allonlinenovel Chapter 459 The End of the Fantasy
Chapter 459 The End of the Fantasy
The case filing notice was delivered to the headquarters of Yixiang Group at 9:00 a.m.
Two police officers from the Economic Crime Investigation Division arrived but were stopped by security guards at the entrance for five minutes. When the guards called upstairs, Liu Chuanzhi was in a meeting with several vice presidents. He answered Xiao Zhou's call, paused for a moment, and said, "Let them come up."
Two police officers entered the elevator. People peered into the corridor, but were called back by their respective supervisors.
Liu Chuanzhi stood in his office waiting for them. The water in the teacup on the table was still steaming, and a line of text was half-written on the open notebook next to him—"Several opinions on the adjustment of the supply chain in South China."
"Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, according to the police investigation, you are suspected of organizing commercial espionage activities and stealing trade secrets." The police officer placed the case filing notice on the table. "Please cooperate with the investigation."
Liu Chuanzhi didn't look at the notification. He screwed the pen cap back on and placed it next to his notebook.
"Let's go."
As he walked down the corridor, no one stood up in either of the cubicles. Some people were staring at their screens, their fingers hovering over the keyboard. Others were pretending to answer the phone, the receiver beeping with a busy tone.
The elevator doors opened, and Liu Chuanzhi stepped inside. Two policemen stood on either side of him.
Before the door closed, he heard someone outside smash a cup.
A group of reporters had already gathered outside the main entrance downstairs. Someone must have leaked the information; a row of cameras and microphones were set up. Photos of Liu Chuanzhi being taken away in a police car made the front page of major financial websites that afternoon.
At 2 PM, Yixiang Group held an emergency board meeting.
The meeting was chaired by Zhou Dechang, a long-time shareholder. He had been with Yixiang for fifteen years, never vying for power or influence, and always sat in a corner at board meetings, rarely speaking.
But today he sat right in the middle.
"Liu Chuanzhi is under investigation." Zhou Dechang took off his reading glasses. "According to the company's articles of association, he is no longer suitable to serve as chairman and CEO. I propose that Liu Chuanzhi be removed from all his positions immediately."
No one in the meeting room objected.
Several people were drinking water with their heads down, and the sound of the cup lid hitting the rim of the cup was particularly jarring.
"agree."
"agree."
"agree."
The vote took only half a minute.
Zhou Dechang slowly put his reading glasses into their case. "There's something else—we received word from the South China Electronic Commerce Association that Liu Chuanzhi's relative, Liu Zhenxiong, is also involved. The police are already investigating the South China Electronic Commerce Association's previous harassment of the Xinghuo brand store."
No one responded.
"A little over a month ago, Liu Chuanzhi slammed his fist on the table at the board meeting, saying that Xinghuo couldn't turn things around." Zhou Dechang stood up. "Now, Xinghuo's StarPhone pre-orders have exceeded 500,000 units, and our stock has fallen for two consecutive weeks. Those screens and cameras he leveraged to hoard are still piling up in the warehouse."
The sky outside the window was a hazy gray. The air conditioner vent in the conference room was broken, making a buzzing sound.
"Old Zhou, what should we do?" someone asked.
Zhou Dechang walked to the window. "First, clear out all the stock in the warehouse. No matter the price, we'll recover as much as we can. With the stock price plummeting like this, it'll be good enough if we can keep the company alive."
"What about the brand? This incident has blown up so badly, who will dare to cooperate with us in the future?"
Zhou Dechang did not answer.
After the meeting, several people were talking in hushed tones in the corridor.
"What is Liu Chuanzhi thinking? Why not just focus on PCs instead of getting into a deadly battle with someone like Ling Yun?"
"He can't swallow that insult. Back in Jiangsu Province, Xinghuo snatched the bids for six of their computer labs, and things have been off ever since."
"Wasn't it because he made some underhanded moves first and got caught red-handed?"
The two walked away. The water dispenser at the end of the corridor had been broken for several days and hadn't been repaired.
Lingyun saw the news in Jinan.
When Zhao Hu handed over the phone, he and Li Mo were squatting next to a test line, watching the surface mount process of the StarPhone motherboard.
"Arrested?" Ling Yun glanced at the screen.
"Arrested. Two charges: commercial espionage and theft of trade secrets." Zhao Hu put away his phone. "Wang Degui just called to say that the police found Gu Gedeng's bank transfer records at Liu Chuanzhi's house, as well as a statement written by that mole named Liu Jun."
Li Mo, who was squatting on the ground, looked up and asked, "That mole?"
"It's the database administrator we discovered earlier." Ling Yun stood up, brushing the dust off his knees. "He revealed everything he knew in that so-called suicide note."
Li Mo placed the circuit board he was holding on the workbench. "How did you handle it?"
"The legal procedures that needed to be followed have been completed." Ling Yun took off the anti-static wristband.
The three men walked out of the workshop. Several technicians pushed a cart full of motherboards past them in the corridor, the wheels making a clattering sound as they rolled over the seams in the floor.
"There's one thing I just don't understand," Li Mo followed up, "Yixiang is one of the top tech companies in China. Liu Chuanzhi has been running it for so many years, how come he's abandoned all the basic principles of running a business?"
Ling Yun didn't turn around. "If you can't beat them, steal them; if you can't steal them, destroy them. He's not the first, and he won't be the last."
The following morning, Lingyun convened an internal meeting of Xinghuo Group.
There were more than thirty people in the conference room. Two long tables were pushed together, and nothing was placed on them. Zhao Weiguo had flown back from Guangzhou, and Chen Zhongming sat next to him, while Ma Baoguo was scrolling through his phone in the corner.
Ling Yun walked in but did not sit down.
"The case is outlandish, as everyone has seen. I've said some things before in meetings, and I'll repeat them again today." He placed his phone on the table. "Spark has been around for four years now, not through any underhanded methods, but through technology. Chips are designed line by line of code, systems are upgraded night after night of overtime, and phones are assembled piece by piece."
He paused.
"Liu Chuanzhi got to this point not because he wasn't smart enough, but because he was lazy. He was too lazy to spend time on research and development, too lazy to invest in technology. Taking the wrong path might seem fast at first, but it gets narrower and narrower, and eventually leads to a dead end."
The meeting room was quiet. The hum of the printer next door could be heard.
"The lesson from this whimsical approach is right here." Ling Yun picked up his phone. "Your task today isn't to sympathize with them, but to check your own work to see if there's a single area where things are going wrong. If there is, report it, and I won't punish you. But if you don't report it and are caught, that's a different story."
Meeting adjourned.
At 4:30 p.m., the public relations department delivered a public opinion briefing.
The report included an excerpt of reader comments from a financial website. The most popular comment read: "Back when they dreamed of acquiring IBM's PC business, so many people hailed them as the pride of Chinese enterprises. And now? Thieves who stole from others."
Someone next to me wrote three question marks with a pen.
Ling Yun glanced at it and closed the briefing.
"Zhao Hu, have the legal department compile all publicly available documents related to the case and post them on the official website. No need for comments, just present the facts."
"clear."
Lingyun stood up and walked to the window. Jinan's winters are dry and cold, and the last few leaves on the branches had fallen. Downstairs in the park, people were moving newly arrived equipment, wrapped in cotton-padded coats, running in and out. Several people took turns unloading the boxes from the truck and stacking them neatly.
"What do you think Liu Chuanzhi is thinking inside?" Ling Yun suddenly asked.
Zhao Hu stood by the door. "I don't know. They might blame us for being too ruthless."
"He resorted to so many underhanded tricks for six years, from harassing internet cafes to stealing exam papers, from snatching bids to planting moles." Ling Yun turned around. "I never used a single illegal method against him. The law has given him justice, and it has also given us justice."
The following morning at 10:00 AM, Yixiang Group's official website posted a brief announcement: Liu Chuanzhi has resigned from his positions as Chairman and CEO for personal reasons, and the board of directors has approved it. That's all.
Less than five minutes after the announcement, Yixiang's stock price dropped another five points. News came from the marketing department that two European clients who had previously been observing the situation had officially notified them of the termination of their contracts.
That afternoon, someone saw a middle-aged man in a suit sitting on a bench in Shenzhen Bay, lost in thought. Later, he got up and left, leaving behind a briefcase with the Yixiang logo on the bench.
When the cleaning lady finished sweeping at night, she opened the bag and looked inside. There was nothing there except a few expired plane tickets, a well-worn copy of "Win in China," and a team photo where everyone looked quite happy.