Chapter 746
Using a Name to Scam Money
Several fellow apprentices nodded in agreement, and the senior apprentice continued, "That's right, that's exactly what he said. He even sent me your employment information from the Dongjiang Second Construction Company's official WeChat account."
He said that since you are now the chief engineer of Dongjiang Second Construction Company, and even the nominal head, you want to find some ways to make money.
We all know you two have a good relationship, and we only lent him the money because of you. To be honest, given how well you're doing, there's bound to be opportunities for cooperation in the future, so we easily trusted this bastard.
Another person chimed in, "Yeah, we were wondering why you hadn't come yet when we arrived. After asking him, he first said you were busy with work, and then reluctantly said he'd call to ask!"
When Xu Bo'an heard his fellow disciples' words, he was completely stunned.
No wonder this guy acted so nonchalant when he called me earlier; he was just putting on an act in front of his fellow disciples.
Wow, what a talent! He actually came up with this idea, and more importantly, he dared to do it and take the risk!
Wonderful!
What a weird thing!
If this current "fake liquor incident" makes Xu Bo'an think that Chen Qinzhi might still be a victim.
Hearing his fellow disciples' account, Xu Bo'an finally understood that Chen Qinzhi had deliberately faked the liquor to save money while trying to save face.
After all, in Dongjiang City these days, it's already quite good for ordinary families to use ten or twenty years of Dongjiang aged wine for these kinds of events. The price of over 500 yuan for a thirty-year-old bottle of Dongjiang aged wine is definitely not something that ordinary wealthy people can afford.
Judging from this, Chen Qinzhi must be having financial problems, otherwise he wouldn't be here engaging in such fraudulent activities.
Xu Bo'an pondered for a moment, just thinking about how to tell his fellow disciples the cruel reality that "they had been deceived".
But before Xu Bo'an could even organize his thoughts, the people had already guessed what was going on.
We're all adults here, and we've all been out in the world for so many years, nobody's a fool.
After they explained the whole story, and seeing Xu Bo'an's expression and reaction, everyone guessed that something was wrong.
"Senior Brother Xu! What's going on? Don't scare us. Does this have nothing to do with you?" a fellow disciple asked, his voice trembling.
Xu Bo'an shook his head innocently and said, "This is the first time I've heard of this. If you hadn't brought it up, I would still be completely in the dark."
"What the hell is he trying to do? No way! He cheated us out of so much money, I have to go find him right now!" The junior brother shouted angrily as he stood up, ready to confront Chen Qinzhi.
The senior brother who had spoken earlier grabbed the angry junior brother and said in a deep voice, "Wait a bit. There are too many people around right now. Even though we are in the right, it would be embarrassing if word got out. We can confront him after the event."
Because of their advanced degrees, these people entered the civil engineering industry years ago and now hold a certain status in the local construction industry.
Therefore, there are quite a few people I know in this banquet hall today. Even if I'm not very familiar with them, there are people who know which company I work for and what position I hold. If I make a fool of myself, they will definitely be interested.
Therefore, these fellow disciples were all thinking about how they didn't want their embarrassing deeds to get out. Although they were the victims, none of them wanted to become the subject of gossip.
If word gets out and people gossip about it, it'll be like rubbing salt into a wound or stabbing someone in the heart.
Nobody wants to go to the office tomorrow and be pointed at and talked about about what happened today!
Hearing their senior's words, everyone calmed down a bit.
Then, without prior arrangement, they all turned their gazes to Xu Bo'an again, their eyes filled with curiosity and even a hint of distrust.
After all, your claim that you didn't know about this is just your side of the story.
Chen Qinzhi even said that you two were going to go into the business of contracting engineering projects together, but you said that was just a complete fabrication.
The junior brother asked, "Senior Brother Xu, you and Chen Qinzhi used to have a pretty good relationship, and I remember you were even in the same company. What exactly is this guy doing? Do you know anything about it?"
Xu Bo'an shook his head and said, "That's all ancient history. This guy used to play dirty tricks on me at work, and we broke up a long time ago. But I don't bother to gossip about such trivial matters. That guy hasn't worked at Dongjiang Second Construction for a long time. And you probably don't know, but I'm no longer the chief engineer of Dongjiang Second Construction!"
"What? You're no longer with Dongjiang No. 2 Construction Company? Where have you been transferred to?!" someone exclaimed immediately.
The next step after chief engineer is general manager, who is the de facto head of Dongjiang No. 2 Construction Company. If Xu Bo'an were to be promoted to general manager, he certainly wouldn't just mention that he wasn't chief engineer.
The kind of teasing and suspenseful conversations on TV are just banter between two or three acquaintances. Right now, everyone is quite anxious, and Xu Bo'an certainly wouldn't say something like, "I'm not the chief engineer anymore, I'm a manager now," which would be a funny contrast.
Based on this, it seems that Xu Bo'an has been transferred to another company for a cross-appointment.
This is also a common phenomenon when middle and senior management are reassigned in many group companies. After all, it is not good for the company if a person stays in one position for too long, as it can easily breed negative effects such as cliques.
Everyone was curious about which company Xu Bo'an had been transferred to, whether it was a lateral move or a promotion.
Many of the people present are from various construction companies in the province. If Xu Bo'an were to be transferred to their own company, it would be a great opportunity.
Xu Bo'an hesitated for a moment, then said frankly, "Um... to be precise, I'm no longer working in the civil engineering industry. I just resigned from Dongjiang Second Construction Company a while ago!"
Xu Bo'an did not emphasize that he had applied for early retirement, but this was the best way out and source of confidence that Su Tai had painstakingly arranged for him.
These matters are not to be discussed with outsiders, lest they bring negative consequences to oneself or Sutai.
The group was taken aback upon hearing this, and one of them immediately exclaimed, "Ah! Resignation! What happened? Could it also be related to that bastard Chen Qinzhi?"
Xu Bo'an shook his head and said, "No, it's just that I'm feeling a bit weary and mentally exhausted, so I'm thinking of taking a break before continuing." "Oh! Is that so? You're so carefree. Over the years, I've become increasingly mentally exhausted as well. But I still don't have your courage," a junior sister said enviously.
She was not involved in Chen Qinzhi's loan scandal, so she remained relatively calm.
After a few casual words, the group lost interest in continuing the conversation. After all, with such a large sum of money involved, who had the mood for idle chatter? They even lost their appetites.
Although Xu Bo'an wasn't cheated out of money, he was still somewhat involved, and he felt both angry and amused.
What's infuriating is that this guy actually used himself as an excuse to scam people out of money, and what's laughable is that he even had the nerve to use fake alcohol today—how utterly disgraceful of him!
Although out of consideration for everyone's feelings, none of the fellow disciples sitting at the table went to settle scores with Chen Qinzhi immediately.
However, Xu Bo'an, with his keen senses, was already impatiently trying to find out about Chen Qinzhi's situation.
Xu Bo'an's ears twitched slightly, and he quickly located Chen Qinzhi's voice.
This guy seems to be having a conversation with his elderly father in a private room.
An old man said anxiously, "Young man, what's going on? How could this wine not be real? It was all delivered by your cousin's family. They wouldn't serve us fake wine."
Next came Chen Qinzhi's voice, filled with impatience: "Dad, you know my situation right now. My company is just starting out, and there are many places where I need money. Every little bit counts!"
Chen Qinzhi's father exclaimed in astonishment, "What? You actually used fake liquor! This is terrible! How am I supposed to face my old friends now?"
Chen Qinzhi replied in a sinister voice, "Father, you can rest assured. I've tasted all these liquors, and the taste is quite authentic. Although they can't compare to the real Dongjiang Thirty Years, they're all made by mixing ten-year-old aged liquor with genuine sorghum liquor. They're not fake liquor; at most, they're just not genuine Dongjiang Thirty Years aged liquor."
Chen Qinzhi's father said with some worry, "What! This isn't even considered fake alcohol! Many of my old buddies have been drinking for decades. What if they can tell..."
Before his father could finish speaking, Chen Lizhi impatiently interrupted, saying, "Dad, there's no 'what if.' Your old colleagues have all worked as laborers their whole lives. They don't usually have that many opportunities to drink such good wine! If I don't get to drink this wine, then nothing will happen. Besides, this wine costs little money, and I get to save face. Why not?"
Chen Qinzhi's father clapped his hands and said, "Now! What do we do now! You've already admitted that there's something wrong with the wine, how are you going to entertain these guests?"
Chen Qinzhi chuckled and said, "Hey, didn't I tell you? I'll just switch the wine. I'll take back all the wine that's been distributed later, and then distribute it to them again after a while, just saying it's newly bought. I don't believe anyone can tell the difference. Except for someone like Brother Cui who drinks this kind of wine all the time, I'll admit defeat if any of these people here can tell the difference!"
Xu Bo'an was so shocked by this that he was practically speechless.
The lie of selling fake alcohol has already been exposed, yet this guy still wants to try and fool people again.
How shameless!
Talking to someone like that about leaving room for others is simply an insult to your own character.
Soon, Xu Bo'an saw several of Chen Qinzhi's men come over to collect the drinks from the table and immediately said, "Wait a minute, don't take them away yet!"
The woman who came to collect the drinks from Xu Bo'an and his group was a female relative of Chen Qinzhi. Upon hearing this, she politely said, "Oh dear, I'm so sorry. My brother was also cheated. We'll take this drink down and settle accounts with those swindlers later. My brother just bought some genuine liquor and will bring it over to everyone right away."
Xu Bo'an reached out and grabbed the wine box on the table, saying calmly, "No rush. When the new wine arrives, you can bring the old wine with you when you come to put it away. That way, you won't have to make an extra trip."
To put it bluntly, Xu Bo'an's idea was simple: to get the other party to exchange the old wine for the new one. This way, Chen Qinzhi's scheme of taking it back and sending it back to entertain everyone would not work.
It's like when you go to a restaurant and find a hair, fly, or other foreign object in your food, you shouldn't easily hand it over to the restaurant staff. Instead, ask them to take it away and remake it.
In that case, the other party might not actually redo it for you at all. Instead, they might pick out the foreign objects, stir it a couple of times in the dish, and then serve it to you to pretend it's freshly made.
Of course, you don't necessarily have to ask the other party to serve the dish again. The best way is to refuse the dish or even cancel the subsequent dishes, so as to avoid the other party having a petty person who might add something to your food later to trick you!
Seeing that Xu Bo'an wouldn't let him take the drinks, Chen Qinzhi's relative was at a loss.
Her instructions were to help collect the drinks and then deliver them to other tables later, saying they were newly bought.
But not only was this table not allowed to pay, but the guests at the neighboring tables followed suit and made the same request.
In that case, how could they possibly have the chance to play those wine-exchanging games that Chen Qinzhi mentioned!
So Chen Qinzhi's relative was at a loss for what to do, as this was different from the procedure Chen Qinzhi had explained.
So she casually said sorry, then turned back without looking back to ask Chen Qinzhi for advice.
Chen Qinzhi quickly arrived in person, greeting everyone with a smile: "Fellow disciples, I'm sorry you had to laugh at what happened today. It was just my bad luck that I was tricked into buying these problematic wines. I'll exchange them for you right away. Please have some tea and drinks first; the good wine will be here shortly."
Before Xu Bo'an could speak, one of the senior brothers said with a grim expression, "It's your business if you get cheated, but what about the fact that you cheated us!"
Most of these people are doing quite well, but he's the worst off. The 200,000 yuan that Chen Qinzhi swindled from him was money he could have saved up by not eating or drinking for two or three years.
So while others could patiently wait, he truly lacked the composure to remain calm.
He had been trying to save face for everyone, but now that Chen Qinzhi was right in front of him, he couldn't hold back any longer and blurted out the question.
Chen Qinzhi had clearly prepared himself for his secret to be exposed, and he wasn't worried at all when his senior brother questioned him. (End of Chapter)