Chapter 93: The Cause and Effect

The hotpot dinner ended in a lively and cheerful atmosphere.

Yao Jia was genuinely happy. Everyone was getting along as harmoniously as before. She could tell that everyone was pleased too, because since she stepped into the dormitory, she was still the same Yao Jia as before, without putting on any airs.

After finishing the hotpot, Yao Jia offered to help clean up before leaving, but Tian Huasheng, half-pushing and half-shouting, ushered her out the door.

With a voice tinged with alcohol, Tian Huasheng playfully yelled at Yao Jia, “With so many of us here to do the work, do we really need you?” He paused, rolled his eyes dramatically, and added, “Besides, can we even afford to have you help?”

Yao Jia laughed at his performance, decided not to insist, and after saying goodnight to everyone, she left hand in hand with Meng Xingzhe.

Knowing there would be drinking tonight, Meng Xingzhe hadn’t driven. Seeing it was already past ten, Yao Jia decided not to bother the family driver to pick them up.

She took out her phone to call a car, but Meng Xingzhe stopped her.

“With me here, do you really need to call for a car?” he said, looking at her with a domineering air. Then his expression softened, and he pointed to the moon, smiling, “Look, what a beautiful night. Let’s take a walk!”

Yao Jia looked up. The sky was clear, filled with stars. The moon, though not full, was bright and charming. The night sky was indeed beautiful, worthy of a stroll.

So, the two of them walked slowly along the street, hand in hand.

Yao Jia looked at their overlapping shadows under the streetlights and laughed.

It felt like they were an old married couple.

Meng Xingzhe caught her smile and asked what she was thinking about.

“Are you thinking that under such a beautiful night, you turn and see: wow, the man holding my hand is so handsome! I’m so lucky!”

Yao Jia laughed and scolded Meng Xingzhe for being shameless.

Seeing her laugh, Meng Xingzhe couldn’t help but laugh too. Their laughter brought life to the winter night in the city.

After their laughter subsided, Meng Xingzhe suddenly squeezed Yao Jia’s hand and asked, “When you talked about the refurbished machines so openly during dinner, weren’t you worried that someone at the table might have a problem with it?”

Yao Jia stopped, turned to him, her eyes sparkling, “Who do you think among them might have a problem?”

Meng Xingzhe stopped as well and looked at her, “Tian Huasheng, Hao Lidan, Lu Fangfei, Chen Luoxi—I don’t think any of them have a problem.”

Yao Jia received his answer, filtered through his process of elimination, “You’re worried that Tong Yumo might have a problem, and that I was too hasty in revealing that the refurbished machines had been sold to the countryside?”

Meng Xingzhe nodded.

Yao Jia smiled at him, “You’re really sharp, Meng Xingzhe!”

Then she winked at him, “Did you ever think that when Chen Luoxi asked about the refurbished machines, it was deliberate, and my answer was intentional too?”

Meng Xingzhe squinted slightly, a hint of surprise in his eyes, “You two were coordinating?”

Yao Jia nodded with a smile.

“Exactly,” she said, pausing before adding, “Actually, it wasn’t just me. Xiao Tiantian was also in on it.”

Meng Xingzhe raised his eyebrows even higher, his surprise deepening.

Yao Jia happily said, “Even you didn’t notice that we were coordinating, which means our acting was pretty convincing, right?”

The two of them continued walking slowly. There wasn’t a breeze, and the trees by the roadside stood still like a beautiful backdrop in an oil painting.

Meng Xingzhe asked Yao Jia to explain the scene that had escaped his notice.

Yao Jia smiled and said, “To explain this, we have to go back a bit.”

She stepped over a tree’s shadow and asked Meng Xingzhe, “Do you remember the call I received about the refurbished machine when we worked in the Customer Service Department?”

Meng Xingzhe nodded, “Of course I remember.”

Yao Jia said, “I remember you said that we should find out how the customer ended up with a refurbished machine through legitimate sales channels.” She paused before continuing, “So recently, I followed up on that issue and investigated the sales point where the customer bought the refurbished machine. I carefully checked the inventory records around the time the customer purchased the machine. I found out that the refrigerator had been returned, but the return wasn’t recorded in the system. The sales point manager told me about the return verbally.

“The sales point manager said a friend of his wanted to buy a refrigerator from him and specified the model. Because it was a friend, the manager had the refrigerator delivered to him that day, allowing the friend to settle the payment the next day. However, the friend returned the refrigerator within half an hour, saying he didn’t want that model after all. Since the packaging was intact, the manager agreed to take it back. This all happened within half a day, with no money exchanged, so the manager decided not to record it in the system. Later, that unfortunate customer bought the refrigerator.”

Meng Xingzhe shook his head, “The manager’s handling was too irregular. He should be penalized.”

Yao Jia said, “That’s something I’ll deal with later. Now, can you guess where the process went wrong?”

Meng Xingzhe thought for a moment, “The part where it was returned.”

Yao Jia raised an eyebrow, “What do you think went wrong there?”

Meng Xingzhe looked at her and said, “Bait and switch.”

Yao Jia snorted, “Sometimes I think it’s no wonder you act so smug. You’re annoyingly smart! It took me half a day to figure this out, and you got it in an instant!”

Meng Xingzhe didn’t disappoint and started boasting, “I can’t help it. My excellence troubles not just you, but often myself too—how can others live with me being so outstanding?”

Yao Jia playfully slapped him, laughing, “Have you thought about how your boasting affects innocent people?”

After a bit of playful banter, they returned to the topic. Yao Jia said, “You’re right, it was a bait and switch. Since the sales point is a legitimate Kunyu Electric outlet, I thoroughly checked the supply chain, and there’s no way a refurbished machine could have entered the system. So I thought long and hard and realized it was highly likely that the manager’s friend ‘bought’ a genuine refrigerator and returned a refurbished one.”

Yao Jia paused before continuing, “After I came to this conclusion, I found out that the address of the person who bought and returned the refrigerator was a hotel. I later confirmed with the sales point manager that this friend who bought and returned the refrigerator was the hotel owner himself.”

At this point, Meng Xingzhe snapped his fingers, “That makes the bait and switch even more likely! You know, many hotel and teahouse owners specifically order refurbished machines through certain channels to save costs.”

Meng Xingzhe thought for a moment, shaking his head lightly, “But there’s something odd. If the hotel owner bought refurbished machines, it wouldn’t just be one. Every room should have one, meaning many units. But he only bought one genuine refrigerator through official channels and returned one refurbished machine. Why didn’t he replace all the refurbished machines with genuine ones?”

Yao Jia said, “I also found that strange. I wanted to understand the significance of the hotel owner switching just one refurbished machine. So recently, I had my assistant conduct a covert investigation at the hotel.”

“My assistant stayed at the hotel for several nights, playing mahjong with the owner and his wife. I told him he had no spending limit, so he was generous, always losing beautifully, which made the owner and his wife very happy. Taking advantage of the owner’s good mood, my assistant followed the script I gave him and started chatting. After a few nights, the hotel owner began treating my assistant like a brother.”

At this point, Meng Xingzhe called for a pause. He stopped walking as well.

“Your dad got you a male assistant? This assistant of yours sounds quite capable, losing money at mahjong while charming people with conversation.”

Listening to Meng Xingzhe’s tone, Yao Jia couldn’t help but feel that he wasn’t genuinely complimenting anyone.

“Do you have a photo of your assistant? Come on, let me see.”

As expected, he made an odd request.

Yao Jia found it baffling, but Meng Xingzhe was insistent, refusing to continue their walk and chat until he saw a photo of her assistant.

Left with no choice, Yao Jia dug through her phone’s email and pulled up her assistant’s electronic resume, which included a headshot.

Meng Xingzhe enlarged the photo to fill the screen, scrutinized it for a moment, then handed the phone back to Yao Jia.

“He’s nothing special, can’t compare to me. Alright, go on with your story.”

Yao Jia was speechless.

Was he actually being jealous? Did any competent male around her make him this anxious?

This guy is made of pure jealousy!

Yao Jia stifled a laugh, shook her head, and they continued strolling forward as she resumed her story. “After chatting for a bit, my assistant confided in the hotel owner, saying he was from out of town and was thinking of opening a teahouse in the city. He had already chosen a location but was short on some hardware, like air conditioners for each private room, which were currently very expensive. Then he asked the hotel owner how much he had paid for the appliances in his rooms.”

“The hotel owner privately told my assistant that he actually bought refurbished units, which were much cheaper than new ones.”

“My assistant, feigning surprise, asked if all the appliances in the hotel were refurbished. The hotel owner proudly replied that not all were refurbished. The fridge in his and his wife’s room was a genuine new unit, and he boasted that he got it at a rock-bottom price by swapping a refurbished one.”

At this point, Meng Xingzhe understood.

“So the hotel owner bought a batch of refurbished fridges, and decided to keep one for himself. But he didn’t want to use an old one, so he cleverly ordered a new fridge of the same model from a legitimate retailer. When the new fridge arrived, he returned it, knowing that the manager, who was an acquaintance, would allow the return. Thus, he swapped it with a refurbished unit and got a new fridge for the price of a refurbished one,” Meng Xingzhe exclaimed, clicking his tongue. “How can some people be so cunning in business?”

Yao Jia replied, “But my dad says that cunning people have no lower limit in their actions but also hit a ceiling. They’re destined not to achieve great things. Business should be conducted with integrity!”

Meng Xingzhe nodded, fully agreeing with his future father-in-law’s business philosophy.

“Go on, what happened next?” he prompted, squeezing Yao Jia’s hand.

Yao Jia continued, “My assistant kept building rapport with the hotel owner, and once they were close enough, he asked the owner for a contact, saying he wanted to buy refurbished units for his teahouse to save costs.”

“After a few days of emotional investment, the hotel owner fully trusted my assistant. He said, ‘I changed phones and lost the contact for the guy who deals in refurbished units. But don’t worry, he left me his contact on a piece of paper. I’ll find it for you.'”

“And then?” Meng Xingzhe was now deeply intrigued by the unfolding story.

“Eventually, the hotel owner found the paper and handed it to my assistant, saying, ‘This is the contact for the refurbished units guy. Take a photo with your phone and give him a call.'”

Yao Jia unlocked her phone and pulled up the photo.

Meng Xingzhe saw the poorly written words and a phone number: Longyou Tianxia Appliance Co., 188****.

Reading the name aloud, Meng Xingzhe looked up and asked Yao Jia, “What was the company name on the receipt we saw in the countryside?”

Yao Jia chuckled, “Meng Xingzhe, how are you so sharp? How did you immediately connect this to the countryside?” It had taken her a while to make the connection back then. “That sales company was called Longlin Appliance Sales Co.”

Meng Xingzhe nodded, “Both have ‘Long’ in their names. There must be a connection.”

After a pause, he asked, “But how does this relate to Tong Yumo?”