"Mr. Huang, you want us to open online stores, and then you want to publicize all this. It's difficult for us to comply!" Boss Tian said. She thought she had found Huang He's weakness, so she uttered a mild threat.
To her surprise, Huang He directly replied, "It's not essential whether you join my Jiangnan Mall or not. If I may be so blunt, within three years at most, you will all automatically join my Jiangnan Mall, unless you are willing to abandon half of China's consumer base. I can wait for you all to come to your senses."
"As for these things, they will definitely be made public. There's no room for negotiation on this!" Huang He stated firmly.
"Mr. Huang, if I may say so, I really can't understand why you insist on being so difficult about this point. It clearly brings you no benefit!" Boss Tian said with a wry smile.
"Have you seen the children who drank Fuyang milk powder?" Huang He looked at them and added, "I mean, have you seen them with your own eyes!"
These people paused for a moment, then shook their heads.
"That's right, you haven't seen them. If you had seen their infant heads, as big as basketballs, you would understand why I must make these matters public!" Huang He sighed. "Everyone, I, Huang He, love money, but I already have more money than I can spend in my lifetime."
"Therefore, money is no longer my pursuit. What I pursue is a clear conscience, merit, and peace of mind. If I conceal these things, my conscience will be uneasy!"
"A troubled conscience... that's the reason!" Everyone present was stunned. They had expected Huang He to give all sorts of reasons, but they never imagined it would ultimately be a matter of conscience.
How could these four words sound so ridiculous? It was unclear whether Huang He, or they themselves, were the ones being ridiculous.
"Alright, I have a suggestion that can bring me peace of mind and prevent all of you from suffering severe harm due to this milk powder, perhaps even turning misfortune into fortune!" Huang He suddenly said.
"What suggestion?" everyone asked eagerly. Turning misfortune into fortune was something they always liked.
"It's very simple. This matter will not be reported by me, Huang He, but by you manufacturers, by your entire dairy association, to the police!" Huang He said calmly. "I can hand over these milk powders to you, and then your dairy association can report it to the police yourselves, saying that you accidentally discovered that sjQA was added to the milk powder and suspect poisoning, prompting the police to investigate!"
"In this way, your situation will be completely different. You won't be exposed for wrongdoing, but rather you will have discovered someone attempting to harm China's dairy enterprises. In the future, no media outlet or consumer will criticize you for this matter, because you yourselves are victims."
"Then you can announce a recall of certain batches of products yourselves and destroy them. This will naturally incur some losses, but it will win the hearts of consumers and rebuild your brand image!"
"Finally, if the investigation reveals that a foreign brand was behind the poisoning, then you won't even need to raise your standards. You can directly ensure that foreign brands can no longer enter China with dignity."
"If the investigation yields no results, you can also use this as a reason and excuse to request the state to raise the national standards for the dairy industry and improve inspection standards. This will increase costs, and then raising prices will become a matter of course. Consumers will know that the price increase is for their health, so there will not be much strong resistance."
"What do you think of my suggestion?" Huang He asked with a smile.
"This is brilliant!" After a long silence, Boss Tian finally couldn't help but exclaim. They had always thought that Huang He's success had a large element of luck, but now they realized that this Huang He had completely mastered the art of market marketing, crisis public relations, handling capabilities, and consumer psychology.
This single act of proactively reporting to the police directly turned all disadvantages into advantages. What could have been a disaster that would have directly exploded their businesses was transformed into a poisoning incident, simultaneously positioning them as victims. No strategy could be better than this!
Of course, some people certainly still felt this method was unreliable, but it was still much better than Huang He exposing the sjQA. Thus, they all agreed and took their toxic milk powder from Huang He. They all stated that they would report to the police in a few days.
Then Huang He also smilingly told them that if the Dairy Association did not report to the police tomorrow, he would have Jiangnan Mall report to the police the day after tomorrow, ensuring no delay for anyone.
Everyone repeatedly stated that they did not need Mr. Huang to worry, and that they would definitely report to the police themselves tomorrow.
Thus, this banquet concluded in an extremely joyful atmosphere.
The next day, the stories that unfolded at the charity gala once again set China ablaze with media coverage. Furthermore, Jiangnan Group specifically organized thousands of articles online about the popularization of the Mandarin character, and dozens of TV stations were arranged to launch different educational programs to disseminate information.
In an instant, the entire Chinese populace was enraged. There was no need for Huang He to enforce any ban; if any designer dared to depict a "slanted eye" look, the entire Chinese population would directly ban them, just like Chen Man. In the future, she would essentially never be able to be publicly recognized.
The anger towards the Mandarin character and the "slanted eye" depiction was even greater than in 2021. After all, at that time, ordinary Chinese people's self-esteem was at its peak.
It was because the Chinese people of that era had nothing left but self-esteem.
In contrast, in 2021, only many netizens were angry; most Chinese people were indifferent because they already possessed supreme pride. Many Chinese people had already placed the United States and China on equal footing. Who cared what the Americans thought of the "slanted eye" depiction? We were also laughing at the USA, with its daily shootings!
Speaking of shootings, isn't that also a form of stereotyping the United States!
No, it should be the reality!
In short, with this one blow from Huang He, before Huang He dies, there should be no need to worry about "slanted eye" depictions anymore. If there are any, Huang He will directly strike them down.
It is a pity that news about the "slanted eye" depiction only remained popular for one day. The next day, it was overshadowed by even more urgent news: the Chinese Dairy Association directly reported to the police that nine brands of dairy enterprises, during a self-inspection and investigation initiated by the association, discovered that some batches of milk powder contained trace amounts of sjQA. Although the harmfulness of this substance was unclear, it was at least a carcinogen!
This news immediately exploded. Everyone was speculating about who dared to poison so many Chinese dairy companies simultaneously, aiming to ruin China's dairy industry!
Soon, a large number of voices appeared online, saying that it must have been foreign milk powder companies trying to enter the Chinese market. Everyone found this explanation very plausible.
Subsequently, the police directly launched an investigation, and after more than ten days, the investigation results were announced. The milk farmers and dairy collection stations, those damned scoundrels, were all discovered, and the truth was revealed.
The Dairy Association then stated that this was a recent occurrence. They had been caught by the enterprises' self-inspection mechanisms from the beginning, so the amount of milk powder involved was not large. Only batches produced within the last month were affected, and the vast majority had not yet reached consumers.
At the same time, various brands announced recalls of their specific batches of products and stated that they would hold an industry conference to discuss more comprehensive and higher-quality national standards and inspection mechanisms, so that the Chinese people could consume trustworthy milk.
Thus, a major crisis in history, in 2003, was averted before it could cause much damage.
Although this allowed some brands to survive, it also led to an increase in the national standards for the dairy industry, unlike in later years when the national standards were disgracefully lowered.
Furthermore, it is believed that when these companies learned that Jiangnan Mall would conduct random checks on circulating milk powder at a rate of one in a thousand, they would hardly dare to relax their inspection mechanisms. Otherwise, once discovered, their entire company would be ruined.
On the other hand, although the officially announced investigation results blamed the milk farmers and collection stations, there were still people online who vehemently insisted that this was the work of foreigners. They claimed that it was only to maintain the stability of the WTO that it was attributed to milk farmers, and that foreigners were truly wicked. Anyone who consumed foreign milk powder, they warned, would give birth to children with deformed eyes.
As a result, the foreign infant formula market, which had occupied more than half of the Chinese market in the previous life, with over 100,000 barrels of daigou (personal shoppers) returning to China daily, vanished. Foreign milk powder companies also found it difficult to enter the Chinese market.
The situation in later years, where foreigners and foreign dairy companies earned money from Chinese people while simultaneously insulting them as "贱" (cheap/despicable) for rushing to their markets to buy their milk powder and restricting Chinese purchases, naturally ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, after these matters concluded, the time had also reached the end of 2003. In one more day, it would be New Year's Day of 2004.
In Boss Huang's original plan, on this day, he was supposed to go to Beijing, to that courtyard house, and spend the New Year with his mother-in-law's family. Leng Zhiruo, Leng Zhimeng, and Leng Zhiwen would also be coming.
However, unexpectedly, due to a phone call, Huang He found himself in Cao County on the evening of December 31st, at his own research and development center, where he met the overjoyed Elder Ni Guangnan.
"My esteemed ancestor, what on earth have you discovered that you urgently summoned me here? Aren't you celebrating New Year's?" Huang He complained helplessly.
"What do you know? What's celebrating New Year's to you? It's just one of the ordinary dozens of New Year's you'll have in your life, but if you stay here, you can witness the most important New Year's in the world! Today, there will be an unprecedented discovery that will shock the world!" Ni Guangnan excitedly rubbed his hands.
In fact, Huang He's curiosity was also piqued to the extreme. What kind of discovery could make Ni Guangnan so distraught?
[You can all guess in the chapter comments! If the author feels it's more amazing than what he's thought of, he will decisively change the outline and plot, which is not impossible, hahaha!]