The factory was built and production officially began, but Liu Chen's attention was focused on Cui Jian.
However, Cui Jian was a man of patience. It had been over half a month since the contract was signed, and he hadn't made any unnecessary moves. Apart from his apparent pursuit of Gong Na, he appeared to be just like any other employee.
By the end of April, the weather started to become muggy. Liu Chen, on the other hand, had relaxed his pace. Every day, apart from attending classes, he read books. Of course, without the system's one-on-one tutoring, his reading efficiency had slightly decreased, but Liu Chen couldn't help it. It was because his subsequent lottery draws hadn't yielded any tutoring sessions.
However, with May Day approaching, even though it fell on a Saturday and was advertised as a three-day holiday, it was effectively only one day longer than a regular weekend.
But the tour agencies had a different story to tell, with their widespread advertisements for a three-day long weekend, happy local tours, and even three-day trips to nearby countries like South Korea and Japan.
Liu Chen, apart from his trip to Los Angeles, hadn't really traveled abroad in a proper sense. And...
During this period, the 24.3 million yuan he had won from the system's lottery draws was still in his Swiss bank account. He was hesitant to use this card domestically, but abroad? Who would notice a tourist swiping their card?
Moreover, Liu Chen had his own plans.
After all, it wasn't just the housing prices in China that had soared later on. Which of the neighboring countries had stable housing prices?
In the years after his transmigration, South Korea would repeatedly announce measures to curb housing prices, but what was the result? Policies came one after another, and housing prices continued to rise.
Therefore, Liu Chen decided to take everyone to South Korea during this May Day holiday, and while he was there, explore the possibility of selling their Meimei Ginseng functional drinks in South Korea.
Liu Chen's trip abroad was not deliberately hidden, but he didn't post about it on Weibo.
Because on April 30th, Liu Chen's Weibo posted content edited by Yu Bing, accompanied by nine exquisite pictures.
After the previous prize redemption event ended, the sales of Meimei Pork Jerky had not significantly decreased. People are creatures of habit. Once accustomed to a certain snack, and if it wasn't a significant expense, most people would continue to buy it.
So this time, Yu Bing organized an event that Liu Chen was very familiar with.
The bottle caps were printed with "Another Bottle" (Zai Lai Yi Ping). With the bottle cap, one could redeem a free Meimei Niu beverage at any point of sale.
And...
Although it wasn't stated in the promotion, Liu Chen knew that the ratio of "Another Bottle" caps for this promotion reached sixty-five percent. What did that equate to?
It meant that the Meimei Niu, priced at three yuan per bottle, was effectively costing an average of 1.8 yuan per bottle during the promotional period. For ordinary beverages, this could be considered a reduced profit, but still profitable.
But Meimei Niu was different. Although Liu Chen had already reduced the cost of the formula, it still used medicinal herbs. In those days, medicinal herbs were not cheap.
Therefore, in Liu Chen's estimation, the first batch of ten thousand boxes would essentially be sold at a loss. However, Liu Chen did not feel any heartache over this loss, as the regular prizes from the lottery tickets would offset the costs.
Moreover, this was within the scope of promotional expenses. Liu Chen did not consider it a loss at all.
The launch of a new product with widespread advertising was the industry standard later on.
Now, with the nascent stage of social media and bloggers, major manufacturers had not yet capitalized on this trend and thus had not discovered this model.
Liu Chen flew to South Korea for a vacation. Yu Bing was sent out by Liu Chen to study, and Gong Na was assigned to oversee the production of Meimei Niu.
Cui Jian looked at the night sky outside the dormitory building and couldn't help but shake his head and whisper:
"Tsk, tsk, you yourselves have created such a great opportunity for me. If I don't take action, it would be an offense against natural justice."
As it was May Day the next day, the factory was closed for three days. Many rooms in the dormitory building had their lights turned off early, as they were preparing to take advantage of the holiday to visit the city or return home for a couple of days.
Cui Jian was a patient man, otherwise, he wouldn't have had so many successful cases.
"Tick, tick, tick."
The second hand on his wrist moved steadily, and time gradually approached 2:30 AM.
At this hour, most people were in deep sleep. A light rain began to fall outside.
Cui Jian frowned as he looked at the light rain outside, but he was unwilling to give up this perfect opportunity. He picked up a small bag containing a raincoat and rain boots, and gently leaped from the second-floor balcony.
His feet landed on the sidewalk behind the dormitory building. Cui Jian glanced around, then hunched over and moved quickly behind the building, reaching the perimeter wall. With agile movements, he scaled the wall.
Due to the holiday, the factory's security was somewhat lax. It wasn't that the security guards weren't working diligently, but rather that the most valuable items in the factory were the production lines and the finished goods.
These items were heavy and bulky, making them virtually impossible to steal. The remaining items were the computers in the office building, but as it was a holiday, the iron gates on the first floor of the office building were locked. Unless one could scale walls and walk on roofs, entry was impossible.
However, similarly, if one were to steal computers, they would still need to transport them, right?
Due to the vastness of the Meimei factory, it took more than ten minutes to walk from the factory gate to the production workshop on a normal day, let alone carrying computers.
Furthermore, a light rain had started in the latter half of the night, and after days of muggy heat, it finally cooled down a bit. The security guards who were supposed to be patrolling were now gathered in the guardhouse, playing cards and shouting excitedly.
Cui Jian hid in the greenery and counted the number of people in the guardhouse, ensuring that there were no patrolling security guards in the entire factory area. Only then did he take out a key from his pocket and unlock the door on the first floor of the office building.
That's right, Cui Jian had prepared in advance. He had secretly used ink to take an impression of the key and then had a duplicate made. Today was the day to use it.
After entering, Cui Jian did not forget to re-lock the door to prevent anyone outside from noticing that it had been unlocked and becoming suspicious.
Inside the building, Cui Jian went up to the second floor to Liu Chen's office. Secret documents like production recipes were usually kept in the boss's office safe.
Why not keep them at home?
Because general residences generally had less robust security than factory premises. The Meimei factory had 24 security guards working in two shifts, with 12 guards per shift. Wasn't that more reliable than home security?
Cui Jian chuckled as he tiptoed to the second floor. He extended a wire to jiggle the lock on Liu Chen's office door for a couple of seconds. The locked door opened.
"What is this?"
Cui Jian said with a smile and pushed open the office door.
Liu Chen's office was located at the end of the corridor. The office had windows on two sides, providing excellent natural light. To the right of the entrance was a full wall of display cabinets, which didn't hold much, except for a golden God of Wealth placed in the center.
When Cui Jian first saw the God of Wealth, he didn't pay much attention, after all, his target for this operation, the 800,000 US dollars, was not yet in hand!
Wearing gloves, he rummaged through the desk and found a small safe in the cabinet below the left side of the desk. Perhaps finding it troublesome, the safe's key was still in the lock.
However, opening the safe required not only a key but also the correct password. Otherwise, as soon as the dial was turned, the safe would begin to emit a piercing alarm.
But for an experienced commercial fraudster like Cui Jian, a small safe was not much of a challenge.
"Heh, this model of safe thinks it can stump me?"
As he spoke, Cui Jian covered the password keypad with a layer of tape. After two minutes, he peeled off the tape and held it up by the two corners towards the window, allowing the moonlight to shine through and clearly reveal the greasy fingerprints on the keypad.
However, for an ordinary person, even if they could see the positions of the keys on the tape, it would be of no use. But Cui Jian was different.
Cui Jian took out a USB-like device from his pocket, disassembled the keypad, and plugged it in. He then opened the USB drive and began trying passwords on it according to the traces on the tape.
As Cui Jian was trying the passwords, the rain outside gradually intensified from a drizzle to a downpour. Coupled with the strong winds that seemed to come from nowhere, raindrops pattered against the office windows, causing sweat to stream down Cui Jian's forehead.
"Click."
After ten minutes of effort, Cui Jian finally entered the correct password and opened the safe. Inside the safe were two documents. Cui Jian glanced at them and confirmed that these were the Meimei Chang and Meimei Pork Jerky recipes he had painstakingly sought.
If only these two recipes were placed there, Cui Jian might have hesitated to take them. After all, he had done this many times before and had heard of colleagues who had been caught. He was relatively cautious.
However, firstly, these two recipes were kept in a safe that required a "professional" like Cui Jian to open.
Secondly, besides these two, the safe also contained various factory permits, and even the purchase contract for Liu Chen's black G-wagon, and two Van Cleef & Arpels five-leaf bracelets, and a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace.
Cui Jian was not like the ignorant people in the factory. He had seen the world and could tell at a glance that these items were valuable, adding up to tens of thousands.
He folded the two recipes and put them into his inner pocket, then packed the necklace and bracelets into a small plastic bag, which he also placed in his inner pocket. He then zipped up his inner bag and restored the safe to its original state.
Perhaps due to the unexpected gains from this operation, Cui Jian forgot he was under the desk when he stood up, hitting the tabletop with a bang.
"Hiss... damn it!"
Cui Jian cursed softly, then stood up holding his head. As he stood up, his gaze fell upon the God of Wealth on the display shelf behind the desk.
Earlier, he had been solely focused on finding the safe and hadn't paid much attention to the God of Wealth, as it was common for bosses to have such statues or Guan Yu statues in their offices.
Now, up close, Cui Jian's eyes widened as he looked at the gleaming golden God of Wealth.
"Holy crap, is... is this made of gold?"
Cui Jian swallowed and reached out a hand to gauge the weight of the God of Wealth, but his hand could not budge it at all.
"This weight... impossible, right?"
Cui Jian licked his lips and then bit the base of the God of Wealth.
It was soft!
As everyone knows, gold is soft, and biting it would leave teeth marks!
Confirming that the God of Wealth statue was pure gold, Cui Jian's face broke into an uncontrollable smile. But the smile didn't last long before he froze.
"This... how can I move such a large piece of gold?"
No wonder Liu Chen praised Ren Yu so highly. He had perfectly grasped the weakness of commercial thieves like Cui Jian.
Greed.
Once a person is consumed by greed, their actions become distorted. If Cui Jian had still remembered to quickly pocket the documents and fly to the United States that night, he was now completely focused on how to take this golden ornament and find a place to sell it for money.
After Cui Jian, through strenuous effort, walking hunched over, crawling on the ground, climbing walls, and a series of other actions, finally returned to his two-bedroom dormitory.
However, the moment Cui Jian landed, the living room light flickered on with a "click."
At this sudden illumination, Cui Jian's heart sank, knowing that something was amiss. He quickly tried to scramble back outside. After all, he had just climbed in from the balcony, and if he moved fast enough, he might still escape.
His identity information was fake anyway. At worst, he would just hide for a while and take a bus to Hong Kong to catch a flight.
He thought of a whole string of plans in the span of a second. Cui Jian decisively turned and attempted to scramble back over the balcony.
The height of two stories, nearly six meters. Fortunately, Cui Jian had diligently practiced his skills over the years and never slacked off. Although he was scrambling over the balcony in a hurry, he still managed to land with some stability.
It's just that... the God of Wealth on his back was too heavy. He twisted his hand when he landed, causing him to gasp in pain. But given the urgency of the situation, a twisted hand was not too significant.
Cui Jian was experienced. He knew there was someone inside trying to apprehend him. Although he didn't know how they found out, they were clearly determined to catch him. His only option now was to run.
Run far away, where the mountains were high and the emperor was distant. Sell the golden ornament in Hong Kong, and he would be set for life.
Liu Chen, who was rumored to have already flown to South Korea, was now sitting on the sofa in the living room of Cui Jian's two-bedroom dormitory. A laptop was placed on the coffee table, displaying a GPS tracking system.
"Officer, when my friend gifted me this ornament, he worried that it would be too conspicuous if it were pure gold, so he specially installed a tracking system. You see, the GPS is constantly moving..."
The young police officer who responded to the call looked at Liu Chen, who was sitting calmly on the sofa, with a complex expression.
This... the victim was sitting comfortably, while the thief was fleeing in the pouring rain, and yet he was still within the owner's control.
This was truly an eye-opener for him!