Chapter 225: Zheng Shengyu Steps In to Mediate! Pinbei Employees Arrested!

That afternoon, after learning that Fan Junyan had already rushed to Hangcheng, Chen Yansen merely nodded slightly and said nothing more.

Pinbei and Sister Chengzi's tech company had long since settled into a steady operating rhythm, with mature and stable management mechanisms; even without his involvement, the two companies could maintain a decent development trajectory.

However, as Pinbei's performance grew explosively, its cooperative relationship with Jingdong gradually became delicate.

Liu Qiangdong discovered that most of Jingdong's ka suppliers had run off to set up shop on Pinbei.

On the surface it didn't seem like a problem, but 3C digital products and major home appliances were both Low-tier products with extremely low repurchase rates — every extra item Pinbei sold was one less Jingdong sold.

If this continued long-term, Jingdong's moat would face the risk of bursting.

But the two platforms had just passed their three-month Honeymoon phase, and Pinbei could contribute over a billion in sales to Jingdong every month; on top of that, Zhang Jindong was eyeing him covetously.

For the moment, Liu Qiangdong really didn't want to fall out with Chen Yansen.

Otherwise, if Pinbei went all-out supporting Suning, it would be a two-against-one, and he'd genuinely be a little panicked.

Besides, he was currently preparing for the Jingdong 618 e-commerce festival, planning to launch a surprise attack on Suning and Gome, so naturally he didn't want to make more enemies, and forcibly suppressed his dissatisfaction.

Chen Yansen wasn't clear on Liu Qiangdong's thoughts; Pinbei's current performance focus was still mainly on fast-moving consumer goods, and excluding Sister Chengzi's tech company, the remaining 3C and major home appliances accounted for less than 5%.

So even if he had known, he wouldn't have taken it to heart.

As five o'clock approached, Xiong Li from Pinbei's HR department urgently sent over an investigation file and asked for his opinion: "Boss, how should we handle these two people?"

Lin Jiaming from the food category investment team, and Zhou Yang from the category operations department — one had merchant resources, the other held the permission to rank Products on the surface of the secondary category pages.

From December 2011 to February 2012, they had collected a total of 1.93 million in "slot fees" from merchants, and were only discovered by the risk control department after an anonymous report.

Chen Yansen opened the investigation file, which recorded in detail Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang's money-grabbing methods, including the specific amount of every transfer and remittance.

In just two short months, they'd skimmed nearly two million.

"If we hadn't adjusted the Hundred Billion Subsidy rules this month and reclaimed the adjustment permissions for resource slots and products under the campaign operations department, we probably still wouldn't have caught it."

Chen Yansen chuckled lightly and muttered softly.

In his previous life, he had used a similar method to earn his first pot of startup capital, but his methods were far more sophisticated than Lin Jiaming and the other's.

Simply put, Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang used the product ranking permissions on the secondary category pages to forcibly divert traffic to merchants who paid up, and to charge merchants a "queue-jumping fee" for the Hundred Billion Subsidy.

Because the Hundred Billion Subsidy channel had high traffic, high output, and many products signing up, many merchants, after registering, waited and waited without getting any review results.

The answer was always: too many products, need to queue.

There were plenty of shrewd people among the merchants, who figured it out on their own: if there's a queue, that means you can cut in line — just pay up.

As long as their products entered the Hundred Billion Subsidy channel, they had a guaranteed daily sales floor of 200,000; compared to the potential returns, paying out a hundred or eighty thousand was nothing to the merchants.

Lin Jiaming and the other were unlucky — they happened to run into the Hundred Billion Subsidy raising the daily output requirement per slot from 200,000 to 300,000.

There was one instant-noodle factory whose sales were right at the 200,000 passing line.

Once the policy was adjusted, this factory's products could no longer get on the Hundred Billion Subsidy.

But the factory boss didn't see it that way — he figured Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang had taken his money, so they had to deliver; otherwise, wasn't that hundred thousand given for nothing?

But Zhou Yang's permissions had been taken away, and as the two sides argued, they ended up falling out.

Therefore, the identity of this anonymous reporter is worth examining.

In any case, it couldn't have been the merchants involved, because if they reported Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang, they'd also end up inside making umbrellas and stepping on sewing machines.

So there were only two possibilities: either a Pinbei employee reported them, or a competitor did.

"Call the police. Hand the list of involved merchants over to the inspection office."

Chen Yansen thought it over briefly, and still decided to handle it according to company rules.

If he let Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang off, every investment and operations person in the future would harbor the侥幸 mentality: skim a fortune first, the big boss won't pursue it anyway.

If this went on long-term, even those who originally held the line would be swept along, staging a vicious cycle of bad money driving out good.

"Understood, boss, I'll notify legal right away." Xiong Li replied.

After speaking, Chen Yansen sent a message to Chen Peng, the director of the risk control department: "Submit a merchant onboarding process and data audit rule by tomorrow. If Pinbei staff taking bribes can only be caught through anonymous reports, what do I even need you risk-control people for?"

"Yes, boss."

On the other side, Chen Peng, upon receiving the message, turned ashen-faced, wishing he could kick Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang to death on the spot.

He knew in his heart that his Q1 quarterly bonus was hanging by a thread!

While this matter certainly had the factor of unreasonable resource allocation permissions, the risk control department being completely oblivious was equally hard to excuse.

Chen Peng pulled his team members along and walked into a conference room.

At the same time.

The inspection office in the Xuyuan city district also received the alarm call from Pinbei's legal department; if it were any other company, they probably wouldn't have taken it that seriously.

But this was Pinbei!

Affiliated with Senlian Capital, and registered with Xu Zhenhui himself!

The amount involved reached two million!

Not long after, a total of three inspection office cars drove into Zhuxianzhuang Tech Park.

At this moment, Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang were still sitting at their workstations, communicating with merchants about onboarding matters, as well as the campaign intensity, inventory, and other information needed to sign up for the Hundred Billion Subsidy event.

At that moment, a dozen or so uniformed inspectors, holding their credentials, walked into the merchant operations department's office area and asked loudly: "Who is Lin Jiaming? Who is Zhou Yang? Please come with us."

Zhang Yifeng, Yuan Wei, Chen Xu, and others exchanged glances, still not knowing what had happened.

"Could those two have gone off to buy and sell love together?"

Li Hui muttered softly.

"Probably not — when buying and selling love gets caught, it's usually a phone summons, you go, pay a five-thousand fine, and that's it."

Zhang Yifeng shook his head.

Yuan Wei and Chen Xu exchanged a glance, then squinted and asked: "Yifeng, you sound very experienced."

"I saw it all online, don't get the wrong idea." Zhang Yifeng, who rarely blushed, hurriedly defended himself.

"Oh, really?" Chen Xu said with a teasing look, joking as he laughed.

Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang saw the inspectors and heard only their two names being called, their bodies instantly trembling like sieves.

Cold sweat soaked through their shirts along their spines in an instant, their eyes filled with unconcealable panic.

The joy of every time they took money instantly turned into boundless fear.

The inspector at the head smiled faintly, followed the crowd's gaze, walked up beside Lin Jiaming, and asked in a low voice: "Are you Lin Jiaming or Zhou Yang?"

"Lin Jia-ming." Lin Jiaming said, his teeth chattering as he spoke.

"You are suspected of accepting bribes in a huge amount. We are now lawfully detaining you. Come with us."

The inspector announced directly.

Accepting bribes?

The moment these words came out, they immediately caused an uproar throughout the entire Merchant Operations Department!

"The two of them took bribes? Took money from merchants?" Yuan Wei said in shock.

"A huge amount—over three years, under ten years. Damn! Just how much money did those two take?" Li Hui sprang up abruptly, clicking his tongue in private astonishment.

Zhang Yifeng took a deep look at Yuan Wei and Li Hui. The three of them, as former top investment recruiters, it was no exaggeration to say that when they met merchants trying to slip them money, there were no fewer than eighty or a hundred such cases.

But their income at the time wasn't low either, so they didn't dare take even a single cent. Even gifts worth over 100 yuan, they proactively reported to the company.

Minimum three years, maximum ten!

After Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang were taken away by the inspectors, the remaining Merchant Operations staff finally came to their senses. Quite a few who had harbored little schemes couldn't help but feel a wave of lingering fear.

When scooping money, there was only happiness, but after personally witnessing the severe consequences, everyone fell silent.

You may have the life to scoop it, but not the life to spend it!

"Lin Jiaming's wedding with his girlfriend seems to be set for May Day."

Someone in the crowd said out of the blue.

"Girlfriend? By the time he gets out, she'll long be someone else's kid's mom."

Another person sneered and added a quiet backstab.

"If you ask me, serves them right! The company gives everyone quite decent treatment—base salary, housing subsidy, meal subsidy, transportation subsidy, and quarterly bonus. Doing what they did, do they think they can face Boss Chen?"

Li Hui opened his mouth and cursed.

The people beside him, hearing him say this, hurriedly chimed in.

That evening, every major department of Pinbei was discussing this matter.

The inspectors' move of coming to the door to make arrests terrified a group of people severely.

……

……

The Empty Courtyard, on the stone bench by the Willow Stream.

Song Yuncheng, carrying beer and small snacks, sat obediently to one side, staring fixedly at Chen Yansen.

"Are you okay?" Song Yuncheng asked with concern.

She had heard all about it—Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang had colluded to scoop up 2 million.

In her view, Chen Yansen treated his employees so well, yet the investment recruiters and category managers beneath him still dared to wildly embezzle money behind the company's back; as the boss, Chen Yansen's mood was surely terrible.

"What could be wrong with me? I called you out mainly to have you keep me company and enjoy the breeze."

Chen Yansen shrugged his shoulders. He wouldn't have any negative emotions because of Lin Jiaming and Zhou Yang's matter.

As someone who had been through it, he had just recalled his own money-scooping experience, and he only regretted that he had scooped too little back then, resulting in a low equity share when he founded Feiyu Technology. After several rounds of financing, the shareholding ratio in his hands was reduced to only 28%.

If he could do it over, he would definitely scoop big and scoop plenty!

"But it's really cold outside." Song Yuncheng shrank her neck, seeing that Chen Yansen was only wearing a turtleneck sweater and a suit jacket, and secretly complained: This bastard really can take the cold.

"Then let's go home."

Chen Yansen said with a mischievous grin.

Go home?

Song Yuncheng quickly caught on—Chen Yansen meant 0418. She put down the beer and snacks, waved her hand and said: "I'm not going."

She was mainly afraid of being caught by Meng Jie.

"By the way, accompany me to Hucheng on a business trip tomorrow." Chen Yansen turned around and called out to Song Yuncheng.

"Delivering takeout again?" Song Yuncheng stopped her steps and asked with a light laugh.

Chen Yansen smiled and said nothing.

This business trip had little to do with Kuaipao. Mainly, the four bosses of the Tongda system had pulled a shameless move, forcing Zheng Shengyu of the Postal Association to step in personally.

Taking the lead in Hucheng, they organized a small exchange meeting for the express delivery industry.

The core purpose was to call a halt to the express delivery war between Santong Yida and Yunsu!

The next morning.

Xiao Li drove, carrying Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng, speeding all the way toward Hucheng.

Old Gao was busy handling the acquisition of AutoNavi and simply couldn't spare the time, so he wasn't brought along this time.

When they passed through Jin Ling midway, they took a short rest. By the time Chen Yansen arrived at Hucheng, the sky outside the car window had completely darkened.

"Head to Kuaipao headquarters first, 200 Longcao Road."

After exiting the highway toll station, Chen Yansen instructed Xiao Li.

Xiao Li nodded, entered the destination on AutoNavi, and continued onward.

(End of this chapter)