"Sorry, there will only be two chapters tomorrow. I had quite a few unexpected things happen today and just got home. I don't have the energy to write anymore."
"Chairman, the situation has been thoroughly investigated. In Fuyang, a total of 13 infant patients have been found. They all suffer from the same malnutrition, and three of them have unfortunately passed away."
"Furthermore, medical personnel estimate that the patients are predominantly infants from rural and impoverished areas. Therefore, it is highly probable that many more affected infants are still in the countryside, not seeking medical treatment."
"There's even a possibility that some infants have already died and been buried by their parents!" Hu Jing looked at the report in her hands, feeling a sense of profound shock.
Last night, when Huang He had asked Hu Jing to investigate these matters, she had initially dismissed it, thinking it was likely isolated incidents concerning individual children.
However, upon seeing the detailed investigation results before her, the reality was shockingly grim. So many infants exhibiting the same symptoms in such a short period, and concentrated in almost the same region, indicated a severe problem.
"Has the cause of the illness been identified?" Huang He asked.
"Doctors only stated the cause as malnutrition; the specific etiology has not been found. It could be regional food poisoning, or it might be counterfeit or shoddy products. Based on the limited information we currently possess, we can only infer that this issue is likely related to..."
"It's the milk powder, isn't it!" Huang He asked indifferently.
"How did you know?" Hu Jing asked in surprise.
"It's simple. Malnutrition means the nutrients in food are insufficient. These infants are almost all one year old or younger. What else could they possibly eat besides milk powder?"
"If they were breastfed, malnutrition wouldn't occur. Therefore, it's only possible that the milk powder they consumed lacked sufficient nutrition, leading to such widespread malnutrition!" Huang He sighed, "In fact, I should have thought of this sooner."
"Boss, you don't need to blame yourself. This has nothing to do with us. We couldn't possibly have known such a terrible thing would happen!" Hu Jing comforted him.
"No, we actually noticed it quite some time ago. Do you recall when you first reported to me about the Gouhuasuan platform over a month ago? Through which intelligence did the secretariat discover that Gouhuasuan was poaching stores from our mall?" Huang He countered.
"I remember. It seemed to be related to milk powder sales. Wait, it seems like this milk powder is from Fuyang!" Hu Jing's eyes widened. Only then did she realize that their own company had paid attention to the Fuyang milk powder issue long ago, but she hadn't taken it seriously, letting it slip by. She never expected her boss to remember it so clearly.
"Go to the secretariat now and check the archives for all information regarding Fuyang milk powder. Also, focus on the sales of Fuyang milk powder on the Gouhuasuan platform. I hope they haven't caused any dire consequences!" Huang He sighed.
"Yes!" Hu Jing hurried off. Half an hour later, she returned, sweating profusely.
"What's the situation?" Huang He asked.
"Our Jiangnan E-commerce Platform has a total of 9 online stores from the Fuyang region selling milk powder. To date, these 9 stores have sold a total of 232 orders on our Jiangnan Mall platform. On September 27th and October 8th, we received complaints from two consumers regarding one store, stating that the milk powder they purchased had an unusual taste and they suspected it was expired product."
"We communicated with the merchant, and they readily agreed to returns and refunds on both occasions. This aroused suspicion among our relevant management personnel. They believed the milk powder produced by this store was priced about 20% lower than similar milk powders, and they suspected they were selling near-expired products. They then notified this store, suspending their milk powder sales, and prepared to dispatch staff to inspect their business premises to confirm the quality of the milk powder."
"However, shortly after, the Gouhuasuan incident occurred, and this store directly closed down. We therefore did not continue the investigation. Later, three of the nine Fuyang region stores also subsequently closed, and the remaining six became inactive. They have likely all moved to the Gouhuasuan mall." Hu Jing reported.
"What about the 232 orders that were sold?" Huang He pressed further.
"Out of these 232 orders, only two were complaints. The other 230 orders did not receive any abnormal reports; they were all confirmed as received normally. The praise rate was as high as 98%, with the remaining 2% being neutral reviews, and no negative reviews. All the positive reviews praised the low prices of these milk powders."
"These 230 orders are distributed across 16 different provinces and autonomous regions nationwide. Among them, 138 orders are concentrated in a specific city, and the users' positive reviews are highly similar. We suspect this is a case of inflated sales."
"The remaining 92 orders are still being processed!" Hu Jing said.
"What about the situation with the Gouhuasuan platform?" Huang He continued to ask.
"The Gouhuasuan platform situation is much worse!" Hu Jing's sweat beads increased instantly. "The Gouhuasuan platform has not yet reopened. All their orders are based on pre-merger orders. Among them, there are a total of 17 milk powder merchants located in the Fuyang region, all of whom opened in October."
"Their milk powder prices are extremely low. On Jiangnan Mall, they were already 20% cheaper than comparable milk powders. On the Gouhuasuan mall, even without considering subsidies, their prices are 40% cheaper than normal comparable milk powders. When subsidies are included, they can be over half price."
"This has led to astonishing sales for these stores. To date, a total of 9,738 orders have been sold, totaling 33,272 units of milk powder."
"Among these, 5,889 orders have not yet been shipped, and 1,231 orders have been confirmed as received. The rest are likely still in transit."
"These orders are distributed very evenly across all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions nationwide, except for Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. This does not appear to be a case of inflated sales; they should all be genuine customer purchases!"
"Good!" Huang He nodded and took a deep breath. "Listen, first, do not act against any of these stores. Instead, collect information on all these stores discreetly. Simultaneously, under the guise of a post-merger customer survey, investigate these stores. It would be best to obtain the identity and address information of all store owners and to identify the factories that supply this milk powder."
"You only need to gather intelligence; do not take any further action. Leave the professional tasks to the professionals!"
"Yes!" Hu Jing nodded.
"Also, send a team to Fuyang immediately to communicate with the parents of the affected infants. Obtain samples of all the milk powder consumed by these infants, and tell their parents not to discard the used milk powder, but to preserve it."
"Additionally, immediately intercept the milk powder that is currently in transit, and conduct inspections on all milk powder to confirm whether it has quality issues."
"Handle these matters first. Speed is crucial, and do not alert them. I need the results within three days!" Huang He said.
Hu Jing nodded and went to carry out the tasks, while Huang He composed himself. In his previous life, these things were merely news he read in the papers. At that time, he was just an ordinary student, and it was only several months after the events that he learned such things had happened in the world.
But who could have imagined the immense impact this event would have on the entire country?
This incident, along with another milk powder scandal in 2008, instilled fear and distrust in the Chinese public towards domestic milk powder. Consequently, foreign milk powder became rampant in China, with parents who had the means going to great lengths to purchase imported milk powder for their children.
This event completely ruined the entire domestic milk powder industry. It also allowed certain companies to profit from the chaos, further altering the ecosystem of the milk powder industry, destroying the fresh milk and formula milk powder sectors, and instead promoting their nutrient-poor, sterilized milk.
Even as of 2021, the entire Chinese milk powder industry had not successfully recovered.
Conversely, foreign milk powder brands not only reaped enormous profits but also, while making money from Chinese consumers, arrogantly prevented Chinese people from purchasing their milk powder, safeguarding it for their own citizens.
Truly a case of hypocrisy that was disgusting.
Foreign milk powder was one thing, but even more exaggerated was the fact that many domestically produced milk powders were sent abroad, branded with foreign packaging and text, and placed on shelves.
They were then resold as foreign milk powder and re-imported into China, a phenomenon quite similar to the Japanese smart toilets and rice cookers.
Of course, Boss Huang had no interest in venturing into the milk powder industry. He simply felt sorry for future Chinese consumers who would be subjected to such hardships by milk companies and would still be unable to drink a bottle of safe milk.
A few days later, Hu Jing's investigation results were released. As Huang He had suspected, these milk powders from Fuyang were essentially substandard.
Or rather, these were not milk powders at all. They were made by using starch, sucrose, and other low-cost food ingredients to partially or completely replace milk powder, then using milk flavoring and other additives for aroma and taste to create inferior milk powder. The protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals essential for infant growth and development were far below national standards.
Consuming these milk powders directly resulted in severe malnutrition, leading to stunted development and weakened immunity in infants, and in severe cases, death.
At this point, Huang He could no longer stand by. He decisively reported the matter to the police. Then, in an announcement on the mall, he directly posted a notice stating that while clearing and inspecting Gouhuasuan's order business, Jiangnan Mall had discovered a large quantity of problematic milk powder, which was counterfeit and potentially caused severe harm.
Jiangnan Mall had reported the incident to the police and announced a recall of all milk powder sold by a total of 26 online stores across the following two platforms. If consumers had purchased milk powder from other stores and were suspicious of its quality, as long as the milk powder was unopened, they could receive a full refund.
For milk powder that had already been used, it could be taken to any local Jiangnan Blind Box store. Staff would collect it for testing. Upon discovery of any counterfeit or shoddy products, consumers would receive threefold compensation for their losses according to regulations.
This announcement caused a sensation worldwide!