Chapter 1505: The Storm Breaks

Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan and their party swaggered away, leaving behind a group of clerks from Lixing and Bi Ying, whose face betrayed no emotion.

“General Bi, the background of these people…” Manager He stood beside Bi Ying, reminding her in a low voice.

Although he didn’t know them, he felt something was off.

There were too many wealthy people in the capital; that was normal, since it was the nation’s center. The biggest characteristic of the capital was that there were many rich people and many high-ranking officials.

Though he had never heard of a man surnamed Tan, Manager He still felt that the man named Tan and the other man who had barely spoken were not to be trifled with.

The reason was simple: they were far too calm.

Generally, ordinary people would make a big fuss over something like this. Even the wealthy would surely throw their weight around with threats.

But these people had said nothing and simply left quietly.

Dogs that bite don’t bark!

Manager He felt that this matter was not so simple.

“It’s nothing.” Bi Ying, however, didn’t care at all. She waved her hand and said, “No matter who they are, don’t bother with them. Over the years, we’ve dealt with troublemakers before, and no one has ever caused any real trouble.”

She was full of confidence. After all, Lixing had been an agent for Mercedes-Benz sedan sales since 1993. Over so many years, they had weathered all kinds of storms. A couple of upstarts popping up from nowhere wanting her to bow her head and admit fault? That was nothing but a dream!

“Alright.” Manager He had no choice but to nod obediently.

There was nothing he could do; he was just an employee, while General Bi was the boss’s close confidante.

These days, the power of pillow talk was not to be underestimated.

So even though Manager He didn’t agree with Bi Ying’s view, he could only shut his mouth and stay silent.

Bi Ying didn’t take the matter to heart at all. She even thought Manager He was making a mountain out of a molehill, calling her all the way here over such a trivial matter. No wonder he never got promoted—he simply lacked decisiveness.

…

…

“Just let it go like that?”

Sitting in the car as they drove away, Tan Kaixuan looked at Zhao Fusheng and asked with a smile.

“What do you think?”

Zhao Fusheng smiled faintly, his face calm. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” Tan Kaixuan shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t even know how to deal with such small fry.”

He meant it. For so long, Tan Kaixuan had never encountered such a thing. The funds he casually moved were in the hundreds of millions, and the people around him were all big shots. Suddenly facing such a trivial matter, Tan Kaixuan felt like an elephant lifting its foot to face an ant, afraid of using too much force and crushing it.

Zhao Fusheng laughed at his words and casually said, “How about this: spread the news. There are sites like Autohome and various forums…”

“Alright, the rest has nothing to do with us.” Tan Kaixuan nodded.

In fact, neither Zhao Fusheng nor Tan Kaixuan took the matter to heart. In their view, as long as Lixing wasn’t stupid, they would investigate their identities and naturally refund the car payment.

But unfortunately, Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan didn’t know that some people in this world, after being arrogant for too long, had long forgotten the meaning of the saying “the customer is God.”

…

…

Many things, when they happen, people don’t notice. Only when small matters gradually become big, fermenting to the point of no return, do people realize what kind of mistake they have made.

Zhao Fusheng left the car matter to Wu Sijie to handle. He trusted this assistant.

Wu Sijie did not disappoint Zhao Fusheng. He arranged everything as soon as he returned.

The Future Group had considerable influence on the internet, thanks to Zhao Fusheng’s early emphasis and布局 in this area. The company had even set up a dedicated publicity department.

Coupled with the power of the PR department, within just a few days, the internet was flooded with negative reviews of Mercedes-Benz.

Autohome was currently the largest professional automotive website in China in terms of traffic. Founded in June last year, according to their own statement, Autohome provided car consumers with comprehensive, accurate, and fast one-stop services for car selection, purchase, use, and trade-in. It was committed to empowering users and customers through product services, data technology, ecological rules, and resources, building four circles—car media, car e-commerce, car finance, and car life—and transforming from a content-based vertical domain company into a data technology-based automotive company.

That said, that was many years later.

For now, Autohome was, more accurately, just a forum favored by domestic car enthusiasts.

And in recent days, the most discussed topic on Autohome was undoubtedly Mercedes-Benz.

“Shocking! Mercedes-Benz has such a dark secret!”

“Unexpected! The leaking Mercedes!”

“Big stores bully customers; who is the God?”

Within a few days, Lixing Company suddenly found itself famous!

“Bang!”

A file was slammed onto the desk. A man in his forties glared furiously at his subordinates.

“I hope someone can explain to me why, all of a sudden, Lixing has become a rat crossing the street! Why has Mercedes-Benz’s century-old reputation become a joke!”

He was truly angry. In less than a week, the internet and media were flooded with negative reviews of Mercedes-Benz and Lixing Company, even alarming the big boss behind him, who called specifically to ask about the matter and demanded to know how he was doing his job.

For a professional manager, this was nothing short of a great humiliation!

In the meeting room, everyone else was silent as a cicada in winter, not daring to breathe loudly.

The whole thing was baffling. Before anyone could figure out what was going on, negative news came pouring in like a flood. At first, everyone suspected competitors were maliciously smearing them, but after inquiring through various channels, they found that was not the case.

In other words, the whole affair was not someone’s behind-the-scenes scheming.

“Um, President Zhuang, we investigated this matter…” After the middle-aged man, President Zhuang, finished his tirade and took a break, the vice president in charge of marketing spoke up in a low voice.

“What’s going on?” President Zhuang glanced at his long-time confidant and asked heavily, “What are the findings?”

“Well…” The vice president smiled bitterly and reluctantly revealed the information he had: “It’s like this: Vice President Ning of the capital branch…”

After a long while, President Zhuang walked out of the meeting room with a livid face.

He now only wanted to curse, not saying another word.

“We have found that the instigator of this matter is the Future Group, but for some reason, they have not responded to our requests for communication.”

“We retrieved the surveillance footage from the sales dealership and found that on the day of the incident, Wu Sijie, the assistant to the chairman of the Future Group, was present there.”

This series of news made Zhuang Yan realize that the problem might indeed lie with his own side.