My Online Girlfriend Has a Twin Sister

It was half an hour later when Minister Dong finally saw Jiangg Ruxue.

SCREE—

A piercing screech of brakes echoed in front of a factory in the outskirts of Mingzhu City. The moment Minister Dong got out of the car and saw Jiangg Ruxue’s back, she broke into a hundred-meter dash, rushing toward her.

"President... President Jiangg! Something’s happened! There’s a problem with our new product..." she yelled, panting for breath.

Jiangg Ruxue turned her head, startled by the familiar voice.

"Minister Dong, what are you doing here?"

"I came to find you, President Jiangg. I must have called Assistant Qin a hundred times, but I couldn’t get through. I had to ask... ask around before I found out you were here. I drove straight over."

"Minister Qin has a bad cold and took sick leave. What do you need me for?"

"My laptop... right, my laptop’s in the car. I’ll get it and show you. Our product has a huge problem. Between early yesterday morning and now, we’ve gotten seventy or eighty complaints. The customer service reps at the flagship store are overwhelmed. I had my team compile a report with the customers’ photos and the details of the issues..."

Upon hearing this, a look of astonishment filled Jiangg Ruxue’s eyes.

Minister Dong pulled her over to the car. As Jiangg Ruxue looked at the screen of the proffered laptop, she snatched it away and began scrolling through the report, her finger sliding across the trackpad.

The incessant WHIRRING from inside the factory was exceptionally loud.

Jiangg Ruxue stared at the photos customers had sent in for the report—at the red blotches that had appeared on their cheeks. Her brow furrowed, and the blood in her veins began to turn cold.

Even though the warm afternoon sun was shining right on her head.

"How many cases are there in total?"

"When I left, we had received seventy-eight complaints. I don’t know what the number is now..."

"Emergency PR. Immediately have our after-sales department compile the contact information for all these customers. Call them one by one, get the details. If any new cases pop up, we take full responsibility for them."

"I understand, President Jiangg. I already had my team start compiling the list before I came."

"Good. I’m going back to the company with you now. Don’t tell any other departments about this without my permission," Jiangg Ruxue said in a low, grim voice.

"Huh? Then... shouldn’t we stop shipping out orders?"

Minister Dong was shocked.

If there really was a problem with the new product, then every package being shipped across the country was a hidden time bomb. Not only could they harm consumers, but they would put Meiruxue Company in an irrecoverable situation.

The more product they shipped, the greater the losses would be.

The major sale was already over, so it was too late to stop most of it, but every canceled order meant one less loss to incur. They couldn’t let the situation get any worse.

Minister Dong’s question made Jiangg Ruxue hesitate. A wave of unprecedented panic washed over her, and she couldn’t stop the frantic THUMP-THUMP-THUMP of her heart.

It was even clearer than the sound of the transport machinery in the factory.

"Wait, let me think..." She took a deep breath.

Unlike Minister Dong, Jiangg Ruxue knew the product’s secrets. To control costs and increase profits, she had indeed replaced some expensive anti-allergenic ingredients with cheaper, lower-grade substitutes. It had taken some maneuvering just to barely pass the inspections. If that was truly the reason the product was causing problems...

Jiangg Ruxue felt a wave of dizziness and stumbled, struggling to stay on her feet.

"President Jiangg! Are... are you alright, President Jiangg?" Minister Dong rushed over to support her when she saw her sway.

"I’m... I’m fine."

If the product was truly defective, it would be the absolute end of the world for Jiangg Ruxue.

Not only would she have to recall all the products, but she would also have to pay out a massive amount in compensation. The company’s reputation would plummet, and it would never recover.

Furthermore, Meiruxue Company’s capital chain was already on the verge of breaking. It couldn’t possibly withstand this blow. She had been counting on this revenue to come in just to be able to make payroll.

But now, her maneuvering had plunged the company into an even worse predicament.

In this desperate situation, a broken capital chain would be the best-case scenario. The worst-case was that she would be unable to repay her loans. The company’s books were also a mess, which meant she couldn’t even file for bankruptcy. Overnight, she would go from a respected chairwoman to a deadbeat debtor, and all her assets would be frozen by the court.

This was a very real possibility.

The company had already been standing on the edge of a cliff, and now it had lost its final handhold.

How could she not feel dizzy?

But there was no time for Jiangg Ruxue to dwell on the consequences. The vast transportation network spanning all of Huaxia was already delivering the products to customers, one by one, as packages arrived in cities everywhere.

Now she faced a difficult choice.

Her first option was to return to the company, initiate emergency public relations, and recall all unshipped orders. This would cause devastating losses and instantly shatter their capital chain. She’d have no way to answer to her investors. However, not recalling them risked even greater losses.

Her second option was to gamble that the allergic reactions were isolated incidents affecting a specific group of people, and that the product itself was fine. She could start by dealing with the customers who had already complained and use money to buy their silence.

Undeniably, the second option was based entirely on wishful thinking.

"President Jiangg... President Jiangg!" Minister Dong, beside her, was also frantic, constantly urging her to make a decision.

Jiangg Ruxue could barely think anymore. Her eyes darted around wildly.

"I know... I know the company’s current situation all too well. If we recall all the products now, we can’t afford the loss." She closed her eyes, the words escaping as if all the strength had been drained from her body.

Minister Dong froze at her words.

She had joined the company five years ago and had followed Jiangg Ruxue for many years. She had a deep affection for the company and was one of its few genuinely dedicated and responsible employees.

But this was the first time she had ever seen Jiangg Ruxue so panicked and flustered.

"Then let’s go back to the after-sales department now. As long as the number of customer complaints doesn’t keep increasing, it’ll prove the product is fine. We can decide whether to recall the orders and offer compensation then."

"Alright, let’s do that!"

"I’ll drive. Please get in, President Jiangg."

Her words seemed to bring Jiangg Ruxue back to her senses. The warmth returned to her hands and feet.

Jiangg Ruxue quickly pulled open the car door and slid into the passenger seat. Right now, this was the last straw she could cling to for salvation.

Just this morning, she had been caught up in a flurry of preparations. Just yesterday, she had felt she’d pulled the company back from the brink of death. But in a matter of hours, she had gone from elation to despair.

A precipitous fall.

No matter how composed Jiangg Ruxue usually pretended to be, her true self was now exposed. Her eyes were fixed on the road ahead, her hand unconsciously tightening its grip on her purse. The drive to the company was less than half an hour, but to her, it felt as long as a century.

Throughout that long, agonizing journey, she was constantly enveloped by a hollow and immense sense of dread.

Being in the thick of it, she couldn’t see the situation clearly.

But there are always those who can.

For a company with a solid foundation to reach a dead end, it must travel down many wrong paths and make countless wrong decisions, like a tower built of dominoes. Each mistake is like pulling out a piece, until the entire structure is teetering on the verge of collapse, pushed to its absolute limit.

The tower may seem to be standing, but in reality, a single straw is all it takes to make it come crashing down.

Jiangg Ruxue had not only squandered the company’s foundation, but she had also consistently violated the most basic principles of business logic. Many of her decisions had destroyed Meiruxue Company’s brand power, and a company without brand power is worthless.

It reached the point where no one was willing to invest or partner with them anymore.

The world allows for mistakes.

It even allows for big ones.

But the key is whether one has the ability to bear the consequences of those mistakes.

Many outwardly prominent bosses fall precisely because they don’t realize they are standing on the edge of a cliff. Oblivious to their own predicament, they stubbornly keep walking forward.

One misstep.

And their lives are over.

At that moment, Jiangg Ruxue, who had just turned forty-six, sat in the car on the way to the company, still clinging to that tiny shred of wishful thinking.

But she didn’t know that, in truth, nothing could be salvaged.