Chairman Zhu agreed and decided to investigate the matter thoroughly first, so he quickly called his younger brother.
"Ah Fa, let me ask you, did you personally purchase this year's Mansong tea? Is it possible that someone else secretly took some of it?"
Zhu Baofa on the other end of the phone cried out in injustice:
"Brother, are you kidding me? Every year during the spring tea picking season, we deploy over 200 security guards to surround the tea plantations and set up checkpoints on all the roads leading in and out of Mansong Village. How could the tea be stolen?"
"I personally inspected every bag of Mansong tea, and all the inbound and outbound records are complete. Don't say it couldn't have been stolen. I haven't even given a pound to my father-in-law. Why do you suddenly stop trusting me, brother?"
"Stop talking nonsense, I'm hanging up."
President Zhu hung up the phone in frustration, then spoke:
"There's no problem here. No matter how brave my brother is, he can't secretly sell tea to others. He's my brother, and I trust him."
All staff members in the association were mobilized.
Those who were checking inventory were checking inventory, those who were making phone calls were making phone calls, and those who didn’t know would think it was a battlefield command center.
At this time, several presidents also took out their mobile phones and began to reconcile accounts with the largest Pu'er tea distributors in the country, not only the accounts for this year's new tea, but also the accounts for old tea from previous years.
High-end Pu'er tea is monopolized and has low production, making it very easy to verify.
Like Mansong Pu'er, the annual output does not exceed 40 tons, and the annual output of a few core old tea trees does not exceed 500 kilograms.
Such figures can be clearly seen at a glance by simply checking with warehouses and distributors, namely inventory + sales volume, and cannot be falsified at all.
When all the information was finally gathered together, everyone's mind was filled with questions:
"No, it's okay."
"Yes, the information I have matches the numbers at the beginning of the year exactly!"
"I'm no different here. All Pu'er is firmly under our control!"
At this time, President Zhu slammed the table in anger:
"Then there is only one possibility now. The so-called top-grade Pu'er tea from Lingnan Hall is all fake. They are counterfeiting. They are trying to destroy our Pu'er industry."
Vice President Wang was also very angry:
"This matter is not over yet. Originally, we kept to ourselves. He sold his ginseng, and we sold our tea. Now Lingnan Hall has overstepped its bounds."
Vice President Liu Xiaode was also furious. This move by Lingnan Hall was like digging up their ancestral graves, and it was absolutely intolerable:
"Everyone, we must show our stance. We absolutely cannot let Lingnan Hall succeed. If we let Lingnan Hall muddy the waters, it will be difficult to clear things up later."
President Zhu roared:
"Jingjing, come here and immediately issue a notice in the name of our Pu'er Tea Association:
For example, the production of Yunnan's top-grade Pu'er tea is very small, and currently all members of the association have the same inventory. We have enough reason to suspect that Lingnan Hall is selling counterfeit Pu'er or passing off inferior products as high-quality ones.
We hope that consumers can be more vigilant, keep their eyes open and avoid being deceived.
After you write the pass and let us review it, you can post it on our association’s official website and Weibo.
In addition, every Pu'er tea distributor is required to forward this notice. Anyone who fails to do so will not be able to receive any goods next year."
When the female secretary heard this, she quickly took the order and left in a hurry.
Subsequently, a clarification notice from the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association quickly spread online, forming a sharp contrast with the invitation letter from Lingnan Hall.
Officials say all top-grade Pu'er tea is there and has not leaked.
Lingnan Hall said it has thousands of tons of top-grade Pu'er tea and welcomes orders.
The quantity of Pu'er tea doesn't match, which is dramatic.
Traditional media, online self-media and the general public across the country like to read this kind of gossip news the most. For a time, not only the tea circle was discussing this matter, but even ordinary netizens began to discuss it lively.
Opinions online were divided into two opposing camps.
One group believes that the Pu'er Tea Association, which has an official background and is an authoritative organization, is composed of major tea merchants. If they say that the Pu'er tea inventory is normal, then there can be no deviation.
The conclusion is that the Pu'er tea in Lingnan Hall is inferior and counterfeit brand Pu'er.
The other group believes that the ginseng, cordyceps, tangerine peel, fish maw, jade, etc. sold by Lingnan Hall have always been top-quality products, and there has never been a precedent of passing off inferior products as good ones, or counterfeiting.
Lingnan Hall has also publicly invited tea merchants and professional research institutes across the country to taste the tea, and has even made a promise to compensate ten times for any counterfeit products, so it is impossible for the tea to be fake.
As for where Lingnantang Pu'er tea comes from, this can also be explained. Now the mountains and forests are contracted to households, and tea farmers can sell to whoever they like. They don't have to sell to people from the Pu'er Tea Association.
(These people don’t understand that all the tea mountains for top-grade Pu’er tea are actually contracted by big tea merchants and are not dispersed.)
In the office of the chairman of Lingnan Hall
Lin Chen's face flushed as he looked at his cousin Lin Sanqi who was browsing his phone and said to himself:
"Boss, it's all my fault for not handling the matter properly. I just wanted to hold a tasting event and invite major tea merchants from all over the country to place orders. I didn't expect the Pu'er Tea Association to react so strongly."
Lin Sanqi was enjoying the discussions on Weibo and Douyin about real and fake Pu'er tea:
"Brother Chen, it's okay. We've just touched someone else's cake. It would be abnormal if they didn't react at all.
Look at the wording of this statement, it directly accuses us of selling counterfeit goods. Wow, this is really desperate, desperate dogs jump over the wall."
General Manager Lin Tianhua did not show any panic on his face, and a response plan quickly came to his mind:
“Boss, and Achen, I think this is an opportunity.
Originally, we invited tea merchants from all over the country, mainly your classmates from the Agricultural University, to come to Huadu to participate in the ordering fair. However, this matter was only spread in a small circle and was not well-known in the country. Not many people knew about it.
Now that the Pu'er Tea Association has released its statement, the entire country is paying attention. Isn't that a free opportunity for hype? This will save us a lot of advertising costs."
Lin Chen was a little confused:
"Uncle Shi, the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association is blatantly accusing us of selling counterfeit goods. This is completely destroying our reputation and will affect the sales of our main business, ginseng. This tone is intolerable."
Lin Tianhua nodded:
“We definitely can’t tolerate this, so we have to fight back and start hyping things up by filing a lawsuit.
First, we went to the public security agency to file a police report, arguing that the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association was maliciously defaming our reputation. Additionally, we immediately had Dezhi and Yiling (the fifth husband and wife) file a lawsuit in court for defamation.
Now let's hype this up and let everyone in the country know about it. The more heated the lawsuit, the better. After all, our Pu'er tea is genuine, and real gold is not afraid of fire, so we're not afraid of them."
Lin Sanqi and Lin Chen knew it was just hype, so they started to make shocking statements.
That afternoon, Lingnan Hall also posted two photos on its official website and official WeChat account. One was a report receipt from the public security agency, and the other was a document indicating the court's prosecution.
As soon as everyone saw these two photos, they knew that Lingnan Hall was ready to fight hard.
At the same time, there is a text on the Lingnan Hall official microblog:
"Yunnan province has 5 million mu of Pu'er tea plantations, with an annual output exceeding 300,000 tons, which is a huge market.
But this market belongs to everyone, and any qualified legal enterprise can sell and grow Pu'er tea.
Is it so incredible that our Lingnantang Group has more than a thousand tons of Pu'er tea?
Besides, is Pu'er only made of new tea? The most valuable Pu'er tea is the aged tea. Has the Pu'er Tea Association ever made accurate statistics?
As an industry association, the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association should promote the development of Pu'er tea, rather than monopolizing the right to speak on Pu'er tea in the name of the association.
Is it true that only the Pu'er tea sold by your association is genuine? And all others are fake?
The Lingnan Tang Group expressed strong dissatisfaction and indignation with this hegemonic behavior, and formally filed a complaint against the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association for defaming and slandering the reputation of Lingnan Tang.
We demand that the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association publicly apologize to Lingnan Hall in major national media and compensate Lingnan Hall for reputational damages of 10 billion yuan.
Therefore, Lingnan Hall will donate all the compensation to Yunnan Hope Primary School without leaving a single cent."
Boom~~~
The news that Lingnan Hall demanded 10 billion yuan in compensation from the Yunnan Pu'er Tea Association instantly became a hot topic.
Major media outlets immediately flocked to Kunming and Huadu for interviews.
Many media outlets, even those with a bit of a whiff of sarcasm, have already published reports on this, and this, the highest-priced defamation lawsuit in China, has become the hottest news. (End of this chapter)
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