privacy.

But just as we started to move, I heard the voice on the phone.

"Mr. Garcia, our pharmaceutical factory needs to build a production facility that's absolutely dust-free, sterile, free from external contamination, and capable of handling highly toxic materials. The application process is complicated, and we'd like your help..."

Alexander waved his hand, signaling that we could stay.

Since I didn't really want to leave anyway, I sat back down.

Alexander said, "Mr. Martinez, it's not that I don't want to help you, but you don’t realize how difficult these approvals are right now. This requires safety facility design review for hazardous chemical construction projects, national security approval, and national security construction permits. Plus there's the whole process to go through. I’ve heard the government has been really strict about this lately. It's not easy."

"Mr. Garcia, please help me out—we’re classmates."

Alexander sighed. "It's because you're my classmate that I'm telling you all this. This is really complicated. It's not that I won't help you, but even if I do, you’ll still have a hard time getting approval this year. If it were last year, maybe—but this year, really..."

I felt a surge of excitement as I listened. Could it really be like Joshua said—was my luck really that good?

I quickly spoke up. "Um, Mr. Garcia, my company has a three-tier workshop with an independent nuclear biochemical filtration system—absolutely dust-free, sterile, free from external contamination, and capable of handling highly toxic materials!"

My voice was loud enough that the person on the other end of the call could hear me too.

There was a moment of silence on the other end, then an increasingly urgent voice came through. "Mr. Garcia, who's speaking? Is that true? Quick, let me talk to her!"

Alexander frowned slightly but still handed me the phone over.

I took the phone, suppressing my excitement. "Hello, my name is Emily Johnson. It's nice to meet you."

"Hello, hello, I'm Ethan Martinez, the owner of a pharmaceutical factory. Is what you just said true?"

"Of course. Do you have time? I can invite you to visit the company for an on-site inspection."

"Yes. Ms. Johnson, if you have time now, you can come to my company first and we can discuss the details. Tomorrow, I'll bring professional staff to your company for an on-site inspection."

I was so excited I almost jumped up and agreed immediately.

After getting Ethan's company name and address, I returned the phone to Alexander.

"Alexander, thank you so much. I have to treat you to dinner to thank you properly."

Alexander smiled. "We're good friends—why be so formal? Alright, you go ahead. I'll hang up now."

Seeing him hang up, I quickly spoke up. "Mr. Garcia, thank you so much. Don't worry, I won't forget this. Once the deal goes through, I'll pay back the electricity bill right away."

Alexander's expression softened, and he nodded with satisfaction.

After thanking Alexander, Joshua and I left the power company.

Outside the power company, I couldn't help jumping up and down.

"Great, great! We made it through the first hurdle. I thought we wouldn't even last a few days."

I couldn't help being this excited—I didn't have a penny left.

Christopher, on whom I had been relying, had returned to Lumaria due to family matters.

Joshua didn't have enough money either—he only had about fifty thousand dollars on him.

Joshua said, "See? What did I tell you? I knew you'd be fine."

Hearing this, I couldn't help rolling my eyes at him. This was purely luck.

Fortunately, before Christopher left, he didn't take the car, so Joshua and I at least still had a vehicle.

I drove to a gas station and boldly told the worker, "Fill it up."

Then I looked at Joshua. "Handsome, pay up."

Joshua clutched his wallet and looked at me warily. "What are you doing? Don't you still have five thousand dollars?"

I grinned mischievously. "Jerk, how dare you argue with me? Letting you pay is me doing you a favor!"

With that, I snatched the wallet from him in a few swift moves.

After paying, Joshua and I drove to Martinez BioGroup.

When we arrived, someone was already waiting at the entrance for us.

I looked around and figured that the balding middle-aged man in the group was probably Ethan, the person I had spoken to on the phone.

I greeted him warmly. "Hello, Mr. Martinez. I'm Emily."

"Hello, Ms. Johnson. What a surprise—you’re as beautiful as a movie star."

I thanked him politely, then Ethan led me inside to tour the pharmaceutical factory.

Honestly, I barely understood the pipelines, labels, and equipment parameters. Luckily, Joshua was behind me and always added key explanations in a quiet voice whenever I looked confused.

Ethan gestured to the clean corridor we were passing through, speaking in a steady tone, "This is the Grade D clean area. Airborne particles and settling bacteria are controlled according to pharmacopoeia standards. It's mainly used for raw material preprocessing and physical packaging."

Joshua whispered from just behind me, "Simply put, the dust and bacteria in the air must meet strict standards. Even a slight deviation means production cannot proceed."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Joshua in surprise, not expecting him to know such things.

But thinking about what they had developed, it made sense. If they had already researched something that important and still didn't know this stuff, that would be the real problem.

Fortunately, Ethan didn't go into too much detail and kept it brief.

He only gave us a general overview of his company's capabilities.

"Ms. Johnson, what do you think of our company?"

I raised an eyebrow. It seemed like he had heard my company had a three-tier workshop and was worried his company was too small to compete.

"Very good. From talking with you, I feel our cooperation is already halfway to success."

My words pleased Ethan greatly, and he immediately confirmed the details for visiting my company tomorrow to discuss the partnership.

"Alright, see you tomorrow."