[Day 2]
Cool wind blew through the curtains. The sun's warmth was gentle, not yet reaching the peak, creating a peaceful and refreshing morning.
The girl inside the room was putting her uniform on when her gaze fell on her laptop.
'Should I check?'
Xiong Zhi gave the documents yesterday afternoon to Shi Hua Media. For sure, by now, they should have already posted it on their website and the shocking news must have already spread.
'No...I should wait until it reaches my ears.' That would mean her move was a total success.
With that, Xiong Zhi continued on her daily life, including staring blankly at Linfeng once again. Since yesterday, when she had found out that Linfeng did not dislike her touch at all, Xiong Zhi had more courage now.
While Xiong Zhi's life went as usual, in the internet world, a bomb had fallen.
[CJ's corruption had been found out! CEO's Secretary is a scapegoat?!]
An article was posted in Shi Hua Media website, or the SHM page. They posted it in Weibo, WeChat, Twitter, Facebook, etc. under the SHM account and page. For hours, many had ignored it as the website was not famous at all, hence, they thought it was meaningless. But there were always some people who were bored enough to click on the article just to kill time and satisfy their curiosity.
And then, after reading the highly impassioned article, they were dumbfounded. The post was then avidly forwarded and shared amongst netizens.
[CJ's controversies started a week ago. Family A bought a jewelry to present as a gift to Family B. However, one of the elders from the family B happened to be an expert in antiques and jewelry found out that the diamonds on the bracelet are fake! They handed the bracelet to many experts for confirmation and reached the same conclusion. Embarrassed, Family A filed a complaint to CJ Company which resulted to an 'intensive' investigation of employees in CJ. The company declared that all the diamonds on their jewelry were genuine. They even quoted: "This case only happened once. CJ will investigate the matter carefully to find what anomalies had caused this misunderstanding. We will give an explanation to the public."
It turned out the CEO's secretary was the culprit. Switching true diamonds with fake ones. Selling the imitation while keeping the genuine.
And six days from now, the trial will begin.
But... Do you think justice was really given?
We, Shi Hua Media, was surprised when we saw this.]
A picture of an accounting statement of the purchased diamonds and their prices was attached. At the bottom, the editor circled the signatures of the CEO and the auditor.
[This file was given to us by a source who wished to remain anonymous. If what the CJ Company had said was true, that only the diamonds sold to the client who filed the complaint was switched with fake ones, and they always sell only genuine products, how come the accounting file tells us that their diamonds' price was so low that I can even buy them with two days' worth of work? Then all of us can afford diamonds jewelry.
Based on our investigations, even if the value added was large in production and branding, the discrepancy was still astounding. It is practically the distance between heaven and earth.
Doesn't this price tells us that most of the diamonds they received in this ledger in the first place were imitations?
If this was true and this picture was authentic too, which we had intensively verified, how come the CJ Company only had this one complaint? They have their usual costumers—the families from upper echelons of society. With reputation and background, how can they do such a thing?
If someone wanted to propose, which store will they first go to? It's CJ. Even if we commoners do not have enough money to buy even one of those simplest jewelry from CJ, we still work hard and save up money just to finally buy one for our beloved other half. But what would you feel when you realize that the jewelry you bought with much effort, hard work, and patience was actually fake? ]
Another picture was attached. This time it was the transaction of all the buyers who bought last month from CJ.
There were two columns in this picture. The first one was listed as 'VIP Clients'. The price of every item was sumptuous. Under each item, the net interest of CJ's was written, averaging from ten to twenty percent.
While the second column held a label of 'General Buyer Sale'. Under every transaction was the net interest of around fifty-five to sixty percent. More than double the income compared to the veritable VIP clients.
[It is supposed to be on 'limited sale', that was why the price was much lower, remember? Then why do they have 55% or higher interest? While the other list that was not for sale, and should have a higher income, only had 10% or more interest? How come the interests for these two columns differ so much, with the general buyers 'on sale' giving more income individually compared to VIP buyers? That is impossible to happen in any way. Doesn't it only confirm the earlier document? The fake diamonds that were in the ledger shown were the 'diamonds' used in the jewelry for 'limited sale', for the general buyers slash commoners.
How outrageous! They used fake diamonds in their promotional sales for us commoners to attract people and deceive them. We thought we are buying genuine jewelry for a little less expensive price, but we are not! We are buying fakes with extravagant prices! Is that because we can easily be deceived, because we have no experience in finding the difference between genuine and fake? Because we cannot afford hiring experts, while their 'VIP Clients' can?
One more thing, they point all accusations and crimes towards the former CEO's secretary. Is she really the mastermind behind this? If she is, what of the signatures of the auditor, board of directors, and even the president himself on this document? Is she also capable of lording over them?
[We, Shi Hua Media, saw this document that tells us that the corruption and fraud inside CJ Company had been happening already for a very long time, and realized that Miss Xiao Mei, who had just entered CJ Company a year ago, is definitely not the mastermind, and is likely an innocent scapegoat they held at disposal.]
Three pictures of ledger were posted but with different dates. The first picture is dated this year, the second is last year, and the last picture is dated two years ago.
[With this concrete evidence, can they still tell us that Miss Xiao Me is the real culprit? Miss Xiao Mei had no interaction with CJ Company two years ago. She was still a student at her university. She had no relatives aside from her aged grandmother, which made her the perfect scapegoat. Now, they dared to deceive the public by presenting their ready-made scapegoat for their crimes? Truly shameless!
We, SHM, as a public trusted media, wants to tell this to the citizens who have been victimized by CJ. We will not turn a blind eye to this injustice! #JusticeforXiaoMei #CJcorruptionandfraud #CJfakediamonds #JusticeforCJvictims
And if you are wondering if these evidences are all genuine, then please try to contact the people listed in the transaction and audit columns. We sincerely hope for our heroic police to fully investigate this matter and bring light to the issue.]
They posted another picture. It was a two column picture. Both had a same items with a comparison of prices between them. A huge difference could be seen.
The viewers who saw this article was shocked, then rage consumed them, although a some did question the validity, but they all were impassioned into finding out the truth. They also bought jewelry from CJ during their 'limited sales'. The article hit them hard. They were people who worked hard for those pieces of accessories to please their sisters, mothers, girlfriends, and wives.
The CJ Company was the number one jewelry company in their country. It was even expanding overseas currently. So many people trusted this century-old company. In its first generation, only wealthy and powerful people can afford CJ's accessories, but in the later generations, they opened the company publicly, welcoming commoners to buy their jewels at a lower price, calling them 'for limited sale only'.
That's why a lot of people within China bought their accessories from CJ.
Reading this article, the masses were infuriated. They had already mostly believed the evidences provided by the article.
Their hard work, sweat, and tears surfaced in their minds. In the end, the one they worked hard for was a fake! An imitation!
The CJ Company was shameless! Animals!
How dare they look down at them?!
After hours of forwarding and reposting, this article skyrocketed in the internet and became the number one trending post.
TheNamethatCannotbeSaid: What?! My bf also bought jewelry from CJ a week ago for our anniversary! It is also from their sale. I'm wearing it right now. Don't tell me, it's fake?
ReachyourNosebyyourTongue: I can't believe it. I always buy from CJ every year for my grandmother's present. I saved money for months... and just for a FAKE?!
ImSarcastic: Hey! It is not yet confirmed that the picture above are all true...
NoNeed: ...I'm shocked. My sister's fiancé is from the VIP buyer list from above. My other friends is from the Sale list. They bought the same item. The price from the picture is really the price they have paid. I see now, no wonder I felt something was weird.
ImNotSure: CJ really did this?! They must investigate! Fellow police, calling your attention!
FengXue: Fellow police, calling your attention +1!
More and more people commented on the article. Many called for an investigation to find out the truth.
In the evening, in a certain villa, a man in his fifties was on the pool surrounded by beauties in skimpy swimsuits. They were serving the man.
The man leaned on the edge of the pool while the rest of his body was submerged. He was talking on the phone.
"I told you to only call me when the deal is important. Not for groundless rumors!" the man shouted angrily at the person on the other line.
"But CEO Long, this article had spread to the internet, many netizens were asking for our explanation. Not only that, they seemed to have some evidence. The PR also reached out to me, asking for you—"
"What are you afraid of? Everything is good and in place. We just need to wait for a few more days, then the trial will come. This issue will be settled. So don't call me for random rumors anymore because I'm busy. You handle things there." Then the middle-aged man ended the call.
He did not take it seriously. As he said, everything was going on as he planned. He only needed to wait. Besides, it was just an article. How could it compare to CJ's deep roots? If it became big, he would just need to suppress it with money.
And he had plenty of that.