Summer #27

Don't Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)

Chapter 27

Two weeks later, Feng Chen’s line for the new season enters the market.

It’s a Saturday, the shopping center is packed. Feng Chen’s store is especially crowded with customers. Mu Hanxia is also helping out in the store and at the same time observing and monitoring the sales. At a little past 11 in the morning, the busiest hour at the store, in come two blue-uniformed officials from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce.

“Tell your supervisor to come over.” One of them speaks to a store assistant with a stern face. The store assistant is taken aback and immediately runs to find the manager. Many of the customers nearby stop to watch.

Mu Hanxia happens to be on the first floor. She realizes the unfavorable situation and looks up at the second floor, seeing Lin Mochen has already come downstairs, followed by the store manager.

“Gentlemen, I’ve been expecting you.” He approaches with a smile, “Are you here because you got complaints? I’m the head of the company and have been expecting you for a while.”

The two officials are quite surprised. But they become more polite at seeing the the imposing air of Lin Mochen, and ask with some puzzlement: “You know someone has complained on you?”

“Yes. Please come in with me. Some of the things are in the storage room in the back.”

The store goes back to its usual exuberance; nobody is paying attention to the little interruption any more. Mu Hanxia is a little relieved and follows them into the back.

At the back of the store is a small storage room. Right now, it’s brightly lit. Lin Mochen stands aside calmly with his hands in the pant pockets. The store manager, however, is hovering around the two officials from the bureau, pointing at the piles of fabrics that are still in their original packages and talking like a miserable victim: “Leaders, so glad you are here. We suspected problems when we first received these fabrics, and we didn’t use them even though we might have to suffer a great financial loss. But our company is small and don’t have enough devices for examination. We only found out just now that these fabrics have great problems. They not only don’t meet the quality standards, but are also contaminated...We were just about to report to the Quality Supervision Bureau and then you arrived to resolve the problem for us...”

The two officials also have a surprised expression on their faces. Maybe they didn’t expect such a situation when they came over upon receiving the complaint.

“There are more fabrics in my warehouse.” Lin Mochen says, “I hope you could investigate thoroughly.”

“Our bureau will definitely find out the whole truth.” The older of the two says, “We will have to seal up these fabrics immediately. Also, who supplied them to you and when did they supply? We will need to find out about all the details.”

“Of course.” Lin Mochen replies, “We will try our best to cooperate. Also, may I have a request, about the final disposal of these fabrics?”

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It is well past 10 in the night when Mu Hanxia hears the sound at the next door. Lin Mochen is back. She knows he has been having dinner with the officials from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce. He must have drunk quite much alcohol.

Knowing he’s back, she feels she can go to bed with a peace of mind. But right then she gets a text message from him: “Come over.”

Mu Hanxia doesn’t really want to go, but she still knocks at their door and walks into the master bedroom that he has been living in. The night hangs low outside the curtains. He has removed his suit jacket and is wearing only the shirt, the collar unbuttoned. He is sitting in an armchair, with a weary face and closed eyes.

An appearance that softens one’s heart and makes one difficult to dislike.

Mu Hanxia walks up to him and sits down beside him. He remains motionless.

“All went well?” She asks.

“Of course.” He raises his eyelids and glances at her.

She smiles a little and says: “Ha, they tried to steal the chicken but instead lost the bait. This time they will have plenty to suffer.” A hint of smile appears at the corner of Lin Mochen’s mouth. He knows that she purposefully says it in such a lively manner, only to cheer him up.

Actually, in such a late night, in his bedroom, he shouldn’t have asked her over. But Lin Mochen drank quite much at the dinner table. Although he’s not drunk, he just wants to see her. At this moment, seeing her smiling by his side with her lively eyes, he wants so much to reach for her and hold her in his arms. But he manages to hold the impulse back. Instead, he just raises his hand and rests it lightly on her shoulder, asking in a low voice: “There may be a lot of things coming up. Are you afraid?”

His gesture seems casual enough, just like a casual embrace from the boss to a subordinate. But Mu Hanxia feels as if her heart had fallen into the ice cellar, warm and cold at the same time. She tries to smile a little and pleads in her heart, don’t act like this, do not act like this. She quietly gets out from his hand and says with a calm face: “What to be afraid of? Aren’t we going to take the greatest profit of the whole apparel industry?”

The little bit of delusion of Lin Mochen fades away at her words. He completely wakes up. He suddenly smiles and drops his hand, saying: “Yes, you said it right.”

Mu Hanxia gazes at those deep and cold eyes of his but finally can’t bare to look more. She moves her gaze away.

“Besides Xie Lin, who else is behind this?” she asks.

“One person? Or two?” Lin Mochen replies with a light tone, “We enter Lin City and the great southwest region, taking away so many profits. Naturally we have established new enemies. In the upward path, there must be some step stones. If we must stamp on them, we must stamp them to the very bottom of the valley.”

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It’s a very windy deep night. Xie Lin, the general manager of KaiDa Trading Company, is sitting at his desk with a very unhappy face. He is reading a newspaper, the most circulated evening paper of Lin City. The headline news is “Feng Chen Publicly Burns Five Ton Problematic Fabrics, Establishing New Quality Principles of the Industry.” Apparently the journalist has been paid to give a very favorable report about how this afternoon Feng Chen company held a grand news conference, severely criticizing the manufacturers who provided these problematic fabrics. They also invited the leaders from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce to attend the conference. In the end, Lin Mochen and the leaders ignited the fabrics together to show their insistence on safe guarding product quality. Because of this, the stores of Feng Chen have gained great trust from the residents across the whole city...

The “problematic manufacturers” in the report, needless to say, are the several factories of his. After reading the news, Xie Lin just feels as if a big lump of blood is blocking his heart. He rips the paper to pieces and throws them into the garbage can.

His deputy is also sitting by the desk. He sighs to himself at the sight of it and says, “Chief Xie, we didn’t think it would develop into such a situation. When that batch of fabrics were sent over, they didn’t say a word. We all thought he was tricked. Who knows he made such a move! Initially we used a shell company to supply him with the products, so that we could come out clean if something happens. Who knows he secretly found out the relationship between these companies and provided evidence to the Bureau. Now the Bureau shut down a few factories of ours, but Lin Mochen benefits from the whole thing and made a marketing show out of it! He becomes the Businessman with Conscience! But Chief Xie, those people... didn’t they say something? Can’t they give us some help?”

Xie Lin says hatefully, “What help? Now the factories have already been shut down, how can that be helped? Hmm, Lin Mochen is really ruthless, leaving no room behind himself. He really thinks I’m useless in Lin City? He won’t let me have comfort, and I won’t let him have comfort either!”