Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 208 This is just a general store! (First update!)

This hurried remark made Zhong Zhenbang's eyes light up.

Jiang Zhiyu's wife is a police officer, although not a criminal investigator, but a graduate of a regular police academy.

With the intuition of a police officer, she kept staring at the other person's home appliances, which meant there was something wrong with them.

Perhaps they're just using the guise of reselling home appliances...

Before the thought could even finish, Zhong Zhenbang's brain suddenly went blank.

Because he found that these messy clues couldn't be put together.

First of all, Suzhou itself had a port and an airport.

This company doesn't need to go through Shanghai to sell its products to the Middle East.

Although Jiang Zhiyu's wife is a police officer, she works in the archives of the Jiangkou District Public Security Bureau, so there is no way the two could have any connection.

and so……

Zhong Zhenbang turned around sheepishly, a hint of embarrassment on his face, and looked at Jiang Zhiyu cautiously, asking:

Why is your wife keeping an eye on their home appliances?

When asked why, Jiang Zhiyu scratched his chin, thought for a moment, and replied:

“My wife’s family is from Yushan City. At the end of last year, several companies from Suzhou and Shanghai joined together to form a home appliance brand called Mijia.”

"This home appliance brand is under Xiaomi Heavy Industry, and then they held a home appliance exhibition at the end of the year."

"It is said..."

"It's said that..."

"It is said that when this exhibition opened, some people caused trouble."

"But in the end, this brand of home appliances became famous."

"Very energy-efficient!"

“One of my wife’s cousins ​​bought a set. Based on how they use it, they can save enough to buy one appliance in five months.”

“During the Chinese New Year, my wife kept a close eye on it for a while.”

"Later, when I returned to Shanghai, I learned that the brand also had a store here, and I've always wanted to buy a set."

Jiang Zhiyu shrugged helplessly as he finished speaking: "The goods have never been complete..."

"It's said that there isn't enough production capacity."

After explaining the whole story, Jiang Zhiyu found that his chief was still a little skeptical, so he simply looked at the watch on his left wrist.

Realizing it was almost time to leave work, he readily invited Zhong Zhenbang:

"Let's go check out the store in Shanghai first. According to their usual routine, they usually don't get off work until around 9 p.m."

"After you finish reading, come to my place for a meal, and then we can discuss how to investigate."

If there was a place to get a meal, Zhong Zhenbang would naturally not refuse. He nodded and turned to go to his office to pack his things.

Before long, the two drove towards Jiangkou District.

The drizzling rain also began to fall at this time, adding a touch of chill to the early spring in Shanghai.

The two first went to the Jiangkou District Public Security Bureau to pick up Jiang Zhiyu's wife, and then, with her directions, they found the store in Jiangkou District.

Zhong Zhenbang's first impression of the store was that it was a general store.

It's a very ordinary silver storefront. On the silver storefront hangs a large, bold Chinese character resembling a rice character, with two characters on each side.

Xiaomi on the left, heavy industry on the right.

Upon seeing the cross mark in the middle, Zhong Zhenbang took out the document from the file bag, then took out the photo and checked it against the cross mark bit by bit.

The stroke angles are correct, and the shading is correct.

This is the logo.

He nodded to Jiang Zhiyu, who then got out of the car first and called to his wife in the back seat, "Wife, let's go in and take a look."

As a police officer, Jiang Zhiyu's wife was also very clever. When her husband and his superior suddenly came to pick her up and then mentioned this store separately, she naturally understood that there must be something wrong with this store.

After tidying up her expression in the back seat and touching up her makeup, she got out of the car with a faint smile on her lips.

The couple entered the store, and after a careful look, Jiang Zhiyu naturally looked at the signs below the home appliances.

When the shop assistant saw the two enter, she simply smiled and nodded, then went back to her work, unlike other shops where she would approach them directly.

Jiang Zhiyu's wife nodded to him, turned around and walked towards the shop assistant, while Jiang Zhiyu casually squatted down to look at the signs under the appliances.

This sign displays detailed information about the appliances, as well as their manufacturers.

After watching for a while, he subconsciously squinted because he noticed that the prefixes of these manufacturers were all Xiaomi Heavy Industry.

While he was observing, Zhong Zhenbang also pushed open the door and entered the shop. He naturally passed by Jiang Zhiyu, gave Jiang Zhiyu a glance, and then also began to check the situation inside the shop.

He would occasionally take out his phone to take a picture.

The shop assistant only glanced at him taking pictures and didn't pay much attention to it.

After observing for a while, Jiang Zhiyu got up, walked over to the shop assistant, stood behind his wife, and asked the shop assistant:

Why are you always out of stock?

"I see that these are all manufactured by your company, how could you always be out of stock?"

The shop assistant shrugged, a helpless expression on his face.

"There's nothing we can do, our production capacity is insufficient."

"These goods need to be sold not only locally, but also to other places."

“I also want to have 10,000 or 20,000 units of goods here every day, but the allocation of goods and production are things that the bosses above me have to consider. They have nothing to do with a small shop assistant like me.”

"All I can do is register customers who have the desire to purchase, then convert them into orders, and then urge them to ship the goods."

Jiang Zhiyu and Zhong Zhenbang exchanged a glance, both of them noticing the "out-of-town" part mentioned by the shop assistant.

After exchanging glances, Jiang Zhiyu patted his head:
"You guys aren't going to be using some kind of scarcity marketing tactic, are you?"

How much can you sell to other places?

"Or are you discriminating against us locals and selling all the good stuff to other places?"

"I think I heard that even in Iraq, which is currently in chaos, your goods are present."

This sentence left the shop assistant completely dumbfounded.

She tilted her head and thought for a while, then said to herself as if talking to herself:
"Didn't they say it was sold to Japan?"

Seeing the shop assistant's expression, Jiang Zhiyu knew he wouldn't get anything out of her, so he simply shook his head helplessly and complained:

"If you run out of stock again, I'll have to buy other brands."

These words brought the shop assistant back to her senses. She quickly pulled out a register from under the counter and began writing and drawing in it.

"At 8:32 pm on March 12, a customer urged us to increase production capacity."

When she finished writing and looked up, she realized that the three customers had already left.

She showed no regret as the customers left; she simply lowered her head and continued writing and drawing in the register.

Outside the store, Jiang Zhiyu started the car and drove home.

It took them more than half an hour to finally get home.

Jiang Zhiyu's wife went to the kitchen to cook, while Jiang Zhiyu and Zhong Zhenbang went to the study to exchange the information they had just received.

But the two sat in the study for more than ten minutes, and the only information they could exchange was that symbol.

After sitting for a while, Jiang Zhiyu took out a notebook from the bookshelf, picked up a pen, and began to plan in the notebook. "Since the UAE knows the name of this company, they must have had dealings with each other. This is a breakthrough."

"This will require Director Zhong's help. You will need to use your authority to investigate the goods exported by Xiaomi Heavy Industry, especially those destined for the Middle East."

"It's even possible that they're using a different company's brand; we must find out for sure."

"The second breakthrough point is the company itself."

"Just now in that shop, I took a close look at the manufacturers of their home appliances."

"The names of these manufacturers all use Xiaomi Heavy Industry Group as a prefix."

"That means these factories are their own."

"They might be using home appliances as a cover to sell some strange and unusual things."

"Therefore, we still need to send personnel to keep an eye on these factories, and even investigate their upstream and downstream supply chains."

After explaining the two breakthroughs, Jiang Zhiyu continued to trace lines on his notebook with his pen, but this time he didn't write anything; instead, he drew circles.

His movements naturally did not escape Zhong Zhenbang's eyes.

After a moment's thought, Zhong Zhenbang asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

The sound of the pen sliding stopped, and Jiang Zhiyu looked up, saying very seriously, "What I'm worried about now is another issue."

"That means the products they sell are legitimate, but when they get to the Middle East, they are modified and turned into weapons and equipment."

"If that's really the case..."

Before Jiang Zhiyu could finish speaking, Zhong Zhenbang reached out his hand to him, interrupting him.

His explanation followed immediately: "Impossible. If that were the case, the UAE wouldn't know the company's name."

"So, we'll split into two groups tomorrow."

"I used my privileges to check their import and export trade."

"Take a team and inspect Xiaomi Heavy Industry and its several factories."

"Let's see what the situation is."

"The Middle East is in a rather chaotic situation right now, so it's best to investigate these matters thoroughly."

"Once the matter is clarified, we can also clear the other person's name."

"Okay!" Jiang Zhiyu stopped insisting and instead used his pen to cross out the last few words written in the notebook.

After crossing out those words, he took out his phone again and started contacting his team members to arrange tomorrow's work.

After arranging his work, his wife happened to come knocking on the door:

"Let's eat. We can talk after we finish eating."

Nothing happened that night. Early the next morning, Jiang Zhiyu picked up his team members and headed towards Suzhou.

After a night of familiarizing themselves with the information, the group had gained a basic understanding of Xiaomi Heavy Industry.

We also gained a preliminary understanding of the terrain surrounding Xiaomi Heavy Industry.

They found a high vantage point in the urban village opposite Xiaomi Heavy Industry, and a group of people set up a stakeout with binoculars.

"That young man is the CEO of Xiaomi Heavy Industry, named Lin Yi. He is said to be a graduate of Dongda Men's Vocational Technical College. He is very smart, so you must not run into him."

"Those security guards look like veterans, don't they?"

"Absolutely!"

"He's really willing to spend money, and look at these people's posture and movements, it's obvious they're maintaining their training."

"Holy crap, could they actually have some?"

Meanwhile, Zhong Zhenbang also used his authority to find out Xiaomi Heavy Industry's export records.

He reviewed the export records several times, and finally, he focused his attention on a foreign trade order from last year.

That was an order for a batch of gas cylinders.

Divided into two batches.

One batch was shipped by air, through Zanwu Airport, while the other was shipped through Suzhou Yangtze River Port.

The aviation information is comprehensive, and the X-ray image is incredibly clear; it's a gas cylinder. The only possible location is a port.

With this information, Zhong Zhenbang rushed to the Yangtze River Port at top speed.

Ports retain trade information for a relatively long time, and after he explained his purpose, the port authorities readily provided the documents required for cargo inspection.

These materials mainly consist of videos and photos.

In the video, the container is opened, and it is filled with gas cylinders.

Each container's unpacking and inspection video includes its corresponding weighing weight.

Zhong Zhenbang and his men pulled out calculators, did a quick calculation, and then looked at their bureau chief with embarrassed expressions:
"The weight is accurate, and there's no hidden agenda."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Zhenbang began to question his life and wonder where things had gone wrong.

Undeterred, he once again opened the trade records and focused his attention on the containers being shipped to Japan.

Perhaps these containers are just passing through Japan, crossing the sea there, and then heading to the Middle East?
With this possibility in mind, he approached the port authorities again, requesting relevant information.

This time, the person in charge of the Suzhou Yangtze River Port was even more straightforward. He readily handed over all the information for the port customs inspection and then thoughtfully stood by to explain to them.

"This was a shipment made before the Lunar New Year, on the seventh day of the first lunar month."

"It's full of rice cookers; the inspection video is here."

"That document is full of refrigerators. Yes, it's the one on your left. The video number is A174."

"So, what are you investigating? Antique smuggling?"

"Artifact smuggling..."

"If it's about smuggling cultural relics, then it depends on the tourists. We focus on the tourists. Nowadays, they usually carry small items by having people carry them by hand."

“Smuggling by directly shipping containers is outdated.”

Amidst the rambling of the port manager of Suzhou Yangtze River Port, Zhong Zhenbang and his team went through dozens of gigabytes of inspection videos from beginning to end.

No problem was found.

The containers shipped by Xiaomi Heavy Industry are mostly for home appliances.

Then there's the gas cylinder.

They also couldn't understand why Middle Easterners liked to buy gas cylinders.

In other words, based on the information they currently have, Xiaomi Heavy Industry Group is, from beginning to end, a company that sells home appliances.

Upon reaching this conclusion, Zhong Zhenbang smiled.

I laughed out of anger.

After calming himself down a bit, the head of the State Security Bureau's East China region took out his phone and called back to headquarters:
"Yes, after our urgent investigation, we thoroughly investigated this company."

"It's just a general store! Besides selling home appliances, they also sell all sorts of random things."

"Their latest list of exported goods is an air freight order from yesterday."

"That order was sent to America; it contained cables."

"The airport provided the documents, two cables, no problem."

"If we want to continue to follow up, we can only take advantage of the 315 Gala to go into their factory and find out the truth."

(End of this chapter)