“Is your program faulty? Is the data collected incorrect?” Shao Yibo couldn't help asking.
“Exactly, under such a public storm, the sales of Jiangnan Mall have increased. This is unscientific!” Wang Juntao also couldn't help asking.
“I wish my data was wrong, but my technicians checked the data. They manually checked the 100 stores with the highest sales and compared them with yesterday's data. As a result, the sales of these 100 stores have all increased!” Li Guoqing said helplessly.
“Then I understand, it must be that Jiangnan Group's data is falsified!” Shao Yibo said, slapping his thigh.
“That’s right, it must be. Huang He is a very face-saving person. He definitely doesn’t want others to see his mall’s sales decline under our attack, so he deliberately inflated the sales data display to make outsiders think their situation hasn’t changed!” Wang Juntao analyzed.
Everyone felt it made sense, and it had to be this way.
“Yes! Yes!” Wang Hai also chimed in, but his eyes, hidden behind sunglasses, flickered as if he wanted to find an excuse to leave.
“Sister Wang, I’ve put your delivery in the lounge. Remember to pick it up when you go home!” Due to this sudden news, the voices in the private room fell silent.
At the same time, in the serving room, the conversation between several waitresses reached everyone’s ears.
“You two, please come here!” Li Guoqing’s eyes rolled, and he immediately said. A few seconds later, two waitresses from the serving room walked over.
“May I ask what the guests need?” asked the older waitress.
“I just heard about the delivery. Did you buy something online?” Li Guoqing asked kindly.
“This…” The two waitresses were a bit uneasy, because according to the hotel’s rules, they couldn’t chat about private matters while on duty, let alone put deliveries in the lounge.
“Oh, don’t misunderstand. I’m quite interested in online shopping, but I’ve never shopped online before, so I’m curious and want to ask,” Li Guoqing said without hesitation.
“Yes, this delivery was bought online.” Hearing Li Guoqing say this, the two waitresses relaxed. One of them nodded and admitted.
“Okay, then please tell me, in which store did you buy it?” Li Guoqing asked.
“It was a store in Jiangnan Mall. I don’t remember the specific name, but it was a store that sells instant noodles. I bought a case of Kangshifu Braised Beef Noodles for only 40 yuan, which is less than 2 yuan per pack, about 5 mao cheaper than in the market!” the waitress said.
She was naturally chatty, and now that someone was actively asking, she couldn't help but pour out everything like a string of beans.
“…” Hearing the name Jiangnan Mall, the faces of those present turned grim. Shao Yibo couldn’t help but ask, “Why did you buy things from Jiangnan Mall? Haven’t you seen the news recently? Aren’t they selling fake goods there?”
“I did see it, I bought it because I saw the news, and I bought it from Jiangnan Mall!” the waitress said happily. “I saw in the news that things on Jiangnan Mall are more than 30% cheaper than in supermarkets. I didn’t believe it, so I asked my son to check, and he found that they were indeed so much cheaper!”
“I usually don’t have time to cook at home, and a bowl of instant noodles solves the problem. Now that I can save 5 mao per bowl of instant noodles, I can save about 30 yuan a month, which is really cost-effective!”
“But, it might be fake!” Wang Juntao’s eyes widened. “At such a much lower price than in the market, aren’t you afraid of buying fakes?”
“Of course not!” the waitress smiled. “When we saw Mr. Wang Hai, the anti-counterfeiting hero, being interviewed on the news, he said that if we buy fake goods from Jiangnan Mall in the future, we can call the Industry and Commerce Bureau to report it and get compensation of 3 yuan for every 1 yuan of fake goods.”
“So I plan to check this case of instant noodles carefully later. If I find that this instant noodle is not Kangshifu, I can get 120 yuan in compensation.”
“Look, if the instant noodles I bought are genuine, I can save 12 yuan. If I buy fake ones, I can earn 120 yuan. No matter how you look at it, it’s a profit!”
“…………” There was silence in the room, and no one spoke. Everyone’s face was gloomy. The waitress found that what she said seemed problematic, so she quickly apologized and ran back to the serving room, not daring to say anything more.
“Now I understand. I finally understand why the sales didn’t decrease but increased!” Li Guoqing sighed.
“Yes, I understand too. So we were advertising for others!” Shao Yibo lamented. Wang Juntao glared resentfully at Wang Hai, because this damned idea was his.
Yes, the three of them understood. This sudden increase in sales, they even thought it was their own credit, or the credit of Wang Hai’s good idea last time.
Last time, Wang Hai suggested using the extremely low prices of Jiangnan Mall to question the quality of Jiangnan Mall’s products, thereby creating an image that the entire Jiangnan Mall was flooded with fakes.
This approach seemed correct, but the people present overlooked the practical issues.
The four people present, three are bosses, and one is an anti-counterfeiting hero. The bosses are not short of money, and they pay more attention to the quality of goods. The anti-counterfeiting hero himself naturally hates fake goods to death, so they instinctively believe that all ordinary people are the same as them, paying more attention to the quality of goods and will dislike a certain platform due to doubts about product quality.
But they forgot that in 2003, in an era when people had to be careful with every dollar, cheapness was the ultimate principle. They didn't care if there were quality issues, as long as the product was cheap, that was enough.
Take the fake liquor case that shocked the nation a few years ago. Using industrial alcohol to dilute bulk liquor caused more than a dozen people to lose their sight. This case also triggered a nationwide crackdown on counterfeit and shoddy products.
But if you look closely at the details of this case, you will find that several consumers actually knew that the liquor was diluted with industrial alcohol, because the boss himself knew that industrial alcohol had problems, so before selling, he actively told consumers that this was diluted with industrial alcohol and had certain risks, and they would be responsible if anything went wrong.
As a result, these buyers expressed that they didn’t care, as long as they could drink liquor that was more than half the market price cheaper, and they didn’t care about the quality. Not having liquor to drink was the bigger problem.
The fighting nation did this even more thoroughly. Many fighting nations, when they couldn’t afford vodka, would choose to drink toilet cleaner or dish soap because these things contained alcohol, tasted similar to vodka, but were several times cheaper than vodka.
As for whether drinking like this would cause problems, or whether life was in danger, they didn’t care.
Of course, most ordinary people would not drink industrial alcohol knowing it could cause blindness, but buying some products cheaply that had less harm to the body, or where the quality difference itself didn’t matter, or simply branded goods, became a matter of course.
It’s like you’re buying a bag, two identical bags, one from Hermes costs 100,000 yuan, and one from Pinduoduo costs only 10 yuan.
In terms of appearance, the two bags are similar. In terms of practicality, the two bags can hold the same amount of things, but perhaps the Hermes bag can be used for a year, and the Pinduoduo bag will break after half a year. Which bag would you buy?
It’s about the same logic.
When Li Guoqing and others began to publicize that Jiangnan Mall’s products might be fake due to the huge price difference, in the eyes of the common people, the most important thing was not the possibility of fake goods, but:
But this matter was particularly difficult for Li Guoqing and the other three. For this public opinion war, they had spent more than 3 million yuan in publicity expenses, divided equally among the three, 1 million yuan each.
This doesn’t sound like much, but the three of them didn’t have deep pockets. As a result, after 3 million yuan, the enemy’s sales actually increased, which made their blood pressure start to rise.
Thus, the originally lively private room fell into a long silence. Everyone was smoking and thinking about their own problems. The only one not smoking was Wang Hai, who was thinking about how to get away without being blamed.
The atmosphere at the scene was terrifyingly quiet, with only the sound of the television constantly playing.
“I think it’s better to withdraw all the publicity first. At least we shouldn’t spend any more money. It’s meaningless!” Wang Juntao said. Among the three websites, 8848 was in the worst situation with the lowest cash flow.
Before, they could still squeeze out some money for the company’s development, but now, asking Wang Juntao to pay is absolutely impossible.
“I think so too. One mistake leads to a series of mistakes. There’s no need to continue!” Shao Yibo also said, glaring at Wang Hai fiercely as he spoke.
“Actually… okay…” Li Guoqing originally wanted to say to persist for a while longer, but on second thought, if they continued to persist, things wouldn’t get much better. After all, public opinion had already become so heated, but the audience didn’t seem to care about these things. So what was the point of continuing?
“Alas, you have to be strong yourself. Perhaps we went in the wrong direction from the beginning!” Li Guoqing sighed.
“Hmph, now you’re pretending to be Zhuge Liang. Is that interesting?” Wang Juntao snorted coldly and was about to leave the private room directly when the television, which had been broadcasting but no one was watching, suddenly said:
“Dear viewers, in the upcoming jdft program, we will focus on the recent hot topic of Jiangnan Mall's fake goods incident, explore the truth behind it, and clarify what kind of story lies behind it!”
“…” Wang Juntao, who was walking out, stopped instantly. After hesitating for a while, he sat back down.
While doing so, he said to Li Guoqing, “Not bad, you have connections everywhere, even reaching CCTV!”
“No, it has nothing to do with me. Although I do have friends at CCTV, they don’t have the ability to influence a program like jdft!”
“Me neither, I don’t have that ability either!” Shao Yibo quickly said.
“So, did CCTV do this spontaneously?” Wang Juntao muttered to himself.
“Alas, I think this is a good thing. Without spending a penny, CCTV has taken the initiative to get involved. With CCTV taking the blame, Jiangnan Mall’s sales should finally decrease!” Shao Yibo said.
“That’s not necessarily true. What if more people see the low prices and go to buy things? That would be hilarious!” Wang Juntao snorted coldly. However, overall, everyone had a smile on their faces. After all, CCTV was reporting on it, so it shouldn’t be a bad thing, right?
However, Li Guoqing’s expression was different. He seemed to be pondering something, then he said to Wang Hai beside him, “Mr. Wang, have you investigated that store?”
“Ah? Which store?” Wang Hai asked subconsciously.
“…” Li Guoqing fell silent. Wang Hai’s appearance indicated that he had not paid attention to the store’s issues at all, which made Li Guoqing’s unease even more intense.
In the past week, no matter how heated the public opinion was, CCTV had not made any comments, not even a single related news report, as if this matter had nothing to do with them.
At first, Li Guoqing thought it was because they hadn’t done any work for CCTV, so it was normal for CCTV to ignore them.
But now that CCTV suddenly intervened, and it was such a major program, it didn’t look like they were trying to kick someone while they were down, but rather like they were sending charcoal in the snow, reversing the situation.
Of course, Li Guoqing also worried that the possibility of reversal was not high. Li Guoqing couldn’t think of anything that would lead to a reversal until the program was broadcast and Li Sisi appeared on the screen.
“Dear viewers, hello everyone. We are now located in the old city of Urumqi. As my country’s efforts to crack down on fake and shoddy products continue to increase, many fake and shoddy products have disappeared. However, there is recently a very hot piece of news related to fake and shoddy products. For the purpose of investigating the truth, our crew has specifically come to Urumqi, hoping to find this online store called ‘Nazha’s Yak Meat’ and see the specific situation of this store!”
“According to a waybill obtained by the reporter, we found the delivery address of this store…”
“As expected of CCTV, their actions are extraordinary. They directly obtained the detailed information of this store!” Shao Yibo marveled. Although various news reports were very popular before, no media outlet could find any real-world information about this store. Jiangnan Group was also very straightforward in stating that their information would only be handed over to law enforcement agencies, not to any media organizations.
As a result, with CCTV’s arrival, everything was easily solved, and detailed information was found.
At this time, everyone was still smiling. Soon, they smiled even more happily because the reporter first checked with the relevant authorities for business licenses, production permits, production units, and other related information. As a result, they found no such entity.
This directly proved from a legal perspective that this yak meat jerky was indeed a product with no license or quality certification. This was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for everyone, and a heavy blow to Jiangnan Group.
However, they soon couldn’t laugh anymore because the news broadcast the news of Nazha’s family committing suicide, which instantly made the faces of those who were smiling rigid.
“It’s over, this store can’t be slandered!” Shao Yibo sighed to the sky. The entire family of this store committed suicide. Although they didn’t die, and they did break the law, no one could dwell on these things anymore, as they were willing to pay with their lives.
“Why did they resort to such extreme measures for such a small matter? Do you think this might be a conspiracy by Jiangnan Group?” Wang Juntao raised a terrifying thought.
“Whether it’s a conspiracy or not, it’s meaningless. No one dares to investigate this matter further!” Li Guoli sighed. “This matter will end without any conclusion. We spent millions in vain, but they solved it all by turning on the gas!”
“Yes! Huang He is still amazing!” Li Guoli lamented Huang He’s brilliance, but they didn’t expect that even more amazing things were yet to come.
Next, because the family was still being rescued in the ICU, the reporter focused on interviewing the neighbors and, through these neighbors, painted a complete picture of Nazha’s family’s situation.
The father was a police officer who died in the line of duty.
The mother was a laid-off worker and was also frail and unable to do heavy labor.
The family had three daughters to raise, only one of whom had a college degree, and the other two were still studying.
The one with a college degree was wholeheartedly determined to open an online store and tried to lead her family out of poverty.
After interviewing the neighbors, the crew learned that the family of four had woken up and went to the ward door to visit. As a result, they happened to meet Leng Zhiruo, the president of Jiangnan Mall.
However, Leng Zhiruo did not accept any interviews. She only stayed with the patients for a while in front of the camera, gave them some things, and then left. Next, the crew interviewed the family of four.
In their weak voices, more detailed information was revealed.
It turned out that after the elder sister graduated from college, she went to Shenzhen to work, but she was scammed of all her savings and eventually had to return home with the help of a rescue station.
As a result, the elder sister suffered from social phobia and could not go out for half a year. She also became addicted to the internet and computers, often going to the neighbor’s house to surf the internet.
Then the elder sister discovered a new business opportunity: opening an online store.
Because her mother’s sister married a herdsman, and this herdsman had hundreds of yaks, but not all the yak meat could be sold, so it was all made into yak meat jerky and stored at home.
The elder sister thought about how expensive yak meat jerky was in places like Guangdong and Shenzhen, costing nearly 60 yuan a catty, but her uncle’s yak meat jerky was only sold to buyers for 15 yuan a catty, a difference of up to 45 yuan.
So the elder sister had the idea of selling yak meat jerky through an online store. Coincidentally, she saw the recruitment of Jiangnan Mall at this time, so she actively called Jiangnan Mall. Unexpectedly, Jiangnan Mall actively sent people to help her with all the preliminary preparations for opening an online store.
Finally, after spending half a month convincing everyone in the family, the elder sister used the last of her father’s remaining death compensation to buy a second-hand computer, installed an internet line at home, and started operating the online store.
The elder sister also frankly admitted that she had never applied for a business license from the beginning and had not considered the issue of production permits for yak meat jerky.
Because in the elder sister’s opinion, these yak meat jerky were not produced by a factory, but made by her own relatives, so it seemed unrelated to production permits. As for the business license, the staff of Jiangnan Mall did remind her to apply for it, but because she was afraid of social interaction and dared not go out, she never applied for it.
Jiangnan Mall, seeing her family’s difficult situation, knew they couldn’t delay any longer, so they allowed her store to open first, but she had to obtain the business license as quickly as possible.
She operated unknowingly for more than half a month, and unexpectedly became the sales champion in the beef jerky category of the entire mall, selling over 200 kilograms of beef per day. In half a month, she earned more than her previous four months’ salary, which made her a little carried away.
At the same time, because the beef jerky she sold was indeed dried from fresh yak meat for their own use, there were no problems with hygiene and safety, so she never encountered any complaints about products without licenses or quality certifications, which made her naively believe that she could operate normally even without these things.
Ultimately, this mistake was discovered by a consumer. She applied to补办 (replenish/reissue) the business license and production permit immediately, but these things could not be obtained in a short period.
Countless people on the internet insulted her, and more importantly, many people sent her demands for a refund of 1 yuan and compensation of 3 yuan. Jiangnan Mall also closed her store and demanded that she fulfill her legal responsibility of refunding 1 yuan and compensating 3 yuan.
But if she really paid compensation, the money she earned in half a month would be completely lost, and she would even have to sell her house to barely complete the compensation.
So the family couldn’t figure it out and turned on the gas.