The group returned back to the village in two autos they hired for the return trip. This auto trip alone costed them over fifty rupees, the same amount their dinner costed making Pratap lament about how thrifty they were being.
Had they taken the public bus it would have only costed ten rupees for all of them. They went ahead to sit at the beach next to their home for almost an hour before returning to their house.
Arjun finally spent a day enjoying with his family almost a month after his rebirth. He decided to go on more such trips especially while Sari was still a kid as this would help her be more outgoing and understand how to deal with people when she visits new places in the future.
The next week went on without any significant events other than Vladimir calling him to inform that shipment was already loaded onto ship and would arrive in forty to forty five days.
On Friday when everything was going on pretty normally Arjun got a visit from Bhargav who showed a local newspaper article from Kadapa district.
"School principal blackmailed by a gang" read the headlines, unsure where this was heading Arjun read the whole article and put it down with a big sigh.
He had a feeling these people were doing something fishy when they managed to sell over seven thousand copies of All in Ones in a single week.
The newspaper article was about a group of students attacking the school principal when he refused to sell their books in his school.
Arjun understood instantly it was union members who did this stuff as most sellers wouldn't go around blackmailing people. Those kids however wanting more commission could do what ever they wanted without bothering about consequences as the union would usually handle such matters for them.
But this time it was related to his press. If there was a saving grace, it was their name not being mentioned in the article and the school in question being a private school.
If it was a government school arjun could not imagine the conseqences of it. He wanted to contact Tharun immediately but since it was already evening and tomorrow being a second Saturday a holiday for government schools he decided to directly visit the union and get a handle on the matter.
When Arjun returned home and informed them about this matter Pratap was the only one who gave a reaction. He asked him whether he needed any help in dealing with this issue but seeing Arjun's carefree expression he understood Arjun could probably handle it. Pratap said to arjun to inform him if there was a problem he could not handle.
Arjun though was confused, what could a government clerk do to solve these issues he wondered but gave up thinking after not being able to come up with any explanation.
He called up the transport company to prepone the delivery trucks to come the next day rather than their scheduled Sunday. They wanted an extra five hundred rupees on top to do the delivery giving excuse of trucks being busy which he accepted not minding the over charge at all, after all he had such experiences in his past too.
The next day Arjun woke up early to help with the loading process, once Lalitha and Bhargav joined him they left together on Madan's jeep.
By now Madan was used to arjun taking his jeep whenever they needed to visit Vijayawada and did not mind much as Bhargav too had stuff to do over there most weekends.
On their way he enquired Bhargav if any similar situations had occurred that he was not aware of which made Bhargav blush.
Arjun had a bad feeling seeing this expression, he pressed him further to learn that this was one of many such situations that union kids used to sell the books.
Some tried bribing the school staff, some beat up the school staff, some people warned the kids to get the purchases, some even set up stalls inside the school which was illegal to do.
The more he listened the more agitated Arjun became, he thought using union might be a good idea because of their young blood and network but their reckless manner in trying to sell the goods was unnecessary.
He wanted to improve the press's popularity by trying to sell at as many places as possible but now their reputation is almost unsavable.
Still as he thought more about this he reached the conclusion that perhaps their methods were best suited for this period. Had he tried to sell a new format of books through regular distributors even being able to sell twenty thousand copies would be tough.
Employing the union proved to be correct in regards to sales, as for reputation does it matter in this period without internet nor televisions in every home like the future.
As they were busy talking they reached Vijayawada in no time. for the first time arjun did not feel the journey was hectic as he was busy in his thoughts for the most of the time.
When Tharun saw Arjun entering his cabin he was taken aback, if there was one person he did not want to see right now it was this kid. He had just finished a union meeting and now this kid was here, did brother already inform him about the issue he wondered.
"So Tharun Anna it seems there's a issue we need to take care of" Arjun questioned
It's nothing to worry about Arjun, we are a union and face these situations every week
"Yes Anna, but this time my company is involved too"
But your company name was never mentioned in any newspaper no?
"Still people in the industry know about it, It cost us our reputation"
It's very few people Arjun, nothing to worry. They will probably forget about this by the time exams are done.
"Please don't try to sweet talk me Anna"
Okay brother what do you want us to do? the article has already been published
"What about the lawsuit they were talking about in the article?"
"Lawsuit?" Tharun questioned
Arjun handed him the paper and showed the portion of article where the school staff were preparing to launch a lawsuit on the union.
"This? don't worry Arjun, most people are afraid going against our union. I don't think they will do the lawsuit."
"Maybe it won't affect you or might even boost your popularity Anna but it will be a different case if our company gets mentioned in the lawsuit. And if the agreement between both of us gets noted it wont be a good situation for both of us" Arjun commented
"Don't worry Arjun our lawyers will take care of it, we have plenty of them."
"..."
Seeing his silence Tharun understood his answer did not satisfy him but there was not much else he could do. Usually these kind of stuff would be solved with a single call to the local leader from their union connections, but the others at union were not willing to do so because of the affiliations this deal had with the P.K printing press.
He was once again stuck in between these two.
"What to you want to do Arjun? should we stop the cooperation?" Tharun asked unsure of his thoughts.
"Stop the cooperation? your next delivery of fifteen thousand All in Ones is already being unloaded to your warehouse."
"Then what about the selling issues?"
"Go ahead just as you are doing right now, in fact be more aggressive"
"Wait what?, are you being serious?"
"Yes anna, since it's already out lets keep going"
"Okay we'll do as you say."
"But!!"
"But??" Tharun was confused, this kid was okay just now so what happened?
"The current issue needs to solved properly"
"Why? didn't you just say keep going?"
"Yes but that's for selling, this is for resolving the issue that came into open."
"Okay do i send my lawyers to settle with them for some fee?"
"Hmm... how much you thinking of offering?"
"Five thousand should do it for his injuries" Tharun replied.
"That's too small, what would people think of when they hear about us abusing people and paying for their injuries?"
"Then what else you want to do Arjun?" Tharun was already getting frustrated by this point.
"Let's make it twenty thousand rupees as compensation and apology from your union in the same local paper."
"The apology i can deal with but it will need a union meeting. As for the compensation that amount is too much for us."
"Hahaha no need to worry about this, you can give five thousand and i will put in the rest. But the apology and settlement needs to be done as soon as possible." Arjun replied finally smiling.
"Okay, i can handle it if it's like this." Tharun too gave a relieved smile.
"Also Anna please remove those people who get caught from the sales leaderboard."
"I understand" Tharun replied realizing what the kid meant.