Chapter 261: Chapter 223: Zheng Shengyu Steps In to Mediate, Pinbei Employees Arrested
That afternoon, when Chen Yansen learned that Fan Junyan had already rushed to Hang City, he merely gave a slight nod, saying nothing more.
The operations of Pinbei and Orange Technology had long since gotten on track. Their management systems were mature and stable, so even without his intervention, the two companies could maintain their positive growth momentum.
However, as Pinbei’s performance grew explosively, its cooperative relationship with Jingdong had gradually become delicate.
Liu Qiangdong discovered that most of Jingdong’s Key Account (KA) suppliers had flocked to Pinbei to set up shop.
On the surface, this didn’t seem like a problem. But 3C electronics and large home appliances were categories with extremely low repurchase rates. For every extra unit Pinbei sold, Jingdong sold one less.
If this continued long-term, Jingdong’s business moat was at risk of being breached.
But the two platforms had just passed their three-month honeymoon period, and Pinbei was contributing over one billion in sales to Jingdong every month. On top of that, Zhang Jindong was eyeing him like a tiger stalking its prey.
For the time being, Liu Qiangdong really didn’t want to have a falling out with Chen Yansen.
Otherwise, if Pinbei threw its full support behind Sunning, it would be two against one, and he’d genuinely be a little panicked.
Plus, he was in the middle of preparing for Jingdong’s 618 e-commerce festival and was planning a surprise attack on Sunning and Gome. Naturally, he didn’t want to make more enemies, so he forcibly suppressed his dissatisfaction.
Chen Yansen wasn’t aware of Liu Qiangdong’s thoughts. Pinbei’s current business focus was still on fast-moving consumer goods. Excluding Orange Technology, the remaining 3C electronics and large home appliances accounted for less than 5% of its sales.
So even if he had known, he wouldn’t have given it much thought.
Around five o’clock, Xiong Li from Pinbei’s HR department urgently sent over an investigation file and asked for his opinion. "Boss, how should we handle these two?"
Lin Jiaming from the Food Group’s Investment Attraction team, and Zhou Yang from the Category Department’s Operations team. One had access to merchant resources, while the other controlled the product sorting permissions on the secondary category pages.
Between December 2011 and February 2012, they had collected a total of 1.93 million in ’slotting fees’ from merchants. They were only discovered by the risk control department after an anonymous tip-off.
Chen Yansen opened the investigation file. It detailed Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang’s money-making scheme, including the specific amounts of every bank transfer.
They’d raked in nearly 2 million in just two months.
’If we hadn’t adjusted the rules for the Ten Billion Subsidy this month and centralized control over resource slots and product adjustments under the campaign operations department, we probably would never have found out.’
Chen Yansen chuckled and muttered to himself.
In his past life, he’d relied on a similar method to earn his first round of startup capital, but his technique was far more sophisticated than Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang’s.
Simply put, Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang had used their control over product sorting on secondary category pages to drive traffic to bribing merchants, and they also charged ’line-jumping fees’ for the Ten Billion Subsidy program.
The Ten Billion Subsidy channel had massive traffic, high sales conversions, and a huge number of applicants. Many merchants who applied were left waiting a long time for their review results.
Whenever they inquired, the answer was always that there were too many products and they had to wait in line.
There were plenty of shrewd operators among the merchants, who figured things out for themselves. ’If there’s a line, that must mean you can cut in. Worst case, you just have to pay for it.’
As long as their products made it into the Ten Billion Subsidy channel, they were guaranteed at least 200,000 in daily sales. To a merchant, compared to that potential revenue, forking over eighty or a hundred thousand was nothing.
Lin Jiaming and his partner just had bad luck. They happened to be doing this right when the Ten Billion Subsidy program raised its requirement for average daily sales per slot from 200,000 to 300,000.
There was one instant noodle factory whose sales were hovering right at the 200,000-yuan passing mark.
Once the policy changed, the factory’s product no longer qualified for the Ten Billion Subsidy program.
But the factory owner didn’t see it that way. He felt that since Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang had taken his money, they had to deliver. Otherwise, had he just given them a hundred thousand for nothing?
But Zhou Yang’s permissions had been revoked. The two sides argued until they had a complete falling out.
Thus, the identity of the anonymous informant was worth mulling over.
In any case, it couldn’t have been the merchant involved. If they reported Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang, they’d end up in prison right alongside them, making license plates.
That left only two possibilities: either a Pinbei employee reported them, or a competitor did.
"Call the police," Chen Yansen decided after a moment’s thought. "Handle it according to company regulations. Hand the list of involved merchants over to the Inspection Institute."
If he let Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang off the hook, every investment attraction and operations employee would start thinking they could get away with it too. ’I’ll just skim a little first. The big boss won’t come after me anyway.’
Over time, even those who held to their principles would be swept up in it, creating a vicious cycle where the corrupt drive out the honest.
"Understood, Boss. I’ll notify the legal department immediately," Xiong Li replied.
After hanging up, Chen Yansen sent a message to Chen Peng, the director of the risk control department: "I want a report on the merchant onboarding process and data auditing rules on my desk tomorrow. If Pinbei employees are taking bribes and we can only find out through anonymous tips, then what do I even need a risk control department for?"
"Yes, Boss."
Elsewhere, Chen Peng’s face turned ashen when he received the message. He wanted nothing more than to kick Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang to death.
He knew in his heart that his Q1 bonus was now in jeopardy.
While unreasonable authority over resource allocation was a contributing factor, the risk control department’s utter failure to notice was also inexcusable.
Chen Peng gathered his team and headed into a conference room.
「Meanwhile.」
The Inspection Institute in Xuyuan City District received a call from the Pinbei Company’s legal department. Had it been any other company, they might not have given it much thought.
But this was Pinbei!
It was a subsidiary of Senlian Capital and was on Xu Zhenhui’s personal radar!
And the amount involved was as high as two million!
Before long, a convoy of three cars from the Inspection Institute drove into Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.
At that moment, Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang were still at their desks, communicating with merchants about onboarding and the details required to apply for the Ten Billion Subsidy program, such as discount levels and inventory.
Just then, a dozen uniformed Inspectors holding up their badges walked into the Merchant Operations Department’s office area and asked loudly, "Who is Lin Jiaming? And who is Zhou Yang? Please come with us."
Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Chen Xu, and the others exchanged confused glances, having no idea what was going on.
"Don’t tell me they got caught soliciting prostitutes together?"
Li Hui muttered under his breath.
"Probably not," Zhang Yifeng shook his head. "If you get caught for that, it’s usually just a phone summons and a five-thousand-yuan fine."
Yuan Wei and Chen Xu exchanged a look, then narrowed their eyes. "You seem to know a lot about this, Yifeng."
"I just saw it online, don’t get the wrong idea." Zhang Yifeng, in a rare moment, blushed and quickly defended himself.
"Oh, is that right?" Chen Xu said with a teasing grin.
When Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang saw the Inspectors and heard only their names being called, they immediately began to tremble like leaves in the wind.
Cold sweat instantly soaked through their shirts, and their eyes were filled with unconcealable panic.
The joy they had felt each time they took money instantly morphed into endless terror.
The lead Inspector gave a faint smile. Following the gazes of the crowd, he walked over to Lin Jiaming and asked in a low, serious voice, "Are you Lin Jiaming or Zhou Yang?"
"Lin... Jia... ming," Lin Jiaming stammered, his teeth chattering.
"You are suspected of accepting bribes of a significant amount. In accordance with the law, you are now under arrest. Come with us."
The Inspector announced flatly.
’Bribery?’
The moment he said it, the entire Merchant Operations Department erupted.
"They took bribes? From the merchants?" Yuan Wei said, shocked.
"A ’significant amount’... that’s three to ten years. Fuck! How much did they actually take?" Li Hui shot to his feet, absolutely stunned.
Zhang Yifeng gave Yuan Wei and Li Hui a profound look. The three of them had been top performers in Investment Attraction, and it was no exaggeration to say they’d been approached by at least eighty, if not a hundred, merchants trying to bribe them.
But their salaries at the time were quite good, so they hadn’t dared to accept a single cent. They even proactively reported any gifts worth more than 100 yuan to the company.
’A minimum of three years, a maximum of ten!’
After Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang were led away by the Inspectors, the rest of the Merchant Operations staff finally snapped out of their daze. Many who had entertained similar ideas couldn’t help but feel a wave of retrospective fear.
Skimming money was all fun and games, but after witnessing the severe consequences firsthand, everyone fell silent.
You might live to take the money, but you won’t be free to spend it.
"I think Lin Jiaming’s wedding was set for the May Day holiday."
Someone in the crowd said abruptly.
"Girlfriend? By the time he gets out, she’ll have someone else’s kids."
Another person sneered, twisting the knife.
"If you ask me, they deserved it! The company pays us well—base salary, housing allowance, meal stipend, transportation stipend, and quarterly bonuses. How could they do this to President Chen?"
Li Hui cursed.
The people around him heard this and quickly chimed in with their agreement.
That night, this was the topic of discussion in every major department at Pinbei.
The sight of Inspectors coming to the office to make an arrest was a harsh deterrent for many.
...
...
「Xuyuan. On a stone bench beside Liu Xi.」
Song Yuncheng sat quietly to one side, a bag of beers and snacks in her hand, her eyes fixed on Chen Yansen.
"Are you okay?" Song Yuncheng asked, concerned.
She had already heard that Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang had teamed up to embezzle two million.
In her eyes, Chen Yansen treated his employees so well. For his own staff in investment attraction and category operations to dare to frantically line their pockets behind his back... as their boss, he must be in a terrible mood.
"What could be wrong with me? I just called you out here to get some air with me."
Chen Yansen shrugged. He wasn’t about to let the business with Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang get to him.
’As someone who’s been there, done that,’ he thought, recalling his own history of skimming money, ’I only regret that I skimmed too little back then. It’s why my initial equity stake in Feiyu Technology was so low. After a few rounds of financing, I was left with just 28%.’
’If I could do it all over again, I’d skim as much as I possibly could!’
"But it’s cold out here," Song Yuncheng said, pulling her neck into her collar. She saw Chen Yansen was only wearing a turtleneck and a suit jacket and complained inwardly, ’This guy is really immune to the cold.’
"Then let’s go home."
Chen Yansen said with a sly grin.
’Home?’
Song Yuncheng quickly understood. He meant his apartment, 0418. She put down the beer and snacks and waved her hand dismissively. "No way I’m going there."
She was mainly afraid of Meng Jie seeing her there.
"Oh, right. Come with me on a business trip to Hu City tomorrow," Chen Yansen called out, turning around to face her.
"More food deliveries?" Song Yuncheng stopped and asked with a light laugh.
Chen Yansen just smiled without saying a word.
This business trip didn’t have much to do with Kuai Pao. The main reason was that the four bosses of the "Three Passes and One Reach" group had pulled a stunt, forcing Zheng Shengyu of the Postal Association to intervene.
He was taking the lead to organize a small-scale conference for the express delivery industry in Hu City.
The core objective was to call a halt to the courier war between the Three Passes and One Reach and Clound Speed!
「The next morning.」
Xiaoli drove, speeding toward Hu City with Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng as passengers.
Old Gao was swamped with handling the Gaode Map acquisition and simply couldn’t get away, so he wasn’t brought along on this trip.
They stopped for a short break when passing through Jinling. By the time Chen Yansen’s car arrived in Hu City, the sky outside the window had grown completely dark.
"Let’s go to the Kuai Pao Headquarters first. 200 Longcao Road."
After leaving the highway toll booth, Chen Yansen instructed Xiaoli.
Xiaoli nodded, entered the destination into Gaode Map, and drove on.
