Everything that needed to be done was done. Now it was time to wait.

Officer Zhuo Weiping and her colleagues had brought in several suspects, citing attempts to create mass panic. The city bureau took the matter seriously. Xia Xiaolan spotted a familiar face – Bureau Chief Yang, whom she’d dealt with before. Yang had now truly earned his title, having dropped the “Deputy” prefix.

Xia Xiaolan’s first interaction with Bureau Chief Yang was several years ago when she was still selling clothes from a street stall at Commercial City, dealing with extortionists… That time, it was Ding Aizhen, Zhu Fang’s mother, causing trouble. Someone had claimed Xia Xiaolan’s goods were defective, and Ding Aizhen had arranged for relatives in the Joint Defense Team as backup. The tactics were similar to this ‘milk powder crisis,’ and so was the nature of the incident!

Back then, Bureau Chief Yang’s involvement came through Shao Guangrong and Kang Wei standing up for Xia Xiaolan. Shao Guangrong was injured, and Yang appeared as a favor to Shao Limin.

This time, there was no Shao Guangrong, no Kang Wei, no Zhou Cheng, and no Tang Hong’en’s connections.

Bureau Chief Yang came personally because of Xia Xiaolan herself.

Without realizing it, Xia Xiaolan had grown to such stature. Asia was Commercial City’s largest private department store, backed by Hong Kong capital. As Asia’s general manager, Xia Xiaolan now had the standing to deal directly with Bureau Chief Yang.

Of course, this wasn’t their only meeting since the Ding Aizhen case. Bureau Chief Yang had attended Blue Phoenix’s opening in Commercial City. Later, Blue Phoenix had operated smoothly under Yang’s implicit protection, helping Xia Xiaolan accumulate capital for her business ventures in Pengcheng.

When Xia Xiaolan left Commercial City for university in Beijing, shifting her business focus away, their paths hadn’t crossed. Until recently, when Xia Xiaolan returned to Commercial City for Asia’s affairs, naturally reconnecting with Bureau Chief Yang.

Without Yang’s tacit approval, how could Xia Xiaolan have arranged for Officer Zhuo and other city police to help at Asia!

Now they couldn’t show their familiarity. Bureau Chief Yang handled things officially, expressing outrage at the Asia incident, ordering the bureau to solve the case quickly, and offering Xia Xiaolan, the victim, some consolation about Commercial City’s safe and open investment environment – standard reassurances.

Xia Xiaolan seized the opportunity to offer several vehicles as donations to the city bureau. After several polite refusals, Bureau Chief Yang couldn’t decline Manager Xia’s enthusiasm and accepted Asia’s goodwill.

“The city bureau is actually fine, but the grassroots police stations face harder conditions. If we could add several vehicles, our colleagues at the basic level could handle cases faster – that’s why I can’t refuse Manager Xia’s offer!”

Xia Xiaolan understood – funding was indeed tight.

These vehicles weren’t bribes; proper procedures would be followed. From Yang’s tone, the city bureau wouldn’t keep any vehicles but would distribute them all to grassroots police stations. Xia Xiaolan was happy to contribute to her hometown, telling Yang she would donate 5 cars and 20 motorcycles on Asia’s behalf.

Motorcycles were sometimes more flexible than cars. The 5 cars were the major expense, worth around 300,000 yuan, while the 20 motorcycles would cost at most 70-80,000 yuan, totaling about 400,000 yuan. Bureau Chief Yang sincerely thanked Xia Xiaolan.

Xia Xiaolan and Song Minglan arrived at the city bureau at 10 PM. Bureau Chief Yang arrived after 11 PM, and by midnight, the suspects had confessed.

“Chief Yang, the mastermind is Lu Hongbo, general manager of Zijingshan Department Store. Lu Hongbo instructed them to cause trouble to damage Asia’s business. Whether Asia agreed to compensate or not, rumors about poisoned milk powder would spread throughout Commercial City.”

Yang’s face darkened: “Why did Lu Hongbo choose an infant with chickenpox? Has this been clarified in the interrogation?”

Lu Hongbo had said it needed to look like milk powder poisoning. Panicked and angry customers couldn’t distinguish the truth. Lu Hongbo’s people found this woman to create a scene, using the child’s illness as an opportunity. It looked more convincing… Lu Hongbo knew about the ‘prop’s’ condition and approved it, making him complicit.

The reporting officer carefully chose his words, “Chief Yang, according to the suspects’ confessions, Lu Hongbo was aware. His reasons would need to be confirmed through direct questioning, but we believe it was to create greater panic.”

Rumors were powerful weapons. ‘Asia’s milk powder is poisonous,’ ‘Asia’s milk powder causes chickenpox in children’ – once such malicious rumors spread, Asia would struggle to change public perception no matter how much they explained.

This was truly a fatal scheme!

Conspiracies didn’t need to be clever; sometimes brutal simplicity was most effective.

Song Minglan felt waves of fear.

If Xia Xiaolan hadn’t prepared Asia in advance, hadn’t trained staff to respond correctly, or if Asia’s employees hadn’t united to turn public opinion around tonight, Lu Hongbo’s fatal scheme would have succeeded.

Without catching the extortionists on the spot, trying to investigate the truth and explain to customers later would have been futile once rumors spread throughout Commercial City, leaving no room for explanation.

While Xia Xiaolan remained calm, Song Minglan wanted to personally beat Lu Hongbo.

Bureau Chief Yang was angry too and ordered Lu Hongbo’s immediate detention.

Did Lu Hongbo know the city bureau would arrest him?

Xia Xiaolan thought he did.

As the mastermind, he had to arrange not just the troublemakers and their supporters, but also lookouts.

The infant used as an extortion prop was sent to the hospital. City police caught the extortionist woman and her accomplices, but the lookouts surely reported back to Lu Hongbo that things had gone wrong!

But Xia Xiaolan wasn’t worried about Lu Hongbo fleeing.

Running now would only show guilt.

Lu Hongbo would try to avoid punishment rather than escape.

Where could he run? Losing his position as department store general manager, living like a fugitive in hiding – that life wouldn’t be easy.

Gritting his teeth and actively seeking ways out might offer a chance of escape – that must be Lu Hongbo’s thinking.

Sure enough, the city bureau easily brought Manager Lu from his home. Lu appeared innocent and angry, confronting Xia Xiaolan at the bureau, claiming she was using private capital to suppress state-owned department stores and now targeting their managers:

“False accusations! This is slander, Asia is framing us!”

Manager Lu shouted himself red-faced at the bureau, essentially cursing at Xia Xiaolan.

Xia Xiaolan maintained her composure, shaking her head at her defeated opponent:

“I’ve long heard of Manager Lu’s reputation. We should have met under more dignified circumstances, but you didn’t give me the chance… Now we have nothing to discuss. You might as well face your failure gracefully, Manager Lu. Everyone must take responsibility for their actions!”

Even when she brought gifts to attend a wedding celebration, she was turned away. Back then, Lu Hongbo was so confident, believing the united state-owned department stores could crush Asia, so he snubbed her to show his authority.

And now?

Let’s see what fate awaits the proud Manager Lu!