Chapter 88 Burning Counterfeit Goods (Second Update)...

The conflict was quelled, and the mole was identified, but the matter was not over yet.

He Changyi spent a long time changing the locals' stereotypes about Zhongguo products, but now, it's all gone back to square one.

Aside from those who were incited to cause trouble that day, people have been coming in the past few days demanding refunds and asking for ten times the compensation.

"I knew it! I should have known! Underdeveloped countries can't produce high-quality goods!"

"Give me my money back! I want to return everything I bought from your store!"

"This is terrible, I will never buy Jong-kook products again!"

The shop assistants were extremely busy, having to appease the disgruntled customers. If it weren't for the wages, they wouldn't have been able to work a single day.

But apart from those returning the goods, there were no other customers.

The store has been deserted for three days in a row.

Occasionally, someone would peek in from outside, but before the shop assistants could even greet them warmly, someone would immediately say, "You still dare to buy things from this store? Don't you know that someone has ended up in the hospital because they bought Jong-kook products?"

The shop assistant tried to explain, but the customer looked at him suspiciously, then at the empty shop, and turned and left without hesitation.

Just kidding, there's already been a loser, he doesn't want to be the next one.

The store had no customers, but the fixed monthly expenses did not decrease at all: rent, labor, utilities... Every day the store was open, money was spent. It was only taking in money and not giving out any, and the money in the account was being consumed at an extremely fast rate.

Geng Zhi was so anxious he was practically bursting with anger. His lips were covered in blisters, and he wished he could stand at the store entrance and pull every passerby inside.

He remembered that He Changyi had previously held a big promotion, which attracted customers who bought out the entire stock in one day. He wanted to imitate it. Although he didn't have the authority to offer a 40% discount, he could at least distribute some flyers.

Zheng Xiaowei said dejectedly, "You've wasted your time. The boss doesn't care anymore, and I don't know what he's busy with. He doesn't even come to the store. If you ask me, you should just move to another city as soon as possible!"

Geng Zhi exclaimed urgently, "How could you say such a thing?! You shrink back when faced with trouble; you truly are a descendant of the Zheng family!"

Zheng Xiaowei jumped up and down, arguing with him: "What do you mean I'm a member of the Zheng family? Aren't you one too? Zheng Zhi, don't think that just because you changed your surname you're no longer a Zheng! Go back and take a good look at your ID card and household registration book, and see what your real name is!"

He was furious!

With the problem of no business at the store still unresolved, the two cousins ​​are about to fight to the death.

Someone walked in and started clapping, "Well done! Hit harder! Haven't you eaten?"

Geng Zhi and Zheng Xiaowei were both startled, releasing their grip on each other's necks and exclaiming in astonishment, "Boss?"

He Changyi lifted his eyelids and said, "Go ahead and fight. Why did you stop? Keep fighting. I'm waiting to see."

Zheng Xiaowei chuckled awkwardly twice, trying to salvage the situation: "Boss, when did you arrive? Look at me, I didn't even get a chance to greet you..."

Geng Zhi interrupted him, rushed to He Changyi's side, and said anxiously, "Boss, what should we do? There haven't been any customers in the shop for the past few days!"

Not to be outdone, Zheng Xiaowei immediately chimed in, "It's all those troublemakers' fault! They've ruined our shop's reputation! Boss, how about we move to another city and start over?"

He Changyi countered, "Change? Which city?"

Before Zheng Xiaowei could even list the candidates, she said, "If the problem in Fuzhou can't be solved, it's the same no matter where you go."

Geng Zhi, who had a deeper affection for Fu City, said upon hearing this, "That's right! We can't back down when we encounter difficulties! Even if we go to other cities, we'll open branch stores in style, but the head office will always be in Fu City!"

Zheng Xiaowei didn't dare to refute He Changyi, nor did he dare to argue with Geng Zhi in front of her. He muttered to himself, "How can they be the same? At worst, they can just keep a closer eye on the warehouse next time and not let the insiders have a chance to switch things out..."

After making his grand pronouncements, Geng Zhi became worried again.

"But what can we do now? Customers aren't coming to our store anymore... Boss, do you have any good ideas?"

He looked at He Changyi expectantly, and Zheng Xiaowei next to him also looked over curiously.

He Changyi said, "I don't have a good solution, but I do have a bad idea."

Geng Zhi and Zheng Xiaowei: ? ? ?

He Changyi didn't explain, and told them to arrange for people to pile all the counterfeit goods found in the warehouse and on the shelves onto the open ground outside the store.

It has to be said that the mastermind behind this was really generous; the counterfeit goods were piled up into a small mountain, attracting passersby to stop and watch.

It was the weekend, and the city center was bustling with people. Jong-guk Store's location was excellent, situated at a road intersection, making it easily noticeable to people coming from all directions.

"What is this? A new promotional tactic?"

"But they piled all the goods together, making it look messy and completely failing to serve as advertising!"

"Absolutely unattractive..."

Some people noticed that there were several East Asian faces among the staff, and upon seeing the "Friendship Store" sign with Chinese and Emei writing on it, they immediately realized—"It's that Jong-kook store!"

The others realized what was happening too.

"Jong-kook Store, which sells counterfeit goods..."

"Tenfold compensation..."

"Go to the hospital..."

The crowd began to murmur among themselves, and those who were previously unaware of the store-smashing incident now understood the situation.

Why hasn't this store gone out of business yet?

"Don't they want those things anymore? Can we take them?"

"Are you out of your mind?! Those are all substandard products! Do you want to end up in the hospital too?!"

"But it's free!"

Amid the noise, more and more people gathered outside the store, all eagerly tiptoeing to peek inside.

At this moment, they noticed a tall, black-haired woman walking out. Her skin was snow-white, and her lips were bright red. She was like a sharp Han sword, completely unlike the gentle and graceful image of an Eastern woman in their minds.

She waved her hand, and the bodyguards behind her pulled the several bound people to stand on both sides.

The crowd, curious and excited, hurriedly pushed and shoved forward, vying for the best viewing spot.

"Everyone—"

The crowd fell silent at the sudden loudspeaker announcement.

The voice of the black-haired woman came from the loudspeaker. Surprisingly, her Ethnic accent was so good that there was no trace of an accent. If you didn't see her face, you would not be able to tell that the speaker was a native of China.

"I am the owner of Friendship Store. On behalf of the store, I would like to clarify that our store has never sold counterfeit goods."

Upon hearing this, the crowd erupted in uproar.

Someone shouted excitedly, "You're lying! Didn't we buy counterfeit goods from your store?!"

The black-haired woman nodded, showing not a trace of shame at being exposed.

"What you said is true, but you only told half the truth."

The crowd erupted in uproar again, but this time she didn't wait for the doubters to speak and went straight to the point: "Because I know the other half of the truth."

Someone asked, "Then what is the complete truth?"

She said, "The truth is that someone switched the store's genuine products with counterfeit ones, and the store sold the counterfeit goods to customers without their knowledge. After a certain number of counterfeit goods were sold, someone incited the customers who bought the counterfeit goods to cause trouble and try to ruin the store."

The crowd was skeptical; it sounded far too complicated. Could someone really be going to such lengths just to destroy a small shop?

Then someone asked, "Do you have any evidence?"

The black-haired woman nodded. "Of course."

She raised her hand and pointed to the several handcuffed men on either side, all of whom looked as if they had lost their parents and remained silent.

"This is the store's warehouse manager, who colludes with outsiders to replace genuine products with counterfeit ones; this is the supplier of counterfeit goods, who provides a large number of indistinguishable fakes; this is the transport driver, who is responsible for transporting the counterfeit goods to the warehouse and then transporting away the replaced genuine products."

The black-haired woman called out names one by one, from left to right, exposing all their dirty deeds to the light of day.

"And this one, this one, and this one, they contacted customers who bought counterfeit goods, instigated a collective riot, and incited the crowd to storm the store."

The onlookers were collectively shocked.

This is so unexpected...

What was initially thought to be a simple case of counterfeit goods, like any swindler selling counterfeit or shoddy products, has become accustomed to finding chicken feathers in down jackets or buying "Adidas" with a missing sleeve.

So when news broke that Jong-kook's store was selling counterfeit goods, people were angry, but deep down they also felt a sense of relief, like "ah, I knew it."

But who would have thought that the truth would be completely opposite to the stereotype?

Someone asked, "How can you prove that what you're saying is the truth? Who knows if they're actors you hired?"

The black-haired woman wasn't angry; instead, she smiled. "Because this is the result of the police investigation."

She calmly addressed the crowd before her, saying, "These people are already criminals. After proving the store's innocence, they will be sent back to the police station to face legal judgment."

She even raised her hand to signal everyone to look at the police officers waiting on the side. The police officers were somewhat embarrassed and unhappy, but when they met her gaze, they still nodded with difficulty.

—This is what He Changyi has been busy with these past few days.

Xie Xuejun brought back the whereabouts of the instigators at the scene. Combined with the information provided by the warehouse manager, He Changyi followed the clues and uprooted the people sent by the mastermind behind the scenes.

Instead of rushing to send the person to the police station, she interrogated them herself first, obtaining their statements and video recordings before gently knocking on the police station door.

Yes, they don't want to offend either of them. The big shots are fighting, and they won't take sides—but silence means taking sides.

When they stood by and watched the store being besieged and vandalized, weren't they already taking sides?

He Changyi slammed the file containing the statements and videotapes onto the police chief's desk, and asked with a smile, "Should we keep the situation within the city of Fu, or let Mr. Andrei handle it personally?"

The police chief looked at her, then at the file folder, and then at the two rows of bodyguards standing behind her.

"...I think it's best not to disturb Mr. Andrei."

Both sides reached an agreement to characterize the whole incident as a premeditated retaliation for attempted extortion. There was no Mr. Andrei Jr., nor that joking political enemy. In short, there was absolutely no battle between gods!

The police formally arrested the person and, with the help of He Changyi, took the criminal outside the store as a prop to clarify the truth.

He Changyi smiled and said to the crowd, "I want to thank the police officer for his help."

She turned to the police and applauded loudly, saying, "Thank you for your contribution to the security of Vladimir."

The police officers were unsure whether to laugh or not, and finally managed an awkward twitch at the corners of their mouths.

...This boss from Zhongguo is really difficult to deal with!

The onlookers whispered among themselves, pointed and stared at the prisoners being paraded through the air, and were all very excited.

In this small city lacking entertainment facilities, it was like watching a thrilling movie, or even a live, offline version.

Some people who arrived late didn't hear the whole thing, so others enthusiastically explained it to him. Word spread quickly, and soon more and more people gathered, almost blocking the road.

Seeing that a sufficient number of people had gathered, He Changyi signaled to Xie Xuejun to pour a can of gasoline onto the fake goods mountain.

The pungent smell attracted everyone's attention. He Changyi raised his voice and said, "Although our store is also a victim of the counterfeit goods incident, the root cause is that the store's management had loopholes that gave bad people the opportunity to do evil. To express our apology, our store will have a big sale for the next three days, with all items on sale. All customers can participate in the store's lucky draw, with the grand prize being a Riguli car."

That's a Nikko Motors!

The crowd erupted like boiling oil in a pot after a drop of cold water was poured in!

He Changyi wanted to add fuel to the fire.

She struck a match and threw it into the pile of counterfeit goods soaked in gasoline!

Flames erupted and burst into flames, the counterfeit goods of various materials crackling and popping in the high temperature, as if the air itself were being scorched.

Amidst the raging flames, He Changyi's voice was exceptionally clear.

"Friendship Store will never sell any counterfeit or substandard products! If this rule is violated, we will compensate you one hundred times over!"

A fire made the Friendship Store famous in Vladimir and also ignited He Changyi's momentum.

She stormed into the market with unstoppable momentum, and no one could withstand her.

The first Friendship Store is just the beginning; the map is full of unexplored areas.

Her business empire is only just beginning to unfold.

-----------------------

Author's note: I said I'd update twice, and I did! *fist pump*