The chill of early spring in 1986 had not yet faded when Lin Li followed Xu Ting into the police station. Water was dripping from the icicles on the eaves.
On the gray brick wall, the five red characters "Serve the People" were blurred by the rain. The police officer on duty at the door, wearing a military green coat, quickly lifted the brim of his hat when he saw her come in.
"Comrade, I am the owner of Liren Makeup, my name is Lin Li."
Lin Li stepped forward and introduced herself.
"I'd like to know about the recent quality issues with Lirenzhuang..."
Before the police officer on duty could speak, he heard the voice of Officer Lao Wang behind him.
"You're the owner of Lirenzhuang?"
Lin Li immediately walked up to Officer Wang and nodded.
"I am the owner of Lirenzhuang. I just returned to Beijing from Hong Kong today."
As he spoke, he took out the plane ticket from his bag and handed it over.
Old Wang took it, glanced at it quickly, and then his eyes darkened slightly.
"Are you aware that the cosmetics in your store have quality issues?"
Lin Li shook her head, her eyes icy cold.
"Our cosmetics are all sourced directly from pharmaceutical factories in Shenzhen. There are absolutely no issues with their quality."
After hearing this, Old Wang looked at her with a surprised expression.
Can you guarantee the quality?
"I can guarantee that."
Lin Li pulled out a large stack of product quality reports from her bag (actually from her spatial storage).
It contains various quality reports and inspection reports for cosmetics, as well as inspection reports for raw materials.
"Because I founded this pharmaceutical company myself, and I also participated in the research and development of cosmetics."
After receiving the documents, Officer Wang began to review them one by one.
After flipping through a few pages, he nodded slightly.
"Comrade Lin, please come in with me. We are just about to investigate this matter."
Lin Li hurriedly followed.
Xu Ting, Lin Laosan, and the two little ones also followed them into the police station.
Lin Li turned around and looked at Lin Laosan and the two little ones who had followed her, and the corner of her mouth twitched involuntarily.
"Comrade Lin, please have a seat."
After quickly flipping through the documents, Lao Wang handed them to a female police officer next to him and whispered something to her.
"Check it out."
The policewoman took the documents, quickly glanced at Lin Li and the others, then left her seat and walked towards the office at the back.
"Comrade Lin, for the past two weeks, we have had customers come to the police one after another to report that they have had problems after using the cosmetics you bought."
Old Wang handed over a stack of police reports.
Lin Li took it and quickly flipped through it.
Aunt Zhang used clam oil, and a patch of red bumps appeared on the back of her hand.
Li, a young woman working at a textile factory, had her face peeling after only two days of applying her newly bought sunscreen.
...
Old Wang took out several more pieces of evidence from the drawer.
"Look, these are the pieces of evidence they handed over..."
Lin Li opened a box, revealing several crooked tubes of face cream inside, the milky white cream covered with suspicious yellow mold spots.
Police officer Lao Wang had just brewed a strong tea that was still steaming. He pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and tapped his finger on the letterhead that read "Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau".
"Comrade Lin, your 'Lirenzhuang' shop was just recognized as an advanced individual business in the district last month, right?"
Lin Li nodded.
Her cosmetics store on Wangfujing Street was the first shop on the street to sell high-quality domestic products.
"Comrade Wang, I can guarantee that there's absolutely no problem with my goods!"
Lin Li pulled out a stack of purchase orders from her canvas bag. The yellowed papers were stamped with the bright red seal of the pharmaceutical factory's sales department. "Look, these are the goods that came in from the Shenzhen Pharmaceutical Factory last month. The batch numbers all match."
Old Wang took a sip of strong tea, his gaze falling on the moldy box of face cream.
The rust on the edge of the glass bottle cap was strange, as if it had been deliberately soaked in water.
He suddenly remembered another report he received yesterday, also from a customer of "Lirenzhuang" who said that the osmanthus honey they bought was adulterated with alcohol.
"Are your shop's display cases securely locked at night?"
Xu Ting's heart skipped a beat after hearing what Officer Lao Wang said.
She had heard Xu Yue mention something.
A while ago, there were always people loitering in front of their shop, but she didn't pay any attention to it.
After all, there are always many envious people when it comes to individual business owners.
Just then, the door to the duty room was pushed open, and the young police officer, Xiao Li, who was delivering documents, poked his head in.
"Brother Wang, I had the osmanthus honey case tested yesterday, and the results are in."
He placed a lab report on the table: "The alcohol concentration at the bottom of the bottle is three times higher than the preservative content in normal cosmetics, and there are traces of re-sticking the sealing film at the bottle opening."
Old Wang's fingers tapped even more rapidly on the table.
He suddenly got up and pulled out a stack of police reports from the metal cabinet.
In the past two weeks, "Lirenzhuang" has received seven complaints involving five different products, all of which were discovered after the packaging was opened.
"Comrade Lin, think carefully, have you offended anyone recently?"
Old Wang's voice turned somber. "These complaints are too concentrated, and they all seem..." He paused, "...like someone deliberately tampered with them."
Xu Ting suddenly remembered someone.
As Xu Yue mentioned before, Zhao Laosi, who runs a general store across the street, recently asked someone to tell her that he wanted to partner with them and asked her to share half of his supply channels with him, but she politely declined.
"Officer, I've remembered someone."
Xu Ting recounted what she had just thought of.
"However, we'll probably have to ask Xu Yue for more details."
Old Wang nodded.
Tell Xiao Li to bring Xu Yue over.
A moment later, a haggard-looking Xu Yue was led to the lobby.
When she saw Lin Li and Xu Ting, her eyes began to redden.
Lin Li hurriedly stepped forward and hugged her.
"I'm sorry, I've made you suffer."
Xu Yue quickly shook her head, "I'm sorry, Dr. Lin, I didn't manage the shop well..."
Xu Ting stood to the side, tears streaming down her face.
"Comrade Xu, you mentioned earlier that you noticed someone loitering suspiciously in front of your store a while ago?"
After hearing Lao Wang's question, Xu Yue straightened her slightly wrinkled clothes and stepped forward.
"Yes……"
It turns out that after Xu Yue rejected Zhao Laosi's request for cooperation, he would curse and grumble at the shop entrance every day, saying that she was "occupying the place without doing her business".
"Zhao Laosi?"
Old Wang silently recited the name in his heart.
He remembered this person; he had been punished two years ago for reselling expired canned goods.
Just then, the phone in the duty room rang.
Old Wang answered the phone, listened for a couple of sentences, and his brows gradually relaxed: "Okay, I understand. Bring the person over."
After hanging up the phone, he said to Xu Yue, "The patrol team just caught someone in the back alley of the shop, sneaking around putting things on the windowsill. Can you identify him?"
Not long after, two police officers brought in a young man wearing a baseball cap.
The man had his head down, and the brim of his hat was pulled very low.
Xu Yue recognized him at a glance.
This is Zhao Laosi's distant nephew. He came to the shop a few days ago to ask about the price of sunscreen.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
