Feeling the strange glances from those around her, Jiang Yuning's face instantly turned ashen.
"You look unwell. Is it guilt, or are you ashamed of lacking basic decency and morals compared to everyone else? I really don't understand who gave you the confidence to come here and spout such nonsense. It's one thing to have an unremarkable appearance, but to have such a low level of moral awareness... Besides a decent job, at your age, even if you have no shame, you should consider everyone else's feelings."
"Knowing that the other person is married and has clearly rejected you, yet you refuse to give up. Is it your upbringing or your inherent character?"
"I truly can't believe that at such a young age, you'd do something so scandalous. Humph! In the past, people like you would have been paraded through the streets!" exclaimed a woman indignantly.
Another woman, still fuming, chimed in, "Which unit is she from? We should report her and put up a big-character poster!"
"Let's go, Mom and Dad must be hungry. I specifically asked Sister Xiao Yue to make the pork rib soup." Ignoring Jiang Yuning, who looked as though she might collapse at any moment, Chen Lishu took Gu Xingdong's hand and turned to go upstairs.
...
"Ding Chen, you're here just in time. This is all the rebar that came in today. The workers don't need much more, and they're waiting for your secondary inspection."
Chen Lishu and Gu Xingdong attached great importance to quality. The testing equipment had also been purchased long ago. All rebar delivered to the site had to undergo batch testing before it could be used.
"Okay, Liu Yang and I will do the tests now." With that, the two began to take samples for experimentation.
"Ding Chen, look!"
Liu Yang glanced at the values displayed on the machine and then at the fractured cross-section of the rebar. His expression immediately became solemn.
Ding Chen's face was also not good. He pushed up the glasses on his nose and quickly went to another pile of rebar outside to take another sample.
After conducting the experiment again, the two found similar results. Thinking of a possibility, they hurried out to conduct sampling tests on every pile of rebar.
"This..." Liu Yang looked at the recorded values in his notebook, somewhat dazed, and looked at Ding Chen.
"Inform Lin Qi as soon as possible, and also notify Third Brother!" Ding Chen said, running out quickly.
At that time, Gu Xingdong had just returned home from the hospital. Upon hearing the news, he immediately rushed to the construction site.
"It wasn't very clear on the phone. What exactly happened?"
Lin Qi was sitting on a small mountain of rebar with his head bowed. Hearing his question, he looked up and said with difficulty, "Brother-in-law, we've been cheated..."
It turned out that after Ding Chen and Liu Yang's tests, they discovered that all eleven trucks of rebar delivered that morning were substandard, their quality not meeting the standards for construction rebar.
Gu Xingdong's gaze fell on the rebar in front of him, and he pursed his lips. "Have all of them been checked?"
Ding Chen: "Liu Yang and I have checked them all. The quality is far below that of the same diameter rebar we used before."
"The Zhu fellow is simply detestable! The samples delivered before were good, but now..." Lin Qi regretfully hit his own head. "If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get the goods, I wouldn't have been deceived, and the company wouldn't have suffered such a huge loss!"
Nearly a hundred tons of rebar, over ninety thousand yuan!
"This is not your fault," Gu Xingdong said, stepping forward and patting his shoulder. "The final decision was mine, and I signed the contract."
"But..."
"That's enough," Gu Xingdong straightened up. "Since it has already happened, self-pity here is useless. Let's think about how to resolve it."
...
Liu Qiang was a reporter responsible for the public livelihood column. His unit didn't attach much importance to him, but all the dirty and tiring work was assigned to him. He was exhausted like a dog every day. Although he harbored grievances, without any sensational news, he wasn't valued.
He had just covered a story in an outer county, and after rushing to submit it in the morning, he was assigned an interview in the western part of the city in the afternoon.
From the east side to the west side, relying solely on his bicycle, by the time he got there, he would have missed dinner. So, he decided to take the bus.
His reimbursement limit for the month was already reached, so he had to pay out of his own pocket. Thinking about it made him feel a bit dejected.
"You're Reporter Liu, aren't you?"
As soon as he reached the bus stop, a middle-aged man approached him.
"Yes, I am. Do you need something?" His mood was bad, and his tone was a bit sharp.
The other person, however, was unperturbed. "I have a big news lead right now. I wonder if you're interested?"
"Not interested. You should find someone else." Thinking it was just some trivial matter, and seeing the bus approaching, Liu Qiang was about to move towards it.
"If I told you that someone at a construction site is using substandard rebar, do you think that's big enough?"
Liu Qiang immediately stopped in his tracks.
...
"Brother Dong, we're short on rebar right now. Why don't we just use a bit more than the original amount? There's still bricks and cement outside, so there shouldn't be any problems." Liu Yang suggested hesitantly when no one else spoke.
Since they had sold them substandard rebar, and so much time had passed, it was uncertain if they could still find the seller. They couldn't just throw away goods worth over ninety thousand yuan, could they?
"No!" Gu Xingdong's attitude was extremely firm.
"Do you know how much a square meter of this building costs? A house might be a family's lifetime savings. If we can't guarantee the quality, do you know how many people we'll harm?"
Liu Yang lowered his head in shame.
Ding Chen looked up. "Third Brother, the rebar currently being used on the site will likely not last more than two or three days. If this batch cannot be used, and there's a shortage of steel in the provincial capital, it's unlikely we'll be able to buy any in a short period. What will we do then?"
Gu Xingdong's dark eyes deepened. "Then we stop construction!" He would never do anything to deceive people.
Everyone fell silent again.
"Ding Chen, go and call Wang Kuo over. I have something to arrange."
Ding Chen turned and left without a word. Not long after, he returned, with Wang Kuo following behind him, striding towards them with a dragging gait.
"Boss, you called me?"
Gu Xingdong nodded and said with a serious expression, "I have a task for you. You must guard this area for the next two days and absolutely do not allow anyone to move this rebar privately."
After instructing Wang Kuo, he turned to Lin Qi. "Go and contact scrap metal recycling stations. One might not be able to handle this much, so contact several. This batch of rebar must not remain at the construction site or go out into the market. It must be destroyed as soon as possible."
After hearing his words, everyone present was shocked. "You want to sell it as scrap metal?"
Lin Qi: "Brother-in-law, for a whole ninety thousand yuan worth of steel, if we really sell it as scrap, we might not even get back a tenth of the price."
"Yes, Brother-in-law. Why don't we think of other ways? Perhaps selling it at a low price might at least recoup some money."
Gu Xingdong took out a cigarette, lit it, and after a deep drag, he said, "We cannot let others suffer the same loss we have experienced. If this batch of rebar enters the market, the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, not only must it be sold as scrap, but we must also inform the authorities to supervise it properly. I will personally speak to Secretary Li about this shortly."
Without rebar, the construction period would inevitably be delayed, and Secretary Li would also have to be reminded to inform other construction companies.