Chapter 307 Business Failure
Ding Wenyuan's trading company is actually not very large.
The first time Zhou Yi saw Ding Wenyuan, he knew that this man was most likely not related to the crime, because he was a middle-aged man with dark skin and wrinkles on his face. When shaking hands with Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi felt his rough skin and thick calluses.
When he learned that they came for Fu Daqing, he was obviously stunned, as if he was trying to recall who this name belonged to.
Until Zhou Yi whispered two words to remind him: Brother Gua.
He suddenly realized and said with emotion: "Oh, I haven't heard of this name in several years. Police comrades, please sit down, please sit down."
Ding Wenyuan wanted to find a cup to pour water for the two of them, but he couldn't find one after searching for a long time. Finally, he cut a plate of honeydew melon and placed it in front of them.
He smiled sheepishly and said, "I'm sorry, we don't have any cups. Please have some melon, it's really sweet. We don't have anything else here, but we have a lot of fruit."
Zhou Yi looked at the melon in front of him and felt it was quite fresh. It was the first time he encountered such a situation.
He didn't hesitate to say thank you and took a bite. It was indeed sweet and crispy, with an excellent taste.
"Well, Boss Ding, this melon is good." Zhou Yi said in surprise.
Ding Wenyuan said with a smug smile, "Isn't it? I didn't lie to you. Comrade, you should try it too."
Xia Yu was originally quite restrained, but seeing Zhou Yi so calm, he also picked up a piece.
"Mm, it's delicious. Isn't this the melon from Anyuan?"
"No, they came from the north and just arrived yesterday. It's a good thing they arrived yesterday, otherwise with today's heavy rain, these melons wouldn't keep long." Ding Wenyuan said enthusiastically, "You two can take two back and try them later."
Zhou Yi finished eating a piece of melon, wiped his mouth and waved his hand: "That's not suitable. I'll buy two back later. Boss Ding, please don't sell it to me cheaply. I'll pay the price I deserve."
Ding Wenyuan laughed and said, "Okay, I'll come back if it tastes good, hahaha."
Zhou Yi said, "Boss Ding, let's talk business. We'd like to ask, when was the last time you saw Fu Daqing?"
"Brother Gua, that's been a long time, at least five or six years."
"Five or six years? Was it the period when his business failed?" Zhou Yi asked.
Ding Wenyuan nodded: "Well, at that time, Brother Gua hadn't gotten into trouble yet."
"Boss Ding, do you know the details of Fu Daqing's business failure?"
They had investigated before in Hongcheng, but they only knew that Fu Daqing failed in his fruit business and lost a lot of money. The specific situation was not clear, and even Fu Daqing's ex-wife was not very clear.
"Of course I know. Others may not know that Gua Ge was cheated, but I know it clearly."
"Cheated?" Zhou Yi's criminal investigation nerves immediately jumped, and he asked hurriedly, "Please tell me the details."
Ding Wenyuan nodded, then said, "Eat it, if it's not enough, there's more."
Ding Wenyuan said that he and Fu Daqing were introduced to each other by a friend. Fu Daqing initially opened a fruit shop in Hongcheng and his business was good.
But he felt that the profit from the fruit shop was limited, so he decided to do fruit wholesale himself.
After eating the watermelons from Anyuan, he thought they were particularly delicious. It happened to be summer at that time, so he decided to start with the watermelons from Anyuan. Then, through the introduction of a friend in the industry, he met Ding Wenyuan.
At that time, Ding Wenyuan was still a self-employed person and also engaged in wholesale business, but on a relatively small scale. He was mainly responsible for purchasing melons from local melon farmers. After Fu Daqing purchased the goods from him, he would transport them back to Hongcheng and sell them to the retailers below, that is, fruit stores.
They have been cooperating for four or five years and have always had a good relationship. Hongcheng's market is indeed larger than Anyuan's, and Ding Wenyuan is honest in doing business and never cheats Fu Daqing.
Fu Daqing's business was doing very well in those years, so he got the nickname Gua Ge and would frequently go to Anyuan every summer.
Gradually, Fu Daqing became dissatisfied with the local market in Hongcheng and wanted to expand outwards and sell Anyuan's melons throughout the province.
At this point, Ding Wenyuan sighed deeply, "Well, it's a good thing, but digging for food in the fields depends on whether God will give you food."
"What happened?" Xia Yu asked.
"That year, Anyuan had heavy rain, even heavier than today's, and it rained for several days straight. It was just when the watermelons were ripe, but the downpour soaked all the watermelons in the fields. The watermelon farmers were devastated that year; they basically had no harvest."
"Will all the melons go bad if they get wet in the rain?" Xia Yu asked curiously.
Zhou Yi said: "If you pick them in time, they won't spoil in a short time and you can eat them yourself. But if they've been soaked in rainwater, their shelf life will be shorter and they'll spoil more easily. I don't know if I'm right, Boss Ding."
Ding Wenyuan gave a thumbs-up and said, "That's right, this police officer knows his stuff. Watermelon is a drought-tolerant crop that's afraid of flooding. It's not afraid of hot weather, but it's afraid of heavy rain."
"So why exactly was Fu Daqing deceived?" Zhou Yi asked.
"He was just expanding his business that year, and then this heavy rain hit. All the melons grown by the melon farmers here were soaked, so we couldn't supply him. He was really anxious because he had already received deposits from many people. If he couldn't supply the melons, he would have to pay out the money."
"Later, I don't know where he found someone who got a batch of melons. I warned him at the time to be careful not to be cheated, but he said they worked in greenhouses and hadn't been soaked by rain. I felt something was wrong at the time. Our Anyuan is not a big place, so why have I never heard of such a person?"
Zhou Yi asked: "What's the result?"
"Then something went wrong. Those melons weren't from greenhouses at all. Someone bought a batch of water-soaked melons at a low price and claimed they were good, deceiving him. So many of the melons were still good at the time, but soon went bad. I guess Brother Melon lost a lot of money on this one. I haven't seen him since."
Ding Wenyuan's words made Zhou Yi understand how Fu Daqing's life took such a sudden turn for the worse.
Apart from the person who deceived him, the main responsibility in this matter really lies with Fu Daqing himself. If he were more cautious, Zhou Yi believed that he would figure out the problem.
But he was too eager for quick success and refused to listen to Ding Wenyuan's advice.
In the end, this result was all his own fault.
"Boss Ding, have you never seen Fu Daqing again?" Zhou Yi asked.
"No, if you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have remembered it." Ding Wenyuan said it very naturally, and it didn't seem like he was pretending.
"Then do you know who was the person who scammed Fu Daqing? Everyone in your circle should know each other, right?"
"Oh, I really don't know about this, but I can help you find out."
"That's great. If it's convenient for you, Boss Ding, could you please hurry up on this matter? We're quite anxious about this."
"Okay, okay. It's just a piece of cake."
Zhou Yi looked at Xia Yu and said, "Officer Xia, how about you give Boss Ding your contact information? If Boss Ding finds out anything, he can tell us at any time."
Xia Yu immediately nodded and said yes, then wrote down a landline number.
Ding Wenyuan collected the number and asked worriedly, "Comrades, can I ask if Brother Gua is okay? He was fine, but I haven't been in touch for years. I don't know how he's doing."
Zhou Yi smiled and said, "He's fine. We're just conducting a routine investigation. By the way, Boss Ding, besides you, does he have any other acquaintances in Anyuan?"
Ding Wenyuan thought for a moment and said, "Acquaintances? They must be friends who used to drink and dine together when we were doing business together. They're all in the fruit business. But as far as I know, they probably haven't had any contact with Brother Gua for many years, because I never heard anyone mention him when we were drinking together before."
"If it's convenient, could you please write down the contact information of these old acquaintances for us?"
After hearing what Zhou Yi said, Ding Wenyuan suddenly became nervous again. This didn't look like everything was alright.
"I'm looking for some business cards. Please wait a moment." Ding Wenyuan began to rummage through the drawers on the old desk.
This trading company only has one office of more than 30 square meters, and the rest is a warehouse. There are a few tables in the office, and things are piled up in a mess.
At this time, a young man came over with a stack of bills and asked Ding Wenyuan a few questions in the local dialect. Ding Wenyuan also responded in dialect.
Then Ding Wenyuan found a few business cards from a business card holder with a peeling cover and handed them to Zhou Yi and the others, saying that they were all from his dealings with Brother Gua when he was doing business.
Zhou Yi handed the business card to Xia Yu, then thanked Ding Wenyuan for his active cooperation and bought two melons at the market price.
Ding Wenyuan saw them out the door and sighed as he looked at the rain outside. "Oh, I hope it doesn't rain so hard when the watermelons are ripe this year, otherwise we'll have to starve again."
After getting in the car, Zhou Yi asked, "Officer Xia, what did that employee say to Ding Wenyuan just now?"
"Oh, it's about the invoices. It seems the previous accountant quit. I asked him how to deal with these invoices, and Ding Wenyuan said he was already looking for someone."
Zhou Yi nodded, as long as it had nothing to do with the case.
"Officer Zhou, are we going to look for those people Ding Wenyuan just mentioned next?"
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Zhou Yi said with a smile.
"Why don't we eat first? It's past dinner time. If Captain Pan finds out, he'll definitely scold me for not taking good care of you."
Zhou Yi didn't refuse, and the two of them found a small restaurant nearby and had a quick meal.
Ding Wenyuan gave Zhou Yi a total of five business cards. Zhou Yi took a look at them, took out his mobile phone, and dialed the numbers on the business cards one by one.
As a result, one number couldn't be dialed, two numbers had no one answering, and two numbers were connected, but both said they hadn't contacted Fu Daqing for a long time.
After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi said, "Officer Xia, let's go and question these two people in person. I'm afraid I might miss something if I ask them over the phone."
"Okay, this guy named Wang is close here, we can go find him first."
Having said that, the actual road conditions were much worse than expected, because the continuous heavy rain caused many roads to be flooded, and the two spent a lot of time on the road.
After questioning these two people, it was already dark, but I still got nothing.
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