After the two of them reached home, Qian'e held Qiao Mei's hand and said, "I didn't tell you the most important issue in the car just now! I've been here for so many days that I have forgotten about this!"
"What is it?" Qiao Mei asked.
Something big had happened at the Zhao Family Village. After the first batch of seeds matured, Qiao Mei no longer continued working with the people from Zhao Family Village and terminated the business relationship. They had signed a written agreement on this.
However, the people from the Zhao Family Village breached the contract and secretly kept some of the seeds. After that, they planted the seeds and harvested a second batch. As Qiao Mei had expected, they immediately reaped the consequences of their actions. Now, everyone who bought the seeds from the Zhao Family Village had come to settle the score with them and asked them for an explanation. Although this latest batch of seeds looked normal on the surface, they were actually hollow inside! There was no kernel inside!
"How exactly did you do it? Those seeds are empty inside! This is the first time I've encountered such a thing! Tell me!" Qian'e asked curiously.
"These seeds are experimental seeds to begin with. It's inevitable that something will go wrong. Moreover, I already know that they would do something like this. They asked for it!" Qiao Mei said.
"But now that they've all come to our factory to cause trouble and they want us to give them an explanation. I couldn't be bothered to meet them, so I called Zou Ming and asked him to come and arrest them. After that, they stopped causing trouble and changed their tactic to sitting at the main gate to prevent the people from the factory from going out," Qian'e said helplessly.
"Why do they do that? They already took so much money from us. Even if those people came to ask for compensation, they should be able to pay up," Qiao Mei said.
Back then, Qiao Mei had given more than 100,000 dollars to the entire village. Each family would have at least received a few hundred dollars, so how could they not be able to pay the compensation?
"Don't you know them! They're all black-hearted people! They've long squandered all the money! Some people bought apartments in the city, some people went to gamble, and some people even ran away with the money and left their wives and children behind in the village. There are countless such incidents!" Qian'e said.
In the beginning, Qiao Mei only wanted to let the villagers make money alongside her. Since she could make money, she also wanted the hardworking villagers to make money. She did not expect such a thing to happen.
However, this was not Qiao Mei's fault at all. It was their own greed and their fault for being unable to control themselves in the face of temptation. Such people would get into trouble sooner or later.
"Then is our factory alright? What about the workers?" Qiao Mei asked sternly.
"I have hired many security officers to stand guard at the door. They definitely won't let anyone from the Zhao Family Village in. I have also given the workers money to compensate them. I'm guessing that those people from the Zhao Family Village won't dare to cause any trouble. All the things they did are illegal and they don't dare to go against us," Qian'e said.
"You have handled it very well. I'll pack up and go back to see what they want!" Qiao Mei said.
"I'm just telling you about this issue. Don't go back. You're pregnant! What if those people do something bad to you? I'm still able to handle this matter. Don't worry, those people are just trying their luck! As time pa.s.ses, they'll back off," Qian'e said with a frown.
"I'm not that weak. I suspect that their goal is not that simple. It's better for me to go back and take a look. This child is very tough!" Qiao Mei said as she smacked her stomach.
Qian'e quickly grabbed Qiao Mei's hand and said angrily, "Even if you're in good health, you can't treat the child and your own body like this! Don't always take things so lightly and ignore what we say. It's better to be safe than sorry. If anything happens, even if I have 100 heads, it won't be enough to atone for my sins!"
When Qiao Mei saw how nervous Qian'e was, she said cautiously, "I'm sorry… I'll definitely be more careful in the future. But I've already made up my mind to return to the capital this time. I still have to keep an eye on the seeds business for the next quarter!"
"Alright then. Remember to make it clear to Xia Zhe. Don't quarrel over this later," Qian'e said.
At night, when Xia Zhe returned from work, Qiao Mei repeated what Qian'e had told her during the day. Xia Zhe could not bear to see Qiao Mei leave.