Chapter 20: You Bitch!
"That may be so, but please give us a chance to make it right."
The store manager quickly increased her budget, saying, "Perhaps I’ve underestimated the trouble this unpleasant shopping experience has caused you."
"How about this? I will apply to the company to give you 300,000 yuan as compensation for emotional distress. What do you think?"
The manager had directly raised her hush money offer by 100,000 yuan.
"I feel like if I were to write a short essay about today’s experience and post it online, it would probably get a lot of clicks."
Chen Mo looked up slightly, speaking pensively as if he hadn’t heard the manager’s words.
"400,000."
"Later, I’ll go browse the Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Gucci stores, chat with their sales associates, and see what they think about..."
"500,000!"
"As the ancients said: ’To know your mistakes and correct them is the greatest virtue.’ I think the ancients were right."
Chen Mo smiled faintly, looking at the store manager with satisfaction as he spoke.
’He only accepted the 500,000 price because he could see the store manager was genuinely sincere.’
’If she had tried to dodge or argue at all earlier, that number would have kept climbing.’
"To err is human. I quite agree with what the ancestors said."
The store manager smiled with equal satisfaction, letting out a sigh of relief. Her gaze toward Chen Mo was filled with gratitude.
Obviously, she also knew that Chen Mo hadn’t been greedy.
Xia Shiqing witnessed the entire exchange from the side, and hearing their conversation made her want to laugh a little.
But she felt it might not be appropriate to laugh out loud, so she could only force herself to hold it in.
Her beautiful face was flushed from stifling her laughter, giving her a unique and even more captivating charm.
"Ms. Xia, although you weren’t financially harmed in this incident, we have still prepared 100,000 yuan as compensation for your emotional distress. We likewise hope that what happened today stays within this store."
The manager looked at Xia Shiqing as well, offering her 100,000 yuan in hush money.
After all, Xia Shiqing hadn’t bought a fake bag; she had no payment record and no receipt.
Even if Xia Shiqing posted about today’s incident online, she had no proof.
But what if she posted it online, public opinion flared up, and people believed her?
That would also cause a certain amount of damage to the brand and the store.
It was a problem that could be completely resolved by spending an extra 100,000 yuan. There was no need to gamble.
’Besides, the head office has money. They sell single bags for that much.’
"Alright."
Xia Shiqing was a little surprised; she hadn’t expected to get a share.
But when someone was proactively offering her money, she naturally wouldn’t refuse.
’Looks like I’ve benefited from Chen Mo’s good fortune again.’
’It seems Chen Mo really is her lucky star; this is the second time he’s helped her make money.’
"Let’s sign an agreement."
The manager quickly printed out two sets of non-disclosure agreements, four copies in total.
The non-disclosure agreement stipulated, in short, that he could not inform or imply to anyone, by any means, that he had purchased a counterfeit product at the store.
Nor could he speak of the matter on any social media platform or online.
If he violated the NDA, Chen Mo would have to compensate the other party to the tune of 3 million yuan.
In parallel, they would refund the 84,000 yuan Chen Mo had spent on the product and retract the sales receipt.
They would also voluntarily give Chen Mo 252,000 yuan in compensation, and voluntarily give another 500,000 yuan for emotional distress, and so on.
Chen Mo glanced over the non-disclosure agreement; there were basically no issues.
He understood why they wanted the sales receipt back. After all, the receipt was evidence and naturally had to be eliminated.
While Chen Mo was looking at his NDA, Xia Shiqing also looked over hers. The terms were basically the same, with a breach penalty of 1 million yuan.
For her, it wasn’t that she couldn’t afford the penalty; it was simply that there was no need to incur it.
Subsequently, both parties signed the agreements. The manager took photos and sent them to her superiors, then made a call to have the finance department wire the money.
DING! DING! DING!
Soon, Chen Mo’s phone chimed three times as three text messages arrived.
The purse Chen Mo was holding for her also vibrated slightly, and Xia Shiqing’s phone rang as well.
’As expected of a major international brand, their payment speed is incredible.’
He handed the purse to Xia Shiqing so she could check her messages.
"Your debit card account 1234... received a deposit of 84,000.00 yuan. New balance: 722,431.32 yuan."
"Your debit card account 1234... received a deposit of 252,000.00 yuan. New balance: 974,431.32 yuan."
"Your debit card account 1234... received a deposit of 500,000.00 yuan. New balance: 1,474,431.32 yuan."
Chen Mo opened the bank texts to look them over. The first was the refund, and the next two were the "triple compensation for a fake" and the hush money, respectively.
Seeing his balance officially break the seven-figure mark, a broad smile spread across his face.
’If I include the 500,000 yuan reward for reporting the spy, my balance is almost at 2 million.’
’Bad luck really is the fastest way to make money.’
With the money received, Chen Mo handed the sales receipt to the store manager.
Both parties were very satisfied.
One side felt that spending less than a million to nip a public relations crisis in the bud—and possibly even save their job as store manager—was an absolute bargain.
The other side felt that making a tidy profit of 752,000 yuan and having their savings approach 2 million just from a shopping trip was an absolute bargain.
If everyone came out ahead, then someone had to be the one to suffer the bad luck.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
"Manager, we found them."
Just then, a knock came from the break room door, and a sales associate’s voice called from outside.
And there it was. The unlucky person had been found.
The manager, who had been in a good mood, was suddenly overcome with fury upon hearing that the mole had been found.
’If it weren’t for this mole, none of this would have happened!’
The manager opened the door and asked directly, "Who is it? What happened?"
"It’s..."
Someone recounted the full story to the manager from beginning to end.
It turned out that one of the sales associates was in contact with an outside counterfeiter. Through certain methods, she would take genuine bags from the store’s inventory and replace them with fakes.
The genuine bags were then sold outside the store for less than the retail price, allowing her to pocket the profit.
As for the fake bags, they were kept in the stockroom and were not supposed to be placed on the display shelves.
Only after a customer had selected a bag would she, when the customer wasn’t looking, retrieve a fake from the stockroom to make the swap.
This way, the customer would never imagine they were buying a counterfeit.
Furthermore, the fakes were so well-made that they were nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. A non-expert would be completely unable to tell the difference, so naturally, very few people ever discovered the deception.
Even if one was discovered, the store would just assume the customer had swapped it themselves and was trying to blackmail them.
This practice of swapping fakes for genuine articles had been going on for nearly a month.
Because it was done secretively and infrequently, no one had ever noticed.
However, this sales associate wasn’t working today. A colleague, while restocking the shelves in the morning, had unintentionally grabbed a fake bag.
Then, in a very dramatic twist, they mistook the fake for a genuine one and put it out on the display shelf.
If Chen Mo hadn’t accidentally bumped the bag, causing it to fall to the floor, and then insisted on having it authenticated...
...that fake bag would probably still be sitting on the shelf, being picked up and tried on by one customer after another.
Perhaps when that sales associate came to work tomorrow, she would have noticed something was amiss and swapped it back.
But unfortunately for her, she ran into Chen Mo.
Her little money-making scheme was over, and she might even have to go to jail.
As was said before: when Chen Mo runs into misfortune, someone else is destined to suffer.
The weight of that statement was only continuing to grow.
After listening to the person’s explanation, Chen Mo and Xia Shiqing also understood what had really happened.
In the end, it all came down to the old saying: you can guard against a thousand dangers, but it’s hard to guard against an inside job.
"So it was her!"
After hearing the story, the manager’s composure completely shattered.
She picked up her phone and dialed the sales associate’s number.
As soon as the call connected, the manager unleashed a tirade.
"You bitch, why would you do this?"
"I’ll rip off your arms, and shove them up your butt!!!’"