Chapter 491 - 404: The Meltdown Incident

The blazing sun scorched the earth.

August 1st fell on a weekend. Huang Yong was lying on his sofa at home, the air conditioner in the living room whirring loudly.

Having just finished a match of Honor of Kings, he suddenly felt a wave of boredom wash over him. He closed the game and opened Weibo to scroll through his feed.

"Damn it, is Kuqi Bikes not giving deposits back anymore? I submitted my refund request a week ago, and the app is still telling me, ’There are 999+ people in the queue ahead of you. Your request is being processed. Please wait patiently!’" (Image)/(Image)/(Image)!

Huang Yong froze when he scrolled to this post. He remembered that he’d also requested a deposit refund from Little Blue Bike a few days ago but hadn’t received any news about it yet.

But instead of immediately closing Weibo to check the Little Blue Bike app, Huang Yong tapped on the numerous comments under the post.

"Holy shit! I requested a deposit refund from Kuqi Bikes too! But I haven’t heard a thing back! My app screen looks exactly the same as the original poster’s! It makes me wonder if Kuqi Bikes has run out of money to refund deposits!? If you’re in the same boat, give this a like so we can see!"

Huang Yong took a closer look and saw that the top comment already had over 30,000 likes. He casually added his own like to it before continuing to scroll down.

"For real? How come when I requested a refund from Little Red Car, I got it instantly?!" This comment also had a lot of likes.

Below that was a huge wave of replies.

"I’m so jealous you live in a big city! For us in second- and third-tier cities, we only get to ride these smaller brands of bikes."

"I’m in Modu. I have accounts with Little Red Car, Little Yellow Car, and Mobike. I just tested it, and Little Red Car had the fastest refund. Little Yellow Car and Mobike were about the same; both took a little while to show up."

...

Huang Yong read through the comments and realized that three shared-bike brands in second- and third-tier cities were having issues with difficult refunds, including the Little Blue Bike he usually rode.

Huang Yong was a university student from a third-tier city in central Huaxia. Since he attended school and lived in the same city, he had registered for a Little Blue Bike membership for convenience and paid the 300 yuan deposit.

Now that it was summer vacation, the weather was too hot to go out, so he preferred to stay home and play games.

Honor of Kings had recently released a lot of new skins, and he was green with envy looking at them. But his mom only gave him a basic living allowance, so even if he topped up his account, he couldn’t afford all the skins he wanted.

As he wracked his brain, he remembered the 300 yuan deposit he had with Little Blue Bike. It was like an unexpected windfall. So, with a cheerful grin, Huang Yong opened the deposit refund channel in the Little Blue Bike app and tapped "Refund Deposit."

But after waiting for several days, he still hadn’t received any news about his refund.

So Huang Yong commented under the Weibo post: "I’m going to send these screenshots to the relevant authorities. It’s summer vacation and I’ve got nothing better to do, so I have plenty of time for this! Damn it, give me back my skin money!"

After posting the comment, Huang Yong closed Weibo. He took screenshots of all the evidence in the Little Blue Bike app, then went to his laptop. He uploaded the screenshots to the websites of several relevant government departments, along with a long explanation of the whole situation. He also expressed his hope that the authorities would manage this kind of problem and protect consumers’ legal rights.

After he was done, Huang Yong noticed his phone was buzzing with a flood of notifications from Weibo.

"XXX replied to you!"

...

In just that short amount of time, Huang Yong’s comment had been upvoted by countless netizens.

Perhaps because someone had finally stuck their neck out, many people said they would also report the situation to the relevant authorities.

Seeing these comments, Huang Yong had a sudden idea. He forwarded the Weibo post to his class group chat and also sent a screenshot of the replies under his own comment.

He knew that ninety-nine percent of his classmates were Little Blue Bike users.

Huang Yong waited for half the day without hearing back from any of the departments. He suddenly slapped his forehead. "How could I forget it’s Saturday! None of these departments are open! I’ve been having so much fun this summer break I’ve lost track of time!"

It wasn’t until Monday morning that Huang Yong, having just woken up, felt his phone vibrate. He picked it up and saw a text message from one of the authorities: "Thank you for contacting us. Our department has received your complaint and will process it as soon as possible."

....

「In a certain department office.」

"Xiaoli, compile these complaints and take them to the Director’s office!" the team lead ordered.

A young woman, who looked like a recent graduate, excitedly compiled the messages and complaints from the website into a report, then printed it out.

Soon, the printer began whirring, spitting out the dozens of pages of the report one after another.

The young woman picked up the report, straightened the pages, and firmly pressed a stapler down on it against the desk.

"CLICK-CLACK-CLICK!" The sound of her high heels striking the tiled floor carried far, drawing the attention of colleagues from other offices.

Someone peeked their head out, then returned to their seat and remarked with a sigh, "That young lady really is a whirlwind, isn’t she? Looks like she still needs a few more years to mellow out!"

The man’s words immediately earned nods of agreement from the other colleagues in the office.

The young woman ran to the Director’s office door and stopped. She straightened her clothes and calmed her breathing before finally knocking.

"Come in!"

"Director! Something big has happened! It’s a mass incident! This is the report I compiled from the website!" the young woman said, placing the paper document in front of the Director.