Friday, July 16, 2004.
This is a very ordinary working day, but today is destined to be extraordinary.
As Pengcheng Metropolis Daily went on sale, a large number of people bought it because of its title.
Some people read the report while walking on their way to work and cursed loudly after reading it. Some people rushed home after reading the report. Some people picked up their phones to call their families.
Some people saw this report at home. They were watching TV when they saw this report. During the commercial period on TV, an advertisement for Taishida was playing. The advertisement said, "Taishida has been making good milk powder and rice noodles that Chinese people can trust for 40 years. Taishida is the choice of 80% of Chinese mothers."
The advertising slogans in the advertisement, combined with the report written by Lin Shuyue, are full of irony.
Countless people who saw the newspaper went to clinics and hospitals to verify the facts. After receiving affirmative answers, they angrily attacked any government agency they could think of.
Parents who had eaten Taishida products were so shocked and angry that they called the Pengcheng distributor headquarters.
•••••
Pengcheng dealer headquarters.
Huang Tianying came to work at the company as usual. She first watered the lucky bamboo, money tree and green ivy that General Manager Lu Zhengtian liked, then wiped her workstation and mopped the office floor. As it was almost time to go to work, she hurried to turn on the company's power switch.
Their manager is very frugal. He turns off the power in the company as soon as he gets off work, and turns it back on in the morning when he comes to work.
She had just come back from opening the gate when the phone on her workstation rang. Huang Tianying immediately walked over, took a deep breath, and sat down. She answered the phone with the sweet smile she had been trained to wear before taking up the job, and in a gentle tone: "Hello, this is Taishida Pengcheng Sales Department. How can I help you?"
"Help me? Help your mother! You, Taisida, are so wicked that you make rice noodles with poisonous rice and sell them to children. You are so capable, why don't you eat the poisonous rice yourselves? I *****, you all will die a horrible death!" A series of curses made Huang Tianying stunned on the spot.
Their manager Lu Zhengtian was not well educated and did not require his employees to be well educated. Lu Zhengtian never read things like newspapers, so there were no newspapers in the company. Huang Tianying had no hobby of reading newspapers.
So she still doesn't know what happened. The person on the other end of the phone threatened Huang Tianying that he would sue them and then hung up. Before Huang Tianying could react, the phone rang again.
Huang Tianying picked up the phone and the caller continued to insult her. After she tried to soothe him with her gentle voice, the insults became even more unpleasant.
Huang Tianying almost hung up the phone with tears in her eyes. Her colleague finally came over and said, "Tianying, Tianying, something has happened. It's a big deal."
Huang Tianying wiped her tears and walked up to her colleague and asked, "What happened?"
Her colleague handed her the newspaper, and the title caught Huang Tianying's eye at first glance. Huang Tianying even forgot to cry.
The phone in the company continued to ring. Huang Tianying's colleagues picked up the phone and the caller cursed at her in the office. Huang Tianying called the company's general manager, Lu Zhengtian, her brother-in-law, with trembling hands, but the line was always busy and no one answered.
In a villa in Pengcheng, Lu Zhengtian was holding a mobile phone and calling Taishida in Wancheng like crazy, but the line was either busy or no one answered.
The sun was shining brightly today, but for Lu Zhengtian, it was like a dark cloud. He was just an ordinary businessman who spent a huge amount of money to represent the product of Taishida.
Just two years after he became successful, this kind of thing happened. Lu Zhengtian even wanted to die. He had no time to care about the company. He picked up the car keys and went to Wancheng.
•••••
While Lu Zhengtian was in a state of panic, the various departments of the Pengcheng government received reports from the public and sent investigators to investigate and verify the situation, regardless of what they thought. The major testing agencies received many testing orders.
Pengcheng TV also responded quickly. Their reporters took cameras and found the attending doctors of the children in question. At the same time, they bought a portion of rice noodles available on the market and sent them to the testing agency for expedited testing in front of the cameras.
And he has been waiting in front of the laboratory of the testing agency. When the results came out, the reporter presented them to the camera immediately.
The clear markings above indicate the qualified and unqualified batches of rice noodles. Anyone who can read can recognize the words "aflatoxin exceeds the standard".
Most of the rice noodles with excessive aflatoxin were produced by Taishida within two months. Rice noodles produced two months ago do not contain aflatoxin.
Two months may not seem like a long time. According to the boss's estimate of one ton of rice per day, it has been 65 days since the start date, so the rice consumed will be an astronomical number. However, Taishida's daily production capacity is definitely not one ton. Even if it is calculated at 1,000 kilograms, 500 kilograms, or 300 kilograms per day, the number is still huge.
Rice noodles are packaged and canned. The expensive ones are sold for more than ten yuan a can, and the cheaper ones are sold for a few yuan a bag. The quantity ranges from 500g to 200g. How many kilograms of flour can be ground from one kilogram of rice, and how many kilograms of rice noodles can be made from this kilogram of flour?
How many infants and young children in the city choose Taishida because of its reputation? How about nationwide?
Wang Mingzheng had received Huang Qiang's call a long time ago, and he was waiting downstairs for the three to come back.
As soon as they met, the four of them hurried upstairs.
"From morning till now, the company's phone has been bombarded with calls. Even the cleaning lady has received many calls asking whether the information is true or not. The boss is here." While walking forward, Wang Mingzheng introduced to Huang Qiang and the other two what had happened in the past few hours from morning till now.
Lin Shuyue was very curious about the owner of Pengcheng Metropolis Daily. She had learned about the information of Xun Heng, the owner behind Pengcheng Metropolis Daily.
He is a descendant of the Xun family in the capital. His grandfather was a general who followed the great man to conquer the world, and he was not persecuted during those ten years.
The Xun family is now developing in the military and political circles. Xun Heng is an exception among all the children. He has liked doing business since he was a child. So after the reform and opening up in the 1980s, he came to Pengcheng alone to work hard. He has a very good investment vision and invested in real estate companies in Pengcheng early on.
His Dingsheng Real Estate and Limin Real Estate, which was previously owned by Yang Haoan, are both considered the top real estate companies in Pengcheng. The Dingsheng Building where Lin Shuyue and her colleagues work is a property owned by Dingsheng Real Estate. It is for this reason that the Pengcheng Metropolitan Newspaper, which is already on the decline, can rent such a large office building in the Pinghu District of Pengcheng, where every inch of land is worth a lot of money, and even has a special cafeteria next to the office building.
But unlike Liming Real Estate, Dingsheng Real Estate has long since transformed into Dingsheng Group. In addition to real estate, its industries also cover the entertainment industry and the electrical appliance industry.
Pengcheng Metropolis Daily is also under the umbrella of Dingsheng Group.
It is said that Pengcheng Entertainment Newspaper was founded by Xun Heng and his friends, because Xun Heng, who was born into a wealthy family, had a dream of becoming a reporter since he was a child. Later, for various reasons, the friends who founded the newspaper with him quit the newspaper and started other businesses.
Xun Heng became the sole owner of Pengcheng Metropolis Daily. And Pengcheng Metropolis Daily became the least profitable and even loss-making company under his control. But even so, Xun Heng still did not give up Pengcheng Metropolis Daily.
Because of Xun Heng's powerful background, Yang Baozong did not dare to kill Huang Qiang. Even though he knew that Huang Qiang had evidence of his smuggling, he did not dare to do anything to Huang Qiang openly in Pengcheng. Instead, he took action against Huang Qiang after he entered Yangcheng.
Later, Huang Qiang was rescued, and Yang Baozong didn't even dare to let Huang Qiang disappear from the news industry.
Lin Shuyue had been curious about him for a long time.
When they arrived, Xun Heng was standing by the window of Wang Mingzheng's office.
He was about the same age as Huang Qiang and the others, all in their forties. He had a handsome face, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, and he looked very charming standing in front of the window and looking down.
Especially when he turned around, he didn't smile, and the sound of his voice when he spoke was the bubbling sound that girls are most attracted to.
But unlike the bubbling sounds produced by those boys with clips on the Internet in the previous life, his voice is very natural and attractive. When talking to people, he is very serious and gives others enough respect.
After the leaders exchanged some pleasantries, Lin Shuyue and the other two handed the camera to Huang Mingzheng. Wang Mingzheng inserted the card in the camera into the computer, closed the window, and projected the video onto the screen in the office.
After watching the interview of the three people in silence, Xun Heng said, "Don't worry about this report. If anything goes wrong, I will take responsibility for you."
Xun Heng said this with confidence. His grandfather's generation was in a time of national crisis. His Xun family was originally a merchant family. At that time, a total of five young men from the Xun family went out to save the country. Only his grandfather survived. In his generation, he already had two brothers and sisters sacrificed their lives for the country.
The "poisonous rice powder incident" violated the national law and violated the foundation of the country. This is something the country cannot allow, not to mention that this batch of poisonous rice flowed out from the storage department!
How important is grain reserve to a country? How can people who work in the storage bureau not know? Even though they know the importance of grain reserve to the country, they still choose to take advantage of the grain reserve! They are stealing from the public and neglecting their duties.
But no matter which type they are, they are all parasites of the country! Once discovered, the country will never tolerate these people!
Last night, Xun Heng called his uncle in the capital. They talked for ten minutes. His uncle told him to report the incident openly. Some abscesses must be punctured. Otherwise, if they are allowed to develop further, the consequences will be disastrous.
With Xun Heng's words, Wang Mingzheng and Huang Qiang breathed a sigh of relief.
Xun Heng copied all the undercover videos and left.
As soon as he left, Wang Mingzheng said to Lin Shuyue and the other two, "I know you are tired last night, but you have already walked ninety-nine steps. You have to take the next step. I have already made an appointment with Zhang Xiongfeng, the director of the news department of Pengcheng TV Station, and they will be here soon."
Speak of the devil, and he will appear. As soon as Wang Mingzheng finished speaking, Xiao He from the front desk came to say that Director Zhang had arrived. Wang Mingzheng immediately went out to greet him.
Zhang Xiongfeng reached out and held Wang Mingzheng's hand: "Ah Ming, let's not say any more unnecessary words. It's almost noon, and this news is scheduled to be broadcast at noon. There is no time. When we are done in the evening, I will treat you to dinner."
"I understand. Let's get started."
The group went to Wang Mingzheng's office. When being interviewed by a TV station, it is said that the first time is unfamiliar, the second time is familiar. This time, Lin Shuyue was already familiar with it. She, Huang Qiang and Li Weisheng were interviewed separately with their backs to the camera.
After getting the interview materials and undercover materials, Zhang Xiongfeng and others set off without stopping.
It is now ten o'clock, and there are still two hours before the noon news is broadcast. These two hours are all post-production work. They have to tell the story of this incident as completely as possible within the limited time.
Lin Shuyue and the other two were finally able to go home and go to sleep.
Just as the three were sleeping soundly, the public opinion they brought about fermented again.
The central media's noon news used the interview of Pengcheng TV station, and people all over the country knew about the "poisonous rice noodles incident" of Taishida. Countless parents of infants and young children who had eaten Taishida rice noodles rushed to the hospital with their children.
The number of infants and young children diagnosed with diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting has skyrocketed. At the same time, many children have been diagnosed with damaged liver function and impaired growth and development.
The Ministry of Health has dispatched eight special task forces to various factories of Taishida, including the headquarters, to conduct investigations. At the same time, random inspections will be conducted on all milk powder and rice noodle companies across the country.
At the second branch in Wancheng, all the leaders of the branch had already been criminally detained by the police, and the ten tons of moldy rice in their factory's granary had not yet been cleaned up and destroyed.
The machine in the polishing area was paused, and the rice in the rice bin that had not been polished and waxed had not yet become a finished product.
Aflatoxin was detected in the rice in the soaking area and in the polished rice flour.
The smell of the fruit and vegetable area on a hot day! Flies are flying all over the rotting fruits and vegetables, and some even fall into the fruit and vegetable processor, being taken away by the fruit and vegetable processor and eventually flow to the next production link.
The flies are beaten into juice along with fruits and vegetables, mixed with rice flour, and after a series of operations including sterilization and drying, they become finished products and appear in the packaging area.
All of this was recorded by the camera and presented perfectly to the general public.
The dairy farm under Taishida's name was also raided and recorded by countless people. Just like the dairy breeding center around Dongguan City, the environment of these dairy farms was very worrying except for some areas that needed to be shown to outsiders.
In the exposed video, there is even a scene where feces falls into milk, which made countless viewers vomit again.
All the persons in charge of the Guangdong-Guangdong Warehousing Bureau who sold the moldy rice were secretly taken away for interrogation last night. They will be severely punished by law.
However, the matter was not over yet. The next morning, another piece of news appeared on the front page of the Central Daily News.
The report said that after random checks, different doses of melamine were found in all infant formulas on the market, and the melamine content in Taishida's formula was the highest.
After investigation, it was found that melamine can increase the protein content in milk powder without any taste. Because of its low cost, Wang Xinhua, chairman of Taishida, personally ordered to add more of this chemical to milk.
The batch of milk powder with the highest content was shipped to the country's poor areas for sale on the day it was sold.
When the National Food Safety Ministry learned of the news, it immediately issued an order to recall all rice noodles containing aflatoxin and milk powder containing melamine on the market.
After receiving the order, governments at all levels responded positively. Children in remote rural areas who had drunk Taishida milk powder have been taken away by hospitals for examination. Fortunately, the toxic milk powder containing melamine had just entered the market, and not many infants and young children had drunk it. The condition of the infants who drank the toxic milk powder was also under control.
Taishida and other leaders of the milk powder factory that contained banned substances were all sentenced to criminal detention.
Things seemed to have come to an end here.
But a week after Lin Shuyue reported the poisonous rice noodles in Taishida, she received a package.
When the package was opened, a cat that had been tortured to death was found inside. When the box was opened, the cat's eyes were still open, staring straight at Lin Shuyue.
The scream of Li Mingfang, who was unpacking the package with Lin Shuyue, echoed throughout the building.