All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

Yang Xun was also quite shrewd. This summer, he kept the price at 59 yuan, which broke the industry's lowest price, and almost all of his sales came to Cheng Yang Electric Appliances.

This also propelled Cheng Yang Electric Appliances to new heights. However, selling it at a price of 59 yuan was a mere formality for Yang Xun. The only way to make a profit was naturally to negotiate a lower price with the suppliers.

Because of its dominant position, Cheng Yang Electric successfully negotiated a lower price, resulting in a steady stream of revenue. The suppliers whose prices were negotiated, naturally, would try to cut their own profits elsewhere. Thus, unsurprisingly, substandard floor fans were produced.

Don't romanticize the 1980s and 90s. The unscrupulous merchants of that era were much simpler and more ruthless than those of later generations. If they said they were cutting corners, they would actually cut corners, instead of labeling themselves as high-quality counterfeits and trying to make them look as similar as possible, like people in later generations.

Lei Dongbao instructed the R&D department to disassemble the four electric fans to see what they were really like. As a result, Lei Dongbao was dumbfounded. The first electric fan was of the best quality and the most solid materials. It would definitely not need after-sales service after seven or eight years.

The second machine had its motor replaced with a no-name brand, which saved several dollars. However, it would last for three to five years without anyone noticing.

The third one not only had a generic motor, but even the aluminum fan blades inside had been replaced with iron fan blades. After being painted, it actually looked quite decent, and it should be fine for the next two or three years.

When it came to the fourth station, Lei Dongbao was truly dumbfounded and felt a sincere admiration for the unscrupulous merchants of this era.

The motor in the fourth unit was not only a no-name brand, but it also didn't even meet the power requirements. It was like a small horse pulling a large cart, no wonder it was much louder. Not to mention that replacing the aluminum fan with an iron fan is standard practice, even the wiring in the middle was replaced, with not a trace of copper wire.

Moreover, the paint touch-up was uneven and the surface was very rough. Lei Dongbao tested it with a test pen and even found that there was a tiny bit of leakage on the unevenly painted metal handle. This was too amazing. This was definitely produced in a family workshop.

This has shattered Lei Dongbao's perception of the lowest level of businesses in this era; they are utterly ruthless in their pursuit of profit!

Looking at the broken-down machine in front of him, Lei Dongbao couldn't help but feel a little smug. For some reason, he suddenly thought of Xiao Leijia. Back then, Xiao Leijia's Leiting Electric City was ruined by a rumor about a defective product.

At least back then, the Thunder brand electric fans were genuinely high-quality products, but this one in front of us is definitely junk. You don't need any rumors to see that.

The experience of Xiaoleijia back then is still vivid in my mind. I never thought that I would have to go through that scene again in just a few years. I feel a little excited just thinking about it. However, Cheng Yang Electric Appliances is not like Xiaoleijia. The power behind it is something that ten Xiaoleijias cannot match.

This rumor needs to be carefully planned so that by the time they realize it, it will have spread like wildfire and be unstoppable. Otherwise, with the power of Cheng Yang Electronics City, it could be quickly nipped in the bud.

Lei Dongbao stood in front of the window of the factory office, looking at the sunset in the distance. The scenery of the sky and water merging under the fiery red sunset seemed to be right in front of him. It was so beautiful.

Just like the scene he saw when he first came to Jiangcheng and stood on the bridge, but now he no longer had the heart to appreciate the beautiful scenery. That fiery red afterglow was like the burning heat in his heart at this moment, which was about to explode!

On August 15th, the Jinzhou Evening News published a very ordinary social news story: a young boy in Jinzhou city was electrocuted when he turned on a metal floor fan. The news article concluded by warning that several citizens have recently been electrocuted by metal floor fans, and the newspaper hopes that parents will be vigilant about children operating metal floor fans.

It's a very brief social news item, without a beginning or end. If you weren't paying attention, it would hardly attract any attention. But this news is just a trigger. This news will slowly ferment and eventually lead to a real bombshell. It's all just the beginning.

With the decisive battle imminent, Lei Dongbao stood by the window, looking at the scenery of the 1980s, and couldn't help but sigh.

The sunset is infinitely good, but it is only near dusk!

Chapter 99: Complete Detonation

The Heavens Begin with Love in the Courtyard, Volume 99: Completely Igniting. Following the social news published in the Jinzhou Evening News on August 15th, the Jinzhou Evening News published another news item on August 17th, but this time the news was published as the headline.

The news report is about an incident from the 15th that sparked a strong reaction from citizens. Our newspaper received submissions from more than 20 citizens who reported that their metal floor fans, purchased from an appliance store, were leaking electricity…

This newspaper once again urges citizens who have metal floor fans at home to check their fans for quality issues. If any problems are found, please contact the seller immediately for assistance.

As soon as the news was published in Jinzhou Evening News, the next day, almost every store in Cheng Yang Electrical Appliances City had a steady stream of customers bringing their purchased metal floor fans to Cheng Yang Electrical Appliances City's after-sales service.

At first, the employees of Cheng Yang Electric Appliances were quite polite to these customers who came for after-sales service, telling them to go to the local repair center for repairs.

However, some customers do not request repairs but rather returns or replacements of the floor fan.

At this point, these untrained employees began to handle things crudely. Many employees directly confronted customers, while others ignored customers and said that it was not a quality issue and was not covered by after-sales service.

Indeed, many customers' floor fans did not leak electricity, but because many of them were rushed out later, the paint on the fans was uneven, making them look like they had a risk of leakage.

Seeing the news also instilled a sense of crisis, prompting them to come for after-sales service. In such a situation, it's normal for them to have conflicts with Cheng Yang Electric's employees.

An ordinary social news story on August 15th sparked another news story on the 17th. The wording in the news gradually became more intense, which resonated with customers who had recently purchased metal floor fans, causing panic among some customers. By the 18th, they came to Cheng Yang Electric Appliances' after-sales service. At this point, the situation was still relatively under control.

If Cheng Yang Electric Appliances had handled these matters quickly and then conducted public relations with the newspapers, it would have been easy to resolve the situation given its connections. However, at this moment, no one within Cheng Yang Electric Appliances was aware that a crisis was imminent.

Although there were a few scattered customers coming to each store for after-sales service on the 18th, the situation was generally under control. Most customers felt that since these were cheap products, it was understandable that the workmanship was a bit rough, especially since the other party had agreed to repair them for free. Occasionally, a few store employees got into conflicts, but the store manager intervened and resolved the situation temporarily.

However, behind the scenes, there seemed to be an undercurrent driving this development. On August 20th, the Jinzhou Daily published a news article with pictures and text. Although the news was not the headline, the Jinzhou Daily, with its hundreds of thousands of copies sold each issue, could still influence millions of people in Jinzhou.

The news article cited a report from the Jinzhou Evening News on the 17th, stating that a metal floor fan had caused an electrical leak due to a quality problem, resulting in electric shocks to several children. The article also mentioned that the newspaper had received numerous complaints and reports from citizens and hoped that journalists would cover the story.

The news report states that yesterday, some customers who had already purchased floor fans went to the store to argue, hoping for a replacement. However, they were treated rudely by the store clerks. The news photos clearly show a store clerk shoving a customer carrying a floor fan. This newspaper strongly condemns such irresponsible business practices.

What's most remarkable is that the report didn't mention Cheng Yang Appliances by name, but the picture included a distant view of the Cheng Yang Appliances store, along with pictures of the staff's uniforms, which almost certainly confirmed it was Cheng Yang Appliances. Given the price war over the past few months, many ordinary people recognized the store almost instantly.

The news article was short, but it still took up a third of the page. It contained a lot of popular science information, stating that a certain expert had proven through experiments that if a leaky metal floor fan electrocutes a child, it can cause irreversible damage, etc.

On May 21st, the news of the electrical leakage incident was published on the front page of the An Van Provincial Daily.

From the social news in the Jinzhou Evening News on the 15th to the news report in the Jinzhou Daily on the 20th, Cheng Yang Electric Appliances did not make any response for five days until the report in the Anyun Provincial Daily on the 21st completely ignited the whole incident.

In the first five days, the staff almost always made excuses to customers who came for after-sales service and told them to go to the repair center for free after-sales service. However, the increasing number of after-sales requests did not raise any alarm among the senior management of Cheng Yang Electrical Appliance City.

In fact, some store managers noticed the sudden increase in after-sales service, but none of them chose to report it. As for why this was the case?

This is all because of the new rule that Yang Xun set in June, which requires each store manager to be assessed and ranked every month.

The main assessment criteria are sales volume and after-sales service. Store managers who fail to meet the performance targets for three consecutive months will automatically resign. Store managers who meet the targets will receive bonuses based on their sales performance. Under such assessment conditions, many store managers naturally dare not report such a sudden increase in after-sales service to headquarters.

In fact, at the Jiangcheng headquarters, many senior executives, even if they didn't read the newspapers, should have been able to detect the anomaly through some logistics information, because the number of shipments from Jinzhou had decreased significantly in the past few days.

From the Jinzhou Evening News on the 15th to the Jinzhou Daily News on the 20th, each time a news item appeared, it affected more and more ordinary people.

Many customers who planned to buy electric fans subconsciously avoided floor fans after seeing the news, especially after the pictures of Cheng Yang Electric Appliance City appeared. On the 21st, a large number of customers came to the entrance of Cheng Yang Electric Appliance City in Jinzhou for after-sales service. The store manager and employees tried to suppress the matter, but as the crowd grew, the matter could not be suppressed at all. On that day, the sales of Cheng Yang Electric Appliance City in Jinzhou were zero.

The most outrageous thing is that the matter was reported to headquarters on the evening of the 21st. Yang Xun didn't find out about it until the morning of the 22nd. He was still in a daze when he learned that such a big thing had happened at Cheng Yang Electric Appliances.

On that day, with the publication of the article in the Anyun Provincial Daily, the situation quickly began to spiral out of control and spread to surrounding cities.

Yang Xun jumped up almost instantly, not bothering to put on a suit, he just threw on a jacket and bought a copy of the An Yun Daily from a roadside vendor. When he saw the report, he broke out in a cold sweat.

After quickly going through the whole situation in his mind, he ran to the warehouse almost immediately, pointed to the packaged floor fan, and told people to unpack it quickly.

He's been in the electric fan industry for several years now, since he first arrived in Licheng. To save costs, he even personally carried electric fans to the countryside to sell them, so he knows the structure of electric fans like the back of his hand.

Seeing the electric fan disassembled by the workers, Yang Xun stepped forward and examined it closely. As he looked, the veins on his forehead bulged. He kicked the standing fan to the ground, then picked up the fan handle and slammed it hard onto the warehouse's cement floor. The standing fan instantly separated. He bent down and carefully examined the fan blades and internal structure. As soon as he saw it, he felt dizzy and the world spun around him. At that moment, only one thought came to his mind: It's over.

He calmed himself down a bit, and amidst the trembling eyes of the many workers, he directed them to continue dismantling. They immediately removed ten floor fans from the warehouse and instructed the workers to disassemble all the fans, along with all their components, including the copper wires and motors.

After a series of operations, the ten floor fans were neatly dismantled and all the parts were neatly placed on the cement floor of the warehouse. The warehouse workers looked at the truck waiting at the door and finally couldn't help but ask Yang Xun a question.

"Manager Yang, should we continue loading? The driver is urging us to hurry up!"

Yang Xun's eyes were bloodshot. He looked coldly at the worker who was asking the question, and finally gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence: "Everyone in the warehouse is given three days off. This is my order, execute it now!"

Upon hearing the order, all the warehouse workers looked at each other in disbelief. This surprise came too suddenly, and no one could believe it. After all, it had been almost the end of August since May, and they had been working hard for several months without a break. Now, suddenly, they were given three days off. How could they not be surprised?

These workers had no idea what Yang Xun was up to; they were just doing their jobs for money. Soon, everyone dispersed, and Yang Xun stood alone in the warehouse for a long time until his secretary came to ask why the warehouse was closed for the holiday. Yang Xun did not answer the secretary's question but said wearily.

"Have all the management from headquarters come to the warehouse. I'll be here for a meeting in half an hour. Also, have someone take control of the quality control manager. I'll make the arrangements later."

After saying that, Yang Xun quickened his pace and walked towards his office, leaving his secretary behind with a solemn expression.

When Yang Xun arrived at his office, he took several deep breaths before picking up the phone. His fingers trembled slightly, but he forced himself to overcome his fear and dialed a number.

The call was answered after a long pause, and a middle-aged man's voice came through.

"This is the secretary's office. I am Chen Liang."

Yang Xun mustered his courage and finally spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Secretary Chen, this is Yang Xun. Please contact Boss Zhang for me and tell him that something has happened at Cheng Yang Electric Appliances. Please ask him to contact me as soon as possible."

After a while, the person on the other end spoke slowly.

"I see!"

After saying that, he hung up the phone, leaving Yang Xun with a livid face. He put down the phone, took several deep breaths, and then dialed the number again.

At that moment, Lei Dongbao, also in Jiangcheng, was holding half a watermelon and eating it with gusto, his mouth full of juice. Seeing the bright red watermelon flesh in his hand, Lei Dongbao said to the managers next to him with satisfaction.

"These melons are great! Let's buy 20,000 jin and send them to the cafeteria so the staff can have a taste!"

The head of the logistics department nodded and bowed in agreement. Lei Dongbao then smiled and told the other party to leave. Thirty years later, the housing price in Jiangcheng would be 30,000 to 40,000 yuan per square meter. In those days, every household in Jiangcheng would become a multi-millionaire thanks to the demolition compensation. Their lives would be better than 99% of the people in the country.

At that time, the local farmers were barely able to feed themselves. Fishing and growing melons became the survival skills of many local farmers. The local watermelons could not be sold for a good price, only two or three cents a pound.

Back when it was still Jiangcheng Hardware Factory, there were many watermelon farmers selling their watermelons at the factory gate. In recent years, after it became Jiangcheng Electrical Appliance Factory, the business has become more profitable, and there are even more watermelon farmers selling their watermelons. Lei Dongbao is not a stingy person; he only spends a few hundred yuan when buying tens of thousands of kilograms of watermelons.

After finishing the watermelon, Lei Dongbao wiped his mouth, looked at the Anhui Provincial Daily on his desk, and smiled smugly. He figured Yang Xun must be sweating profusely with anxiety right now.

However, this incident also served as a warning to him: he had to establish a public relations department. If Jiangcheng Electric were to encounter the same situation again, the public relations department would have to nip such news in the bud. In future business battles, this kind of situation would become commonplace. Cheng Yang Electric's response to this crisis was far too slow; to this day, the other party hadn't even reacted at all.

In Lei Dongbao's view, the company's management was extremely chaotic. Just from the quality of the four electric fans, it was clear that Cheng Yang Electric's quality inspection department was practically non-existent. This situation would never have occurred at Jiangcheng Electric.

The quality inspection department of Jiangcheng Electric Appliances has always been a very important department. All employees in this department must undergo technical training before they can work, and they also have a relatively high level of education.

Lei Dongbao understands very well that quality is the future of a company, and Jiangcheng Electric Appliances has several quality control checkpoints.

The first step is the supplier's self-inspection. The supplier must provide a test report before the goods can be shipped. These are all clearly stipulated in the contract between the two parties. The supplier's self-inspection is only the first hurdle.

The second step, naturally, is random quality inspection by Jiangcheng Electric's own quality control department. If any product fails the random inspection, the warehouse will quickly return the entire batch to the factory, thus cutting off the source of the quality problem. Once the batch arrives at the factory, it will undergo a joint quality inspection by the factory's quality control department and Jiangcheng Electric's quality control department. If more than a certain percentage of defective products are found, then, unfortunately, according to the contract, the factory will bear full responsibility and must compensate Jiangcheng Electric for its losses.

The third checkpoint is to randomly inspect compliant products before they are sold in stores. If customers find quality problems after purchasing and taking the products home, they will return to the store for after-sales service. At this time, the store manager must record each customer's after-sales problem, and these records will be reported to the quality inspection department.

Meanwhile, when customers go to the repair shop for repairs, the repair shop must also report the repair data to the quality inspection department. The quality inspection department will compare and analyze the data every week. If a product's after-sales rate is found to have increased significantly in a certain week, the product being sold in that product must be randomly inspected the following week, and any problems will be reported immediately.

In short, Jiangcheng Electrical Appliances City's approach to any product quality issue is to first remove it from the shelves and seal it, then confirm the quality problem, and finally investigate and hold the responsible party accountable.

Going forward, an additional step will be added: if a problem occurs, the product will be removed from shelves and sealed off immediately, followed by crisis management and accountability measures.

The best way to deal with any problem is to nip it in the bud.

Lei Dongbao was right. Cheng Yang Electric Appliances was in complete chaos. Many managers were confused when they received the meeting notice and rushed to the warehouse, as it was the first time they had ever heard of a meeting being held in a warehouse.

Seeing the fan parts scattered all over the ground, they were even more bewildered. This was the first time they had encountered something like this, and they had no idea what had happened or how to deal with it. They could only wait for Yang Xun to come after he finished his phone call.

The agreed time was half an hour, but Yang Xun took almost an hour to arrive at the warehouse. An hour later, Yang Xun arrived with a grim face. His face was ashen and bloodless. His anger had long since dissipated after the hour-long phone call. He knew that Cheng Yang Electric Appliances was about to face a life-or-death moment!

He had just learned that Anyun Province and Zhijiang Province had held an emergency meeting to discuss how to handle the matter, and the relevant departments had decided to seal off Cheng Yang Electrical Appliance City.

With the publication of this article in the An Yun Daily today, this incident will be completely ignited. Cheng Yang Electric Appliances will also usher in a dark moment. Whether it can see the light again is unknown!

Chapter 100: A New Era is Coming!

Yang Xun stood with his hands on his hips, expressionless, looking at the people in the warehouse, his expression shifting between light and dark.

At this moment, his anger turned into fear and confusion. In just one hour, he contacted all his contacts, including the shareholders, but everyone told him to wait for news and see what happened later.

The only thing I can still vividly recall is the phone call with Young Master Cheng.

On the phone, Cheng Shao told him one thing: if the investigation team eventually enters Cheng Yang Electric Appliances, no matter what they find out, you must take full responsibility and not involve anyone else!

How could Yang Xun not be terrified at this moment?